Max Lucado Daily: He Rested
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He Rested
Posted: 14 Mar 2010 11:01 PM PDT
“He rested on the seventh day.” Exodus 20:11, The Message
Read what Jesus did during the last Sabbath of his life. Start in the Gospel of Matthew. Didn’t find anything? Try Mark…. Nothing there either? Strange. What about Luke?... Not a word about it? Well, try John. Surely John mentions the Sabbath. He doesn’t?
No reference? Hmmmm. Looks like Jesus was quiet that day….
“You mean with one week left to live, Jesus observed the Sabbath?” As far as we can tell.
2 Kings 23
1-3 The king acted immediately, assembling all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. Then the king proceeded to The Temple of God, bringing everyone in his train—priests and prophets and people ranging from the famous to the unknown. Then he read out publicly everything written in the Book of the Covenant that was found in The Temple of God. The king stood by the pillar and before God solemnly committed them all to the covenant: to follow God believingly and obediently; to follow his instructions, heart and soul, on what to believe and do; to put into practice the entire covenant, all that was written in the book. The people stood in affirmation; their commitment was unanimous.
4-9 Then the king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, his associate priest, and The Temple sentries to clean house—to get rid of everything in The Temple of God that had been made for worshiping Baal and Asherah and the cosmic powers. He had them burned outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and then disposed of the ashes in Bethel. He fired the pagan priests whom the kings of Judah had hired to supervise the local sex-and-religion shrines in the towns of Judah and neighborhoods of Jerusalem. In a stroke he swept the country clean of the polluting stench of the round-the-clock worship of Baal, sun and moon, stars—all the so-called cosmic powers. He took the obscene phallic Asherah pole from The Temple of God to the Valley of Kidron outside Jerusalem, burned it up, then ground up the ashes and scattered them in the cemetery. He tore out the rooms of the male sacred prostitutes that had been set up in The Temple of God; women also used these rooms for weavings for Asherah. He swept the outlying towns of Judah clean of priests and smashed the sex-and-religion shrines where they worked their trade from one end of the country to the other—all the way from Geba to Beersheba. He smashed the sex-and-religion shrine that had been set up just to the left of the city gate for the private use of Joshua, the city mayor. Even though these sex-and-religion priests did not defile the Altar in The Temple itself, they were part of the general priestly corruption and had to go.
10-11 Then Josiah demolished the Topheth, the iron furnace griddle set up in the Valley of Ben Hinnom for sacrificing children in the fire. No longer could anyone burn son or daughter to the god Molech. He hauled off the horse statues honoring the sun god that the kings of Judah had set up near the entrance to The Temple. They were in the courtyard next to the office of Nathan-Melech, the warden. He burned up the sun-chariots as so much rubbish.
12-15 The king smashed all the altars to smithereens—the altar on the roof shrine of Ahaz, the various altars the kings of Judah had made, the altars of Manasseh that littered the courtyard of The Temple—he smashed them all, pulverized the fragments, and scattered their dust in the Valley of Kidron. The king proceeded to make a clean sweep of all the sex-and-religion shrines that had proliferated east of Jerusalem on the south slope of Abomination Hill, the ones Solomon king of Israel had built to the obscene Sidonian sex goddess Ashtoreth, to Chemosh the dirty-old-god of the Moabites, and to Milcom the depraved god of the Ammonites. He tore apart the altars, chopped down the phallic Asherah-poles, and scattered old bones over the sites. Next, he took care of the altar at the shrine in Bethel that Jeroboam son of Nebat had built—the same Jeroboam who had led Israel into a life of sin. He tore apart the altar, burned down the shrine leaving it in ashes, and then lit fire to the phallic Asherah-pole.
16 As Josiah looked over the scene, he noticed the tombs on the hillside. He ordered the bones removed from the tombs and had them cremated on the ruined altars, desacralizing the evil altars. This was a fulfillment of the word of God spoken by the Holy Man years before when Jeroboam had stood by the altar at the sacred convocation.
17 Then the king said, "And that memorial stone—whose is that?"
The men from the city said, "That's the grave of the Holy Man who spoke the message against the altar at Bethel that you have just fulfilled."
18 Josiah said, "Don't trouble his bones." So they left his bones undisturbed, along with the bones of the prophet from Samaria.
19-20 But Josiah hadn't finished. He now moved through all the towns of Samaria where the kings of Israel had built neighborhood sex-and-religion shrines, shrines that had so angered God. He tore the shrines down and left them in ruins—just as at Bethel. He killed all the priests who had conducted the sacrifices and cremated them on their own altars, thus desacralizing the altars. Only then did Josiah return to Jerusalem.
21 The king now commanded the people, "Celebrate the Passover to God, your God, exactly as directed in this Book of the Covenant."
22-23 This commanded Passover had not been celebrated since the days that the judges judged Israel—none of the kings of Israel and Judah had celebrated it. But in the eighteenth year of the rule of King Josiah this very Passover was celebrated to God in Jerusalem.
24 Josiah scrubbed the place clean and trashed spirit-mediums, sorcerers, domestic gods, and carved figures—all the vast accumulation of foul and obscene relics and images on display everywhere you looked in Judah and Jerusalem. Josiah did this in obedience to the words of God's Revelation written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in The Temple of God.
25 There was no king to compare with Josiah—neither before nor after— a king who turned in total and repentant obedience to God, heart and mind and strength, following the instructions revealed to and written by Moses. The world would never again see a king like Josiah.
26-27 But despite Josiah, God's hot anger did not cool; the raging anger ignited by Manasseh burned unchecked. And God, not swerving in his judgment, gave sentence: "I'll remove Judah from my presence in the same way I removed Israel. I'll turn my back on this city, Jerusalem, that I chose, and even from this Temple of which I said, 'My Name lives here.'"
28-30 The rest of the life and times of Josiah is written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. Josiah's death came about when Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt marched out to join forces with the king of Assyria at the Euphrates River. When King Josiah intercepted him at the Plain of Megiddo, Neco killed him. Josiah's servants took his body in a chariot, returned him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. By popular choice Jehoahaz son of Josiah was anointed and succeeded his father as king.
Jehoahaz of Judah
31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to rule. He was king in Jerusalem for a mere three months. His mother's name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah. She came from Libnah.
32 In God's opinion, he was an evil king, reverting to the evil ways of his ancestors.
33-34 Pharaoh Neco captured Jehoahaz at Riblah in the country of Hamath and put him in chains, preventing him from ruling in Jerusalem. He demanded that Judah pay tribute of nearly four tons of silver and seventy-five pounds of gold. Then Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim son of Josiah the successor to Josiah, but changed his name to Jehoiakim. Jehoahaz was carted off to Egypt and eventually died there.
35 Meanwhile Jehoiakim, like a good puppet, dutifully paid out the silver and gold demanded by Pharaoh. He scraped up the money by gouging the people, making everyone pay an assessed tax.
Jehoiakim of Judah
36-37 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to rule; he was king for eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah. She had come from Rumah. In God's opinion he was an evil king, picking up on the evil ways of his ancestors.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Romans 8:31-39 (The Message)
31-39So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn't gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God's chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:
They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.
We're sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.
None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I'm absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.
March 15, 2010
Last Line Of Defense
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READ: Romans 8:31-39
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. —Romans 8:37
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was the site of a battle that turned the tide of America’s Civil War. One of the focal points of the conflict was a rocky knoll called Little Round Top where Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the men of the 20th Maine Infantry stood their ground. Had the Confederate troops gotten past Chamberlain’s men, some historians believe the Union army would have been surrounded—possibly leading to the loss of the war. The “20th Maine” was the last line of defense.
Followers of Christ are also engaged in a vital war. As we battle “the wiles of the devil” (Eph. 6:11), we are called to wear the armor of God and to stand firm in the conflict (vv.10-18).
And like the Gettysburg soldiers, we have a “last line of defense.” For us, though, this defense is greater than any human force. In Romans 8:31-39, Paul says that our ultimate confidence is in the undying love of Christ. So complete is our protection that nothing can “separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (v.39).
When the enemy seems overwhelming and all seems lost, remember, we have an unbeatable last line of defense: “We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (v.37). — Bill Crowder
We are more than conquerors
Through Him who loved us so;
The Christ who dwells within us
Is the greatest power we know. —Carmichael
God’s plan always leads to victory.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 15, 2010
The Discipline of Dismay
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READ:
As they followed they were afraid —Mark 10:32
At the beginning of our life with Jesus Christ, we were sure we knew all there was to know about following Him. It was a delight to forsake everything else and to throw ourselves before Him in a fearless statement of love. But now we are not quite so sure. Jesus is far ahead of us and is beginning to seem different and unfamiliar— "Jesus was going before them; and they were amazed" (Mark 10:32 ).
There is an aspect of Jesus that chills even a disciple’s heart to its depth and makes his entire spiritual life gasp for air. This unusual Person with His face set "like a flint" (Isaiah 50:7 ) is walking with great determination ahead of me, and He strikes terror right through me. He no longer seems to be my Counselor and Friend and has a point of view about which I know nothing. All I can do is stand and stare at Him in amazement. At first I was confident that I understood Him, but now I am not so sure. I begin to realize that there is a distance between Jesus and me and I can no longer be intimate with Him. I have no idea where He is going, and the goal has become strangely distant.
Jesus Christ had to understand fully every sin and sorrow that human beings could experience, and that is what makes Him seem unfamiliar. When we see this aspect of Him, we realize we really don’t know Him. We don’t recognize even one characteristic of His life, and we don’t know how to begin to follow Him. He is far ahead of us, a Leader who seems totally unfamiliar, and we have no friendship with Him.
The discipline of dismay is an essential lesson which a disciple must learn. The danger is that we tend to look back on our times of obedience and on our past sacrifices to God in an effort to keep our enthusiasm for Him strong (see Isaiah 1:10-11 ). But when the darkness of dismay comes, endure until it is over, because out of it will come the ability to follow Jesus truly, which brings inexpressibly wonderful joy.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Why "More" is Never Enough - #6046
Monday, March 15, 2010
Maybe you've heard that little song from a children's TV show. It goes like this: "One of these things is not like the other; one of these things doesn't belong." That's how I look in the middle of 20 or 30 professional football players. And that's where I've ended up a number of times when I've spoken for National Football League chapel services. Every NFL team actually has a chapel meeting before their game. Often, I was invited to join the players for the team meal after the chapel. Of course, their game day meal was this massive buffet, designed to help them power up for this grueling afternoon they have ahead. After one chapel, I had the privilege of visiting for some time with one of the players who had actually played in three Super Bowls and had been named the Most Valuable Player in one of them. I said, "So you have three Super Bowl rings?" He said, "Yeah, but it's still not enough. I won't be happy until I've got a Super Bowl ring on all ten fingers!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why 'More' is Never Enough."
Here's a man who has won one of the most coveted prizes in professional sports - three times! But it's not enough. I remember hearing the story of one player who had just experienced the fulfillment of his lifelong dream. He played on a national champion college football team. The morning after, his team and his name were all over the front pages, announcing they had won the championship. But he said he couldn't get over this deep feeling of depression that morning, because, in his words, "my god had died." He had everything he'd been living for. Now what?
John D. Rockefeller, one of the richest men in American history was asked once by a reporter, "How much money is enough money?" He smiled and he answered simply, "A little bit more." It's true, isn't it? Whatever we've looked for in our life, there never seems to be enough of it to satisfy our restless heart. If you're still climbing whatever is your own "Mt. Happiness," you figure you're not satisfied because you're not there yet. But the people who are already at the top of that mountain are saying, "I'm here and I don't have it. Now what?"
Thousands of years ago, King Solomon, the richest and most sought after man of his time, reached this conclusion, recorded in the Bible in Ecclesiastes 1, "There is nothing new under the sun...I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind." That says it, doesn't it; chasing the wind. In Ecclesiastes 3:11, our word for today from the Word of God, Solomon actually puts his finger on why happiness is so elusive: He says, "God has set eternity in the hearts of men." We're made for something that will last forever, and nothing that doesn't last forever will ever fill the hole in our heart. In fact, we were made for a personal relationship with God, the only One who's big enough to fill that hole because that hole was made for Him. The Bible describes our hearts as being "like the tossing sea, which cannot rest...there is no peace..." (Isaiah 57:20-21).
But we haven't made our Creator the center of our lives. We've marginalized Him and minimized Him. We've pushed Him to the edges of our life, and confining Him to a little compartment marked "religion." We're lonely for God. We're away from God; so far away that it took the death of God's only Son to bridge the gap between us. Our self-run lives (the Bible calls that sin) place us under the death penalty for all rebels against God. The death of Jesus Christ on that cross, and His resurrection from the dead three days later, was to pay for every wrong thing you've ever done and to open the door to love and life that never ends; that eternity you were made for.
The Bible bottom lines what Jesus did for you on the cross in these words: "The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him" (Isaiah 53:5). The Bible says you can be, "complete in Him." If that's what you want, if you're ready to place your total trust in Jesus to forgive your sin and bring you to God, tell Him that from the bottom of your heart right where you are, "Jesus, beginning right now, I'm Yours."
And then I hope you'll visit our website. And you can find there a brief explanation that I put there about how to begin your relationship with Christ. The website is YoursForLife.net. Your heart's been looking for home for a long time. Today, home has come looking for you.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
2 Kings 22, Bible reading and Daily Devotions
Max Lucado Daily: No More Pain
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No More Pain
Posted: 13 Mar 2010 11:01 PM PST
“There will be no more death, sadness, crying, or pain, because all the old ways are gone.” Revelation 21:4
Folks, if you’re expecting to be given a fair shake in your life, forget it! You won’t be. You’re going to face illness. And your body is going to wear out. You may be the victim of someone else’s mistake. But you can get through those tough times if you prepare your heart now, living to know and serve the Savior who loves you and died so that you might have an eternal home free of pain and sorrow.
2 Kings 22
Josiah of Judah
1-2 Josiah was eight years old when he became king. He ruled for thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah; she was from Bozkath. He lived the way God wanted. He kept straight on the path blazed by his ancestor David, not one step to either left or right.
3-7 One day in the eighteenth year of his kingship, King Josiah sent the royal secretary Shaphan son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, to The Temple of God with instructions: "Go to Hilkiah the high priest and have him count the money that has been brought to The Temple of God that the doormen have collected from the people. Have them turn it over to the foremen who are managing the work on The Temple of God so they can pay the workers who are repairing God's Temple, all the carpenters, construction workers, and masons. Also, authorize them to buy the lumber and dressed stone for The Temple repairs. You don't need to get a receipt for the money you give them—they're all honest men."
8 The high priest Hilkiah reported to Shaphan the royal secretary, "I've just found the Book of God's Revelation, instructing us in God's ways. I found it in The Temple!" He gave it to Shaphan and Shaphan read it.
9 Then Shaphan the royal secretary came back to the king and gave him an account of what had gone on: "Your servants have bagged up the money that has been collected for The Temple; they have given it to the foremen to pay The Temple workers."
10 Then Shaphan the royal secretary told the king, "Hilkiah the priest gave me a book." Shaphan proceeded to read it to the king.
11-13 When the king heard what was written in the book, God's Revelation, he ripped his robes in dismay. And then he called for Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Acbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the royal secretary, and Asaiah the king's personal aide. He ordered them all: "Go and pray to God for me and for this people—for all Judah! Find out what we must do in response to what is written in this book that has just been found! God's anger must be burning furiously against us—our ancestors haven't obeyed a thing written in this book, followed none of the instructions directed to us."
14-17 Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Acbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went straight to Huldah the prophetess. She was the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, who was in charge of the palace wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter. The five men consulted with her. In response to them she said, "God's word, the God of Israel: Tell the man who sent you here that I'm on my way to bring the doom of judgment on this place and this people. Every word written in the book read by the king of Judah will happen. And why? Because they've deserted me and taken up with other gods, made me thoroughly angry by setting up their god-making businesses. My anger is raging white-hot against this place and nobody is going to put it out.
18-20 "And also tell the king of Judah, since he sent you to ask God for direction; tell him this, God's comment on what he read in the book: 'Because you took seriously the doom of judgment I spoke against this place and people, and because you responded in humble repentance, tearing your robe in dismay and weeping before me, I'm taking you seriously. God's word: I'll take care of you. You'll have a quiet death and be buried in peace. You won't be around to see the doom that I'm going to bring upon this place.'"
The men took her message back to the king.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Romans 8:12-17 (The Message)
12-14So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!
15-17This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him!
March 14, 2010
Unique Privileges
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: Romans 8:12-17
Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself. —Ephesians 1:5
In Forever Young: My Friendship with John F. Kennedy, Jr., Billy Noonan recalls the life experiences he shared with the son of President John Kennedy.
In 1980, as one of the stories goes, John Jr. and Billy were invited aboard the USS John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier. On a guided tour of the ship, the two young men and their guide inadvertently entered a restricted area. When an officer stopped them, the guide pointed to John and said, “This is his father’s ship.” Snapping to attention, the officer saluted John. He explained his understanding that when a US Navy ship is named for someone, it is considered that person’s ship. Thus, as the son of the man for whom the ship was named, John Jr. had unique privileges.
This illustrates a vital spiritual principle. As adopted children in God’s family, we who have been saved possess the position of sonship. Paul wrote that as believers we are “predestined . . . to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself” (Eph. 1:5). By virtue of this sonship, we have the unique privileges that belong to the children of the King of kings.
In life’s challenging voyage, we can take courage that our “Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15) owns the ship and shares all with us. Praise God, we are joint-heirs with Christ! — Dennis Fisher
The wealth of God is ours to share
Through Jesus Christ the Lord,
Joint-heirs with Him we claim it, then,
According to His Word. —Sherbert
A Christian’s inheritance is guaranteed forever!
March 14, 2010
Yielding
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
. . . you are that one’s slaves whom you obey . . . —Romans 6:16
The first thing I must be willing to admit when I begin to examine what controls and dominates me is that I am the one responsible for having yielded myself to whatever it may be. If I am a slave to myself, I am to blame because somewhere in the past I yielded to myself. Likewise, if I obey God I do so because at some point in my life I yielded myself to Him.
If a child gives in to selfishness, he will find it to be the most enslaving tyranny on earth. There is no power within the human soul itself that is capable of breaking the bondage of the nature created by yielding. For example, yield for one second to anything in the nature of lust, and although you may hate yourself for having yielded, you become enslaved to that thing. (Remember what lust is— "I must have it now," whether it is the lust of the flesh or the lust of the mind.) No release or escape from it will ever come from any human power, but only through the power of redemption. You must yield yourself in utter humiliation to the only One who can break the dominating power in your life, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ. ". . . He has anointed Me . . . to proclaim liberty to the captives . . ." ( Luke 4:18 and Isaiah 61:1 ).
When you yield to something, you will soon realize the tremendous control it has over you. Even though you say, "Oh, I can give up that habit whenever I like," you will know you can’t. You will find that the habit absolutely dominates you because you willingly yielded to it. It is easy to sing, "He will break every fetter," while at the same time living a life of obvious slavery to yourself. But yielding to Jesus will break every kind of slavery in any person’s life.
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No More Pain
Posted: 13 Mar 2010 11:01 PM PST
“There will be no more death, sadness, crying, or pain, because all the old ways are gone.” Revelation 21:4
Folks, if you’re expecting to be given a fair shake in your life, forget it! You won’t be. You’re going to face illness. And your body is going to wear out. You may be the victim of someone else’s mistake. But you can get through those tough times if you prepare your heart now, living to know and serve the Savior who loves you and died so that you might have an eternal home free of pain and sorrow.
2 Kings 22
Josiah of Judah
1-2 Josiah was eight years old when he became king. He ruled for thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah; she was from Bozkath. He lived the way God wanted. He kept straight on the path blazed by his ancestor David, not one step to either left or right.
3-7 One day in the eighteenth year of his kingship, King Josiah sent the royal secretary Shaphan son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, to The Temple of God with instructions: "Go to Hilkiah the high priest and have him count the money that has been brought to The Temple of God that the doormen have collected from the people. Have them turn it over to the foremen who are managing the work on The Temple of God so they can pay the workers who are repairing God's Temple, all the carpenters, construction workers, and masons. Also, authorize them to buy the lumber and dressed stone for The Temple repairs. You don't need to get a receipt for the money you give them—they're all honest men."
8 The high priest Hilkiah reported to Shaphan the royal secretary, "I've just found the Book of God's Revelation, instructing us in God's ways. I found it in The Temple!" He gave it to Shaphan and Shaphan read it.
9 Then Shaphan the royal secretary came back to the king and gave him an account of what had gone on: "Your servants have bagged up the money that has been collected for The Temple; they have given it to the foremen to pay The Temple workers."
10 Then Shaphan the royal secretary told the king, "Hilkiah the priest gave me a book." Shaphan proceeded to read it to the king.
11-13 When the king heard what was written in the book, God's Revelation, he ripped his robes in dismay. And then he called for Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Acbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the royal secretary, and Asaiah the king's personal aide. He ordered them all: "Go and pray to God for me and for this people—for all Judah! Find out what we must do in response to what is written in this book that has just been found! God's anger must be burning furiously against us—our ancestors haven't obeyed a thing written in this book, followed none of the instructions directed to us."
14-17 Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Acbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went straight to Huldah the prophetess. She was the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, who was in charge of the palace wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter. The five men consulted with her. In response to them she said, "God's word, the God of Israel: Tell the man who sent you here that I'm on my way to bring the doom of judgment on this place and this people. Every word written in the book read by the king of Judah will happen. And why? Because they've deserted me and taken up with other gods, made me thoroughly angry by setting up their god-making businesses. My anger is raging white-hot against this place and nobody is going to put it out.
18-20 "And also tell the king of Judah, since he sent you to ask God for direction; tell him this, God's comment on what he read in the book: 'Because you took seriously the doom of judgment I spoke against this place and people, and because you responded in humble repentance, tearing your robe in dismay and weeping before me, I'm taking you seriously. God's word: I'll take care of you. You'll have a quiet death and be buried in peace. You won't be around to see the doom that I'm going to bring upon this place.'"
The men took her message back to the king.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Romans 8:12-17 (The Message)
12-14So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!
15-17This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him!
March 14, 2010
Unique Privileges
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: Romans 8:12-17
Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself. —Ephesians 1:5
In Forever Young: My Friendship with John F. Kennedy, Jr., Billy Noonan recalls the life experiences he shared with the son of President John Kennedy.
In 1980, as one of the stories goes, John Jr. and Billy were invited aboard the USS John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier. On a guided tour of the ship, the two young men and their guide inadvertently entered a restricted area. When an officer stopped them, the guide pointed to John and said, “This is his father’s ship.” Snapping to attention, the officer saluted John. He explained his understanding that when a US Navy ship is named for someone, it is considered that person’s ship. Thus, as the son of the man for whom the ship was named, John Jr. had unique privileges.
This illustrates a vital spiritual principle. As adopted children in God’s family, we who have been saved possess the position of sonship. Paul wrote that as believers we are “predestined . . . to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself” (Eph. 1:5). By virtue of this sonship, we have the unique privileges that belong to the children of the King of kings.
In life’s challenging voyage, we can take courage that our “Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15) owns the ship and shares all with us. Praise God, we are joint-heirs with Christ! — Dennis Fisher
The wealth of God is ours to share
Through Jesus Christ the Lord,
Joint-heirs with Him we claim it, then,
According to His Word. —Sherbert
A Christian’s inheritance is guaranteed forever!
March 14, 2010
Yielding
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
. . . you are that one’s slaves whom you obey . . . —Romans 6:16
The first thing I must be willing to admit when I begin to examine what controls and dominates me is that I am the one responsible for having yielded myself to whatever it may be. If I am a slave to myself, I am to blame because somewhere in the past I yielded to myself. Likewise, if I obey God I do so because at some point in my life I yielded myself to Him.
If a child gives in to selfishness, he will find it to be the most enslaving tyranny on earth. There is no power within the human soul itself that is capable of breaking the bondage of the nature created by yielding. For example, yield for one second to anything in the nature of lust, and although you may hate yourself for having yielded, you become enslaved to that thing. (Remember what lust is— "I must have it now," whether it is the lust of the flesh or the lust of the mind.) No release or escape from it will ever come from any human power, but only through the power of redemption. You must yield yourself in utter humiliation to the only One who can break the dominating power in your life, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ. ". . . He has anointed Me . . . to proclaim liberty to the captives . . ." ( Luke 4:18 and Isaiah 61:1 ).
When you yield to something, you will soon realize the tremendous control it has over you. Even though you say, "Oh, I can give up that habit whenever I like," you will know you can’t. You will find that the habit absolutely dominates you because you willingly yielded to it. It is easy to sing, "He will break every fetter," while at the same time living a life of obvious slavery to yourself. But yielding to Jesus will break every kind of slavery in any person’s life.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
2 Kings 21, Bible reading and Daily Devotions
Max Lucado Daily: He Clothes Us
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He Clothes Us
Posted: 12 Mar 2010 10:00 PM PST
“You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God.” Ephesians 2:8
We hide. He seeks. We bring sin. He brings a sacrifice. We try fig leaves. He brings the robe of righteousness. And we are left to sing the song of the prophet: “He has covered me with the clothes of salvation and wrapped me with a coat of goodness, like a bridegroom dressed for his wedding, like a bride dressed in jewels” (Isa. 61:10).
God has clothed us. He protects us with a cloak of love.
2 Kings 21
Manasseh of Judah
1-6Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king. He ruled for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah. In God's judgment he was a bad king—an evil king. He reintroduced all the moral rot and spiritual corruption that had been scoured from the country when God dispossessed the pagan nations in favor of the children of Israel. He rebuilt all the sex-and-religion shrines that his father Hezekiah had torn down, and he built altars and phallic images for the sex god Baal and sex goddess Asherah, exactly what Ahaz king of Israel had done. He worshiped the cosmic powers, taking orders from the constellations. He even built these pagan altars in The Temple of God, the very Jerusalem Temple dedicated exclusively by God's decree ("in Jerusalem I place my Name") to God's Name. And he built shrines to the cosmic powers and placed them in both courtyards of The Temple of God. He burned his own son in a sacrificial offering. He practiced black magic and fortunetelling. He held séances and consulted spirits from the underworld. Much evil—in God's judgment, a career in evil. And God was angry.
7-8 As a last straw he placed the carved image of the sex goddess Asherah in The Temple of God, a flagrant and provocative violation of God's well-known statement to both David and Solomon, "In this Temple and in this city Jerusalem, my choice out of all the tribes of Israel, I place my Name—exclusively and forever. Never again will I let my people Israel wander off from this land I gave to their ancestors. But here's the condition: They must keep everything I've commanded in the instructions my servant Moses passed on to them."
9 But the people didn't listen. Manasseh led them off the beaten path into practices of evil even exceeding the evil of the pagan nations that God had earlier destroyed.
10-12 God, thoroughly fed up, sent word through his servants the prophets: "Because Manasseh king of Judah has committed these outrageous sins, eclipsing the sin-performance of the Amorites before him, setting new records in evil, using foul idols to debase Judah into a nation of sinners, this is my judgment, God's verdict: I, the God of Israel, will visit catastrophe on Jerusalem and Judah, a doom so terrible that when people hear of it they'll shake their heads in disbelief, saying, 'I can't believe it!'
13-15 "I'll visit the fate of Samaria on Jerusalem, a rerun of Ahab's doom. I'll wipe out Jerusalem as you would wipe out a dish, wiping it out and turning it over to dry. I'll get rid of what's left of my inheritance, dumping them on their enemies. If their enemies can salvage anything from them, they're welcome to it. They've been nothing but trouble to me from the day their ancestors left Egypt until now. They pushed me to my limit; I won't put up with their evil any longer."
16 The final word on Manasseh was that he was an indiscriminate murderer. He drenched Jerusalem with the innocent blood of his victims. That's on top of all the sins in which he involved his people. As far as God was concerned, he'd turned them into a nation of sinners.
17-18 The rest of the life and times of Manasseh, everything he did and his sorry record of sin, is written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. Manasseh died and joined his ancestors. He was buried in the palace garden, the Garden of Uzza. His son Amon became the next king.
Amon of Judah
19-22 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king. He was king for two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz. She was from Jotbah. In God's opinion he lived an evil life, just like his father Manasseh. He followed in the footsteps of his father, serving and worshiping the same foul gods his father had served. He totally deserted the God of his ancestors; he did not live God's way.
23-24 Amon's servants revolted and assassinated him, killing the king right in his own palace. But the people, in their turn, killed the conspirators against King Amon and then crowned Josiah, Amon's son, as king.
25-26 The rest of the life and times of Amon is written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. They buried Amon in his burial plot in the Garden of Uzza. His son Josiah became the next king.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Psalm 138 (The Message)
Psalm 138
A David Psalm
1-3 Thank you! Everything in me says "Thank you!" Angels listen as I sing my thanks.
I kneel in worship facing your holy temple
and say it again: "Thank you!"
Thank you for your love,
thank you for your faithfulness;
Most holy is your name,
most holy is your Word.
The moment I called out, you stepped in;
you made my life large with strength.
4-6 When they hear what you have to say, God,
all earth's kings will say "Thank you."
They'll sing of what you've done:
"How great the glory of God!"
And here's why: God, high above, sees far below;
no matter the distance, he knows everything about us.
7-8 When I walk into the thick of trouble,
keep me alive in the angry turmoil.
With one hand
strike my foes,
With your other hand
save me.
Finish what you started in me, God.
Your love is eternal—don't quit on me now.
March 13, 2010
A Safe Pair Of Hands
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: Psalm 138
Your right hand will save me. —Psalm 138:7
Edwin van der Sar, goalkeeper for the Manchester United soccer team, had a “safe” pair of hands. He kept the ball from entering his team’s goal for 1,302 minutes, a world record in one season! That means that for almost 15 games of 90 minutes each, no one was able to score even one goal against his team while he was guarding the goalposts. But one goal by an opposing team in March 2009 ended his record.
The psalmist David found comfort in the safest pair of hands—God’s hands. He wrote of God’s protection in Psalm 138, “You will stretch out Your hand . . . and Your right hand will save me” (v.7). Like David, we can look to God’s safe hands to keep us from spiritual danger and defeat.
Another assurance from God’s Word for followers of Christ is Jude 1:24-25: “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.” That doesn’t mean we’ll never stumble. But it does mean we won’t stumble so badly that God cannot pick us up.
God’s safe pair of hands can never fail—ever! — C. P. Hia
From Him, who loves me now so well,
What power my soul can sever?
Shall life or death, or earth or hell?
No—I am His forever. —Small
No place is more secure than to be in God’s hands.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 13, 2010
God’s Total Surrender to Us
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READ:
For God so loved the world that He gave . . . —John 3:16
Salvation does not mean merely deliverance from sin or the experience of personal holiness. The salvation which comes from God means being completely delivered from myself, and being placed into perfect union with Him. When I think of my salvation experience, I think of being delivered from sin and gaining personal holiness. But salvation is so much more! It means that the Spirit of God has brought me into intimate contact with the true Person of God Himself. And as I am caught up into total surrender to God, I become thrilled with something infinitely greater than myself.
To say that we are called to preach holiness or sanctification is to miss the main point. We are called to proclaim Jesus Christ (see 1 Corinthians 2:2 ). The fact that He saves from sin and makes us holy is actually part of the effect of His wonderful and total surrender to us.
If we are truly surrendered, we will never be aware of our own efforts to remain surrendered. Our entire life will be consumed with the One to whom we surrender. Beware of talking about surrender if you know nothing about it. In fact, you will never know anything about it until you understand that John 3:16 means that God completely and absolutely gave Himself to us. In our surrender, we must give ourselves to God in the same way He gave Himself for us— totally, unconditionally, and without reservation. The consequences and circumstances resulting from our surrender will never even enter our mind, because our life will be totally consumed with Him.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He Clothes Us
Posted: 12 Mar 2010 10:00 PM PST
“You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God.” Ephesians 2:8
We hide. He seeks. We bring sin. He brings a sacrifice. We try fig leaves. He brings the robe of righteousness. And we are left to sing the song of the prophet: “He has covered me with the clothes of salvation and wrapped me with a coat of goodness, like a bridegroom dressed for his wedding, like a bride dressed in jewels” (Isa. 61:10).
God has clothed us. He protects us with a cloak of love.
2 Kings 21
Manasseh of Judah
1-6Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king. He ruled for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah. In God's judgment he was a bad king—an evil king. He reintroduced all the moral rot and spiritual corruption that had been scoured from the country when God dispossessed the pagan nations in favor of the children of Israel. He rebuilt all the sex-and-religion shrines that his father Hezekiah had torn down, and he built altars and phallic images for the sex god Baal and sex goddess Asherah, exactly what Ahaz king of Israel had done. He worshiped the cosmic powers, taking orders from the constellations. He even built these pagan altars in The Temple of God, the very Jerusalem Temple dedicated exclusively by God's decree ("in Jerusalem I place my Name") to God's Name. And he built shrines to the cosmic powers and placed them in both courtyards of The Temple of God. He burned his own son in a sacrificial offering. He practiced black magic and fortunetelling. He held séances and consulted spirits from the underworld. Much evil—in God's judgment, a career in evil. And God was angry.
7-8 As a last straw he placed the carved image of the sex goddess Asherah in The Temple of God, a flagrant and provocative violation of God's well-known statement to both David and Solomon, "In this Temple and in this city Jerusalem, my choice out of all the tribes of Israel, I place my Name—exclusively and forever. Never again will I let my people Israel wander off from this land I gave to their ancestors. But here's the condition: They must keep everything I've commanded in the instructions my servant Moses passed on to them."
9 But the people didn't listen. Manasseh led them off the beaten path into practices of evil even exceeding the evil of the pagan nations that God had earlier destroyed.
10-12 God, thoroughly fed up, sent word through his servants the prophets: "Because Manasseh king of Judah has committed these outrageous sins, eclipsing the sin-performance of the Amorites before him, setting new records in evil, using foul idols to debase Judah into a nation of sinners, this is my judgment, God's verdict: I, the God of Israel, will visit catastrophe on Jerusalem and Judah, a doom so terrible that when people hear of it they'll shake their heads in disbelief, saying, 'I can't believe it!'
13-15 "I'll visit the fate of Samaria on Jerusalem, a rerun of Ahab's doom. I'll wipe out Jerusalem as you would wipe out a dish, wiping it out and turning it over to dry. I'll get rid of what's left of my inheritance, dumping them on their enemies. If their enemies can salvage anything from them, they're welcome to it. They've been nothing but trouble to me from the day their ancestors left Egypt until now. They pushed me to my limit; I won't put up with their evil any longer."
16 The final word on Manasseh was that he was an indiscriminate murderer. He drenched Jerusalem with the innocent blood of his victims. That's on top of all the sins in which he involved his people. As far as God was concerned, he'd turned them into a nation of sinners.
17-18 The rest of the life and times of Manasseh, everything he did and his sorry record of sin, is written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. Manasseh died and joined his ancestors. He was buried in the palace garden, the Garden of Uzza. His son Amon became the next king.
Amon of Judah
19-22 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king. He was king for two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz. She was from Jotbah. In God's opinion he lived an evil life, just like his father Manasseh. He followed in the footsteps of his father, serving and worshiping the same foul gods his father had served. He totally deserted the God of his ancestors; he did not live God's way.
23-24 Amon's servants revolted and assassinated him, killing the king right in his own palace. But the people, in their turn, killed the conspirators against King Amon and then crowned Josiah, Amon's son, as king.
25-26 The rest of the life and times of Amon is written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. They buried Amon in his burial plot in the Garden of Uzza. His son Josiah became the next king.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Psalm 138 (The Message)
Psalm 138
A David Psalm
1-3 Thank you! Everything in me says "Thank you!" Angels listen as I sing my thanks.
I kneel in worship facing your holy temple
and say it again: "Thank you!"
Thank you for your love,
thank you for your faithfulness;
Most holy is your name,
most holy is your Word.
The moment I called out, you stepped in;
you made my life large with strength.
4-6 When they hear what you have to say, God,
all earth's kings will say "Thank you."
They'll sing of what you've done:
"How great the glory of God!"
And here's why: God, high above, sees far below;
no matter the distance, he knows everything about us.
7-8 When I walk into the thick of trouble,
keep me alive in the angry turmoil.
With one hand
strike my foes,
With your other hand
save me.
Finish what you started in me, God.
Your love is eternal—don't quit on me now.
March 13, 2010
A Safe Pair Of Hands
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: Psalm 138
Your right hand will save me. —Psalm 138:7
Edwin van der Sar, goalkeeper for the Manchester United soccer team, had a “safe” pair of hands. He kept the ball from entering his team’s goal for 1,302 minutes, a world record in one season! That means that for almost 15 games of 90 minutes each, no one was able to score even one goal against his team while he was guarding the goalposts. But one goal by an opposing team in March 2009 ended his record.
The psalmist David found comfort in the safest pair of hands—God’s hands. He wrote of God’s protection in Psalm 138, “You will stretch out Your hand . . . and Your right hand will save me” (v.7). Like David, we can look to God’s safe hands to keep us from spiritual danger and defeat.
Another assurance from God’s Word for followers of Christ is Jude 1:24-25: “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.” That doesn’t mean we’ll never stumble. But it does mean we won’t stumble so badly that God cannot pick us up.
God’s safe pair of hands can never fail—ever! — C. P. Hia
From Him, who loves me now so well,
What power my soul can sever?
Shall life or death, or earth or hell?
No—I am His forever. —Small
No place is more secure than to be in God’s hands.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 13, 2010
God’s Total Surrender to Us
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
For God so loved the world that He gave . . . —John 3:16
Salvation does not mean merely deliverance from sin or the experience of personal holiness. The salvation which comes from God means being completely delivered from myself, and being placed into perfect union with Him. When I think of my salvation experience, I think of being delivered from sin and gaining personal holiness. But salvation is so much more! It means that the Spirit of God has brought me into intimate contact with the true Person of God Himself. And as I am caught up into total surrender to God, I become thrilled with something infinitely greater than myself.
To say that we are called to preach holiness or sanctification is to miss the main point. We are called to proclaim Jesus Christ (see 1 Corinthians 2:2 ). The fact that He saves from sin and makes us holy is actually part of the effect of His wonderful and total surrender to us.
If we are truly surrendered, we will never be aware of our own efforts to remain surrendered. Our entire life will be consumed with the One to whom we surrender. Beware of talking about surrender if you know nothing about it. In fact, you will never know anything about it until you understand that John 3:16 means that God completely and absolutely gave Himself to us. In our surrender, we must give ourselves to God in the same way He gave Himself for us— totally, unconditionally, and without reservation. The consequences and circumstances resulting from our surrender will never even enter our mind, because our life will be totally consumed with Him.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Isaiah 55, Bible reading and Daily Devotions
Max Lucado Daily: A Good Friend
A Good Friend
Posted: 11 Mar 2010 10:01 PM PST
“The greatest love a person can show is to die for his friends.” John 15:13
I like John most for the way he loved Jesus. His relationship with Jesus was, . . . simple. To John, Jesus was a good friend with a good heart and a good idea . . .
One gets the impression that to John, Jesus was above all a loyal companion. Messiah? Yes. Son of God? Indeed. Miracle worker? That, too. But more than anything . . . Jesus was a friend.
Isaiah 55
Buy Without Money
1-5 "Hey there! All who are thirsty,
come to the water!
Are you penniless?
Come anyway—buy and eat!
Come, buy your drinks, buy wine and milk.
Buy without money—everything's free!
Why do you spend your money on junk food,
your hard-earned cash on cotton candy?
Listen to me, listen well: Eat only the best,
fill yourself with only the finest.
Pay attention, come close now,
listen carefully to my life-giving, life-nourishing words.
I'm making a lasting covenant commitment with you,
the same that I made with David: sure, solid, enduring love.
I set him up as a witness to the nations,
made him a prince and leader of the nations,
And now I'm doing it to you:
You'll summon nations you've never heard of,
and nations who've never heard of you
will come running to you
Because of me, your God,
because The Holy of Israel has honored you."
6-7Seek God while he's here to be found,
pray to him while he's close at hand.
Let the wicked abandon their way of life
and the evil their way of thinking.
Let them come back to God, who is merciful,
come back to our God, who is lavish with forgiveness.
8-11"I don't think the way you think.
The way you work isn't the way I work."
God's Decree.
"For as the sky soars high above earth,
so the way I work surpasses the way you work,
and the way I think is beyond the way you think.
Just as rain and snow descend from the skies
and don't go back until they've watered the earth,
Doing their work of making things grow and blossom,
producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry,
So will the words that come out of my mouth
not come back empty-handed.
They'll do the work I sent them to do,
they'll complete the assignment I gave them.
12-13"So you'll go out in joy,
you'll be led into a whole and complete life.
The mountains and hills will lead the parade,
bursting with song.
All the trees of the forest will join the procession,
exuberant with applause.
No more thistles, but giant sequoias,
no more thornbushes, but stately pines—
Monuments to me, to God,
living and lasting evidence of God."
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
1 Corinthians 1:10-17 (The Message)
The Cross: The Irony of God's Wisdom
10I have a serious concern to bring up with you, my friends, using the authority of Jesus, our Master. I'll put it as urgently as I can: You must get along with each other. You must learn to be considerate of one another, cultivating a life in common.
11-12I bring this up because some from Chloe's family brought a most disturbing report to my attention—that you're fighting among yourselves! I'll tell you exactly what I was told: You're all picking sides, going around saying, "I'm on Paul's side," or "I'm for Apollos," or "Peter is my man," or "I'm in the Messiah group."
13-16I ask you, "Has the Messiah been chopped up in little pieces so we can each have a relic all our own? Was Paul crucified for you? Was a single one of you baptized in Paul's name?" I was not involved with any of your baptisms—except for Crispus and Gaius—and on getting this report, I'm sure glad I wasn't. At least no one can go around saying he was baptized in my name. (Come to think of it, I also baptized Stephanas's family, but as far as I can recall, that's it.)
17God didn't send me out to collect a following for myself, but to preach the Message of what he has done, collecting a following for him. And he didn't send me to do it with a lot of fancy rhetoric of my own, lest the powerful action at the center—Christ on the Cross—be trivialized into mere words.
March 12, 2010
United Goal
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: 1 Cor. 1:10-17
I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you. —1 Corinthians 1:10
The spotted owl has been disappearing in the US. Originally it was believed that old growth logging was its greatest threat. But research shows that one of the owl’s relatives may be the problem. For the past 15 years, the barred owl has been rapidly migrating westward. Barred owls, which used to live exclusively east of the Mississippi, compete for the same food as spotted owls but are more aggressive and adaptable.
In a similar way, our greatest spiritual conflict often comes not from outside the church, but from other Christians. This was happening in the church of Corinth, and Paul took some time to address the divisive spirit that had grown in this congregation. This spirit threatened the unity of the church. Paul, with a pastoral nudge, encouraged the Corinthians to agree on the essentials and not be divided over the nonessentials. People were quarreling because they were aligning themselves with different Christian leaders—Paul, Apollos, Peter, and even Christ. In creating these divisions, they were valuing their favorite leader above unity in Christ.
Paul said the one essential that should unify the church is preaching the good news. That should be our united goal as well. — Marvin Williams
Lord, bless our congregation,
We humbly ask of Thee,
That we may walk together
In perfect unity. —Fennema
A united church is a strong church.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 12, 2010
Total Surrender
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
Peter began to say to Him, ’See, we have left all and followed You’ —Mark 10:28
Our Lord replies to this statement of Peter by saying that this surrender is "for My sake and the gospel’s" (10:29). It was not for the purpose of what the disciples themselves would get out of it. Beware of surrender that is motivated by personal benefits that may result. For example, "I’m going to give myself to God because I want to be delivered from sin, because I want to be made holy." Being delivered from sin and being made holy are the result of being right with God, but surrender resulting from this kind of thinking is certainly not the true nature of Christianity. Our motive for surrender should not be for any personal gain at all. We have become so self-centered that we go to God only for something from Him, and not for God Himself. It is like saying, "No, Lord, I don’t want you; I want myself. But I do want You to clean me and fill me with Your Holy Spirit. I want to be on display in Your showcase so I can say, ’This is what God has done for me.’ " Gaining heaven, being delivered from sin, and being made useful to God are things that should never even be a consideration in real surrender. Genuine total surrender is a personal sovereign preference for Jesus Christ Himself.
Where does Jesus Christ figure in when we have a concern about our natural relationships? Most of us will desert Him with this excuse—"Yes, Lord, I heard you call me, but my family needs me and I have my own interests. I just can’t go any further" (see Luke 9:57-62 ). "Then," Jesus says, "you ’cannot be My disciple’ " (see Luke 14:26-33 ).
True surrender will always go beyond natural devotion. If we will only give up, God will surrender Himself to embrace all those around us and will meet their needs, which were created by our surrender. Beware of stopping anywhere short of total surrender to God. Most of us have only a vision of what this really means, but have never truly experienced it.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Grandeur of an Old Faithful - #6045
Friday, March 12, 2010
Our grandsons experienced an unforgettable vacation when Mom and Dad took them out West to see the Tetons, Big Sky country, and Yellowstone National Park. God made sure they got plenty of memories; the herd of buffalo that basically surrounded their vehicle, the moose that was right by the side of the road, the elk that posed patiently for all the pictures anyone wanted to take. But as impressive as all that was, nothing impressed them so much as this water that kept shooting high out of the ground. You guessed it - that amazing geyser known as Old Faithful. Our grandsons couldn't stop talking to us about it on the phone. In fact, our older guy told his mom, "I want a geyser." We're working on that. That geyser is really something to see. I mean, this tower of water and steam, exploding out of the ground, high into the air, and always at the same time intervals. Well, of course, it's Old Faithful.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Grandeur of an Old Faithful."
Our grandson says he wants an Old Faithful of his own. So does God. He's looking for some "old faithfuls" He can count on. The Bible makes it clear that a lot of the things we do don't really impress God much, if at all. But there is one trait that gets His attention and triggers His blessing. It is faithfulness. Like a certain geyser, always being there, always doing what you're supposed to do when you're supposed to do it. To all of us who know someone like that, those folks are the anchors of our life. To God, they are the folks He loves to reward.
God expresses what He values in a man or woman in our word for today from the Word of God. It's not flashiness. It's not friendliness. It's faithfulness. In 1 Corinthians 4:2, He says plainly: "It is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful." Notice, He doesn't say you have to be successful - faithful. A friend of mine said, "Ron, I think I've figured out your job description: stay pure and show up." That pretty much says it. Keep pure and keep showing up. Paul put it this way in his final challenge to his son in the faith, Timothy, "Keep your head in all situations, endure hardship...discharge all the duties of your ministry" (2 Timothy 4:5).
See, faithfulness is so valuable because it's so rare. Today people stick with a responsibility or a commitment as long as it feels good, as long as it's fun, until the novelty wears off, or so long as I'm being treated right or appreciated. But our Lord modeled something much more noble - seeing your job through, even when everyone deserts you, even when you want out, even when the world's against you, even when they nail you to a cross. He is faithfulness. That's why He wants faithfulness. The Book of Revelation says that when He makes His glorious appearance at His Second Coming, He will be the rider on the white horse who "is called Faithful and True" (Revelation 19:12).
I hope that's what they call you. Or they will start to call you as you move from being one who's in and out of commitments to becoming one of God's "Old Faithfuls." However small your assignment, however tired you may feel, however unappreciated you are - by people that is, stay faithful. What an honor to be a man or woman about whom Almighty God can say, "I can count on her. I can count on him." He is looking for warriors who will continue to stay at their post, whose commitments He and others can depend on, who will finish what they started. If that's hard for you, remember that faithfulness is part of what the Bible describes as "the fruit of the Spirit" (Galatians 5:22). You can ask God to produce His faithfulness in you!
And up ahead, there stands your Lord Jesus at the finish line, and listen to what He's going to reward. It's not success. He's telling His champions, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Oh, live for that, warrior!
A Good Friend
Posted: 11 Mar 2010 10:01 PM PST
“The greatest love a person can show is to die for his friends.” John 15:13
I like John most for the way he loved Jesus. His relationship with Jesus was, . . . simple. To John, Jesus was a good friend with a good heart and a good idea . . .
One gets the impression that to John, Jesus was above all a loyal companion. Messiah? Yes. Son of God? Indeed. Miracle worker? That, too. But more than anything . . . Jesus was a friend.
Isaiah 55
Buy Without Money
1-5 "Hey there! All who are thirsty,
come to the water!
Are you penniless?
Come anyway—buy and eat!
Come, buy your drinks, buy wine and milk.
Buy without money—everything's free!
Why do you spend your money on junk food,
your hard-earned cash on cotton candy?
Listen to me, listen well: Eat only the best,
fill yourself with only the finest.
Pay attention, come close now,
listen carefully to my life-giving, life-nourishing words.
I'm making a lasting covenant commitment with you,
the same that I made with David: sure, solid, enduring love.
I set him up as a witness to the nations,
made him a prince and leader of the nations,
And now I'm doing it to you:
You'll summon nations you've never heard of,
and nations who've never heard of you
will come running to you
Because of me, your God,
because The Holy of Israel has honored you."
6-7Seek God while he's here to be found,
pray to him while he's close at hand.
Let the wicked abandon their way of life
and the evil their way of thinking.
Let them come back to God, who is merciful,
come back to our God, who is lavish with forgiveness.
8-11"I don't think the way you think.
The way you work isn't the way I work."
God's Decree.
"For as the sky soars high above earth,
so the way I work surpasses the way you work,
and the way I think is beyond the way you think.
Just as rain and snow descend from the skies
and don't go back until they've watered the earth,
Doing their work of making things grow and blossom,
producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry,
So will the words that come out of my mouth
not come back empty-handed.
They'll do the work I sent them to do,
they'll complete the assignment I gave them.
12-13"So you'll go out in joy,
you'll be led into a whole and complete life.
The mountains and hills will lead the parade,
bursting with song.
All the trees of the forest will join the procession,
exuberant with applause.
No more thistles, but giant sequoias,
no more thornbushes, but stately pines—
Monuments to me, to God,
living and lasting evidence of God."
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
1 Corinthians 1:10-17 (The Message)
The Cross: The Irony of God's Wisdom
10I have a serious concern to bring up with you, my friends, using the authority of Jesus, our Master. I'll put it as urgently as I can: You must get along with each other. You must learn to be considerate of one another, cultivating a life in common.
11-12I bring this up because some from Chloe's family brought a most disturbing report to my attention—that you're fighting among yourselves! I'll tell you exactly what I was told: You're all picking sides, going around saying, "I'm on Paul's side," or "I'm for Apollos," or "Peter is my man," or "I'm in the Messiah group."
13-16I ask you, "Has the Messiah been chopped up in little pieces so we can each have a relic all our own? Was Paul crucified for you? Was a single one of you baptized in Paul's name?" I was not involved with any of your baptisms—except for Crispus and Gaius—and on getting this report, I'm sure glad I wasn't. At least no one can go around saying he was baptized in my name. (Come to think of it, I also baptized Stephanas's family, but as far as I can recall, that's it.)
17God didn't send me out to collect a following for myself, but to preach the Message of what he has done, collecting a following for him. And he didn't send me to do it with a lot of fancy rhetoric of my own, lest the powerful action at the center—Christ on the Cross—be trivialized into mere words.
March 12, 2010
United Goal
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: 1 Cor. 1:10-17
I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you. —1 Corinthians 1:10
The spotted owl has been disappearing in the US. Originally it was believed that old growth logging was its greatest threat. But research shows that one of the owl’s relatives may be the problem. For the past 15 years, the barred owl has been rapidly migrating westward. Barred owls, which used to live exclusively east of the Mississippi, compete for the same food as spotted owls but are more aggressive and adaptable.
In a similar way, our greatest spiritual conflict often comes not from outside the church, but from other Christians. This was happening in the church of Corinth, and Paul took some time to address the divisive spirit that had grown in this congregation. This spirit threatened the unity of the church. Paul, with a pastoral nudge, encouraged the Corinthians to agree on the essentials and not be divided over the nonessentials. People were quarreling because they were aligning themselves with different Christian leaders—Paul, Apollos, Peter, and even Christ. In creating these divisions, they were valuing their favorite leader above unity in Christ.
Paul said the one essential that should unify the church is preaching the good news. That should be our united goal as well. — Marvin Williams
Lord, bless our congregation,
We humbly ask of Thee,
That we may walk together
In perfect unity. —Fennema
A united church is a strong church.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 12, 2010
Total Surrender
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
Peter began to say to Him, ’See, we have left all and followed You’ —Mark 10:28
Our Lord replies to this statement of Peter by saying that this surrender is "for My sake and the gospel’s" (10:29). It was not for the purpose of what the disciples themselves would get out of it. Beware of surrender that is motivated by personal benefits that may result. For example, "I’m going to give myself to God because I want to be delivered from sin, because I want to be made holy." Being delivered from sin and being made holy are the result of being right with God, but surrender resulting from this kind of thinking is certainly not the true nature of Christianity. Our motive for surrender should not be for any personal gain at all. We have become so self-centered that we go to God only for something from Him, and not for God Himself. It is like saying, "No, Lord, I don’t want you; I want myself. But I do want You to clean me and fill me with Your Holy Spirit. I want to be on display in Your showcase so I can say, ’This is what God has done for me.’ " Gaining heaven, being delivered from sin, and being made useful to God are things that should never even be a consideration in real surrender. Genuine total surrender is a personal sovereign preference for Jesus Christ Himself.
Where does Jesus Christ figure in when we have a concern about our natural relationships? Most of us will desert Him with this excuse—"Yes, Lord, I heard you call me, but my family needs me and I have my own interests. I just can’t go any further" (see Luke 9:57-62 ). "Then," Jesus says, "you ’cannot be My disciple’ " (see Luke 14:26-33 ).
True surrender will always go beyond natural devotion. If we will only give up, God will surrender Himself to embrace all those around us and will meet their needs, which were created by our surrender. Beware of stopping anywhere short of total surrender to God. Most of us have only a vision of what this really means, but have never truly experienced it.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Grandeur of an Old Faithful - #6045
Friday, March 12, 2010
Our grandsons experienced an unforgettable vacation when Mom and Dad took them out West to see the Tetons, Big Sky country, and Yellowstone National Park. God made sure they got plenty of memories; the herd of buffalo that basically surrounded their vehicle, the moose that was right by the side of the road, the elk that posed patiently for all the pictures anyone wanted to take. But as impressive as all that was, nothing impressed them so much as this water that kept shooting high out of the ground. You guessed it - that amazing geyser known as Old Faithful. Our grandsons couldn't stop talking to us about it on the phone. In fact, our older guy told his mom, "I want a geyser." We're working on that. That geyser is really something to see. I mean, this tower of water and steam, exploding out of the ground, high into the air, and always at the same time intervals. Well, of course, it's Old Faithful.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Grandeur of an Old Faithful."
Our grandson says he wants an Old Faithful of his own. So does God. He's looking for some "old faithfuls" He can count on. The Bible makes it clear that a lot of the things we do don't really impress God much, if at all. But there is one trait that gets His attention and triggers His blessing. It is faithfulness. Like a certain geyser, always being there, always doing what you're supposed to do when you're supposed to do it. To all of us who know someone like that, those folks are the anchors of our life. To God, they are the folks He loves to reward.
God expresses what He values in a man or woman in our word for today from the Word of God. It's not flashiness. It's not friendliness. It's faithfulness. In 1 Corinthians 4:2, He says plainly: "It is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful." Notice, He doesn't say you have to be successful - faithful. A friend of mine said, "Ron, I think I've figured out your job description: stay pure and show up." That pretty much says it. Keep pure and keep showing up. Paul put it this way in his final challenge to his son in the faith, Timothy, "Keep your head in all situations, endure hardship...discharge all the duties of your ministry" (2 Timothy 4:5).
See, faithfulness is so valuable because it's so rare. Today people stick with a responsibility or a commitment as long as it feels good, as long as it's fun, until the novelty wears off, or so long as I'm being treated right or appreciated. But our Lord modeled something much more noble - seeing your job through, even when everyone deserts you, even when you want out, even when the world's against you, even when they nail you to a cross. He is faithfulness. That's why He wants faithfulness. The Book of Revelation says that when He makes His glorious appearance at His Second Coming, He will be the rider on the white horse who "is called Faithful and True" (Revelation 19:12).
I hope that's what they call you. Or they will start to call you as you move from being one who's in and out of commitments to becoming one of God's "Old Faithfuls." However small your assignment, however tired you may feel, however unappreciated you are - by people that is, stay faithful. What an honor to be a man or woman about whom Almighty God can say, "I can count on her. I can count on him." He is looking for warriors who will continue to stay at their post, whose commitments He and others can depend on, who will finish what they started. If that's hard for you, remember that faithfulness is part of what the Bible describes as "the fruit of the Spirit" (Galatians 5:22). You can ask God to produce His faithfulness in you!
And up ahead, there stands your Lord Jesus at the finish line, and listen to what He's going to reward. It's not success. He's telling His champions, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Oh, live for that, warrior!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Isaiah 54, Bible reading and Daily Devotions
Max Lucado Daily: It’s Not Fair
It’s Not Fair
Posted: 10 Mar 2010 10:01 PM PST
“Guide me in your truth, and teach me, my God, my Savior.” Psalm 25:5
“It’s not fair,” we say. It’s not fair that I was born in poverty or that I sing so poorly or that I run so slowly. But the scales of life were forever tipped on the side of fairness when God planted a tree in the Garden of Eden. All complaints were silenced when Adam and his descendants were given free will, the freedom to make whatever eternal choice we desire. Any injustice in this life is offset by the honor of choosing our destiny in the next.
Isaiah 54
Spread Out! Think Big!
1-6 "Sing, barren woman, who has never had a baby.
Fill the air with song, you who've never experienced childbirth!
You're ending up with far more children
than all those childbearing women." God says so!
"Clear lots of ground for your tents!
Make your tents large. Spread out! Think big!
Use plenty of rope,
drive the tent pegs deep.
You're going to need lots of elbow room
for your growing family.
You're going to take over whole nations;
you're going to resettle abandoned cities.
Don't be afraid—you're not going to be embarrassed.
Don't hold back—you're not going to come up short.
You'll forget all about the humiliations of your youth,
and the indignities of being a widow will fade from memory.
For your Maker is your bridegroom,
his name, God-of-the-Angel-Armies!
Your Redeemer is The Holy of Israel,
known as God of the whole earth.
You were like an abandoned wife, devastated with grief,
and God welcomed you back,
Like a woman married young
and then left," says your God.
7-8Your Redeemer God says:
"I left you, but only for a moment.
Now, with enormous compassion, I'm bringing you back.
In an outburst of anger I turned my back on you—
but only for a moment.
It's with lasting love
that I'm tenderly caring for you.
9-10"This exile is just like the days of Noah for me:
I promised then that the waters of Noah
would never again flood the earth.
I'm promising now no more anger,
no more dressing you down.
For even if the mountains walk away
and the hills fall to pieces,
My love won't walk away from you,
my covenant commitment of peace won't fall apart."
The God who has compassion on you says so.
11-17"Afflicted city, storm-battered, unpitied:
I'm about to rebuild you with stones of turquoise,
Lay your foundations with sapphires,
construct your towers with rubies,
Your gates with jewels,
and all your walls with precious stones.
All your children will have God for their teacher—
what a mentor for your children!
You'll be built solid, grounded in righteousness,
far from any trouble—nothing to fear!
far from terror—it won't even come close!
If anyone attacks you,
don't for a moment suppose that I sent them,
And if any should attack,
nothing will come of it.
I create the blacksmith
who fires up his forge
and makes a weapon designed to kill.
I also create the destroyer—
but no weapon that can hurt you has ever been forged.
Any accuser who takes you to court
will be dismissed as a liar.
This is what God's servants can expect.
I'll see to it that everything works out for the best."
God's Decree.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Genesis 32:3-13 (The Message)
3-5 Then Jacob sent messengers on ahead to his brother Esau in the land of Seir in Edom. He instructed them: "Tell my master Esau this, 'A message from your servant Jacob: I've been staying with Laban and couldn't get away until now. I've acquired cattle and donkeys and sheep; also men and women servants. I'm telling you all this, my master, hoping for your approval.'"
6 The messengers came back to Jacob and said, "We talked to your brother Esau and he's on his way to meet you. But he has four hundred men with him."
7-8 Jacob was scared. Very scared. Panicked, he divided his people, sheep, cattle, and camels into two camps. He thought, "If Esau comes on the first camp and attacks it, the other camp has a chance to get away."
9-12 And then Jacob prayed, "God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, God who told me, 'Go back to your parents' homeland and I'll treat you well.' I don't deserve all the love and loyalty you've shown me. When I left here and crossed the Jordan I only had the clothes on my back, and now look at me—two camps! Save me, please, from the violence of my brother, my angry brother! I'm afraid he'll come and attack us all, me, the mothers and the children. You yourself said, 'I will treat you well; I'll make your descendants like the sands of the sea, far too many to count.'"
13-16 He slept the night there. Then he prepared a present for his brother Esau from his possessions: two hundred female goats, twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty camels with their nursing young, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. He put a servant in charge of each herd and said, "Go ahead of me and keep a healthy space between each herd."
March 11, 2010
God’s Mercies
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: Genesis 32:3-13
I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies. —Genesis 32:10
Less than the least of all God’s mercies.” This was the motto 17th-century English poet and clergyman George Herbert engraved on his signet ring, and it was the phrase with which he signed his letters and books. Jacob had spoken these words when he pondered God’s goodness despite his own sin and shame: “I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant” (Gen. 32:10).
The word “mercies” is from the Hebrew word chesed, meaning “God’s enduring love.” I think it is significant that it rose from the heart of one who saw himself as utterly unworthy.
Relying solely on God’s faithful love, Jacob cries out: “Deliver me!” What an odd combination of thoughts: “I am not worthy . . . . Deliver me” (vv.10-11). Unlike some who seem to have it all together, Jacob knew that everything he brought to God had been ruined by sin. He thought of himself as a man undeserving of God’s grace. But his hope lay not in his worth but in the promise of God to look with favor on those who throw themselves on His mercy. Humility and contrition are the keys that open the heart of God.
As He did with Jacob, God hears us when we humbly cry out to Him for mercy. — David H. Roper
For mercies so great, what return can I make?
For mercies so constant and sure?
I’ll love Him, I’ll serve Him with all that I have
As long as my life shall endure. —Chisholm
Mercy is an unearned blessing bestowed by God on an unworthy recipient.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 11, 2010
Obedience to the "Heavenly Vision"
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision —Acts 26:19
If we lose "the heavenly vision" God has given us, we alone are responsible— not God. We lose the vision because of our own lack of spiritual growth. If we do not apply our beliefs about God to the issues of everyday life, the vision God has given us will never be fulfilled. The only way to be obedient to "the heavenly vision" is to give our utmost for His highest— our best for His glory. This can be accomplished only when we make a determination to continually remember God’s vision. But the acid test is obedience to the vision in the details of our everyday life— sixty seconds out of every minute, and sixty minutes out of every hour, not just during times of personal prayer or public meetings.
"Though it tarries, wait for it . . ." ( Habakkuk 2:3 ). We cannot bring the vision to fulfillment through our own efforts, but must live under its inspiration until it fulfills itself. We try to be so practical that we forget the vision. At the very beginning we saw the vision but did not wait for it. We rushed off to do our practical work, and once the vision was fulfilled we could no longer even see it. Waiting for a vision that "tarries" is the true test of our faithfulness to God. It is at the risk of our own soul’s welfare that we get caught up in practical busy-work, only to miss the fulfillment of the vision.
Watch for the storms of God. The only way God plants His saints is through the whirlwind of His storms. Will you be proven to be an empty pod with no seed inside? That will depend on whether or not you are actually living in the light of the vision you have seen. Let God send you out through His storm, and don’t go until He does. If you select your own spot to be planted, you will prove yourself to be an unproductive, empty pod. However, if you allow God to plant you, you will "bear much fruit" ( John 15:8 ).
It is essential that we live and "walk in the light" of God’s vision for us ( 1 John 1:7 ).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
No Timeouts, No Victory - #6044
Thursday, March 11, 2010
When I worked with our championship high school football team, I was there for a lot of timeouts called by the coach. And I know how important they were. He told the players what they were doing wrong, what they needed to do more of, and how to play against the other team and their weaknesses. It was a strategy for winning, actually. When you watch sports on TV, they usually run commercials during the timeout. A timeout may not be very exciting to watch, but what happens during a timeout can determine the outcome of the game.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Timeouts, No Victory."
We're busy playing the game. We lose our perspective because we can only see things from the position we're playing. But the Coach, of course, can see it all. It's worth it to stop the game for a little while to get the perspective of the one who's got the big picture. If you're a child of God, that timeout is called prayer. And we can't win without it, but we sure try.
There is probably no more dramatic Biblical example of prayer as a non-negotiable than the story in Daniel 6, beginning with verse 10. It's our word for today from the Word of God. Daniel has so won the confidence of the Persian king, Darius - the most powerful man in the world at that time - that he is placed in a top position in the Persian government. And the word is out that he is about to be promoted as basically second-in-command to the king. He has some jealous associates, who try everything to slander Daniel and find some way to discredit him with the king, but he has so much integrity, they can't find one thing to accuse him of. But knowing Daniel is a man of prayer, they set him up by convincing the king to issue a decree that anyone who prays to anyone but him would be executed.
Daniel's response is utterly amazing. "When Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. These men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help." Even when Daniel knows it may cost him his life, he will not miss his timeout with his God. He will let nothing preempt his praying. Wow! We are pretty pitiful by comparison! We let almost anything preempt our praying; we're too busy, we're too tired, we're too wounded, or we're too distracted.
When we don't pray our way through our day, we start to make more an more mistakes, we start fighting battles that aren't ours to fight, we start stressing out, and we start taking detours from the great plan of God. Prayer can't just be a compartment in your life where you pray in prayer meetings, pray at the beginning and the end of your day. Can you imagine a sports team only having a timeout with their coach at the beginning and the end of the game? You need what only He can give you throughout your day.
So pray before you take that call. Pray before you make that call. Pray before you write that e-mail. Pray before you start your journey. Pray before you answer, before you make that commitment, before you make that purchase, or before you ask someone for a date or accept that date. Pray through your day before you face your day.
And then all through your day whisper a prayer to heaven for what's in front of you at that moment. It may only be, "Lord, give me Your wisdom" or "Lord, give me Your strength" or just "Help, Lord!" But it opens up all of heaven and all that heaven has for the moment you're facing. Get used to getting in touch with heaven all day long. Checking in regularly with your Coach will make all the difference in the final score.
It’s Not Fair
Posted: 10 Mar 2010 10:01 PM PST
“Guide me in your truth, and teach me, my God, my Savior.” Psalm 25:5
“It’s not fair,” we say. It’s not fair that I was born in poverty or that I sing so poorly or that I run so slowly. But the scales of life were forever tipped on the side of fairness when God planted a tree in the Garden of Eden. All complaints were silenced when Adam and his descendants were given free will, the freedom to make whatever eternal choice we desire. Any injustice in this life is offset by the honor of choosing our destiny in the next.
Isaiah 54
Spread Out! Think Big!
1-6 "Sing, barren woman, who has never had a baby.
Fill the air with song, you who've never experienced childbirth!
You're ending up with far more children
than all those childbearing women." God says so!
"Clear lots of ground for your tents!
Make your tents large. Spread out! Think big!
Use plenty of rope,
drive the tent pegs deep.
You're going to need lots of elbow room
for your growing family.
You're going to take over whole nations;
you're going to resettle abandoned cities.
Don't be afraid—you're not going to be embarrassed.
Don't hold back—you're not going to come up short.
You'll forget all about the humiliations of your youth,
and the indignities of being a widow will fade from memory.
For your Maker is your bridegroom,
his name, God-of-the-Angel-Armies!
Your Redeemer is The Holy of Israel,
known as God of the whole earth.
You were like an abandoned wife, devastated with grief,
and God welcomed you back,
Like a woman married young
and then left," says your God.
7-8Your Redeemer God says:
"I left you, but only for a moment.
Now, with enormous compassion, I'm bringing you back.
In an outburst of anger I turned my back on you—
but only for a moment.
It's with lasting love
that I'm tenderly caring for you.
9-10"This exile is just like the days of Noah for me:
I promised then that the waters of Noah
would never again flood the earth.
I'm promising now no more anger,
no more dressing you down.
For even if the mountains walk away
and the hills fall to pieces,
My love won't walk away from you,
my covenant commitment of peace won't fall apart."
The God who has compassion on you says so.
11-17"Afflicted city, storm-battered, unpitied:
I'm about to rebuild you with stones of turquoise,
Lay your foundations with sapphires,
construct your towers with rubies,
Your gates with jewels,
and all your walls with precious stones.
All your children will have God for their teacher—
what a mentor for your children!
You'll be built solid, grounded in righteousness,
far from any trouble—nothing to fear!
far from terror—it won't even come close!
If anyone attacks you,
don't for a moment suppose that I sent them,
And if any should attack,
nothing will come of it.
I create the blacksmith
who fires up his forge
and makes a weapon designed to kill.
I also create the destroyer—
but no weapon that can hurt you has ever been forged.
Any accuser who takes you to court
will be dismissed as a liar.
This is what God's servants can expect.
I'll see to it that everything works out for the best."
God's Decree.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Genesis 32:3-13 (The Message)
3-5 Then Jacob sent messengers on ahead to his brother Esau in the land of Seir in Edom. He instructed them: "Tell my master Esau this, 'A message from your servant Jacob: I've been staying with Laban and couldn't get away until now. I've acquired cattle and donkeys and sheep; also men and women servants. I'm telling you all this, my master, hoping for your approval.'"
6 The messengers came back to Jacob and said, "We talked to your brother Esau and he's on his way to meet you. But he has four hundred men with him."
7-8 Jacob was scared. Very scared. Panicked, he divided his people, sheep, cattle, and camels into two camps. He thought, "If Esau comes on the first camp and attacks it, the other camp has a chance to get away."
9-12 And then Jacob prayed, "God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, God who told me, 'Go back to your parents' homeland and I'll treat you well.' I don't deserve all the love and loyalty you've shown me. When I left here and crossed the Jordan I only had the clothes on my back, and now look at me—two camps! Save me, please, from the violence of my brother, my angry brother! I'm afraid he'll come and attack us all, me, the mothers and the children. You yourself said, 'I will treat you well; I'll make your descendants like the sands of the sea, far too many to count.'"
13-16 He slept the night there. Then he prepared a present for his brother Esau from his possessions: two hundred female goats, twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty camels with their nursing young, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. He put a servant in charge of each herd and said, "Go ahead of me and keep a healthy space between each herd."
March 11, 2010
God’s Mercies
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: Genesis 32:3-13
I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies. —Genesis 32:10
Less than the least of all God’s mercies.” This was the motto 17th-century English poet and clergyman George Herbert engraved on his signet ring, and it was the phrase with which he signed his letters and books. Jacob had spoken these words when he pondered God’s goodness despite his own sin and shame: “I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant” (Gen. 32:10).
The word “mercies” is from the Hebrew word chesed, meaning “God’s enduring love.” I think it is significant that it rose from the heart of one who saw himself as utterly unworthy.
Relying solely on God’s faithful love, Jacob cries out: “Deliver me!” What an odd combination of thoughts: “I am not worthy . . . . Deliver me” (vv.10-11). Unlike some who seem to have it all together, Jacob knew that everything he brought to God had been ruined by sin. He thought of himself as a man undeserving of God’s grace. But his hope lay not in his worth but in the promise of God to look with favor on those who throw themselves on His mercy. Humility and contrition are the keys that open the heart of God.
As He did with Jacob, God hears us when we humbly cry out to Him for mercy. — David H. Roper
For mercies so great, what return can I make?
For mercies so constant and sure?
I’ll love Him, I’ll serve Him with all that I have
As long as my life shall endure. —Chisholm
Mercy is an unearned blessing bestowed by God on an unworthy recipient.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 11, 2010
Obedience to the "Heavenly Vision"
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision —Acts 26:19
If we lose "the heavenly vision" God has given us, we alone are responsible— not God. We lose the vision because of our own lack of spiritual growth. If we do not apply our beliefs about God to the issues of everyday life, the vision God has given us will never be fulfilled. The only way to be obedient to "the heavenly vision" is to give our utmost for His highest— our best for His glory. This can be accomplished only when we make a determination to continually remember God’s vision. But the acid test is obedience to the vision in the details of our everyday life— sixty seconds out of every minute, and sixty minutes out of every hour, not just during times of personal prayer or public meetings.
"Though it tarries, wait for it . . ." ( Habakkuk 2:3 ). We cannot bring the vision to fulfillment through our own efforts, but must live under its inspiration until it fulfills itself. We try to be so practical that we forget the vision. At the very beginning we saw the vision but did not wait for it. We rushed off to do our practical work, and once the vision was fulfilled we could no longer even see it. Waiting for a vision that "tarries" is the true test of our faithfulness to God. It is at the risk of our own soul’s welfare that we get caught up in practical busy-work, only to miss the fulfillment of the vision.
Watch for the storms of God. The only way God plants His saints is through the whirlwind of His storms. Will you be proven to be an empty pod with no seed inside? That will depend on whether or not you are actually living in the light of the vision you have seen. Let God send you out through His storm, and don’t go until He does. If you select your own spot to be planted, you will prove yourself to be an unproductive, empty pod. However, if you allow God to plant you, you will "bear much fruit" ( John 15:8 ).
It is essential that we live and "walk in the light" of God’s vision for us ( 1 John 1:7 ).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
No Timeouts, No Victory - #6044
Thursday, March 11, 2010
When I worked with our championship high school football team, I was there for a lot of timeouts called by the coach. And I know how important they were. He told the players what they were doing wrong, what they needed to do more of, and how to play against the other team and their weaknesses. It was a strategy for winning, actually. When you watch sports on TV, they usually run commercials during the timeout. A timeout may not be very exciting to watch, but what happens during a timeout can determine the outcome of the game.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Timeouts, No Victory."
We're busy playing the game. We lose our perspective because we can only see things from the position we're playing. But the Coach, of course, can see it all. It's worth it to stop the game for a little while to get the perspective of the one who's got the big picture. If you're a child of God, that timeout is called prayer. And we can't win without it, but we sure try.
There is probably no more dramatic Biblical example of prayer as a non-negotiable than the story in Daniel 6, beginning with verse 10. It's our word for today from the Word of God. Daniel has so won the confidence of the Persian king, Darius - the most powerful man in the world at that time - that he is placed in a top position in the Persian government. And the word is out that he is about to be promoted as basically second-in-command to the king. He has some jealous associates, who try everything to slander Daniel and find some way to discredit him with the king, but he has so much integrity, they can't find one thing to accuse him of. But knowing Daniel is a man of prayer, they set him up by convincing the king to issue a decree that anyone who prays to anyone but him would be executed.
Daniel's response is utterly amazing. "When Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. These men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help." Even when Daniel knows it may cost him his life, he will not miss his timeout with his God. He will let nothing preempt his praying. Wow! We are pretty pitiful by comparison! We let almost anything preempt our praying; we're too busy, we're too tired, we're too wounded, or we're too distracted.
When we don't pray our way through our day, we start to make more an more mistakes, we start fighting battles that aren't ours to fight, we start stressing out, and we start taking detours from the great plan of God. Prayer can't just be a compartment in your life where you pray in prayer meetings, pray at the beginning and the end of your day. Can you imagine a sports team only having a timeout with their coach at the beginning and the end of the game? You need what only He can give you throughout your day.
So pray before you take that call. Pray before you make that call. Pray before you write that e-mail. Pray before you start your journey. Pray before you answer, before you make that commitment, before you make that purchase, or before you ask someone for a date or accept that date. Pray through your day before you face your day.
And then all through your day whisper a prayer to heaven for what's in front of you at that moment. It may only be, "Lord, give me Your wisdom" or "Lord, give me Your strength" or just "Help, Lord!" But it opens up all of heaven and all that heaven has for the moment you're facing. Get used to getting in touch with heaven all day long. Checking in regularly with your Coach will make all the difference in the final score.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Isaiah 53, Bible reading and Daily Devotions
Max Lucado Daily: Spirit of Peace
Spirit of Peace
Posted: 09 Mar 2010 10:01 PM PST
“Gideon built an altar . . . and named it The LORD Is Peace.” Judges 6:24
“Y-y-you b-b-better get somebody else,” we stammer. But then God reminds us that he knows we can’t, but he can, and to prove it he gives a wonderful gift. He brings a spirit of peace. A peace before the storm. A peace beyond logic . . . He gave it to David after he showed him Goliath; he gave it to Saul after he showed him the gospel; he gave it to Jesus after he showed him the cross.
Isaiah 53
1 Who believes what we've heard and seen? Who would have thought God's saving power would look like this?
2-6The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.
We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost.
We've all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong,
on him, on him.
7-9He was beaten, he was tortured,
but he didn't say a word.
Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered
and like a sheep being sheared,
he took it all in silence.
Justice miscarried, and he was led off—
and did anyone really know what was happening?
He died without a thought for his own welfare,
beaten bloody for the sins of my people.
They buried him with the wicked,
threw him in a grave with a rich man,
Even though he'd never hurt a soul
or said one word that wasn't true.
10Still, it's what God had in mind all along,
to crush him with pain.
The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin
so that he'd see life come from it—life, life, and more life.
And God's plan will deeply prosper through him.
11-12Out of that terrible travail of soul,
he'll see that it's worth it and be glad he did it.
Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant,
will make many "righteous ones,"
as he himself carries the burden of their sins.
Therefore I'll reward him extravagantly—
the best of everything, the highest honors—
Because he looked death in the face and didn't flinch,
because he embraced the company of the lowest.
He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many,
he took up the cause of all the black sheep.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
2 Peter 1:5-15 (The Message)
5-9So don't lose a minute in building on what you've been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus. Without these qualities you can't see what's right before you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the books.
10-11So, friends, confirm God's invitation to you, his choice of you. Don't put it off; do it now. Do this, and you'll have your life on a firm footing, the streets paved and the way wide open into the eternal kingdom of our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ.
The One Light in a Dark Time
12-15Because the stakes are so high, even though you're up-to-date on all this truth and practice it inside and out, I'm not going to let up for a minute in calling you to attention before it. This is the post to which I've been assigned—keeping you alert with frequent reminders—and I'm sticking to it as long as I live. I know that I'm to die soon; the Master has made that quite clear to me. And so I am especially eager that you have all this down in black and white so that after I die, you'll have it for ready reference.
March 10, 2010
Reminders
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: 2 Peter 1:5-15
I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things. —2 Peter 1:12
Jill Price has an extraordinary memory that has stunned scientists. In 2006, her overdeveloped memory was described in a scientific journal article, “A Case of Unusual Autobiographical Remembering.” Price has no special aptitude for memorizing lists of words, numbers, facts, or languages. But she does remember what happened to her on any given day over the last 30 years. Name any date and Price will tell you what day of the week it was, the weather, what she had for breakfast, the TV programs she watched, and the people she spoke with.
Few of us have a memory like that. That’s why we need reminders to complete simple tasks and keep our appointments. This is especially true when it comes to spiritual truth. The apostle Peter showed he understood the need of spiritual reminders when he wrote: “I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things . . . . Yes, I think it is right . . . to stir you up by reminding you . . . . Moreover I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things” (2 Peter 1:12-15).
No matter what kind of memory we have, we need to be reminded of biblical principles. Daily Bible reading, small group studies, and involvement in a local church can all help us to remember God’s vital truths. — Dennis Fisher
Remembering the Word of God
Does not come naturally;
We need reminders to fulfill
What God wants us to be. —Sper
Let God’s Word fill your memory, rule your heart, and guide your steps.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 10, 2010
Being an Example of His Message
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
Preach the word! —2 Timothy 4:2
We are not saved only to be instruments for God, but to be His sons and daughters. He does not turn us into spiritual agents but into spiritual messengers, and the message must be a part of us. The Son of God was His own message— "The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life" ( John 6:63 ). As His disciples, our lives must be a holy example of the reality of our message. Even the natural heart of the unsaved will serve if called upon to do so, but it takes a heart broken by conviction of sin, baptized by the Holy Spirit, and crushed into submission to God’s purpose to make a person’s life a holy example of God’s message.
There is a difference between giving a testimony and preaching. A preacher is someone who has received the call of God and is determined to use all his energy to proclaim God’s truth. God takes us beyond our own aspirations and ideas for our lives, and molds and shapes us for His purpose, just as He worked in the disciples’ lives after Pentecost. The purpose of Pentecost was not to teach the disciples something, but to make them the incarnation of what they preached so that they would literally become God’s message in the flesh. ". . . you shall be witnesses to Me . . ." ( Acts 1:8 ).
Allow God to have complete liberty in your life when you speak. Before God’s message can liberate other people, His liberation must first be real in you. Gather your material carefully, and then allow God to "set your words on fire" for His glory.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Most Important Question About the Road You're On - #6043
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Every time I go to an airport, there are a lot of planes to choose from. Sometimes I walk past dozens of gates and planes to get to one plane at a faraway gate. Sometimes I get on this little "puddle jumper" plane when I'd, of course, rather be onboard a big, sleek aircraft. I don't get on the first plane I see, or the one that's the most convenient to get to, or the one that looks the most comfortable, or the one that looks best to me. No, I pick which plane I'll board based on one simple factor - its destination.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Most Important Question About the Road You're On."
There are lots of planes at that airport that will give you a nice ride, but they won't get you home. The question that decides which plane to board is pretty straightforward: "Will this take me where I want to end up?"
Nowhere is more riding on that question than when it comes to where we will spend eternity; especially at a time when our culture offers a confusing spiritual buffet to choose from. Many religions are seeking our allegiance in this growing marketplace of spiritual options. And there are countless alternatives to conventional approaches to God; approaches that allow you to develop your own personalized spirituality. Whether your way to God is a traditional religion or a non-traditional spirituality, it's important to ask the only question that really matters: "Will this take me where I want to end up?" Not "Do I like the way this makes me feel?" or "Shouldn't I follow the religion I was raised in?" There are some beautiful roads that don't lead to heaven. There are some spiritual systems that will, like that wrong aircraft, give you a lift but won't get you home.
God's made it very clear in His best-selling book, the Bible, that there's one way to end up in His heaven when you die, and it is not a religion. It's a Person. In 1 Timothy 2:3-5, our word for today from the Word of God, He says: "God our Savior...wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all men." Why just one man who can be the go-between to get us to God? Because there's only one man who "gave Himself as a ransom for all men."
A ransom is the price you pay to get someone back. The price to get us back was the death of Jesus Christ for the sin that separates us from God. A religion, a personal spirituality can make us feel spiritual, even close to God, but it cannot pay the death penalty that we carry because we've de-throned God in our lives to run it ourselves. It took what Jesus did on the cross to do that. Only the man who died for your sin can remove your sin. If you die with your sin unforgiven, there's no way God can let you into His heaven. Even Christianity, the religion that's about Jesus, can't get you to heaven. It's Jesus! In the powerful words of Acts 4:12, "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
The only way to get to heaven is to be totally depending on Jesus Christ to get you there. It means abandoning all other hopes of getting to God and to heaven and fully trusting the one way God provided - Jesus, His one and only Son. If you've never reached out to Him and given yourself to Him, you're in grave spiritual danger, no matter how sincere you may be in whatever else you're depending on. You can be totally sincere in your belief that a certain plane will get you where you want to go, but no amount of sincerity can change the fact that it just won't get you home.
When you open your heart and your life to Jesus, you know in your soul that this is finally the real thing because Jesus is there now. I pray that you will tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm Yours." At our website, there's a brief explanation of just how to begin your personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You can listen to it or you can read it. Just go to YoursForLife.net.
Jesus paid your passage to heaven with His life. That's how much He loves you. Go with Him today, because He is the One who can get you home.
Spirit of Peace
Posted: 09 Mar 2010 10:01 PM PST
“Gideon built an altar . . . and named it The LORD Is Peace.” Judges 6:24
“Y-y-you b-b-better get somebody else,” we stammer. But then God reminds us that he knows we can’t, but he can, and to prove it he gives a wonderful gift. He brings a spirit of peace. A peace before the storm. A peace beyond logic . . . He gave it to David after he showed him Goliath; he gave it to Saul after he showed him the gospel; he gave it to Jesus after he showed him the cross.
Isaiah 53
1 Who believes what we've heard and seen? Who would have thought God's saving power would look like this?
2-6The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.
We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost.
We've all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong,
on him, on him.
7-9He was beaten, he was tortured,
but he didn't say a word.
Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered
and like a sheep being sheared,
he took it all in silence.
Justice miscarried, and he was led off—
and did anyone really know what was happening?
He died without a thought for his own welfare,
beaten bloody for the sins of my people.
They buried him with the wicked,
threw him in a grave with a rich man,
Even though he'd never hurt a soul
or said one word that wasn't true.
10Still, it's what God had in mind all along,
to crush him with pain.
The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin
so that he'd see life come from it—life, life, and more life.
And God's plan will deeply prosper through him.
11-12Out of that terrible travail of soul,
he'll see that it's worth it and be glad he did it.
Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant,
will make many "righteous ones,"
as he himself carries the burden of their sins.
Therefore I'll reward him extravagantly—
the best of everything, the highest honors—
Because he looked death in the face and didn't flinch,
because he embraced the company of the lowest.
He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many,
he took up the cause of all the black sheep.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
2 Peter 1:5-15 (The Message)
5-9So don't lose a minute in building on what you've been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus. Without these qualities you can't see what's right before you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the books.
10-11So, friends, confirm God's invitation to you, his choice of you. Don't put it off; do it now. Do this, and you'll have your life on a firm footing, the streets paved and the way wide open into the eternal kingdom of our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ.
The One Light in a Dark Time
12-15Because the stakes are so high, even though you're up-to-date on all this truth and practice it inside and out, I'm not going to let up for a minute in calling you to attention before it. This is the post to which I've been assigned—keeping you alert with frequent reminders—and I'm sticking to it as long as I live. I know that I'm to die soon; the Master has made that quite clear to me. And so I am especially eager that you have all this down in black and white so that after I die, you'll have it for ready reference.
March 10, 2010
Reminders
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: 2 Peter 1:5-15
I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things. —2 Peter 1:12
Jill Price has an extraordinary memory that has stunned scientists. In 2006, her overdeveloped memory was described in a scientific journal article, “A Case of Unusual Autobiographical Remembering.” Price has no special aptitude for memorizing lists of words, numbers, facts, or languages. But she does remember what happened to her on any given day over the last 30 years. Name any date and Price will tell you what day of the week it was, the weather, what she had for breakfast, the TV programs she watched, and the people she spoke with.
Few of us have a memory like that. That’s why we need reminders to complete simple tasks and keep our appointments. This is especially true when it comes to spiritual truth. The apostle Peter showed he understood the need of spiritual reminders when he wrote: “I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things . . . . Yes, I think it is right . . . to stir you up by reminding you . . . . Moreover I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things” (2 Peter 1:12-15).
No matter what kind of memory we have, we need to be reminded of biblical principles. Daily Bible reading, small group studies, and involvement in a local church can all help us to remember God’s vital truths. — Dennis Fisher
Remembering the Word of God
Does not come naturally;
We need reminders to fulfill
What God wants us to be. —Sper
Let God’s Word fill your memory, rule your heart, and guide your steps.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 10, 2010
Being an Example of His Message
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
Preach the word! —2 Timothy 4:2
We are not saved only to be instruments for God, but to be His sons and daughters. He does not turn us into spiritual agents but into spiritual messengers, and the message must be a part of us. The Son of God was His own message— "The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life" ( John 6:63 ). As His disciples, our lives must be a holy example of the reality of our message. Even the natural heart of the unsaved will serve if called upon to do so, but it takes a heart broken by conviction of sin, baptized by the Holy Spirit, and crushed into submission to God’s purpose to make a person’s life a holy example of God’s message.
There is a difference between giving a testimony and preaching. A preacher is someone who has received the call of God and is determined to use all his energy to proclaim God’s truth. God takes us beyond our own aspirations and ideas for our lives, and molds and shapes us for His purpose, just as He worked in the disciples’ lives after Pentecost. The purpose of Pentecost was not to teach the disciples something, but to make them the incarnation of what they preached so that they would literally become God’s message in the flesh. ". . . you shall be witnesses to Me . . ." ( Acts 1:8 ).
Allow God to have complete liberty in your life when you speak. Before God’s message can liberate other people, His liberation must first be real in you. Gather your material carefully, and then allow God to "set your words on fire" for His glory.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Most Important Question About the Road You're On - #6043
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Every time I go to an airport, there are a lot of planes to choose from. Sometimes I walk past dozens of gates and planes to get to one plane at a faraway gate. Sometimes I get on this little "puddle jumper" plane when I'd, of course, rather be onboard a big, sleek aircraft. I don't get on the first plane I see, or the one that's the most convenient to get to, or the one that looks the most comfortable, or the one that looks best to me. No, I pick which plane I'll board based on one simple factor - its destination.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Most Important Question About the Road You're On."
There are lots of planes at that airport that will give you a nice ride, but they won't get you home. The question that decides which plane to board is pretty straightforward: "Will this take me where I want to end up?"
Nowhere is more riding on that question than when it comes to where we will spend eternity; especially at a time when our culture offers a confusing spiritual buffet to choose from. Many religions are seeking our allegiance in this growing marketplace of spiritual options. And there are countless alternatives to conventional approaches to God; approaches that allow you to develop your own personalized spirituality. Whether your way to God is a traditional religion or a non-traditional spirituality, it's important to ask the only question that really matters: "Will this take me where I want to end up?" Not "Do I like the way this makes me feel?" or "Shouldn't I follow the religion I was raised in?" There are some beautiful roads that don't lead to heaven. There are some spiritual systems that will, like that wrong aircraft, give you a lift but won't get you home.
God's made it very clear in His best-selling book, the Bible, that there's one way to end up in His heaven when you die, and it is not a religion. It's a Person. In 1 Timothy 2:3-5, our word for today from the Word of God, He says: "God our Savior...wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all men." Why just one man who can be the go-between to get us to God? Because there's only one man who "gave Himself as a ransom for all men."
A ransom is the price you pay to get someone back. The price to get us back was the death of Jesus Christ for the sin that separates us from God. A religion, a personal spirituality can make us feel spiritual, even close to God, but it cannot pay the death penalty that we carry because we've de-throned God in our lives to run it ourselves. It took what Jesus did on the cross to do that. Only the man who died for your sin can remove your sin. If you die with your sin unforgiven, there's no way God can let you into His heaven. Even Christianity, the religion that's about Jesus, can't get you to heaven. It's Jesus! In the powerful words of Acts 4:12, "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
The only way to get to heaven is to be totally depending on Jesus Christ to get you there. It means abandoning all other hopes of getting to God and to heaven and fully trusting the one way God provided - Jesus, His one and only Son. If you've never reached out to Him and given yourself to Him, you're in grave spiritual danger, no matter how sincere you may be in whatever else you're depending on. You can be totally sincere in your belief that a certain plane will get you where you want to go, but no amount of sincerity can change the fact that it just won't get you home.
When you open your heart and your life to Jesus, you know in your soul that this is finally the real thing because Jesus is there now. I pray that you will tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm Yours." At our website, there's a brief explanation of just how to begin your personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You can listen to it or you can read it. Just go to YoursForLife.net.
Jesus paid your passage to heaven with His life. That's how much He loves you. Go with Him today, because He is the One who can get you home.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Isaiah 52, Bible reading and Daily Devotions
Max Lucado Daily: A Safe Place
A Safe Place
Posted: 08 Mar 2010 10:01 PM PST
“They knew nothing about what was happening until the flood came and destroyed them. It will be the same when the Son of Man comes.” Matthew 24:39
Noah was sent to save the faithful. Christ was sent to do the same. A flood of water came then. A flood of fire will come next. Noah built a safe place out of wood. Jesus made a safe place with the cross. Those who believed hid in the ark. Those who believe are hidden in Christ.
Isaiah 52
God Is Leading You Out of Here
1-2 Wake up, wake up! Pull on your boots, Zion! Dress up in your Sunday best, Jerusalem, holy city!
Those who want no part of God have been culled out.
They won't be coming along.
Brush off the dust and get to your feet, captive Jerusalem!
Throw off your chains, captive daughter of Zion!
3God says, "You were sold for nothing. You're being bought back for nothing."
4-6Again, the Master, God, says, "Early on, my people went to Egypt and lived, strangers in the land. At the other end, Assyria oppressed them. And now, what have I here?" God's Decree. "My people are hauled off again for no reason at all. Tyrants on the warpath, whooping it up, and day after day, incessantly, my reputation blackened. Now it's time that my people know who I am, what I'm made of—yes, that I have something to say. Here I am!"
7-10How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of the messenger bringing good news,
Breaking the news that all's well,
proclaiming good times, announcing salvation,
telling Zion, "Your God reigns!"
Voices! Listen! Your scouts are shouting, thunderclap shouts,
shouting in joyful unison.
They see with their own eyes
God coming back to Zion.
Break into song! Boom it out, ruins of Jerusalem:
"God has comforted his people!
He's redeemed Jerusalem!"
God has rolled up his sleeves.
All the nations can see his holy, muscled arm.
Everyone, from one end of the earth to the other,
sees him at work, doing his salvation work.
11-12Out of here! Out of here! Leave this place!
Don't look back. Don't contaminate yourselves with plunder.
Just leave, but leave clean. Purify yourselves
in the process of worship, carrying the holy vessels of God.
But you don't have to be in a hurry.
You're not running from anybody!
God is leading you out of here,
and the God of Israel is also your rear guard.
It Was Our Pains He Carried
13-15"Just watch my servant blossom!
Exalted, tall, head and shoulders above the crowd!
But he didn't begin that way.
At first everyone was appalled.
He didn't even look human—
a ruined face, disfigured past recognition.
Nations all over the world will be in awe, taken aback,
kings shocked into silence when they see him.
For what was unheard of they'll see with their own eyes,
what was unthinkable they'll have right before them."
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Deuteronomy 8
1-5 Keep and live out the entire commandment that I'm commanding you today so that you'll live and prosper and enter and own the land that God promised to your ancestors. Remember every road that God led you on for those forty years in the wilderness, pushing you to your limits, testing you so that he would know what you were made of, whether you would keep his commandments or not. He put you through hard times. He made you go hungry. Then he fed you with manna, something neither you nor your parents knew anything about, so you would learn that men and women don't live by bread only; we live by every word that comes from God's mouth. Your clothes didn't wear out and your feet didn't blister those forty years. You learned deep in your heart that God disciplines you in the same ways a father disciplines his child.
Deuteronomy 8:10-18
10 After a meal, satisfied, bless God, your God, for the good land he has given you.
11-16 Make sure you don't forget God, your God, by not keeping his commandments, his rules and regulations that I command you today. Make sure that when you eat and are satisfied, build pleasant houses and settle in, see your herds and flocks flourish and more and more money come in, watch your standard of living going up and up—make sure you don't become so full of yourself and your things that you forget God, your God,
the God who delivered you from Egyptian slavery;
the God who led you through that huge and fearsome wilderness, those desolate, arid badlands crawling with fiery snakes and scorpions;
the God who gave you water gushing from hard rock;
the God who gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never heard of, in order to give you a taste of the hard life, to test you so that you would be prepared to live well in the days ahead of you.
17-18 If you start thinking to yourselves, "I did all this. And all by myself. I'm rich. It's all mine!"—well, think again. Remember that God, your God, gave you the strength to produce all this wealth so as to confirm the covenant that he promised to your ancestors—as it is today.
March 9, 2010
Don’t Forget
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READ: Deut. 8:1-2,10-18
Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments. —Deuteronomy 8:11
One of my favorite Far Side cartoons is captioned “Superman in his later years.” It shows the elderly Man of Steel perched on a window ledge, ready to leap, as he looks back and says, “Now where was I going?”
Forgetfulness happens to us all, and while our occasional lapses may be amusing or annoying, a lack of memory toward God can be disastrous.
With the people of Israel poised to enter the Promised Land, Moses challenged them to “remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness” (Deut. 8:2) and to “beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments” (v.11).
Forgetting God can spring from: Testing (vv.2-4). God allowed His people to hunger and then provided manna. When we lack the necessities of life, it’s easy to feel that God has somehow forgotten us. Satisfaction (vv.10-11). Abundance or need may produce spiritual amnesia because both cause us to focus on ourselves, not on God who provides. Pride (vv.12-16). If prosperity brings a feeling of self-accomplishment, then we have forgotten God.
Humility, obedience, and praise help us remember God’s faithful provision and care. Let’s not forget to thank Him today for all He’s done. — David C. McCasland
Lest I forget Gethsemane,
Lest I forget Thine agony,
Lest I forget Thy love for me,
Lead me to Calvary. —Hussey
Never let the abundance of God’s gifts cause you to forget the Giver.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 9, 2010
Turning Back or Walking with Jesus?
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
Do you also want to go away? —John 6:67
What a penetrating question! Our Lord’s words often hit home for us when He speaks in the simplest way. In spite of the fact that we know who Jesus is, He asks, "Do you also want to go away?" We must continually maintain an adventurous attitude toward Him, despite any potential personal risk.
"From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more" (John 6:66 ). They turned back from walking with Jesus; not into sin, but away from Him. Many people today are pouring their lives out and working for Jesus Christ, but are not really walking with Him. One thing God constantly requires of us is a oneness with Jesus Christ. After being set apart through sanctification, we should discipline our lives spiritually to maintain this intimate oneness. When God gives you a clear determination of His will for you, all your striving to maintain that relationship by some particular method is completely unnecessary. All that is required is to live a natural life of absolute dependence on Jesus Christ. Never try to live your life with God in any other way than His way. And His way means absolute devotion to Him. Showing no concern for the uncertainties that lie ahead is the secret of walking with Jesus.
Peter saw in Jesus only someone who could minister salvation to him and to the world. But our Lord wants us to be fellow laborers with Him.
In John 6:70 Jesus lovingly reminded Peter that he was chosen to go with Him. And each of us must answer this question for ourselves and no one else: "Do you also want to go away?"
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Everything You Need For the Trip - #6042
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
My friend Donna had never been a rafting trip before, until someone gave it to her as a gift; which meant she felt obligated to go. Little did she realize that the river her group would be rafting on goes from being a river of glass at the beginning of your journey, to the sudden violence of Class 3 rapids, at a point that they simply named "Surprise." And ultimately, through the most challenging, most dangerous level of white water there is, Class 5 rapids. Thankfully, there was an outfitter that prepared them for this perilous journey. He coached them as to what to expect on the river, where to sit on the raft, and how to paddle in various situations. He equipped them with a life jacket, a paddle, and a helmet. Donna was not particularly thrilled that her helmet had an unexplained dent in it - she didn't even want to know how it got there! The outfitter had provisions for his crew, including the food and basic medical supplies that they might need. And, best of all, he was with them all the way. They had one wild ride, but they all made it just fine...even Donna.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Everything You Need For the Trip."
The outfitter makes the difference on the river, and in your life. And if you belong to Jesus, you have no one less than the God of the universe as your Outfitter! He knows what's ahead on the river you're navigating. He knows everything you'll need to make it, and He's making sure you have what you need.
His total provision is the theme of this wonderful prayer in Hebrews 13:20-21, our word for today from the Word of God. "May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant, brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing His will, and may He work in us what is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever."
Isn't that awesome? "Everything good for doing His will." If God can bring Jesus back from the dead; if Jesus, the great Shepherd, is looking after you, is there any need He won't take care of? Any need He can't take care of?
Now you may be stuck on the shore, too scared to get into the raft and go where Jesus wants to take you. You're afraid you won't be able to handle the turbulence ahead. You're afraid to go where you've never gone before. You're afraid to move ahead because you're not sure you'll have what you need. But did Psalm 23:1 suddenly get erased from your Bible? "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want!" The journey ahead, the white water ahead isn't about you and what you can do anyway. It's about your Divine Outfitter, and Navigator, and Provider, and Protector, and Guide. It's not about you doing stuff for God. It's about God doing stuff through you! So what are you waiting for? What are you worrying for? Your job is pretty simple: stay pure and show up. The rest is up to Jesus.
When my friend went through the roughest of rapids, her security wasn't her ability to navigate them. It was all about the man who knows the river, who has navigated that river and piloted people through safely many times. Jesus is committed to do that for you. He's not pushing you off on a raft, standing on the shore shouting, "Good luck!" He's in that raft with you, every mile of the way! He's really just asking you to participate with Him in an exciting ride that ultimately He's going to navigate. And He has promised that He will provide everything you need for the trip!
A Safe Place
Posted: 08 Mar 2010 10:01 PM PST
“They knew nothing about what was happening until the flood came and destroyed them. It will be the same when the Son of Man comes.” Matthew 24:39
Noah was sent to save the faithful. Christ was sent to do the same. A flood of water came then. A flood of fire will come next. Noah built a safe place out of wood. Jesus made a safe place with the cross. Those who believed hid in the ark. Those who believe are hidden in Christ.
Isaiah 52
God Is Leading You Out of Here
1-2 Wake up, wake up! Pull on your boots, Zion! Dress up in your Sunday best, Jerusalem, holy city!
Those who want no part of God have been culled out.
They won't be coming along.
Brush off the dust and get to your feet, captive Jerusalem!
Throw off your chains, captive daughter of Zion!
3God says, "You were sold for nothing. You're being bought back for nothing."
4-6Again, the Master, God, says, "Early on, my people went to Egypt and lived, strangers in the land. At the other end, Assyria oppressed them. And now, what have I here?" God's Decree. "My people are hauled off again for no reason at all. Tyrants on the warpath, whooping it up, and day after day, incessantly, my reputation blackened. Now it's time that my people know who I am, what I'm made of—yes, that I have something to say. Here I am!"
7-10How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of the messenger bringing good news,
Breaking the news that all's well,
proclaiming good times, announcing salvation,
telling Zion, "Your God reigns!"
Voices! Listen! Your scouts are shouting, thunderclap shouts,
shouting in joyful unison.
They see with their own eyes
God coming back to Zion.
Break into song! Boom it out, ruins of Jerusalem:
"God has comforted his people!
He's redeemed Jerusalem!"
God has rolled up his sleeves.
All the nations can see his holy, muscled arm.
Everyone, from one end of the earth to the other,
sees him at work, doing his salvation work.
11-12Out of here! Out of here! Leave this place!
Don't look back. Don't contaminate yourselves with plunder.
Just leave, but leave clean. Purify yourselves
in the process of worship, carrying the holy vessels of God.
But you don't have to be in a hurry.
You're not running from anybody!
God is leading you out of here,
and the God of Israel is also your rear guard.
It Was Our Pains He Carried
13-15"Just watch my servant blossom!
Exalted, tall, head and shoulders above the crowd!
But he didn't begin that way.
At first everyone was appalled.
He didn't even look human—
a ruined face, disfigured past recognition.
Nations all over the world will be in awe, taken aback,
kings shocked into silence when they see him.
For what was unheard of they'll see with their own eyes,
what was unthinkable they'll have right before them."
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Deuteronomy 8
1-5 Keep and live out the entire commandment that I'm commanding you today so that you'll live and prosper and enter and own the land that God promised to your ancestors. Remember every road that God led you on for those forty years in the wilderness, pushing you to your limits, testing you so that he would know what you were made of, whether you would keep his commandments or not. He put you through hard times. He made you go hungry. Then he fed you with manna, something neither you nor your parents knew anything about, so you would learn that men and women don't live by bread only; we live by every word that comes from God's mouth. Your clothes didn't wear out and your feet didn't blister those forty years. You learned deep in your heart that God disciplines you in the same ways a father disciplines his child.
Deuteronomy 8:10-18
10 After a meal, satisfied, bless God, your God, for the good land he has given you.
11-16 Make sure you don't forget God, your God, by not keeping his commandments, his rules and regulations that I command you today. Make sure that when you eat and are satisfied, build pleasant houses and settle in, see your herds and flocks flourish and more and more money come in, watch your standard of living going up and up—make sure you don't become so full of yourself and your things that you forget God, your God,
the God who delivered you from Egyptian slavery;
the God who led you through that huge and fearsome wilderness, those desolate, arid badlands crawling with fiery snakes and scorpions;
the God who gave you water gushing from hard rock;
the God who gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never heard of, in order to give you a taste of the hard life, to test you so that you would be prepared to live well in the days ahead of you.
17-18 If you start thinking to yourselves, "I did all this. And all by myself. I'm rich. It's all mine!"—well, think again. Remember that God, your God, gave you the strength to produce all this wealth so as to confirm the covenant that he promised to your ancestors—as it is today.
March 9, 2010
Don’t Forget
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: Deut. 8:1-2,10-18
Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments. —Deuteronomy 8:11
One of my favorite Far Side cartoons is captioned “Superman in his later years.” It shows the elderly Man of Steel perched on a window ledge, ready to leap, as he looks back and says, “Now where was I going?”
Forgetfulness happens to us all, and while our occasional lapses may be amusing or annoying, a lack of memory toward God can be disastrous.
With the people of Israel poised to enter the Promised Land, Moses challenged them to “remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness” (Deut. 8:2) and to “beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments” (v.11).
Forgetting God can spring from: Testing (vv.2-4). God allowed His people to hunger and then provided manna. When we lack the necessities of life, it’s easy to feel that God has somehow forgotten us. Satisfaction (vv.10-11). Abundance or need may produce spiritual amnesia because both cause us to focus on ourselves, not on God who provides. Pride (vv.12-16). If prosperity brings a feeling of self-accomplishment, then we have forgotten God.
Humility, obedience, and praise help us remember God’s faithful provision and care. Let’s not forget to thank Him today for all He’s done. — David C. McCasland
Lest I forget Gethsemane,
Lest I forget Thine agony,
Lest I forget Thy love for me,
Lead me to Calvary. —Hussey
Never let the abundance of God’s gifts cause you to forget the Giver.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 9, 2010
Turning Back or Walking with Jesus?
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
Do you also want to go away? —John 6:67
What a penetrating question! Our Lord’s words often hit home for us when He speaks in the simplest way. In spite of the fact that we know who Jesus is, He asks, "Do you also want to go away?" We must continually maintain an adventurous attitude toward Him, despite any potential personal risk.
"From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more" (John 6:66 ). They turned back from walking with Jesus; not into sin, but away from Him. Many people today are pouring their lives out and working for Jesus Christ, but are not really walking with Him. One thing God constantly requires of us is a oneness with Jesus Christ. After being set apart through sanctification, we should discipline our lives spiritually to maintain this intimate oneness. When God gives you a clear determination of His will for you, all your striving to maintain that relationship by some particular method is completely unnecessary. All that is required is to live a natural life of absolute dependence on Jesus Christ. Never try to live your life with God in any other way than His way. And His way means absolute devotion to Him. Showing no concern for the uncertainties that lie ahead is the secret of walking with Jesus.
Peter saw in Jesus only someone who could minister salvation to him and to the world. But our Lord wants us to be fellow laborers with Him.
In John 6:70 Jesus lovingly reminded Peter that he was chosen to go with Him. And each of us must answer this question for ourselves and no one else: "Do you also want to go away?"
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Everything You Need For the Trip - #6042
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
My friend Donna had never been a rafting trip before, until someone gave it to her as a gift; which meant she felt obligated to go. Little did she realize that the river her group would be rafting on goes from being a river of glass at the beginning of your journey, to the sudden violence of Class 3 rapids, at a point that they simply named "Surprise." And ultimately, through the most challenging, most dangerous level of white water there is, Class 5 rapids. Thankfully, there was an outfitter that prepared them for this perilous journey. He coached them as to what to expect on the river, where to sit on the raft, and how to paddle in various situations. He equipped them with a life jacket, a paddle, and a helmet. Donna was not particularly thrilled that her helmet had an unexplained dent in it - she didn't even want to know how it got there! The outfitter had provisions for his crew, including the food and basic medical supplies that they might need. And, best of all, he was with them all the way. They had one wild ride, but they all made it just fine...even Donna.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Everything You Need For the Trip."
The outfitter makes the difference on the river, and in your life. And if you belong to Jesus, you have no one less than the God of the universe as your Outfitter! He knows what's ahead on the river you're navigating. He knows everything you'll need to make it, and He's making sure you have what you need.
His total provision is the theme of this wonderful prayer in Hebrews 13:20-21, our word for today from the Word of God. "May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant, brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing His will, and may He work in us what is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever."
Isn't that awesome? "Everything good for doing His will." If God can bring Jesus back from the dead; if Jesus, the great Shepherd, is looking after you, is there any need He won't take care of? Any need He can't take care of?
Now you may be stuck on the shore, too scared to get into the raft and go where Jesus wants to take you. You're afraid you won't be able to handle the turbulence ahead. You're afraid to go where you've never gone before. You're afraid to move ahead because you're not sure you'll have what you need. But did Psalm 23:1 suddenly get erased from your Bible? "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want!" The journey ahead, the white water ahead isn't about you and what you can do anyway. It's about your Divine Outfitter, and Navigator, and Provider, and Protector, and Guide. It's not about you doing stuff for God. It's about God doing stuff through you! So what are you waiting for? What are you worrying for? Your job is pretty simple: stay pure and show up. The rest is up to Jesus.
When my friend went through the roughest of rapids, her security wasn't her ability to navigate them. It was all about the man who knows the river, who has navigated that river and piloted people through safely many times. Jesus is committed to do that for you. He's not pushing you off on a raft, standing on the shore shouting, "Good luck!" He's in that raft with you, every mile of the way! He's really just asking you to participate with Him in an exciting ride that ultimately He's going to navigate. And He has promised that He will provide everything you need for the trip!
Monday, March 8, 2010
Isaiah 40, Bible reading and Daily Devotions
Max Lucado Daily: It’s Not What You Do
It’s Not What You Do
Posted: 07 Mar 2010 10:01 PM PST
“There is now no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ.” Romans 8:1 NIV
There is never a point at which you are any less saved than you were the first moment Christ saved you. Just because you were grumpy at breakfast doesn’t mean you were condemned at breakfast. When you lost your temper yesterday, you didn’t lose your salvation. Your name doesn’t disappear and reappear in the book of life according to your moods and actions . . .
You are saved, not because of what you do, but because of what Christ did.
Isaiah 40
Messages of Comfort
Prepare for God's Arrival
1-2 "Comfort, oh comfort my people,"
says your God.
"Speak softly and tenderly to Jerusalem,
but also make it very clear
That she has served her sentence,
that her sin is taken care of—forgiven!
She's been punished enough and more than enough,
and now it's over and done with."
3-5Thunder in the desert!
"Prepare for God's arrival!
Make the road straight and smooth,
a highway fit for our God.
Fill in the valleys,
level off the hills,
Smooth out the ruts,
clear out the rocks.
Then God's bright glory will shine
and everyone will see it.
Yes. Just as God has said."
6-8A voice says, "Shout!"
I said, "What shall I shout?"
"These people are nothing but grass,
their love fragile as wildflowers.
The grass withers, the wildflowers fade,
if God so much as puffs on them.
Aren't these people just so much grass?
True, the grass withers and the wildflowers fade,
but our God's Word stands firm and forever."
9-11Climb a high mountain, Zion.
You're the preacher of good news.
Raise your voice. Make it good and loud, Jerusalem.
You're the preacher of good news.
Speak loud and clear. Don't be timid!
Tell the cities of Judah,
"Look! Your God!"
Look at him! God, the Master, comes in power,
ready to go into action.
He is going to pay back his enemies
and reward those who have loved him.
Like a shepherd, he will care for his flock,
gathering the lambs in his arms,
Hugging them as he carries them,
leading the nursing ewes to good pasture.
The Creator of All You Can See or Imagine
12-17Who has scooped up the ocean
in his two hands,
or measured the sky between his thumb and little finger,
Who has put all the earth's dirt in one of his baskets,
weighed each mountain and hill?
Who could ever have told God what to do
or taught him his business?
What expert would he have gone to for advice,
what school would he attend to learn justice?
What god do you suppose might have taught him what he knows,
showed him how things work?
Why, the nations are but a drop in a bucket,
a mere smudge on a window.
Watch him sweep up the islands
like so much dust off the floor!
There aren't enough trees in Lebanon
nor enough animals in those vast forests
to furnish adequate fuel and offerings for his worship.
All the nations add up to simply nothing before him—
less than nothing is more like it. A minus.
18-20So who even comes close to being like God?
To whom or what can you compare him?
Some no-god idol? Ridiculous!
It's made in a workshop, cast in bronze,
Given a thin veneer of gold,
and draped with silver filigree.
Or, perhaps someone will select a fine wood—
olive wood, say—that won't rot,
Then hire a woodcarver to make a no-god,
giving special care to its base so it won't tip over!
21-24Have you not been paying attention?
Have you not been listening?
Haven't you heard these stories all your life?
Don't you understand the foundation of all things?
God sits high above the round ball of earth.
The people look like mere ants.
He stretches out the skies like a canvas—
yes, like a tent canvas to live under.
He ignores what all the princes say and do.
The rulers of the earth count for nothing.
Princes and rulers don't amount to much.
Like seeds barely rooted, just sprouted,
They shrivel when God blows on them.
Like flecks of chaff, they're gone with the wind.
25-26"So—who is like me?
Who holds a candle to me?" says The Holy.
Look at the night skies:
Who do you think made all this?
Who marches this army of stars out each night,
counts them off, calls each by name
—so magnificent! so powerful!—
and never overlooks a single one?
27-31Why would you ever complain, O Jacob,
or, whine, Israel, saying,
"God has lost track of me.
He doesn't care what happens to me"?
Don't you know anything? Haven't you been listening?
God doesn't come and go. God lasts.
He's Creator of all you can see or imagine.
He doesn't get tired out, doesn't pause to catch his breath.
And he knows everything, inside and out.
He energizes those who get tired,
gives fresh strength to dropouts.
For even young people tire and drop out,
young folk in their prime stumble and fall.
But those who wait upon God get fresh strength.
They spread their wings and soar like eagles,
They run and don't get tired,
they walk and don't lag behind.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Luke 15
The Story of the Lost Sheep
1-3By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, "He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends." Their grumbling triggered this story.
4-7"Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn't you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it? When found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing, and when you got home call in your friends and neighbors, saying, 'Celebrate with me! I've found my lost sheep!' Count on it—there's more joy in heaven over one sinner's rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue.
March 8, 2010
To The Rescue
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: Luke 15:1-7
There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance. —Luke 15:7
Martie and I recently traveled to some major cities in several countries. We were struck with how lost our world is and grieved over the millions who have never heard the message of the saving grace of Jesus. The thought of reaching our world for Christ felt overwhelming.
Until I remembered the story of the boy walking on a beach. Encountering hundreds of starfish dying under the heat of the burning sun, he started throwing them back into the sea. A passerby asked, “What are you doing?” “Saving their lives,” the boy replied. “Forget it,” the man said. “You can’t possibly save all these starfish.” “Right,” replied the boy, “but it makes a big difference to each one I do save.”
I love the boy’s perspective. When the wave of sin threw us onto the shore to die, God sent His Son to walk on the beach to rescue all who would repent. And, as Jesus told His listeners in Luke 15, each time someone is rescued, heaven throws a party. “I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance” (Luke 15:7).
Has heaven rejoiced over your rescue? If so, join the ranks of those who reach other lost souls with the rescuing grace of Jesus. — Joe Stowell
Your love, O God, would spare no pain
To conquer death and win;
You sent Your only Son to die
To rescue us from sin. —M. Gustafson
When you’ve been rescued, you’ll want to rescue others.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 8, 2010
The Surrendered Life
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READ:
I have been crucified with Christ . . . —Galatians 2:20
To become one with Jesus Christ, a person must be willing not only to give up sin, but also to surrender his whole way of looking at things. Being born again by the Spirit of God means that we must first be willing to let go before we can grasp something else. The first thing we must surrender is all of our pretense or deceit. What our Lord wants us to present to Him is not our goodness, honesty, or our efforts to do better, but real solid sin. Actually, that is all He can take from us. And what He gives us in exchange for our sin is real solid righteousness. But we must surrender all pretense that we are anything, and give up all our claims of even being worthy of God’s consideration.
Once we have done that, the Spirit of God will show us what we need to surrender next. Along each step of this process, we will have to give up our claims to our rights to ourselves. Are we willing to surrender our grasp on all that we possess, our desires, and everything else in our lives? Are we ready to be identified with the death of Jesus Christ?
We will suffer a sharp painful disillusionment before we fully surrender. When people really see themselves as the Lord sees them, it is not the terribly offensive sins of the flesh that shock them, but the awful nature of the pride of their own hearts opposing Jesus Christ. When they see themselves in the light of the Lord, the shame, horror, and desperate conviction hit home for them.
If you are faced with the question of whether or not to surrender, make a determination to go on through the crisis, surrendering all that you have and all that you are to Him. And God will then equip you to do all that He requires of you.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Difference Between List and Death - #6041
Monday, March 8, 2010
The cable news people called it a miracle. So did the man whose alive today because of what happened. He'd gone out for an afternoon on his boat off the coast of California. He didn't expect that sudden high wind that hit his vessel and threw him catapulting over the rail and into the water. The boat continued moving with its propellers nearly cutting him to pieces. He escaped that danger with relatively minor cuts, but now he was alone and adrift in those cold waters, knowing that hypothermia would soon set in. He was unable to sustain himself in the water, and he prayed for divine help. At that moment, he saw a balloon floating on the water nearby. He grabbed the balloon. He put it under his shirt to keep him buoyant. There's one problem with balloons - they tend to lose air. And slowly, the balloon that was holding him up did just that.
With hypothermia beginning to set in, he was at the end of his ability to stay alive and stay afloat. He closed his eyes, knowing that death must be near. He said, "All I could do was to begin to say the 23rd Psalm out loud, 'The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.' When I got to the part that says, 'Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me,' I opened my eyes. And there, floating in front of me, was a board. I grabbed it. I hung on tight. Then, in front of me, I saw a large buoy. I paddled to that buoy, only to be challenged by a huge sea lion." That's when he was sure he was going to die. But that was when, five hours after he'd gone overboard, his brother arrived in a search boat and saved his life.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Difference Between Life and Death."
A man facing a seemingly deadly situation, a series of amazing interventions, and the arrival of the rescuer who was his only hope...just in the nick of time. For someone listening today, that's not just a story from the news. That's your story. Or it's about to be. It's my story and the story of millions of others whose only hope was
a rescue - a spiritual rescue.
Our word for today from the Word of God is really just eight powerful words from Zephaniah 3:17. It simply says, "The Lord your God is mighty to save." He really is. He has both the love and the power to do whatever it takes to save you from the emptiness and the turbulence of a life away from God, and more importantly, from the awful agony of an eternity without Him. God is in the saving business.
Like that man overboard, the Bible says that we're all in a deadly situation from which we cannot save ourselves, and often we don't even know the danger we're in. The Bible says we are "without hope and without God in this world." (Ephesians 2:12); away from the Source of our life because we've hijacked our life from Him. It's called sin: a lifetime of willful choices that have ignored and disobeyed God's laws. And the Bible says, "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). We're overboard, we're drifting, and we're dying.
Along the way, the One who is "mighty to save" has sent you some "boards" and "balloons" that would keep you afloat until you could find the real Rescuer. You are alive today by His grace and His intervention in ways you don't even know. He's wanted you to have a chance to grab the hand of His Son, His rescuer from heaven. Because one day you will "walk through the valley of the shadow of death," and your only hope is those four words, "You are with me." If Jesus isn't with you when you enter eternity, you are without hope. If He is with you, you're in heaven forever.
Today, the nail-pierced hand of heaven's Rescuer is reaching for you. The nail prints are there because He had to die so you could live; taking the penalty for your sin on that awful cross. And this day, you have to make your choice about Him. How do you grab His hand? You say, "Jesus, I've done it my way long enough. You died for my sin. I am Yours." In that moment, you're saved, you're rescued, and you're safe.
There's a lot more at our website about how to be sure you belong to Christ. This might be a great time for you to visit there. It's YoursForLife.net. None of us knows how much longer we have to choose life. Let today be the day you grab the hand of that One who is mighty to save.
It’s Not What You Do
Posted: 07 Mar 2010 10:01 PM PST
“There is now no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ.” Romans 8:1 NIV
There is never a point at which you are any less saved than you were the first moment Christ saved you. Just because you were grumpy at breakfast doesn’t mean you were condemned at breakfast. When you lost your temper yesterday, you didn’t lose your salvation. Your name doesn’t disappear and reappear in the book of life according to your moods and actions . . .
You are saved, not because of what you do, but because of what Christ did.
Isaiah 40
Messages of Comfort
Prepare for God's Arrival
1-2 "Comfort, oh comfort my people,"
says your God.
"Speak softly and tenderly to Jerusalem,
but also make it very clear
That she has served her sentence,
that her sin is taken care of—forgiven!
She's been punished enough and more than enough,
and now it's over and done with."
3-5Thunder in the desert!
"Prepare for God's arrival!
Make the road straight and smooth,
a highway fit for our God.
Fill in the valleys,
level off the hills,
Smooth out the ruts,
clear out the rocks.
Then God's bright glory will shine
and everyone will see it.
Yes. Just as God has said."
6-8A voice says, "Shout!"
I said, "What shall I shout?"
"These people are nothing but grass,
their love fragile as wildflowers.
The grass withers, the wildflowers fade,
if God so much as puffs on them.
Aren't these people just so much grass?
True, the grass withers and the wildflowers fade,
but our God's Word stands firm and forever."
9-11Climb a high mountain, Zion.
You're the preacher of good news.
Raise your voice. Make it good and loud, Jerusalem.
You're the preacher of good news.
Speak loud and clear. Don't be timid!
Tell the cities of Judah,
"Look! Your God!"
Look at him! God, the Master, comes in power,
ready to go into action.
He is going to pay back his enemies
and reward those who have loved him.
Like a shepherd, he will care for his flock,
gathering the lambs in his arms,
Hugging them as he carries them,
leading the nursing ewes to good pasture.
The Creator of All You Can See or Imagine
12-17Who has scooped up the ocean
in his two hands,
or measured the sky between his thumb and little finger,
Who has put all the earth's dirt in one of his baskets,
weighed each mountain and hill?
Who could ever have told God what to do
or taught him his business?
What expert would he have gone to for advice,
what school would he attend to learn justice?
What god do you suppose might have taught him what he knows,
showed him how things work?
Why, the nations are but a drop in a bucket,
a mere smudge on a window.
Watch him sweep up the islands
like so much dust off the floor!
There aren't enough trees in Lebanon
nor enough animals in those vast forests
to furnish adequate fuel and offerings for his worship.
All the nations add up to simply nothing before him—
less than nothing is more like it. A minus.
18-20So who even comes close to being like God?
To whom or what can you compare him?
Some no-god idol? Ridiculous!
It's made in a workshop, cast in bronze,
Given a thin veneer of gold,
and draped with silver filigree.
Or, perhaps someone will select a fine wood—
olive wood, say—that won't rot,
Then hire a woodcarver to make a no-god,
giving special care to its base so it won't tip over!
21-24Have you not been paying attention?
Have you not been listening?
Haven't you heard these stories all your life?
Don't you understand the foundation of all things?
God sits high above the round ball of earth.
The people look like mere ants.
He stretches out the skies like a canvas—
yes, like a tent canvas to live under.
He ignores what all the princes say and do.
The rulers of the earth count for nothing.
Princes and rulers don't amount to much.
Like seeds barely rooted, just sprouted,
They shrivel when God blows on them.
Like flecks of chaff, they're gone with the wind.
25-26"So—who is like me?
Who holds a candle to me?" says The Holy.
Look at the night skies:
Who do you think made all this?
Who marches this army of stars out each night,
counts them off, calls each by name
—so magnificent! so powerful!—
and never overlooks a single one?
27-31Why would you ever complain, O Jacob,
or, whine, Israel, saying,
"God has lost track of me.
He doesn't care what happens to me"?
Don't you know anything? Haven't you been listening?
God doesn't come and go. God lasts.
He's Creator of all you can see or imagine.
He doesn't get tired out, doesn't pause to catch his breath.
And he knows everything, inside and out.
He energizes those who get tired,
gives fresh strength to dropouts.
For even young people tire and drop out,
young folk in their prime stumble and fall.
But those who wait upon God get fresh strength.
They spread their wings and soar like eagles,
They run and don't get tired,
they walk and don't lag behind.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Luke 15
The Story of the Lost Sheep
1-3By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, "He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends." Their grumbling triggered this story.
4-7"Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn't you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it? When found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing, and when you got home call in your friends and neighbors, saying, 'Celebrate with me! I've found my lost sheep!' Count on it—there's more joy in heaven over one sinner's rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue.
March 8, 2010
To The Rescue
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READ: Luke 15:1-7
There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance. —Luke 15:7
Martie and I recently traveled to some major cities in several countries. We were struck with how lost our world is and grieved over the millions who have never heard the message of the saving grace of Jesus. The thought of reaching our world for Christ felt overwhelming.
Until I remembered the story of the boy walking on a beach. Encountering hundreds of starfish dying under the heat of the burning sun, he started throwing them back into the sea. A passerby asked, “What are you doing?” “Saving their lives,” the boy replied. “Forget it,” the man said. “You can’t possibly save all these starfish.” “Right,” replied the boy, “but it makes a big difference to each one I do save.”
I love the boy’s perspective. When the wave of sin threw us onto the shore to die, God sent His Son to walk on the beach to rescue all who would repent. And, as Jesus told His listeners in Luke 15, each time someone is rescued, heaven throws a party. “I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance” (Luke 15:7).
Has heaven rejoiced over your rescue? If so, join the ranks of those who reach other lost souls with the rescuing grace of Jesus. — Joe Stowell
Your love, O God, would spare no pain
To conquer death and win;
You sent Your only Son to die
To rescue us from sin. —M. Gustafson
When you’ve been rescued, you’ll want to rescue others.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 8, 2010
The Surrendered Life
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READ:
I have been crucified with Christ . . . —Galatians 2:20
To become one with Jesus Christ, a person must be willing not only to give up sin, but also to surrender his whole way of looking at things. Being born again by the Spirit of God means that we must first be willing to let go before we can grasp something else. The first thing we must surrender is all of our pretense or deceit. What our Lord wants us to present to Him is not our goodness, honesty, or our efforts to do better, but real solid sin. Actually, that is all He can take from us. And what He gives us in exchange for our sin is real solid righteousness. But we must surrender all pretense that we are anything, and give up all our claims of even being worthy of God’s consideration.
Once we have done that, the Spirit of God will show us what we need to surrender next. Along each step of this process, we will have to give up our claims to our rights to ourselves. Are we willing to surrender our grasp on all that we possess, our desires, and everything else in our lives? Are we ready to be identified with the death of Jesus Christ?
We will suffer a sharp painful disillusionment before we fully surrender. When people really see themselves as the Lord sees them, it is not the terribly offensive sins of the flesh that shock them, but the awful nature of the pride of their own hearts opposing Jesus Christ. When they see themselves in the light of the Lord, the shame, horror, and desperate conviction hit home for them.
If you are faced with the question of whether or not to surrender, make a determination to go on through the crisis, surrendering all that you have and all that you are to Him. And God will then equip you to do all that He requires of you.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Difference Between List and Death - #6041
Monday, March 8, 2010
The cable news people called it a miracle. So did the man whose alive today because of what happened. He'd gone out for an afternoon on his boat off the coast of California. He didn't expect that sudden high wind that hit his vessel and threw him catapulting over the rail and into the water. The boat continued moving with its propellers nearly cutting him to pieces. He escaped that danger with relatively minor cuts, but now he was alone and adrift in those cold waters, knowing that hypothermia would soon set in. He was unable to sustain himself in the water, and he prayed for divine help. At that moment, he saw a balloon floating on the water nearby. He grabbed the balloon. He put it under his shirt to keep him buoyant. There's one problem with balloons - they tend to lose air. And slowly, the balloon that was holding him up did just that.
With hypothermia beginning to set in, he was at the end of his ability to stay alive and stay afloat. He closed his eyes, knowing that death must be near. He said, "All I could do was to begin to say the 23rd Psalm out loud, 'The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.' When I got to the part that says, 'Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me,' I opened my eyes. And there, floating in front of me, was a board. I grabbed it. I hung on tight. Then, in front of me, I saw a large buoy. I paddled to that buoy, only to be challenged by a huge sea lion." That's when he was sure he was going to die. But that was when, five hours after he'd gone overboard, his brother arrived in a search boat and saved his life.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Difference Between Life and Death."
A man facing a seemingly deadly situation, a series of amazing interventions, and the arrival of the rescuer who was his only hope...just in the nick of time. For someone listening today, that's not just a story from the news. That's your story. Or it's about to be. It's my story and the story of millions of others whose only hope was
a rescue - a spiritual rescue.
Our word for today from the Word of God is really just eight powerful words from Zephaniah 3:17. It simply says, "The Lord your God is mighty to save." He really is. He has both the love and the power to do whatever it takes to save you from the emptiness and the turbulence of a life away from God, and more importantly, from the awful agony of an eternity without Him. God is in the saving business.
Like that man overboard, the Bible says that we're all in a deadly situation from which we cannot save ourselves, and often we don't even know the danger we're in. The Bible says we are "without hope and without God in this world." (Ephesians 2:12); away from the Source of our life because we've hijacked our life from Him. It's called sin: a lifetime of willful choices that have ignored and disobeyed God's laws. And the Bible says, "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). We're overboard, we're drifting, and we're dying.
Along the way, the One who is "mighty to save" has sent you some "boards" and "balloons" that would keep you afloat until you could find the real Rescuer. You are alive today by His grace and His intervention in ways you don't even know. He's wanted you to have a chance to grab the hand of His Son, His rescuer from heaven. Because one day you will "walk through the valley of the shadow of death," and your only hope is those four words, "You are with me." If Jesus isn't with you when you enter eternity, you are without hope. If He is with you, you're in heaven forever.
Today, the nail-pierced hand of heaven's Rescuer is reaching for you. The nail prints are there because He had to die so you could live; taking the penalty for your sin on that awful cross. And this day, you have to make your choice about Him. How do you grab His hand? You say, "Jesus, I've done it my way long enough. You died for my sin. I am Yours." In that moment, you're saved, you're rescued, and you're safe.
There's a lot more at our website about how to be sure you belong to Christ. This might be a great time for you to visit there. It's YoursForLife.net. None of us knows how much longer we have to choose life. Let today be the day you grab the hand of that One who is mighty to save.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
2 Chronicles 32, Bible reading and Daily Devotions
Max Lucado Daily: A Great Gift
A Great Gift
Posted: 06 Mar 2010 10:01 PM PST
“‘I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters,’ says the LORD Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6:18 NKJV
God did what we wouldn’t dare dream. He did what we couldn’t imagine. He became a man so we could trust Him. He became a sacrifice so we could know Him. And He defeated death so we could follow Him . . .
Only a Creator beyond the fence of logic could offer such a gift of love.
2 Chronicles 32
1 And then, after this exemplary track record, this: Sennacherib king of Assyria came and attacked Judah. He put the fortified cities under siege, determined to take them.
2-4 When Hezekiah realized that Sennacherib's strategy was to take Jerusalem, he talked to his advisors and military leaders about eliminating all the water supplies outside the city; they thought it was a good idea. There was a great turnout of people to plug the springs and tear down the aqueduct. They said, "Why should the kings of Assyria march in and be furnished with running water?"
5-6 Hezekiah also went to work repairing every part of the city wall that was damaged, built defensive towers on it, built another wall of defense further out, and reinforced the defensive rampart (the Millo) of the old City of David. He also built up a large store of armaments—spears and shields. He then appointed military officers to be responsible for the people and got them all together at the public square in front of the city gate.
6-8 Hezekiah rallied the people, saying, "Be strong! Take courage! Don't be intimidated by the king of Assyria and his troops—there are more on our side than on their side. He only has a bunch of mere men; we have our God to help us and fight for us!"
Morale surged. Hezekiah's words put steel in their spines.
9-15 Later on, Sennacherib, who had set up camp a few miles away at Lachish, sent messengers to Jerusalem, addressing Judah through Hezekiah: "A proclamation of Sennacherib king of Assyria: You poor people—do you think you're safe in that so-called fortress of Jerusalem? You're sitting ducks. Do you think Hezekiah will save you? Don't be stupid—Hezekiah has fed you a pack of lies. When he says, 'God will save us from the power of the king of Assyria,' he's lying—you're all going to end up dead. Wasn't it Hezekiah who cleared out all the neighborhood worship shrines and told you, 'There is only one legitimate place to worship'? Do you have any idea what I and my ancestors have done to all the countries around here? Has there been a single god anywhere strong enough to stand up against me? Can you name one god among all the nations that either I or my ancestors have ravaged that so much as lifted a finger against me? So what makes you think you'll make out any better with your god? Don't let Hezekiah fool you; don't let him get by with his barefaced lies; don't trust him. No god of any country or kingdom ever has been one bit of help against me or my ancestors—what kind of odds does that give your god?"
16 The messengers felt free to throw in their personal comments, putting down both God and God's servant Hezekiah.
17 Sennacherib continued to send letters insulting the God of Israel: "The gods of the nations were powerless to help their people; the god of Hezekiah is no better, probably worse."
18-19 The messengers would come up to the wall of Jerusalem and shout up to the people standing on the wall, shouting their propaganda in Hebrew, trying to scare them into demoralized submission. They contemptuously lumped the God of Jerusalem in with the handmade gods of other peoples.
20-21 King Hezekiah, joined by the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz, responded by praying, calling up to heaven. God answered by sending an angel who wiped out everyone in the Assyrian camp, both warriors and officers. Sennacherib was forced to return home in disgrace, tail between his legs. When he went into the temple of his god, his own sons killed him.
22-23 God saved Hezekiah and the citizens of Jerusalem from Sennacherib king of Assyria and everyone else. And he continued to take good care of them. People streamed into Jerusalem bringing offerings for the worship of God and expensive presents to Hezekiah king of Judah. All the surrounding nations were impressed—Hezekiah's stock soared.
24 Some time later Hezekiah became deathly sick. He prayed to God and was given a reassuring sign.
25-26 But the sign, instead of making Hezekiah grateful, made him arrogant. This made God angry, and his anger spilled over on Judah and Jerusalem. But then Hezekiah, and Jerusalem with him, repented of his arrogance, and God withdrew his anger while Hezekiah lived.
27-31 Hezekiah ended up very wealthy and much honored. He built treasuries for all his silver, gold, precious stones, spices, shields, and valuables, barns for the grain, new wine, and olive oil, stalls for his various breeds of cattle, and pens for his flocks. He founded royal cities for himself and built up huge stocks of sheep and cattle. God saw to it that he was extravagantly rich. Hezekiah was also responsible for diverting the upper outlet of the Gihon spring and rerouting the water to the west side of the City of David. Hezekiah succeeded in everything he did. But when the rulers of Babylon sent emissaries to find out about the sign from God that had taken place earlier, God left him on his own to see what he would do; he wanted to test his heart.
32-33 The rest of the history of Hezekiah and his life of loyal service, you can read for yourself—it's written in the vision of the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz in the Royal Annals of the Kings of Judah and Israel. When Hezekiah died, they buried him in the upper part of the King David cemetery. Everyone in Judah and Jerusalem came to the funeral. He was buried in great honor.
Manasseh his son was the next king.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Psalm 103:19-22 (The Message)
19-22 God has set his throne in heaven;
he rules over us all. He's the King!
So bless God, you angels,
ready and able to fly at his bidding,
quick to hear and do what he says.
Bless God, all you armies of angels,
alert to respond to whatever he wills.
Bless God, all creatures, wherever you are—
everything and everyone made by God.
And you, O my soul, bless God!
March 7, 2010
God’s Helpers
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READ: Psalm 103:19-22
Bless the Lord, you His angels. —Psalm 103:20
I was having a conversation with some children about God and superheroes when Tobias asked a question. An imaginative, curious 5-year-old, he asked anyone listening: “Does God have a sidekick like Hercules does?” His wiser, older brother, age 7, quickly responded: “Yes, He has thousands of them—they’re His angels.”
Angels are a popular topic of discussion, and people believe a number of myths about them. For instance, some people pray to angels, thinking they are on the same level as God Himself. And some believe that people become angels when they die. But here’s what the Bible, our authority, teaches:
• God created angels (Col. 1:15-17).
• Angels worship God (Neh. 9:6), and are known by these terms: archangels (Jude 1:9), cherubim (2 Kings 19:15), and seraphim (Isa. 6:1-3).
• They minister to God’s people (Heb. 1:13-14) by guarding and protecting them (Ps. 91:9-12).
• They are given special assignments by God (Matt. 1:20; Luke 1:26).
• God’s angels rejoice when we repent of sin and turn to Christ for salvation (Luke 15:7,10).
Only God deserves our worship. So let’s join the angels in singing His praises! — Anne Cetas
All hail the power of Jesus’ name!
Let angels prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem,
And crown Him Lord of all. —Perronet
Angels are God’s special helpers.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 7, 2010
The Source of Abundant Joy
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READ:
In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us —Romans 8:37
Paul was speaking here of the things that might seem likely to separate a saint from the love of God. But the remarkable thing is that nothing can come between the love of God and a saint. The things Paul mentioned in this passage can and do disrupt the close fellowship of our soul with God and separate our natural life from Him. But none of them is able to come between the love of God and the soul of a saint on the spiritual level. The underlying foundation of the Christian faith is the undeserved, limitless miracle of the love of God that was exhibited on the Cross of Calvary; a love that is not earned and can never be. Paul said this is the reason that "in all these things we are more than conquerors." We are super-victors with a joy that comes from experiencing the very things which look as if they are going to overwhelm us.
Huge waves that would frighten an ordinary swimmer produce a tremendous thrill for the surfer who has ridden them. Let’s apply that to our own circumstances. The things we try to avoid and fight against— tribulation, suffering, and persecution— are the very things that produce abundant joy in us. "We are more than conquerors through Him" "in all these things"; not in spite of them, but in the midst of them. A saint doesn’t know the joy of the Lord in spite of tribulation, but because of it. Paul said, "I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation" (2 Corinthians 7:4 ).
The undiminished radiance, which is the result of abundant joy, is not built on anything passing, but on the love of God that nothing can change. And the experiences of life, whether they are everyday events or terrifying ones, are powerless to "separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" ( Romans 8:39 ).
A Great Gift
Posted: 06 Mar 2010 10:01 PM PST
“‘I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters,’ says the LORD Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6:18 NKJV
God did what we wouldn’t dare dream. He did what we couldn’t imagine. He became a man so we could trust Him. He became a sacrifice so we could know Him. And He defeated death so we could follow Him . . .
Only a Creator beyond the fence of logic could offer such a gift of love.
2 Chronicles 32
1 And then, after this exemplary track record, this: Sennacherib king of Assyria came and attacked Judah. He put the fortified cities under siege, determined to take them.
2-4 When Hezekiah realized that Sennacherib's strategy was to take Jerusalem, he talked to his advisors and military leaders about eliminating all the water supplies outside the city; they thought it was a good idea. There was a great turnout of people to plug the springs and tear down the aqueduct. They said, "Why should the kings of Assyria march in and be furnished with running water?"
5-6 Hezekiah also went to work repairing every part of the city wall that was damaged, built defensive towers on it, built another wall of defense further out, and reinforced the defensive rampart (the Millo) of the old City of David. He also built up a large store of armaments—spears and shields. He then appointed military officers to be responsible for the people and got them all together at the public square in front of the city gate.
6-8 Hezekiah rallied the people, saying, "Be strong! Take courage! Don't be intimidated by the king of Assyria and his troops—there are more on our side than on their side. He only has a bunch of mere men; we have our God to help us and fight for us!"
Morale surged. Hezekiah's words put steel in their spines.
9-15 Later on, Sennacherib, who had set up camp a few miles away at Lachish, sent messengers to Jerusalem, addressing Judah through Hezekiah: "A proclamation of Sennacherib king of Assyria: You poor people—do you think you're safe in that so-called fortress of Jerusalem? You're sitting ducks. Do you think Hezekiah will save you? Don't be stupid—Hezekiah has fed you a pack of lies. When he says, 'God will save us from the power of the king of Assyria,' he's lying—you're all going to end up dead. Wasn't it Hezekiah who cleared out all the neighborhood worship shrines and told you, 'There is only one legitimate place to worship'? Do you have any idea what I and my ancestors have done to all the countries around here? Has there been a single god anywhere strong enough to stand up against me? Can you name one god among all the nations that either I or my ancestors have ravaged that so much as lifted a finger against me? So what makes you think you'll make out any better with your god? Don't let Hezekiah fool you; don't let him get by with his barefaced lies; don't trust him. No god of any country or kingdom ever has been one bit of help against me or my ancestors—what kind of odds does that give your god?"
16 The messengers felt free to throw in their personal comments, putting down both God and God's servant Hezekiah.
17 Sennacherib continued to send letters insulting the God of Israel: "The gods of the nations were powerless to help their people; the god of Hezekiah is no better, probably worse."
18-19 The messengers would come up to the wall of Jerusalem and shout up to the people standing on the wall, shouting their propaganda in Hebrew, trying to scare them into demoralized submission. They contemptuously lumped the God of Jerusalem in with the handmade gods of other peoples.
20-21 King Hezekiah, joined by the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz, responded by praying, calling up to heaven. God answered by sending an angel who wiped out everyone in the Assyrian camp, both warriors and officers. Sennacherib was forced to return home in disgrace, tail between his legs. When he went into the temple of his god, his own sons killed him.
22-23 God saved Hezekiah and the citizens of Jerusalem from Sennacherib king of Assyria and everyone else. And he continued to take good care of them. People streamed into Jerusalem bringing offerings for the worship of God and expensive presents to Hezekiah king of Judah. All the surrounding nations were impressed—Hezekiah's stock soared.
24 Some time later Hezekiah became deathly sick. He prayed to God and was given a reassuring sign.
25-26 But the sign, instead of making Hezekiah grateful, made him arrogant. This made God angry, and his anger spilled over on Judah and Jerusalem. But then Hezekiah, and Jerusalem with him, repented of his arrogance, and God withdrew his anger while Hezekiah lived.
27-31 Hezekiah ended up very wealthy and much honored. He built treasuries for all his silver, gold, precious stones, spices, shields, and valuables, barns for the grain, new wine, and olive oil, stalls for his various breeds of cattle, and pens for his flocks. He founded royal cities for himself and built up huge stocks of sheep and cattle. God saw to it that he was extravagantly rich. Hezekiah was also responsible for diverting the upper outlet of the Gihon spring and rerouting the water to the west side of the City of David. Hezekiah succeeded in everything he did. But when the rulers of Babylon sent emissaries to find out about the sign from God that had taken place earlier, God left him on his own to see what he would do; he wanted to test his heart.
32-33 The rest of the history of Hezekiah and his life of loyal service, you can read for yourself—it's written in the vision of the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz in the Royal Annals of the Kings of Judah and Israel. When Hezekiah died, they buried him in the upper part of the King David cemetery. Everyone in Judah and Jerusalem came to the funeral. He was buried in great honor.
Manasseh his son was the next king.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Psalm 103:19-22 (The Message)
19-22 God has set his throne in heaven;
he rules over us all. He's the King!
So bless God, you angels,
ready and able to fly at his bidding,
quick to hear and do what he says.
Bless God, all you armies of angels,
alert to respond to whatever he wills.
Bless God, all creatures, wherever you are—
everything and everyone made by God.
And you, O my soul, bless God!
March 7, 2010
God’s Helpers
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READ: Psalm 103:19-22
Bless the Lord, you His angels. —Psalm 103:20
I was having a conversation with some children about God and superheroes when Tobias asked a question. An imaginative, curious 5-year-old, he asked anyone listening: “Does God have a sidekick like Hercules does?” His wiser, older brother, age 7, quickly responded: “Yes, He has thousands of them—they’re His angels.”
Angels are a popular topic of discussion, and people believe a number of myths about them. For instance, some people pray to angels, thinking they are on the same level as God Himself. And some believe that people become angels when they die. But here’s what the Bible, our authority, teaches:
• God created angels (Col. 1:15-17).
• Angels worship God (Neh. 9:6), and are known by these terms: archangels (Jude 1:9), cherubim (2 Kings 19:15), and seraphim (Isa. 6:1-3).
• They minister to God’s people (Heb. 1:13-14) by guarding and protecting them (Ps. 91:9-12).
• They are given special assignments by God (Matt. 1:20; Luke 1:26).
• God’s angels rejoice when we repent of sin and turn to Christ for salvation (Luke 15:7,10).
Only God deserves our worship. So let’s join the angels in singing His praises! — Anne Cetas
All hail the power of Jesus’ name!
Let angels prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem,
And crown Him Lord of all. —Perronet
Angels are God’s special helpers.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 7, 2010
The Source of Abundant Joy
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READ:
In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us —Romans 8:37
Paul was speaking here of the things that might seem likely to separate a saint from the love of God. But the remarkable thing is that nothing can come between the love of God and a saint. The things Paul mentioned in this passage can and do disrupt the close fellowship of our soul with God and separate our natural life from Him. But none of them is able to come between the love of God and the soul of a saint on the spiritual level. The underlying foundation of the Christian faith is the undeserved, limitless miracle of the love of God that was exhibited on the Cross of Calvary; a love that is not earned and can never be. Paul said this is the reason that "in all these things we are more than conquerors." We are super-victors with a joy that comes from experiencing the very things which look as if they are going to overwhelm us.
Huge waves that would frighten an ordinary swimmer produce a tremendous thrill for the surfer who has ridden them. Let’s apply that to our own circumstances. The things we try to avoid and fight against— tribulation, suffering, and persecution— are the very things that produce abundant joy in us. "We are more than conquerors through Him" "in all these things"; not in spite of them, but in the midst of them. A saint doesn’t know the joy of the Lord in spite of tribulation, but because of it. Paul said, "I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation" (2 Corinthians 7:4 ).
The undiminished radiance, which is the result of abundant joy, is not built on anything passing, but on the love of God that nothing can change. And the experiences of life, whether they are everyday events or terrifying ones, are powerless to "separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" ( Romans 8:39 ).
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