Max Lucado Daily: BE HOSPITABLE
Our society is set up for isolation. We communicate via e-mail and text messages. Our mantra is “I leave you alone; you leave me alone.” Yet God wants his people to be an exception, people of hospitality.
“Every day in the Temple and in people’s homes they continued teaching the people and telling the Good News— that Jesus is the Christ” (Acts 5:42). Even a casual reading of the New Testament unveils the house as the primary tool of the church. The first generation of Christians was a tinderbox of contrasting cultures and backgrounds. Yet, through the clearest of messages (the Cross) and the simplest of tools (the home), they shared the Gospel.
Do you have a front door? Do you have bread and meat for sandwiches? You just qualified to serve in the most ancient of ministries, that of hospitality.
1 Chronicles 21
Now Satan entered the scene and seduced David into taking a census of Israel. David gave orders to Joab and the army officers under him, “Canvass all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and get a count of the population. I want to know the number.”
3 Joab resisted: “May God multiply his people by hundreds! Don’t they all belong to my master the king? But why on earth would you do a thing like this—why risk getting Israel into trouble with God?”
4-7 But David wouldn’t take no for an answer, so Joab went off and did it—canvassed the country and then came back to Jerusalem and reported the results of the census: There were 1,100,000 fighting men; of that total, Judah accounted for 470,000. Joab, disgusted by the command—it, in fact, turned his stomach!—protested by leaving Levi and Benjamin out of the census-taking. And God, offended by the whole thing, punished Israel.
8 Then David prayed, “I have sinned badly in what I have just done, substituting statistics for trust; forgive my sin—I’ve been really stupid.”
9-10 God answered by speaking to Gad, David’s pastor: “Go and give David this message: ‘God’s word: You have your choice of three punishments; choose one and I’ll do the rest.’”
11-12 Gad delivered the message to David: “Do you want three years of famine, three months of running from your enemies while they chase you down, or three days of the sword of God—an epidemic unleashed on the country by an angel of God? Think it over and make up your mind. What shall I tell the One who sent me?”
13 David told Gad, “They’re all terrible! But I’d rather be punished by God whose mercy is great, than fall into human hands.”
14-15 So God unleashed an epidemic in Israel—seventy thousand Israelites died. God then sent the angel to Jerusalem but when he saw the destruction about to begin, he compassionately changed his mind and ordered the death angel, “Enough’s enough! Pull back!”
15-16 The angel of God had just reached the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. David looked up and saw the angel hovering between earth and sky, sword drawn and about to strike Jerusalem. David and the elders bowed in prayer and covered themselves with rough burlap.
17 David prayed, “Please! I’m the one who sinned; I’m the one at fault. But these sheep, what did they do wrong? Punish me, not them, me and my family; don’t take it out on them.”
18-19 The angel of God ordered Gad to tell David to go and build an altar to God on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. David did what Gad told him in obedience to God’s command.
20-21 Meanwhile Araunah had quit threshing the wheat and was watching the angel; his four sons took cover and hid. David came up to Araunah. When Araunah saw David, he left the threshing floor and bowed deeply before David, honoring the king.
22 David said to Araunah, “Give me the site of the threshing floor so I can build an altar to God. Charge me the market price; we’re going to put an end to this disaster.”
23 “O Master, my king,” said Araunah, “just take it; do whatever you want with it! Look, here’s an ox for the burnt offering and threshing paddles for the fuel and wheat for the meal offering—it’s all yours!”
24-27 David replied to Araunah, “No. I’m buying it from you, and at the full market price. I’m not going to offer God sacrifices that are no sacrifice.” So David bought the place from Araunah for six hundred shekels of gold. He built an altar to God there and sacrificed Whole-Burnt-Offerings and Peace-Offerings. He called out to God and God answered by striking the altar of Whole-Burnt-Offering with lightning. Then God told the angel to put his sword back into its scabbard.
28 And that’s the story of what happened when David saw that God answered him on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite at the time he offered the sacrifice.
29-30 At this time the Tabernacle that Moses had constructed in the desert, and with it the Altar of Burnt Offering, were set up at the worship center at Gibeon. But David, terrified by the angel’s sword, wouldn’t go there to 1 pray to God anymore. So David declared, “From now on, this is the site for the worship of God; this is the place for Israel’s Altar of Burnt Offering.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, January 16, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
John 6:4–14
The Jewish Passover Festivala was near.
5 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip,b “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
7 Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wagesa to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”
8 Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother,c spoke up, 9 “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”d
10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). 11 Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks,e and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.
12 When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” 13 So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.
14 After the people saw the signf Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”g
Insight
The feeding of the 5,000 is the only miracle besides Jesus’ resurrection that’s reported in all four gospels (Matthew 14:13–21; Mark 6:32–44; Luke 9:10–17; John 6:5–14). Quantitatively, this is the biggest miracle Jesus performed, with potentially more than 20,000 beneficiaries. “The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children” (Matthew 14:21). Mark 6:35–37 tells us this was a “remote place,” and the disciples wanted to send the people away so they could get food for themselves. But Jesus ordered His disciples to feed them. He challenged both their faith—they didn’t have the means or resources—and their compassion. Seeing the needs of others, Jesus wanted them to make these needs their responsibility as well.
Bring What You Have
“Bring them here to me,” [Jesus] said. Matthew 14:18
“Stone Soup,” an old tale with many versions, tells of a starving man who comes to a village, but no one there can spare a crumb of food for him. He puts a stone and water in a pot over a fire. Intrigued, the villagers watch him as he begins to stir his “soup.” Eventually, one brings a couple of potatoes to add to the mix; another has a few carrots. One person adds an onion, another a handful of barley. A farmer donates some milk. Eventually, the “stone soup” becomes a tasty chowder.
That tale illustrates the value of sharing, but it also reminds us to bring what we have, even when it seems to be insignificant. In John 6:1–14 we read of a boy who appears to be the only person in a huge crowd who thought about bringing some food. Christ’s disciples had little use for the boy’s sparse lunch of five loaves and two fishes. But when it was surrendered, Jesus increased it and fed thousands of hungry people!
I once heard someone say, “You don’t have to feed the five thousand. You just have to bring your loaves and fishes.” Just as Jesus took one person’s meal and multiplied it far beyond anyone’s expectations or imagination (v. 11), He’ll accept our surrendered efforts, talents, and service. He just wants us to be willing to bring what we have to Him. By: Cindy Hess Kasper
Reflect & Pray
What have you been holding back from God? Why is it difficult to bring that area of your life to Him?
Jesus, help me to surrender whatever I have to You, knowing You can multiply a little into a lot.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, January 16, 2020
The Voice of the Nature of God
I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" —Isaiah 6:8
When we talk about the call of God, we often forget the most important thing, namely, the nature of Him who calls. There are many things calling each of us today. Some of these calls will be answered, and others will not even be heard. The call is the expression of the nature of the One who calls, and we can only recognize the call if that same nature is in us. The call of God is the expression of God’s nature, not ours. God providentially weaves the threads of His call through our lives, and only we can distinguish them. It is the threading of God’s voice directly to us over a certain concern, and it is useless to seek another person’s opinion of it. Our dealings over the call of God should be kept exclusively between ourselves and Him.
The call of God is not a reflection of my nature; my personal desires and temperament are of no consideration. As long as I dwell on my own qualities and traits and think about what I am suited for, I will never hear the call of God. But when God brings me into the right relationship with Himself, I will be in the same condition Isaiah was. Isaiah was so attuned to God, because of the great crisis he had just endured, that the call of God penetrated his soul. The majority of us cannot hear anything but ourselves. And we cannot hear anything God says. But to be brought to the place where we can hear the call of God is to be profoundly changed.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Jesus Christ is always unyielding to my claim to my right to myself. The one essential element in all our Lord’s teaching about discipleship is abandon, no calculation, no trace of self-interest.
Disciples Indeed
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, January 16, 2020
The Mismatch Illusion - #8614
Just a few years ago they had the battle of Little Big Horn again, and Custer lost again. Actually it was part of a movie on the life of the great Oglala Lakota, Chief Crazy Horse. My Lakota friend, Jerry, was asked to be one of Crazy Horse's warriors in the movie. Now, one challenge was riding bareback. They had to do that full speed in the battle scenes, and of course, the big scene was the portrayal of Custer's last stand. Interestingly enough, Jerry can't even find himself in those scenes because the warriors were going by so fast in a cloud of dust. Someone asked him how many warriors they needed to reenact a battle that involved so many Native Americans. He said, "Oh, about 80." Hollywood of course is all about illusion, so they just had these 80 guys keep charging up to the soldiers, turn their horses sharply and circle around again and again and again. There weren't nearly as many warriors on the other side as it looked like in the movie. Custer might have wished that the real odds might have been that even.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Mismatch Illusion."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Kings 6:14. The King of Syria really wants Elisha captured. It says this, "He sent an entire army to get the prophet. He sent horses and chariots and a strong force and at night they surrounded the city. When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning he saw the army and horses and chariots that surrounded the city. 'Oh my Lord, what shall we do?', the servant asked. 'Don't be afraid,' the prophet answered. 'Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.'" At which point his eyes are opened and he can see that unseen army all around him.
The opposing forces looked overwhelming - they weren't. Rather than being overwhelming, they were actually overwhelmed, as the story goes on, by the armies of the Living God who was protecting the Servant of God - which God always does. Based on the forces the servant could see, he reacted with anxiety and fear. It looked like a total mismatch, but the mismatch was an illusion! Kind of like the movie portrayal of Custer's last stand, the attackers looked much stronger than they really were. When you get all the information about who's out there, it doesn't seem nearly as intimidating.
Right now maybe you're in a battle and it looks like a lop-sided mismatch with you almost overwhelmed by the opposition, by the darkness that's attacking, by the responsibilities you have. The tendency, of course, is to retreat, give up, hide, compromise. Maybe you're worried about the bad influences on your son or daughter and what they might become. Or about some strong opposition to a work you're trying to do for the Lord, or the financial odds against you. It could be the pressure that's intimidated you into silence where you should be telling them about Jesus. Whatever it is, what stands in the way looks huge doesn't it? But you need to look again at this battle. This time look at the forces of Jesus who are committed to the battle on your behalf.
Listen to His promises, "The One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." (1 John 4:4). "A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you." (Psalm 91:7). "The chariots of God are tens of thousands, and thousands of thousands, the Lord has come" (Psalm 68:17). Romans 8:31 says, "If God be for us" - you probably know the rest - "who could be against us." You've been intimidated long enough, you've played defense long enough, you've shrunk back in fear long enough and let fear win. The Bible says, "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind." (2 Timothy 1:7)
The enemy isn't nearly as big as he'd like you to believe. You have in you the risen Christ who said, "all authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth" (Matthew 28:18). You have all the power of Jesus' blood and Jesus' name. Sure t
he devil keeps circling to make you think you're outnumbered, and you are, but this battle will be decided by the awesome forces of your Living God. And listen again, "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them."
Thursday, January 16, 2020
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
1 Chronicles 20, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: TEAM UP
What if the missing ingredient for changing the world is teamwork? “When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action” (Matthew 18:19 MSG). This is an astounding promise!
The Jerusalem church found a way to work together. They found common ground in the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ. Because they did, lives were changed. As you and I work together, the same will happen. The congregation is a microcosm of God’s plan. No one can do everything, but everyone can do something. And when we do… “God’s great blessing was upon them all. There were no needy people among them” (Acts 4:33–34). Those who suffer belong to all of us. And if all of us respond, there is hope.
1 Chronicles 20
That spring, the time when kings usually go off to war, Joab led the army out and ravaged the Ammonites. He then set siege to Rabbah. David meanwhile was back in Jerusalem. Joab hit Rabbah hard and left it in ruins. David took the crown off the head of their king. Its weight was found to be a talent of gold and set with a precious stone. It was placed on David’s head. He hauled great quantities of loot from the city and put the people to hard labor with saws and picks and axes. This is what he did to all the Ammonites. Then David and his army returned to Jerusalem.
4-8 Later war broke out with the Philistines at Gezer. That was the time Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Sippai of the clan of giants. The Philistines had to eat crow. In another war with the Philistines, Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi, the brother of Goliath the Gittite whose spear was like a ship’s boom. And then there was the war at Gath that featured a hulking giant who had twenty-four fingers and toes, six on each hand and foot—yet another from the clan of giants. When he mocked Israel, Jonathan son of Shimea, David’s brother, killed him. These came from the clan of giants and were killed by David and his men.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Galatians 5:13–18
Life by the Spirit
13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free.h But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesha;i rather, serve one anotherj humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”b k 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit,l and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.m 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.n They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whateverc you want.o 18 But if you are led by the Spirit,p you are not under the law.q
Insight
Paul’s core element of a life lived in the Spirit is found in Galatians 5:14: “For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ” This is significant because the apostle was writing to a community of believers in Jesus who were being lured away from the grace of Christ and back into the law of Moses. So Paul was reminding the Galatians that the issue wasn’t maintaining the smallest details of the law, but embracing the law’s goal—“love your neighbor as yourself.” In focusing on this priority, the apostle was lining up with a consistent message in the Scriptures voiced by Jesus (Mark 12:31), Paul again in Romans 13:9, and James (James 2:8)—all quoting from Moses (Leviticus 19:18). The ethical challenge of life in Christ couldn’t be clearer.
For more on Galatians, see Knowing God through Galatians at discoveryseries.org/sb224. By: Bill Crowder
Walking with the Spirit
Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Galatians 5:16
Ten thousand hours. That’s how long author Malcolm Gladwell suggests it takes to become skillful at any craft. Even for the greatest artists and musicians of all time, their tremendous inborn talent wasn’t enough to achieve the level of expertise that they would eventually attain. They needed to immerse themselves in their craft every single day.
As strange as it might seem, we need a similar mentality when it comes to learning to live in the power of the Holy Spirit. In Galatians, Paul encourages the church to be set apart for God. But Paul explained that this couldn’t be achieved through merely obeying a set of rules. Instead we’re called to walk with the Holy Spirit. The Greek word that Paul uses for “walk” in Galatians 5:16 literally means to walk around and around something, or to journey (peripateo). So for Paul, walking with the Spirit meant journeying with the Spirit each day—it’s not just a one-time experience of His power.
May we pray to be filled with the Spirit daily—to yield to the Spirit’s work as He counsels, guides, comforts, and is simply there with us. And as we’re “led by the Spirit” in this way (v. 18), we become better and better at hearing His voice and following His leading. Holy Spirit, may I walk with You today, and every day! By: Chin Peter
Reflect & Pray
While being indwelt by the Holy Spirit when we receive salvation is a one-time event, how does this differ from being filled or walking with the Spirit? How have you been exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit?
Father, help me to experience the presence and leading of the Holy Spirit today, so that I might walk with You and live in a way that pleases You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Do You Walk In White?
We were buried with Him…that just as Christ was raised from the dead…even so we also should walk in newness of life. —Romans 6:4
No one experiences complete sanctification without going through a “white funeral” — the burial of the old life. If there has never been this crucial moment of change through death, sanctification will never be more than an elusive dream. There must be a “white funeral,” a death with only one resurrection— a resurrection into the life of Jesus Christ. Nothing can defeat a life like this. It has oneness with God for only one purpose— to be a witness for Him.
Have you really come to your last days? You have often come to them in your mind, but have you really experienced them? You cannot die or go to your funeral in a mood of excitement. Death means you stop being. You must agree with God and stop being the intensely striving kind of Christian you have been. We avoid the cemetery and continually refuse our own death. It will not happen by striving, but by yielding to death. It is dying— being “baptized into His death” (Romans 6:3).
Have you had your “white funeral,” or are you piously deceiving your own soul? Has there been a point in your life which you now mark as your last day? Is there a place in your life to which you go back in memory with humility and overwhelming gratitude, so that you can honestly proclaim, “Yes, it was then, at my ‘white funeral,’ that I made an agreement with God.”
“This is the will of God, your sanctification…” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). Once you truly realize this is God’s will, you will enter into the process of sanctification as a natural response. Are you willing to experience that “white funeral” now? Will you agree with Him that this is your last day on earth? The moment of agreement depends on you.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We all have the trick of saying—If only I were not where I am!—If only I had not got the kind of people I have to live with! If our faith or our religion does not help us in the conditions we are in, we have either a further struggle to go through, or we had better abandon that faith and religion. The Shadow of an Agony, 1178 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
The 3-Open Prayer - #8613
I was supposed to be speaking for an event at the Rosemont Horizon. It's this massive arena near Chicago's O'Hare Airport, and it's surrounded by a "spaghetti bowl" of expressway ramps. My driver was unfamiliar with the roads around the arena, so we spent an exciting few minutes circling the Horizon on one ramp after another. We just couldn't seem to find the ramp or the exit that went to the destination we wanted. It wasn't that we couldn't see the auditorium the whole time. Oh, I saw it plenty of times. It was just because we didn't know how to get into it!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The 3-Open Prayer."
"I want to get there. I just don't know how to get into it!" That's the cry of a lot of us who want to get to someone we care about with the message of Jesus. We understand the eternal urgency of getting there, but it's so hard to know how to get into it. Right?
Actually, there is a unique, Holy Spirit-directed approach for each individual life. But there are also some steps any believer can take in any situation. The starting point for any rescue conversation about Jesus is not talking to a person about God, but talking to God about that person. And the way to "get into" communicating Christ to someone may well be what I call the "3-open prayer." And I can't tell you how many people this has changed their life and changed their entire outlook on how they can share Jesus.
It's actually based on our word for today from the Word of God in Colossians 4:3-4. Paul says, "Pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ...Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should." Using this prayer as a launching pad for your own, you can pave the way for eternity-talk by daily asking God for three supernatural preparations; "Lord, open the door. Lord, open his/her heart. And Lord, open my mouth."
Okay, "Open the door." This is simply a natural opportunity to talk about your Jesus-relationship. The God who opened up the Red Sea for His children can surely engineer a natural, unforced opportunity for you to introduce Jesus into the conversation. Your open door will often arise from one of two sources: a common experience or something your lost friend is going through or talking about. God may open a door through something that happens in the news, or something that's happening in your family or their family, or a hurting time in their life or your life. For those who have eyes to see them, the world is full of opportunities to bring up life's most important relationship.
The second part of the 3-open prayer is asking God to "open their heart" to the Good News about Jesus. God has a lot of ways of answering that prayer; bringing events, or bringing other people and experiences into their lives that can make them surprisingly ready for someone who does what Jesus does for a person.
Finally, you pray, "Lord, open my mouth." See, "Lord, when You open the door, help me see the opportunity you're giving and help me open my mouth to talk about Jesus in the appropriate way." He will give you the words. He will give you the starting point. He will give you the tone. In fact, in Ephesians 6:19, Paul asked his friends to pray this, that "whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me." Great prayer, huh? You know, God's been doing that for His children for 2,000 years. He'll do it for you.
If you want to get into a lost person's life, and I pray you do because eternity's at stake here, try the ramp that's marked "The 3-Open Prayer": "Lord, open the door. Lord, open their heart. Lord, open my mouth." You don't have to pray, "Lord, if it is your will." It is. It's a prayer that God loves to answer! Just wait and see.
What if the missing ingredient for changing the world is teamwork? “When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action” (Matthew 18:19 MSG). This is an astounding promise!
The Jerusalem church found a way to work together. They found common ground in the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ. Because they did, lives were changed. As you and I work together, the same will happen. The congregation is a microcosm of God’s plan. No one can do everything, but everyone can do something. And when we do… “God’s great blessing was upon them all. There were no needy people among them” (Acts 4:33–34). Those who suffer belong to all of us. And if all of us respond, there is hope.
1 Chronicles 20
That spring, the time when kings usually go off to war, Joab led the army out and ravaged the Ammonites. He then set siege to Rabbah. David meanwhile was back in Jerusalem. Joab hit Rabbah hard and left it in ruins. David took the crown off the head of their king. Its weight was found to be a talent of gold and set with a precious stone. It was placed on David’s head. He hauled great quantities of loot from the city and put the people to hard labor with saws and picks and axes. This is what he did to all the Ammonites. Then David and his army returned to Jerusalem.
4-8 Later war broke out with the Philistines at Gezer. That was the time Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Sippai of the clan of giants. The Philistines had to eat crow. In another war with the Philistines, Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi, the brother of Goliath the Gittite whose spear was like a ship’s boom. And then there was the war at Gath that featured a hulking giant who had twenty-four fingers and toes, six on each hand and foot—yet another from the clan of giants. When he mocked Israel, Jonathan son of Shimea, David’s brother, killed him. These came from the clan of giants and were killed by David and his men.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Galatians 5:13–18
Life by the Spirit
13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free.h But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesha;i rather, serve one anotherj humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”b k 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit,l and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.m 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.n They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whateverc you want.o 18 But if you are led by the Spirit,p you are not under the law.q
Insight
Paul’s core element of a life lived in the Spirit is found in Galatians 5:14: “For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ” This is significant because the apostle was writing to a community of believers in Jesus who were being lured away from the grace of Christ and back into the law of Moses. So Paul was reminding the Galatians that the issue wasn’t maintaining the smallest details of the law, but embracing the law’s goal—“love your neighbor as yourself.” In focusing on this priority, the apostle was lining up with a consistent message in the Scriptures voiced by Jesus (Mark 12:31), Paul again in Romans 13:9, and James (James 2:8)—all quoting from Moses (Leviticus 19:18). The ethical challenge of life in Christ couldn’t be clearer.
For more on Galatians, see Knowing God through Galatians at discoveryseries.org/sb224. By: Bill Crowder
Walking with the Spirit
Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Galatians 5:16
Ten thousand hours. That’s how long author Malcolm Gladwell suggests it takes to become skillful at any craft. Even for the greatest artists and musicians of all time, their tremendous inborn talent wasn’t enough to achieve the level of expertise that they would eventually attain. They needed to immerse themselves in their craft every single day.
As strange as it might seem, we need a similar mentality when it comes to learning to live in the power of the Holy Spirit. In Galatians, Paul encourages the church to be set apart for God. But Paul explained that this couldn’t be achieved through merely obeying a set of rules. Instead we’re called to walk with the Holy Spirit. The Greek word that Paul uses for “walk” in Galatians 5:16 literally means to walk around and around something, or to journey (peripateo). So for Paul, walking with the Spirit meant journeying with the Spirit each day—it’s not just a one-time experience of His power.
May we pray to be filled with the Spirit daily—to yield to the Spirit’s work as He counsels, guides, comforts, and is simply there with us. And as we’re “led by the Spirit” in this way (v. 18), we become better and better at hearing His voice and following His leading. Holy Spirit, may I walk with You today, and every day! By: Chin Peter
Reflect & Pray
While being indwelt by the Holy Spirit when we receive salvation is a one-time event, how does this differ from being filled or walking with the Spirit? How have you been exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit?
Father, help me to experience the presence and leading of the Holy Spirit today, so that I might walk with You and live in a way that pleases You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Do You Walk In White?
We were buried with Him…that just as Christ was raised from the dead…even so we also should walk in newness of life. —Romans 6:4
No one experiences complete sanctification without going through a “white funeral” — the burial of the old life. If there has never been this crucial moment of change through death, sanctification will never be more than an elusive dream. There must be a “white funeral,” a death with only one resurrection— a resurrection into the life of Jesus Christ. Nothing can defeat a life like this. It has oneness with God for only one purpose— to be a witness for Him.
Have you really come to your last days? You have often come to them in your mind, but have you really experienced them? You cannot die or go to your funeral in a mood of excitement. Death means you stop being. You must agree with God and stop being the intensely striving kind of Christian you have been. We avoid the cemetery and continually refuse our own death. It will not happen by striving, but by yielding to death. It is dying— being “baptized into His death” (Romans 6:3).
Have you had your “white funeral,” or are you piously deceiving your own soul? Has there been a point in your life which you now mark as your last day? Is there a place in your life to which you go back in memory with humility and overwhelming gratitude, so that you can honestly proclaim, “Yes, it was then, at my ‘white funeral,’ that I made an agreement with God.”
“This is the will of God, your sanctification…” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). Once you truly realize this is God’s will, you will enter into the process of sanctification as a natural response. Are you willing to experience that “white funeral” now? Will you agree with Him that this is your last day on earth? The moment of agreement depends on you.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We all have the trick of saying—If only I were not where I am!—If only I had not got the kind of people I have to live with! If our faith or our religion does not help us in the conditions we are in, we have either a further struggle to go through, or we had better abandon that faith and religion. The Shadow of an Agony, 1178 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
The 3-Open Prayer - #8613
I was supposed to be speaking for an event at the Rosemont Horizon. It's this massive arena near Chicago's O'Hare Airport, and it's surrounded by a "spaghetti bowl" of expressway ramps. My driver was unfamiliar with the roads around the arena, so we spent an exciting few minutes circling the Horizon on one ramp after another. We just couldn't seem to find the ramp or the exit that went to the destination we wanted. It wasn't that we couldn't see the auditorium the whole time. Oh, I saw it plenty of times. It was just because we didn't know how to get into it!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The 3-Open Prayer."
"I want to get there. I just don't know how to get into it!" That's the cry of a lot of us who want to get to someone we care about with the message of Jesus. We understand the eternal urgency of getting there, but it's so hard to know how to get into it. Right?
Actually, there is a unique, Holy Spirit-directed approach for each individual life. But there are also some steps any believer can take in any situation. The starting point for any rescue conversation about Jesus is not talking to a person about God, but talking to God about that person. And the way to "get into" communicating Christ to someone may well be what I call the "3-open prayer." And I can't tell you how many people this has changed their life and changed their entire outlook on how they can share Jesus.
It's actually based on our word for today from the Word of God in Colossians 4:3-4. Paul says, "Pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ...Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should." Using this prayer as a launching pad for your own, you can pave the way for eternity-talk by daily asking God for three supernatural preparations; "Lord, open the door. Lord, open his/her heart. And Lord, open my mouth."
Okay, "Open the door." This is simply a natural opportunity to talk about your Jesus-relationship. The God who opened up the Red Sea for His children can surely engineer a natural, unforced opportunity for you to introduce Jesus into the conversation. Your open door will often arise from one of two sources: a common experience or something your lost friend is going through or talking about. God may open a door through something that happens in the news, or something that's happening in your family or their family, or a hurting time in their life or your life. For those who have eyes to see them, the world is full of opportunities to bring up life's most important relationship.
The second part of the 3-open prayer is asking God to "open their heart" to the Good News about Jesus. God has a lot of ways of answering that prayer; bringing events, or bringing other people and experiences into their lives that can make them surprisingly ready for someone who does what Jesus does for a person.
Finally, you pray, "Lord, open my mouth." See, "Lord, when You open the door, help me see the opportunity you're giving and help me open my mouth to talk about Jesus in the appropriate way." He will give you the words. He will give you the starting point. He will give you the tone. In fact, in Ephesians 6:19, Paul asked his friends to pray this, that "whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me." Great prayer, huh? You know, God's been doing that for His children for 2,000 years. He'll do it for you.
If you want to get into a lost person's life, and I pray you do because eternity's at stake here, try the ramp that's marked "The 3-Open Prayer": "Lord, open the door. Lord, open their heart. Lord, open my mouth." You don't have to pray, "Lord, if it is your will." It is. It's a prayer that God loves to answer! Just wait and see.
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
1 Corinthians 13, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: THE BODY OF CHRIST
None of us can do what all of us can do. Remember Jesus’ commission to his disciples? You (speaking to all of you collectively) will be my witnesses (Acts 1:8). Jesus didn’t issue individual assignments. He works in community.
“Jesus is the head of the body, which is the church” (Colossians 1:18). I am not his body; you are not his body. We—together—are his body. But this body has been known to misbehave. The brain discounts the heart. Academics discount worshippers. The hands criticize the knees. People of action criticize people of prayer. It is a clear case of mutiny on the body. We cannot say, “I have no need of you.” Cooperation is more than a good idea; it is a command. Unity matters to God. May it matter to us.
1 Corinthians 13
If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
2 If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.
3-7 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
8-10 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
11 When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
12 We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
13 But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 90:4, 12–15
A thousand years in your sight
are like a day that has just gone by,
or like a watch in the night.
Psalm 90:12–15
Teach us to number our days,o
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.p
13 Relent, Lord! How longq will it be?
Have compassion on your servants.r
14 Satisfys us in the morning with your unfailing love,t
that we may sing for joyu and be glad all our days.v
15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
for as many years as we have seen trouble.
Insight
We shouldn’t be surprised to see the name of Moses in the superscription of Psalm 90. The broadly gifted Moses wasn’t only a law-giving prophet; he was also a poet. Though just one of his songs appears in the collection of the Psalms, the Bible features other lyrical compositions by him. He likely wrote Exodus 15, which chronicles God’s mighty rescue of the Israelites from Egypt. At the end of his life, Moses penned the song recorded in Deuteronomy 32, which is introduced with these words: “And Moses recited the words of this song from beginning to end in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel” (31:30). Psalm 90:1—“Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations”—echoes Deuteronomy 33:27: “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”
By: Arthur Jackson
Slowing Down Time
Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Psalm 90:12
A lot has changed since the electric clock was invented in the 1840s. We now keep time on smart watches, smart phones, and laptops. The entire pace of life seems faster—with even our “leisurely” walking speeding up. This is especially true in cities and can have a negative effect on health, scholars say. “We’re just moving faster and faster and getting back to people as quickly as we can,” Professor Richard Wiseman observed. “That’s driving us to think everything has to happen now.”
Moses, the writer of one of the oldest of the Bible’s psalms, reflected on time. He reminds us that God controls life’s pace. “A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night,” he wrote (Psalm 90:4).
The secret to time management, therefore, isn’t to go faster or slower. It’s to abide in God, spending more time with Him. Then we get in step with each other, but first with Him—the One who formed us (139:13) and knows our purpose and plans (v. 16).
Our time on earth won’t last forever. Yet we can manage it wisely, not by watching the clock, but by giving each day to God. As Moses said, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (90:12). Then, with God we’ll always be on time, now and forever. By: Patricia Raybon
Reflect & Pray
What’s your pace in life? How could you spend more time with God, getting in step with Him?
Gracious God, when we fall out of step with You, draw us closer to abide in You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Called By God
I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me." —Isaiah 6:8
God did not direct His call to Isaiah— Isaiah overheard God saying, “…who will go for Us?” The call of God is not just for a select few but for everyone. Whether I hear God’s call or not depends on the condition of my ears, and exactly what I hear depends upon my spiritual attitude. “Many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). That is, few prove that they are the chosen ones. The chosen ones are those who have come into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ and have had their spiritual condition changed and their ears opened. Then they hear “the voice of the Lord” continually asking, “…who will go for Us?” However, God doesn’t single out someone and say, “Now, you go.” He did not force His will on Isaiah. Isaiah was in the presence of God, and he overheard the call. His response, performed in complete freedom, could only be to say, “Here am I! Send me.”
Remove the thought from your mind of expecting God to come to force you or to plead with you. When our Lord called His disciples, He did it without irresistible pressure from the outside. The quiet, yet passionate, insistence of His “Follow Me” was spoken to men whose every sense was receptive (Matthew 4:19). If we will allow the Holy Spirit to bring us face to face with God, we too will hear what Isaiah heard— “the voice of the Lord.” In perfect freedom we too will say, “Here am I! Send me.”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is perilously possible to make our conceptions of God like molten lead poured into a specially designed mould, and when it is cold and hard we fling it at the heads of the religious people who don’t agree with us.
Disciples Indeed
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
The Royal Switch - #8612
Tom thought he had the perfect hiding place. In fact, he told me about it the other day. Actually, Tom isn't his real name, but the incident really happened about 20 years ago when he was a teenager. He was raised in a Christian family; he was a nice Christian boy - except for some of his reading material. Yeah, and this was before the Internet, and he got into buying "Playboy" and some other similar magazines. And he hid them where he was sure no one would ever find them - in his old, unused ice box where no one ever went. Well, one day, Tom went to get his dirty magazines and they were gone. But that wasn't the worst part. There was a Bible where the magazines had been! He knew it had to be his Dad. There was never a word spoken about it, but there were no more magazines after that. Great switch, huh?
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Royal Switch."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Corinthians 10:4-5. "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." "Strongholds?" Those are those well-established sinful ways of thinking-about the opposite sex, about suicide, about our relationship with someone who's hurt us, about lust, or depression. Maybe it's bitterness or self-pity. Well, God says there is power in Christ to "take captive every thought" and make it obey Jesus! But until you can master the source of your sin, your wrong thoughts and attitudes, that sin's going to continue to master you. But how can you beat the sinful thoughts that have always beaten you? Well, the royal switch.
David asks in Psalm 119:9, "How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to Your Word." Then in verse 11, he reveals the secret of living by God's Word instead of by his polluted thoughts. "I have hidden Your Word in my heart that I might not sin against You."
Learn a lesson from my friend Tom's very wise father. Where there has been dirt, put the Word of God. That Dad didn't just remove what was dirty, he replaced it with the Bible. That's what it's going to take for you to win the battle to make your thoughts obey Jesus. We're talking about a two-step strategy here for your thought-life victory.
First, take out the garbage thoughts and don't collect anymore. That means consciously turning your eyes away, turning the channel, don't go there, don't click on that, avoid those negative conversations, cancel your subscription, dump that music that turns your heart the wrong way.
But taking out the garbage isn't enough. The second step is to put the Bible where the dirt has been. That means giving your heart and mind a daily Bible-bath, dwelling on what you read in God's Word, journaling what God says to you each day through His Word, using what you read in practical ways that day. And there is simply no substitute for memorizing words from God. Maybe you make it part of your personality and you have it there when the pressure comes.
In the words of D. L. Moody, the great evangelist, "When you think sin, think Scripture!" He also said, "Either sin will keep you from this Book or this Book will
keep you from sin."
You have a weapon that can tear down a stronghold of sin and tame the most sinful of thoughts. "I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You." Put God's Word in the same hiding place where you've been hiding the sin He died to free you from.
None of us can do what all of us can do. Remember Jesus’ commission to his disciples? You (speaking to all of you collectively) will be my witnesses (Acts 1:8). Jesus didn’t issue individual assignments. He works in community.
“Jesus is the head of the body, which is the church” (Colossians 1:18). I am not his body; you are not his body. We—together—are his body. But this body has been known to misbehave. The brain discounts the heart. Academics discount worshippers. The hands criticize the knees. People of action criticize people of prayer. It is a clear case of mutiny on the body. We cannot say, “I have no need of you.” Cooperation is more than a good idea; it is a command. Unity matters to God. May it matter to us.
1 Corinthians 13
If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
2 If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.
3-7 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
8-10 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
11 When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
12 We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
13 But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 90:4, 12–15
A thousand years in your sight
are like a day that has just gone by,
or like a watch in the night.
Psalm 90:12–15
Teach us to number our days,o
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.p
13 Relent, Lord! How longq will it be?
Have compassion on your servants.r
14 Satisfys us in the morning with your unfailing love,t
that we may sing for joyu and be glad all our days.v
15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
for as many years as we have seen trouble.
Insight
We shouldn’t be surprised to see the name of Moses in the superscription of Psalm 90. The broadly gifted Moses wasn’t only a law-giving prophet; he was also a poet. Though just one of his songs appears in the collection of the Psalms, the Bible features other lyrical compositions by him. He likely wrote Exodus 15, which chronicles God’s mighty rescue of the Israelites from Egypt. At the end of his life, Moses penned the song recorded in Deuteronomy 32, which is introduced with these words: “And Moses recited the words of this song from beginning to end in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel” (31:30). Psalm 90:1—“Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations”—echoes Deuteronomy 33:27: “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”
By: Arthur Jackson
Slowing Down Time
Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Psalm 90:12
A lot has changed since the electric clock was invented in the 1840s. We now keep time on smart watches, smart phones, and laptops. The entire pace of life seems faster—with even our “leisurely” walking speeding up. This is especially true in cities and can have a negative effect on health, scholars say. “We’re just moving faster and faster and getting back to people as quickly as we can,” Professor Richard Wiseman observed. “That’s driving us to think everything has to happen now.”
Moses, the writer of one of the oldest of the Bible’s psalms, reflected on time. He reminds us that God controls life’s pace. “A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night,” he wrote (Psalm 90:4).
The secret to time management, therefore, isn’t to go faster or slower. It’s to abide in God, spending more time with Him. Then we get in step with each other, but first with Him—the One who formed us (139:13) and knows our purpose and plans (v. 16).
Our time on earth won’t last forever. Yet we can manage it wisely, not by watching the clock, but by giving each day to God. As Moses said, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (90:12). Then, with God we’ll always be on time, now and forever. By: Patricia Raybon
Reflect & Pray
What’s your pace in life? How could you spend more time with God, getting in step with Him?
Gracious God, when we fall out of step with You, draw us closer to abide in You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Called By God
I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me." —Isaiah 6:8
God did not direct His call to Isaiah— Isaiah overheard God saying, “…who will go for Us?” The call of God is not just for a select few but for everyone. Whether I hear God’s call or not depends on the condition of my ears, and exactly what I hear depends upon my spiritual attitude. “Many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). That is, few prove that they are the chosen ones. The chosen ones are those who have come into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ and have had their spiritual condition changed and their ears opened. Then they hear “the voice of the Lord” continually asking, “…who will go for Us?” However, God doesn’t single out someone and say, “Now, you go.” He did not force His will on Isaiah. Isaiah was in the presence of God, and he overheard the call. His response, performed in complete freedom, could only be to say, “Here am I! Send me.”
Remove the thought from your mind of expecting God to come to force you or to plead with you. When our Lord called His disciples, He did it without irresistible pressure from the outside. The quiet, yet passionate, insistence of His “Follow Me” was spoken to men whose every sense was receptive (Matthew 4:19). If we will allow the Holy Spirit to bring us face to face with God, we too will hear what Isaiah heard— “the voice of the Lord.” In perfect freedom we too will say, “Here am I! Send me.”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is perilously possible to make our conceptions of God like molten lead poured into a specially designed mould, and when it is cold and hard we fling it at the heads of the religious people who don’t agree with us.
Disciples Indeed
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
The Royal Switch - #8612
Tom thought he had the perfect hiding place. In fact, he told me about it the other day. Actually, Tom isn't his real name, but the incident really happened about 20 years ago when he was a teenager. He was raised in a Christian family; he was a nice Christian boy - except for some of his reading material. Yeah, and this was before the Internet, and he got into buying "Playboy" and some other similar magazines. And he hid them where he was sure no one would ever find them - in his old, unused ice box where no one ever went. Well, one day, Tom went to get his dirty magazines and they were gone. But that wasn't the worst part. There was a Bible where the magazines had been! He knew it had to be his Dad. There was never a word spoken about it, but there were no more magazines after that. Great switch, huh?
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Royal Switch."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Corinthians 10:4-5. "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." "Strongholds?" Those are those well-established sinful ways of thinking-about the opposite sex, about suicide, about our relationship with someone who's hurt us, about lust, or depression. Maybe it's bitterness or self-pity. Well, God says there is power in Christ to "take captive every thought" and make it obey Jesus! But until you can master the source of your sin, your wrong thoughts and attitudes, that sin's going to continue to master you. But how can you beat the sinful thoughts that have always beaten you? Well, the royal switch.
David asks in Psalm 119:9, "How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to Your Word." Then in verse 11, he reveals the secret of living by God's Word instead of by his polluted thoughts. "I have hidden Your Word in my heart that I might not sin against You."
Learn a lesson from my friend Tom's very wise father. Where there has been dirt, put the Word of God. That Dad didn't just remove what was dirty, he replaced it with the Bible. That's what it's going to take for you to win the battle to make your thoughts obey Jesus. We're talking about a two-step strategy here for your thought-life victory.
First, take out the garbage thoughts and don't collect anymore. That means consciously turning your eyes away, turning the channel, don't go there, don't click on that, avoid those negative conversations, cancel your subscription, dump that music that turns your heart the wrong way.
But taking out the garbage isn't enough. The second step is to put the Bible where the dirt has been. That means giving your heart and mind a daily Bible-bath, dwelling on what you read in God's Word, journaling what God says to you each day through His Word, using what you read in practical ways that day. And there is simply no substitute for memorizing words from God. Maybe you make it part of your personality and you have it there when the pressure comes.
In the words of D. L. Moody, the great evangelist, "When you think sin, think Scripture!" He also said, "Either sin will keep you from this Book or this Book will
keep you from sin."
You have a weapon that can tear down a stronghold of sin and tame the most sinful of thoughts. "I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You." Put God's Word in the same hiding place where you've been hiding the sin He died to free you from.
Monday, January 13, 2020
1 Chronicles 19 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: RECEIVE THE BREAD
Acts 2:38 records the sermon of the apostle Peter. In it, Peter said, “Turn back to God! Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, so that your sins will be forgiven.
We cherish pardon, don’t we? And God offers it. He does not give us what we deserve. He has drenched this world in grace. It has no end. It knows no limits. It empowers this life and enables us to live in the next. God offers second chances, like a soup kitchen offers meals to everyone who asks. And that includes you. Make sure you receive His pardon. And once you do, pass it on. We all need it.
1 Chronicles 19
Some time after this Nahash king of the Ammonites died and his son succeeded him as king. David said, “I’d like to show some kindness to Hanun son of Nahash—treat him as well and as kindly as his father treated me.” So David sent condolences about his father’s death.
2-3 But when David’s servants arrived in Ammonite country and came to Hanun to bring condolences, the Ammonite leaders warned Hanun, “Do you for a minute suppose that David is honoring your father by sending you comforters? Don’t you know that he’s sent these men to snoop around the city and size it up so that he can capture it?”
4 So Hanun seized David’s men, shaved them clean, cut off their robes half way up their buttocks, and sent them packing.
5 When this was all reported to David, he sent someone to meet them, for they were seriously humiliated. The king told them, “Stay in Jericho until your beards grow out; only then come back.”
6-7 When it dawned on the Ammonites that as far as David was concerned, they stank to high heaven, they hired, at a cost of a thousand talents of silver (thirty-seven and a half tons!), chariots and horsemen from the Arameans of Naharaim, Maacah, and Zobah—thirty-two thousand chariots and drivers; plus the king of Maacah with his troops who came and set up camp at Medeba; the Ammonites, too, were mobilized from their cities and got ready for battle.
8 When David heard this, he dispatched Joab with his strongest fighters in full force.
9-13 The Ammonites marched out and spread out in battle formation at the city gate; the kings who had come as allies took up a position in the open fields. When Joab saw that he had two fronts to fight, before and behind, he took his pick of the best of Israel and deployed them to confront the Arameans. The rest of the army he put under the command of Abishai, his brother, and deployed them to deal with the Ammonites. Then he said, “If the Arameans are too much for me, you help me; and if the Ammonites prove too much for you, I’ll come and help you. Courage! We’ll fight might and main for our people and for the cities of our God. And God will do whatever he sees needs doing!”
14-15 But when Joab and his soldiers moved in to fight the Arameans, they ran off in full retreat. Then the Ammonites, seeing the Arameans run for dear life, took to their heels and ran from Abishai into the city.
So Joab withdrew from the Ammonites and returned to Jerusalem.
16 When the Arameans saw how badly they’d been beaten by Israel, they picked up the pieces and regrouped; they sent for the Arameans who were across the river; Shophach, commander of Hadadezer’s army, led them.
17-19 When all this was reported to David, he mustered all Israel, crossed the Jordan, advanced, and prepared to fight. The Arameans went into battle formation, ready for David, and the fight was on. But the Arameans again scattered before Israel. David killed seven thousand chariot drivers and forty thousand infantry. He also killed Shophach, the army commander. When all the kings who were vassals of Hadadezer saw that they had been routed by Israel, they made peace with David and served him. The Arameans were afraid to help the Ammonites ever again.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, January 13, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Matthew 9:27–38
Jesus Heals the Blind and the Mute
27 As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”m
28 When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”
“Yes, Lord,” they replied.n
29 Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you”;o 30 and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.”p 31 But they went out and spread the news about him all over that region.q
32 While they were going out, a man who was demon-possessedr and could not talks was brought to Jesus. 33 And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”t
34 But the Pharisees said, “It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons.”u
The Workers Are Few
35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.v 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them,w because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.x 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvesty is plentiful but the workers are few.z 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
Insight
God’s sovereignty is described three times in Matthew 9:37–38. First, God is the Lord of the harvest. This means He owns the field and watches over it, and the results of the harvest are given to Him.
He’s also the one who hires and sends the workers. The workers perform the work, but they don’t go of their own accord—the Lord of the harvest sends them. Finally, the field belongs to Him. The field is His, He sends the workers, and the harvest goes to Him.
Everyone Needs Compassion
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Matthew 9:36
When Jeff was a new believer in Jesus and fresh out of college, he worked for a major oil company. In his role as a salesman, he traveled; and in his travels he heard people’s stories—many of them heartbreaking. He realized that what his customers most needed wasn’t oil, but compassion. They needed God. This led Jeff to attend seminary to learn more about the heart of God and eventually to become a pastor.
Jeff’s compassion had its source in Jesus. In Matthew 9:27–33 we get a glimpse of Christ’s compassion in the miraculous healing of two blind men and one demon-possessed man. Throughout His earthly ministry, He went about preaching the gospel and healing “through all the towns and villages” (v. 35). Why? “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (v. 36).
The world today is still full of troubled and hurting people who need the Savior’s gentle care. Like a shepherd who leads, protects, and cares for his sheep, Jesus extends His compassion to all who come to Him (11:28). No matter where we are in life and what we’re experiencing, in Him we find a heart overflowing with tenderness and care. And when we’ve been a beneficiary of God’s loving compassion, we can’t help but want to extend it to others. By: Alyson Kieda
Reflect & Pray
When have you experienced God’s tender care? Who can you reach out to in compassion?
Heavenly Father, we’re so grateful You had compassion on us! We would be lost without You. Help us to extend Your overflowing compassion to others.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, January 13, 2020
Have You Ever Been Alone with God? (2)
When He was alone…the twelve asked Him about the parable. —Mark 4:10
His Solitude with Us. When God gets us alone through suffering, heartbreak, temptation, disappointment, sickness, or by thwarted desires, a broken friendship, or a new friendship— when He gets us absolutely alone, and we are totally speechless, unable to ask even one question, then He begins to teach us. Notice Jesus Christ’s training of the Twelve. It was the disciples, not the crowd outside, who were confused. His disciples constantly asked Him questions, and He constantly explained things to them, but they didn’t understand until after they received the Holy Spirit (see John 14:26).
As you journey with God, the only thing He intends to be clear is the way He deals with your soul. The sorrows and difficulties in the lives of others will be absolutely confusing to you. We think we understand another person’s struggle until God reveals the same shortcomings in our lives. There are vast areas of stubbornness and ignorance the Holy Spirit has to reveal in each of us, but it can only be done when Jesus gets us alone. Are we alone with Him now? Or are we more concerned with our own ideas, friendships, and cares for our bodies? Jesus cannot teach us anything until we quiet all our intellectual questions and get alone with Him.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are only what we are in the dark; all the rest is reputation. What God looks at is what we are in the dark—the imaginations of our minds; the thoughts of our heart; the habits of our bodies; these are the things that mark us in God’s sight. The Love of God—The Ministry of the Unnoticed, 669 L
Bible in a Year: Genesis 31-32; Matthew 9:18-38
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, January 13, 2020
The Only Payment Plan You Can Afford - #8611
Metal mouth! Yeah, that's what they called my daughter in Junior High. Of course, there were plenty of kids you could call that. Those pre-teen and early teen years? Those are braces years a lot of times. All our kids got to take their turn at braces, and we were thankful, frankly, that we had a friend who was an orthodontist. The work was important, but the bills? They were challenging! Our friend allowed us to pay in installments, but even that was hard sometimes. We still had this large unpaid balance the day our latest bill arrived. We opened it and we couldn't believe the three beautiful words that were stamped across the bill - PAID IN FULL!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Only Payment Plan You Can Afford."
Now, I've had that experience twice in my life, once when the man I owed declared my bill "paid," and the second time was when the God I owed declared my bill "paid."
Our word for the day from the Word of God comes from John 19:30. Jesus has been hanging on that awful cross for six brutal hours, He's now breathing His last and it says, "When He had received the drink, Jesus said, 'It is finished,' and with that, He bowed His head and He gave up His spirit." Now, if you were to read that three word sentence in the original Greek language, it's one word, tetelestai.
It's an interesting word that Jesus shouted from the cross. In fact, some archaeologists a few years ago dug up this tax collectors office that was really intact, and it still had the tax records there. There were two stacks and one of them had the word, tetelestai, on the top. In other words "paid in full." Those people didn't owe anything anymore.
Now, Jesus declared that His death was a payment, a full payment! He said, "It's paid in full," the price was paid by the life of God's one and only Son. It was a bill I couldn't pay myself, it's a bill you can't pay; none of us can.
The Bible describes the reason why we have such a massive debt with God. It says, "The wages of sin is death." Now, some of us religious folks will say, "Hey, I don't think that applies to me!" Well, the bad news is, the Bible says, "All have sinned and fallen short of God's glory." Sin is a whole lot more than just breaking some religious rules. It's taking this life God was supposed to run and running it our way instead. It's my way instead of God's way. And the penalty is clear, and it's sobering - it is death - separation from the God who made us now and ultimately forever, and that's hell.
You and I have this overwhelming sin bill with God and eternal separation from God's the only way to pay for it. Our religion doesn't even come close to covering it. But that verse has some good news, the one that says, "The wages of sin is death," it says, "But the gift of God is eternal life." Now, how can that be? It's like my orthodontist friend, the one we owed the debt to declared our bill "paid," in this case, at the cost of Jesus' life. When He was hanging on that cross, Jesus was absorbing every sin we've ever committed and all of its' penalty.
Eternal life is described by God as a gift, and the gift isn't yours until you take it. If there's never been a time when you've told Jesus you're putting your total trust in Him to forgive your sin and get you to heaven, then your deadly sin bill remains on your record this very day. But that could change this very day in these next few moments, if you would tell
Jesus you want Him to be your Savior from your sin.
This could be the day that you're forgiven, that you begin your relationship with Him and change your eternal address from hell to heaven. There's some wonderful information I'd love to give you at our website. At this threshold it's for you. ANewStory.com. I hope you'll go there as soon as you can today.
There's this little song that says, "He paid a debt He did not owe, I owed a debt I could not pay, I needed someone to wash my sins away, and now I sing a brand new song, amazing grace, Christ Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay." Well, He's waiting to hear from you. He's waiting to stamp your bill forever "paid in full!"
Acts 2:38 records the sermon of the apostle Peter. In it, Peter said, “Turn back to God! Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, so that your sins will be forgiven.
We cherish pardon, don’t we? And God offers it. He does not give us what we deserve. He has drenched this world in grace. It has no end. It knows no limits. It empowers this life and enables us to live in the next. God offers second chances, like a soup kitchen offers meals to everyone who asks. And that includes you. Make sure you receive His pardon. And once you do, pass it on. We all need it.
1 Chronicles 19
Some time after this Nahash king of the Ammonites died and his son succeeded him as king. David said, “I’d like to show some kindness to Hanun son of Nahash—treat him as well and as kindly as his father treated me.” So David sent condolences about his father’s death.
2-3 But when David’s servants arrived in Ammonite country and came to Hanun to bring condolences, the Ammonite leaders warned Hanun, “Do you for a minute suppose that David is honoring your father by sending you comforters? Don’t you know that he’s sent these men to snoop around the city and size it up so that he can capture it?”
4 So Hanun seized David’s men, shaved them clean, cut off their robes half way up their buttocks, and sent them packing.
5 When this was all reported to David, he sent someone to meet them, for they were seriously humiliated. The king told them, “Stay in Jericho until your beards grow out; only then come back.”
6-7 When it dawned on the Ammonites that as far as David was concerned, they stank to high heaven, they hired, at a cost of a thousand talents of silver (thirty-seven and a half tons!), chariots and horsemen from the Arameans of Naharaim, Maacah, and Zobah—thirty-two thousand chariots and drivers; plus the king of Maacah with his troops who came and set up camp at Medeba; the Ammonites, too, were mobilized from their cities and got ready for battle.
8 When David heard this, he dispatched Joab with his strongest fighters in full force.
9-13 The Ammonites marched out and spread out in battle formation at the city gate; the kings who had come as allies took up a position in the open fields. When Joab saw that he had two fronts to fight, before and behind, he took his pick of the best of Israel and deployed them to confront the Arameans. The rest of the army he put under the command of Abishai, his brother, and deployed them to deal with the Ammonites. Then he said, “If the Arameans are too much for me, you help me; and if the Ammonites prove too much for you, I’ll come and help you. Courage! We’ll fight might and main for our people and for the cities of our God. And God will do whatever he sees needs doing!”
14-15 But when Joab and his soldiers moved in to fight the Arameans, they ran off in full retreat. Then the Ammonites, seeing the Arameans run for dear life, took to their heels and ran from Abishai into the city.
So Joab withdrew from the Ammonites and returned to Jerusalem.
16 When the Arameans saw how badly they’d been beaten by Israel, they picked up the pieces and regrouped; they sent for the Arameans who were across the river; Shophach, commander of Hadadezer’s army, led them.
17-19 When all this was reported to David, he mustered all Israel, crossed the Jordan, advanced, and prepared to fight. The Arameans went into battle formation, ready for David, and the fight was on. But the Arameans again scattered before Israel. David killed seven thousand chariot drivers and forty thousand infantry. He also killed Shophach, the army commander. When all the kings who were vassals of Hadadezer saw that they had been routed by Israel, they made peace with David and served him. The Arameans were afraid to help the Ammonites ever again.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, January 13, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Matthew 9:27–38
Jesus Heals the Blind and the Mute
27 As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”m
28 When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”
“Yes, Lord,” they replied.n
29 Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you”;o 30 and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.”p 31 But they went out and spread the news about him all over that region.q
32 While they were going out, a man who was demon-possessedr and could not talks was brought to Jesus. 33 And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”t
34 But the Pharisees said, “It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons.”u
The Workers Are Few
35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.v 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them,w because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.x 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvesty is plentiful but the workers are few.z 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
Insight
God’s sovereignty is described three times in Matthew 9:37–38. First, God is the Lord of the harvest. This means He owns the field and watches over it, and the results of the harvest are given to Him.
He’s also the one who hires and sends the workers. The workers perform the work, but they don’t go of their own accord—the Lord of the harvest sends them. Finally, the field belongs to Him. The field is His, He sends the workers, and the harvest goes to Him.
Everyone Needs Compassion
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Matthew 9:36
When Jeff was a new believer in Jesus and fresh out of college, he worked for a major oil company. In his role as a salesman, he traveled; and in his travels he heard people’s stories—many of them heartbreaking. He realized that what his customers most needed wasn’t oil, but compassion. They needed God. This led Jeff to attend seminary to learn more about the heart of God and eventually to become a pastor.
Jeff’s compassion had its source in Jesus. In Matthew 9:27–33 we get a glimpse of Christ’s compassion in the miraculous healing of two blind men and one demon-possessed man. Throughout His earthly ministry, He went about preaching the gospel and healing “through all the towns and villages” (v. 35). Why? “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (v. 36).
The world today is still full of troubled and hurting people who need the Savior’s gentle care. Like a shepherd who leads, protects, and cares for his sheep, Jesus extends His compassion to all who come to Him (11:28). No matter where we are in life and what we’re experiencing, in Him we find a heart overflowing with tenderness and care. And when we’ve been a beneficiary of God’s loving compassion, we can’t help but want to extend it to others. By: Alyson Kieda
Reflect & Pray
When have you experienced God’s tender care? Who can you reach out to in compassion?
Heavenly Father, we’re so grateful You had compassion on us! We would be lost without You. Help us to extend Your overflowing compassion to others.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, January 13, 2020
Have You Ever Been Alone with God? (2)
When He was alone…the twelve asked Him about the parable. —Mark 4:10
His Solitude with Us. When God gets us alone through suffering, heartbreak, temptation, disappointment, sickness, or by thwarted desires, a broken friendship, or a new friendship— when He gets us absolutely alone, and we are totally speechless, unable to ask even one question, then He begins to teach us. Notice Jesus Christ’s training of the Twelve. It was the disciples, not the crowd outside, who were confused. His disciples constantly asked Him questions, and He constantly explained things to them, but they didn’t understand until after they received the Holy Spirit (see John 14:26).
As you journey with God, the only thing He intends to be clear is the way He deals with your soul. The sorrows and difficulties in the lives of others will be absolutely confusing to you. We think we understand another person’s struggle until God reveals the same shortcomings in our lives. There are vast areas of stubbornness and ignorance the Holy Spirit has to reveal in each of us, but it can only be done when Jesus gets us alone. Are we alone with Him now? Or are we more concerned with our own ideas, friendships, and cares for our bodies? Jesus cannot teach us anything until we quiet all our intellectual questions and get alone with Him.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are only what we are in the dark; all the rest is reputation. What God looks at is what we are in the dark—the imaginations of our minds; the thoughts of our heart; the habits of our bodies; these are the things that mark us in God’s sight. The Love of God—The Ministry of the Unnoticed, 669 L
Bible in a Year: Genesis 31-32; Matthew 9:18-38
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, January 13, 2020
The Only Payment Plan You Can Afford - #8611
Metal mouth! Yeah, that's what they called my daughter in Junior High. Of course, there were plenty of kids you could call that. Those pre-teen and early teen years? Those are braces years a lot of times. All our kids got to take their turn at braces, and we were thankful, frankly, that we had a friend who was an orthodontist. The work was important, but the bills? They were challenging! Our friend allowed us to pay in installments, but even that was hard sometimes. We still had this large unpaid balance the day our latest bill arrived. We opened it and we couldn't believe the three beautiful words that were stamped across the bill - PAID IN FULL!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Only Payment Plan You Can Afford."
Now, I've had that experience twice in my life, once when the man I owed declared my bill "paid," and the second time was when the God I owed declared my bill "paid."
Our word for the day from the Word of God comes from John 19:30. Jesus has been hanging on that awful cross for six brutal hours, He's now breathing His last and it says, "When He had received the drink, Jesus said, 'It is finished,' and with that, He bowed His head and He gave up His spirit." Now, if you were to read that three word sentence in the original Greek language, it's one word, tetelestai.
It's an interesting word that Jesus shouted from the cross. In fact, some archaeologists a few years ago dug up this tax collectors office that was really intact, and it still had the tax records there. There were two stacks and one of them had the word, tetelestai, on the top. In other words "paid in full." Those people didn't owe anything anymore.
Now, Jesus declared that His death was a payment, a full payment! He said, "It's paid in full," the price was paid by the life of God's one and only Son. It was a bill I couldn't pay myself, it's a bill you can't pay; none of us can.
The Bible describes the reason why we have such a massive debt with God. It says, "The wages of sin is death." Now, some of us religious folks will say, "Hey, I don't think that applies to me!" Well, the bad news is, the Bible says, "All have sinned and fallen short of God's glory." Sin is a whole lot more than just breaking some religious rules. It's taking this life God was supposed to run and running it our way instead. It's my way instead of God's way. And the penalty is clear, and it's sobering - it is death - separation from the God who made us now and ultimately forever, and that's hell.
You and I have this overwhelming sin bill with God and eternal separation from God's the only way to pay for it. Our religion doesn't even come close to covering it. But that verse has some good news, the one that says, "The wages of sin is death," it says, "But the gift of God is eternal life." Now, how can that be? It's like my orthodontist friend, the one we owed the debt to declared our bill "paid," in this case, at the cost of Jesus' life. When He was hanging on that cross, Jesus was absorbing every sin we've ever committed and all of its' penalty.
Eternal life is described by God as a gift, and the gift isn't yours until you take it. If there's never been a time when you've told Jesus you're putting your total trust in Him to forgive your sin and get you to heaven, then your deadly sin bill remains on your record this very day. But that could change this very day in these next few moments, if you would tell
Jesus you want Him to be your Savior from your sin.
This could be the day that you're forgiven, that you begin your relationship with Him and change your eternal address from hell to heaven. There's some wonderful information I'd love to give you at our website. At this threshold it's for you. ANewStory.com. I hope you'll go there as soon as you can today.
There's this little song that says, "He paid a debt He did not owe, I owed a debt I could not pay, I needed someone to wash my sins away, and now I sing a brand new song, amazing grace, Christ Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay." Well, He's waiting to hear from you. He's waiting to stamp your bill forever "paid in full!"
Sunday, January 12, 2020
1 Chronicles 18 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: God Can Use You
If God chose only righteous people to change the world, you could count them all on one finger—Jesus! Instead he included others in his plan—sinners, the ungodly, the imperfect. God used and uses people to change the world. People! Crooks, creeps, lovers, and liars—he uses them all!
If you ever wonder how God can use you to make a difference in your world, just look at those he has already used, and take heart. No matter who you are or what you’ve done, God can use you. Because you’re imperfect, you can speak of making mistakes. Because you’re a sinner, you can speak of forgiveness. God restores the broken and the brittle, then parades them before the world as trophies of his love and strength. And when the world sees the ungodly turn godly, they know God must love them too.
God can use you, my friend!
From Max on Life
1 Chronicles 18
In the days that followed, David struck hard at the Philistines, bringing them to their knees, captured Gath, and took control of the surrounding countryside.
2 He also fought and defeated Moab. The Moabites came under David’s rule and paid regular tribute.
3-4 On his way to restore his sovereignty at the Euphrates River, David defeated Hadadezer king of Zobah (over toward Hamath). David captured a thousand chariots, seven thousand cavalry, and twenty thousand infantry from him. He hamstrung all the chariot horses, but saved back a hundred.
5-6 When the Arameans from Damascus came to the aid of Hadadezer king of Zobah, David killed twenty-two thousand of them. David set up a puppet government in Aram-Damascus. The Arameans became subjects of David and were forced to bring tribute. God gave victory to David wherever he marched.
7-8 David plundered the gold shields that belonged to the servants of Hadadezer and brought them to Jerusalem. He also looted Tebah and Cun, cities of Hadadezer, of a huge quantity of bronze that Solomon later used to make the Great Bronze Sea, the Pillars, and bronze equipment in The Temple.
9-11 Tou king of Hamath heard that David had struck down the entire army of Hadadezer king of Zobah. He sent his son Hadoram to King David to greet and congratulate him for fighting and defeating Hadadezer. Tou and Hadadezer were old enemies. Hadoram brought David various things made of silver, gold, and bronze. King David consecrated these things along with the silver and gold that he had plundered from other nations: Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines, and Amalek.
12-13 Abishai son of Zeruiah fought and defeated the Edomites in the Valley of Salt—eighteen thousand of them. He set up a puppet government in Edom and the Edomites became subjects under David.
God gave David victory wherever he marched.
14-17 Thus David ruled over all of Israel. He ruled well, fair and evenhanded in all his duties and relationships.
Joab son of Zeruiah was head of the army;
Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was in charge of public records;
Zadok son of Ahitub and Abimelech son of Abiathar were priests;
Shavsha was secretary;
Benaiah son of Jehoiada was over the special forces, the Kerethites and Pelethites;
And David’s sons held high positions, close to the king.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, January 12, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 146
Praise the Lord.a
Praise the Lord,x my soul.
2 I will praise the Lord all my life;y
I will sing praisez to my God as long as I live.a
3 Do not put your trust in princes,b
in human beings,c who cannot save.
4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;d
on that very day their plans come to nothing.e
5 Blessed are thosef whose helpg is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God.
6 He is the Maker of heavenh and earth,
the sea, and everything in them—
he remains faithfuli forever.
7 He upholdsj the cause of the oppressedk
and gives food to the hungry.l
The Lord sets prisoners free,m
8 the Lord gives sightn to the blind,o
the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down,p
the Lord loves the righteous.q
9 The Lord watches over the foreignerr
and sustains the fatherlesss and the widow,t
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
10 The Lord reignsu forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the Lord.
Insight
Psalm 146 doesn’t include a superscription, which means we don’t have information about the author’s identity or the circumstances surrounding the song’s composition. What we do know, however, is how Psalm 146 was viewed by the religious community. While many scholars believe Psalm 1 was intentionally written to open the book of Psalms, Psalms 145–150 were praise songs selected to close the Hebrew hymnal. This closing flourish of praise has been called by one writer “the endless hallelujah.” The Bible Knowledge Commentary agrees, stating that these songs are “the grand doxology of the entire collection, for praise plays a greater part of Psalms 145–150 than in most of the others. The word ‘praise’ occurs 46 times in these six psalms.” By: Bill Crowder
A Lifestyle of Praise
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. Psalm 146:2
Wallace Stegner’s mother died at the age of fifty. When Wallace was eighty, he finally wrote her a note—“Letter, Much Too Late”—in which he praised the virtues of a woman who grew up, married, and raised two sons in the harshness of the early Western United States. She was the kind of wife and mother who was an encourager, even to those that were less than desirable. Wallace remembered the strength his mother displayed by way of her voice. Stegner wrote: “You never lost an opportunity to sing.” As long as she lived, Stegner’s mother sang, grateful for blessings large and small.
The psalmist too took opportunities to sing. He sang when the days were good, and when they weren’t so good. The songs were not forced or coerced, but a natural response to the “Maker of heaven and earth” (146:6) and how He “gives food to the hungry” (v. 7) and “gives sight to the blind” (v. 8) and “sustains the fatherless and the widow” (v. 9). This is really a lifestyle of singing, one that builds strength over time as daily trust is placed in “the God of Jacob” who “remains faithful forever” (vv. 5–6).
The quality of our voices isn’t the point, but our response to God’s sustaining goodness—a lifestyle of praise. As the old hymn puts it: “There’s within my heart a melody.” By: John Blase
Reflect & Pray
How can you make singing praises to God a regular part of your day? What’s your favorite song of praise? Tell us why on our Facebook page.
Maker of heaven and earth, when I pause and reflect, Your provision for and protection of me is overwhelming. May my life be a continuous song of praise to You for as long as I live.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, January 12, 2020
Have You Ever Been Alone with God? (1)
When they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples. —Mark 4:34
Our Solitude with Him. Jesus doesn’t take us aside and explain things to us all the time; He explains things to us as we are able to understand them. The lives of others are examples for us, but God requires us to examine our own souls. It is slow work— so slow that it takes God all of time and eternity to make a man or woman conform to His purpose. We can only be used by God after we allow Him to show us the deep, hidden areas of our own character. It is astounding how ignorant we are about ourselves! We don’t even recognize the envy, laziness, or pride within us when we see it. But Jesus will reveal to us everything we have held within ourselves before His grace began to work. How many of us have learned to look inwardly with courage?
We have to get rid of the idea that we understand ourselves. That is always the last bit of pride to go. The only One who understands us is God. The greatest curse in our spiritual life is pride. If we have ever had a glimpse of what we are like in the sight of God, we will never say, “Oh, I’m so unworthy.” We will understand that this goes without saying. But as long as there is any doubt that we are unworthy, God will continue to close us in until He gets us alone. Whenever there is any element of pride or conceit remaining, Jesus can’t teach us anything. He will allow us to experience heartbreak or the disappointment we feel when our intellectual pride is wounded. He will reveal numerous misplaced affections or desires— things over which we never thought He would have to get us alone. Many things are shown to us, often without effect. But when God gets us alone over them, they will be clear.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
To read the Bible according to God’s providential order in your circumstances is the only way to read it, viz., in the blood and passion of personal life. Disciples Indeed, 387 R
If God chose only righteous people to change the world, you could count them all on one finger—Jesus! Instead he included others in his plan—sinners, the ungodly, the imperfect. God used and uses people to change the world. People! Crooks, creeps, lovers, and liars—he uses them all!
If you ever wonder how God can use you to make a difference in your world, just look at those he has already used, and take heart. No matter who you are or what you’ve done, God can use you. Because you’re imperfect, you can speak of making mistakes. Because you’re a sinner, you can speak of forgiveness. God restores the broken and the brittle, then parades them before the world as trophies of his love and strength. And when the world sees the ungodly turn godly, they know God must love them too.
God can use you, my friend!
From Max on Life
1 Chronicles 18
In the days that followed, David struck hard at the Philistines, bringing them to their knees, captured Gath, and took control of the surrounding countryside.
2 He also fought and defeated Moab. The Moabites came under David’s rule and paid regular tribute.
3-4 On his way to restore his sovereignty at the Euphrates River, David defeated Hadadezer king of Zobah (over toward Hamath). David captured a thousand chariots, seven thousand cavalry, and twenty thousand infantry from him. He hamstrung all the chariot horses, but saved back a hundred.
5-6 When the Arameans from Damascus came to the aid of Hadadezer king of Zobah, David killed twenty-two thousand of them. David set up a puppet government in Aram-Damascus. The Arameans became subjects of David and were forced to bring tribute. God gave victory to David wherever he marched.
7-8 David plundered the gold shields that belonged to the servants of Hadadezer and brought them to Jerusalem. He also looted Tebah and Cun, cities of Hadadezer, of a huge quantity of bronze that Solomon later used to make the Great Bronze Sea, the Pillars, and bronze equipment in The Temple.
9-11 Tou king of Hamath heard that David had struck down the entire army of Hadadezer king of Zobah. He sent his son Hadoram to King David to greet and congratulate him for fighting and defeating Hadadezer. Tou and Hadadezer were old enemies. Hadoram brought David various things made of silver, gold, and bronze. King David consecrated these things along with the silver and gold that he had plundered from other nations: Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines, and Amalek.
12-13 Abishai son of Zeruiah fought and defeated the Edomites in the Valley of Salt—eighteen thousand of them. He set up a puppet government in Edom and the Edomites became subjects under David.
God gave David victory wherever he marched.
14-17 Thus David ruled over all of Israel. He ruled well, fair and evenhanded in all his duties and relationships.
Joab son of Zeruiah was head of the army;
Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was in charge of public records;
Zadok son of Ahitub and Abimelech son of Abiathar were priests;
Shavsha was secretary;
Benaiah son of Jehoiada was over the special forces, the Kerethites and Pelethites;
And David’s sons held high positions, close to the king.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, January 12, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 146
Praise the Lord.a
Praise the Lord,x my soul.
2 I will praise the Lord all my life;y
I will sing praisez to my God as long as I live.a
3 Do not put your trust in princes,b
in human beings,c who cannot save.
4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;d
on that very day their plans come to nothing.e
5 Blessed are thosef whose helpg is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God.
6 He is the Maker of heavenh and earth,
the sea, and everything in them—
he remains faithfuli forever.
7 He upholdsj the cause of the oppressedk
and gives food to the hungry.l
The Lord sets prisoners free,m
8 the Lord gives sightn to the blind,o
the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down,p
the Lord loves the righteous.q
9 The Lord watches over the foreignerr
and sustains the fatherlesss and the widow,t
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
10 The Lord reignsu forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the Lord.
Insight
Psalm 146 doesn’t include a superscription, which means we don’t have information about the author’s identity or the circumstances surrounding the song’s composition. What we do know, however, is how Psalm 146 was viewed by the religious community. While many scholars believe Psalm 1 was intentionally written to open the book of Psalms, Psalms 145–150 were praise songs selected to close the Hebrew hymnal. This closing flourish of praise has been called by one writer “the endless hallelujah.” The Bible Knowledge Commentary agrees, stating that these songs are “the grand doxology of the entire collection, for praise plays a greater part of Psalms 145–150 than in most of the others. The word ‘praise’ occurs 46 times in these six psalms.” By: Bill Crowder
A Lifestyle of Praise
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. Psalm 146:2
Wallace Stegner’s mother died at the age of fifty. When Wallace was eighty, he finally wrote her a note—“Letter, Much Too Late”—in which he praised the virtues of a woman who grew up, married, and raised two sons in the harshness of the early Western United States. She was the kind of wife and mother who was an encourager, even to those that were less than desirable. Wallace remembered the strength his mother displayed by way of her voice. Stegner wrote: “You never lost an opportunity to sing.” As long as she lived, Stegner’s mother sang, grateful for blessings large and small.
The psalmist too took opportunities to sing. He sang when the days were good, and when they weren’t so good. The songs were not forced or coerced, but a natural response to the “Maker of heaven and earth” (146:6) and how He “gives food to the hungry” (v. 7) and “gives sight to the blind” (v. 8) and “sustains the fatherless and the widow” (v. 9). This is really a lifestyle of singing, one that builds strength over time as daily trust is placed in “the God of Jacob” who “remains faithful forever” (vv. 5–6).
The quality of our voices isn’t the point, but our response to God’s sustaining goodness—a lifestyle of praise. As the old hymn puts it: “There’s within my heart a melody.” By: John Blase
Reflect & Pray
How can you make singing praises to God a regular part of your day? What’s your favorite song of praise? Tell us why on our Facebook page.
Maker of heaven and earth, when I pause and reflect, Your provision for and protection of me is overwhelming. May my life be a continuous song of praise to You for as long as I live.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, January 12, 2020
Have You Ever Been Alone with God? (1)
When they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples. —Mark 4:34
Our Solitude with Him. Jesus doesn’t take us aside and explain things to us all the time; He explains things to us as we are able to understand them. The lives of others are examples for us, but God requires us to examine our own souls. It is slow work— so slow that it takes God all of time and eternity to make a man or woman conform to His purpose. We can only be used by God after we allow Him to show us the deep, hidden areas of our own character. It is astounding how ignorant we are about ourselves! We don’t even recognize the envy, laziness, or pride within us when we see it. But Jesus will reveal to us everything we have held within ourselves before His grace began to work. How many of us have learned to look inwardly with courage?
We have to get rid of the idea that we understand ourselves. That is always the last bit of pride to go. The only One who understands us is God. The greatest curse in our spiritual life is pride. If we have ever had a glimpse of what we are like in the sight of God, we will never say, “Oh, I’m so unworthy.” We will understand that this goes without saying. But as long as there is any doubt that we are unworthy, God will continue to close us in until He gets us alone. Whenever there is any element of pride or conceit remaining, Jesus can’t teach us anything. He will allow us to experience heartbreak or the disappointment we feel when our intellectual pride is wounded. He will reveal numerous misplaced affections or desires— things over which we never thought He would have to get us alone. Many things are shown to us, often without effect. But when God gets us alone over them, they will be clear.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
To read the Bible according to God’s providential order in your circumstances is the only way to read it, viz., in the blood and passion of personal life. Disciples Indeed, 387 R
Saturday, January 11, 2020
1 Chronicles 17 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Come Clean With God
No way around it! Confession is coming clean with God!
Check out the Old Testament example. As if David’s affair with Bathsheba wasn’t enough. As if the murder of her husband wasn’t enough! David danced around the truth. He denied his wrongdoing and it took a prophet to make David see what he didn’t want to see. And when he did, he didn’t like it one bit! At that point, David waved the white flag. No more combat with God. No more arguing with God—he confessed! He came clean with God! And what did God do? In David’s own words, “… and You forgave me! All my guilt is gone!” (Psalm 32:5).
Want to get rid of guilt? Come clean with God!
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” I John 1:9
From Max on Life
1 Chronicles 17
After the king had made himself at home, he said to Nathan the prophet, “Look at this: Here I am comfortable in a luxurious palace of cedar and the Chest of the Covenant of God sits under a tent.”
2 Nathan told David, “Whatever is on your heart, go and do it; God is with you.”
3-6 But that night, the word of God came to Nathan, saying, “Go and tell my servant David, This is God’s word on the matter: You will not build me a ‘house’ to live in. Why, I haven’t lived in a ‘house’ from the time I brought up the children of Israel from Egypt till now; I’ve gone from one tent and makeshift shelter to another. In all my travels with all Israel, did I ever say to any of the leaders I commanded to shepherd Israel, ‘Why haven’t you built me a house of cedar?’
7-10 “So here is what you are to tell my servant David: The God-of-the-Angel-Armies has this word for you: I took you from the pasture, tagging after sheep, and made you prince over my people Israel. I was with you everywhere you went and mowed your enemies down before you; and now I’m about to make you famous, ranked with the great names on earth. I’m going to set aside a place for my people Israel and plant them there so they’ll have their own home and not be knocked around anymore; nor will evil nations afflict them as they always have, even during the days I set judges over my people Israel. And finally, I’m going to conquer all your enemies.
10-14 “And now I’m telling you this: God himself will build you a house! When your life is complete and you’re buried with your ancestors, then I’ll raise up your child to succeed you, a child from your own body, and I’ll firmly establish his rule. He will build a house to honor me, and I will guarantee his kingdom’s rule forever. I’ll be a father to him, and he’ll be a son to me. I will never remove my gracious love from him as I did from the one who preceded you. I will set him over my house and my kingdom forever; his throne will always be there, rock solid.”
15 Nathan gave David a complete and accurate report of everything he heard and saw in the vision.
16-27 King David went in, took his place before God, and prayed:
Who am I, my Master God, and what is my family, that you have brought me to this place in life? But that’s nothing compared to what’s coming, for you’ve also spoken of my family far into the future, given me a glimpse into tomorrow and looked on me, Master God, as a Somebody. What’s left for David to say to this—to your honoring your servant, even though you know me, just as I am? O God, out of the goodness of your heart, you’ve taken your servant to do this great thing and put your great work on display. There’s none like you, God, no God but you, nothing to compare with what we’ve heard with our own ears. And who is like your people, like Israel, a nation unique on earth, whom God set out to redeem as his own people (and became most famous for it), performing great and fearsome acts, throwing out nations and their gods left and right as you saved your people from Egypt? You established for yourself a people—your very own Israel!—your people forever. And you, God, became their God.
So now, great God, this word that you have spoken to me and my family, guarantee it forever! Do exactly what you’ve promised! Then your reputation will be confirmed and flourish always as people exclaim, “The God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God over Israel, is Israel’s God!” And the house of your servant David will remain rock solid under your watchful presence. You, my God, have told me plainly, “I will build you a house.” That’s how I was able to find the courage to pray this prayer to you. God, being the God you are, you have spoken all these wonderful words to me. As if that weren’t enough, you’ve blessed my family so that it will continue in your presence always. Because you have blessed it, God, it’s really blessed—blessed for good!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, January 11, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Matthew 2:1–12
The Magi Visit the Messiah
2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea,z during the time of King Herod,a Magia from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?b We saw his starc when it rose and have come to worship him.”
3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehemd in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
6 “ ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’b”e
7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.f Then they opened their treasures and presented him with giftsg of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warnedh in a dreami not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
Insight
Herod apparently knew that the prophecies about the Messiah must be true. That’s why he asked the “chief priests and teachers of the law” to tell him where the Messiah would be born (Matthew 2:4–6). Yet, having learned what the Scriptures prophesied, Herod tried to thwart that prophecy by killing the baby boys in Bethlehem. By: Tim Gustafson
The Only King
They bowed down and worshiped him. Matthew 2:11
As five-year-old Eldon listened to the pastor talk about Jesus leaving heaven and coming to earth, he gasped when the pastor thanked Him in prayer for dying for our sins. “Oh, no! He died?” the boy said in surprise.
From the start of Christ’s life on earth, there were people who wanted Him dead. Wise men came to Jerusalem during the reign of King Herod inquiring, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him” (Matthew 2:2). When the king heard this, he became fearful of one day losing his position to Jesus. So he sent soldiers to kill all the boys two years old and younger around Bethlehem. But God protected His Son and sent an angel to warn His parents to leave the area. They fled, and He was saved (vv. 13–18).
When Jesus completed His ministry, He was crucified for the sins of the world. The sign placed above His cross, though meant in mockery, read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews” (27:37). Yet three days later He rose in victory from the grave. After ascending to heaven, He sat down on the throne as King of kings and Lord of lords (Philippians 2:8–11).
The King died for our sins—yours, mine, and Eldon’s. Let’s allow Him to rule in our hearts. By: Anne Cetas
Reflect & Pray
What does it mean for you to have Jesus as your King? Are there areas of your life where He’s not?
Jesus, thank You for willingly dying for our sins and offering forgiveness. Teach us to submit to Your rule.
To learn more about Christ’s life, visit christianuniversity.org/tgs.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, January 11, 2020
What My Obedience to God Costs Other People
As they led Him away, they laid hold of a certain man, Simon…, and on him they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus. —Luke 23:26
If we obey God, it is going to cost other people more than it costs us, and that is where the pain begins. If we are in love with our Lord, obedience does not cost us anything— it is a delight. But to those who do not love Him, our obedience does cost a great deal. If we obey God, it will mean that other people’s plans are upset. They will ridicule us as if to say, “You call this Christianity?” We could prevent the suffering, but not if we are obedient to God. We must let the cost be paid.
When our obedience begins to cost others, our human pride entrenches itself and we say, “I will never accept anything from anyone.” But we must, or disobey God. We have no right to think that the type of relationships we have with others should be any different from those the Lord Himself had (see Luke 8:1-3).
A lack of progress in our spiritual life results when we try to bear all the costs ourselves. And actually, we cannot. Because we are so involved in the universal purposes of God, others are immediately affected by our obedience to Him. Will we remain faithful in our obedience to God and be willing to suffer the humiliation of refusing to be independent? Or will we do just the opposite and say, “I will not cause other people to suffer”? We can disobey God if we choose, and it will bring immediate relief to the situation, but it will grieve our Lord. If, however, we obey God, He will care for those who have suffered the consequences of our obedience. We must simply obey and leave all the consequences with Him.
Beware of the inclination to dictate to God what consequences you would allow as a condition of your obedience to Him.
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
No way around it! Confession is coming clean with God!
Check out the Old Testament example. As if David’s affair with Bathsheba wasn’t enough. As if the murder of her husband wasn’t enough! David danced around the truth. He denied his wrongdoing and it took a prophet to make David see what he didn’t want to see. And when he did, he didn’t like it one bit! At that point, David waved the white flag. No more combat with God. No more arguing with God—he confessed! He came clean with God! And what did God do? In David’s own words, “… and You forgave me! All my guilt is gone!” (Psalm 32:5).
Want to get rid of guilt? Come clean with God!
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” I John 1:9
From Max on Life
1 Chronicles 17
After the king had made himself at home, he said to Nathan the prophet, “Look at this: Here I am comfortable in a luxurious palace of cedar and the Chest of the Covenant of God sits under a tent.”
2 Nathan told David, “Whatever is on your heart, go and do it; God is with you.”
3-6 But that night, the word of God came to Nathan, saying, “Go and tell my servant David, This is God’s word on the matter: You will not build me a ‘house’ to live in. Why, I haven’t lived in a ‘house’ from the time I brought up the children of Israel from Egypt till now; I’ve gone from one tent and makeshift shelter to another. In all my travels with all Israel, did I ever say to any of the leaders I commanded to shepherd Israel, ‘Why haven’t you built me a house of cedar?’
7-10 “So here is what you are to tell my servant David: The God-of-the-Angel-Armies has this word for you: I took you from the pasture, tagging after sheep, and made you prince over my people Israel. I was with you everywhere you went and mowed your enemies down before you; and now I’m about to make you famous, ranked with the great names on earth. I’m going to set aside a place for my people Israel and plant them there so they’ll have their own home and not be knocked around anymore; nor will evil nations afflict them as they always have, even during the days I set judges over my people Israel. And finally, I’m going to conquer all your enemies.
10-14 “And now I’m telling you this: God himself will build you a house! When your life is complete and you’re buried with your ancestors, then I’ll raise up your child to succeed you, a child from your own body, and I’ll firmly establish his rule. He will build a house to honor me, and I will guarantee his kingdom’s rule forever. I’ll be a father to him, and he’ll be a son to me. I will never remove my gracious love from him as I did from the one who preceded you. I will set him over my house and my kingdom forever; his throne will always be there, rock solid.”
15 Nathan gave David a complete and accurate report of everything he heard and saw in the vision.
16-27 King David went in, took his place before God, and prayed:
Who am I, my Master God, and what is my family, that you have brought me to this place in life? But that’s nothing compared to what’s coming, for you’ve also spoken of my family far into the future, given me a glimpse into tomorrow and looked on me, Master God, as a Somebody. What’s left for David to say to this—to your honoring your servant, even though you know me, just as I am? O God, out of the goodness of your heart, you’ve taken your servant to do this great thing and put your great work on display. There’s none like you, God, no God but you, nothing to compare with what we’ve heard with our own ears. And who is like your people, like Israel, a nation unique on earth, whom God set out to redeem as his own people (and became most famous for it), performing great and fearsome acts, throwing out nations and their gods left and right as you saved your people from Egypt? You established for yourself a people—your very own Israel!—your people forever. And you, God, became their God.
So now, great God, this word that you have spoken to me and my family, guarantee it forever! Do exactly what you’ve promised! Then your reputation will be confirmed and flourish always as people exclaim, “The God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God over Israel, is Israel’s God!” And the house of your servant David will remain rock solid under your watchful presence. You, my God, have told me plainly, “I will build you a house.” That’s how I was able to find the courage to pray this prayer to you. God, being the God you are, you have spoken all these wonderful words to me. As if that weren’t enough, you’ve blessed my family so that it will continue in your presence always. Because you have blessed it, God, it’s really blessed—blessed for good!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, January 11, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Matthew 2:1–12
The Magi Visit the Messiah
2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea,z during the time of King Herod,a Magia from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?b We saw his starc when it rose and have come to worship him.”
3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehemd in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
6 “ ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’b”e
7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.f Then they opened their treasures and presented him with giftsg of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warnedh in a dreami not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
Insight
Herod apparently knew that the prophecies about the Messiah must be true. That’s why he asked the “chief priests and teachers of the law” to tell him where the Messiah would be born (Matthew 2:4–6). Yet, having learned what the Scriptures prophesied, Herod tried to thwart that prophecy by killing the baby boys in Bethlehem. By: Tim Gustafson
The Only King
They bowed down and worshiped him. Matthew 2:11
As five-year-old Eldon listened to the pastor talk about Jesus leaving heaven and coming to earth, he gasped when the pastor thanked Him in prayer for dying for our sins. “Oh, no! He died?” the boy said in surprise.
From the start of Christ’s life on earth, there were people who wanted Him dead. Wise men came to Jerusalem during the reign of King Herod inquiring, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him” (Matthew 2:2). When the king heard this, he became fearful of one day losing his position to Jesus. So he sent soldiers to kill all the boys two years old and younger around Bethlehem. But God protected His Son and sent an angel to warn His parents to leave the area. They fled, and He was saved (vv. 13–18).
When Jesus completed His ministry, He was crucified for the sins of the world. The sign placed above His cross, though meant in mockery, read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews” (27:37). Yet three days later He rose in victory from the grave. After ascending to heaven, He sat down on the throne as King of kings and Lord of lords (Philippians 2:8–11).
The King died for our sins—yours, mine, and Eldon’s. Let’s allow Him to rule in our hearts. By: Anne Cetas
Reflect & Pray
What does it mean for you to have Jesus as your King? Are there areas of your life where He’s not?
Jesus, thank You for willingly dying for our sins and offering forgiveness. Teach us to submit to Your rule.
To learn more about Christ’s life, visit christianuniversity.org/tgs.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, January 11, 2020
What My Obedience to God Costs Other People
As they led Him away, they laid hold of a certain man, Simon…, and on him they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus. —Luke 23:26
If we obey God, it is going to cost other people more than it costs us, and that is where the pain begins. If we are in love with our Lord, obedience does not cost us anything— it is a delight. But to those who do not love Him, our obedience does cost a great deal. If we obey God, it will mean that other people’s plans are upset. They will ridicule us as if to say, “You call this Christianity?” We could prevent the suffering, but not if we are obedient to God. We must let the cost be paid.
When our obedience begins to cost others, our human pride entrenches itself and we say, “I will never accept anything from anyone.” But we must, or disobey God. We have no right to think that the type of relationships we have with others should be any different from those the Lord Himself had (see Luke 8:1-3).
A lack of progress in our spiritual life results when we try to bear all the costs ourselves. And actually, we cannot. Because we are so involved in the universal purposes of God, others are immediately affected by our obedience to Him. Will we remain faithful in our obedience to God and be willing to suffer the humiliation of refusing to be independent? Or will we do just the opposite and say, “I will not cause other people to suffer”? We can disobey God if we choose, and it will bring immediate relief to the situation, but it will grieve our Lord. If, however, we obey God, He will care for those who have suffered the consequences of our obedience. We must simply obey and leave all the consequences with Him.
Beware of the inclination to dictate to God what consequences you would allow as a condition of your obedience to Him.
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
Friday, January 10, 2020
1 Corinthians 12, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: THE BREAD OF LIFE
Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again” (John 6:35).
You know, the grain-to-bread process is a demanding one. Bread is the end result of planting, harvesting, and heating. Jesus endured an identical process. He was born into this world. And then He was cut down, bruised, and beaten on the threshing floor of Calvary. He passed through the fire of God’s wrath, for our sake. Jesus “suffered because of others’ sins … He went through it all— was put to death and then made alive— to bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18 MSG).
Bread of Life? Jesus lived up to the title. But you know, an unopened loaf does a person no good. Have you received the bread? Have you received God’s forgiveness?
1 Corinthians 12
What I want to talk about now is the various ways God’s Spirit gets worked into our lives. This is complex and often misunderstood, but I want you to be informed and knowledgeable. Remember how you were when you didn’t know God, led from one phony god to another, never knowing what you were doing, just doing it because everybody else did it? It’s different in this life. God wants us to use our intelligence, to seek to understand as well as we can. For instance, by using your heads, you know perfectly well that the Spirit of God would never prompt anyone to say “Jesus be damned!” Nor would anyone be inclined to say “Jesus is Master!” without the insight of the Holy Spirit.
4-11 God’s various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful:
wise counsel
clear understanding
simple trust
healing the sick
miraculous acts
proclamation
distinguishing between spirits
tongues
interpretation of tongues.
All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when.
12-13 You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you’re still one body. It’s exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.
14-18 I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn’t just a single part blown up into something huge. It’s all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, “I’m not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don’t belong to this body,” would that make it so? If Ear said, “I’m not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don’t deserve a place on the head,” would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.
19-24 But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn’t be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, “Get lost; I don’t need you”? Or, Head telling Foot, “You’re fired; your job has been phased out”? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the “lower” the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it’s a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn’t you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?
25-26 The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.
27-31 You are Christ’s body—that’s who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your “part” mean anything. You’re familiar with some of the parts that God has formed in his church, which is his “body”:
apostles
prophets
teachers
miracle workers
healers
helpers
organizers
those who pray in tongues.
But it’s obvious by now, isn’t it, that Christ’s church is a complete Body and not a gigantic, unidimensional Part? It’s not all Apostle, not all Prophet, not all Miracle Worker, not all Healer, not all Prayer in Tongues, not all Interpreter of Tongues. And yet some of you keep competing for so-called “important” parts.
But now I want to lay out a far better way for you.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, January 10, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
2 Timothy 1:6–14
Appeal for Loyalty to Paul and the Gospel
6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.n 7 For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid,o but gives us power,p love and self-discipline. 8 So do not be ashamedq of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner.r Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel,s by the power of God. 9 He has savedt us and calledu us to a holy life—not because of anything we have donev but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, 10 but it has now been revealedw through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus,x who has destroyed deathy and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 11 And of this gospelz I was appointeda a herald and an apostle and a teacher.b 12 That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame,c because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guardd what I have entrusted to him until that day.e
13 What you heard from me,f keepg as the patternh of sound teaching,i with faith and love in Christ Jesus.j 14 Guardk the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.l
Insight
Paul’s second letter to Timothy gives us a chance to reflect on the last recorded words of a battle-scarred apostle. Abandoned by fellow believers in Jesus and imprisoned in Rome (2 Timothy 1:15–18), Paul urges a young man he loved like a son (v. 2) to remain strong in the face of looming opposition and hardship (v. 8). In the process, he reminds Timothy of the commissioning ceremony by which he and other church leaders (v. 6; 1 Timothy 4:14) had recognized Timothy’s readiness to join them in leading others and suffering for the gospel (2 Timothy 1:8–14). By: Mart DeHaan
Here Be Dragons?
The Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7
Legend has it that at the edges of medieval maps, marking the boundaries of the world the maps’ creators knew at the time, there’d be inscribed the words “Here be dragons”—often alongside vivid illustrations of the terrifying beasts supposedly lurking there.
There’s not much evidence medieval cartographers actually wrote these words, but I like to think they could have. Maybe because “here be dragons” sounds like something I might’ve written at the time—a grim warning that even if I didn’t know exactly what would happen if I ventured into the great unknown, it likely wouldn’t be good!
But there’s one glaring problem with my preferred policy of self-protection and risk-aversion: it’s the opposite of the courage to which I’m called as a believer in Jesus (2 Timothy 1:7).
One might even say I’m misguided about what’s really dangerous. As Paul explained, in a broken world bravely following Christ will sometimes be painful (v. 8). But as those brought from death to life and entrusted with the Spirit’s life flowing in and through us (vv. 9–10,14), how could we not?
When God gives us a gift this staggering, to fearfully shrink back would be the real tragedy—far worse than anything we might face when we follow Christ’s leading into uncharted territory (vv. 6–8, 12). He can be trusted with our hearts and our future (v. 12). By: Monica La Rose
Reflect & Pray
Is there a particularly debilitating fear God may be calling you to confront? How might the support and love of other believers encourage you as you walk through your fears?
Loving God, thank You for the new life You’ve given us, for freedom from all that would cripple us in fear and shame. Help us to find peace in You.
For further study, read Hope: Choosing Faith Instead of Fear at discoveryseries.org/q0733.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, January 10, 2020
The Opened Sight
I now send you, to open their eyes…that they may receive forgiveness of sins… —Acts 26:17-18
This verse is the greatest example of the true essence of the message of a disciple of Jesus Christ in all of the New Testament.
God’s first sovereign work of grace is summed up in the words, “…that they may receive forgiveness of sins….” When a person fails in his personal Christian life, it is usually because he has never received anything. The only sign that a person is saved is that he has received something from Jesus Christ. Our job as workers for God is to open people’s eyes so that they may turn themselves from darkness to light. But that is not salvation; it is conversion— only the effort of an awakened human being. I do not think it is too broad a statement to say that the majority of so-called Christians are like this. Their eyes are open, but they have received nothing. Conversion is not regeneration. This is a neglected fact in our preaching today. When a person is born again, he knows that it is because he has received something as a gift from Almighty God and not because of his own decision. People may make vows and promises, and may be determined to follow through, but none of this is salvation. Salvation means that we are brought to the place where we are able to receive something from God on the authority of Jesus Christ, namely, forgiveness of sins.
This is followed by God’s second mighty work of grace: “…an inheritance among those who are sanctified….” In sanctification, the one who has been born again deliberately gives up his right to himself to Jesus Christ, and identifies himself entirely with God’s ministry to others.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Am I getting nobler, better, more helpful, more humble, as I get older? Am I exhibiting the life that men take knowledge of as having been with Jesus, or am I getting more self-assertive, more deliberately determined to have my own way? It is a great thing to tell yourself the truth. The Place of Help, 1005 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, January 10, 2020
No Business Re-creating - #8610
Aunt Betty's wedding ring had been in the family for three generations, and it was passed down to my wife. There's probably no piece of jewelry that she treasured more than this one. But she couldn't wear it because Aunt Betty's ring size was a lot larger than my wife's little fingers. So Karen identified a jeweler whose craftsmanship she trusted and she entrusted this heirloom to him to be downsized. To be honest, she was a little nervous leaving it with anyone, but she did commit it to this jeweler. When he called that the ring was ready, she could hardly wait to see what he had done with it. Well, the diamonds were intact, the ring looked the same, but it fit her perfectly. He didn't make it into a necklace or a pendant. He didn't change the setting of the stones. Of course not. He took what was entrusted to him and just made it better.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Business Re-creating."
A jeweler shouldn't try to re-create a piece of jewelry into something else. Not when the one who trusted it to him just wanted him to enhance what it already was. We understand that about jewelry, but sometimes we don't seem to understand that about the child God has entrusted to us! God gave them to us to enhance what He made them to be. Sometimes we keep trying to make them into something else - what we want them to be!
The problem is a lot of parents didn't get the child they wanted. You wanted an athlete and you got a scholar, you wanted a musician and you got a mechanic, you wanted a quiet one and you got a loud one, you wanted a loud one and you got a quiet one. The list just goes on and on. So maybe you didn't get the child you wanted, but you got the one God wanted!
You got what is described in our word for today from the Word of God in Ephesians 2:10. In fact, you could put the name of your child, and each of your children, right in this verse. It says, "We are God's workmanship" If you'd like, put the name of a child of yours right there at the beginning, __________ is "God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" - or for "___________ to do."
Your business is to step back and recognize the unique person God made when He made your son or when He made your daughter with all their personal strengths, their great qualities, and with all the limitations and weaknesses He gave them, too. Then your job is to hold up a mirror regularly for them and let them see the incredible person God made when He made them. Affirm who God made them to be, praise them, compliment them even when you need to correct them. Do it in the context of affirming who they are.
A mom came to me once, and she was concerned about the offbeat sense of humor her eight-year-old son has. (That could have been my Mom.) Actually, she asked me if I was like that at that age. I'm still not sure what that was all about, but this boy seems like an anomaly in a family that's otherwise pretty serious. But I encouraged her to fan the flame of his sense of humor. It's something God can use mightily to open doors and hearts her son's whole life.
Our son used to frustrate us when he'd come to us with a whole itinerary he had planned out meticulously for him and his friends, but only asking us after everything was already set up. We needed to correct that a little, but actually, you know what? Looking back, I'm glad we didn't put out the flame of a budding planner. God's using him as a strategist and a planner mightily now. Same
abilities, but he's using them in a trailblazing ministry way!
So remember, God didn't trust the treasure of that child to you to reshape him into what you want him or her to be. God gave you that child for you to develop and enhance the person God made them to be. Don't try to re-create the workmanship that God has created!
Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again” (John 6:35).
You know, the grain-to-bread process is a demanding one. Bread is the end result of planting, harvesting, and heating. Jesus endured an identical process. He was born into this world. And then He was cut down, bruised, and beaten on the threshing floor of Calvary. He passed through the fire of God’s wrath, for our sake. Jesus “suffered because of others’ sins … He went through it all— was put to death and then made alive— to bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18 MSG).
Bread of Life? Jesus lived up to the title. But you know, an unopened loaf does a person no good. Have you received the bread? Have you received God’s forgiveness?
1 Corinthians 12
What I want to talk about now is the various ways God’s Spirit gets worked into our lives. This is complex and often misunderstood, but I want you to be informed and knowledgeable. Remember how you were when you didn’t know God, led from one phony god to another, never knowing what you were doing, just doing it because everybody else did it? It’s different in this life. God wants us to use our intelligence, to seek to understand as well as we can. For instance, by using your heads, you know perfectly well that the Spirit of God would never prompt anyone to say “Jesus be damned!” Nor would anyone be inclined to say “Jesus is Master!” without the insight of the Holy Spirit.
4-11 God’s various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful:
wise counsel
clear understanding
simple trust
healing the sick
miraculous acts
proclamation
distinguishing between spirits
tongues
interpretation of tongues.
All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when.
12-13 You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you’re still one body. It’s exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.
14-18 I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn’t just a single part blown up into something huge. It’s all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, “I’m not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don’t belong to this body,” would that make it so? If Ear said, “I’m not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don’t deserve a place on the head,” would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.
19-24 But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn’t be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, “Get lost; I don’t need you”? Or, Head telling Foot, “You’re fired; your job has been phased out”? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the “lower” the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it’s a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn’t you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?
25-26 The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.
27-31 You are Christ’s body—that’s who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your “part” mean anything. You’re familiar with some of the parts that God has formed in his church, which is his “body”:
apostles
prophets
teachers
miracle workers
healers
helpers
organizers
those who pray in tongues.
But it’s obvious by now, isn’t it, that Christ’s church is a complete Body and not a gigantic, unidimensional Part? It’s not all Apostle, not all Prophet, not all Miracle Worker, not all Healer, not all Prayer in Tongues, not all Interpreter of Tongues. And yet some of you keep competing for so-called “important” parts.
But now I want to lay out a far better way for you.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, January 10, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
2 Timothy 1:6–14
Appeal for Loyalty to Paul and the Gospel
6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.n 7 For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid,o but gives us power,p love and self-discipline. 8 So do not be ashamedq of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner.r Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel,s by the power of God. 9 He has savedt us and calledu us to a holy life—not because of anything we have donev but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, 10 but it has now been revealedw through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus,x who has destroyed deathy and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 11 And of this gospelz I was appointeda a herald and an apostle and a teacher.b 12 That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame,c because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guardd what I have entrusted to him until that day.e
13 What you heard from me,f keepg as the patternh of sound teaching,i with faith and love in Christ Jesus.j 14 Guardk the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.l
Insight
Paul’s second letter to Timothy gives us a chance to reflect on the last recorded words of a battle-scarred apostle. Abandoned by fellow believers in Jesus and imprisoned in Rome (2 Timothy 1:15–18), Paul urges a young man he loved like a son (v. 2) to remain strong in the face of looming opposition and hardship (v. 8). In the process, he reminds Timothy of the commissioning ceremony by which he and other church leaders (v. 6; 1 Timothy 4:14) had recognized Timothy’s readiness to join them in leading others and suffering for the gospel (2 Timothy 1:8–14). By: Mart DeHaan
Here Be Dragons?
The Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7
Legend has it that at the edges of medieval maps, marking the boundaries of the world the maps’ creators knew at the time, there’d be inscribed the words “Here be dragons”—often alongside vivid illustrations of the terrifying beasts supposedly lurking there.
There’s not much evidence medieval cartographers actually wrote these words, but I like to think they could have. Maybe because “here be dragons” sounds like something I might’ve written at the time—a grim warning that even if I didn’t know exactly what would happen if I ventured into the great unknown, it likely wouldn’t be good!
But there’s one glaring problem with my preferred policy of self-protection and risk-aversion: it’s the opposite of the courage to which I’m called as a believer in Jesus (2 Timothy 1:7).
One might even say I’m misguided about what’s really dangerous. As Paul explained, in a broken world bravely following Christ will sometimes be painful (v. 8). But as those brought from death to life and entrusted with the Spirit’s life flowing in and through us (vv. 9–10,14), how could we not?
When God gives us a gift this staggering, to fearfully shrink back would be the real tragedy—far worse than anything we might face when we follow Christ’s leading into uncharted territory (vv. 6–8, 12). He can be trusted with our hearts and our future (v. 12). By: Monica La Rose
Reflect & Pray
Is there a particularly debilitating fear God may be calling you to confront? How might the support and love of other believers encourage you as you walk through your fears?
Loving God, thank You for the new life You’ve given us, for freedom from all that would cripple us in fear and shame. Help us to find peace in You.
For further study, read Hope: Choosing Faith Instead of Fear at discoveryseries.org/q0733.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, January 10, 2020
The Opened Sight
I now send you, to open their eyes…that they may receive forgiveness of sins… —Acts 26:17-18
This verse is the greatest example of the true essence of the message of a disciple of Jesus Christ in all of the New Testament.
God’s first sovereign work of grace is summed up in the words, “…that they may receive forgiveness of sins….” When a person fails in his personal Christian life, it is usually because he has never received anything. The only sign that a person is saved is that he has received something from Jesus Christ. Our job as workers for God is to open people’s eyes so that they may turn themselves from darkness to light. But that is not salvation; it is conversion— only the effort of an awakened human being. I do not think it is too broad a statement to say that the majority of so-called Christians are like this. Their eyes are open, but they have received nothing. Conversion is not regeneration. This is a neglected fact in our preaching today. When a person is born again, he knows that it is because he has received something as a gift from Almighty God and not because of his own decision. People may make vows and promises, and may be determined to follow through, but none of this is salvation. Salvation means that we are brought to the place where we are able to receive something from God on the authority of Jesus Christ, namely, forgiveness of sins.
This is followed by God’s second mighty work of grace: “…an inheritance among those who are sanctified….” In sanctification, the one who has been born again deliberately gives up his right to himself to Jesus Christ, and identifies himself entirely with God’s ministry to others.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Am I getting nobler, better, more helpful, more humble, as I get older? Am I exhibiting the life that men take knowledge of as having been with Jesus, or am I getting more self-assertive, more deliberately determined to have my own way? It is a great thing to tell yourself the truth. The Place of Help, 1005 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, January 10, 2020
No Business Re-creating - #8610
Aunt Betty's wedding ring had been in the family for three generations, and it was passed down to my wife. There's probably no piece of jewelry that she treasured more than this one. But she couldn't wear it because Aunt Betty's ring size was a lot larger than my wife's little fingers. So Karen identified a jeweler whose craftsmanship she trusted and she entrusted this heirloom to him to be downsized. To be honest, she was a little nervous leaving it with anyone, but she did commit it to this jeweler. When he called that the ring was ready, she could hardly wait to see what he had done with it. Well, the diamonds were intact, the ring looked the same, but it fit her perfectly. He didn't make it into a necklace or a pendant. He didn't change the setting of the stones. Of course not. He took what was entrusted to him and just made it better.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Business Re-creating."
A jeweler shouldn't try to re-create a piece of jewelry into something else. Not when the one who trusted it to him just wanted him to enhance what it already was. We understand that about jewelry, but sometimes we don't seem to understand that about the child God has entrusted to us! God gave them to us to enhance what He made them to be. Sometimes we keep trying to make them into something else - what we want them to be!
The problem is a lot of parents didn't get the child they wanted. You wanted an athlete and you got a scholar, you wanted a musician and you got a mechanic, you wanted a quiet one and you got a loud one, you wanted a loud one and you got a quiet one. The list just goes on and on. So maybe you didn't get the child you wanted, but you got the one God wanted!
You got what is described in our word for today from the Word of God in Ephesians 2:10. In fact, you could put the name of your child, and each of your children, right in this verse. It says, "We are God's workmanship" If you'd like, put the name of a child of yours right there at the beginning, __________ is "God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" - or for "___________ to do."
Your business is to step back and recognize the unique person God made when He made your son or when He made your daughter with all their personal strengths, their great qualities, and with all the limitations and weaknesses He gave them, too. Then your job is to hold up a mirror regularly for them and let them see the incredible person God made when He made them. Affirm who God made them to be, praise them, compliment them even when you need to correct them. Do it in the context of affirming who they are.
A mom came to me once, and she was concerned about the offbeat sense of humor her eight-year-old son has. (That could have been my Mom.) Actually, she asked me if I was like that at that age. I'm still not sure what that was all about, but this boy seems like an anomaly in a family that's otherwise pretty serious. But I encouraged her to fan the flame of his sense of humor. It's something God can use mightily to open doors and hearts her son's whole life.
Our son used to frustrate us when he'd come to us with a whole itinerary he had planned out meticulously for him and his friends, but only asking us after everything was already set up. We needed to correct that a little, but actually, you know what? Looking back, I'm glad we didn't put out the flame of a budding planner. God's using him as a strategist and a planner mightily now. Same
abilities, but he's using them in a trailblazing ministry way!
So remember, God didn't trust the treasure of that child to you to reshape him into what you want him or her to be. God gave you that child for you to develop and enhance the person God made them to be. Don't try to re-create the workmanship that God has created!
Thursday, January 9, 2020
Psalm 88, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: THE WORD WAS OUT
From Acts 2 we read: “Suddenly, a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from Heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them where filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them” (vs. 2-4).
What a moment on the Day of Pentecost. Whatever could this mean? Peter responded to that question with a trio of God-given endorsements of Christ. He talked about when Jesus healed bodies and called life out of Lazarus’ dead body. Then he deemed Christ worthy to serve as a sacrifice for humankind. But, then came the Resurrection— to be the beginning of life and the end of the grave. The word was out that the Word was out!
Psalm 88
A Korah Prayer of Heman
God, you’re my last chance of the day.
I spend the night on my knees before you.
Put me on your salvation agenda;
take notes on the trouble I’m in.
I’ve had my fill of trouble;
I’m camped on the edge of hell.
I’m written off as a lost cause,
one more statistic, a hopeless case.
Abandoned as already dead,
one more body in a stack of corpses,
And not so much as a gravestone—
I’m a black hole in oblivion.
You’ve dropped me into a bottomless pit,
sunk me in a pitch-black abyss.
I’m battered senseless by your rage,
relentlessly pounded by your waves of anger.
You turned my friends against me,
made me horrible to them.
I’m caught in a maze and can’t find my way out,
blinded by tears of pain and frustration.
9-12 I call to you, God; all day I call.
I wring my hands, I plead for help.
Are the dead a live audience for your miracles?
Do ghosts ever join the choirs that praise you?
Does your love make any difference in a graveyard?
Is your faithful presence noticed in the corridors of hell?
Are your marvelous wonders ever seen in the dark,
your righteous ways noticed in the Land of No Memory?
13-18 I’m standing my ground, God, shouting for help,
at my prayers every morning, on my knees each daybreak.
Why, God, do you turn a deaf ear?
Why do you make yourself scarce?
For as long as I remember I’ve been hurting;
I’ve taken the worst you can hand out, and I’ve had it.
Your wildfire anger has blazed through my life;
I’m bleeding, black-and-blue.
You’ve attacked me fiercely from every side,
raining down blows till I’m nearly dead.
You made lover and neighbor alike dump me;
the only friend I have left is Darkness.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, January 09, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight: Matthew 7:24–27
The Wise and Foolish Builders
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practicei is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
Insight
Jesus concluded His Sermon on the Mount with the story of the wise and foolish builders (Matthew 7:24–27) for good reason. He’s telling His hearers that regardless of how they try to live up to the instructions He’s just given them, their efforts are in vain if they build on the wrong foundation. The right foundation is Jesus Himself. This helps us greatly as we consider the entire sermon. Christ had just told the people some remarkable things: “Blessed are those who mourn” (5:4); “Blessed are you when people . . . persecute you” (v. 11); “Love your enemies” (v. 44); “Do not worry” (6:25). Now Jesus cautions the people against thinking they can achieve this by their own efforts. Jesus accomplished what we can’t. He fulfilled both the Law and the Old Testament prophecies about Himself (5:17). Anything we do must be constructed on the bedrock of faith in Him. By: Tim Gustafson
The Leaning Tower
Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. Matthew 7:24
You’ve probably heard of the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy, but have you heard of the leaning tower of San Francisco? It’s called the Millennium Tower. Built in 2008, this fifty-eight-story skyscraper stands proudly—but slightly crookedly—in downtown San Francisco.
The problem? Its engineers didn’t dig a deep enough foundation. So now they’re being forced to retrofit the foundation with repairs that may cost more than the entire tower did when it was originally built—a fix that some believe is necessary to keep it from collapsing during an earthquake.
The painful lesson here? Foundations matter. When your foundation isn’t solid, catastrophe could ensue. Jesus taught something similar near the end of His Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 7:24–27, He contrasts two builders, one who built on a rock, another on sand. When a storm inevitably came, only the house with a solid foundation was left standing.
What does this mean for us? Jesus clearly states that our lives must be built through obedience and trust upon Him (v. 24). When we rest in Him, our lives can find solid ground through God’s power and unending grace.
Christ doesn’t promise us that we’ll never face storms. But He does say that when He’s our rock, those storms and torrents will never wash away our faith-fortified foundation in Him. By: Adam R. Holz
Reflect & Pray
How has your faith helped you to weather the worst storms you’ve faced? What are some practical ways you can strengthen your faith each day?
Father, storms are inevitable in life. Help us to choose to dwell daily in Scripture and strengthen our strong foundation in You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, January 09, 2020
Prayerful Inner-Searching
May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless… —1 Thessalonians 5:23
“Your whole spirit….” The great, mysterious work of the Holy Spirit is in the deep recesses of our being which we cannot reach. Read Psalm 139. The psalmist implies— “O Lord, You are the God of the early mornings, the God of the late nights, the God of the mountain peaks, and the God of the sea. But, my God, my soul has horizons further away than those of early mornings, deeper darkness than the nights of earth, higher peaks than any mountain peaks, greater depths than any sea in nature. You who are the God of all these, be my God. I cannot reach to the heights or to the depths; there are motives I cannot discover, dreams I cannot realize. My God, search me.”
Do we believe that God can fortify and protect our thought processes far beyond where we can go? “…the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). If this verse means cleansing only on our conscious level, may God have mercy on us. The man who has been dulled by sin will say that he is not even conscious of it. But the cleansing from sin we experience will reach to the heights and depths of our spirit if we will “walk in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:7). The same Spirit that fed the life of Jesus Christ will feed the life of our spirit. It is only when we are protected by God with the miraculous sacredness of the Holy Spirit that our spirit, soul, and body can be preserved in pure uprightness until the coming of Jesus-no longer condemned in God’s sight.
We should more frequently allow our minds to meditate on these great, massive truths of God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The great word of Jesus to His disciples is Abandon. When God has brought us into the relationship of disciples, we have to venture on His word; trust entirely to Him and watch that when He brings us to the venture, we take it.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, January 09, 2020
Help With Your Baggage - #8609
On some of my trips I can travel pretty light, but there have been some where I felt like a mule carrying the things I had to take. One trip I had to pack for three different seasons; professional settings, youth settings. Well, you get the idea. I was going to be gone for quite a while, of course, I had to basically take my office with me too. I had a lot of baggage! When I arrived, someone from the area met me at the gate and they said those magic words, "Let me help you with your bags." I did.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Help With Your Baggage."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 11:28. It's a wonderful invitation from the lips of Jesus Christ. It's the first Bible verse I ever remember a Sunday School teacher having me memorize. Here's what Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." That invitation is echoed in another place in the Bible; it's in 1 Peter 5:7. "Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you."
Now, we all have baggage, the emotional kind. In fact, maybe you're carrying a lot of pain right now. Maybe you've got some crippling issues from your past. Or some bad news you got recently or just an overload of stress. It could be you carry baggage from a divorce - it could be your own or maybe your parents' divorce, or some form of abuse or a bad relationship. Some of us are trying to carry the weight of a serious medical condition, a financial crisis, maybe a family issue.
My friend John had some very heavy baggage. One day in a doctor's office, he heard one of those words we dread - cancer - a deadly cancer. After the diagnosis, well, he was supposed to have been gone three or four times. He had ten operations in eight years, but when you would talk to John you just can't believe what he'd gone through. He was like joyful. He was positive. He was interested in how you're doing.
It's just hard to believe he could be carrying such heavy weight, yet seem so light. He was an encouragement to other patients. That's what they told him. So his doctor called him in one day and said "Can you visit some of my other patients? They need what you have." What did he have? He made that clear. He told me about others that he knows who are falling under the weight of cancer.
Then he just made this simple observation. He said, "They're trying to handle it without a Savior." Woah! That's the difference for John - the Savior difference - the Jesus difference. He could be the difference for you. Let's look at the baggage you're carrying. I wonder if John's words describe you, trying to handle it without a Savior.
See you were never meant to carry that pain or that burden alone. Jesus says, "Come to me. I want to carry it." He's a burden bearer. He knows your pain. He understands it because He's been here. He's experienced everything from loneliness, to betrayal, to torture, to dying; and Jesus has dealt with the deadliest baggage of all that we carry; the sin in our lives. Because that will one day keep us out of heaven.
But the Bible says, "He carried our sins in His own body on the tree." That tree was His cross. And the day you tell Him that you're trusting Him to be your own Savior from your own sin, that's the last day you will ever carry your burden alone. The strong arms of Jesus are reaching out to you right now, and He says, "Let me help you with your baggage. I can handle it. I already bore the weight of all your sins on my cross. The rest is easy." The promise of Jesus: "I will give you rest." You ready for that?
You begin your relationship with Him when you say, "Jesus, I'm yours." I hope you'll do that today. Our website is there to help you have the information that will help you get this settled today, so you will never do another day face another challenge without a Savior.
If your soul's really tired today, would you let Jesus give you what only He can - rest and peace at last.
From Acts 2 we read: “Suddenly, a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from Heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them where filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them” (vs. 2-4).
What a moment on the Day of Pentecost. Whatever could this mean? Peter responded to that question with a trio of God-given endorsements of Christ. He talked about when Jesus healed bodies and called life out of Lazarus’ dead body. Then he deemed Christ worthy to serve as a sacrifice for humankind. But, then came the Resurrection— to be the beginning of life and the end of the grave. The word was out that the Word was out!
Psalm 88
A Korah Prayer of Heman
God, you’re my last chance of the day.
I spend the night on my knees before you.
Put me on your salvation agenda;
take notes on the trouble I’m in.
I’ve had my fill of trouble;
I’m camped on the edge of hell.
I’m written off as a lost cause,
one more statistic, a hopeless case.
Abandoned as already dead,
one more body in a stack of corpses,
And not so much as a gravestone—
I’m a black hole in oblivion.
You’ve dropped me into a bottomless pit,
sunk me in a pitch-black abyss.
I’m battered senseless by your rage,
relentlessly pounded by your waves of anger.
You turned my friends against me,
made me horrible to them.
I’m caught in a maze and can’t find my way out,
blinded by tears of pain and frustration.
9-12 I call to you, God; all day I call.
I wring my hands, I plead for help.
Are the dead a live audience for your miracles?
Do ghosts ever join the choirs that praise you?
Does your love make any difference in a graveyard?
Is your faithful presence noticed in the corridors of hell?
Are your marvelous wonders ever seen in the dark,
your righteous ways noticed in the Land of No Memory?
13-18 I’m standing my ground, God, shouting for help,
at my prayers every morning, on my knees each daybreak.
Why, God, do you turn a deaf ear?
Why do you make yourself scarce?
For as long as I remember I’ve been hurting;
I’ve taken the worst you can hand out, and I’ve had it.
Your wildfire anger has blazed through my life;
I’m bleeding, black-and-blue.
You’ve attacked me fiercely from every side,
raining down blows till I’m nearly dead.
You made lover and neighbor alike dump me;
the only friend I have left is Darkness.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, January 09, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight: Matthew 7:24–27
The Wise and Foolish Builders
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practicei is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
Insight
Jesus concluded His Sermon on the Mount with the story of the wise and foolish builders (Matthew 7:24–27) for good reason. He’s telling His hearers that regardless of how they try to live up to the instructions He’s just given them, their efforts are in vain if they build on the wrong foundation. The right foundation is Jesus Himself. This helps us greatly as we consider the entire sermon. Christ had just told the people some remarkable things: “Blessed are those who mourn” (5:4); “Blessed are you when people . . . persecute you” (v. 11); “Love your enemies” (v. 44); “Do not worry” (6:25). Now Jesus cautions the people against thinking they can achieve this by their own efforts. Jesus accomplished what we can’t. He fulfilled both the Law and the Old Testament prophecies about Himself (5:17). Anything we do must be constructed on the bedrock of faith in Him. By: Tim Gustafson
The Leaning Tower
Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. Matthew 7:24
You’ve probably heard of the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy, but have you heard of the leaning tower of San Francisco? It’s called the Millennium Tower. Built in 2008, this fifty-eight-story skyscraper stands proudly—but slightly crookedly—in downtown San Francisco.
The problem? Its engineers didn’t dig a deep enough foundation. So now they’re being forced to retrofit the foundation with repairs that may cost more than the entire tower did when it was originally built—a fix that some believe is necessary to keep it from collapsing during an earthquake.
The painful lesson here? Foundations matter. When your foundation isn’t solid, catastrophe could ensue. Jesus taught something similar near the end of His Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 7:24–27, He contrasts two builders, one who built on a rock, another on sand. When a storm inevitably came, only the house with a solid foundation was left standing.
What does this mean for us? Jesus clearly states that our lives must be built through obedience and trust upon Him (v. 24). When we rest in Him, our lives can find solid ground through God’s power and unending grace.
Christ doesn’t promise us that we’ll never face storms. But He does say that when He’s our rock, those storms and torrents will never wash away our faith-fortified foundation in Him. By: Adam R. Holz
Reflect & Pray
How has your faith helped you to weather the worst storms you’ve faced? What are some practical ways you can strengthen your faith each day?
Father, storms are inevitable in life. Help us to choose to dwell daily in Scripture and strengthen our strong foundation in You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, January 09, 2020
Prayerful Inner-Searching
May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless… —1 Thessalonians 5:23
“Your whole spirit….” The great, mysterious work of the Holy Spirit is in the deep recesses of our being which we cannot reach. Read Psalm 139. The psalmist implies— “O Lord, You are the God of the early mornings, the God of the late nights, the God of the mountain peaks, and the God of the sea. But, my God, my soul has horizons further away than those of early mornings, deeper darkness than the nights of earth, higher peaks than any mountain peaks, greater depths than any sea in nature. You who are the God of all these, be my God. I cannot reach to the heights or to the depths; there are motives I cannot discover, dreams I cannot realize. My God, search me.”
Do we believe that God can fortify and protect our thought processes far beyond where we can go? “…the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). If this verse means cleansing only on our conscious level, may God have mercy on us. The man who has been dulled by sin will say that he is not even conscious of it. But the cleansing from sin we experience will reach to the heights and depths of our spirit if we will “walk in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:7). The same Spirit that fed the life of Jesus Christ will feed the life of our spirit. It is only when we are protected by God with the miraculous sacredness of the Holy Spirit that our spirit, soul, and body can be preserved in pure uprightness until the coming of Jesus-no longer condemned in God’s sight.
We should more frequently allow our minds to meditate on these great, massive truths of God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The great word of Jesus to His disciples is Abandon. When God has brought us into the relationship of disciples, we have to venture on His word; trust entirely to Him and watch that when He brings us to the venture, we take it.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, January 09, 2020
Help With Your Baggage - #8609
On some of my trips I can travel pretty light, but there have been some where I felt like a mule carrying the things I had to take. One trip I had to pack for three different seasons; professional settings, youth settings. Well, you get the idea. I was going to be gone for quite a while, of course, I had to basically take my office with me too. I had a lot of baggage! When I arrived, someone from the area met me at the gate and they said those magic words, "Let me help you with your bags." I did.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Help With Your Baggage."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 11:28. It's a wonderful invitation from the lips of Jesus Christ. It's the first Bible verse I ever remember a Sunday School teacher having me memorize. Here's what Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." That invitation is echoed in another place in the Bible; it's in 1 Peter 5:7. "Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you."
Now, we all have baggage, the emotional kind. In fact, maybe you're carrying a lot of pain right now. Maybe you've got some crippling issues from your past. Or some bad news you got recently or just an overload of stress. It could be you carry baggage from a divorce - it could be your own or maybe your parents' divorce, or some form of abuse or a bad relationship. Some of us are trying to carry the weight of a serious medical condition, a financial crisis, maybe a family issue.
My friend John had some very heavy baggage. One day in a doctor's office, he heard one of those words we dread - cancer - a deadly cancer. After the diagnosis, well, he was supposed to have been gone three or four times. He had ten operations in eight years, but when you would talk to John you just can't believe what he'd gone through. He was like joyful. He was positive. He was interested in how you're doing.
It's just hard to believe he could be carrying such heavy weight, yet seem so light. He was an encouragement to other patients. That's what they told him. So his doctor called him in one day and said "Can you visit some of my other patients? They need what you have." What did he have? He made that clear. He told me about others that he knows who are falling under the weight of cancer.
Then he just made this simple observation. He said, "They're trying to handle it without a Savior." Woah! That's the difference for John - the Savior difference - the Jesus difference. He could be the difference for you. Let's look at the baggage you're carrying. I wonder if John's words describe you, trying to handle it without a Savior.
See you were never meant to carry that pain or that burden alone. Jesus says, "Come to me. I want to carry it." He's a burden bearer. He knows your pain. He understands it because He's been here. He's experienced everything from loneliness, to betrayal, to torture, to dying; and Jesus has dealt with the deadliest baggage of all that we carry; the sin in our lives. Because that will one day keep us out of heaven.
But the Bible says, "He carried our sins in His own body on the tree." That tree was His cross. And the day you tell Him that you're trusting Him to be your own Savior from your own sin, that's the last day you will ever carry your burden alone. The strong arms of Jesus are reaching out to you right now, and He says, "Let me help you with your baggage. I can handle it. I already bore the weight of all your sins on my cross. The rest is easy." The promise of Jesus: "I will give you rest." You ready for that?
You begin your relationship with Him when you say, "Jesus, I'm yours." I hope you'll do that today. Our website is there to help you have the information that will help you get this settled today, so you will never do another day face another challenge without a Savior.
If your soul's really tired today, would you let Jesus give you what only He can - rest and peace at last.
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