Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
November 14
Don’t Be Troubled
The person who trusts the LORD will be blessed.
Jeremiah 17:7 (NCV)
Just prior to his crucifixion, [Jesus] told his disciples that he would be leaving them. "Where I am going you cannot follow now, but you will follow later" (John 13:36).
Such a statement was bound to stir some questions. Peter spoke for the others and asked, "Lord, why can't I follow you now?" (v. 37).
See if Jesus' reply doesn't reflect the tenderness of a parent to a child: "Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust in me. There are many rooms in my Father's house; I would not tell you this if it were not true. I am going there to prepare a place for you....I will come back and take you to be with me so that you may be where I am going" (John 14:1-3).
Reduce the paragraph to a sentence and it might read: "You do the trusting and I'll do the taking."
Exodus 12
The Passover
1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, 2 "This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb [a] for his family, one for each household. 4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. 5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. 6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. 7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. 9 Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire—head, legs and inner parts. 10 Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. 11 This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD's Passover.
12 "On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.
14 "This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD -a lasting ordinance. 15 For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat—that is all you may do.
17 "Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. 18 In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. 19 For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is an alien or native-born. 20 Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread."
21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. Not one of you shall go out the door of his house until morning. 23 When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
24 "Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. 25 When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. 26 And when your children ask you, 'What does this ceremony mean to you?' 27 then tell them, 'It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.' " Then the people bowed down and worshiped. 28 The Israelites did just what the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron.
29 At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. 30 Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.
The Exodus
31 During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the LORD as you have requested. 32 Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me."
33 The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. "For otherwise," they said, "we will all die!" 34 So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing. 35 The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. 36 The LORD had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.
37 The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. 38 Many other people went up with them, as well as large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds. 39 With the dough they had brought from Egypt, they baked cakes of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves.
40 Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt [b] was 430 years. 41 At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the LORD's divisions left Egypt. 42 Because the LORD kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the LORD for the generations to come.
Passover Restrictions
43 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "These are the regulations for the Passover:
"No foreigner is to eat of it. 44 Any slave you have bought may eat of it after you have circumcised him, 45 but a temporary resident and a hired worker may not eat of it.
46 "It must be eaten inside one house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones. 47 The whole community of Israel must celebrate it.
48 "An alien living among you who wants to celebrate the LORD's Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat of it. 49 The same law applies to the native-born and to the alien living among you."
50 All the Israelites did just what the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron. 51 And on that very day the LORD brought the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.
Revelation 22:6-17
6The angel said to me, "These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place."
Jesus Is Coming
7"Behold, I am coming soon! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book."
8I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me. 9But he said to me, "Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers the prophets and of all who keep the words of this book. Worship God!"
10Then he told me, "Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, because the time is near. 11Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who does right continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy."
12"Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. 13I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
14"Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. 15Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
16"I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you[a] this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star."
17The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.
November 14, 2008
The Person Makes The Place
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READ: Revelation 22:6-17
God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. —Revelation 21:3-4
Engaged couples often spend hours poring over travel brochures and vacation Web sites looking for just the right honeymoon spot. They can hardly wait for their romantic getaway. But it’s not so much about the place; it’s about being with the person they love.
We get used to places no matter how glorious they are. But being with a person who loves us never gets old!
In Revelation, John paints a beautiful picture of what heaven will be like. But it’s not really about the place—it’s about the Person we’ll be with. The day is coming when Jesus will come to take us to be with Him in the place He has prepared for us. And the wonderful news is that He says: “Behold, I am coming quickly!” (22:7).
If you’re thinking, He may come back for others, but surely not for me, don’t miss verse 17: “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.” Anyone is welcome to join the wedding feast. All we have to do is believe in the One who died for us, Jesus Christ, the Lover of our souls.
Make no mistake, the place—heaven—will be incredible beyond our dreams. But our greatest joy will be the experience of being with Jesus forever! — Joe Stowell
He will take me to be with Him
In His happy Home above,
Where no sin or pain can enter,
And all is joy and love. —Anon.
The greatest aspect of heaven will be spending eternity with Jesus.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
November 14, 2008
Discovering Divine Design
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READ:
As for me, being on the way, the Lord led me . . . —Genesis 24:27
We should be so one with God that we don’t need to ask continually for guidance. Sanctification means that we are made the children of God. A child’s life is normally obedient, until he chooses disobedience. But as soon as he chooses to disobey, an inherent inner conflict is produced. On the spiritual level, inner conflict is the warning of the Spirit of God. When He warns us in this way, we must stop at once and be renewed in the spirit of our mind to discern God’s will (see Romans 12:2 ). If we are born again by the Spirit of God, our devotion to Him is hindered, or even stopped, by continually asking Him to guide us here and there. ". . . the Lord led me . . ." and on looking back we see the presence of an amazing design. If we are born of God we will see His guiding hand and give Him the credit.
We can all see God in exceptional things, but it requires the growth of spiritual discipline to see God in every detail. Never believe that the so-called random events of life are anything less than God’s appointed order. Be ready to discover His divine designs anywhere and everywhere.
Beware of being obsessed with consistency to your own convictions instead of being devoted to God. If you are a saint and say, "I will never do this or that," in all probability this will be exactly what God will require of you. There was never a more inconsistent being on this earth than our Lord, but He was never inconsistent with His Father. The important consistency in a saint is not to a principle but to the divine life. It is the divine life that continually makes more and more discoveries about the divine mind. It is easier to be an excessive fanatic than it is to be consistently faithful, because God causes an amazing humbling of our religious conceit when we are faithful to Him.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
A Donkey With a Cross - #5700 - November 14, 2008
Category: Your Mission
Friday, November 14, 2008
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Since we're living in the country these days, old city boy here is seeing a lot more farm animals and I'm learning a lot. There are even some donkeys nearby. It's kind of fun to hear their braying. You know, there's literally no other animal that sounds quite like a donkey. Now, one these is gray, and the other one is brown, but they both have the same marking on their back. It's one long dark line along their spine and then there's a shorter dark line across their shoulders. It actually makes a cross. One old farmer told my wife that all donkeys have that cross, and that they have it because a donkey carried Jesus to His birth and on Palm Sunday. I don't know the reason, but there's no doubt that many a donkey carries the cross on his back.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and want to have A Word With You today about "A Donkey With a Cross."
I have to tell you that I saw myself when I looked at those donkeys. No, I don't have donkey ears and I don't bray. But in a lot of ways, I am sort of a donkey who carries the cross of Jesus.
Jesus' great ambassador, Paul, knew that the message of the cross - the one that he carried everywhere he went - was all he really had to offer. In our word for today from the Word of God in Galatians 6:14, he simply says, "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Oh, Paul had a list of Christian accomplishments that would dwarf anything any of us could be proud of. But he knew who he was. In his own words, "the less than least of all God's people" (Ephesians 3:8). Then He said, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst" (1 Timothy 1:15).
Several years ago I was surprised at a large Christian event by the presentation of a wonderful award. In fact, I was almost in shock as I went up to accept the award. They wanted me to say something, and for once in my life, I did not know what I would say. And this verse, King James style, was all I could think of, "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." See, I'm nothing without the cross. Paul was nothing without the cross. You're nothing without the cross.
This isn't a matter of putting yourself down and insulting God by saying that He created someone worthless. We are "His workmanship" (Ephesians 2:10). But without the cross, we're stranded in an orbit away from the One who gave us our worth, and the death of Jesus on that brutal cross is the only way to connect with our Creator.
If you've drifted into promoting yourself these days, if you've been trying to get attention or recognition or advancement for yourself, how about going out of the self-promoting business? God has you here to promote Jesus - to promote His cross.
God doesn't need you or me, but when we pick up our cross to follow Jesus, He appoints us to His service. And He gives us a simple mission. In a sense, the one He's given those donkeys, "Carry My cross wherever you go!" Are you?
Your mission is to take as many people as you can by the hand and lead them up Skull Hill to the foot of Jesus' cross where you show them how much Jesus loves them. Anyone who knows you for very long should be guided by you to the cross. I just pray that you won't be ashamed of the cross of Jesus. Aren't you thankful He wasn't ashamed of you when He died for you on the cross?
Friday, November 14, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Exodus 5, daily reading and devotions
Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
November 13
Loving Forgetfulness
“I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
Jeremiah 31:34 (NKJV)
To love conditionally is against God’s nature. Just as it’s against your nature to eat trees and against mine to grow wings, it’s against God’s nature to remember forgiven sins.
You see, God is either the God of perfect grace…or he is not God. Grace forgets. Period. He who is perfect love cannot hold grudges. If he does, then he isn’t perfect love. And if he isn’t perfect love, you might as well put this book down and go fishing, because both of us are chasing fairy tales.
But I believe in his loving forgetfulness. And I believe he has a graciously terrible memory.
Exodus 5
Bricks Without Straw
1 Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert.' "
2 Pharaoh said, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go."
3 Then they said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword."
4 But the king of Egypt said, "Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!" 5 Then Pharaoh said, "Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working."
6 That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and foremen in charge of the people: 7 "You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. 8 But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don't reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.' 9 Make the work harder for the men so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies."
10 Then the slave drivers and the foremen went out and said to the people, "This is what Pharaoh says: 'I will not give you any more straw. 11 Go and get your own straw wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced at all.' " 12 So the people scattered all over Egypt to gather stubble to use for straw. 13 The slave drivers kept pressing them, saying, "Complete the work required of you for each day, just as when you had straw." 14 The Israelite foremen appointed by Pharaoh's slave drivers were beaten and were asked, "Why didn't you meet your quota of bricks yesterday or today, as before?"
15 Then the Israelite foremen went and appealed to Pharaoh: "Why have you treated your servants this way? 16 Your servants are given no straw, yet we are told, 'Make bricks!' Your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people."
17 Pharaoh said, "Lazy, that's what you are—lazy! That is why you keep saying, 'Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.' 18 Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks."
19 The Israelite foremen realized they were in trouble when they were told, "You are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you for each day." 20 When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, 21 and they said, "May the LORD look upon you and judge you! You have made us a stench to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us."
God Promises Deliverance
22 Moses returned to the LORD and said, "O Lord, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me? 23 Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble upon this people, and you have not rescued your people at all."
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Philippians 3
No Confidence in the Flesh
1Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.
2Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. 3For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4though I myself have reasons for such confidence.
If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.
7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
November 13, 2008
Whom Will You Trust?
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READ: Philippians 3:1-11
By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. —Ephesians 2:8
Ayn Rand, an American philosopher who died in 1982, gathered a sizable following who read her books and attended her lectures. An avid individualist, she had this to say: “Now I see the free face of god and I raise this god over all the earth, this god who men have sought since men came into being, the god who will grant them joy and peace and pride. This god, this one word, I.” When asked if she believed in God, she answered, “This god is myself, I.” Egotism—faith in oneself—that’s what this philosopher believed in.
The apostle Paul bore witness to a trust that is exactly the opposite of that misplaced self-confidence. He declared, “[We] worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh” (Phil. 3:3). He put his trust solely in Jesus Christ, who is God incarnate, the true God of love and mercy.
We read in the book of Ephesians, “By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (2:8).
Are we embracing the philosophy of egotism, which is really a confidence that will prove eternally self-destructive? Or have we, like Paul, embraced the self-sacrificing grace of Jesus Christ? — Vernon C. Grounds
By grace now I’m saved—Hallelujah!
Praise God, and through faith it’s been done;
Naught of myself, but believing
In the finished work of His Son. —Gladwin
We are saved not by what we do but by trusting what Christ has done.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
November 13, 2008
Faith or Experience?
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READ:
. . . the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me —Galatians 2:20
We should battle through our moods, feelings, and emotions into absolute devotion to the Lord Jesus. We must break out of our own little world of experience into abandoned devotion to Him. Think who the New Testament says Jesus Christ is, and then think of the despicable meagerness of the miserable faith we exhibit by saying, "I haven’t had this experience or that experience"! Think what faith in Jesus Christ claims and provides— He can present us faultless before the throne of God, inexpressibly pure, absolutely righteous, and profoundly justified. Stand in absolute adoring faith "in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God— and righteousness and sanctification and redemption . . ." ( 1 Corinthians 1:30 ). How dare we talk of making a sacrifice for the Son of God! We are saved from hell and total destruction, and then we talk about making sacrifices!
We must continually focus and firmly place our faith in Jesus Christ— not a "prayer meeting" Jesus Christ, or a "book" Jesus Christ, but the New Testament Jesus Christ, who is God Incarnate, and who ought to strike us dead at His feet. Our faith must be in the One from whom our salvation springs. Jesus Christ wants our absolute, unrestrained devotion to Himself. We can never experience Jesus Christ, or selfishly bind Him in the confines of our own hearts. Our faith must be built on strong determined confidence in Him.
It is because of our trusting in experience that we see the steadfast impatience of the Holy Spirit against unbelief. All of our fears are sinful, and we create our own fears by refusing to nourish ourselves in our faith. How can anyone who is identified with Jesus Christ suffer from doubt or fear! Our lives should be an absolute hymn of praise resulting from perfect, irrepressible, triumphant belief.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
A Little More Time To Harvest - #5699 - November 13, 2008
Category: Your Mission
Thursday, November 13, 2008
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There's a stretch of nights in the fall when the moon is absolutely incredible! It's usually in October. That's harvest time for farmers. And when it's full moon time, you can see this huge, brilliant, yellowish moon rising in the eastern sky. It just makes you stop and almost catch your breath. I think it was in the days before electricity that farmers started calling it a "harvest moon." With so much depending on the harvest and so little time to bring it in, every hour had to count. And the days never seemed quite long enough to get it all in. So a bright full moon was more than just a beautiful view...it meant something much more important. With that extra light, God was giving them a little more time to harvest!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Little More Time To Harvest."
It could be that you and I are living right now in the light of a spiritual harvest moon - to bring to Jesus some of the lives around us that He died to rescue. Maybe that's why He's giving you a little more time.
There's a powerful illustration of this in our word for today from the Word of God in Luke 13:6. "Then (Jesus) told this parable: 'A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?' 'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.'"
I wonder how many of our lives this parable is describing? Jesus comes looking for some fruit from a believer's life, especially in the form of some people you've introduced to Him. He finds none. Why should He leave us here any longer, just soaking up the nutrients in our spiritual soil? But the answer comes, "Give him/give her a little more time to make a difference." By virtue of the fact that you and I are still here, Jesus has decided to let us have at least a little more time to take some people to heaven with us.
I'll tell you, you feel it deeply when the time for you to bring someone home runs out - when harvest time is over. I remember my high school friend Cathy. We never dated; we were just really good friends. One morning, during my freshman year of college, I remember waking up to a news story that mentioned her name. The night before, a gunman had walked into the Student Union at the university that Cathy attended, pulled out a gun, and he shot her in cold blood. Suddenly, I was out of chances to tell Cathy about how she could go to heaven. We had talked about everything except Jesus! I had slept through the harvest, and time had run out.
That's why the Bible says that when it comes to talking about Jesus, "Make the most of every opportunity" (Colossians 4:4). This spiritual harvest business is urgent stuff. Harvest always is. You know the opportunity doesn't last long, you drop everything to bring it in, and if you wait, you miss it. God wants us to feel that kind of urgency about telling the people we know about the Man who loved them enough to die for them. We never know when their time or our time will run out.
So, like the farmer toiling feverishly in the extended light of a harvest moon, God has given you a little more time to bring in someone that His Son died for. Don't keep putting it off. Don't let your life be so full of un-eternal stuff that you miss the mission that matters most. Someone you know desperately needs Jesus, and Jesus has given you a little more time to bring them home.
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
November 13
Loving Forgetfulness
“I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
Jeremiah 31:34 (NKJV)
To love conditionally is against God’s nature. Just as it’s against your nature to eat trees and against mine to grow wings, it’s against God’s nature to remember forgiven sins.
You see, God is either the God of perfect grace…or he is not God. Grace forgets. Period. He who is perfect love cannot hold grudges. If he does, then he isn’t perfect love. And if he isn’t perfect love, you might as well put this book down and go fishing, because both of us are chasing fairy tales.
But I believe in his loving forgetfulness. And I believe he has a graciously terrible memory.
Exodus 5
Bricks Without Straw
1 Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert.' "
2 Pharaoh said, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go."
3 Then they said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword."
4 But the king of Egypt said, "Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!" 5 Then Pharaoh said, "Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working."
6 That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and foremen in charge of the people: 7 "You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. 8 But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don't reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.' 9 Make the work harder for the men so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies."
10 Then the slave drivers and the foremen went out and said to the people, "This is what Pharaoh says: 'I will not give you any more straw. 11 Go and get your own straw wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced at all.' " 12 So the people scattered all over Egypt to gather stubble to use for straw. 13 The slave drivers kept pressing them, saying, "Complete the work required of you for each day, just as when you had straw." 14 The Israelite foremen appointed by Pharaoh's slave drivers were beaten and were asked, "Why didn't you meet your quota of bricks yesterday or today, as before?"
15 Then the Israelite foremen went and appealed to Pharaoh: "Why have you treated your servants this way? 16 Your servants are given no straw, yet we are told, 'Make bricks!' Your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people."
17 Pharaoh said, "Lazy, that's what you are—lazy! That is why you keep saying, 'Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.' 18 Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks."
19 The Israelite foremen realized they were in trouble when they were told, "You are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you for each day." 20 When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, 21 and they said, "May the LORD look upon you and judge you! You have made us a stench to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us."
God Promises Deliverance
22 Moses returned to the LORD and said, "O Lord, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me? 23 Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble upon this people, and you have not rescued your people at all."
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Philippians 3
No Confidence in the Flesh
1Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.
2Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. 3For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4though I myself have reasons for such confidence.
If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.
7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
November 13, 2008
Whom Will You Trust?
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: Philippians 3:1-11
By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. —Ephesians 2:8
Ayn Rand, an American philosopher who died in 1982, gathered a sizable following who read her books and attended her lectures. An avid individualist, she had this to say: “Now I see the free face of god and I raise this god over all the earth, this god who men have sought since men came into being, the god who will grant them joy and peace and pride. This god, this one word, I.” When asked if she believed in God, she answered, “This god is myself, I.” Egotism—faith in oneself—that’s what this philosopher believed in.
The apostle Paul bore witness to a trust that is exactly the opposite of that misplaced self-confidence. He declared, “[We] worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh” (Phil. 3:3). He put his trust solely in Jesus Christ, who is God incarnate, the true God of love and mercy.
We read in the book of Ephesians, “By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (2:8).
Are we embracing the philosophy of egotism, which is really a confidence that will prove eternally self-destructive? Or have we, like Paul, embraced the self-sacrificing grace of Jesus Christ? — Vernon C. Grounds
By grace now I’m saved—Hallelujah!
Praise God, and through faith it’s been done;
Naught of myself, but believing
In the finished work of His Son. —Gladwin
We are saved not by what we do but by trusting what Christ has done.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
November 13, 2008
Faith or Experience?
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
. . . the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me —Galatians 2:20
We should battle through our moods, feelings, and emotions into absolute devotion to the Lord Jesus. We must break out of our own little world of experience into abandoned devotion to Him. Think who the New Testament says Jesus Christ is, and then think of the despicable meagerness of the miserable faith we exhibit by saying, "I haven’t had this experience or that experience"! Think what faith in Jesus Christ claims and provides— He can present us faultless before the throne of God, inexpressibly pure, absolutely righteous, and profoundly justified. Stand in absolute adoring faith "in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God— and righteousness and sanctification and redemption . . ." ( 1 Corinthians 1:30 ). How dare we talk of making a sacrifice for the Son of God! We are saved from hell and total destruction, and then we talk about making sacrifices!
We must continually focus and firmly place our faith in Jesus Christ— not a "prayer meeting" Jesus Christ, or a "book" Jesus Christ, but the New Testament Jesus Christ, who is God Incarnate, and who ought to strike us dead at His feet. Our faith must be in the One from whom our salvation springs. Jesus Christ wants our absolute, unrestrained devotion to Himself. We can never experience Jesus Christ, or selfishly bind Him in the confines of our own hearts. Our faith must be built on strong determined confidence in Him.
It is because of our trusting in experience that we see the steadfast impatience of the Holy Spirit against unbelief. All of our fears are sinful, and we create our own fears by refusing to nourish ourselves in our faith. How can anyone who is identified with Jesus Christ suffer from doubt or fear! Our lives should be an absolute hymn of praise resulting from perfect, irrepressible, triumphant belief.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
A Little More Time To Harvest - #5699 - November 13, 2008
Category: Your Mission
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Download MP3 (right click to save)
There's a stretch of nights in the fall when the moon is absolutely incredible! It's usually in October. That's harvest time for farmers. And when it's full moon time, you can see this huge, brilliant, yellowish moon rising in the eastern sky. It just makes you stop and almost catch your breath. I think it was in the days before electricity that farmers started calling it a "harvest moon." With so much depending on the harvest and so little time to bring it in, every hour had to count. And the days never seemed quite long enough to get it all in. So a bright full moon was more than just a beautiful view...it meant something much more important. With that extra light, God was giving them a little more time to harvest!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Little More Time To Harvest."
It could be that you and I are living right now in the light of a spiritual harvest moon - to bring to Jesus some of the lives around us that He died to rescue. Maybe that's why He's giving you a little more time.
There's a powerful illustration of this in our word for today from the Word of God in Luke 13:6. "Then (Jesus) told this parable: 'A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?' 'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.'"
I wonder how many of our lives this parable is describing? Jesus comes looking for some fruit from a believer's life, especially in the form of some people you've introduced to Him. He finds none. Why should He leave us here any longer, just soaking up the nutrients in our spiritual soil? But the answer comes, "Give him/give her a little more time to make a difference." By virtue of the fact that you and I are still here, Jesus has decided to let us have at least a little more time to take some people to heaven with us.
I'll tell you, you feel it deeply when the time for you to bring someone home runs out - when harvest time is over. I remember my high school friend Cathy. We never dated; we were just really good friends. One morning, during my freshman year of college, I remember waking up to a news story that mentioned her name. The night before, a gunman had walked into the Student Union at the university that Cathy attended, pulled out a gun, and he shot her in cold blood. Suddenly, I was out of chances to tell Cathy about how she could go to heaven. We had talked about everything except Jesus! I had slept through the harvest, and time had run out.
That's why the Bible says that when it comes to talking about Jesus, "Make the most of every opportunity" (Colossians 4:4). This spiritual harvest business is urgent stuff. Harvest always is. You know the opportunity doesn't last long, you drop everything to bring it in, and if you wait, you miss it. God wants us to feel that kind of urgency about telling the people we know about the Man who loved them enough to die for them. We never know when their time or our time will run out.
So, like the farmer toiling feverishly in the extended light of a harvest moon, God has given you a little more time to bring in someone that His Son died for. Don't keep putting it off. Don't let your life be so full of un-eternal stuff that you miss the mission that matters most. Someone you know desperately needs Jesus, and Jesus has given you a little more time to bring them home.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Exodus 4, daily reading and devotions
Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
November 12
Getting Our Attention
Come back to the LORD your God, because he is kind and shows mercy. He doesn't become angry quickly, and he has great love.
Joel 2:13 (NCV)
How far do you want God to go in getting your attention? If God has to choose between your eternal safety and your earthly comfort, which do you hope he chooses?
What if he moved you to another land? (As he did Abraham.) What if he called you out of retirement? (Remember Moses?) How about the voice of an angel or the bowel of a fish? (A la Gideon and Jonah.) How about a promotion like Daniel's or a demotion like Samson's?
God does what it takes to get our attention. Isn't that the message of the Bible? The relentless pursuit of God. God on the hunt. God in the search. Peeking under the bed for hiding kids, stirring the bushes for lost sheep.
Exodus 4
Signs for Moses
1 Moses answered, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The LORD did not appear to you'?"
2 Then the LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?"
"A staff," he replied.
3 The LORD said, "Throw it on the ground."
Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. 4 Then the LORD said to him, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail." So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. 5 "This," said the LORD, "is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you."
6 Then the LORD said, "Put your hand inside your cloak." So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was leprous, [h] like snow.
7 "Now put it back into your cloak," he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.
8 Then the LORD said, "If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first miraculous sign, they may believe the second. 9 But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground."
10 Moses said to the LORD, "O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue."
11 The LORD said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD ? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."
13 But Moses said, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it."
14 Then the LORD's anger burned against Moses and he said, "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you. 15 You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. 16 He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. 17 But take this staff in your hand so you can perform miraculous signs with it."
Moses Returns to Egypt
18 Then Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, "Let me go back to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive."
Jethro said, "Go, and I wish you well."
19 Now the LORD had said to Moses in Midian, "Go back to Egypt, for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead." 20 So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.
21 The LORD said to Moses, "When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. 22 Then say to Pharaoh, 'This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son, 23 and I told you, "Let my son go, so he may worship me." But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.' "
24 At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met {Moses} [i] and was about to kill him. 25 But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched {Moses'} feet with it. [j] "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me," she said. 26 So the LORD let him alone. (At that time she said "bridegroom of blood," referring to circumcision.)
27 The LORD said to Aaron, "Go into the desert to meet Moses." So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him. 28 Then Moses told Aaron everything the LORD had sent him to say, and also about all the miraculous signs he had commanded him to perform.
29 Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, 30 and Aaron told them everything the LORD had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, 31 and they believed. And when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
2 Kings 22:3-11 (
3 In the eighteenth year of his reign, King Josiah sent the secretary, Shaphan son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, to the temple of the LORD. He said: 4 "Go up to Hilkiah the high priest and have him get ready the money that has been brought into the temple of the LORD, which the doorkeepers have collected from the people. 5 Have them entrust it to the men appointed to supervise the work on the temple. And have these men pay the workers who repair the temple of the LORD - 6 the carpenters, the builders and the masons. Also have them purchase timber and dressed stone to repair the temple. 7 But they need not account for the money entrusted to them, because they are acting faithfully."
8 Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, "I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the LORD." He gave it to Shaphan, who read it. 9 Then Shaphan the secretary went to the king and reported to him: "Your officials have paid out the money that was in the temple of the LORD and have entrusted it to the workers and supervisors at the temple." 10 Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book." And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king.
11 When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes.
November 12, 2008
Out Of Obscurity
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: 2 Kings 22:3-11
I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord. —2 Kings 22:8
In an old house close to a Civil War battleground in Virginia, workers are painstakingly restoring graffiti. Unsightly scribbling similar to what we scrub from public view is considered a clue to knowledge of the past. Workers are ecstatic when a new letter or word emerges from obscurity to provide information that has remained hidden for over 145 years.
The story brings to mind a scene in ancient Israel when Hilkiah the priest found the long lost book of the law in the temple of the Lord. The very words of God, entrusted to the nation of Israel, had been ignored, forgotten, and eventually lost. But King Josiah was determined to follow the Lord, so he instructed the priest to restore worship in the temple. In the process, the Law of Moses was discovered.
But an even greater discovery was yet to be made. Many years later, after meeting Jesus, Philip reported to his friend Nathanael: “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law” (John 1:45 NIV).
People today get excited about discovering the scribbles of Civil War soldiers. How much more exciting it is to discover the words of Almighty God expressed in the Word made flesh, Jesus the Messiah. — Julie Ackerman Link
The treasures of the Word of God
Are great beyond compare;
But if we do not search them out,
We cannot use what’s there. —Sper
The Bible is old, but its truths are always new.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
November 12, 2008
The Changed Life
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new —2 Corinthians 5:17
What understanding do you have of the salvation of your soul? The work of salvation means that in your real life things are dramatically changed. You no longer look at things in the same way. Your desires are new and the old things have lost their power to attract you. One of the tests for determining if the work of salvation in your life is genuine is— has God changed the things that really matter to you? If you still yearn for the old things, it is absurd to talk about being born from above— you are deceiving yourself. If you are born again, the Spirit of God makes the change very evident in your real life and thought. And when a crisis comes, you are the most amazed person on earth at the wonderful difference there is in you. There is no possibility of imagining that you did it. It is this complete and amazing change that is the very evidence that you are saved.
What difference has my salvation and sanctification made? For instance, can I stand in the light of 1 Corinthians 13 , or do I squirm and evade the issue? True salvation, worked out in me by the Holy Spirit, frees me completely. And as long as I "walk in the light as He is in the light" ( 1 John 1:7 ), God sees nothing to rebuke because His life is working itself into every detailed part of my being, not on the conscious level, but even deeper than my consciousness.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Year That Everything Changed - #5698 - November 12, 2008
Category: Your Mission
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Download MP3 (right click to save)
Some years ago our family was vacationing on the eastern end of Long Island near a little village called Sag Harbor. It was amazing how much that village changed over a period of just 24 hours. One day it was a sleepy little town of tourists just kind of strolling from store to store. The next day it was a chaotic beehive of snarled traffic and anxious people rushing from store to store. Do you know what made the difference? A hurricane warning! Yes, a powerful storm was moving up the East Coast and it was expected to hit that part of Long Island. So people were rushing everywhere to get prepared. Batteries and candles suddenly appeared by every cash register in every store. And they quickly disappeared. People were suddenly living differently when there was a major storm.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Year That Everything Changed."
You may be living a year like that right now; a year when a lot of things have changed. And times like these (hurricane times) can really change your perspective on what's important and how you should be living.
In our word for today from the Word of God beginning with Isaiah 6:1, Isaiah says, "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord." Now, you're probably not all broken up over Uzziah dying, but he had been king for 52 years. So if you were 52 or under, King Uzziah was the only ruler you had ever known. And he had brought his nation to an un-paralleled level of prosperity and power. And suddenly he was gone. It was one of those years when everything changed. So let's think of these words in this way, "In the year that everything changed."
That's when Isaiah says, "I saw the Lord." That's when you usually do - when everything is changing - when the hurricane is blowing you around. It may be that God has shaken your world recently so you'll see Him as you've never seen Him before and so you'll live differently.
Now there are three perspectives God wants you to live by in a season where everything is changing. First, Isaiah says, "I saw the Lord, seated on a throne, high and exalted." Isaiah describes powerful angelic beings he sees "calling to one another, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory.'" Perspective #1 when everything is changing; "Lord, You are awesome."
God wants you to enter His Throne Room as Isaiah did - by prayer. He wants you to see His majesty; to realize that, by praying, you are entering the Throne Room from which 100 billion galaxies are governed and bringing your life and your needs to the One who rules it all. When everything's changing, you need to dwell on the awesomeness of your God.
Then Isaiah tells us he cried, "Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty." Then he describes how one of the angels touches his lips with a live coal from the altar and says, "Your guilt is taken away." Perspective #2 - "Lord, I'm a mess." You see, God wants all this change to be a wakeup call that shows you the sin that you haven't dealt with and to let Him touch it with His forgiveness and cleansing.
Then God asks, "Whom shall I send?" And Isaiah says, "Here am I. Send me!" God wants you to look at His awesomeness, then at your sinfulness, and then at the lostness of the people around you. Perspective #3 - "They are dying." You've seen the King; they never have. And God has sent the storm to refocus your attention on the mission of rescuing the dying people around you.
With all that's changed in the world, the things that really matter have not changed. In fact, the changes make the important things more important than ever. Make frequent visits to God's Throne Room, go to Jesus' cross to get clean, and go on frequent missions to take some people to heaven with you. With the storm intensifying, focus on the things that really matter so this can be the time when you really see the Lord.
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
November 12
Getting Our Attention
Come back to the LORD your God, because he is kind and shows mercy. He doesn't become angry quickly, and he has great love.
Joel 2:13 (NCV)
How far do you want God to go in getting your attention? If God has to choose between your eternal safety and your earthly comfort, which do you hope he chooses?
What if he moved you to another land? (As he did Abraham.) What if he called you out of retirement? (Remember Moses?) How about the voice of an angel or the bowel of a fish? (A la Gideon and Jonah.) How about a promotion like Daniel's or a demotion like Samson's?
God does what it takes to get our attention. Isn't that the message of the Bible? The relentless pursuit of God. God on the hunt. God in the search. Peeking under the bed for hiding kids, stirring the bushes for lost sheep.
Exodus 4
Signs for Moses
1 Moses answered, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The LORD did not appear to you'?"
2 Then the LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?"
"A staff," he replied.
3 The LORD said, "Throw it on the ground."
Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. 4 Then the LORD said to him, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail." So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. 5 "This," said the LORD, "is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you."
6 Then the LORD said, "Put your hand inside your cloak." So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was leprous, [h] like snow.
7 "Now put it back into your cloak," he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.
8 Then the LORD said, "If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first miraculous sign, they may believe the second. 9 But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground."
10 Moses said to the LORD, "O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue."
11 The LORD said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD ? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."
13 But Moses said, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it."
14 Then the LORD's anger burned against Moses and he said, "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you. 15 You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. 16 He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. 17 But take this staff in your hand so you can perform miraculous signs with it."
Moses Returns to Egypt
18 Then Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, "Let me go back to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive."
Jethro said, "Go, and I wish you well."
19 Now the LORD had said to Moses in Midian, "Go back to Egypt, for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead." 20 So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.
21 The LORD said to Moses, "When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. 22 Then say to Pharaoh, 'This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son, 23 and I told you, "Let my son go, so he may worship me." But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.' "
24 At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met {Moses} [i] and was about to kill him. 25 But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched {Moses'} feet with it. [j] "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me," she said. 26 So the LORD let him alone. (At that time she said "bridegroom of blood," referring to circumcision.)
27 The LORD said to Aaron, "Go into the desert to meet Moses." So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him. 28 Then Moses told Aaron everything the LORD had sent him to say, and also about all the miraculous signs he had commanded him to perform.
29 Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, 30 and Aaron told them everything the LORD had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, 31 and they believed. And when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
2 Kings 22:3-11 (
3 In the eighteenth year of his reign, King Josiah sent the secretary, Shaphan son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, to the temple of the LORD. He said: 4 "Go up to Hilkiah the high priest and have him get ready the money that has been brought into the temple of the LORD, which the doorkeepers have collected from the people. 5 Have them entrust it to the men appointed to supervise the work on the temple. And have these men pay the workers who repair the temple of the LORD - 6 the carpenters, the builders and the masons. Also have them purchase timber and dressed stone to repair the temple. 7 But they need not account for the money entrusted to them, because they are acting faithfully."
8 Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, "I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the LORD." He gave it to Shaphan, who read it. 9 Then Shaphan the secretary went to the king and reported to him: "Your officials have paid out the money that was in the temple of the LORD and have entrusted it to the workers and supervisors at the temple." 10 Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book." And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king.
11 When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes.
November 12, 2008
Out Of Obscurity
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: 2 Kings 22:3-11
I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord. —2 Kings 22:8
In an old house close to a Civil War battleground in Virginia, workers are painstakingly restoring graffiti. Unsightly scribbling similar to what we scrub from public view is considered a clue to knowledge of the past. Workers are ecstatic when a new letter or word emerges from obscurity to provide information that has remained hidden for over 145 years.
The story brings to mind a scene in ancient Israel when Hilkiah the priest found the long lost book of the law in the temple of the Lord. The very words of God, entrusted to the nation of Israel, had been ignored, forgotten, and eventually lost. But King Josiah was determined to follow the Lord, so he instructed the priest to restore worship in the temple. In the process, the Law of Moses was discovered.
But an even greater discovery was yet to be made. Many years later, after meeting Jesus, Philip reported to his friend Nathanael: “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law” (John 1:45 NIV).
People today get excited about discovering the scribbles of Civil War soldiers. How much more exciting it is to discover the words of Almighty God expressed in the Word made flesh, Jesus the Messiah. — Julie Ackerman Link
The treasures of the Word of God
Are great beyond compare;
But if we do not search them out,
We cannot use what’s there. —Sper
The Bible is old, but its truths are always new.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
November 12, 2008
The Changed Life
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new —2 Corinthians 5:17
What understanding do you have of the salvation of your soul? The work of salvation means that in your real life things are dramatically changed. You no longer look at things in the same way. Your desires are new and the old things have lost their power to attract you. One of the tests for determining if the work of salvation in your life is genuine is— has God changed the things that really matter to you? If you still yearn for the old things, it is absurd to talk about being born from above— you are deceiving yourself. If you are born again, the Spirit of God makes the change very evident in your real life and thought. And when a crisis comes, you are the most amazed person on earth at the wonderful difference there is in you. There is no possibility of imagining that you did it. It is this complete and amazing change that is the very evidence that you are saved.
What difference has my salvation and sanctification made? For instance, can I stand in the light of 1 Corinthians 13 , or do I squirm and evade the issue? True salvation, worked out in me by the Holy Spirit, frees me completely. And as long as I "walk in the light as He is in the light" ( 1 John 1:7 ), God sees nothing to rebuke because His life is working itself into every detailed part of my being, not on the conscious level, but even deeper than my consciousness.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Year That Everything Changed - #5698 - November 12, 2008
Category: Your Mission
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Download MP3 (right click to save)
Some years ago our family was vacationing on the eastern end of Long Island near a little village called Sag Harbor. It was amazing how much that village changed over a period of just 24 hours. One day it was a sleepy little town of tourists just kind of strolling from store to store. The next day it was a chaotic beehive of snarled traffic and anxious people rushing from store to store. Do you know what made the difference? A hurricane warning! Yes, a powerful storm was moving up the East Coast and it was expected to hit that part of Long Island. So people were rushing everywhere to get prepared. Batteries and candles suddenly appeared by every cash register in every store. And they quickly disappeared. People were suddenly living differently when there was a major storm.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Year That Everything Changed."
You may be living a year like that right now; a year when a lot of things have changed. And times like these (hurricane times) can really change your perspective on what's important and how you should be living.
In our word for today from the Word of God beginning with Isaiah 6:1, Isaiah says, "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord." Now, you're probably not all broken up over Uzziah dying, but he had been king for 52 years. So if you were 52 or under, King Uzziah was the only ruler you had ever known. And he had brought his nation to an un-paralleled level of prosperity and power. And suddenly he was gone. It was one of those years when everything changed. So let's think of these words in this way, "In the year that everything changed."
That's when Isaiah says, "I saw the Lord." That's when you usually do - when everything is changing - when the hurricane is blowing you around. It may be that God has shaken your world recently so you'll see Him as you've never seen Him before and so you'll live differently.
Now there are three perspectives God wants you to live by in a season where everything is changing. First, Isaiah says, "I saw the Lord, seated on a throne, high and exalted." Isaiah describes powerful angelic beings he sees "calling to one another, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory.'" Perspective #1 when everything is changing; "Lord, You are awesome."
God wants you to enter His Throne Room as Isaiah did - by prayer. He wants you to see His majesty; to realize that, by praying, you are entering the Throne Room from which 100 billion galaxies are governed and bringing your life and your needs to the One who rules it all. When everything's changing, you need to dwell on the awesomeness of your God.
Then Isaiah tells us he cried, "Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty." Then he describes how one of the angels touches his lips with a live coal from the altar and says, "Your guilt is taken away." Perspective #2 - "Lord, I'm a mess." You see, God wants all this change to be a wakeup call that shows you the sin that you haven't dealt with and to let Him touch it with His forgiveness and cleansing.
Then God asks, "Whom shall I send?" And Isaiah says, "Here am I. Send me!" God wants you to look at His awesomeness, then at your sinfulness, and then at the lostness of the people around you. Perspective #3 - "They are dying." You've seen the King; they never have. And God has sent the storm to refocus your attention on the mission of rescuing the dying people around you.
With all that's changed in the world, the things that really matter have not changed. In fact, the changes make the important things more important than ever. Make frequent visits to God's Throne Room, go to Jesus' cross to get clean, and go on frequent missions to take some people to heaven with you. With the storm intensifying, focus on the things that really matter so this can be the time when you really see the Lord.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Exodus 3, daily reading and devotions
Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
November 11
It’s a Jungle Out There!
My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
Psalm 121:2 (NCV)
For many people, life is—well, life is a jungle. Not a jungle of trees and beasts….Our jungles are comprised of the thicker thickets of failing health, broken hearts, and empty wallets….We don’t hear the screeching of birds or the roaring of lions, but we do hear the complaints of neighbors, and the demands of bosses.
Whether you are a lamb lost on a craggy ledge or a city slicker alone in a deep jungle, everything changes when your rescuer appears.
Your loneliness diminishes, because you have fellowship. Your despair decreases, because you have vision. Your confusion begins to lift, because you have direction.
You haven’t left the jungle. The trees still eclipse the sky, and the thorns still cut the skin….It hasn’t changed, but you have. You have changed because you have hope. And you have hope because you have met someone who can lead you out.
Exodus 3
Moses and the Burning Bush
1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up."
4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!"
And Moses said, "Here I am."
5 "Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." 6 Then he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
7 The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."
11 But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"
12 And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you [e] will worship God on this mountain."
13 Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?"
14 God said to Moses, "I am who I am . [f] This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' "
15 God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The LORD, [g] the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.
16 "Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. 17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.'
18 "The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God.' 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.
21 "And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. 22 Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians."
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
John 15:9-17
9"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. 11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command. 15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17This is my command: Love each other.
November 11, 2008
No Greater Love
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: John 15:9-17
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. —John 15:13
Melbourne, Australia, is home to the Shrine of Remembrance, a war memorial honoring those who died for their country. Built following World War I, it has since been expanded to honor those who served in subsequent conflicts.
It’s a beautiful place, with reminders of courage and devotion, but the highlight of the shrine is a hall containing a carved stone that simply reads, “Greater Love Hath No Man.” Every year on the 11th day of the 11th month at 11:00 a.m., a mirror reflects the sun’s light onto the stone to spotlight the word love. It is a poignant tribute to those who gave their lives.
We honor the memory of those who paid the ultimate price for freedom. Yet the words on that stone carry a far greater meaning. Jesus spoke them the night before He died on the cross for the sins of a needy world (John 15:13). His death was not for freedom from political tyranny but freedom from the penalty of sin. His death was not just to give us a better life, but to give us eternal life.
It is important to remember those who have given their lives for their country—but may we never forget to praise and honor the Christ who died for a dying world. Truly, there is no greater love than this. — Bill Crowder
There is no greater love than that of Christ above,
That made Him stoop to earth, become a Man,
And by His death provide redemption’s plan;
There is no greater love. —Peterson
© Renewal 1983, John W. Peterson Music Company.
The cross of Jesus is the supreme evidence of the love of God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
November 11, 2008
The Supreme Climb
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
He said, ’Take now your son . . .’ —Genesis 22:2
God’s command is, "Take now," not later. It is incredible how we debate! We know something is right, but we try to find excuses for not doing it immediately. If we are to climb to the height God reveals, it can never be done later— it must be done now. And the sacrifice must be worked through our will before we actually perform it.
"So Abraham rose early in the morning . . . and went to the place of which God had told him" ( Genesis 22:3 ). Oh, the wonderful simplicity of Abraham! When God spoke, he did not "confer with flesh and blood" ( Galatians 1:16 ). Beware when you want to "confer with flesh and blood" or even your own thoughts, insights, or understandings— anything that is not based on your personal relationship with God. These are all things that compete with and hinder obedience to God.
Abraham did not choose what the sacrifice would be. Always guard against self-chosen service for God. Self-sacrifice may be a disease that impairs your service. If God has made your cup sweet, drink it with grace; or even if He has made it bitter, drink it in communion with Him. If the providential will of God means a hard and difficult time for you, go through it. But never decide the place of your own martyrdom, as if to say, "I will only go to there, but no farther." God chose the test for Abraham, and Abraham neither delayed nor protested, but steadily obeyed. If you are not living in touch with God, it is easy to blame Him or pass judgment on Him. You must go through the trial before you have any right to pronounce a verdict, because by going through the trial you learn to know God better. God is working in us to reach His highest goals until His purpose and our purpose become one.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Strongest Words In the World - #5697 - November 11, 2008
Category: Your Most Important Relationship
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Download MP3 (right click to save)
I've had the privilege of playing several different positions. Not on a baseball or football team, but on a wedding team. I've been the groom, I've been the officiating minister, I've been an usher, and I've been the best man. And on more than one occasion, it's been my job to make sure the paperwork gets done while everyone else is "receptioning." The officiating minister has to sign the marriage license, the bride and groom have to sign it of course (the groom, if the groom is still conscious I mean), and two more important people - the witnesses. The powers that be want it on record that there were some people there who witnessed all these wonderful promises being made by the young lovers.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Strongest Words In the World."
Now, when serious business is being transacted, they sometimes require that the signatures be witnessed by a notary public. This witness thing is important when important commitments are being made. Someone cares if you keep your promises. Actually, there is an extremely important person serving as a witness for every promise you make.
In our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus spells out how seriously He takes your commitments whether you do or not. In Matthew 5:37, Jesus says, "Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes' and your 'No' be 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the "evil one." That's sobering stuff. Jesus says once you've said yes, you'd better keep your commitment. It's OK to say no, but it's not OK to say yes and have it end up being a no. In fact, Jesus seems to tell us here that un-kept promises are the devil's idea. Jesus intends for your "Yes" and your "no" to be some of the strongest words in the world.
And the Lord is standing there as a witness to your promises. In the Book of Malachi, some believers are at the altar, weeping and wailing over why God hasn't responded to them. There is obviously a breakdown between them and God, but they can't figure out what it is. Until God says: "You weep and wail because (the Lord) no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands."
"You ask, 'Why?' It is because the Lord is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant." No, you won't find God's signature as a witness on your marriage certificate. But He was there, and He was watching. And He says, "The problem between Me and you is because of the problem between you and your mate. You're not doing what you promised to do. Until that relationship is right, our relationship won't be right."
Again, God cares deeply about whether or not you do what you've promised to do in your marriage, or in any area where you said a "yes" or a "no." You not only lose ground with God when you don't keep your commitments, you lose ground with the people around you. They lose respect for you. They find it hard to take you seriously, to trust you. And I'll tell you, it really hurts to be an un-trusted person.
In Ecclesiastes 5:4, the Lord talks about promises you make to Him, and the warning He applies to any promise you make. "God has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it. Do not let your mouth lead you into sin."
Satan, who is the inventor of broken promises, loves it when you join his club. God, the One who never lies, really cares if you keep your promises. If you say you'll do it, do it. Whatever it costs, keep your commitments, because it will cost you a whole lot more not to.
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
November 11
It’s a Jungle Out There!
My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
Psalm 121:2 (NCV)
For many people, life is—well, life is a jungle. Not a jungle of trees and beasts….Our jungles are comprised of the thicker thickets of failing health, broken hearts, and empty wallets….We don’t hear the screeching of birds or the roaring of lions, but we do hear the complaints of neighbors, and the demands of bosses.
Whether you are a lamb lost on a craggy ledge or a city slicker alone in a deep jungle, everything changes when your rescuer appears.
Your loneliness diminishes, because you have fellowship. Your despair decreases, because you have vision. Your confusion begins to lift, because you have direction.
You haven’t left the jungle. The trees still eclipse the sky, and the thorns still cut the skin….It hasn’t changed, but you have. You have changed because you have hope. And you have hope because you have met someone who can lead you out.
Exodus 3
Moses and the Burning Bush
1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up."
4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!"
And Moses said, "Here I am."
5 "Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." 6 Then he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
7 The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."
11 But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"
12 And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you [e] will worship God on this mountain."
13 Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?"
14 God said to Moses, "I am who I am . [f] This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' "
15 God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The LORD, [g] the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.
16 "Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. 17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.'
18 "The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God.' 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.
21 "And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. 22 Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians."
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
John 15:9-17
9"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. 11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command. 15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17This is my command: Love each other.
November 11, 2008
No Greater Love
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: John 15:9-17
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. —John 15:13
Melbourne, Australia, is home to the Shrine of Remembrance, a war memorial honoring those who died for their country. Built following World War I, it has since been expanded to honor those who served in subsequent conflicts.
It’s a beautiful place, with reminders of courage and devotion, but the highlight of the shrine is a hall containing a carved stone that simply reads, “Greater Love Hath No Man.” Every year on the 11th day of the 11th month at 11:00 a.m., a mirror reflects the sun’s light onto the stone to spotlight the word love. It is a poignant tribute to those who gave their lives.
We honor the memory of those who paid the ultimate price for freedom. Yet the words on that stone carry a far greater meaning. Jesus spoke them the night before He died on the cross for the sins of a needy world (John 15:13). His death was not for freedom from political tyranny but freedom from the penalty of sin. His death was not just to give us a better life, but to give us eternal life.
It is important to remember those who have given their lives for their country—but may we never forget to praise and honor the Christ who died for a dying world. Truly, there is no greater love than this. — Bill Crowder
There is no greater love than that of Christ above,
That made Him stoop to earth, become a Man,
And by His death provide redemption’s plan;
There is no greater love. —Peterson
© Renewal 1983, John W. Peterson Music Company.
The cross of Jesus is the supreme evidence of the love of God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
November 11, 2008
The Supreme Climb
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
He said, ’Take now your son . . .’ —Genesis 22:2
God’s command is, "Take now," not later. It is incredible how we debate! We know something is right, but we try to find excuses for not doing it immediately. If we are to climb to the height God reveals, it can never be done later— it must be done now. And the sacrifice must be worked through our will before we actually perform it.
"So Abraham rose early in the morning . . . and went to the place of which God had told him" ( Genesis 22:3 ). Oh, the wonderful simplicity of Abraham! When God spoke, he did not "confer with flesh and blood" ( Galatians 1:16 ). Beware when you want to "confer with flesh and blood" or even your own thoughts, insights, or understandings— anything that is not based on your personal relationship with God. These are all things that compete with and hinder obedience to God.
Abraham did not choose what the sacrifice would be. Always guard against self-chosen service for God. Self-sacrifice may be a disease that impairs your service. If God has made your cup sweet, drink it with grace; or even if He has made it bitter, drink it in communion with Him. If the providential will of God means a hard and difficult time for you, go through it. But never decide the place of your own martyrdom, as if to say, "I will only go to there, but no farther." God chose the test for Abraham, and Abraham neither delayed nor protested, but steadily obeyed. If you are not living in touch with God, it is easy to blame Him or pass judgment on Him. You must go through the trial before you have any right to pronounce a verdict, because by going through the trial you learn to know God better. God is working in us to reach His highest goals until His purpose and our purpose become one.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Strongest Words In the World - #5697 - November 11, 2008
Category: Your Most Important Relationship
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Download MP3 (right click to save)
I've had the privilege of playing several different positions. Not on a baseball or football team, but on a wedding team. I've been the groom, I've been the officiating minister, I've been an usher, and I've been the best man. And on more than one occasion, it's been my job to make sure the paperwork gets done while everyone else is "receptioning." The officiating minister has to sign the marriage license, the bride and groom have to sign it of course (the groom, if the groom is still conscious I mean), and two more important people - the witnesses. The powers that be want it on record that there were some people there who witnessed all these wonderful promises being made by the young lovers.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Strongest Words In the World."
Now, when serious business is being transacted, they sometimes require that the signatures be witnessed by a notary public. This witness thing is important when important commitments are being made. Someone cares if you keep your promises. Actually, there is an extremely important person serving as a witness for every promise you make.
In our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus spells out how seriously He takes your commitments whether you do or not. In Matthew 5:37, Jesus says, "Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes' and your 'No' be 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the "evil one." That's sobering stuff. Jesus says once you've said yes, you'd better keep your commitment. It's OK to say no, but it's not OK to say yes and have it end up being a no. In fact, Jesus seems to tell us here that un-kept promises are the devil's idea. Jesus intends for your "Yes" and your "no" to be some of the strongest words in the world.
And the Lord is standing there as a witness to your promises. In the Book of Malachi, some believers are at the altar, weeping and wailing over why God hasn't responded to them. There is obviously a breakdown between them and God, but they can't figure out what it is. Until God says: "You weep and wail because (the Lord) no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands."
"You ask, 'Why?' It is because the Lord is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant." No, you won't find God's signature as a witness on your marriage certificate. But He was there, and He was watching. And He says, "The problem between Me and you is because of the problem between you and your mate. You're not doing what you promised to do. Until that relationship is right, our relationship won't be right."
Again, God cares deeply about whether or not you do what you've promised to do in your marriage, or in any area where you said a "yes" or a "no." You not only lose ground with God when you don't keep your commitments, you lose ground with the people around you. They lose respect for you. They find it hard to take you seriously, to trust you. And I'll tell you, it really hurts to be an un-trusted person.
In Ecclesiastes 5:4, the Lord talks about promises you make to Him, and the warning He applies to any promise you make. "God has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it. Do not let your mouth lead you into sin."
Satan, who is the inventor of broken promises, loves it when you join his club. God, the One who never lies, really cares if you keep your promises. If you say you'll do it, do it. Whatever it costs, keep your commitments, because it will cost you a whole lot more not to.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Exodus 2, daily reading and devotions
Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
November 10
Infinite Patience
Patience produces character, and character produces hope. And this hope will never disappoint us.
Romans 5:4-5 (NCV)
God is often more patient with us than we are with ourselves. We assume that if we fall, we aren't born again. If we stumble, then we aren't truly converted. If we have the old desires, then we must not be a new creation.
If you are anxious about this, please remember, "God began doing a good work in you, and I am sure he will continue it until it is finished when Jesus Christ comes again" (Phil. 1:6).
Exodus 2
The Birth of Moses
1 Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. 3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.
5 Then Pharaoh's daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the river bank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. "This is one of the Hebrew babies," she said.
7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?"
8 "Yes, go," she answered. And the girl went and got the baby's mother. 9 Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you." So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, [c] saying, "I drew him out of the water."
Moses Flees to Midian
11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12 Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, "Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?"
14 The man said, "Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid and thought, "What I did must have become known."
15 When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well. 16 Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father's flock. 17 Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.
18 When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, "Why have you returned so early today?"
19 They answered, "An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock."
20 "And where is he?" he asked his daughters. "Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat."
21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. 22 Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, [d] saying, "I have become an alien in a foreign land."
23 During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. 24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Proverbs 25:8-18
8 do not bring [a] hastily to court,
for what will you do in the end
if your neighbor puts you to shame?
9 If you argue your case with a neighbor,
do not betray another man's confidence,
10 or he who hears it may shame you
and you will never lose your bad reputation.
11 A word aptly spoken
is like apples of gold in settings of silver.
12 Like an earring of gold or an ornament of fine gold
is a wise man's rebuke to a listening ear.
13 Like the coolness of snow at harvest time
is a trustworthy messenger to those who send him;
he refreshes the spirit of his masters.
14 Like clouds and wind without rain
is a man who boasts of gifts he does not give.
15 Through patience a ruler can be persuaded,
and a gentle tongue can break a bone.
16 If you find honey, eat just enough—
too much of it, and you will vomit.
17 Seldom set foot in your neighbor's house—
too much of you, and he will hate you.
18 Like a club or a sword or a sharp arrow
is the man who gives false testimony against his neighbor.
November 10, 2008
Gossip-Free Zone
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: Proverbs 25:8-18
A man who bears false witness against his neighbor is like a club, a sword, and a sharp arrow. —Proverbs 25:18
In some offices, you can get fired for gossiping. According to a 2002 survey, the average employee gossips 65 hours a year. One Chicago firm decided to become a “gossip-free zone.” They require that employees never talk badly about co-workers behind their backs. If you’re caught, you lose your job.
A ministry for people in the entertainment industry takes a refreshing alternative to gossip. They combat it with prayer. Instead of putting down famous people who get in trouble with bad choices, they encourage people to pray for them.
Among God’s commands to His people is “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Ex. 20:16). While this may be talking primarily about lying at judicial proceedings, gossip could also be included in the command because it violates the law of love toward our neighbor. Proverbs uses strong language to describe this use of our words. It’s like “a club, a sword, and a sharp arrow” against others (25:18).
Gossip feeds into our natural desires to feel superior to others and to belong or fit in, so combating it in our personal lives can be a challenge. But if we choose to love through prayer, our lives can be a gossip-free zone. — Anne Cetas
Lord, forgive us for speaking carelessly
about others to make ourselves look better.
Help us to think before we speak. Teach us
to be loving with our words. Amen.
You can never justify gossip.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
November 10, 2008
Fellowship in the Gospel
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
. . . fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ . . . —1 Thessalonians 3:2
After sanctification, it is difficult to state what your purpose in life is, because God has moved you into His purpose through the Holy Spirit. He is using you now for His purposes throughout the world as He used His Son for the purpose of our salvation. If you seek great things for yourself, thinking, "God has called me for this and for that," you barricade God from using you. As long as you maintain your own personal interests and ambitions, you cannot be completely aligned or identified with God’s interests. This can only be accomplished by giving up all of your personal plans once and for all, and by allowing God to take you directly into His purpose for the world. Your understanding of your ways must also be surrendered, because they are now the ways of the Lord.
I must learn that the purpose of my life belongs to God, not me. God is using me from His great personal perspective, and all He asks of me is that I trust Him. I should never say, "Lord, this causes me such heartache." To talk that way makes me a stumbling block. When I stop telling God what I want, He can freely work His will in me without any hindrance. He can crush me, exalt me, or do anything else He chooses. He simply asks me to have absolute faith in Him and His goodness. Self-pity is of the devil, and if I wallow in it I cannot be used by God for His purpose in the world. Doing this creates for me my own cozy "world within the world," and God will not be allowed to move me from it because of my fear of being "frost-bitten."
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
You're in the Picture! - #5696
Monday, November 10, 2008
Download MP3 (right click to save)
If you were a firstborn, or even a second born child, you may not understand this. But if you came after that in your family, you'll be able to empathize with our third and final born child. His frustration probably came to a head every Christmas when I'd pull out the old family movies...most of which he was not in. He's later observed that the number of photographs taken of a child seems to go down exponentially after the firstborn. It's like for every ten pictures of the first child, maybe there's five of the second, and if you're lucky, one of the third. I can remember that he would sometimes leave the room for a little while during family movies, after patiently watching his older sister and brother's infant antics. When I'd ask him where he was going, he would reply matter-of-factly, "Call me when there's something I'm in."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "You're in the Picture!"
If we're honest, we know that we are most interested in the pictures we're in! A lot of people have never taken a real personal look at the most important picture in history. Until they realize that they are in the picture. I hope you'll be able to see yourself in this picture today as you've never seen it before.
The scene is the brutal death of Jesus Christ on a Roman cross. You can probably bring up a mental image of that scene in your mind. The old spiritual asks, "Were you there when they crucified my Lord?" Actually, you were. All of us were, represented by one of two men. If you can figure out which one is you, you can figure out whether or not you're going to heaven when you die.
Jesus is being crucified between two hardened criminals. In Luke 23 beginning in verse 39, our word for today from the Word of God, the Bible says, "One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at Him: 'Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!' But the other criminal rebuked Him. 'Don't you fear God,' he said, 'since you are under the same sentence? We are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing.' Then he said, 'Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.' Jesus answered him, ‘Today you will be with Me in paradise'."
There's the picture. Those two criminals represent the whole human race. And spiritually, one or the other represents you. Like them, we've all sinned. Our sins may not have been as dramatic, but all of us are rebels against God, running our own lives, doing all kinds of things our way instead of His way. And like those two men, we all deserve the death penalty for what we've done. The Bible clearly states that the penalty for our sin is spiritual death; that's being separated from God forever (Romans 6:23).
And like one of them, many people see Jesus dying on that cross but they don't reach out to Him to be their Savior from their sin. You can reject Him aggressively like that one man, or passively just by simply failing to grab this Rescuer who's come for you. And that may be you at Jesus' cross. You've never really placed your trust in Him as your only hope for getting to heaven.
If that's you, I pray that you will join the other man on the other cross, crying out to Jesus to be your personal Savior. If you want this amazing relationship with this amazing Savior, would you tell Him that right now? You could pray to Him something like this, "Lord, I was made by you and for you. I've lived pretty much without you. I've pretty much run my own life, and I know there's a death penalty. But Lord, I believe you loved me so much you died to take that death penalty for me, and you rose again from the dead so you could give me life. Beginning right now, I turn from the running of my own life and the sin it's produced. Beginning right now, Lord, I am yours."
If that's what you want, then I hope you'll visit our website where I think you'll find very clear guidance on how to be sure you belong to Jesus. It's YoursForLife.net. Or you can call toll free for my booklet Yours For Life at 877-741-1200.
At the moment you open your heart to Jesus, the promise He made on that cross becomes your promise, "You will be with Me in paradise."
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
November 10
Infinite Patience
Patience produces character, and character produces hope. And this hope will never disappoint us.
Romans 5:4-5 (NCV)
God is often more patient with us than we are with ourselves. We assume that if we fall, we aren't born again. If we stumble, then we aren't truly converted. If we have the old desires, then we must not be a new creation.
If you are anxious about this, please remember, "God began doing a good work in you, and I am sure he will continue it until it is finished when Jesus Christ comes again" (Phil. 1:6).
Exodus 2
The Birth of Moses
1 Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. 3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.
5 Then Pharaoh's daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the river bank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. "This is one of the Hebrew babies," she said.
7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?"
8 "Yes, go," she answered. And the girl went and got the baby's mother. 9 Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you." So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, [c] saying, "I drew him out of the water."
Moses Flees to Midian
11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12 Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, "Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?"
14 The man said, "Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid and thought, "What I did must have become known."
15 When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well. 16 Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father's flock. 17 Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.
18 When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, "Why have you returned so early today?"
19 They answered, "An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock."
20 "And where is he?" he asked his daughters. "Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat."
21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. 22 Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, [d] saying, "I have become an alien in a foreign land."
23 During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. 24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Proverbs 25:8-18
8 do not bring [a] hastily to court,
for what will you do in the end
if your neighbor puts you to shame?
9 If you argue your case with a neighbor,
do not betray another man's confidence,
10 or he who hears it may shame you
and you will never lose your bad reputation.
11 A word aptly spoken
is like apples of gold in settings of silver.
12 Like an earring of gold or an ornament of fine gold
is a wise man's rebuke to a listening ear.
13 Like the coolness of snow at harvest time
is a trustworthy messenger to those who send him;
he refreshes the spirit of his masters.
14 Like clouds and wind without rain
is a man who boasts of gifts he does not give.
15 Through patience a ruler can be persuaded,
and a gentle tongue can break a bone.
16 If you find honey, eat just enough—
too much of it, and you will vomit.
17 Seldom set foot in your neighbor's house—
too much of you, and he will hate you.
18 Like a club or a sword or a sharp arrow
is the man who gives false testimony against his neighbor.
November 10, 2008
Gossip-Free Zone
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: Proverbs 25:8-18
A man who bears false witness against his neighbor is like a club, a sword, and a sharp arrow. —Proverbs 25:18
In some offices, you can get fired for gossiping. According to a 2002 survey, the average employee gossips 65 hours a year. One Chicago firm decided to become a “gossip-free zone.” They require that employees never talk badly about co-workers behind their backs. If you’re caught, you lose your job.
A ministry for people in the entertainment industry takes a refreshing alternative to gossip. They combat it with prayer. Instead of putting down famous people who get in trouble with bad choices, they encourage people to pray for them.
Among God’s commands to His people is “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Ex. 20:16). While this may be talking primarily about lying at judicial proceedings, gossip could also be included in the command because it violates the law of love toward our neighbor. Proverbs uses strong language to describe this use of our words. It’s like “a club, a sword, and a sharp arrow” against others (25:18).
Gossip feeds into our natural desires to feel superior to others and to belong or fit in, so combating it in our personal lives can be a challenge. But if we choose to love through prayer, our lives can be a gossip-free zone. — Anne Cetas
Lord, forgive us for speaking carelessly
about others to make ourselves look better.
Help us to think before we speak. Teach us
to be loving with our words. Amen.
You can never justify gossip.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
November 10, 2008
Fellowship in the Gospel
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
. . . fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ . . . —1 Thessalonians 3:2
After sanctification, it is difficult to state what your purpose in life is, because God has moved you into His purpose through the Holy Spirit. He is using you now for His purposes throughout the world as He used His Son for the purpose of our salvation. If you seek great things for yourself, thinking, "God has called me for this and for that," you barricade God from using you. As long as you maintain your own personal interests and ambitions, you cannot be completely aligned or identified with God’s interests. This can only be accomplished by giving up all of your personal plans once and for all, and by allowing God to take you directly into His purpose for the world. Your understanding of your ways must also be surrendered, because they are now the ways of the Lord.
I must learn that the purpose of my life belongs to God, not me. God is using me from His great personal perspective, and all He asks of me is that I trust Him. I should never say, "Lord, this causes me such heartache." To talk that way makes me a stumbling block. When I stop telling God what I want, He can freely work His will in me without any hindrance. He can crush me, exalt me, or do anything else He chooses. He simply asks me to have absolute faith in Him and His goodness. Self-pity is of the devil, and if I wallow in it I cannot be used by God for His purpose in the world. Doing this creates for me my own cozy "world within the world," and God will not be allowed to move me from it because of my fear of being "frost-bitten."
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
You're in the Picture! - #5696
Monday, November 10, 2008
Download MP3 (right click to save)
If you were a firstborn, or even a second born child, you may not understand this. But if you came after that in your family, you'll be able to empathize with our third and final born child. His frustration probably came to a head every Christmas when I'd pull out the old family movies...most of which he was not in. He's later observed that the number of photographs taken of a child seems to go down exponentially after the firstborn. It's like for every ten pictures of the first child, maybe there's five of the second, and if you're lucky, one of the third. I can remember that he would sometimes leave the room for a little while during family movies, after patiently watching his older sister and brother's infant antics. When I'd ask him where he was going, he would reply matter-of-factly, "Call me when there's something I'm in."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "You're in the Picture!"
If we're honest, we know that we are most interested in the pictures we're in! A lot of people have never taken a real personal look at the most important picture in history. Until they realize that they are in the picture. I hope you'll be able to see yourself in this picture today as you've never seen it before.
The scene is the brutal death of Jesus Christ on a Roman cross. You can probably bring up a mental image of that scene in your mind. The old spiritual asks, "Were you there when they crucified my Lord?" Actually, you were. All of us were, represented by one of two men. If you can figure out which one is you, you can figure out whether or not you're going to heaven when you die.
Jesus is being crucified between two hardened criminals. In Luke 23 beginning in verse 39, our word for today from the Word of God, the Bible says, "One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at Him: 'Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!' But the other criminal rebuked Him. 'Don't you fear God,' he said, 'since you are under the same sentence? We are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing.' Then he said, 'Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.' Jesus answered him, ‘Today you will be with Me in paradise'."
There's the picture. Those two criminals represent the whole human race. And spiritually, one or the other represents you. Like them, we've all sinned. Our sins may not have been as dramatic, but all of us are rebels against God, running our own lives, doing all kinds of things our way instead of His way. And like those two men, we all deserve the death penalty for what we've done. The Bible clearly states that the penalty for our sin is spiritual death; that's being separated from God forever (Romans 6:23).
And like one of them, many people see Jesus dying on that cross but they don't reach out to Him to be their Savior from their sin. You can reject Him aggressively like that one man, or passively just by simply failing to grab this Rescuer who's come for you. And that may be you at Jesus' cross. You've never really placed your trust in Him as your only hope for getting to heaven.
If that's you, I pray that you will join the other man on the other cross, crying out to Jesus to be your personal Savior. If you want this amazing relationship with this amazing Savior, would you tell Him that right now? You could pray to Him something like this, "Lord, I was made by you and for you. I've lived pretty much without you. I've pretty much run my own life, and I know there's a death penalty. But Lord, I believe you loved me so much you died to take that death penalty for me, and you rose again from the dead so you could give me life. Beginning right now, I turn from the running of my own life and the sin it's produced. Beginning right now, Lord, I am yours."
If that's what you want, then I hope you'll visit our website where I think you'll find very clear guidance on how to be sure you belong to Jesus. It's YoursForLife.net. Or you can call toll free for my booklet Yours For Life at 877-741-1200.
At the moment you open your heart to Jesus, the promise He made on that cross becomes your promise, "You will be with Me in paradise."
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Exodus 1, daily reading and devotions
Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
November 9
My grace is enough for you. When you are weak, my power is made perfect in you.
2 Corinthians 12:9 (NCV)
What is grace?
It's what someone gives us out of the goodness of his heart, not out of the perfection of ours. The story of grace is the good news that says that when we come, he gives. That's what grace is....
Grace is something you did not expect. It is something you certainly could never earn. But grace is something you'd never turn down.
Exodus 1
The Israelites Oppressed
1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah; 3 Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin; 4 Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. 5 The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy [a] in all; Joseph was already in Egypt.
6 Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, 7 but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.
8 Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. 9 "Look," he said to his people, "the Israelites have become much too numerous for us. 10 Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country."
11 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites 13 and worked them ruthlessly. 14 They made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly.
15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16 "When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live." 17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 18 Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, "Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?"
19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, "Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive."
20 So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.
22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: "Every boy that is born [b] you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live."
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Psalm 103:6-14
6 The LORD works righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.
7 He made known his ways to Moses,
his deeds to the people of Israel:
8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
9 He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
14 for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
November 9, 2008
They Never Meet
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: Psalm 103:6-14
You have cast all my sins behind Your back. —Isaiah 38:17
Did you know that the farthest point east and the farthest point west in the United States are both in Alaska? It’s a geographical trick, actually. Pochnoi Point in the Aleutians is as far west as you can go and still be in the US. But if you travel a few miles farther west, you’ll end up at Alaska’s Amatignak Island. Because that spot is west of the 180th meridian separating the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, it is technically east of the rest of the US.
But you’ll never find a spot where east and west are actually next to each other. In going west, you never “find” east. East goes on forever. West goes on forever. They never meet. You can’t get farther from something than that.
What difference does this make? Just this: When you read in Scripture that your forgiven sins are separated from you “as far as the east is from the west” (Ps. 103:12), you are assured that they are an immeasurable distance away—gone forever. If that’s not enough, try this: God says, “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins” (Isa. 43:25).
Concerned about your sins? Through Jesus’ death on the cross, God is able to say, “What sins?” But He will do that only if you put your faith in His Son. — Dave Branon
“Oh, East is East, and West is West,
And never the twain shall meet.”
So far has God removed our sins:
Salvation is complete. —Hess
We invite defeat when we remember what we should forget.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
November 9, 2008
Sacred Service
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ . . . —Colossians 1:24
The Christian worker has to be a sacred "go-between." He must be so closely identified with his Lord and the reality of His redemption that Christ can continually bring His creating life through him. I am not referring to the strength of one individual’s personality being superimposed on another, but the real presence of Christ coming through every aspect of the worker’s life. When we preach the historical facts of the life and death of our Lord as they are conveyed in the New Testament, our words are made sacred. God uses these words, on the basis of His redemption, to create something in those who listen which otherwise could never have been created. If we simply preach the effects of redemption in the human life instead of the revealed, divine truth regarding Jesus Himself, the result is not new birth in those who listen. The result is a refined religious lifestyle, and the Spirit of God cannot witness to it because such preaching is in a realm other than His. We must make sure that we are living in such harmony with God that as we proclaim His truth He can create in others those things which He alone can do.
When we say, "What a wonderful personality, what a fascinating person, and what wonderful insight!" then what opportunity does the gospel of God have through all of that? It cannot get through, because the attraction is to the messenger and not the message. If a person attracts through his personality, that becomes his appeal. If, however, he is identified with the Lord Himself, then the appeal becomes what Jesus Christ can do. The danger is to glory in men, yet Jesus says we are to lift up only Him (see John 12:32 ).
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
November 9
My grace is enough for you. When you are weak, my power is made perfect in you.
2 Corinthians 12:9 (NCV)
What is grace?
It's what someone gives us out of the goodness of his heart, not out of the perfection of ours. The story of grace is the good news that says that when we come, he gives. That's what grace is....
Grace is something you did not expect. It is something you certainly could never earn. But grace is something you'd never turn down.
Exodus 1
The Israelites Oppressed
1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah; 3 Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin; 4 Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. 5 The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy [a] in all; Joseph was already in Egypt.
6 Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, 7 but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.
8 Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. 9 "Look," he said to his people, "the Israelites have become much too numerous for us. 10 Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country."
11 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites 13 and worked them ruthlessly. 14 They made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly.
15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16 "When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live." 17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 18 Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, "Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?"
19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, "Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive."
20 So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.
22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: "Every boy that is born [b] you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live."
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Psalm 103:6-14
6 The LORD works righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.
7 He made known his ways to Moses,
his deeds to the people of Israel:
8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
9 He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
14 for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
November 9, 2008
They Never Meet
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: Psalm 103:6-14
You have cast all my sins behind Your back. —Isaiah 38:17
Did you know that the farthest point east and the farthest point west in the United States are both in Alaska? It’s a geographical trick, actually. Pochnoi Point in the Aleutians is as far west as you can go and still be in the US. But if you travel a few miles farther west, you’ll end up at Alaska’s Amatignak Island. Because that spot is west of the 180th meridian separating the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, it is technically east of the rest of the US.
But you’ll never find a spot where east and west are actually next to each other. In going west, you never “find” east. East goes on forever. West goes on forever. They never meet. You can’t get farther from something than that.
What difference does this make? Just this: When you read in Scripture that your forgiven sins are separated from you “as far as the east is from the west” (Ps. 103:12), you are assured that they are an immeasurable distance away—gone forever. If that’s not enough, try this: God says, “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins” (Isa. 43:25).
Concerned about your sins? Through Jesus’ death on the cross, God is able to say, “What sins?” But He will do that only if you put your faith in His Son. — Dave Branon
“Oh, East is East, and West is West,
And never the twain shall meet.”
So far has God removed our sins:
Salvation is complete. —Hess
We invite defeat when we remember what we should forget.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
November 9, 2008
Sacred Service
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ . . . —Colossians 1:24
The Christian worker has to be a sacred "go-between." He must be so closely identified with his Lord and the reality of His redemption that Christ can continually bring His creating life through him. I am not referring to the strength of one individual’s personality being superimposed on another, but the real presence of Christ coming through every aspect of the worker’s life. When we preach the historical facts of the life and death of our Lord as they are conveyed in the New Testament, our words are made sacred. God uses these words, on the basis of His redemption, to create something in those who listen which otherwise could never have been created. If we simply preach the effects of redemption in the human life instead of the revealed, divine truth regarding Jesus Himself, the result is not new birth in those who listen. The result is a refined religious lifestyle, and the Spirit of God cannot witness to it because such preaching is in a realm other than His. We must make sure that we are living in such harmony with God that as we proclaim His truth He can create in others those things which He alone can do.
When we say, "What a wonderful personality, what a fascinating person, and what wonderful insight!" then what opportunity does the gospel of God have through all of that? It cannot get through, because the attraction is to the messenger and not the message. If a person attracts through his personality, that becomes his appeal. If, however, he is identified with the Lord Himself, then the appeal becomes what Jesus Christ can do. The danger is to glory in men, yet Jesus says we are to lift up only Him (see John 12:32 ).
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Job 42, daily reading and devotions
Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
November 8
He willingly gave his life....He carried away the sins of many people.
Isaiah 53:12 (NCV)
You can't go to the cross with just your head and not your heart. It
doesn't work that way. Calvary is not a mental trip. It's not an
intellectual exercise....
It's a heart-splitting hour of emotion....
That's God on that cross. It's us who put him there.
Job 42
Job
1 Then Job replied to the LORD :
2 "I know that you can do all things;
no plan of yours can be thwarted.
3 You asked, 'Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?'
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
4 "You said, 'Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.'
5 My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
6 Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes."
Epilogue
7 After the LORD had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. 8 So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has." 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite did what the LORD told them; and the LORD accepted Job's prayer.
10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before. 11 All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the LORD had brought upon him, and each one gave him a piece of silver [n] and a gold ring.
12 The LORD blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. 13 And he also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. 15 Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job's daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.
16 After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. 17 And so he died, old and full of years.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
Christ the Wisdom and Power of God
18For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written:
"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate."[a]
20Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.
26Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him. 30It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."[b]
November 8, 2008
Flawed And Frail
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31
God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. —1 Corinthians 1:27
One of my boyhood heroes was Davy Crockett, the “King of the Wild Frontier.” I looked up to him, admiring his courage and exploits.
Years later, my brother gave me a book that traced the experiences of the real-life David Crockett. I was surprised by his humanness. The real Davy Crockett made mistakes and had serious personal problems. The book depicted him as both flawed and frail.
This was both disappointing and reassuring to me. It was disappointing because he was less than I had come to believe, but reassuring because that reality made Crockett more accessible to me—and even more of a hero.
In the Bible we see that God consistently used people who were far less than perfect. That shouldn’t surprise us. God is glorified by showing Himself strong through our weaknesses. It shows us that He desires to work through our lives not because we are perfect but because He is. And since He uses weak and foolish things (1 Cor. 1:27), it means you and I are prime candidates for His work.
The Lord isn’t looking for superheroes. He uses those of us who are flawed and frail, so that He can show His strength and grace. He wants those with a willing and available heart. — Bill Crowder
It’s not in the flash of the style that you hone,
Nor all the degrees you’ve compiled;
The Savior is looking for servants who own
The warm, willing heart of a child. —Gustafson
In God’s service, our greatest ability is our availability.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
November 8, 2008
The Unrivaled Power of Prayer
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
We do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered —Romans 8:26
We realize that we are energized by the Holy Spirit for prayer; and we know what it is to pray in accordance with the Spirit; but we don’t often realize that the Holy Spirit Himself prays prayers in us which we cannot utter ourselves. When we are born again of God and are indwelt by the Spirit of God, He expresses for us the unutterable.
"He," the Holy Spirit in you, "makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God" ( Romans 8:27 ). And God searches your heart, not to know what your conscious prayers are, but to find out what the prayer of the Holy Spirit is.
The Spirit of God uses the nature of the believer as a temple in which to offer His prayers of intercession. ". . . your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit . . ." (1 Corinthians 6:19 ). When Jesus Christ cleansed the temple, ". . . He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple" ( Mark 11:16 ). The Spirit of God will not allow you to use your body for your own convenience. Jesus ruthlessly cast out everyone who bought and sold in the temple, and said, "My house shall be called a house of prayer . . . . But you have made it a ’den of thieves’ " (Mark 11:17 ).
Have we come to realize that our "body is the temple of the Holy Spirit"? If so, we must be careful to keep it undefiled for Him. We have to remember that our conscious life, even though only a small part of our total person, is to be regarded by us as a "temple of the Holy Spirit." He will be responsible for the unconscious part which we don’t know, but we must pay careful attention to and guard the conscious part for which we are responsible.
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
November 8
He willingly gave his life....He carried away the sins of many people.
Isaiah 53:12 (NCV)
You can't go to the cross with just your head and not your heart. It
doesn't work that way. Calvary is not a mental trip. It's not an
intellectual exercise....
It's a heart-splitting hour of emotion....
That's God on that cross. It's us who put him there.
Job 42
Job
1 Then Job replied to the LORD :
2 "I know that you can do all things;
no plan of yours can be thwarted.
3 You asked, 'Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?'
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
4 "You said, 'Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.'
5 My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
6 Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes."
Epilogue
7 After the LORD had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. 8 So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has." 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite did what the LORD told them; and the LORD accepted Job's prayer.
10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before. 11 All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the LORD had brought upon him, and each one gave him a piece of silver [n] and a gold ring.
12 The LORD blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. 13 And he also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. 15 Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job's daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.
16 After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. 17 And so he died, old and full of years.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
Christ the Wisdom and Power of God
18For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written:
"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate."[a]
20Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.
26Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him. 30It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."[b]
November 8, 2008
Flawed And Frail
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31
God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. —1 Corinthians 1:27
One of my boyhood heroes was Davy Crockett, the “King of the Wild Frontier.” I looked up to him, admiring his courage and exploits.
Years later, my brother gave me a book that traced the experiences of the real-life David Crockett. I was surprised by his humanness. The real Davy Crockett made mistakes and had serious personal problems. The book depicted him as both flawed and frail.
This was both disappointing and reassuring to me. It was disappointing because he was less than I had come to believe, but reassuring because that reality made Crockett more accessible to me—and even more of a hero.
In the Bible we see that God consistently used people who were far less than perfect. That shouldn’t surprise us. God is glorified by showing Himself strong through our weaknesses. It shows us that He desires to work through our lives not because we are perfect but because He is. And since He uses weak and foolish things (1 Cor. 1:27), it means you and I are prime candidates for His work.
The Lord isn’t looking for superheroes. He uses those of us who are flawed and frail, so that He can show His strength and grace. He wants those with a willing and available heart. — Bill Crowder
It’s not in the flash of the style that you hone,
Nor all the degrees you’ve compiled;
The Savior is looking for servants who own
The warm, willing heart of a child. —Gustafson
In God’s service, our greatest ability is our availability.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
November 8, 2008
The Unrivaled Power of Prayer
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
We do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered —Romans 8:26
We realize that we are energized by the Holy Spirit for prayer; and we know what it is to pray in accordance with the Spirit; but we don’t often realize that the Holy Spirit Himself prays prayers in us which we cannot utter ourselves. When we are born again of God and are indwelt by the Spirit of God, He expresses for us the unutterable.
"He," the Holy Spirit in you, "makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God" ( Romans 8:27 ). And God searches your heart, not to know what your conscious prayers are, but to find out what the prayer of the Holy Spirit is.
The Spirit of God uses the nature of the believer as a temple in which to offer His prayers of intercession. ". . . your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit . . ." (1 Corinthians 6:19 ). When Jesus Christ cleansed the temple, ". . . He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple" ( Mark 11:16 ). The Spirit of God will not allow you to use your body for your own convenience. Jesus ruthlessly cast out everyone who bought and sold in the temple, and said, "My house shall be called a house of prayer . . . . But you have made it a ’den of thieves’ " (Mark 11:17 ).
Have we come to realize that our "body is the temple of the Holy Spirit"? If so, we must be careful to keep it undefiled for Him. We have to remember that our conscious life, even though only a small part of our total person, is to be regarded by us as a "temple of the Holy Spirit." He will be responsible for the unconscious part which we don’t know, but we must pay careful attention to and guard the conscious part for which we are responsible.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Job 41, daily reading and devotions
Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
November 7
The Standard
We are made holy through the sacrifice Christ made in his body once and for all time.
Hebrews 10:10 (NCV)
Only the holy will see God. Holiness is a prerequisite to heaven. Perfection is a requirement for eternity. We wish it weren't so. We act like it isn't so. We act like those who are "decent" will see God. We suggest that those who try hard will see God. We act as if we're good if we never do any-thing too bad. And that goodness is enough to qualify us for heaven.
Sounds right to us, but it doesn't sound right to God. And he sets the standard. And the standard is high. "You must be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect" (Matt 5:48).
You see, in God's plan, God is the standard for perfection. We don't compare ourselves to others; they are just as fouled up as we are. The goal is to be like him; anything less is inadequate.
Job 41
1 "Can you pull in the leviathan [l] with a fishhook
or tie down his tongue with a rope?
2 Can you put a cord through his nose
or pierce his jaw with a hook?
3 Will he keep begging you for mercy?
Will he speak to you with gentle words?
4 Will he make an agreement with you
for you to take him as your slave for life?
5 Can you make a pet of him like a bird
or put him on a leash for your girls?
6 Will traders barter for him?
Will they divide him up among the merchants?
7 Can you fill his hide with harpoons
or his head with fishing spears?
8 If you lay a hand on him,
you will remember the struggle and never do it again!
9 Any hope of subduing him is false;
the mere sight of him is overpowering.
10 No one is fierce enough to rouse him.
Who then is able to stand against me?
11 Who has a claim against me that I must pay?
Everything under heaven belongs to me.
12 "I will not fail to speak of his limbs,
his strength and his graceful form.
13 Who can strip off his outer coat?
Who would approach him with a bridle?
14 Who dares open the doors of his mouth,
ringed about with his fearsome teeth?
15 His back has [m] rows of shields
tightly sealed together;
16 each is so close to the next
that no air can pass between.
17 They are joined fast to one another;
they cling together and cannot be parted.
18 His snorting throws out flashes of light;
his eyes are like the rays of dawn.
19 Firebrands stream from his mouth;
sparks of fire shoot out.
20 Smoke pours from his nostrils
as from a boiling pot over a fire of reeds.
21 His breath sets coals ablaze,
and flames dart from his mouth.
22 Strength resides in his neck;
dismay goes before him.
23 The folds of his flesh are tightly joined;
they are firm and immovable.
24 His chest is hard as rock,
hard as a lower millstone.
25 When he rises up, the mighty are terrified;
they retreat before his thrashing.
26 The sword that reaches him has no effect,
nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin.
27 Iron he treats like straw
and bronze like rotten wood.
28 Arrows do not make him flee;
slingstones are like chaff to him.
29 A club seems to him but a piece of straw;
he laughs at the rattling of the lance.
30 His undersides are jagged potsherds,
leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.
31 He makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron
and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment.
32 Behind him he leaves a glistening wake;
one would think the deep had white hair.
33 Nothing on earth is his equal—
a creature without fear.
34 He looks down on all that are haughty;
he is king over all that are proud."
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Psalm 70
For the director of music. Of David. A petition.
1 Hasten, O God, to save me;
O LORD, come quickly to help me.
2 May those who seek my life
be put to shame and confusion;
may all who desire my ruin
be turned back in disgrace.
3 May those who say to me, "Aha! Aha!"
turn back because of their shame.
4 But may all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation always say,
"Let God be exalted!"
5 Yet I am poor and needy;
come quickly to me, O God.
You are my help and my deliverer;
O LORD, do not delay.
November 7, 2008
Waiting
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: Psalm 70
Make haste to help me, O Lord! —Psalm 70:1
Make haste to help me, O Lord!” the psalmist David prayed (Ps. 70:1). Like him, we don’t like to wait. We dislike the long lines at super-market checkout counters, and the traffic jams downtown and around shopping malls. We hate to wait at the bank or at a restaurant.
And then there are the harder waits: a childless couple waiting for a child; a single person waiting for marriage; an addict waiting for deliverance; a spouse waiting for a kind and gentle word; a worried patient waiting for a diagnosis from a doctor.
What we wait for, however, is far less important than what God is doing while we wait. In such times He works in us to develop those hard-to-achieve spiritual virtues of meekness, kindness, and patience with others. But more important, we learn to lean on God alone and to “rejoice and be glad” in Him (v.4).
F. B. Meyer said, “What a chapter might be written of God’s delays! It is the mystery of the art of educating human spirits to the finest temper of which they are capable. What searchings of heart, what analyzings of motives, what testings of the Word of God, what upliftings of soul. . . . All these are associated with those weary days of waiting, which are, nevertheless, big with spiritual destiny.” — David H. Roper
Be still, My child, and know that I am God!
Wait thou patiently—I know the path you trod.
So falter not, nor fear, nor think to run and hide,
For I, thy hope and strength, am waiting by thy side. —Hein
God stretches our patience to enlarge our soul.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
November 7, 2008
The Undetected Sacredness of Circumstances
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
We know that all things work together for good to those who love God . . . —Romans 8:28
The circumstances of a saint’s life are ordained of God. In the life of a saint there is no such thing as chance. God by His providence brings you into circumstances that you can’t understand at all, but the Spirit of God understands. God brings you to places, among people, and into certain conditions to accomplish a definite purpose through the intercession of the Spirit in you. Never put yourself in front of your circumstances and say, "I’m going to be my own providence here; I will watch this closely, or protect myself from that." All your circumstances are in the hand of God, and therefore you don’t ever have to think they are unnatural or unique. Your part in intercessory prayer is not to agonize over how to intercede, but to use the everyday circumstances and people God puts around you by His providence to bring them before His throne, and to allow the Spirit in you the opportunity to intercede for them. In this way God is going to touch the whole world with His saints.
Am I making the Holy Spirit’s work difficult by being vague and unsure, or by trying to do His work for Him? I must do the human side of intercession— utilizing the circumstances in which I find myself and the people who surround me. I must keep my conscious life as a sacred place for the Holy Spirit. Then as I lift different ones to God through prayer, the Holy Spirit intercedes for them.
Your intercessions can never be mine, and my intercessions can never be yours, ". . . but the Spirit Himself makes intercession" in each of our lives ( Romans 8:26 ). And without that intercession, the lives of others would be left in poverty and in ruin.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Treasure in the Trash - #5695 - November 7, 2008
Category: Your Personal Power
Friday, November 7, 2008
Download MP3 (right click to save)
My Mom didn't know it, but man, did she make a mistake! I know that now because of my son's long-time interest in baseball card collecting...actually, baseball card investing. He knows what those cards are worth - especially the rare ones. One card can be worth many hundreds, or even thousands of dollars. I think I had some of those valuable cards when I was a kid. I had players like Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams among them. Cards like that are worth big bucks today! Of course, I don't have them anymore. Sometime when she was moving, my mother threw them away!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Treasure in the Trash."
My mother had no idea of the value of what she was throwing away. A lot of people make that same mistake, because they don't know how much they're worth. When you've been put down, left out, mistreated, or abandoned, you can battle feelings of worthlessness your whole life no matter how successful you may become. Maybe it's a feeling you know all too well. And, tragically, those of us who don't know what we're worth have a tendency to throw ourselves away on bad relationships, low goals and self-destructive choices.
But this very day, the person who created you wants to remind you how much you are worth. In Matthew 13:44, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus is telling one of His parables. He says, "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field." The parable right before this indicates that the field is this world we live in and the man in the field is Jesus. And the buried treasure? That's you and me.
It's very possible you've been such a buried treasure that you don't even know you're a treasure! But Jesus thinks so! I love one thought that George W. Bush expressed in his Inaugural Address. He said, "No insignificant person was ever born." God would agree with that! He says in Ephesians 2:10 that "we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do." So all those people who have treated you like you're worthless - they don't know who you really are. You're God's workmanship!
And here's the ultimate proof of how much Jesus values you. In the words of His parable, "He went out and sold all He had" so you could belong to Him. The reason we feel like we're worth so little is ultimately because we're away from the One who gave us our worth. The Bible describes us as being "without God" (Ephesians 2:12) because we've taken over the running of our own lives. Notice the middle letter of sin is "I." All of our sinning has put a wall between us and the God who made us for himself.
But when Jesus died on the cross, He was giving "all He had" to pay the price for all the wrong things you have ever done. In your heart, for just a moment, would you walk up that hill the Bible calls Skull Hill and just stand there quietly at the foot of that cross where the Son of God is pouring out His life for you. Look at Him dying for you! You are not worthless!
But you'll never know how valuable you are until you give yourself to the One who died to buy you back; which you could do right now, right where you are. Tell Jesus you want to belong to Him, that the rest of your life is His.
I want to invite you to our website, because you'll find there a lot of practical steps to help you know that you belong to Jesus Christ. It's all about how to begin life's most important relationship. I hope you'll check it out. It's at YoursForLife.net. Or I'd be glad to send you my free booklet Yours For Life if you'll just call and ask us for it at 877-741-1200.
See, Jesus doesn't want to lose you. That's why He paid for you with His life. This could be the day that you finally belong to the One who loves you like you've never been loved before.
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
November 7
The Standard
We are made holy through the sacrifice Christ made in his body once and for all time.
Hebrews 10:10 (NCV)
Only the holy will see God. Holiness is a prerequisite to heaven. Perfection is a requirement for eternity. We wish it weren't so. We act like it isn't so. We act like those who are "decent" will see God. We suggest that those who try hard will see God. We act as if we're good if we never do any-thing too bad. And that goodness is enough to qualify us for heaven.
Sounds right to us, but it doesn't sound right to God. And he sets the standard. And the standard is high. "You must be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect" (Matt 5:48).
You see, in God's plan, God is the standard for perfection. We don't compare ourselves to others; they are just as fouled up as we are. The goal is to be like him; anything less is inadequate.
Job 41
1 "Can you pull in the leviathan [l] with a fishhook
or tie down his tongue with a rope?
2 Can you put a cord through his nose
or pierce his jaw with a hook?
3 Will he keep begging you for mercy?
Will he speak to you with gentle words?
4 Will he make an agreement with you
for you to take him as your slave for life?
5 Can you make a pet of him like a bird
or put him on a leash for your girls?
6 Will traders barter for him?
Will they divide him up among the merchants?
7 Can you fill his hide with harpoons
or his head with fishing spears?
8 If you lay a hand on him,
you will remember the struggle and never do it again!
9 Any hope of subduing him is false;
the mere sight of him is overpowering.
10 No one is fierce enough to rouse him.
Who then is able to stand against me?
11 Who has a claim against me that I must pay?
Everything under heaven belongs to me.
12 "I will not fail to speak of his limbs,
his strength and his graceful form.
13 Who can strip off his outer coat?
Who would approach him with a bridle?
14 Who dares open the doors of his mouth,
ringed about with his fearsome teeth?
15 His back has [m] rows of shields
tightly sealed together;
16 each is so close to the next
that no air can pass between.
17 They are joined fast to one another;
they cling together and cannot be parted.
18 His snorting throws out flashes of light;
his eyes are like the rays of dawn.
19 Firebrands stream from his mouth;
sparks of fire shoot out.
20 Smoke pours from his nostrils
as from a boiling pot over a fire of reeds.
21 His breath sets coals ablaze,
and flames dart from his mouth.
22 Strength resides in his neck;
dismay goes before him.
23 The folds of his flesh are tightly joined;
they are firm and immovable.
24 His chest is hard as rock,
hard as a lower millstone.
25 When he rises up, the mighty are terrified;
they retreat before his thrashing.
26 The sword that reaches him has no effect,
nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin.
27 Iron he treats like straw
and bronze like rotten wood.
28 Arrows do not make him flee;
slingstones are like chaff to him.
29 A club seems to him but a piece of straw;
he laughs at the rattling of the lance.
30 His undersides are jagged potsherds,
leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.
31 He makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron
and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment.
32 Behind him he leaves a glistening wake;
one would think the deep had white hair.
33 Nothing on earth is his equal—
a creature without fear.
34 He looks down on all that are haughty;
he is king over all that are proud."
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Psalm 70
For the director of music. Of David. A petition.
1 Hasten, O God, to save me;
O LORD, come quickly to help me.
2 May those who seek my life
be put to shame and confusion;
may all who desire my ruin
be turned back in disgrace.
3 May those who say to me, "Aha! Aha!"
turn back because of their shame.
4 But may all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation always say,
"Let God be exalted!"
5 Yet I am poor and needy;
come quickly to me, O God.
You are my help and my deliverer;
O LORD, do not delay.
November 7, 2008
Waiting
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READ: Psalm 70
Make haste to help me, O Lord! —Psalm 70:1
Make haste to help me, O Lord!” the psalmist David prayed (Ps. 70:1). Like him, we don’t like to wait. We dislike the long lines at super-market checkout counters, and the traffic jams downtown and around shopping malls. We hate to wait at the bank or at a restaurant.
And then there are the harder waits: a childless couple waiting for a child; a single person waiting for marriage; an addict waiting for deliverance; a spouse waiting for a kind and gentle word; a worried patient waiting for a diagnosis from a doctor.
What we wait for, however, is far less important than what God is doing while we wait. In such times He works in us to develop those hard-to-achieve spiritual virtues of meekness, kindness, and patience with others. But more important, we learn to lean on God alone and to “rejoice and be glad” in Him (v.4).
F. B. Meyer said, “What a chapter might be written of God’s delays! It is the mystery of the art of educating human spirits to the finest temper of which they are capable. What searchings of heart, what analyzings of motives, what testings of the Word of God, what upliftings of soul. . . . All these are associated with those weary days of waiting, which are, nevertheless, big with spiritual destiny.” — David H. Roper
Be still, My child, and know that I am God!
Wait thou patiently—I know the path you trod.
So falter not, nor fear, nor think to run and hide,
For I, thy hope and strength, am waiting by thy side. —Hein
God stretches our patience to enlarge our soul.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
November 7, 2008
The Undetected Sacredness of Circumstances
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We know that all things work together for good to those who love God . . . —Romans 8:28
The circumstances of a saint’s life are ordained of God. In the life of a saint there is no such thing as chance. God by His providence brings you into circumstances that you can’t understand at all, but the Spirit of God understands. God brings you to places, among people, and into certain conditions to accomplish a definite purpose through the intercession of the Spirit in you. Never put yourself in front of your circumstances and say, "I’m going to be my own providence here; I will watch this closely, or protect myself from that." All your circumstances are in the hand of God, and therefore you don’t ever have to think they are unnatural or unique. Your part in intercessory prayer is not to agonize over how to intercede, but to use the everyday circumstances and people God puts around you by His providence to bring them before His throne, and to allow the Spirit in you the opportunity to intercede for them. In this way God is going to touch the whole world with His saints.
Am I making the Holy Spirit’s work difficult by being vague and unsure, or by trying to do His work for Him? I must do the human side of intercession— utilizing the circumstances in which I find myself and the people who surround me. I must keep my conscious life as a sacred place for the Holy Spirit. Then as I lift different ones to God through prayer, the Holy Spirit intercedes for them.
Your intercessions can never be mine, and my intercessions can never be yours, ". . . but the Spirit Himself makes intercession" in each of our lives ( Romans 8:26 ). And without that intercession, the lives of others would be left in poverty and in ruin.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Treasure in the Trash - #5695 - November 7, 2008
Category: Your Personal Power
Friday, November 7, 2008
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My Mom didn't know it, but man, did she make a mistake! I know that now because of my son's long-time interest in baseball card collecting...actually, baseball card investing. He knows what those cards are worth - especially the rare ones. One card can be worth many hundreds, or even thousands of dollars. I think I had some of those valuable cards when I was a kid. I had players like Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams among them. Cards like that are worth big bucks today! Of course, I don't have them anymore. Sometime when she was moving, my mother threw them away!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Treasure in the Trash."
My mother had no idea of the value of what she was throwing away. A lot of people make that same mistake, because they don't know how much they're worth. When you've been put down, left out, mistreated, or abandoned, you can battle feelings of worthlessness your whole life no matter how successful you may become. Maybe it's a feeling you know all too well. And, tragically, those of us who don't know what we're worth have a tendency to throw ourselves away on bad relationships, low goals and self-destructive choices.
But this very day, the person who created you wants to remind you how much you are worth. In Matthew 13:44, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus is telling one of His parables. He says, "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field." The parable right before this indicates that the field is this world we live in and the man in the field is Jesus. And the buried treasure? That's you and me.
It's very possible you've been such a buried treasure that you don't even know you're a treasure! But Jesus thinks so! I love one thought that George W. Bush expressed in his Inaugural Address. He said, "No insignificant person was ever born." God would agree with that! He says in Ephesians 2:10 that "we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do." So all those people who have treated you like you're worthless - they don't know who you really are. You're God's workmanship!
And here's the ultimate proof of how much Jesus values you. In the words of His parable, "He went out and sold all He had" so you could belong to Him. The reason we feel like we're worth so little is ultimately because we're away from the One who gave us our worth. The Bible describes us as being "without God" (Ephesians 2:12) because we've taken over the running of our own lives. Notice the middle letter of sin is "I." All of our sinning has put a wall between us and the God who made us for himself.
But when Jesus died on the cross, He was giving "all He had" to pay the price for all the wrong things you have ever done. In your heart, for just a moment, would you walk up that hill the Bible calls Skull Hill and just stand there quietly at the foot of that cross where the Son of God is pouring out His life for you. Look at Him dying for you! You are not worthless!
But you'll never know how valuable you are until you give yourself to the One who died to buy you back; which you could do right now, right where you are. Tell Jesus you want to belong to Him, that the rest of your life is His.
I want to invite you to our website, because you'll find there a lot of practical steps to help you know that you belong to Jesus Christ. It's all about how to begin life's most important relationship. I hope you'll check it out. It's at YoursForLife.net. Or I'd be glad to send you my free booklet Yours For Life if you'll just call and ask us for it at 877-741-1200.
See, Jesus doesn't want to lose you. That's why He paid for you with His life. This could be the day that you finally belong to the One who loves you like you've never been loved before.
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