Romans 4 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

(Has God spoken to you lately if not click to listen to God's teaching?)

Max Lucado Daily: What We Do to Him

How we treat others is how we treat Jesus.

The soldiers bowed before Jesus, making fun of him, saying ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’  They spat on Jesus.  They began to beat him on the head.  Then they led him away to be crucified.” (Mark 15:18-19).

The soldiers’ assignment was simple.  Take the Nazarene to the hill and kill him.  But they wanted to have some fun first.  Strong, armed soldiers encircled an exhausted, nearly dead Galilean carpenter and beat up on him. The beating was commanded.  The crucifixion was ordered.  But the spitting?  Spitting isn’t intended to hurt the body—it can’t.  Spitting is intended to degrade the soul, and it does.

Ever done that?  Maybe you haven’t spit on anyone, but have you gossiped?  Raised your hand in anger?  Ever made someone feel bad so you would feel good? Our Lord explained this truth in Matthew 25:40:  How we treat others is how we treat Jesus!

“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12)

from He Chose the Nails


Romans 4
New International Version (NIV)
Abraham Justified by Faith

4 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? 2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. 3 What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”[a]

4 Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. 5 However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. 6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

7 “Blessed are those
    whose transgressions are forgiven,
    whose sins are covered.
8 Blessed is the one
    whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”[b]
9 Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. 10 Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! 11 And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. 12 And he is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

13 It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14 For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, 15 because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.

16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. 17 As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.”[c] He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”[d] 19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22 This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” 23 The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Luke 4:1-13

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Temptation of Jesus

4 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” 5 And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6 and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 And Jesus answered him, “It is written,

“‘You shall worship the Lord your God,
    and him only shall you serve.’”
9 And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for it is written,

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
    to guard you,’
11 and

“‘On their hands they will bear you up,
    lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
12 And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 13 And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.

Out Of Context

March 27, 2013 — by Julie Ackerman Link

Your Word is truth. —John 17:17

When a friend started making random despairing statements, people were concerned for him and started giving advice and offering encouragement. As it turned out, he was simply having fun by quoting song lyrics out of context to start a conversation. Friends who tried to help wasted their time by offering help he didn’t need and advice he didn’t want. The consequences of my friend’s misleading statements were not serious, but they could have been. In taking time to respond to his false need, someone could have neglected someone else’s truly serious need.

Some people who take words out of context just want to gain attention or win an argument. But others are more sinister. They twist truth to gain power over others. They endanger not only lives but also souls.

When people use words to manipulate others to behave in certain ways—or worse, when they quote the Bible out of context to convince others to do wrong—there’s only one defense: We need to know what God truly says in His Word. Jesus was able to resist temptation with the truth (Luke 4). We have the same resource. God has given us His Word and Spirit to guide us and keep us from being deceived or misled.

Your words of pure, eternal truth
Shall yet unshaken stay,
When all that man has thought or planned
Like chaff shall pass away. —Anon.
If we hold on to God’s truth, we won’t be trapped by Satan’s lies.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 27, 2013

Spiritual Vision Through Personal Purity (2)

Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place . . . —Revelation 4:1

A higher state of mind and spiritual vision can only be achieved through the higher practice of personal character. If you live up to the highest and best that you know in the outer level of your life, God will continually say to you, “Friend, come up even higher.” There is also a continuing rule in temptation which calls you to go higher; but when you do, you only encounter other temptations and character traits. Both God and Satan use the strategy of elevation, but Satan uses it in temptation, and the effect is quite different. When the devil elevates you to a certain place, he causes you to fasten your idea of what holiness is far beyond what flesh and blood could ever bear or achieve. Your life becomes a spiritual acrobatic performance high atop a steeple. You cling to it, trying to maintain your balance and daring not to move. But when God elevates you by His grace into heavenly places, you find a vast plateau where you can move about with ease.

Compare this week in your spiritual life with the same week last year to see how God has called you to a higher level. We have all been brought to see from a higher viewpoint. Never allow God to show you a truth which you do not instantly begin to live up to, applying it to your life. Always work through it, staying in its light.

Your growth in grace is not measured by the fact that you haven’t turned back, but that you have an insight and understanding into where you are spiritually. Have you heard God say, “Come up higher,” not audibly on the outer level, but to the innermost part of your character?

“Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing . . . ?” (Genesis 18:17). God has to hide from us what He does, until, due to the growth of our personal character, we get to the level where He is then able to reveal it.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Pushed to the Front - #6838

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

I think I've been in the front row of almost every group picture I've ever been in. Now, I didn't put me there. No, "Let me be on the front row!" No, the photographer always seemed to put me there. Unfortunately it's not because of my leading man good looks. No, that's not a possibility at all. It's because of my inches...actually my lack of inches. They always put us short guys in front. If you're short, you know that. They always put the tall fellows in the rear of the picture, and that's for a good reason. They put the little guys in the front because the big guys block the view.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Pushed to the Front."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Corinthians chapter 4, and I'll begin reading at verse 7. "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us." The treasure he's talking about is the message of light and deliverance through Jesus Christ. So many Christians I know have a spiritual inferiority complex, and it's causing them to retreat from really jumping into doing things for God. "I'm not very beautiful. I'm not really good looking. I don't have a lot of charisma. I'm not really very outgoing. You know, there are people who are so musical. I'm just not as talented as...whatever... I start to talk and my words get all tangled up. I'm so... I'm so average."

Did you know that makes you a primary candidate to be mightily used by God? Our scripture today says God likes to put His treasure in clay vessels, not in beautiful, expensive vases, but ones that will accentuate the treasure not the vessel. You put it in a beautiful vessel, everybody says, "Oh, isn't that a beautiful vessel." God wants the treasure to be called attention to. He loves average in people that He uses. He loves us to strive for excellence, but He loves to use average people.

In the book of 1 Samuel when Samuel is looking for a king, God sends him out to check out all these brothers, and he says, "Oh, it's surely going to be one of the older, taller, good looking brothers." It turns out to be the youngest kid out in a sheep pen - David. The problem with the superstar people is they block the view. Like the tall kids in our group photos, God wants to use people who will point others to Him.

The great ones end up getting the attention rather than the attention going to the Lord. But what happens when the Lord picks up Joe or Jane Average and starts doing His work through them? He starts leading through someone average, speaking, reaching the lost through someone average. People say, "It's got to be God. It can't be them!" That's the whole idea. The idea is that when God does a work, people are saying, "Isn't Jesus something?" Instead of, "Oh, what a great leader, what a great singer, what a great speaker."

You may have been holding back saying, "There's got to be someone better than I am." But see, it's you that God wants to use. It's your very 'averageness', your weakness that makes you a prime candidate for Him to work through. He may be pushing you to the front of His picture. You know why? Because you won't block the view.

Often the ones the world calls big are on God's back row, and the ones the world calls small are the ones He wants in front.

Isaiah 36 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

(Has God spoken to you lately if not click to listen to God's teaching?)

Max Lucado Daily: Eternal Choices

God gives eternal choices, and these choices have eternal consequences.

Isn’t this the reminder of Calvary’s trio?  Ever wonder why there were two crosses next to Christ?  Why not six or ten?  Ever wonder why Jesus was in the center?  Could it be the two crosses on the hill symbolize one of God’s greatest gifts?  The gift of choice. The two criminals were convicted by the same system.  Condemned to death.  Equally close to the same Jesus.  But one changed and one did not.

You’ve made some bad choices in life, haven’t you?  You look back and you say, “If only I could make up for those bad choices.”  You can.  When one thief on the cross prayed, Jesus loved him enough to save him.  When the other mocked, Jesus loved him enough to let him.  He allowed him the choice. And he does the same for you and me.

Then (the thief) said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”  Luke 23:42-43

from He Chose the Nails


Isaiah 36

Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem

36 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. 2 Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. When the commander stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field, 3 Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to him.

4 The field commander said to them, “Tell Hezekiah:

“‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours? 5 You say you have counsel and might for war—but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me? 6 Look, I know you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him. 7 But if you say to me, “We are depending on the Lord our God”—isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship before this altar”?

8 “‘Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them! 9 How then can you repulse one officer of the least of my master’s officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen[e]? 10 Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without the Lord? The Lord himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.’”

11 Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.”

12 But the commander replied, “Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the people sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?”

13 Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! 14 This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you! 15 Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord when he says, ‘The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’

16 “Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from your own cistern, 17 until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

18 “Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ Have the gods of any nations ever delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? 20 Who of all the gods of these countries have been able to save their lands from me? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”

21 But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, “Do not answer him.”

22 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn, and told him what the field commander had said.



Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Genesis 1:26-28

English Standard Version (ESV)
26 Then God said, “Let us make man[a] in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

27 So God created man in his own image,
    in the image of God he created him;
    male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Our Father’s World

March 26, 2013 — by Marvin Williams

The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. —Psalm 24:1

When Amanda Benavides was a sophomore at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, California, she began to rethink her views on Christian stewardship of the earth. Amanda had grown up thinking that being conscious of the environment had nothing to do with her relationship with Jesus. All this changed when she was challenged to consider the Christian’s role in caring for the planet—especially how that relates to reaching the most needy in the world.

Our stewardship of the beautiful world God gave us, and our care for the people in it, express our reverence for God and is grounded in two biblical principles.

First, the earth belongs to God (Ps. 24:1-2). The psalmist praised the Lord for His creation and His ownership of it. The heavens, the earth, and all that are in it are His. He created it, He is sovereign over it (93:1-2), and He cares for it (Matt. 6:26-30). Second, God delegated the responsibility for the well-being of His earth to us (Gen. 1:26-28). This includes appreciation of and care for both nature (Lev. 25:2-5,11; Prov. 12:10) and people (Rom. 15:2).

This is our Father’s world. Let’s show Him how much we love Him by respecting it and caring for the people who populate it.

The natural world that God has made
Must not be used at whim;
We serve as stewards of His earth,
Responsible to Him. —D. DeHaan
To mistreat God’s creation is to offend the Creator.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 26, 2013

Spiritual Vision Through Personal Purity (1)

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God —Matthew 5:8

Purity is not innocence— it is much more than that. Purity is the result of continued spiritual harmony with God. We have to grow in purity. Our life with God may be right and our inner purity unblemished, yet occasionally our outer life may become spotted and stained. God intentionally does not protect us from this possibility, because this is the way we recognize the necessity of maintaining our spiritual vision through personal purity. If the outer level of our spiritual life with God is impaired to the slightest degree, we must put everything else aside until we make it right. Remember that spiritual vision depends on our character— it is “the pure in heart ” who “see God.”

God makes us pure by an act of His sovereign grace, but we still have something that we must carefully watch. It is through our bodily life coming in contact with other people and other points of view that we tend to become tarnished. Not only must our “inner sanctuary” be kept right with God, but also the “outer courts” must be brought into perfect harmony with the purity God gives us through His grace. Our spiritual vision and understanding is immediately blurred when our “outer court” is stained. If we want to maintain personal intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ, it will mean refusing to do or even think certain things. And some things that are acceptable for others will become unacceptable for us.

A practical help in keeping your personal purity unblemished in your relations with other people is to begin to see them as God does. Say to yourself, “That man or that woman is perfect in Christ Jesus! That friend or that relative is perfect in Christ Jesus!”


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Streamlined Spirituality - #6837

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

I'll never forget those early morning seminars in Haiti. We were in Port-au-Prince, the capitol city, and we were doing a youth crusade there. Every morning at 6:00 a.m. they offered four seminars in the National Gymnasium to any teenagers who wanted to come. Did I mention 6:00 a.m.?

First of all, I was amazed at how many teenagers showed up. They met in the balcony of the gym in one of the corners with their leader. So, four corners - four leaders, four teachers. They had to sit on solid concrete steps that formed the benches for seating up there. They asked me to do a 2-hour seminar. (Tell a speaker to please do a 2-hour seminar, he's got no problem; it's the five minutes that's hard...like this program.) So, for two hours I taught teenagers the Bible. They took notes; they asked questions. Would you believe I was the first one to let out? The other three seminars were still going on. What do you think those teenagers did? They ran, each of them, to another corner hoping they might be able to catch a little bit of another seminar before it ended. I had just met believers who couldn't get enough! Just like us, right? Not necessarily.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Streamlined Spirituality."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 5:6. Jesus talks about appetite. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." Jesus seems to be saying, "Satisfied people are those who have a hearty spiritual appetite. You want the restlessness in your heart to be cured? Then have a great spiritual appetite; be hungry for spiritual things." That's a sign of health, right - appetite?

Our appetite is often in stark contrast with the rest of God's kids around the world who can't wait to get more. My pastor went to India. He was told, "Be sure you speak for at least an hour." He said, "No problem." But we live in like this microwave society. Everything has to be quick and instant. "Boy, you had better be done speaking by noon, Buddy, because I think God goes off duty then. Twenty-minute message, please. Thirty-minute message please. That's all we can handle."

We try to see what the minimum number of Christian meetings is we can get to a week. Could we get this down to just Sunday morning, and could we get it down to maybe sixty minutes at most?" Maybe we could have one-minute devotions. I could just pull a quick little devotional off the shelf and I want it not to be more than one page, and I want it to be pre-packaged, and I'd like to get through it fast.

Instead of taking leadership in Christian service, could I just write a check? You see what we've done? We've created a streamlined spirituality; a minimal commitment of time; a minimal commitment of me. "Let's go through the motions. I'll meet my obligations. I'll do my duty and then I'll get on with the stuff that really matters."

Can you imagine a couple in love saying, "Hey, can we keep our time together short." No! When you're in love you can't get enough of the other person. I wonder, "Have we left our first love for Jesus?" Well, check your appetite. If you're trying to fit church, and Bible, and prayer, and service into the tightest possible time slots, maybe it's time to go for a check-up for a cold, cold heart.

David said in Psalm 42, "Where can I go and meet with God? My heart pants for the Lord." Is it time to say, "Lord, give me an insatiable appetite for You"? Maybe you'll want to un-streamline the God time in your life and grow beyond the point of "How short can we make this?" And grow to the point where you can say, "Lord, I can't get enough of You."

Isaiah 35 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

(Has God spoken to you lately if not click to listen to God's teaching?)

Max Lucado Daily: Just for You

What is the fruit of sin?  Step into the briar patch of humanity and feel a few thistles.  Shame. Fear. Disgrace. Discouragement. Anxiety.  Haven’t our hearts been caught in these brambles?

The heart of Jesus, however, had not.  He had never been cut by the thorns of sin.  What you and I face daily—he never knew.  He never worried. He was never guilty.  He never knew the fruit of sin until he became sin for us.  And when he did—all the emotions of sin tumbled in on him like shadows in a forest.  He felt anxious, guilty, and alone. Can you not hear the emotion in his prayer?

“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”  This prayer is one of the most remarkable parts of his coming.  But there’s something even greater!  He did it for you…just for you!

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” (I Peter 2:24).

from He Chose the Nails

Isaiah 35

Joy of the Redeemed

35 The desert and the parched land will be glad;
    the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.
Like the crocus, 2 it will burst into bloom;
    it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
    the splendor of Carmel and Sharon;
they will see the glory of the Lord,
    the splendor of our God.
3 Strengthen the feeble hands,
    steady the knees that give way;
4 say to those with fearful hearts,
    “Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
    he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
    he will come to save you.”
5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
    and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
6 Then will the lame leap like a deer,
    and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
    and streams in the desert.
7 The burning sand will become a pool,
    the thirsty ground bubbling springs.
In the haunts where jackals once lay,
    grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.
8 And a highway will be there;
    it will be called the Way of Holiness;
    it will be for those who walk on that Way.
The unclean will not journey on it;
    wicked fools will not go about on it.
9 No lion will be there,
    nor any ravenous beast;
    they will not be found there.
But only the redeemed will walk there,
10     and those the Lord has rescued will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
    everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
    and sorrow and sighing will flee away.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion


Read: Psalm 32:1-6; Matthew 11:28-30

Blessed Are the Forgiven

A Maskil[a] of David.

32 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
    whose sin is covered.
2 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity,
    and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
    through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
    my strength was dried up[b] as by the heat of summer. Selah
5 I acknowledged my sin to you,
    and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
    and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah
6 Therefore let everyone who is godly
    offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found;
surely in the rush of great waters,
    they shall not reach him.

Matthew 11:28-30
English Standard Version (ESV)
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Too Heavy

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. —Matthew 11:28

March 25, 2013 — by Cindy Hess Kasper

As I started up my car in the dark hours of early morning, I noticed a seatbelt light on the dashboard. I checked my door, opening and pulling it shut again. I tugged on my seatbelt to test it. But the sensor light still beamed. Then, in slow realization, I reached over and lifted my purse a few inches above the passenger seat. The light clicked off.

Apparently, a cell phone, three rolls of quarters, a hardcover book, and my lunch stuffed in my very large purse had equaled the weight of a small passenger, thus setting off the sensor!

While I can easily empty out a handbag, other weights are not so easy to shed. Those burdens of life involve a heaviness of spirit.

Whether the burden that weighs us down is one of guilt such as the one that consumed David’s thoughts (Ps. 32:1-6), the fear Peter experienced (Matt. 26:20-35), or the doubt Thomas carried (John 20:24-29), Jesus has invited us to bring them all to Him: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).

We are not built to bear burdens alone. When we cast them on the One who wants to bear our burdens (Ps. 68:19; 1 Peter 5:7), He replaces them with forgiveness, healing, and restoration. No burden is too heavy for Him.

Lord, thank You for lovingly carrying our burdens.
In times of trouble, help us to leave those burdens
in Your strong hands and to find our rest in You.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
Burden God with what burdens you.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 25, 2013

Maintaining the Proper Relationship

. . . the friend of the bridegroom . . . —John 3:29

Goodness and purity should never be traits that draw attention to themselves, but should simply be magnets that draw people to Jesus Christ. If my holiness is not drawing others to Him, it is not the right kind of holiness; it is only an influence which awakens undue emotions and evil desires in people and diverts them from heading in the right direction. A person who is a beautiful saint can be a hindrance in leading people to the Lord by presenting only what Christ has done for him, instead of presenting Jesus Christ Himself. Others will be left with this thought— “What a fine person that man is!” That is not being a true “friend of the bridegroom”— I am increasing all the time; He is not.

To maintain this friendship and faithfulness to the Bridegroom, we have to be more careful to have the moral and vital relationship to Him above everything else, including obedience. Sometimes there is nothing to obey and our only task is to maintain a vital connection with Jesus Christ, seeing that nothing interferes with it. Only occasionally is it a matter of obedience. At those times when a crisis arises, we have to find out what God’s will is. Yet most of our life is not spent in trying to be consciously obedient, but in maintaining this relationship— being the “friend of the bridegroom.” Christian work can actually be a means of diverting a person’s focus away from Jesus Christ. Instead of being friends “of the bridegroom,” we may become amateur providences of God to someone else, working against Him while we use His weapons.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

How Habits Inhibit - #6836

Monday, March 25, 2013

For the first sixteen years of my life you could pretty well guess what I would order in a restaurant. If it wasn't a hamburger, it was fried chicken. If it wasn't fried chicken, it was a hamburger. Now, people - especially my parents - tried to get me to try other foods, but eating out meant two things and only two. Did I mention that was hamburgers and fried chicken? Yeah?

Well, somewhere along the way, someone encouraged me to try a little pasta, and I don't know why I took the risk, but I liked it. After all those years I could have been eating it and I didn't know. Now you can't get me to stop eating it. Someone encouraged me to try certain vegetables prepared in creative ways. I had avoided those vegetables. I love them now. Even casseroles. Oh, I avoided casseroles like the measles. I thought casserole was a naughty word. I love casseroles. I used to hate it when my Mother made them; I never tried them. Spoiled brat, huh? Today there are just too many foods I like: Chinese, Italian, Mexican, you name it. I can't believe what I was missing all those years because I was sure food meant hamburger or chicken. I can't believe what I missed because I was such a creature of habit.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How Habits Inhibit."

In our word for today from the Word of God in Mark chapter 2, Jesus is talking to religious folks; Pharisees, scribes, people who had ways in which they thought God would always work. They couldn't accept the fact that there might be some new things God wanted to try. Now, Jesus came along and blew the walls off the narrow box that they had God in. He wasn't working in any of the ways that they were used to, and they kept saying, "Well, I don't know, God never did it this way before. I'm not sure it is God." And Jesus had a whole new way of doing it.

In Mark 2:22, Jesus said, "No one pours new wine into old wine skins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins and both the wine and the wine skins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wine skins." See, Jesus is talking to people who were hide-bound in their traditions; sure that God was going to work just like He always has. They've got God in a box, and maybe He's talking to the people of our day that say maybe to us, "Maybe He's saying, 'You know, I've got something new I want to do among you, but it can't happen if you insist on the same old ways of doing it.'"

As a teenager I got in my eating rut and I stayed there and I missed all kinds of great experiences that were outside of my rut. We tend to be that way with our Lord. There's a place in Northern Canada where the roads run out and I've heard there's a sign that says, "Choose your rut carefully; you'll be in it for the next fifty miles." It probably doesn't say miles; it says kilometers, but let's go with it. We're sort of like that spiritually. We have a tendency to say, "This is how God did work, and He always will work." Could it be that it's time for new wine skins in your life? The Lord is trying to open you up to some new worship or new ways of studying His Word, or new ways of praying, new avenues of service, new steps of faith. And you're saying, "Hamburgers or chicken! Hamburgers or chicken! That's the way it's always been."

Churches and ministries often wither to ineffectiveness because they will not change. Methods and approaches that once were the new wine skins are now brittle, tired and irrelevant. I know you're restless for God's best, and often God's best is in a surprising new package. We get too tied to the formula and we miss the Lord.

Don't let your religious habits inhibit the exciting new thing God wants to do. You'll never taste the gourmet menu if you limit God to the same old choices on His miracle menu.

Isaiah 34 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

(Has God spoken to you latelyif not click to listen to God’s teaching?)

Max Lucado Daily:All Things

“By Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.”
Colossians 1:16 NASB

What a phenomenal list! Heavens and earth. Visible and invisible. Thrones, dominions, rulers and authorities. No thing, place, or person omitted. The scale on the sea urchin. The hair on the elephant hide.

The hurricane that wrecks the coast, the rain that nourishes the desert, the infant’s first heartbeat, the elderly person’s final breath -– all can be traced back to the hand of Christ, the firstborn of creation.

Isaiah 34

Judgment Against the Nations

34 Come near, you nations, and listen;
    pay attention, you peoples!
Let the earth hear, and all that is in it,
    the world, and all that comes out of it!
2 The Lord is angry with all nations;
    his wrath is on all their armies.
He will totally destroy[a] them,
    he will give them over to slaughter.
3 Their slain will be thrown out,
    their dead bodies will stink;
    the mountains will be soaked with their blood.
4 All the stars in the sky will be dissolved
    and the heavens rolled up like a scroll;
all the starry host will fall
    like withered leaves from the vine,
    like shriveled figs from the fig tree.
5 My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens;
    see, it descends in judgment on Edom,
    the people I have totally destroyed.
6 The sword of the Lord is bathed in blood,
    it is covered with fat—
the blood of lambs and goats,
    fat from the kidneys of rams.
For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah
    and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 And the wild oxen will fall with them,
    the bull calves and the great bulls.
Their land will be drenched with blood,
    and the dust will be soaked with fat.
8 For the Lord has a day of vengeance,
    a year of retribution, to uphold Zion’s cause.
9 Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch,
    her dust into burning sulfur;
    her land will become blazing pitch!
10 It will not be quenched night or day;
    its smoke will rise forever.
From generation to generation it will lie desolate;
    no one will ever pass through it again.
11 The desert owl[b] and screech owl[c] will possess it;
    the great owl[d] and the raven will nest there.
God will stretch out over Edom
    the measuring line of chaos
    and the plumb line of desolation.
12 Her nobles will have nothing there to be called a kingdom,
    all her princes will vanish away.
13 Thorns will overrun her citadels,
    nettles and brambles her strongholds.
She will become a haunt for jackals,
    a home for owls.
14 Desert creatures will meet with hyenas,
    and wild goats will bleat to each other;
there the night creatures will also lie down
    and find for themselves places of rest.
15 The owl will nest there and lay eggs,
    she will hatch them, and care for her young
    under the shadow of her wings;
there also the falcons will gather,
    each with its mate.
16 Look in the scroll of the Lord and read:

None of these will be missing,
    not one will lack her mate.
For it is his mouth that has given the order,
    and his Spirit will gather them together.
17 He allots their portions;
    his hand distributes them by measure.
They will possess it forever
    and dwell there from generation to generation.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Mark 11:1-11

Jesus Comes to Jerusalem as King

11 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’”

4 They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, 5 some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” 6 They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. 7 When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. 8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. 9 Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,

“Hosanna![a]”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”[b]
10 “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
11 Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.

Let It Go

March 24, 2013 — by David C. Egner

Say, “The Lord has need of it,” and immediately he will send it here. —Mark 11:3

Many years ago, when a young friend asked if he could borrow our car, my wife and I were hesitant at first. It was our car. We owned it, and we depended on it. But we soon felt convicted to share it with him because we knew that God wanted us to care for others. So we handed the keys over to him, and he traveled to a church 30 miles away to conduct a youth rally. The meeting was used by the Lord to bring teens to Christ.

Jesus instructed His disciples to take another man’s donkey. The Son of God told His men to “loose it and bring it” to Him (Mark 11:2). If someone objected, they were to say, “The Lord has need of it,” and they would then be permitted to lead it away. That donkey carried Christ into Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday.

There’s a lesson here for us to consider. We all have things that we hold dear. We may have thought, I could never part with that. It may be a new truck, a coat, some other possession, or our precious few free hours during the week. Will we be open to give when someone obviously needs something we have?

If you sense that the Spirit is speaking to you, let your time or possession go, as the owner released his animal to Jesus. He will then be glorified as He deserves!

Make me a channel of blessing today,
Make me a channel of blessing, I pray;
My life possessing, my service blessing,
Make me a channel of blessing today. —Smyth
God gives us all we need, so we can give to others in their need.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 24, 2013

Decreasing for His Purpose

He must increase, but I must decrease —John 3:30

If you become a necessity to someone else’s life, you are out of God’s will. As a servant, your primary responsibility is to be a “friend of the bridegroom” (John 3:29). When you see a person who is close to grasping the claims of Jesus Christ, you know that your influence has been used in the right direction. And when you begin to see that person in the middle of a difficult and painful struggle, don’t try to prevent it, but pray that his difficulty will grow even ten times stronger, until no power on earth or in hell could hold him away from Jesus Christ. Over and over again, we try to be amateur providences in someone’s life. We are indeed amateurs, coming in and actually preventing God’s will and saying, “This person should not have to experience this difficulty.” Instead of being friends of the Bridegroom, our sympathy gets in the way. One day that person will say to us, “You are a thief; you stole my desire to follow Jesus, and because of you I lost sight of Him.”

Beware of rejoicing with someone over the wrong thing, but always look to rejoice over the right thing. “. . . the friend of the bridegroom . . . rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:29-30). This was spoken with joy, not with sadness-at last they were to see the Bridegroom! And John said this was his joy. It represents a stepping aside, an absolute removal of the servant, never to be thought of again.

Listen intently with your entire being until you hear the Bridegroom’s voice in the life of another person. And never give any thought to what devastation, difficulties, or sickness it will bring. Just rejoice with godly excitement that His voice has been heard. You may often have to watch Jesus Christ wreck a life before He saves it (see Matthew 10:34).

Romans 3 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

(Click to listen to God’s teaching)

Max Lucado Daily: Just for You

The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy.
Psalm 65:7-9

I’m about to tell you something that may stretch your imagination! You don’t have to agree. You don’t have to buy it. Just think about it!

If you were the only person on earth, the earth would look exactly the same. The Himalayas would still have their drama and the Caribbean would still have its charm. The sun would still nestle behind the Rockies in the evenings, and spray light on the desert in the mornings.

If you were the sole pilgrim on this globe, God would not diminish its beauty one degree. He’s waiting for you to stumble into the den, rub the sleep from your eyes, and see the bright red bike he assembled just for you!

He’s waiting for your eyes to pop and your heart to stop! In the silence he leans forward and whispers… “I did it just for you!”

Romans 3
New International Version (NIV)
God’s Faithfulness

3 What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? 2 Much in every way! First of all, the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God.

3 What if some were unfaithful? Will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? 4 Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written:

“So that you may be proved right when you speak
    and prevail when you judge.”[a]
5 But if our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.) 6 Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world? 7 Someone might argue, “If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?” 8 Why not say—as some slanderously claim that we say—“Let us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is just!

No One Is Righteous

9 What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. 10 As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;
11     there is no one who understands;
    there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away,
    they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
    not even one.”[b]
13 “Their throats are open graves;
    their tongues practice deceit.”[c]
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”[d]
14     “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”[e]
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16     ruin and misery mark their ways,
17 and the way of peace they do not know.”[f]
18     “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”[g]
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.

Righteousness Through Faith

21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in[h] Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement,[i] through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. 28 For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30 since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31 Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Hebrews 10:19-25

A Call to Persevere in Faith

19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Hope Is For . . .

March 23, 2013 — by Bill Crowder

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. —Hebrews 10:23

Although I try not to be shocked by the things I see these days, I was caught off-balance by the message on the woman’s T-shirt as she walked past me in the mall. The bold letters declared: “Hope Is For Suckers.” Certainly, being naïve or gullible can be foolish and dangerous. Disappointment and heartache can be the tragic offspring of unfounded optimism. But not allowing oneself to have hope is a sad and cynical way to view life.

Biblical hope is unique; it’s a confident trust in God and what He is doing in the world and in our lives. That’s something everyone needs! The writer to the Hebrews clearly stated the importance of hope when he wrote, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (Heb. 10:23).

Having biblical hope is not foolish, because it has a strong foundation. We hold fast to the hope we have received in Christ because our God is faithful. He can be trusted with anything and everything we will ever face—both for today and forever. Our hope is grounded in the trustworthy character of the God who loves us with an everlasting love. So, the T-shirt had it wrong. Hope is not for suckers; it’s for you and for me!

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name. —Mote
Hope that has its foundation in God will not crumble under the pressures of life.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 23, 2013

Am I Carnally Minded?

Where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal . . . ? —1 Corinthians 3:3

The natural man, or unbeliever, knows nothing about carnality. The desires of the flesh warring against the Spirit, and the Spirit warring against the flesh, which began at rebirth, are what produce carnality and the awareness of it. But Paul said, “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). In other words, carnality will disappear.

Are you quarrelsome and easily upset over small things? Do you think that no one who is a Christian is ever like that? Paul said they are, and he connected these attitudes with carnality. Is there a truth in the Bible that instantly awakens a spirit of malice or resentment in you? If so, that is proof that you are still carnal. If the process of sanctification is continuing in your life, there will be no trace of that kind of spirit remaining.

If the Spirit of God detects anything in you that is wrong, He doesn’t ask you to make it right; He only asks you to accept the light of truth, and then He will make it right. A child of the light will confess sin instantly and stand completely open before God. But a child of the darkness will say, “Oh, I can explain that.” When the light shines and the Spirit brings conviction of sin, be a child of the light. Confess your wrongdoing, and God will deal with it. If, however, you try to vindicate yourself, you prove yourself to be a child of the darkness.

What is the proof that carnality has gone? Never deceive yourself; when carnality is gone you will know it-it is the most real thing you can imagine. And God will see to it that you have a number of opportunities to prove to yourself the miracle of His grace. The proof is in a very practical test. You will find yourself saying, “If this had happened before, I would have had the spirit of resentment!” And you will never cease to be the most amazed person on earth at what God has done for you on the inside.

Isaiah 33 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

(Has God spoken to you lately if not click to listen to God's teaching?)

Max Lucado Daily: Get Ready for a Surprise

Have you got God figured out? Get ready, you may be in for a surprise. Hear the rocks meant for the body of the adulterous woman drop to the ground. Listen as Jesus invites a death-row convict to ride with Him to the Kingdom in the front seat of the limo. Listen as the Messiah whispers to the Samaritan woman, “I who speak to you am He.” And listen to the surprise as Mary’s name is spoken by a man she had buried.

God appearing in the strangest of places. Doing the strangest of things. Stretching smiles where there had hung only frowns. Hanging a bright star in a dark sky. Many more knees will bow. And many more seekers will celebrate.

“For no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him!” (1 Corinthians 2:9)

from Six Hours One Friday

Isaiah 33

Distress and Help

33 Woe to you, destroyer,
    you who have not been destroyed!
Woe to you, betrayer,
    you who have not been betrayed!
When you stop destroying,
    you will be destroyed;
when you stop betraying,
    you will be betrayed.
2 Lord, be gracious to us;
    we long for you.
Be our strength every morning,
    our salvation in time of distress.
3 At the uproar of your army, the peoples flee;
    when you rise up, the nations scatter.
4 Your plunder, O nations, is harvested as by young locusts;
    like a swarm of locusts people pounce on it.
5 The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high;
    he will fill Zion with his justice and righteousness.
6 He will be the sure foundation for your times,
    a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge;
    the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.[a]
7 Look, their brave men cry aloud in the streets;
    the envoys of peace weep bitterly.
8 The highways are deserted,
    no travelers are on the roads.
The treaty is broken,
    its witnesses[b] are despised,
    no one is respected.
9 The land dries up and wastes away,
    Lebanon is ashamed and withers;
Sharon is like the Arabah,
    and Bashan and Carmel drop their leaves.
10 “Now will I arise,” says the Lord.
    “Now will I be exalted;
    now will I be lifted up.
11 You conceive chaff,
    you give birth to straw;
    your breath is a fire that consumes you.
12 The peoples will be burned to ashes;
    like cut thornbushes they will be set ablaze.”
13 You who are far away, hear what I have done;
    you who are near, acknowledge my power!
14 The sinners in Zion are terrified;
    trembling grips the godless:
“Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire?
    Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?”
15 Those who walk righteously
    and speak what is right,
who reject gain from extortion
    and keep their hands from accepting bribes,
who stop their ears against plots of murder
    and shut their eyes against contemplating evil—
16 they are the ones who will dwell on the heights,
    whose refuge will be the mountain fortress.
Their bread will be supplied,
    and water will not fail them.
17 Your eyes will see the king in his beauty
    and view a land that stretches afar.
18 In your thoughts you will ponder the former terror:
    “Where is that chief officer?
Where is the one who took the revenue?
    Where is the officer in charge of the towers?”
19 You will see those arrogant people no more,
    people whose speech is obscure,
    whose language is strange and incomprehensible.
20 Look on Zion, the city of our festivals;
    your eyes will see Jerusalem,
    a peaceful abode, a tent that will not be moved;
its stakes will never be pulled up,
    nor any of its ropes broken.
21 There the Lord will be our Mighty One.
    It will be like a place of broad rivers and streams.
No galley with oars will ride them,
    no mighty ship will sail them.
22 For the Lord is our judge,
    the Lord is our lawgiver,
the Lord is our king;
    it is he who will save us.
23 Your rigging hangs loose:
    The mast is not held secure,
    the sail is not spread.
Then an abundance of spoils will be divided
    and even the lame will carry off plunder.
24 No one living in Zion will say, “I am ill”;
    and the sins of those who dwell there will be forgiven.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

English Standard Version (ESV)
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control,[a] lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

Going For The Prize

March 22, 2013 — by Dennis Fisher

Everyone who competes for the prize . . . [does] it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. —1 Corinthians 9:25

Every March, the Iditarod Trail Race is held in Alaska. Sled dogs and their drivers, called “mushers,” race across a 1,049-mile route from Anchorage to Nome. The competing teams cover this great distance in anywhere from 8 to 15 days. In 2011, a record time was set by musher John Baker who covered the entire route in 8 days, 19 hours, 46 minutes, and 39 seconds. The teamwork between dogs and driver is remarkable, and those who compete are tenacious in their efforts to win. The first-place winner receives a cash prize and a new pickup truck. But after so much perseverance in extreme weather conditions, the accolades and prizes may seem insignificant and transient.

The excitement of a race was a familiar concept to the apostle Paul, but he used competition to illustrate something eternal. He wrote, “Everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown” (1 Cor. 9:25).

Sometimes we are tempted to place our emphasis on temporal rewards, which perish with the passing of time. The Scriptures, however, encourage us to focus on something more permanent. We honor God by seeking spiritual impact that will be rewarded in eternity.

Here we labor, here we pray,
Here we wrestle night and day;
There we lay our burdens down,
There we wear the victor’s crown. —Anon.
Run the race with eternity in view.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 22, 2013

The Burning Heart

Did not our heart burn within us . . . ? —Luke 24:32

We need to learn this secret of the burning heart. Suddenly Jesus appears to us, fires are set ablaze, and we are given wonderful visions; but then we must learn to maintain the secret of the burning heart— a heart that can go through anything. It is the simple, dreary day, with its commonplace duties and people, that smothers the burning heart— unless we have learned the secret of abiding in Jesus.

Much of the distress we experience as Christians comes not as the result of sin, but because we are ignorant of the laws of our own nature. For instance, the only test we should use to determine whether or not to allow a particular emotion to run its course in our lives is to examine what the final outcome of that emotion will be. Think it through to its logical conclusion, and if the outcome is something that God would condemn, put a stop to it immediately. But if it is an emotion that has been kindled by the Spirit of God and you don’t allow it to have its way in your life, it will cause a reaction on a lower level than God intended. That is the way unrealistic and overly emotional people are made. And the higher the emotion, the deeper the level of corruption, if it is not exercised on its intended level. If the Spirit of God has stirred you, make as many of your decisions as possible irrevocable, and let the consequences be what they will. We cannot stay forever on the “mount of transfiguration,” basking in the light of our mountaintop experience (see Mark 9:1-9). But we must obey the light we received there; we must put it into action. When God gives us a vision, we must transact business with Him at that point, no matter what the cost.

We cannot kindle when we will The fire which in the heart resides, The spirit bloweth and is still, In mystery our soul abides; But tasks in hours of insight willed Can be through hours of gloom fulfilled.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

The Job Description For a Jesus Follower - #6835

Friday, March 22, 2013

The basis of a good working relationship is a clear job description. All of the good management people will tell you that. When you take a job, you should be able to get an answer to the question, "So what do you expect me to do?" When you're in college, they give you this syllabus with all that's going to be expected of you. Here's when the papers are due, here's all the reading you have to do. And even though it's a little overwhelming, it is sort of a job description for a college student. Here's what we're going to expect of you. When you go to football practice and you work on the plays, the coach lets you know that we're in this situation, this is your job; this is where you're supposed to be. That's your job description.

Now, knowing what you are supposed to do is vital when it comes to being employed. You're going to have the best working relationship when your employer has written your job description very clearly. One guy said, "I found out what my job description was the day I was fired." "Okay, that's what I was supposed to be doing, huh? I see!" Well, a lot of people carry out their most important assignment without ever consulting their job description.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Job Description For a Jesus Follower."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Mark 3. I'm going to begin reading at verse 13. "Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to Him those He wanted and they came to Him. He appointed twelve, designating them apostles..." Now, stand by; here comes the job description. Three responsibilities: "...that they might be with Him, that He might send them out to preach, and to have authority to drive out demons." I think this job description really applies to anyone who really wants to follow Jesus closely as a modern day disciple. If you want to be the kind of person whom God can use, well this is kind of the job description.

Notice the first part. Isn't that a surprising first thing to do? "All right, guys, your first job is: Be with Me. Not to do anything. Spend time with Me." That's your first responsibility, to be with Jesus. You get in the huddle as a football player before you make any plays. You get in the huddle with your Lord, Jesus Christ, on a daily basis before you head out to the field. That's where the power comes from. You fill up with Jesus before you head into your responsibilities. That sums up your number one priority for this job, "Be with Me" Jesus said. "I chose you to be with Me."

Then He says, "I want you to go and tell. I want you to go and preach." That's the second responsibility you and I have: To leave the safety of our little Christian cocoon and then literally go and tell people verbally, not just with our lives, but verbally tell them what happened on that middle cross was for them. Tell them what He told you when you were with Him.

And then the third responsibility it talks about is exercising authority over the devil. So the third part is to push back the darkness. Jesus said, "I am in the business of reclaiming lives and pushing back the darkness, and I want you with the way you live to do the same thing." There are people you know, lives that Satan has. Go in Jesus' power. Bring Christ into every situation and push back the darkness, and challenge Him for lives he now controls.

The job description for us as followers of Christ isn't rules, or meetings, or offices to hold, or activities. It's three exciting lifetime assignments: Be with Jesus, go and tell, and push back the darkness. If you're doing those, you're doing the job and your Master is ready to say these precious words to you, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

Isaiah 32 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

(Has God spoken to you lately if not click to listen to God's teaching?)

Max Lucado Daily: The Father’s Outstretched Arms

The prodigal son. Going home a changed man.  No longer demanding he get what he deserved, but willing to take whatever he could get. How many years had it been? As the boy came around the bend that led to his house, he rehearsed his speech one more time. He turned to open the gate, but the father already had.

“Father I have sinned,” he said. (Luke 15:21).  The two wept.  Words were unnecessary.  Forgiveness had been given.

If there’s a scene that deserves to be framed, it’s the one of the Father’s outstretched hands. His hands call us home. Imagine those hands.  Stretching open like a wide gate, leaving entrance as the only option. He forced His arms so wide apart that it hurt. And to prove that those arms would never fold and those hands would never close, He had them nailed open.

from Six Hours One Friday

Isaiah 32

The Kingdom of Righteousness

32 See, a king will reign in righteousness
    and rulers will rule with justice.
2 Each one will be like a shelter from the wind
    and a refuge from the storm,
like streams of water in the desert
    and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.
3 Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed,
    and the ears of those who hear will listen.
4 The fearful heart will know and understand,
    and the stammering tongue will be fluent and clear.
5 No longer will the fool be called noble
    nor the scoundrel be highly respected.
6 For fools speak folly,
    their hearts are bent on evil:
They practice ungodliness
    and spread error concerning the Lord;
the hungry they leave empty
    and from the thirsty they withhold water.
7 Scoundrels use wicked methods,
    they make up evil schemes
to destroy the poor with lies,
    even when the plea of the needy is just.
8 But the noble make noble plans,
    and by noble deeds they stand.
The Women of Jerusalem

9 You women who are so complacent,
    rise up and listen to me;
you daughters who feel secure,
    hear what I have to say!
10 In little more than a year
    you who feel secure will tremble;
the grape harvest will fail,
    and the harvest of fruit will not come.
11 Tremble, you complacent women;
    shudder, you daughters who feel secure!
Strip off your fine clothes
    and wrap yourselves in rags.
12 Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields,
    for the fruitful vines
13 and for the land of my people,
    a land overgrown with thorns and briers—
yes, mourn for all houses of merriment
    and for this city of revelry.
14 The fortress will be abandoned,
    the noisy city deserted;
citadel and watchtower will become a wasteland forever,
    the delight of donkeys, a pasture for flocks,
15 till the Spirit is poured on us from on high,
    and the desert becomes a fertile field,
    and the fertile field seems like a forest.
16 The Lord’s justice will dwell in the desert,
    his righteousness live in the fertile field.
17 The fruit of that righteousness will be peace;
    its effect will be quietness and confidence forever.
18 My people will live in peaceful dwelling places,
    in secure homes,
    in undisturbed places of rest.
19 Though hail flattens the forest
    and the city is leveled completely,
20 how blessed you will be,
    sowing your seed by every stream,
    and letting your cattle and donkeys range free.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: 1 Peter 4:1-8

English Standard Version (ESV)
Stewards of God's Grace

4 Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh,[a] arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. 3 For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. 4 With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; 5 but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. 8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

Make It Count

March 21, 2013 — by Marvin Williams

Since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind. —1 Peter 4:1

In his battle with cancer, Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Inc., said: “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything—all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure—these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.” His suffering influenced the choices he made.

In contrast, the apostle Peter wanted to motivate his readers to use their suffering to make their lives count for eternity. And he wanted Jesus’ suffering and death to inspire them to accept the spiritual conflict and persecution that would result from bearing the name of Jesus. Because they loved Jesus, suffering was going to be normative. Jesus’ suffering was to serve as motivation to give up sinful passions and to be obedient to the will of God (1 Peter 4:1-2). If their lives were going to count for eternity, they needed to stop indulging in fleeting pleasures and instead exhaust their lives on what pleased God.

Remembering that Jesus suffered and died to forgive our sins is the most important thought we have to inspire us to make godly choices today and to make our lives count for eternity.

Jesus, You have suffered and died to forgive our sin;
may Your death and resurrection inspire us to never
return to where we’ve been. Help us in our resolve
to live for Your will alone.
Jesus’ death forgave my past sins and inspires my present obedience.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 21, 2013

Identified or Simply Interested?

I have been crucified with Christ . . . —Galatians 2:20

The inescapable spiritual need each of us has is the need to sign the death certificate of our sin nature. I must take my emotional opinions and intellectual beliefs and be willing to turn them into a moral verdict against the nature of sin; that is, against any claim I have to my right to myself. Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ . . . .” He did not say, “I have made a determination to imitate Jesus Christ,” or, “I will really make an effort to follow Him”-but-”I have been identified with Him in His death.” Once I reach this moral decision and act on it, all that Christ accomplished for me on the Cross is accomplished in me. My unrestrained commitment of myself to God gives the Holy Spirit the opportunity to grant to me the holiness of Jesus Christ.

“. . . it is no longer I who live . . . .” My individuality remains, but my primary motivation for living and the nature that rules me are radically changed. I have the same human body, but the old satanic right to myself has been destroyed.

“. . . and the life which I now live in the flesh,” not the life which I long to live or even pray that I live, but the life I now live in my mortal flesh-the life which others can see, “I live by faith in the Son of God . . . .” This faith was not Paul’s own faith in Jesus Christ, but the faith the Son God had given to him (see Ephesians 2:8). It is no longer a faith in faith, but a faith that transcends all imaginable limits-a faith that comes only from the Son of God.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Fine China - Not Paper Plates at Your House - #6834

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Oh, we have different kinds of meals at our house - 'paper plate' meals. Do you have those? You know, pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs - if you want to be more frank. And then we have the 'fine china meals'. We don't have too many of those, but on some special occasions we break out the fine china. We don't break the fine china; we break out the fine china. Now, it's very different the way we treat those two kinds of plates when we're finished eating. For example, when we have paper plates, we don't wash them after we're done. That probably doesn't come as a great surprise to you. We don't put them in a nice careful place to keep them there. In fact, we just kind of wad them up and throw them away because they're disposable. You don't wash those. No big deal!

Now, I'm sure you won't be surprised when I tell you what we do with our china plates. We do wash those. In fact, we put them back in a special place where they are stored until another special occasion. You'd better not drop them or you might be out of the family. I think we know it's fine china because my wife took something and wrote on the back "Fine China". But it's kind of nice, and we reserve that fine china for special uses. Paper? You throw that away because you know it's not worth much. So many people I know feel as if they are paper plates and they're throwing themselves away.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Fine China - Not Paper Plates at Your House."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Ephesians 4:29. It's a great family verse here: "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs that it may benefit those who listen." This verse talks about two kinds of talk. There's the talk that tears people down, and there's the talk that builds people up.

There's been some recent social research that shows for every negative comment we get in our lives, we need seven positives to bring us back to zero. Is that pretty much the ratio at your house between you and your children; you and your husband or wife? So, I give you seven praises for every one criticism; seven positives for every one negative. Well, I don't know that we have to be legalistic about the ratio, but the point is God says here, "Don't let any tear-down talk come out of your mouth, but only what builds people up.

So, how is the praise ratio at your house? As parents it's up to us to communicate to our children that they are fine china, uniquely created, that they have valuable gifts in their life that they have to give, and they can't throw themselves away. See, we do that by building them up.

Too many kids I know feel like paper plates. They've been criticized so much, they've been told what's wrong with them, what needs improving, but not what's right with them. They're never told the strengths that they have. We parents tend to focus on what's weak instead of what's strong, because we figure that's what they need to work on. But, you know, they need to hear from us over and over again the great strengths that God has put into them. They hear what's wrong with them all day long in school, "It is cool to be cruel." So they need your praise; they need your compliments. Not for our glory, but it glorifies the Creator who creates only masterpieces.

Think about what's coming out of your mouth, and whether it's more build-up talk or tear-down talk. What's the ratio between the two? Check up on the kind of talk that's going on at your house, especially that's coming from you. You're building either paper plates or fine china. Tell the people you love what's good about them. They will be a lot more likely to say no to what's cheap and to stay reserved for the things that really matter.

Romans 2 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

(Has God spoken to you lately if not click to listen to God's teaching?)

Max Lucado Daily: Jesus Unties the Knots

“We found this woman in bed with a man!  The law says to stone her.  What do you say Teacher?”

In her despair she looks at the Teacher.  His eyes don’t glare.  “Don’t worry,” they whisper, “it’s okay.”  Her feet were bare and muddy. Her heart ragged, torn as much by her own guilt as by the mob’s anger.  So, with the tenderness only a father can have, Jesus begins to untie the knots and repair the holes.

The woman’s accusers question, “Tell us teacher!  What do you want us to do with her?” Jesus just raised His head and offered an invitation. “I guess if you’ve never made a mistake, then you have a right to stone this woman.”

Silence. Then thud. . .thud. . .rocks fell to the ground. The crowd walked away.  Jesus said, “Go, sin no more!”  (John 8:11). Jesus saw her not as she was, but as she was intended to be.

from Six Hours One Friday

Romans 2
New International Version (NIV)
God’s Righteous Judgment

2 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. 2 Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. 3 So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? 4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God “will repay each person according to what they have done.”[a] 7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10 but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 11 For God does not show favoritism.

12 All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. 14 (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.) 16 This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

The Jews and the Law

17 Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God; 18 if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; 19 if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— 21 you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? 22 You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? 24 As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”[b]

25 Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised. 26 So then, if those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? 27 The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the[c] written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker.

28 A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. 29 No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Matthew 5:38-48

English Standard Version (ESV)
Retaliation

38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic,[a] let him have your cloak as well. 41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.

Love Your Enemies

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers,[b] what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Thoughts On Rain

March 20, 2013 — by Julie Ackerman Link

He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. —Matthew 5:45

When torrential downpours beat on the heads of my newly planted petunias, I felt bad for them. I wanted to bring them inside to shelter them from the storm. By the time the rain stopped, their little faces were bowed to the ground from the weight of the water. They looked sad and weak. Within a few hours, however, they perked up and turned their heads skyward. By the next day, they were standing straight and strong.

What a transformation! After pounding them on the head, the rain dripped from their leaves, soaked into the soil, and came up through their stalks, giving them the strength to stand straight.

Because I prefer sunshine, I get annoyed when rain spoils my outdoor plans. I sometimes wrongly think of rain as something negative. But anyone who has experienced drought knows that rain is a blessing. It nourishes the earth for the benefit of both the just and the unjust (Matt. 5:45).

Even when the storms of life hit so hard that we nearly break from the force, the “rain” is not an enemy. Our loving God has allowed it to make us stronger. He uses the water that batters us on the outside to build us up on the inside, so we may stand straight and strong.

Lord, we know that we don’t need to fear the storms
of life. Because You are good, we can trust You
to use even our hard times to build our faith in You.
We lean on You now.
The storms that threaten to destroy us God will use to strengthen us.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 20, 2013

Friendship with God

Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing . . . ? —Genesis 18:17

The Delights of His Friendship. Genesis 18 brings out the delight of true friendship with God, as compared with simply feeling His presence occasionally in prayer. This friendship means being so intimately in touch with God that you never even need to ask Him to show you His will. It is evidence of a level of intimacy which confirms that you are nearing the final stage of your discipline in the life of faith. When you have a right-standing relationship with God, you have a life of freedom, liberty, and delight; you are God’s will. And all of your commonsense decisions are actually His will for you, unless you sense a feeling of restraint brought on by a check in your spirit. You are free to make decisions in the light of a perfect and delightful friendship with God, knowing that if your decisions are wrong He will lovingly produce that sense of restraint. Once he does, you must stop immediately.

The Difficulties of His Friendship. Why did Abraham stop praying when he did? He stopped because he still was lacking the level of intimacy in his relationship with God, which would enable him boldly to continue on with the Lord in prayer until his desire was granted. Whenever we stop short of our true desire in prayer and say, “Well, I don’t know, maybe this is not God’s will,” then we still have another level to go. It shows that we are not as intimately acquainted with God as Jesus was, and as Jesus would have us to be— “. . . that they may be one just as We are one . . .” (John 17:22). Think of the last thing you prayed about-were you devoted to your desire or to God? Was your determination to get some gift of the Spirit for yourself or to get to God? “For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him” (Matthew 6:8). The reason for asking is so you may get to know God better. “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). We should keep praying to get a perfect understanding of God Himself.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Snowballs...or Avalanches - #6833

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Honestly, snowball fights have always been a mismatch in our family. When our boys were little, they didn't stand a chance. Then they got bigger than I am; now I don't stand a chance. Actually, snowballs are fun unless you get too many of them. If you put thousands of snowballs together and roll them down a mountain, you've got an avalanche. That's not fun.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Snowballs...or Avalanches."

Our word for today from the Word of God is in Matthew chapter 6, and I'm going to begin reading at verse 33. It's familiar territory. "But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Jesus is giving some very practical advice here about how to handle life's burdens. He says, "Take your troubles in 24-hour chunks." Just the other day, I was trying to do it the way most of us do it a lot of the time. I found myself adding up all my responsibilities, all the deadlines, all the pressures of the next 30 days, looking at this monster To Do List, and I said, "There is no way I can get all this done! I can't meet all these expectations. I can't begin to address all these problems." I started to panic, and that usually leads to paralysis. It was going to be the Mission Impossible month. Well, you know, I'm running in panic because I see an avalanche. But the fact was I didn't have to do those 30 days on that day that I was doing all the worrying about all those days. I could only do one day that day.

That's what Jesus is saying, "Don't try to do tomorrow today; carry tomorrow's load today. Don't do that! You carry each day's load on a daily basis," because the Bible says that that's how you "take up your cross" daily. All I had to do was to have one good day. Make as much progress as possible, and then trust God for the undone to crown Him

Lord of the undone. You trust God that He will take 30 days like that, bless it, multiply it, and make up the difference for your inadequacies, and some of those problems solve before you get to them. Miraculously make the time you have enough. That's happened to me more times than I can count, and I have to keep learning this lesson over and over again. Even telling you about it helps me to hear it again.

Today is a snowball. You can handle a snowball coming at you. It's just that when you put many of those snowballs together and try to deal with them all at once, you're going to be trying to deal with an avalanche. That's not how God made you. He gives us strength for one day at a time. I know that from Deuteronomy 33:25. It says, "He will give you strength equal to your day." And there's a wonderful promise in the book of Zephaniah that says, "Every new day He does not fail." Maybe you're being paralyzed right now by all the "might's" and the "could's" and the "what if's". You're trying to handle a week, or a month, or a year today and you're melting down.

Relax! In God's word He promised that He will make sure that all these things will be given to you as well. He's in that process. He's already out there in the future getting it ready. Don't you try to deal with it. You work on today's snowball, and then you won't have to be buried in an avalanche.

Isaiah 31 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

(Has God spoken to you lately if not click to listen to God's teaching?)

Max Lucado Daily: Good Luck Charm

For some, Jesus is a good luck charm. The “Rabbit’s Foot” Redeemer. Pocket sized. Handy. His specialty?  Getting you out of a jam. Need a parking place?  Need help on a quiz?  Pull out the rabbit’s foot.  No need to have a relationship with Him.  No need to love Him.  New jobs. New and improved spouses. Your wish is His command. Few demands, no challenges.  No need for sacrifice. No need for commitment.

That’s not the Redeemer of the New Testament. When the disciples were in the storm, He rescued them. When the multitudes were hungry, He fed them. Prayer, service, and instruction all mattered to His ministry but they fell short of a higher call.

“The Son of Man” scripture says, “came to serve others and give His life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28)  The Son of Man came to find lost people and save them!  Rabbit charm…hardly. Savior…absolutely!

from Six Hours One Friday

Isaiah 31

Woe to Those Who Rely on Egypt

31 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help,
    who rely on horses,
who trust in the multitude of their chariots
    and in the great strength of their horsemen,
but do not look to the Holy One of Israel,
    or seek help from the Lord.
2 Yet he too is wise and can bring disaster;
    he does not take back his words.
He will rise up against that wicked nation,
    against those who help evildoers.
3 But the Egyptians are mere mortals and not God;
    their horses are flesh and not spirit.
When the Lord stretches out his hand,
    those who help will stumble,
    those who are helped will fall;
    all will perish together.
4 This is what the Lord says to me:

“As a lion growls,
    a great lion over its prey—
and though a whole band of shepherds
    is called together against it,
it is not frightened by their shouts
    or disturbed by their clamor—
so the Lord Almighty will come down
    to do battle on Mount Zion and on its heights.
5 Like birds hovering overhead,
    the Lord Almighty will shield Jerusalem;
he will shield it and deliver it,
    he will ‘pass over’ it and will rescue it.”
6 Return, you Israelites, to the One you have so greatly revolted against. 7 For in that day every one of you will reject the idols of silver and gold your sinful hands have made.

8 “Assyria will fall by no human sword;
    a sword, not of mortals, will devour them.
They will flee before the sword
    and their young men will be put to forced labor.
9 Their stronghold will fall because of terror;
    at the sight of the battle standard their commanders will panic,”
declares the Lord,
    whose fire is in Zion,
    whose furnace is in Jerusalem.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: 1 Chronicles 28:5-10

English Standard Version (ESV)
5 And of all my sons (for the Lord has given me many sons) he has chosen Solomon my son to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. 6 He said to me, ‘It is Solomon your son who shall build my house and my courts, for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father. 7 I will establish his kingdom forever if he continues strong in keeping my commandments and my rules, as he is today.’ 8 Now therefore in the sight of all Israel, the assembly of the Lord, and in the hearing of our God, observe and seek out all the commandments of the Lord your God, that you may possess this good land and leave it for an inheritance to your children after you forever.

David's Charge to Solomon

9 “And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever. 10 Be careful now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary; be strong and do it.”

First Things First

March 19, 2013 — by David H. Roper

Know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind. —1 Chronicles 28:9

When our granddaughter Sarah was very young, she told us she wanted to be a basketball coach like her daddy when she grew up. But she couldn’t be one yet, she said, because first she had to be a player; and a player has to be able to tie her shoelaces, and she couldn’t tie hers yet!

First things first, we say. And the first thing in all of life is to know God and enjoy Him.

Acknowledging and knowing God helps us to become what we were meant to be. Here is King David’s counsel to his son Solomon: “Know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind” (1 Chron. 28:9).

Remember, God can be known. He is a Person, not a logical or theological concept. He thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, and desires as any person does. A. W. Tozer writes, “He is a person and can be known in increasing degrees of intimacy as we prepare our hearts for the wonder of it.” Ah, there’s the rub: We must “prepare our hearts.”

The Lord is not playing hard to know; those who want to know Him can. He will not foist His love on us, but He does wait patiently, for He wants to be known by you. Knowing Him is the first thing in life.

He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joys we share as we tarry there
None other has ever known.
—C. Austin Miles © Renewal 1940. The Rodeheaver Company
The thought of God staggers the mind but to know Him satisfies the heart.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 19, 2013

Abraham’s Life of Faith

He went out, not knowing where he was going —Hebrews 11:8

In the Old Testament, a person’s relationship with God was seen by the degree of separation in that person’s life. This separation is exhibited in the life of Abraham by his separation from his country and his family. When we think of separation today, we do not mean to be literally separated from those family members who do not have a personal relationship with God, but to be separated mentally and morally from their viewpoints. This is what Jesus Christ was referring to in Luke 14:26.

Living a life of faith means never knowing where you are being led. But it does mean loving and knowing the One who is leading. It is literally a life of faith, not of understanding and reason—a life of knowing Him who calls us to go. Faith is rooted in the knowledge of a Person, and one of the biggest traps we fall into is the belief that if we have faith, God will surely lead us to success in the world.

The final stage in the life of faith is the attainment of character, and we encounter many changes in the process. We feel the presence of God around us when we pray, yet we are only momentarily changed. We tend to keep going back to our everyday ways and the glory vanishes. A life of faith is not a life of one glorious mountaintop experience after another, like soaring on eagles’ wings, but is a life of day—in and day—out consistency; a life of walking without fainting (see Isaiah 40:31). It is not even a question of the holiness of sanctification, but of something which comes much farther down the road. It is a faith that has been tried and proved and has withstood the test. Abraham is not a type or an example of the holiness of sanctification, but a type of the life of faith—a faith, tested and true, built on the true God. “Abraham believed God. . .” (Romans 4:3).


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Someone Else Shuts the Door - #6832

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

It might actually be an unwritten rule of flying commercially. The person who has the window seat in a row always seems to get there last. It's just got to be a rule; seems to always happen. It happened one day to me. I was lucky enough to be in the center seat. There was someone to my left sitting on the aisle seat, and we were all buckled in because they were about to close the door and begin the flight. I said, "All right! I'm going to get an empty seat next to me." No!

All of a sudden, huffing and puffing down the aisle comes a man who I would say didn't sit in his seat. He more collapsed into his seat, and I said, "Oh, it was a close call." And he said, "Oh, I already missed one." And I said, "Tell me the story." He said, "Well, the plane was there and I thought, 'I'm going to make it' as I ran through the airport. And I made it, but they'd just closed the door on the passageway out to the plane - the jet way." He got there and the agent said, "You know what? I think we can still make it." She opened the door and he said, "Wouldn't you know, just at that minute the plane just started to inch away. The jetway was just pulling in." He said, "I almost literally had one foot on the jetway, but I was a split second too late." Well, he missed his chance. It was close, but he missed it. I'm afraid you will.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Someone Else Shuts the Door."

Our word for today from the Word of God is in Genesis chapter 7; it's the familiar story of Noah. It says in verse 7, "Noah and his sons and his wife and his son's wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood." Verse 10 says, "After seven days the flood waters came on the earth." And we know that all of mankind was destroyed. But up until that time, for many, many years there had been opportunities to avoid that coming judgment. All you had to do was get into the ark.

Verse 16 says these sobering words, "Then the Lord shut him in." God shut the door on the place where they could avoid the judgment. This is more than ancient history we're

looking at here. This is an eternally important picture of someone who's listening today - maybe you. God offers to each of us a way to escape the judgment for our sin that we deserve. It's a penalty, though, that Christ took; a death penalty that He took on the cross. He's the ark.

There's an ark available to all of us sinners. Now, how do you get in? You go to the cross where Jesus died and you say, "Jesus, for me. I believe You died for me. Like those people who got into the ark, this is my only hope of safety from God's judgment. Not my religion, not my good works; nothing else will do it." But see, you can only come as long as God leaves the door open.

In John 6, Jesus said, "No one can come to Me unless the Father draws him." You won't come to Christ; you can't unless God's Spirit wakes you up inside, pulls you toward Jesus, and gives you the faith to do it. Haven't you experienced that tug? What have you done with it? Postponed dealing with it, pretended you have, played along, agreed? Agreement isn't commitment.

Once again today, through this broadcast, He's stirring you. Some time will be the last time, and then the door is closed. It isn't smart to procrastinate when eternity is at stake. I know a man who very much wanted to be on an airplane, who went to the destination he wanted, but he went to the door too late. For him there was another flight, but if God shuts the door of grace because you've refused to respond, there's not another flight. Your only hope is gone.

Today if you want to begin a relationship with Jesus Christ, I want to invite you to join me at a website called YoursForLife.net. There you will find in simple terms how you can be sure you have been forgiven of your sins, you'll go to heaven when you die, and you have begun your relationship with God.

Today the door is open! God paid with the blood of His Son for you to go to heaven, but you've got to come while He's calling. You can meet Jesus at His cross today. He's been waiting for you there.