Acts 7 as the Bible reading and Devotionals.

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Max Lucado Daily: Loaded With Fears

I don’t care how tough you are. You may be a Navy SEAL.  Doesn’t matter.  Every parent melts the moment he or she feels the full force of parenthood!

How did I get myself into this?  My moment came in the midnight quiet of an apartment in downtown Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, as I held a human being—my daughter—in my arms.

The semi-truck of parenting comes loaded with fears. Will we have enough money?  Enough answers?  Enough education?  It’s enough to keep a parent awake at night.

God has a heart for parents!  Are we surprised?  After all, God himself is a father. What parental emotion has he not felt?  But because of his great love for us, Romans says, “he did not spare his own son but gave him for us all.  So with Jesus, God will surely give us all things!”

ALL THINGS—must include courage and hope!

Acts 7:44-60
New International Version (NIV)
44 “Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the covenant law with them in the wilderness. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen. 45 After receiving the tabernacle, our ancestors under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David, 46 who enjoyed God’s favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.[a] 47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him.

48 “However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:

49 “‘Heaven is my throne,
    and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me?
says the Lord.
    Or where will my resting place be?
50 Has not my hand made all these things?’[b]
51 “You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! 52 Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him — 53 you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.”

The Stoning of Stephen

54 When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.

59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: 1 Corinthians 3:9-17

9 We work together with God. You are like God's field. You are like his building.
 10 God has given me the grace to lay a foundation as a master builder. Now someone else is building on it. But each one should build carefully. 11 No one can lay any other foundation than the one that has already been laid. That foundation is Jesus Christ.

 12 A person may build on it using gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay or straw. 13 But each person's work will be shown for what it is. On judgment day it will be brought to light. It will be put through fire. The fire will test how good everyone's work is. 14 If the building doesn't burn up, God will give the builder a reward for his work. 15 If the building burns up, the builder will lose everything. The builder will be saved, but only like one escaping through the flames.

 16 Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple? God's Spirit lives in you. 17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. God's temple is holy. And you are that temple.

Building A Life That Matters

May 9, 2012 — by Joe Stowell

I have laid the foundation . . . . But let each one take heed how he builds on it. —1 Corinthians 3:10

My grandkids love to play with Legos. These small colorful building blocks capture their imagination for building forts, planes, houses, or whatever the instructions may call for.

Emptying the contents of the box onto the floor, my grandchildren begin to put the pieces together. But soon they think they don’t need to consult the directions. This eventually leads to a point when they realize that building according to their own instincts has resulted in a bad outcome. So, they break it apart and start over again—but this time they have a keen sense of how important the directions are.

Do you need the pieces of your life broken apart and put back together according to God’s directions? If you have Jesus Christ as your foundation, begin to follow His blueprint for living. Paul wrote, “Let each one take heed how he builds” on the foundation (1 Cor. 3:10-11). What is the blueprint? Value others above yourself by humbly serving them (Phil. 2:3-4), give generously of your resources to those in need (James 2:14-17), respond with love to those who have wronged you (Rom. 12:14-21). These are just a few of the pieces that God wants you to put together to build a life that is worthy of being His temple (1 Cor. 3:16).

Because of the grace and forgiveness that You have
shown me, Lord, I want to live a life that’s worthy of
knowing You. Help me to follow Your plans that
You’ve laid out in the Scriptures. Amen.
The Bible is the Christian’s blueprint for life.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
May 9, 2012

Reaching Beyond Our Grasp

Where there is no revelation [or prophetic vision], the people cast off restraint . . . —Proverbs 29:18

There is a difference between holding on to a principle and having a vision. A principle does not come from moral inspiration, but a vision does. People who are totally consumed with idealistic principles rarely do anything. A person’s own idea of God and His attributes may actually be used to justify and rationalize his deliberate neglect of his duty. Jonah tried to excuse his disobedience by saying to God, “. . . I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm” (Jonah 4:2). I too may have the right idea of God and His attributes, but that may be the very reason why I do not do my duty. But wherever there is vision, there is also a life of honesty and integrity, because the vision gives me the moral incentive.
Our own idealistic principles may actually lull us into ruin. Examine yourself spiritually to see if you have vision, or only principles.
Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a heaven for?
“Where there is no revelation [or prophetic vision]. . . .” Once we lose sight of God, we begin to be reckless. We cast off certain restraints from activities we know are wrong. We set prayer aside as well and cease having God’s vision in the little things of life. We simply begin to act on our own initiative. If we are eating only out of our own hand, and doing things solely on our own initiative without expecting God to come in, we are on a downward path. We have lost the vision. Is our attitude today an attitude that flows from our vision of God? Are we expecting God to do greater things than He has ever done before? Is there a freshness and a vitality in our spiritual outlook?


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Cleared For Takeoff - #6608

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

We were sitting on the runway at O'Hare Airport for a long time, in an airplane that is. I thought we were on our way when we left the gate. I said to myself "Okay, in a couple of minutes we'll be in the air and on our way." And then they routed us across the backside of O'Hare, and I saw some lovely storage facilities by the way. But, we finally we ended up in a long, long line of aircraft. I've got a little problem with impatience, but I sure don't want the pilot to have that problem. See, he knows that you do not take off until you get clearance from the tower...no matter how long that means you have to wait.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Cleared For Takeoff."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Genesis 27. It's a pretty powerful lesson in faith and patience from the life of Rebecca, Isaac's wife. Maybe you remember that God had promised that the younger son, Jacob, would actually end up with the blessing rather than the usual thing, which would be that his older brother, Esau, would get it. Unfortunately, it looked like Isaac was dying and he hadn't given the blessing to Jacob. And Rebecca kind of panics and says, "Oh boy, I'd better do something about this to make sure that my favorite son here gets the blessing. God said he should."

Now, she has no clearance from the tower to do this. God didn't tell her to do it; she doesn't even talk to Him about it. She just takes off. And she has this scheme where he will wear various hairy things on his arms and try to smell like the outdoors so he'll feel like his brother and smell like his brother, who's a hunter, and he'll just lie about who he is. And you know what? Isaac can't see very well. He does deceive his father and he gets the blessing. So, do they win? They lose.

Listen to the expensive result beginning in Genesis 27:41, "Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, 'The days of mourning for my father are near, and then I will kill my brother Jacob.'" Then it goes on to say as Rebecca now counsels Jacob, "Now, then, my son, do what I say. Flee to my brother Laban. Stay with him for a while until your brother's fury subsides. When your brother is no longer angry with you and forgets what you did to him (you think that's going to happen?), I'll send word for you to come back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?" And in a sense that's exactly what happened. She didn't see Jacob for 14 years; her relationship was broken with Esau. Oh, by the way, Isaac didn't die; he lived 20 more years!

All of this agony happened in this family because Rebecca couldn't wait for God to do it His way. Oh, she knew Jacob should have the blessing, but it just wasn't happening fast enough. Does that sound familiar at all? You thought God was going to act by now, but you're still waiting. The temptation is to panic and say, "Oh, man! It's now or never!" Now, you don't have a "go" from the Lord, but you're still starting to take off.


You know, if a pilot does that without the person who can see all the other aircraft, who can see all the implications of taking off right now, he's going to be flying into disaster. If the child of God does that, he's flying into disaster. Ask God for the patience to wait on the runway. And remember that old wisdom, "Don't doubt in the darkness, or shall I say in the waiting room, what God has told you in the light."

Avoid the heartache that comes from taking off without clearance from the flight controller of your life.

1 Kings 7, Bible reading and Devotionals

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Max Lucado Daily: A Worry-Slapper

Become a “worry-slapper!”  Treat frets like mosquitoes!

Do you procrastinate when a bloodsucking bug lights on your skin?  Do you say, “I’ll take care of that in a moment.”  Of course you don’t!  You give the critter the slap it deserves.

Be equally decisive with anxiety.  The moment a concern surfaces, deal with it.  Don’t dwell on it.  Head it off before it gets the best of you.

Don’t waste an hour wondering what your boss thinks; ask her.  Before you diagnose that blemish as cancer, have it examined.  Instead of assuming you’ll never get out of debt, consult an expert.  Be a doer—not a stewer!

In Matthew 6:32-33,. Jesus said, “Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.  See the kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need!”

On that you can depend and never worry!


1 Kings

Solomon Builds His Palace

7 It took Solomon thirteen years, however, to complete the construction of his palace. 2 He built the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon a hundred cubits long, fifty wide and thirty high,[o] with four rows of cedar columns supporting trimmed cedar beams. 3 It was roofed with cedar above the beams that rested on the columns—forty-five beams, fifteen to a row. 4 Its windows were placed high in sets of three, facing each other. 5 All the doorways had rectangular frames; they were in the front part in sets of three, facing each other.[p]

6 He made a colonnade fifty cubits long and thirty wide.[q] In front of it was a portico, and in front of that were pillars and an overhanging roof.

7 He built the throne hall, the Hall of Justice, where he was to judge, and he covered it with cedar from floor to ceiling.[r] 8 And the palace in which he was to live, set farther back, was similar in design. Solomon also made a palace like this hall for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom he had married.

9 All these structures, from the outside to the great courtyard and from foundation to eaves, were made of blocks of high-grade stone cut to size and smoothed on their inner and outer faces. 10 The foundations were laid with large stones of good quality, some measuring ten cubits[s] and some eight.[t] 11 Above were high-grade stones, cut to size, and cedar beams. 12 The great courtyard was surrounded by a wall of three courses of dressed stone and one course of trimmed cedar beams, as was the inner courtyard of the temple of the Lord with its portico.

The Temple’s Furnishings

13 King Solomon sent to Tyre and brought Huram,[u] 14 whose mother was a widow from the tribe of Naphtali and whose father was from Tyre and a skilled craftsman in bronze. Huram was filled with wisdom, with understanding and with knowledge to do all kinds of bronze work. He came to King Solomon and did all the work assigned to him.

15 He cast two bronze pillars, each eighteen cubits high and twelve cubits in circumference.[v] 16 He also made two capitals of cast bronze to set on the tops of the pillars; each capital was five cubits[w] high. 17 A network of interwoven chains adorned the capitals on top of the pillars, seven for each capital. 18 He made pomegranates in two rows[x] encircling each network to decorate the capitals on top of the pillars.[y] He did the same for each capital. 19 The capitals on top of the pillars in the portico were in the shape of lilies, four cubits[z] high. 20 On the capitals of both pillars, above the bowl-shaped part next to the network, were the two hundred pomegranates in rows all around. 21 He erected the pillars at the portico of the temple. The pillar to the south he named Jakin[aa] and the one to the north Boaz.[ab] 22 The capitals on top were in the shape of lilies. And so the work on the pillars was completed.

23 He made the Sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits high. It took a line of thirty cubits[ac] to measure around it. 24 Below the rim, gourds encircled it—ten to a cubit. The gourds were cast in two rows in one piece with the Sea.

25 The Sea stood on twelve bulls, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south and three facing east. The Sea rested on top of them, and their hindquarters were toward the center. 26 It was a handbreadth[ad] in thickness, and its rim was like the rim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It held two thousand baths.[ae]

27 He also made ten movable stands of bronze; each was four cubits long, four wide and three high.[af] 28 This is how the stands were made: They had side panels attached to uprights. 29 On the panels between the uprights were lions, bulls and cherubim—and on the uprights as well. Above and below the lions and bulls were wreaths of hammered work. 30 Each stand had four bronze wheels with bronze axles, and each had a basin resting on four supports, cast with wreaths on each side. 31 On the inside of the stand there was an opening that had a circular frame one cubit[ag] deep. This opening was round, and with its basework it measured a cubit and a half.[ah] Around its opening there was engraving. The panels of the stands were square, not round. 32 The four wheels were under the panels, and the axles of the wheels were attached to the stand. The diameter of each wheel was a cubit and a half. 33 The wheels were made like chariot wheels; the axles, rims, spokes and hubs were all of cast metal.

34 Each stand had four handles, one on each corner, projecting from the stand. 35 At the top of the stand there was a circular band half a cubit[ai] deep. The supports and panels were attached to the top of the stand. 36 He engraved cherubim, lions and palm trees on the surfaces of the supports and on the panels, in every available space, with wreaths all around. 37 This is the way he made the ten stands. They were all cast in the same molds and were identical in size and shape.

38 He then made ten bronze basins, each holding forty baths[aj] and measuring four cubits across, one basin to go on each of the ten stands. 39 He placed five of the stands on the south side of the temple and five on the north. He placed the Sea on the south side, at the southeast corner of the temple. 40 He also made the pots[ak] and shovels and sprinkling bowls.

So Huram finished all the work he had undertaken for King Solomon in the temple of the Lord:

41 the two pillars;

the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars;

the two sets of network decorating the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars;

42 the four hundred pomegranates for the two sets of network (two rows of pomegranates for each network decorating the bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars);

43 the ten stands with their ten basins;

44 the Sea and the twelve bulls under it;

45 the pots, shovels and sprinkling bowls.

All these objects that Huram made for King Solomon for the temple of the Lord were of burnished bronze. 46 The king had them cast in clay molds in the plain of the Jordan between Sukkoth and Zarethan. 47 Solomon left all these things unweighed, because there were so many; the weight of the bronze was not determined.

48 Solomon also made all the furnishings that were in the Lord’s temple:

the golden altar;

the golden table on which was the bread of the Presence;

49 the lampstands of pure gold (five on the right and five on the left, in front of the inner sanctuary);

the gold floral work and lamps and tongs;

50 the pure gold basins, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, dishes and censers;

and the gold sockets for the doors of the innermost room, the Most Holy Place, and also for the doors of the main hall of the temple.

51 When all the work King Solomon had done for the temple of the Lord was finished, he brought in the things his father David had dedicated —the silver and gold and the furnishings —and he placed them in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple.



Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: 1 John 3:16-23

16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

19 This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: 20 If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

Here Am I

May 8, 2012 — by Julie Ackerman Link

Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy. —Proverbs 31:9

In the courtroom while waiting for his case to come before the judge, Gary heard story after sad story of people who were losing their homes. Many went through the procedure as if it were familiar to them. But one woman named Leslie seemed bewildered. Gary sensed that she didn’t know what to do or where to turn.

He tried to silence the quiet voice inside him that was urging him to help, but he couldn’t. He thought of many reasons not to get involved. First, engaging strangers in conversation is not one of his strengths; second, he was afraid of being misunderstood. But he thought that the prompting was from God, and he didn’t want to risk being disobedient.

When Gary saw Leslie leaving the courthouse, he spoke to her. “Ma’am,” he said, “I heard your testimony inside the courtroom, and I believe God wants me to help you.”

At first Leslie was suspicious, but Gary assured her of his sincerity. He made some phone calls and got her connected with people in a local church who provided the help she needed to keep her house.

God has called us to active duty (1 John 3:18). When we sense His prompting to help someone, we should be willing to say, “I believe God wants me to help you.”

God calls into action today
All those who are children of light;
Whatever our hand finds to do,
Let’s do it with all of our might. —Hess
We are at our best when we are serving others.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
May 8, 2012

The Faith to Persevere

Because you have kept My command to persevere . . . —Revelation 3:10

Perseverance means more than endurance— more than simply holding on until the end. A saint’s life is in the hands of God like a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God is aiming at something the saint cannot see, but our Lord continues to stretch and strain, and every once in a while the saint says, “I can’t take any more.” Yet God pays no attention; He goes on stretching until His purpose is in sight, and then He lets the arrow fly. Entrust yourself to God’s hands. Is there something in your life for which you need perseverance right now? Maintain your intimate relationship with Jesus Christ through the perseverance of faith. Proclaim as Job did, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15).
Faith is not some weak and pitiful emotion, but is strong and vigorous confidence built on the fact that God is holy love. And even though you cannot see Him right now and cannot understand what He is doing, you know Him. Disaster occurs in your life when you lack the mental composure that comes from establishing yourself on the eternal truth that God is holy love. Faith is the supreme effort of your life— throwing yourself with abandon and total confidence upon God.
God ventured His all in Jesus Christ to save us, and now He wants us to venture our all with total abandoned confidence in Him. There are areas in our lives where that faith has not worked in us as yet— places still untouched by the life of God. There were none of those places in Jesus Christ’s life, and there are to be none in ours. Jesus prayed, “This is eternal life, that they may know You . . .” (John 17:3). The real meaning of eternal life is a life that can face anything it has to face without wavering. If we will take this view, life will become one great romance— a glorious opportunity of seeing wonderful things all the time. God is disciplining us to get us into this central place of power.



A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Another Eternity Moment - #6607

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Jonesboro. Paducah. Columbine. And then this year add Chardon, Ohio - another school shooting. You know, having spent so much of my life on high school campuses, my heart sinks every time I see these all-too-familiar scenes. Students running, crying, parents desperately seeking information, SWAT teams moving in, law enforcement briefings, shooter profiles, ambulances converging, and then those heartbreaking candlelight vigils.

And, you know, when those happen, once again for a very brief window in time, there's an eternity moment. After the Chardon shootings, one national reporter said, "These students are talking way beyond their years today." See, suddenly checking Facebook, and sweating the test, and talking about everyone's social "drama" seems so unimportant. Because, well, a brush with eternity changes everything. At least for a little while.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Another Eternity Moment."

You know, for those traumatized teenagers in a shocked and grieving town where there had been a school shooting, the eternity moment came with gunshots in the cafeteria. But we all have those moments. I mean, that narrow miss, like in traffic, or in a natural disaster when we know how close we were to no tomorrow. The sudden death of someone we didn't expect to lose, and then the unwelcome, insistent reminder of our own mortality. The ominous symptoms. The sobering news from the doctor. The medical procedure we know that we might not have come back from.

It's hard, and it's slightly unnatural, I guess, to imagine ourselves as being the obituary, being the name and the picture on that funeral home memorial card. But then comes that brush with eternity when we realize, "It could have been me."

It's not something to dwell on, but it is something to be ready for. After all, we go to a lot of effort to be ready for a job interview, a date, an exam, a vacation, a financial future, or our retirement. None of which holds a candle to eternity; that vast forever that's just beyond our final breath.

The circumstances that bring our mortality close are often painful. They're even tragic like the wrenching events of the school shooting. But those brushes with eternity can also serve to help save our soul.

A Biblical prophet warned us to "...prepare to meet your God" in our word today from the Word of God, Amos 4:12, because that's what's on the other side of our last heartbeat - our un-postponeable appointment with God. The Bible says, "Man is destined to die once and after that to face judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). Grade points and bank accounts and "to do" lists and earth stuff? In an instant, they're going to matter no more. All that will matter is whether we're right with God. In a moment, we're suddenly facing destination time; where I'm going to spend forever.

Surveys show that most Americans think they'll go to heaven when they die. Jesus, though, talked about "the road that leads to life, and only a few find it" (Matthew 7:14). That's not His fault. He did everything He could to clear away the curse that disqualifies all of us from God's heaven - our sin. Our arrogant control of a life that God gave us and that He was supposed to run. All those lying things, hurting things, selfish things, and dirty things, the God-ignoring things we've done. The verdict is clear: "Nothing impure will ever enter" God's heaven (Revelation 21:27).

No religion can get us in, because my sin carries an eternal death penalty, "the soul who sins will die" (Ezekiel 18:4) the Bible says. And no religion can die for me. A perfect God cannot welcome me into His perfect heaven with my sin.

And a death penalty can't be paid by being a good boy. Somebody has to die, and somebody did. Jesus did. God's one and only Son. The Bible says He's, "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). And the moment you give your heart to Jesus, every sin you've ever committed is erased from God's book forever. And what would keep you out of heaven is removed.

One day, when a church leader used a ringing alarm clock to show time running out, I put all my trust in Jesus to be my Savior from my sin. I'm not worried about eternity, and I've had several close brushes with it. There's just no fear. I put my total trust in Jesus to be my Rescuer from my sin, and I know He'll keep His promise.


It's awesome to know that because of Jesus, you're ready for eternity whenever it comes. If you're not sure you are, would you please today say, "Jesus you died for me. I give me to You." Go to our website YoursForLife.net and make sure you belong to Him.

The Bible describes "eternal life" as a gift that becomes yours at the point you take it for yourself. And this could be your day!

1 Kings 6, Bible Reading and Devotionals.

Click to listen to God's teaching.
Max Lucado Daily: Let God Be Enough

There’s never enough, it seems.

Not enough time, luck, credit, wisdom, intelligence.  So we worry.  But worry doesn’t work!

Jesus said, “Look at the birds.  They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them.  And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are?  Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?  You can dedicated a decade of anxious thoughts to the brevity of life and not extend it by one minute.  Worry accomplishes nothing.”

Jesus doesn’t condemn legitimate concern for responsibilities.  It’s the continuous mind-set of worry that dismisses God’s presence.  It subtracts God from the future, faces uncertainties with no faith, and tallies up the challenges of the day without entering God into the equation.

Jesus said, “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe you have received it, and it will be yours!”

Let God be enough!

1 Kings 6

Solomon Builds the Temple

6 In the four hundred and eightieth[f] year after the Israelites came out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the temple of the Lord.

2 The temple that King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits long, twenty wide and thirty high.[g] 3 The portico at the front of the main hall of the temple extended the width of the temple, that is twenty cubits,[h] and projected ten cubits[i] from the front of the temple. 4 He made narrow windows high up in the temple walls. 5 Against the walls of the main hall and inner sanctuary he built a structure around the building, in which there were side rooms. 6 The lowest floor was five cubits[j] wide, the middle floor six cubits[k] and the third floor seven.[l] He made offset ledges around the outside of the temple so that nothing would be inserted into the temple walls.

7 In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built.

8 The entrance to the lowest[m] floor was on the south side of the temple; a stairway led up to the middle level and from there to the third. 9 So he built the temple and completed it, roofing it with beams and cedar planks. 10 And he built the side rooms all along the temple. The height of each was five cubits, and they were attached to the temple by beams of cedar.

11 The word of the Lord came to Solomon: 12 “As for this temple you are building, if you follow my decrees, observe my laws and keep all my commands and obey them, I will fulfill through you the promise I gave to David your father. 13 And I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon my people Israel.”

14 So Solomon built the temple and completed it. 15 He lined its interior walls with cedar boards, paneling them from the floor of the temple to the ceiling, and covered the floor of the temple with planks of juniper. 16 He partitioned off twenty cubits at the rear of the temple with cedar boards from floor to ceiling to form within the temple an inner sanctuary, the Most Holy Place. 17 The main hall in front of this room was forty cubits[n] long. 18 The inside of the temple was cedar, carved with gourds and open flowers. Everything was cedar; no stone was to be seen.

19 He prepared the inner sanctuary within the temple to set the ark of the covenant of the Lord there. 20 The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty wide and twenty high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold, and he also overlaid the altar of cedar. 21 Solomon covered the inside of the temple with pure gold, and he extended gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary, which was overlaid with gold. 22 So he overlaid the whole interior with gold. He also overlaid with gold the altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary.

23 For the inner sanctuary he made a pair of cherubim out of olive wood, each ten cubits high. 24 One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long, and the other wing five cubits—ten cubits from wing tip to wing tip. 25 The second cherub also measured ten cubits, for the two cherubim were identical in size and shape. 26 The height of each cherub was ten cubits. 27 He placed the cherubim inside the innermost room of the temple, with their wings spread out. The wing of one cherub touched one wall, while the wing of the other touched the other wall, and their wings touched each other in the middle of the room. 28 He overlaid the cherubim with gold.

29 On the walls all around the temple, in both the inner and outer rooms, he carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers. 30 He also covered the floors of both the inner and outer rooms of the temple with gold.

31 For the entrance to the inner sanctuary he made doors out of olive wood that were one fifth of the width of the sanctuary. 32 And on the two olive-wood doors he carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid the cherubim and palm trees with hammered gold. 33 In the same way, for the entrance to the main hall he made doorframes out of olive wood that were one fourth of the width of the hall. 34 He also made two doors out of juniper wood, each having two leaves that turned in sockets. 35 He carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers on them and overlaid them with gold hammered evenly over the carvings.

36 And he built the inner courtyard of three courses of dressed stone and one course of trimmed cedar beams.

37 The foundation of the temple of the Lord was laid in the fourth year, in the month of Ziv. 38 In the eleventh year in the month of Bul, the eighth month, the temple was finished in all its details according to its specifications. He had spent seven years building it.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Exodus 13:17-22

Israel Goes Through the Red Sea

 17 Pharaoh let the people go. The shortest road from Goshen to Canaan went through the Philistine country. But God didn't lead them that way. God said, "If they have to go into battle, they might change their minds. They might return to Egypt."
 18 So God led the people toward the Red Sea by taking them on a road through the desert. The Israelites were prepared for battle when they went up out of Egypt.

 19 Moses took the bones of Joseph along with him. Joseph had made the sons of Israel take an oath and make a promise. He had said, "I'm sure that God will come to help you. When he does, you must carry my bones up from this place with you."—(Genesis 50:25)

 20 The people left Succoth. They camped at Etham on the edge of the desert.

 21 By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud. It guided them on their way. At night he led them with a pillar of fire. It gave them light. So they could travel by day or at night. 22 The pillar of cloud didn't leave its place in front of the people during the day. And the pillar of fire didn't leave its place at night.

God’s Timing

May 7, 2012 — by Dave Branon

For every matter there is a time and judgment. —Ecclesiastes 8:6

Pastor Audley Black’s church near the south coast of Jamaica has been in a building program since at least 2005. That was the first time I visited his church and saw that they were expanding. The last time I was there—in the spring of 2011—some of the walls were up. By that summer, they had started on the roof. When I suggested to Pastor Black that perhaps the church would be done by 2013 when I thought I might return, he said it was a possibility.

There was no hint of disappointment that this project could take 8 years or longer! No, Pastor Black and his people are excited about what God is doing, and they’re patient with His timing.

We are often not that patient. We want our church to grow quickly, our young people to mature right away, and our problems to be fixed today.

Maybe we need to be reminded that some things take time—God’s time. For instance, when the Israelites first left Egypt, God sent them on the long route to the Promised Land (Ex. 13:17-18). During that time He prepared them, taught them, and challenged them.

In our microwave world, we want everything done instantaneously. But sometimes that’s not God’s plan. Let’s seek God’s help and learn to accept His timing.

He does not lead me year by year,
Nor even day by day;
But step by step my path unfolds;
My Lord directs my way. —Ryberg
God’s timetable may move slowly, but it does move surely.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
May 7, 2012

Building For Eternity

Which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it . . . —Luke 14:28

Our Lord was not referring here to a cost which we have to count, but to a cost which He has already counted. The cost was those thirty years in Nazareth, those three years of popularity, scandal, and hatred, the unfathomable agony He experienced in Gethsemane, and the assault upon Him at Calvary— the central point upon which all of time and eternity turn. Jesus Christ has counted the cost. In the final analysis, people are not going to laugh at Him and say, “This man began to build and was not able to finish” (Luke 14:30).
The conditions of discipleship given to us by our Lord in verses 26, 27, and 33 mean that the men and women He is going to use in His mighty building enterprises are those in whom He has done everything. “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple ” (Luke 14:26). This verse teaches us that the only men and women our Lord will use in His building enterprises are those who love Him personally, passionately, and with great devotion— those who have a love for Him that goes far beyond any of the closest relationships on earth. The conditions are strict, but they are glorious.
All that we build is going to be inspected by God. When God inspects us with His searching and refining fire, will He detect that we have built enterprises of our own on the foundation of Jesus? (see 1 Corinthians 3:10-15). We are living in a time of tremendous enterprises, a time when we are trying to work for God, and that is where the trap is. Profoundly speaking, we can never work for God. Jesus, as the Master Builder, takes us over so that He may direct and control us completely for His enterprises and His building plans; and no one has any right to demand where he will be put to work.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Don't Ever Get Used to the Smell - #6606

Monday, May 7, 2012

Years ago I had some friends who lived near a heavy industrial area where the mills filled the air with a shall we say very distinctive aroma; well, actually, smell would be a better word for it. It was sort of a sulfur-like, rotten eggs type of odor. When you first went there, you would sniff and you'd go, "What is that?" And the people who lived there would say, "What's what?" See, they'd lived around the stink so long, it didn't even register any more. Well, you know, there are some smells you should never get used to.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Don't Ever Get Used to the Smell."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from the prophet Ezekiel. He is receiving his instructions from the Lord in the form of a vision, and here's what it says in chapter 9, verse 2. "With the six men, I saw one clothed in linen who had a writing kit at his side. They came in and stood beside the bronze altar. Now the glory of the God of Israel went up from above the cherubim, where it had been, and moved to the threshold of the temple. Then the Lord called to the man clothed in linen who had the writing kit at his side, and said to him, 'Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.'"

Okay, God is saying here, "I'm looking for some people who don't gloss over the sin around them; people who grieve over sin." Well, they were hard to find then; they're hard to find now. Those kind of people were special then, and they're special now. People who don't get so used to being in the middle of sin that they don't notice the smell any more.

Chances are that you come in daily contact with a lot of sinful garbage; lying that's considered just to be smart business, an acceptance of adultery, a flippant attitude toward sexual purity. Like the two guys sitting next to me at the pizza place recently. One very casually said to the other one, and pardon my bluntness, but this is the way he stated it, "So, did he get laid yet?" See, that's casual about something God calls sacred. It's a flippant "who cares" approach to a sacred act of love, created by God for a lifetime bond. Well, how does that make you feel?

See, we're around it so much sometimes it doesn't break our heart any more, but it breaks God's heart all the time, and He's looking for people whose heart it can break. We hear people treat God's name, Jesus' name, like dirt. Jesus, the name at which every knee will bow. There are attitudes that amount to nothing less than idol worship, and we're no longer bothered by it: living for money, living for a guy or a girl, living for your music, living for the next party, living for your children. It's time we prayed, "God, give me back my sense of spiritual smell."

Unless we get with God daily and see what He sees, feels what He feels, we will be worn down, we're going to be eroded until, honestly, sin really doesn't look that bad. Imagine telling a drunk driving joke to a man who kept saying, "Please, I don't think it's funny." You say, "What is your problem?" "Because a drunk driver killed my son."


See, that's how God feels about the sin that we take so lightly. It killed His Son. You want to see what sin looks like? It's God's Son hanging by nails from a tree. Ask God to make you wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil rather than being intrigued by it.

Sin stinks! It's the rotting odor of death, no matter how glamorously it is perfumed. So, don't get used to the smell.

1 Kings 5, Bible reading and Devtionals.

Click to listen God's teachings.
Max Lucado Daily: Stiltsville

Perhaps you don’t know about Stiltsville, the village, so strange but so true…
For each evening at six they meet in the circle for the purpose of sticks,
Tall stilts upon which a Stiltsvillian can strut and be lifted above the less and the least,
the Tribe of Too Smalls, the not cools who want to be tall—but can’t,
because in the giving of sticks, their name was not called.  They didn’t get picked.
(from the children’s book, Tallest of the Smalls)

Ah, there it is!  We fear nothingness, insignificance.

But if you pass your days mumbling, “I’ll never make a difference; I’m not worth anything,” guess what?  You’re disagreeing with God.

Psalm 139:14 says, “You were fearfully and wonderfully made.”  God’s idea.  His masterpiece!  God sees you and loves the you he sees!

Stiltsvillians still cluster; crowds still clamor, but more stay away.  They seem less enamored since the Carpenter came and refused to be stilted!

1 Kings 5

Solomon Asks Hiram to Help Build the Temple

 1 Hiram was the king of Tyre. He heard that Solomon had been anointed as king. He heard that Solomon had become the next king after his father David. Hiram had always been David's friend. So Hiram sent his messengers to Solomon.
 2 Then Solomon sent a message back to Hiram. It said,

 3 "As you know, my father David had to fight many battles. His enemies attacked him from every side. So he couldn't build a temple where the Lord his God would put his Name. That wouldn't be possible until the Lord had put his enemies under his control.

 4 "But now the Lord my God has given me peace and rest on every side. We don't have any enemies. And we don't have any other major problems either. 5 So I'm planning to build a temple. I want to build it for the Name of the Lord my God. That's what he told my father David he wanted me to do. He said, 'I will put your son on the throne in your place. He will build a temple. I will put my Name there.'

 6 "So give your men orders to cut down cedar trees in Lebanon for me. My men will work with yours. I'll pay you for your men's work. I'll pay any amount you decide on. As you know, we don't have anyone who is as skilled in cutting down trees as the men of Sidon are."

 7 When Hiram heard Solomon's message, he was very pleased. He said, "May the Lord be praised today. He has given David a wise son to rule over that great nation."

 8 So Hiram sent a message to Solomon. It said,

   "I have received the message you sent me. I'll do everything you want me to. I'll provide the cedar and pine logs. 9 My men will bring them from Lebanon down to the Mediterranean Sea. I'll make them into rafts. I'll float them to the place you want me to. When the rafts arrive, I'll separate the logs from each other. Then you can take them away.

   "And here's what I want in return. Provide food for all of the people in my palace."

 10 So Hiram supplied Solomon with all of the cedar and pine logs he wanted.

 11 Solomon gave Hiram 125,000 bushels of wheat as food for the people in his palace. He also gave him 115,000 gallons of oil that was made from pressed olives. He did that for Hiram year after year.

 12 The Lord made Solomon wise, just as he had promised him. There was peace between Hiram and Solomon. The two of them made a peace treaty.

 13 King Solomon forced men from all over Israel to work hard for him. There were 30,000 of them. 14 He sent them off to Lebanon in groups of 10,000 each month. They spent one month in Lebanon. Then they spent two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the people who were forced to work. 15 Solomon had 70,000 people who carried things. He had 80,000 who cut stones in the hills. 16 He had 3,300 men who were in charge of the project. They also directed the workers.

 17 The people did what the king commanded. They removed large blocks of fine stone from a rock pit. They used them to provide a foundation for the temple. 18 The skilled workers of Solomon and Hiram cut and prepared the logs and stones. They would later be used in building the temple. The people of Byblos helped the workers.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Philippians 4:1-9

1 My brothers and sisters, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord's strength. I love you and long for you. Dear friends, you are my joy and my crown.

Do What Is Best

 2 Here is what I'm asking Euodia and Syntyche to do. I want them to agree with each other because they belong to the Lord.
 3 My true companion, here is what I ask you to do. Help those women. They have served at my side. They have helped me spread the good news. So have Clement and the rest of those who have worked together with me. Their names are all written in the Book of Life.

 4 Always be joyful because you belong to the Lord. I will say it again. Be joyful. 5 Let everyone know how gentle you are. The Lord is coming soon.

 6 Don't worry about anything. Instead, tell God about everything. Ask and pray. Give thanks to him. 7 Then God's peace will watch over your hearts and your minds because you belong to Christ Jesus. God's peace can never be completely understood.

 8 Finally, my brothers and sisters, always think about what is true. Think about what is noble, right and pure. Think about what is lovely and worthy of respect. If anything is excellent or worthy of praise, think about those kinds of things. 9 Do what you have learned or received or heard from me. Follow my example.

   The God who gives peace will be with you.

Walk Away From Worry

May 3, 2012 — by Jennifer Benson Schuldt

Be anxious for nothing. —Philippians 4:6

A few years ago, our Bible-study leader challenged us to memorize a chapter of the Bible and recite it to the group. Internally, I began to protest and groan. An entire chapter, in front of everyone? Memorization had never been my thing; I cringed as I imagined long silences while everyone watched me, waiting for the next words.

A few days later, I reluctantly leafed through my Bible, looking for a set of verses to learn by heart. Nothing seemed right until I landed in Philippians 4.

I read this verse in silence, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (v.6). That’s when I knew which chapter to memorize, and how to walk away from my anxiety about the assignment.

God does not want us to agonize over future events, because worry paralyzes our prayer life. The apostle Paul reminds us that instead of fretting, we should ask God for help. When we continually take this approach to anxiety, God’s peace will guard our hearts and minds (v.7).

Someone once said tongue-in-cheek, “Why pray when you can worry?” The point is clear: Worry gets us nowhere, but prayer gets us in touch with the One who can handle all of our concerns.

When you feel the tension mounting,
And across the busy day,
Only gloomy clouds are drifting
As you start to worry—pray! —Anon.
It’s impossible to wring our hands when they are folded before God in prayer.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
May 3, 2012

Vital Intercession

. . . praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit . . . —Ephesians 6:18

As we continue on in our intercession for others, we may find that our obedience to God in interceding is going to cost those for whom we intercede more than we ever thought. The danger in this is that we begin to intercede in sympathy with those whom God was gradually lifting up to a totally different level in direct answer to our prayers. Whenever we step back from our close identification with God’s interest and concern for others and step into having emotional sympathy with them, the vital connection with God is gone. We have then put our sympathy and concern for them in the way, and this is a deliberate rebuke to God.
It is impossible for us to have living and vital intercession unless we are perfectly and completely sure of God. And the greatest destroyer of that confident relationship to God, so necessary for intercession, is our own personal sympathy and preconceived bias. Identification with God is the key to intercession, and whenever we stop being identified with Him it is because of our sympathy with others, not because of sin. It is not likely that sin will interfere with our intercessory relationship with God, but sympathy will. It is sympathy with ourselves or with others that makes us say, “I will not allow that thing to happen.” And instantly we are out of that vital connection with God.
Vital intercession leaves you with neither the time nor the inclination to pray for your own “sad and pitiful self.” You do not have to struggle to keep thoughts of yourself out, because they are not even there to be kept out of your thinking. You are completely and entirely identified with God’s interests and concerns in other lives. God gives us discernment in the lives of others to call us to intercession for them, never so that we may find fault with them.



A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Prescription For a Weary Worker - #6604

Thursday, May 3, 2012

When Walt Disney animated the story of Snow White, he created seven memorable, even if short characters - the seven dwarfs. I'm not one of them! Now, I'm not going to ask you to name them; we'll save that for a game of Trivial Pursuit or something. But I always loved that little song they sang on the way to work.

And well, they didn't exactly work in an environmentally controlled office building. They worked in a mine all day. Not the greatest place to work! But each day they would merrily march off to work singing, (I won't sing it for you, but here we go.) "Hi-ho, it's off to work we go." Well, what a great way to approach your responsibilities. I mean, anyone who does is no dwarf; he's a giant.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about a "Prescription For a Weary Worker."

Now, I attended a meeting of people who are very busy in Christian ministry, and one woman expressed a feeling that, as it turned out, everybody in the room agreed with. She said, "You know, people are working for the Lord around here, and they get very discouraged or they quit because of one word - weariness." And I watched a lot of heads nodding in that room.

Now, there are a lot of men and women who have spiritual responsibility and they struggle with a deep weariness, and it's far beyond physical. They're just tired of pushing, and of being sometimes the one of the few who care. They're tired of little results for a lot of work, and maybe not being appreciated. Some of you might say, "Well, how did you know?" Because there are a lot of us that serve the Lord that start to feel that way sometime or another.

Okay, our word for today from the Word of God, Hebrews 12:2-4 - "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men..." And then notice this, "...so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."

And then the writer goes on to say, "In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood." Okay, there's this weariness that we talked about that some people who are listening can identify with; that deep, emotional kind that saps your physical strength too. And there's discouragement; the kind that results in a mechanical kind of service - just kind of crank it out. And honestly, more and more frequent thoughts of quitting.

Weariness, according to Hebrews 12, seems to result from taking your eyes off Jesus. Maybe you're weary because you've been doing God's work in your strength. You know better, but you've gone from God working through you to the crank-it-out weariness of you suddenly working for God. Oh, you're doing the same things, but it's not Him through you. It's you for Him. Or it could be that you've been looking at the results you're getting instead of the Savior you're serving. He gives the results; He gives the rewards, people don't.


Is it time to get your eyes back on the Jesus whose love compelled you to serve in the first place?

You know, when Jacob had to work seven years to earn the right to marry Rachel, I love what the Bible says, "They seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her." See, love makes the difference. See, then you'll be able to join that saint who served the Lord for 70 years and who sang that song, "Since I started for the kingdom, since my life He controls, since I gave my life to Jesus, the longer I serve Him, the sweeter He grows."

Acts 7, and Devotionals.

Click to listen to God's teaching.
Max Lucado Daily: A State of Fear

Jesus doesn’t want you to live in a state of fear.  Nor do you.  I bet you’ve never made these statements:

My phobias put such a spring in my step?

Thank God for my pessimism.

I’ve been such a better person since I lost hope!

My doctor says if I don’t begin fretting, I will lose my health!

We’ve learned the high cost of fear!  But to be clear, a dose of fright can keep a child from running across a busy road.  It’s the appropriate reaction to a burning building.

Fear itself is not a sin.  But it can lead to sin.  If we medicate fear with angry outbursts, drinking binges, or sullen withdrawals, we exclude God from the solution and make the situation worse.  Joy-sapping worries.  Day-numbing dread.

Hysteria is not from God.  2 Timothy 1:7 reminds us, “God has not given us a spirit of fear!”

Acts 7:22-43
New International Version (NIV)
22 Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.

23 “When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. 24 He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. 25 Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. 26 The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?’

27 “But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? 28 Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’[a] 29 When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.

30 “After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. 31 When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to get a closer look, he heard the Lord say: 32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’[b] Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.

33 “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’[c]

35 “This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 He led them out of Egypt and performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the wilderness.

37 “This is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people.’[d] 38 He was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors; and he received living words to pass on to us.

39 “But our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. 40 They told Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!’[e] 41 That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and reveled in what their own hands had made. 42 But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the sun, moon and stars. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets:

“‘Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings
    forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel?
43 You have taken up the tabernacle of Molek
    and the star of your god Rephan,
    the idols you made to worship.
Therefore I will send you into exile’[f] beyond Babylon.



Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: John 16:7-15

7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

Are You Tuned In?

May 2, 2012 — by Cindy Hess Kasper

The Holy Spirit . . . will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. —John 14:26

When I was growing up, I stayed with my grandparents for a week or two every summer. They lived on a street that dead-ended into some railroad tracks. I would often awaken several times on my first night as the box cars rumbled by or when an engineer blew the train whistle. By the end of my visit, however, I had grown so accustomed to the noise that I could sleep straight through the night without interruption. I had tuned out the sounds.

There are other interruptions that I don’t want to tune out! I love it when my husband unexpectedly brings me a cup of coffee when I’m working at the computer. And it brings me joy when I receive an unexpected call from a friend.

Sometimes we’re tempted to tune out “divine interruptions” of the Holy Spirit instead of listening to His promptings. He may nudge us with a realization that we need to ask forgiveness for something we said or did. Or persistently remind us that we should pray for someone who is experiencing a crisis. Or convict us that we have never fully shared Jesus with a person we care about.

When the Holy Spirit indwells us, He teaches us, convicts us, comforts us, and guides us into truth (John 14:16-17,26; 16:7-8,13). Are you tuned in to the interruption of His voice?

Holy Spirit, help us hear
Your inner promptings, soft and clear;
And help us know Your still, small voice
So we may make God’s will our choice. —D. De Haan
Make the right choice: Obey the Spirit’s voice.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
May 2, 2012

The Patience To Wait for the Vision

Though it tarries, wait for it . . . —Habakkuk 2:3

Patience is not the same as indifference; patience conveys the idea of someone who is tremendously strong and able to withstand all assaults. Having the vision of God is the source of patience because it gives us God’s true and proper inspiration. Moses endured, not because of his devotion to his principles of what was right, nor because of his sense of duty to God, but because he had a vision of God. “. . . he endured as seeing Him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27). A person who has the vision of God is not devoted to a cause or to any particular issue— he is devoted to God Himself. You always know when the vision is of God because of the inspiration that comes with it. Things come to you with greatness and add vitality to your life because everything is energized by God. He may give you a time spiritually, with no word from Himself at all, just as His Son experienced during His time of temptation in the wilderness. When God does that, simply endure, and the power to endure will be there because you see God.
“Though it tarries, wait for it . . . .” The proof that we have the vision is that we are reaching out for more than we have already grasped. It is a bad thing to be satisfied spiritually. The psalmist said, “What shall I render to the Lord . . . ? I will take up the cup of salvation . . .” (Psalm 116:12-13). We are apt to look for satisfaction within ourselves and say, “Now I’ve got it! Now I am completely sanctified. Now I can endure.” Instantly we are on the road to ruin. Our reach must exceed our grasp. Paul said, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on . . .” (Philippians 3:12). If we have only what we have experienced, we have nothing. But if we have the inspiration of the vision of God, we have more than we can experience. Beware of the danger of spiritual relaxation.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Who Does Lin Play For? - #6603

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Not long ago hardly anyone had ever heard of Jeremy Lin. Now he's everywhere. When my struggling New York Knicks finally played him, he lit up the scoreboard with these amazing performances, game after game. Now, he's not your typical professional basketball star, that's for sure. He's a Harvard grad. He's Asian-American. He's refreshingly humble. Oh, and he unashamedly loves Jesus.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Who Does Lin Play For?"

Now, he doesn't "Tebow." But he wears a bracelet that reveals where his heart is. It says, "For Jesus' name I play." Oh, sure, he plays on the New York Knicks, but he plays for Jesus. Which suggests a pretty good self-exam question to be asking, even for a sports klutz like me, "Who do I play for?" Now, that probing question demands that I stop and take stock on two fronts: whose glory am I playing for and whose approval am I playing for?

Well, our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Corinthians 10:31 lays it down straight on the glory issue. It says, "...whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." And in Isaiah 42:8 it says, "I am the Lord; that is My name! I will not give My glory to another..." Boy, you don't want to mess with that!

So how much of what I do is to get people to notice me; to give me strokes? That's not a question any of us can answer once and for all. We've got to answer it before every "game." Can I honestly say it's "for Jesus' name I play," that I want Him to get all the attention, all the credit? At the moment I catch myself thinking, "Hey, ain't I somethin!" I've got to aim that spotlight toward heaven and say, "No! Isn't He somethin'!" The alternative is to hijack God's glory. And He just isn't going to let that happen.

But it's not just "whose glory?" that is the issue. There's the whole "whose approval?" thing. See, I'm a firstborn child, but I'm otherwise normal. And they say we oldest kids grow up wanting to please mom and dad, and we get real good at it. And soon, well we can intuitively figure out what it will take to please a teacher, or a boss, or friends, or people in general. We're not alone, of course, in being people-pleasers, but we're pretty good at it.

Now, it's easy to become an approval junkie, playing to get people to like you, to validate you. But ultimately, it's a life of slavery. It's a life of fear. You become, to a large extent, shaped and defined by other people's expectations - a slave. Oh, and then there's the fear thing: fear of rejection, fear of not being liked, which will, at some point, keep you from doing the right thing. People-pleasing becomes the gateway drug to sinful compromise of the truth, your integrity, your purity, your convictions, your Savior's name. It's a price that's too high to pay. The Bible nails it again, "Fear of man will prove to be a snare" (Proverbs 29:25).

The Bible writer, Paul, asks disturbingly: "Am I trying to win the approval of men or of God? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ" (Galatians 1:10). Ouch! And then, listen to Jeremiah, "Should you then seek great things for yourself? Seek them not" (Jeremiah 45:5).

Now, if Jeremy Lin's playing for Jesus, then he's a free man. Free from the dead-end street of stealing God's glory; free from the bondage and insecurity of trying to make everybody happy. Life is honestly a whole lot less confusing and conflicted when you've got only one person to please - the Person who loves you unconditionally, unendingly, unsparingly. Jesus, who abandoned His glory in heaven and the acclaim of angels to rescue you and me.


I'll never forget the lesson I learned the day that my young son was helping me with yard work. I was mowing, and he was doing the clipping after me. And at one point, I kind of flashed a smile his way. And a few minutes later, he came over and he shouted above all the mower noise, "Daddy, could you please do that again?" I turned down the mower and I said, "Do what again, son?" "Could you just smile at me again, Daddy? It's your smile that keeps me going."

That's what I want. I want to live for one thing - my Father's smile.

Song of Songs 8, and Devotionals.

Click to hear God's teaching.
Max Lucado Daily: Don’t Be Afraid

Why are you afraid?  Is it the fear of losing your job?  Being sued?  The new kid on the block?  The clock of your life…ticking?

Fear corrodes our confidence in God’s goodness.  We begin to wonder if God’s eyes are shut as ours grow wide.  For all the noise fear makes and room it takes, fear does little good.

Fear never cured a disease.  Never saved a marriage.  Never saved a business.  Faith did that!

The one statement Jesus made more than any other in the Gospels was “Don’t be afraid.”  He says in Matthew 14:27, “Take courage, I am here.”  In John 14:1, he says, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God, and trust also in me.”

Fear may fill our world, but it doesn’t have to fill our hearts.  It will always knock on the door—just don’t invite it in for dinner!



Song of Songs 8

If only you were to me like a brother,
    who was nursed at my mother’s breasts!
Then, if I found you outside,
    I would kiss you,
    and no one would despise me.
2 I would lead you
    and bring you to my mother’s house —
    she who has taught me.
I would give you spiced wine to drink,
    the nectar of my pomegranates.
3 His left arm is under my head
    and his right arm embraces me.
4 Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you:
    Do not arouse or awaken love
    until it so desires.
Friends

5 Who is this coming up from the wilderness
    leaning on her beloved?
She

Under the apple tree I roused you;
    there your mother conceived you,
    there she who was in labor gave you birth.
6 Place me like a seal over your heart,
    like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
    its jealousy[f] unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire,
    like a mighty flame.[g]
7 Many waters cannot quench love;
    rivers cannot sweep it away.
If one were to give
    all the wealth of one’s house for love,
    it[h] would be utterly scorned.
Friends

8 We have a little sister,
    and her breasts are not yet grown.
What shall we do for our sister
    on the day she is spoken for?
9 If she is a wall,
    we will build towers of silver on her.
If she is a door,
    we will enclose her with panels of cedar.
She

10 I am a wall,
    and my breasts are like towers.
Thus I have become in his eyes
    like one bringing contentment.
11 Solomon had a vineyard in Baal Hamon;
    he let out his vineyard to tenants.
Each was to bring for its fruit
    a thousand shekels[i] of silver.
12 But my own vineyard is mine to give;
    the thousand shekels are for you, Solomon,
    and two hundred[j] are for those who tend its fruit.
He

13 You who dwell in the gardens
    with friends in attendance,
    let me hear your voice!
She

14 Come away, my beloved,
    and be like a gazelle
or like a young stag
    on the spice-laden mountains.



Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Romans 12:1-2,9-18

A Living Sacrifice

12 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Love in Action

9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.[a] Do not be conceited.

17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

Who You’re Meant To Be

May 1, 2012 — by David C. McCasland

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. —Romans 12:1

“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.” Quoting those words of St. Catherine of Siena, the Bishop of London began his message to Prince William and Kate Middleton at their wedding in Westminster Abbey. Many watching on TV were deeply touched as the bishop affirmed their choice “to be married in the sight of a generous God who so loved the world that He gave Himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ.” Then he urged the couple to pursue a love that finds its center beyond themselves.

From Romans 12, the bride’s brother read: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect” (vv.1-2 NRSV).

That royal wedding reminds us all, single or married, of two great truths: (1) God’s great love for us expressed in the sacrifice of Jesus and (2) God’s desire that we find life’s greatest joy and transformation in our relationship with Him. Aren’t those the keys to becoming the persons God meant us to be?

Although I may not understand
The path You’ve laid for me,
Complete surrender to Your will—
Lord, this my prayer shall be. —Sherbert
We become who God meant us to be by giving ourselves completely to Him.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
May 1, 2012


Faith— Not Emotion

We walk by faith, not by sight —2 Corinthians 5:7

For a while, we are fully aware of God’s concern for us. But then, when God begins to use us in His work, we begin to take on a pitiful look and talk only of our trials and difficulties. And all the while God is trying to make us do our work as hidden people who are not in the spotlight. None of us would be hidden spiritually if we could help it. Can we do our work when it seems that God has sealed up heaven? Some of us always want to be brightly illuminated saints with golden halos and with the continual glow of inspiration, and to have other saints of God dealing with us all the time. A self-assured saint is of no value to God. He is abnormal, unfit for daily life, and completely unlike God. We are here, not as immature angels, but as men and women, to do the work of this world. And we are to do it with an infinitely greater power to withstand the struggle because we have been born from above.
If we continually try to bring back those exceptional moments of inspiration, it is a sign that it is not God we want. We are becoming obsessed with the moments when God did come and speak with us, and we are insisting that He do it again. But what God wants us to do is to “walk by faith.” How many of us have set ourselves aside as if to say, “I cannot do anything else until God appears to me”? He will never do it. We will have to get up on our own, without any inspiration and without any sudden touch from God. Then comes our surprise and we find ourselves exclaiming, “Why, He was there all the time, and I never knew it!” Never live for those exceptional moments— they are surprises. God will give us His touches of inspiration only when He sees that we are not in danger of being led away by them. We must never consider our moments of inspiration as the standard way of life— our work is our standard.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Every Scar Has a Story - #6602

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

I've got to tell you, I was really moved by Lincoln's story. He actually is a respected African-American pastor that I've had the privilege to get to know. One day he told me a little of his personal history, and it's like the histories of so many African-Americans. His father was a sharecropper, his grandfather was a slave.

And at the age of 11, Lincoln's grandfather had been taken from his mother and sold on the auction block, never to see his mother again. Amazingly, his grandfather seemed to carry no bitterness, no anger as he told his grandson about his childhood as a slave. But he did show his grandson his scars; the ones inflicted on him by his slave master. And my friend has never forgotten what Grandpa said about those scars, "Every scar has a story." I'm sure it did.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Every Scar Has a Story."

When God's Son left heaven and came here to earth, He was beaten, too. He had scars from his beatings, and every scar tells a story. You and I are that story. It's about how very, very much He loves you.

God talks about it in our word for today from the Word of God in Isaiah 53:3. It's a description of what Jesus Christ went through for you and me. It says, "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering...He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him." Now, remember who this is. This is the sinless Son of God, the one the Bible calls the "Prince of glory" (1 Corinthians 2:8). And He's pierced, punished, and crushed. Not for anything He did, but for all for things you and I did. Because He had come to absorb the punishment for every wrong thing we've ever done.

There's only one thing Jesus took back to heaven from earth - the scars. The nail prints in His hands and feet; the ones that are there because of how very much He loves you.

Every scar has a story. The wounds of Jesus tell us, "Your sins require an awful death penalty, and I've paid that price so you can be forgiven. I don't want to lose you."

I guess you can see why God will never forget what you do with His Son, and why it is fatal to depend on anything other than Jesus to get right with God and go to heaven. Maybe you've been counting on your Christian knowledge, or your Christian background, or your Christian connections, or some Christian ritual. Maybe you're hoping to make it because of how religious you are or how good you've been.

But if any of those things could have gotten you to heaven, there's no way Jesus would have gone through what He did for you. His death is your only hope of heaven, your only hope of being forgiven.

And, He's been waiting for you to respond to His love for maybe a long time, by giving yourself to the One who gave Himself completely for you. You know you could do that right where you are. Just tell Him right now, "Jesus, thank You for what You went through to pay for all the wrong things that I have done. I'm turning the wheel of my life over to You. You're my only hope, and beginning right now, I am Yours."


Finally, you can belong to Jesus, not just believe things about Jesus. If you want to make sure that you have begun a personal relationship with Him, let me invite you to go to our website and check it out. I've laid out there as simply as I can and briefly how you can be sure you have begun your personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It's YoursForLife.net. And I'd encourage you to check it out as soon as you can get to it.

See, the scars of Jesus tell the story of how very much He loves you. There's an old hymn that says it pretty well, "I shall know Him, I shall know Him, as redeemed by His side I shall stand. I shall know my Redeemer when I reach the other side by the print of the nails in His hands."

Song of Songs 7, Bible Reading and Devotionals.

Click to listen to God's teaching.
Max Lucado Daily: We’re God’s Idea

‘I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.  Psalm 139:14”

We’re God’s idea.  His face.  His eyes.  His hands.  His touch.  We are him!

Look deeply into the face of every human being on earth and you’ll see his likeness.  Though some appear to be distant relatives, they’re not.  God has no cousins, only children.

You aren’t an accident or an incident; you’re a gift to the world.  A divine work of art—signed by God.

One of the best gifts I ever received is a football jersey signed by thirty former professional quarterbacks.  For all I know it was bought at a discount sports store.  What makes it unique are the signatures.

The same is true with us.  What makes us special is not our body, but the signature of God on our lives.  We’re his works of art, created in his image.

Significant, not because of what we do, but because of whose we are!

‘I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.  Psalm 139:14”

Song of Songs

7 [c]How beautiful your sandaled feet,
    O prince’s daughter!
Your graceful legs are like jewels,
    the work of an artist’s hands.
2 Your navel is a rounded goblet
    that never lacks blended wine.
Your waist is a mound of wheat
    encircled by lilies.
3 Your breasts are like two fawns,
    like twin fawns of a gazelle.
4 Your neck is like an ivory tower.
Your eyes are the pools of Heshbon
    by the gate of Bath Rabbim.
Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon
    looking toward Damascus.
5 Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel.
    Your hair is like royal tapestry;
    the king is held captive by its tresses.
6 How beautiful you are and how pleasing,
    my love, with your delights!
7 Your stature is like that of the palm,
    and your breasts like clusters of fruit.
8 I said, “I will climb the palm tree;
    I will take hold of its fruit.”
May your breasts be like clusters of grapes on the vine,
    the fragrance of your breath like apples,
9     and your mouth like the best wine.
She

May the wine go straight to my beloved,
    flowing gently over lips and teeth.[d]
10 I belong to my beloved,
    and his desire is for me.
11 Come, my beloved, let us go to the countryside,
    let us spend the night in the villages.[e]
12 Let us go early to the vineyards
    to see if the vines have budded,
if their blossoms have opened,
    and if the pomegranates are in bloom —
    there I will give you my love.
13 The mandrakes send out their fragrance,
    and at our door is every delicacy,
both new and old,
    that I have stored up for you, my beloved.
8 If only you were to me like a brother,
    who was nursed at my mother’s breasts!
Then, if I found you outside,
    I would kiss you,
    and no one would despise me.
2 I would lead you
    and bring you to my mother’s house —
    she who has taught me.
I would give you spiced wine to drink,
    the nectar of my pomegranates.
3 His left arm is under my head
    and his right arm embraces me.
4 Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you:
    Do not arouse or awaken love
    until it so desires.
Friends

5 Who is this coming up from the wilderness
    leaning on her beloved?
She

Under the apple tree I roused you;
    there your mother conceived you,
    there she who was in labor gave you birth.
6 Place me like a seal over your heart,
    like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
    its jealousy[f] unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire,
    like a mighty flame.[g]
7 Many waters cannot quench love;
    rivers cannot sweep it away.
If one were to give
    all the wealth of one’s house for love,
    it[h] would be utterly scorned.
Friends

8 We have a little sister,
    and her breasts are not yet grown.
What shall we do for our sister
    on the day she is spoken for?
9 If she is a wall,
    we will build towers of silver on her.
If she is a door,
    we will enclose her with panels of cedar.
She

10 I am a wall,
    and my breasts are like towers.
Thus I have become in his eyes
    like one bringing contentment.
11 Solomon had a vineyard in Baal Hamon;
    he let out his vineyard to tenants.
Each was to bring for its fruit
    a thousand shekels[i] of silver.
12 But my own vineyard is mine to give;
    the thousand shekels are for you, Solomon,
    and two hundred[j] are for those who tend its fruit.
He

13 You who dwell in the gardens
    with friends in attendance,
    let me hear your voice!
She

14 Come away, my beloved,
    and be like a gazelle
or like a young stag
    on the spice-laden mountains.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Proverbs 16:20-25

20 Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers,[a]
    and blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord.
21 The wise in heart are called discerning,
    and gracious words promote instruction.[b]
22 Prudence is a fountain of life to the prudent,
    but folly brings punishment to fools.
23 The hearts of the wise make their mouths prudent,
    and their lips promote instruction.[c]
24 Gracious words are a honeycomb,
    sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
25 There is a way that appears to be right,
    but in the end it leads to death.

My Way?

April 30, 2012 — by Dave Branon

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. —Proverbs 16:25

Think about the worst intellectual matchups possible. For instance, what if we put Albert Einstein in a room with a first-grader to debate the theory of relativity? Or how about George Washington Carver versus a middle-schooler discussing biochemical engineering?

It’s silly to think of putting these pairs together for discussions. One is the ultimate expert; the other would know little if anything about the topic.

Here’s another one: God versus anyone arguing about His plan for mankind. Now we’re talking mismatch! Yet we often hear of people trying to explain away God’s matchless wisdom and how their way is better than His.

I received a letter from a man in prison who said: “I came to the point in my life where I finally accepted the fact that God is real and the Creator of everything. I grew tired of trying to do things my way. When I started humbling myself and accepting God’s Word, I found the answer.”

How ridiculous to reject God’s plan of salvation because we think we know better! Only by placing our trust in Christ for the forgiveness of our sins can we be reconciled to God (John 14:6; Rom 3:23; 6:23). Are you still trying to do things your own way, thinking you know best? (Prov. 16:25). Agree with God and go His way.

There aren’t many ways into heaven;
The Bible says there’s only one:
Confessing Christ Jesus as Savior,
Believing in God’s only Son. —Sper
Jesus is not one of many ways to approach God, nor is He the best of several ways; He is the only way. —Tozer


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
April 30, 2012

Spontaneous Love

Love suffers long and is kind . . . —1 Corinthians 13:4

Love is not premeditated—it is spontaneous; that is, it bursts forth in extraordinary ways. There is nothing of precise certainty in Paul’s description of love. We cannot predetermine our thoughts and actions by saying, “Now I will never think any evil thoughts, and I will believe everything that Jesus would have me to believe.” No, the characteristic of love is spontaneity. We don’t deliberately set the statements of Jesus before us as our standard, but when His Spirit is having His way with us, we live according to His standard without even realizing it. And when we look back, we are amazed at how unconcerned we have been over our emotions, which is the very evidence that real spontaneous love was there. The nature of everything involved in the life of God in us is only discerned when we have been through it and it is in our past.
The fountains from which love flows are in God, not in us. It is absurd to think that the love of God is naturally in our hearts, as a result of our own nature. His love is there only because it “has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit . . .” (Romans 5:5).
If we try to prove to God how much we love Him, it is a sure sign that we really don’t love Him. The evidence of our love for Him is the absolute spontaneity of our love, which flows naturally from His nature within us. And when we look back, we will not be able to determine why we did certain things, but we can know that we did them according to the spontaneous nature of His love in us. The life of God exhibits itself in this spontaneous way because the fountains of His love are in the Holy Spirit.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Out of Service - #6601

Monday, April 30, 2012

If you've ever spent a lot of time in the city, you may have had the experience of waiting for a bus. You know, you've got a couple of packages, it's cold, some weird people are starting to cruise by for the second time, and suddenly you see the dim outline of a bus on the horizon. Biblically "your heart leapeth within you" as you see the bus approaching. Finally it gets close enough for you to read the sign in the window, and there are three words "Out of Service." Oh! Three very discouraging words.

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Out of Service."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Timothy 4:6-7, a very interesting valedictory on Paul's life. Now, if you've ever tried to ride a bus, you may know how it feels to need a vehicle and find out that it's out of service. You know, not available for you to use? Well, God knows that feeling too.

And that takes us to Paul here at the end of his lifetime run. He has every right to rest. I mean, he has served the Lord with all his heart. He has every right to retire; move to Florida. He has every right to leave the battles to someone else; to hang out his sign that says, "Out of Service." Well, listen to what he says. "I am being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." Wow!

Paul's picture at the end of his life, after 30 years of giving all he had to give, he said, "I still am. I'm still being poured out like a drink offering." I see an Olympic runner with veins bulging and every sweat gland pumping, fully extended, nothing left. He says, "When I cross the finish line into Jesus' arms, I want to collapse into His arms with nothing left in my pockets, nothing left in my energy. I will give it all to the finish line." Man!

Paul simply will not retire spiritually until he gets retired by his Lord to heaven. Well, that's the attitude we all should share, but we don't sometimes. Right? Oh, maybe you've worked hard for the Lord, you've done a lot of the jobs there are to do, and you're kind of tired. Now you're saying, "I think I've earned a little time out; I think I've earned a rest. Let's pass it on to others. I served my time."

Whoa! We don't have enough time to serve. Maybe 70 or 80 years is all we've got to make our mark for eternity. Please! There's too much to do; there's too few to do it. We need the seasoned leaders. Yeah, they're tired, but you've got experience. We need you. Don't hang out an "Out of Service" sign.

Maybe you're just really busy surviving, keeping your head above water. You say, "I don't have any time to serve the Lord. Maybe later, but, you know, right now someone else." Are you out of service? This life; this brief 70 years is all we have to do God's work on earth; to build something that we'll have for a hundred million years - to make a difference.


We're here to live poured-out lives, holding nothing back. We might retire to a different location, but never retiring from the front lines until God calls us home. You want to re-tire, that means to put new tires on so you can keep on going; get re-tired.

God is looking for human vehicles that He can use for heaven's sake. Don't pull up in front of Jesus with a sign that says "Out of Service."