Max Lucado Daily: HEAVEN’S HELPERS
Have your prayers been met with a silent sky? Have you prayed and heard nothing? If so, don’t give up! Are you floundering in the land between an offered and an answered prayer?
What the angel said to Daniel, God says to you: “Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard” (Daniel 10:12 NIV). You have been heard in heaven. Reinforcements have been rallied. God promises in Isaiah 49:25, “I will contend with him who contends with you.” Do what Daniel did, and remain before the Lord.
The Scripture promises, “Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not be weary,
They will walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).
“He God has put his angels in charge of you to watch over you wherever you go” (Psalm 91:11 NCV).
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Job 5
Don’t Blame Fate When Things Go Wrong
1-7 “Call for help, Job, if you think anyone will answer!
To which of the holy angels will you turn?
The hot temper of a fool eventually kills him,
the jealous anger of a simpleton does her in.
I’ve seen it myself—seen fools putting down roots,
and then, suddenly, their houses are cursed.
Their children out in the cold, abused and exploited,
with no one to stick up for them.
Hungry people off the street plunder their harvests,
cleaning them out completely, taking thorns and all,
insatiable for everything they have.
Don’t blame fate when things go wrong—
trouble doesn’t come from nowhere.
It’s human! Mortals are born and bred for trouble,
as certainly as sparks fly upward.
What a Blessing When God Corrects You!
8-16 “If I were in your shoes, I’d go straight to God,
I’d throw myself on the mercy of God.
After all, he’s famous for great and unexpected acts;
there’s no end to his surprises.
He gives rain, for instance, across the wide earth,
sends water to irrigate the fields.
He raises up the down-and-out,
gives firm footing to those sinking in grief.
He aborts the schemes of conniving crooks,
so that none of their plots come to term.
He catches the know-it-alls in their conspiracies—
all that intricate intrigue swept out with the trash!
Suddenly they’re disoriented, plunged into darkness;
they can’t see to put one foot in front of the other.
But the downtrodden are saved by God,
saved from the murderous plots, saved from the iron fist.
And so the poor continue to hope,
while injustice is bound and gagged.
17-19 “So, what a blessing when God steps in and corrects you!
Mind you, don’t despise the discipline of Almighty God!
True, he wounds, but he also dresses the wound;
the same hand that hurts you, heals you.
From one disaster after another he delivers you;
no matter what the calamity, the evil can’t touch you—
20-26 “In famine, he’ll keep you from starving,
in war, from being gutted by the sword.
You’ll be protected from vicious gossip
and live fearless through any catastrophe.
You’ll shrug off disaster and famine,
and stroll fearlessly among wild animals.
You’ll be on good terms with rocks and mountains;
wild animals will become your good friends.
You’ll know that your place on earth is safe,
you’ll look over your goods and find nothing amiss.
You’ll see your children grow up,
your family lovely and lissome as orchard grass.
You’ll arrive at your grave ripe with many good years,
like sheaves of golden grain at harvest.
27 “Yes, this is the way things are—my word of honor!
Take it to heart and you won’t go wrong.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Read: Matthew 25:31–40
The Sheep and the Goats
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
INSIGHT
Matthew 25:31–40 is a powerful reminder of Jesus’s care for those who are hurting. In fact, since the “least of these” (v. 40) in Matthew consistently refers to followers of Jesus (see 10:42; 18:6), the passage implies we are likely to find true believers in Jesus in circumstances of great suffering. Those who are not in such suffering are judged on their willingness to serve and join with those who are. When they do, they encounter Jesus Himself (v. 40).
When have you most strongly experienced the presence of Jesus through being with someone who was suffering? -Monica Brands
Jesus in Disguise
By Amy Boucher Pye |
Whatever you did for one of the least of these . . . you did for me. Matthew 25:40
When a friend cared for her housebound mother-in-law, she asked her what she longed for the most. Her mother-in-law said, “For my feet to be washed.” My friend admitted, “How I hated that job! Each time she asked me to do it I was resentful, and would ask God to hide my feelings from her.”
But one day her grumbling attitude changed in a flash. As she got out the bowl and towel and knelt at her mother-in-law’s feet, she said, “I looked up, and for a moment I felt like I was washing the feet of Jesus Himself. She was Jesus in disguise!” After that, she felt honored to wash her mother-in-law’s feet.
Jesus, help me to love others in Your name.
When I heard this moving account, I thought of Jesus’s story about the end of time that He taught on the slopes of the Mount of Olives. The King welcomes into His kingdom His sons and daughters, saying that when they visited the sick or fed the hungry, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matt. 25:40). We too serve Jesus Himself when we visit those in prison or give clothes to the needy.
Today, might you echo my friend, who now wonders when she meets someone new, “Are you Jesus in disguise?”
Lord Jesus Christ, You can transform the most mundane of tasks. Help me to love others in Your name.
When we serve others, we serve Jesus.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
The Proper Perspective
Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ… —2 Corinthians 2:14
The proper perspective of a servant of God must not simply be as near to the highest as he can get, but it must be the highest. Be careful that you vigorously maintain God’s perspective, and remember that it must be done every day, little by little. Don’t think on a finite level. No outside power can touch the proper perspective.
The proper perspective to maintain is that we are here for only one purpose— to be captives marching in the procession of Christ’s triumphs. We are not on display in God’s showcase— we are here to exhibit only one thing— the “captivity [of our lives] to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). How small all the other perspectives are! For example, the ones that say, “I am standing all alone, battling for Jesus,” or, “I have to maintain the cause of Christ and hold down this fort for Him.” But Paul said, in essence, “I am in the procession of a conqueror, and it doesn’t matter what the difficulties are, for I am always led in triumph.” Is this idea being worked out practically in us? Paul’s secret joy was that God took him as a blatant rebel against Jesus Christ, and made him a captive— and that became his purpose. It was Paul’s joy to be a captive of the Lord, and he had no other interest in heaven or on earth. It is a shameful thing for a Christian to talk about getting the victory. We should belong so completely to the Victor that it is always His victory, and “we are more than conquerors through Him…” (Romans 8:37).
“We are to God the fragrance of Christ…” (2 Corinthians 2:15). We are encompassed with the sweet aroma of Jesus, and wherever we go we are a wonderful refreshment to God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are all based on a conception of importance, either our own importance, or the importance of someone else; Jesus tells us to go and teach based on the revelation of His importance. “All power is given unto Me.… Go ye therefore ….” So Send I You, 1325 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Blowing The Lid Off - #8032
One of the great privileges of my life was serving in the leadership of the Northern New Jersey Billy Graham Crusade in the Meadowlands. Now, for many of us who had been trying to reach people in this very hard corner of America, it was thrilling to see that arena nearly full on that opening Wednesday night. The arena seats 18,000 people, and filling it in Jesus' name was a victory of historic proportions for our area. By Thursday, it was totally full. But I was strangely restless. See, by faith, we had set up 8,000 chairs and a jumbo-tron video screen in the parking lot just in case there was overflow. It looked like we wouldn't need it – as the press so graciously reminded us. Even though we were seeing unprecedented attendances and spiritual harvests, I felt led to pull together several of our Crusade leaders after the second night. After thanking God for all He had done, I asked them to pray with me a prayer I had never prayed before. "Lord, if anyone other than You is holding a lid on this thing, if there's even more You want to do, would You blow the lid off!"
The next night the arena filled pretty quickly. I was on the platform, seated next to Dr. Graham, when they handed him a note. He showed it to me. It said, "There are 13, 000 in overflow!" Dr. Graham said, "I think you should go see it." Well, I did. And what a sight! Eight thousand chairs full, 5,000 people standing, sitting on car hoods, on the ground, even on the porta-johns, and Billy Graham preaching the Gospel on the big screen! It looked like a cross between the feeding of the 5,000 and a drive-in movie. And the rate of response that night was higher in the parking lot than it even was indoors! So much for that lid!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Blowing The Lid Off."
You might be saying, "Well, that's a wonderful page from your spiritual scrapbook, Ron. Thanks for sharing." No. It's actually a wonderful lesson in a way God may want you to be praying right now. Our word for today from the Word of God, Ephesians 3:20, where God is being praised as "Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to the power that is at work within us." A few verses earlier Paul has said, "I kneel before the Father, from whom His whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name."
Paul says, "The God to whom we pray is one awesome God. And He can do so much more than we can imagine!" Which leads us to the kind of prayer that I learned to pray that night in the arena – the "blow the lid off" prayer. It's for those situations where the Holy Spirit seems to say, "I have more for you, much more." I'm convinced that we often are under-living because we're under- praying. We are praying under the mighty thing that God really wants to do.
So for your family, for your ministry, for that unreachable person, for that relationship, for that huge need, for that mission impossible – as the Spirit leads, pray something like this, "Father, if anyone other than you is holding a lid on what's happening here, blow the lid off in Jesus' Name." Now, that kind of God-sized faith may unlock a God-sized answer that will not only blow the lid off – it will blow you away!
Let's believe God for the kind of breakout, the kind of breakthrough, the kind of miracle that only He can do!
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Monday, October 23, 2017
Job 4, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: JESUS’ VINTAGE OF PEACE
Jesus promises you his vintage of peace! A peace that “guards our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). God takes responsibility for the hearts and minds of those who believe in him. As we celebrate him and pray to him, he constructs a fortress around our hearts and minds, protecting us from the attacks of the devil.
As the verse from the ancient hymn declares: A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing: Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing. Martin Luther wrote these words centuries after the apostle Paul had written his epistles. Yet had Paul heard the hymn, he would have sung it with hearty conviction. He knew firsthand the peace and protection of God. Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. . .do not let your heart be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27 NIV).
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Job 4
Eliphaz Speaks Out
Now You’re the One in Trouble
1-6 Then Eliphaz from Teman spoke up:
“Would you mind if I said something to you?
Under the circumstances it’s hard to keep quiet.
You yourself have done this plenty of times, spoken words
that clarify, encouraged those who were about to quit.
Your words have put stumbling people on their feet,
put fresh hope in people about to collapse.
But now you’re the one in trouble—you’re hurting!
You’ve been hit hard and you’re reeling from the blow.
But shouldn’t your devout life give you confidence now?
Shouldn’t your exemplary life give you hope?
7-11 “Think! Has a truly innocent person ever ended up on the scrap heap?
Do genuinely upright people ever lose out in the end?
It’s my observation that those who plow evil
and sow trouble reap evil and trouble.
One breath from God and they fall apart,
one blast of his anger and there’s nothing left of them.
The mighty lion, king of the beasts, roars mightily,
but when he’s toothless he’s useless—
No teeth, no prey—and the cubs
wander off to fend for themselves.
12-16 “A word came to me in secret—
a mere whisper of a word, but I heard it clearly.
It came in a scary dream one night,
after I had fallen into a deep, deep sleep.
Dread stared me in the face, and Terror.
I was scared to death—I shook from head to foot.
A spirit glided right in front of me—
the hair on my head stood on end.
I couldn’t tell what it was that appeared there—
a blur . . . and then I heard a muffled voice:
17-21 “‘How can mere mortals be more righteous than God?
How can humans be purer than their Creator?
Why, God doesn’t even trust his own servants,
doesn’t even cheer his angels,
So how much less these bodies composed of mud,
fragile as moths?
These bodies of ours are here today and gone tomorrow,
and no one even notices—gone without a trace.
When the tent stakes are ripped up, the tent collapses—
we die and are never the wiser for having lived.’”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, October 23, 2017
Read: Genesis 33:1–11
1-4 Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming with his four hundred men. He divided the children between Leah and Rachel and the two maidservants. He put the maidservants out in front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last. He led the way and, as he approached his brother, bowed seven times, honoring his brother. But Esau ran up and embraced him, held him tight and kissed him. And they both wept.
5 Then Esau looked around and saw the women and children: “And who are these with you?”
Jacob said, “The children that God saw fit to bless me with.”
6-7 Then the maidservants came up with their children and bowed; then Leah and her children, also bowing; and finally, Joseph and Rachel came up and bowed to Esau.
8 Esau then asked, “And what was the meaning of all those herds that I met?”
“I was hoping that they would pave the way for my master to welcome me.”
9 Esau said, “Oh, brother. I have plenty of everything—keep what is yours for yourself.”
10-11 Jacob said, “Please. If you can find it in your heart to welcome me, accept these gifts. When I saw your face, it was as the face of God smiling on me. Accept the gifts I have brought for you. God has been good to me and I have more than enough.” Jacob urged the gifts on him and Esau accepted.
INSIGHT
Over twenty “one another” statements in the New Testament call us to focus on the needs of others. We are challenged to love, pray for, serve, comfort, and forgive one another.
This week, will you watch for ways to extend love and grace to others through His Spirit? - Bill Crowder
Brother to Brother
By Tim Gustafson
A new command I give you: Love one another. John 13:34
My brother and I, less than a year apart in age, were quite “competitive” growing up (translation: we fought!). Dad understood. He had brothers. Mom? Not so much.
Our story could have fit in the book of Genesis, which might well be subtitled A Brief History of Sibling Rivalry. Cain and Abel (Gen. 4); Isaac and Ishmael (21:8–10); Joseph and everyone not named Benjamin (ch. 37). But for brother-to-brother animosity, it’s hard to beat Jacob and Esau.
A new command I give you: Love one another. John 13:34
Esau’s twin brother had cheated him twice, so he wanted to kill Jacob (27:41). Decades later Jacob and Esau would reconcile (ch. 33). But the rivalry continued on in their descendants, who became the nations of Edom and Israel. When the people of Israel prepared to enter the Promised Land, Edom met them with threats and an army (Num. 20:14–21). Much later, as Jerusalem’s citizens fled invading forces, Edom slaughtered the refugees (Obad. 1:10–14).
Happily for us, the Bible contains not just the sad account of our brokenness but the story of God’s redemption as well. Jesus changed everything, telling His disciples, “A new command I give you: Love one another” (John 13:34). Then He showed us what that means by dying for us.
As my brother and I got older, we became close. That’s the thing with God. When we respond to the forgiveness He offers, His grace can transform our sibling rivalries into brotherly love.
Lord, we invite You to transform our relationships with Your healing love.
Sibling rivalry is natural. God’s love is supernatural.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, October 23, 2017
Nothing of the Old Life!
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. —2 Corinthians 5:17
Our Lord never tolerates our prejudices— He is directly opposed to them and puts them to death. We tend to think that God has some special interest in our particular prejudices, and are very sure that He will never deal with us as He has to deal with others. We even say to ourselves, “God has to deal with other people in a very strict way, but of course He knows that my prejudices are all right.” But we must learn that God accepts nothing of the old life! Instead of being on the side of our prejudices, He is deliberately removing them from us. It is part of our moral education to see our prejudices put to death by His providence, and to watch how He does it. God pays no respect to anything we bring to Him. There is only one thing God wants of us, and that is our unconditional surrender.
When we are born again, the Holy Spirit begins to work His new creation in us, and there will come a time when there is nothing remaining of the old life. Our old gloomy outlook disappears, as does our old attitude toward things, and “all things are of God” (2 Corinthians 5:18). How are we going to get a life that has no lust, no self-interest, and is not sensitive to the ridicule of others? How will we have the type of love that “is kind…is not provoked, [and] thinks no evil”? (1 Corinthians 13:4-5). The only way is by allowing nothing of the old life to remain, and by having only simple, perfect trust in God— such a trust that we no longer want God’s blessings, but only want God Himself. Have we come to the point where God can withdraw His blessings from us without our trust in Him being affected? Once we truly see God at work, we will never be concerned again about the things that happen, because we are actually trusting in our Father in heaven, whom the world cannot see.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Defenders of the faith are inclined to be bitter until they learn to walk in the light of the Lord. When you have learned to walk in the light of the Lord, bitterness and contention are impossible. Biblical Psychology, 199 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, October 23, 2017
Starting Where You Are - #8031
They often give you one when you check into some sprawling motel complex, or a big theme park, or a large convention facility. It's a map of the place. And for the directionally challenged like me, there's one important thing I look for on that map. It's that "X" and those very helpful words, "You are here". See, you're not helping me very much by just giving me a drawing of where everything is. In order for me to use that to get where I want to go, I need that one fundamental piece of information-where am I right now?
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Starting Where You Are."
It is important to know exactly where you are when you're trying to get to a destination, and when you're trying to get to God. In fact, the failure to talk to God about where you really are may explain why He seems a little farther away than He once did-a little less real than He once did.
Hebrews 4:16 is God's powerful invitation to come boldly to His "throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." The verses that precede this promise of God's total availability have to do with our total honesty. Hebrews 4 beginning in verse 12 is our word for today from the Word of God, and it begins by saying that God's Word "is sharper than any double-edged sword." In other words it opens up our soul surgically and exposes what's really inside.
Verse 13 goes on to say, "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account." So you might as well come to God totally unmasked, because there's nothing He doesn't know about you. If you talk to Him about how you're honestly feeling, He's not going to say, "Oh, you're kidding! Really? I didn't know that!" No, it's understandable why you may not tell other people how you're really feeling; they might think less of you. But God already knows, and there's nothing you can do to make God love you more or love you less.
In fact, these words go on to remind us that "We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence." Why? Because God already knows all about us, and because we are coming to the Father through a Savior who has felt all the feelings of being human.
You might say, "Well, God already knows, why do I need to tell Him?" So you can open up that part of your heart and your life to His cleansing, His restoring, and His healing. He only goes where He's invited. Maybe you've been saying, "Well, God doesn't seem real to me right now." Maybe He's saying the same thing to you; you're coming to Him all religious, all together, and all dressed up. If God doesn't seem real to you, maybe it's because you aren't being real with Him. You aren't starting where you really are. You're coming as you think you're supposed to be.
Tell it all to your Lord, won't you? Tell Him where you're hurting, tell Him where you're afraid, tell Him where you feel like giving up, where you're angry, where you can't forgive, where you can't fight anymore, where you can't understand, where you're desperate for love. Tell Him when you're spiritually flat. See, He already knows, but He's waiting for you to open up that part of you so He can bring in His mercy and His grace and His love.
Your spiritual drifting, your distance from God, your unnecessary pain may be because you've been coming to God without the real you. You need to get your map out and mark where you are right now. Then your Lord will take you from there to where you need to be. When Jesus says, "If you will open the door, I will come in" He invites us to come just as we are with a lifetime of sin and doubt that He died to pay for on a cross, and then prove that He could give us eternal life by walking out of His grave under His own power.
There's an old hymn that expresses this very well the only way to come to Him. "Just as I am without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me; and that Thou bidst me come to Thee. O Lamb of God, I come."
Jesus promises you his vintage of peace! A peace that “guards our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). God takes responsibility for the hearts and minds of those who believe in him. As we celebrate him and pray to him, he constructs a fortress around our hearts and minds, protecting us from the attacks of the devil.
As the verse from the ancient hymn declares: A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing: Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing. Martin Luther wrote these words centuries after the apostle Paul had written his epistles. Yet had Paul heard the hymn, he would have sung it with hearty conviction. He knew firsthand the peace and protection of God. Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. . .do not let your heart be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27 NIV).
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Job 4
Eliphaz Speaks Out
Now You’re the One in Trouble
1-6 Then Eliphaz from Teman spoke up:
“Would you mind if I said something to you?
Under the circumstances it’s hard to keep quiet.
You yourself have done this plenty of times, spoken words
that clarify, encouraged those who were about to quit.
Your words have put stumbling people on their feet,
put fresh hope in people about to collapse.
But now you’re the one in trouble—you’re hurting!
You’ve been hit hard and you’re reeling from the blow.
But shouldn’t your devout life give you confidence now?
Shouldn’t your exemplary life give you hope?
7-11 “Think! Has a truly innocent person ever ended up on the scrap heap?
Do genuinely upright people ever lose out in the end?
It’s my observation that those who plow evil
and sow trouble reap evil and trouble.
One breath from God and they fall apart,
one blast of his anger and there’s nothing left of them.
The mighty lion, king of the beasts, roars mightily,
but when he’s toothless he’s useless—
No teeth, no prey—and the cubs
wander off to fend for themselves.
12-16 “A word came to me in secret—
a mere whisper of a word, but I heard it clearly.
It came in a scary dream one night,
after I had fallen into a deep, deep sleep.
Dread stared me in the face, and Terror.
I was scared to death—I shook from head to foot.
A spirit glided right in front of me—
the hair on my head stood on end.
I couldn’t tell what it was that appeared there—
a blur . . . and then I heard a muffled voice:
17-21 “‘How can mere mortals be more righteous than God?
How can humans be purer than their Creator?
Why, God doesn’t even trust his own servants,
doesn’t even cheer his angels,
So how much less these bodies composed of mud,
fragile as moths?
These bodies of ours are here today and gone tomorrow,
and no one even notices—gone without a trace.
When the tent stakes are ripped up, the tent collapses—
we die and are never the wiser for having lived.’”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, October 23, 2017
Read: Genesis 33:1–11
1-4 Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming with his four hundred men. He divided the children between Leah and Rachel and the two maidservants. He put the maidservants out in front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last. He led the way and, as he approached his brother, bowed seven times, honoring his brother. But Esau ran up and embraced him, held him tight and kissed him. And they both wept.
5 Then Esau looked around and saw the women and children: “And who are these with you?”
Jacob said, “The children that God saw fit to bless me with.”
6-7 Then the maidservants came up with their children and bowed; then Leah and her children, also bowing; and finally, Joseph and Rachel came up and bowed to Esau.
8 Esau then asked, “And what was the meaning of all those herds that I met?”
“I was hoping that they would pave the way for my master to welcome me.”
9 Esau said, “Oh, brother. I have plenty of everything—keep what is yours for yourself.”
10-11 Jacob said, “Please. If you can find it in your heart to welcome me, accept these gifts. When I saw your face, it was as the face of God smiling on me. Accept the gifts I have brought for you. God has been good to me and I have more than enough.” Jacob urged the gifts on him and Esau accepted.
INSIGHT
Over twenty “one another” statements in the New Testament call us to focus on the needs of others. We are challenged to love, pray for, serve, comfort, and forgive one another.
This week, will you watch for ways to extend love and grace to others through His Spirit? - Bill Crowder
Brother to Brother
By Tim Gustafson
A new command I give you: Love one another. John 13:34
My brother and I, less than a year apart in age, were quite “competitive” growing up (translation: we fought!). Dad understood. He had brothers. Mom? Not so much.
Our story could have fit in the book of Genesis, which might well be subtitled A Brief History of Sibling Rivalry. Cain and Abel (Gen. 4); Isaac and Ishmael (21:8–10); Joseph and everyone not named Benjamin (ch. 37). But for brother-to-brother animosity, it’s hard to beat Jacob and Esau.
A new command I give you: Love one another. John 13:34
Esau’s twin brother had cheated him twice, so he wanted to kill Jacob (27:41). Decades later Jacob and Esau would reconcile (ch. 33). But the rivalry continued on in their descendants, who became the nations of Edom and Israel. When the people of Israel prepared to enter the Promised Land, Edom met them with threats and an army (Num. 20:14–21). Much later, as Jerusalem’s citizens fled invading forces, Edom slaughtered the refugees (Obad. 1:10–14).
Happily for us, the Bible contains not just the sad account of our brokenness but the story of God’s redemption as well. Jesus changed everything, telling His disciples, “A new command I give you: Love one another” (John 13:34). Then He showed us what that means by dying for us.
As my brother and I got older, we became close. That’s the thing with God. When we respond to the forgiveness He offers, His grace can transform our sibling rivalries into brotherly love.
Lord, we invite You to transform our relationships with Your healing love.
Sibling rivalry is natural. God’s love is supernatural.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, October 23, 2017
Nothing of the Old Life!
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. —2 Corinthians 5:17
Our Lord never tolerates our prejudices— He is directly opposed to them and puts them to death. We tend to think that God has some special interest in our particular prejudices, and are very sure that He will never deal with us as He has to deal with others. We even say to ourselves, “God has to deal with other people in a very strict way, but of course He knows that my prejudices are all right.” But we must learn that God accepts nothing of the old life! Instead of being on the side of our prejudices, He is deliberately removing them from us. It is part of our moral education to see our prejudices put to death by His providence, and to watch how He does it. God pays no respect to anything we bring to Him. There is only one thing God wants of us, and that is our unconditional surrender.
When we are born again, the Holy Spirit begins to work His new creation in us, and there will come a time when there is nothing remaining of the old life. Our old gloomy outlook disappears, as does our old attitude toward things, and “all things are of God” (2 Corinthians 5:18). How are we going to get a life that has no lust, no self-interest, and is not sensitive to the ridicule of others? How will we have the type of love that “is kind…is not provoked, [and] thinks no evil”? (1 Corinthians 13:4-5). The only way is by allowing nothing of the old life to remain, and by having only simple, perfect trust in God— such a trust that we no longer want God’s blessings, but only want God Himself. Have we come to the point where God can withdraw His blessings from us without our trust in Him being affected? Once we truly see God at work, we will never be concerned again about the things that happen, because we are actually trusting in our Father in heaven, whom the world cannot see.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Defenders of the faith are inclined to be bitter until they learn to walk in the light of the Lord. When you have learned to walk in the light of the Lord, bitterness and contention are impossible. Biblical Psychology, 199 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, October 23, 2017
Starting Where You Are - #8031
They often give you one when you check into some sprawling motel complex, or a big theme park, or a large convention facility. It's a map of the place. And for the directionally challenged like me, there's one important thing I look for on that map. It's that "X" and those very helpful words, "You are here". See, you're not helping me very much by just giving me a drawing of where everything is. In order for me to use that to get where I want to go, I need that one fundamental piece of information-where am I right now?
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Starting Where You Are."
It is important to know exactly where you are when you're trying to get to a destination, and when you're trying to get to God. In fact, the failure to talk to God about where you really are may explain why He seems a little farther away than He once did-a little less real than He once did.
Hebrews 4:16 is God's powerful invitation to come boldly to His "throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." The verses that precede this promise of God's total availability have to do with our total honesty. Hebrews 4 beginning in verse 12 is our word for today from the Word of God, and it begins by saying that God's Word "is sharper than any double-edged sword." In other words it opens up our soul surgically and exposes what's really inside.
Verse 13 goes on to say, "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account." So you might as well come to God totally unmasked, because there's nothing He doesn't know about you. If you talk to Him about how you're honestly feeling, He's not going to say, "Oh, you're kidding! Really? I didn't know that!" No, it's understandable why you may not tell other people how you're really feeling; they might think less of you. But God already knows, and there's nothing you can do to make God love you more or love you less.
In fact, these words go on to remind us that "We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence." Why? Because God already knows all about us, and because we are coming to the Father through a Savior who has felt all the feelings of being human.
You might say, "Well, God already knows, why do I need to tell Him?" So you can open up that part of your heart and your life to His cleansing, His restoring, and His healing. He only goes where He's invited. Maybe you've been saying, "Well, God doesn't seem real to me right now." Maybe He's saying the same thing to you; you're coming to Him all religious, all together, and all dressed up. If God doesn't seem real to you, maybe it's because you aren't being real with Him. You aren't starting where you really are. You're coming as you think you're supposed to be.
Tell it all to your Lord, won't you? Tell Him where you're hurting, tell Him where you're afraid, tell Him where you feel like giving up, where you're angry, where you can't forgive, where you can't fight anymore, where you can't understand, where you're desperate for love. Tell Him when you're spiritually flat. See, He already knows, but He's waiting for you to open up that part of you so He can bring in His mercy and His grace and His love.
Your spiritual drifting, your distance from God, your unnecessary pain may be because you've been coming to God without the real you. You need to get your map out and mark where you are right now. Then your Lord will take you from there to where you need to be. When Jesus says, "If you will open the door, I will come in" He invites us to come just as we are with a lifetime of sin and doubt that He died to pay for on a cross, and then prove that He could give us eternal life by walking out of His grave under His own power.
There's an old hymn that expresses this very well the only way to come to Him. "Just as I am without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me; and that Thou bidst me come to Thee. O Lamb of God, I come."
Sunday, October 22, 2017
Job 3 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: "Oh, Daddy!"
When my eldest daughter was 13, she flubbed her piano piece at a recital. The silence in the auditorium was broken only by the pounding of her parents' hearts. She hurried off the stage, threw her arms around me and buried her face in my shirt. "Oh, Daddy." That was enough for me. At that moment I'd have given her the moon. All she said was, "Oh Daddy!"
Prayer starts here. Prayer begins with an honest, heartfelt, "Oh Daddy!" Jesus invites us to approach God the way a child approaches his or her daddy.
Here's my prayer challenge to you! Sign on at BeforeAmen.com for a simple prayer. Then every day for 4 weeks, pray 4 minutes-it'll change your life forever!
Before Amen
Job 3
Job Cries Out
What’s the Point of Life?
1-2 Then Job broke the silence. He spoke up and cursed his fate:
3-10 “Obliterate the day I was born.
Blank out the night I was conceived!
Let it be a black hole in space.
May God above forget it ever happened.
Erase it from the books!
May the day of my birth be buried in deep darkness,
shrouded by the fog,
swallowed by the night.
And the night of my conception—the devil take it!
Rip the date off the calendar,
delete it from the almanac.
Oh, turn that night into pure nothingness—
no sounds of pleasure from that night, ever!
May those who are good at cursing curse that day.
Unleash the sea beast, Leviathan, on it.
May its morning stars turn to black cinders,
waiting for a daylight that never comes,
never once seeing the first light of dawn.
And why? Because it released me from my mother’s womb
into a life with so much trouble.
11-19 “Why didn’t I die at birth,
my first breath out of the womb my last?
Why were there arms to rock me,
and breasts for me to drink from?
I could be resting in peace right now,
asleep forever, feeling no pain,
In the company of kings and statesmen
in their royal ruins,
Or with princes resplendent
in their gold and silver tombs.
Why wasn’t I stillborn and buried
with all the babies who never saw light,
Where the wicked no longer trouble anyone
and bone-weary people get a long-deserved rest?
Prisoners sleep undisturbed,
never again to wake up to the bark of the guards.
The small and the great are equals in that place,
and slaves are free from their masters.
20-23 “Why does God bother giving light to the miserable,
why bother keeping bitter people alive,
Those who want in the worst way to die, and can’t,
who can’t imagine anything better than death,
Who count the day of their death and burial
the happiest day of their life?
What’s the point of life when it doesn’t make sense,
when God blocks all the roads to meaning?
24-26 “Instead of bread I get groans for my supper,
then leave the table and vomit my anguish.
The worst of my fears has come true,
what I’ve dreaded most has happened.
My repose is shattered, my peace destroyed.
No rest for me, ever—death has invaded life.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, October 22, 2017
Read: John 15:9–17
“I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you’ll remain intimately at home in my love. That’s what I’ve done—kept my Father’s commands and made myself at home in his love.
11-15 “I’ve told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I’m no longer calling you servants because servants don’t understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I’ve named you friends because I’ve let you in on everything I’ve heard from the Father.
16 “You didn’t choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won’t spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you.
17 “But remember the root command: Love one another.
INSIGHT
Have you ever wondered how Jesus could command His disciples to love anyone? How can you force people of varying backgrounds and interests to care for one another?
Such instruction probably won’t make sense until we understand what kind of a king Jesus was—and what kind of relationship He had with His Father. He wasn’t saying, “I’ll love you if you love me.” That’s not the way His relationship with His Father worked. He knew His Father loved Him. When He loved and obeyed His Father’s commands, it was because Jesus knew and listened to His Father’s heart. In the Spirit of our God, we love our King—and one another—because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). - Mart DeHaan
Love of Another Kind
By Joe Stowell
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. John 15:12
One of my favorite churches started several years ago as a ministry to ex-prisoners who were transitioning back into society. Now the church flourishes with people from all walks of life. I love that church because it reminds me of what I picture heaven will be like—filled with different kinds of people, all redeemed sinners, all bound together by the love of Jesus.
Sometimes, though, I wonder if church seems more like an exclusive club than a safe haven for forgiven sinners. As people naturally gravitate into groups of “a certain kind” and cluster around those they feel comfortable with, it leaves others feeling marginalized. But that’s not what Jesus had in mind when He told His disciples to “love each other as I have loved you” (John 15:12). His church was to be an extension of His love mutually shared with all.
Share Christ’s love with another.
If hurting, rejected people can find loving refuge, comfort, and forgiveness in Jesus, they should expect no less from the church. So let’s exhibit the love of Jesus to everyone we encounter—especially those who are not like us. All around us are people Jesus wants to love through us. What a joy it is when people unite to worship together in love—a slice of heaven we can enjoy here on earth!
Lord, remind me today that while I was a sinner You embraced me with Your deep and unconditional love and brought me into the fellowship of Your grace. Lead me to someone I can love as You loved me.
Share Christ’s love with another.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, October 22, 2017
The Witness of the Spirit
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit… —Romans 8:16
We are in danger of getting into a bargaining spirit with God when we come to Him— we want the witness of the Spirit before we have done what God tells us to do.
Why doesn’t God reveal Himself to you? He cannot. It is not that He will not, but He cannot, because you are in the way as long as you won’t abandon yourself to Him in total surrender. Yet once you do, immediately God witnesses to Himself— He cannot witness to you, but He instantly witnesses to His own nature in you. If you received the witness of the Spirit before the reality and truth that comes from obedience, it would simply result in sentimental emotion. But when you act on the basis of redemption, and stop the disrespectfulness of debating with God, He immediately gives His witness. As soon as you abandon your own reasoning and arguing, God witnesses to what He has done, and you are amazed at your total disrespect in having kept Him waiting. If you are debating as to whether or not God can deliver from sin, then either let Him do it or tell Him that He cannot. Do not quote this or that person to Him. Simply obey Matthew 11:28, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden….” Come, if you are weary, and ask, if you know you are evil (see Luke 11:9-13).
The Spirit of God witnesses to the redemption of our Lord, and to nothing else. He cannot witness to our reason. We are inclined to mistake the simplicity that comes from our natural commonsense decisions for the witness of the Spirit, but the Spirit witnesses only to His own nature, and to the work of redemption, never to our reason. If we are trying to make Him witness to our reason, it is no wonder that we are in darkness and uncertainty. Throw it all overboard, trust in Him, and He will give you the witness of the Spirit.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is in the middle that human choices are made; the beginning and the end remain with God. The decrees of God are birth and death, and in between those limits man makes his own distress or joy. Shade of His Hand, 1223 L
When my eldest daughter was 13, she flubbed her piano piece at a recital. The silence in the auditorium was broken only by the pounding of her parents' hearts. She hurried off the stage, threw her arms around me and buried her face in my shirt. "Oh, Daddy." That was enough for me. At that moment I'd have given her the moon. All she said was, "Oh Daddy!"
Prayer starts here. Prayer begins with an honest, heartfelt, "Oh Daddy!" Jesus invites us to approach God the way a child approaches his or her daddy.
Here's my prayer challenge to you! Sign on at BeforeAmen.com for a simple prayer. Then every day for 4 weeks, pray 4 minutes-it'll change your life forever!
Before Amen
Job 3
Job Cries Out
What’s the Point of Life?
1-2 Then Job broke the silence. He spoke up and cursed his fate:
3-10 “Obliterate the day I was born.
Blank out the night I was conceived!
Let it be a black hole in space.
May God above forget it ever happened.
Erase it from the books!
May the day of my birth be buried in deep darkness,
shrouded by the fog,
swallowed by the night.
And the night of my conception—the devil take it!
Rip the date off the calendar,
delete it from the almanac.
Oh, turn that night into pure nothingness—
no sounds of pleasure from that night, ever!
May those who are good at cursing curse that day.
Unleash the sea beast, Leviathan, on it.
May its morning stars turn to black cinders,
waiting for a daylight that never comes,
never once seeing the first light of dawn.
And why? Because it released me from my mother’s womb
into a life with so much trouble.
11-19 “Why didn’t I die at birth,
my first breath out of the womb my last?
Why were there arms to rock me,
and breasts for me to drink from?
I could be resting in peace right now,
asleep forever, feeling no pain,
In the company of kings and statesmen
in their royal ruins,
Or with princes resplendent
in their gold and silver tombs.
Why wasn’t I stillborn and buried
with all the babies who never saw light,
Where the wicked no longer trouble anyone
and bone-weary people get a long-deserved rest?
Prisoners sleep undisturbed,
never again to wake up to the bark of the guards.
The small and the great are equals in that place,
and slaves are free from their masters.
20-23 “Why does God bother giving light to the miserable,
why bother keeping bitter people alive,
Those who want in the worst way to die, and can’t,
who can’t imagine anything better than death,
Who count the day of their death and burial
the happiest day of their life?
What’s the point of life when it doesn’t make sense,
when God blocks all the roads to meaning?
24-26 “Instead of bread I get groans for my supper,
then leave the table and vomit my anguish.
The worst of my fears has come true,
what I’ve dreaded most has happened.
My repose is shattered, my peace destroyed.
No rest for me, ever—death has invaded life.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, October 22, 2017
Read: John 15:9–17
“I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you’ll remain intimately at home in my love. That’s what I’ve done—kept my Father’s commands and made myself at home in his love.
11-15 “I’ve told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I’m no longer calling you servants because servants don’t understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I’ve named you friends because I’ve let you in on everything I’ve heard from the Father.
16 “You didn’t choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won’t spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you.
17 “But remember the root command: Love one another.
INSIGHT
Have you ever wondered how Jesus could command His disciples to love anyone? How can you force people of varying backgrounds and interests to care for one another?
Such instruction probably won’t make sense until we understand what kind of a king Jesus was—and what kind of relationship He had with His Father. He wasn’t saying, “I’ll love you if you love me.” That’s not the way His relationship with His Father worked. He knew His Father loved Him. When He loved and obeyed His Father’s commands, it was because Jesus knew and listened to His Father’s heart. In the Spirit of our God, we love our King—and one another—because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). - Mart DeHaan
Love of Another Kind
By Joe Stowell
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. John 15:12
One of my favorite churches started several years ago as a ministry to ex-prisoners who were transitioning back into society. Now the church flourishes with people from all walks of life. I love that church because it reminds me of what I picture heaven will be like—filled with different kinds of people, all redeemed sinners, all bound together by the love of Jesus.
Sometimes, though, I wonder if church seems more like an exclusive club than a safe haven for forgiven sinners. As people naturally gravitate into groups of “a certain kind” and cluster around those they feel comfortable with, it leaves others feeling marginalized. But that’s not what Jesus had in mind when He told His disciples to “love each other as I have loved you” (John 15:12). His church was to be an extension of His love mutually shared with all.
Share Christ’s love with another.
If hurting, rejected people can find loving refuge, comfort, and forgiveness in Jesus, they should expect no less from the church. So let’s exhibit the love of Jesus to everyone we encounter—especially those who are not like us. All around us are people Jesus wants to love through us. What a joy it is when people unite to worship together in love—a slice of heaven we can enjoy here on earth!
Lord, remind me today that while I was a sinner You embraced me with Your deep and unconditional love and brought me into the fellowship of Your grace. Lead me to someone I can love as You loved me.
Share Christ’s love with another.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, October 22, 2017
The Witness of the Spirit
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit… —Romans 8:16
We are in danger of getting into a bargaining spirit with God when we come to Him— we want the witness of the Spirit before we have done what God tells us to do.
Why doesn’t God reveal Himself to you? He cannot. It is not that He will not, but He cannot, because you are in the way as long as you won’t abandon yourself to Him in total surrender. Yet once you do, immediately God witnesses to Himself— He cannot witness to you, but He instantly witnesses to His own nature in you. If you received the witness of the Spirit before the reality and truth that comes from obedience, it would simply result in sentimental emotion. But when you act on the basis of redemption, and stop the disrespectfulness of debating with God, He immediately gives His witness. As soon as you abandon your own reasoning and arguing, God witnesses to what He has done, and you are amazed at your total disrespect in having kept Him waiting. If you are debating as to whether or not God can deliver from sin, then either let Him do it or tell Him that He cannot. Do not quote this or that person to Him. Simply obey Matthew 11:28, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden….” Come, if you are weary, and ask, if you know you are evil (see Luke 11:9-13).
The Spirit of God witnesses to the redemption of our Lord, and to nothing else. He cannot witness to our reason. We are inclined to mistake the simplicity that comes from our natural commonsense decisions for the witness of the Spirit, but the Spirit witnesses only to His own nature, and to the work of redemption, never to our reason. If we are trying to make Him witness to our reason, it is no wonder that we are in darkness and uncertainty. Throw it all overboard, trust in Him, and He will give you the witness of the Spirit.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is in the middle that human choices are made; the beginning and the end remain with God. The decrees of God are birth and death, and in between those limits man makes his own distress or joy. Shade of His Hand, 1223 L
Saturday, October 21, 2017
Matthew 8:1-17, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Approaching God
Jesus invites us to approach God the way a child approaches his or her daddy! And how do children approach their daddies? I went to a school playground to find out. When a five-year-old spots his father in the parking lot, how does he react?
"Yippee!" screamed a redheaded boy wearing a Batman backpack.
"Pop!" Over here! Push me!" yelled a boy wearing a Boston Red Sox cap who scooted straight to the swings.
Here's what I didn't hear: "Father, it is most gracious of thee to drive thy car to my place of education. Please know of my deep gratitude for your benevolence. For thou art splendid in they attentive care and diligent in they dedication."
I heard kids who were happy to see their dads and eager to speak to them! God invites us to approach Him in the same manner. What a relief!
Before Amen
He Carried Our Diseases
8 1-2 Jesus came down the mountain with the cheers of the crowd still ringing in his ears. Then a leper appeared and went to his knees before Jesus, praying, “Master, if you want to, you can heal my body.”
3-4 Jesus reached out and touched him, saying, “I want to. Be clean.” Then and there, all signs of the leprosy were gone. Jesus said, “Don’t talk about this all over town. Just quietly present your healed body to the priest, along with the appropriate expressions of thanks to God. Your cleansed and grateful life, not your words, will bear witness to what I have done.”
5-6 As Jesus entered the village of Capernaum, a Roman captain came up in a panic and said, “Master, my servant is sick. He can’t walk. He’s in terrible pain.”
7 Jesus said, “I’ll come and heal him.”
8-9 “Oh, no,” said the captain. “I don’t want to put you to all that trouble. Just give the order and my servant will be fine. I’m a man who takes orders and gives orders. I tell one soldier, ‘Go,’ and he goes; to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
10-12 Taken aback, Jesus said, “I’ve yet to come across this kind of simple trust in Israel, the very people who are supposed to know all about God and how he works. This man is the vanguard of many outsiders who will soon be coming from all directions—streaming in from the east, pouring in from the west, sitting down at God’s kingdom banquet alongside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then those who grew up ‘in the faith’ but had no faith will find themselves out in the cold, outsiders to grace and wondering what happened.”
13 Then Jesus turned to the captain and said, “Go. What you believed could happen has happened.” At that moment his servant became well.
14-15 By this time they were in front of Peter’s house. On entering, Jesus found Peter’s mother-in-law sick in bed, burning up with fever. He touched her hand and the fever was gone. No sooner was she up on her feet than she was fixing dinner for him.
16-17 That evening a lot of demon-afflicted people were brought to him. He relieved the inwardly tormented. He cured the bodily ill. He fulfilled Isaiah’s well-known sermon:
He took our illnesses,
He carried our diseases.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, October 21, 2017
Read: Proverbs 18:10–11
God’s name is a place of protection—
good people can run there and be safe.
11 The rich think their wealth protects them;
they imagine themselves safe behind it.
INSIGHT
One of the greatest biblical descriptions of a truly “safe place” is found in the familiar words of Psalm 23. Some scholars envision David writing this Shepherd-psalm while still a young boy, perhaps lying under a star-filled night sky. Others see so much maturity and wisdom in the song that they imagine Psalm 23 as the reflections of an elderly person who has lived long and learned much. Either way, the song clearly describes David’s “safe place.” It was a place of provision (v. 1); a place of green pastures and quiet, relaxing waters (v. 2); and a place for spiritual restoration and spiritual guidance (v. 3). But, most of all, it was a place where David experienced the presence of God, who removed all his fear and provided deep comfort (v. 4). - Bill Crowder
Your Safe Place
By Elisa Morgan
The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. Proverbs 18:10
My daughter and I were arranging to attend an extended family gathering. Because she was nervous about the trip, I offered to drive. “Okay. But I feel safer in my car. Can you drive it?” she asked. I assumed she preferred her more spacious vehicle to my compact one so I responded, “Is my car too cramped?” “No, it’s just that my car is my safe place. Somehow I feel protected there.”
Her comment challenged me to consider my own personal “safe place.” Immediately I thought of Proverbs 18:10, “The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.” In Old Testament times, the walls and watchtower of a city provided warning of danger from without and shielding for its citizens within. The writer’s point is that God’s name, which stands for His character, person, and everything that He is, provides true protection for His people.
The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. Proverbs 18:10
Certain physical places promise longed-for safety in moments that seem dangerous. A sturdy roof overhead in the midst of a storm. A hospital offering medical care. The embrace of a loved one.
What is your “safe place”? Wherever we seek safety, it is God’s presence with us in that place that provides the strength and protection we really need.
Dear God, thank You that no matter what worries and concerns we have today, when we think about You, we find safety in Your presence.
Where is your safe place? Share at Facebook.com/ourdailybread.
God is a safe place in life’s storms.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, October 21, 2017
Impulsiveness or Discipleship?
But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith… —Jude 20
There was nothing of the nature of impulsive or thoughtless action about our Lord, but only a calm strength that never got into a panic. Most of us develop our Christianity along the lines of our own nature, not along the lines of God’s nature. Impulsiveness is a trait of the natural life, and our Lord always ignores it, because it hinders the development of the life of a disciple. Watch how the Spirit of God gives a sense of restraint to impulsiveness, suddenly bringing us a feeling of self-conscious foolishness, which makes us instantly want to vindicate ourselves. Impulsiveness is all right in a child, but is disastrous in a man or woman— an impulsive adult is always a spoiled person. Impulsiveness needs to be trained into intuition through discipline.
Discipleship is built entirely on the supernatural grace of God. Walking on water is easy to someone with impulsive boldness, but walking on dry land as a disciple of Jesus Christ is something altogether different. Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus, but he “followed Him at a distance” on dry land (Mark 14:54). We do not need the grace of God to withstand crises— human nature and pride are sufficient for us to face the stress and strain magnificently. But it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours of every day as a saint, going through drudgery, and living an ordinary, unnoticed, and ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is ingrained in us that we have to do exceptional things for God— but we do not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life, and holy on the ordinary streets, among ordinary people— and this is not learned in five minutes.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Am I getting nobler, better, more helpful, more humble, as I get older? Am I exhibiting the life that men take knowledge of as having been with Jesus, or am I getting more self-assertive, more deliberately determined to have my own way? It is a great thing to tell yourself the truth. The Place of Help, 1005 R
Jesus invites us to approach God the way a child approaches his or her daddy! And how do children approach their daddies? I went to a school playground to find out. When a five-year-old spots his father in the parking lot, how does he react?
"Yippee!" screamed a redheaded boy wearing a Batman backpack.
"Pop!" Over here! Push me!" yelled a boy wearing a Boston Red Sox cap who scooted straight to the swings.
Here's what I didn't hear: "Father, it is most gracious of thee to drive thy car to my place of education. Please know of my deep gratitude for your benevolence. For thou art splendid in they attentive care and diligent in they dedication."
I heard kids who were happy to see their dads and eager to speak to them! God invites us to approach Him in the same manner. What a relief!
Before Amen
He Carried Our Diseases
8 1-2 Jesus came down the mountain with the cheers of the crowd still ringing in his ears. Then a leper appeared and went to his knees before Jesus, praying, “Master, if you want to, you can heal my body.”
3-4 Jesus reached out and touched him, saying, “I want to. Be clean.” Then and there, all signs of the leprosy were gone. Jesus said, “Don’t talk about this all over town. Just quietly present your healed body to the priest, along with the appropriate expressions of thanks to God. Your cleansed and grateful life, not your words, will bear witness to what I have done.”
5-6 As Jesus entered the village of Capernaum, a Roman captain came up in a panic and said, “Master, my servant is sick. He can’t walk. He’s in terrible pain.”
7 Jesus said, “I’ll come and heal him.”
8-9 “Oh, no,” said the captain. “I don’t want to put you to all that trouble. Just give the order and my servant will be fine. I’m a man who takes orders and gives orders. I tell one soldier, ‘Go,’ and he goes; to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
10-12 Taken aback, Jesus said, “I’ve yet to come across this kind of simple trust in Israel, the very people who are supposed to know all about God and how he works. This man is the vanguard of many outsiders who will soon be coming from all directions—streaming in from the east, pouring in from the west, sitting down at God’s kingdom banquet alongside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then those who grew up ‘in the faith’ but had no faith will find themselves out in the cold, outsiders to grace and wondering what happened.”
13 Then Jesus turned to the captain and said, “Go. What you believed could happen has happened.” At that moment his servant became well.
14-15 By this time they were in front of Peter’s house. On entering, Jesus found Peter’s mother-in-law sick in bed, burning up with fever. He touched her hand and the fever was gone. No sooner was she up on her feet than she was fixing dinner for him.
16-17 That evening a lot of demon-afflicted people were brought to him. He relieved the inwardly tormented. He cured the bodily ill. He fulfilled Isaiah’s well-known sermon:
He took our illnesses,
He carried our diseases.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, October 21, 2017
Read: Proverbs 18:10–11
God’s name is a place of protection—
good people can run there and be safe.
11 The rich think their wealth protects them;
they imagine themselves safe behind it.
INSIGHT
One of the greatest biblical descriptions of a truly “safe place” is found in the familiar words of Psalm 23. Some scholars envision David writing this Shepherd-psalm while still a young boy, perhaps lying under a star-filled night sky. Others see so much maturity and wisdom in the song that they imagine Psalm 23 as the reflections of an elderly person who has lived long and learned much. Either way, the song clearly describes David’s “safe place.” It was a place of provision (v. 1); a place of green pastures and quiet, relaxing waters (v. 2); and a place for spiritual restoration and spiritual guidance (v. 3). But, most of all, it was a place where David experienced the presence of God, who removed all his fear and provided deep comfort (v. 4). - Bill Crowder
Your Safe Place
By Elisa Morgan
The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. Proverbs 18:10
My daughter and I were arranging to attend an extended family gathering. Because she was nervous about the trip, I offered to drive. “Okay. But I feel safer in my car. Can you drive it?” she asked. I assumed she preferred her more spacious vehicle to my compact one so I responded, “Is my car too cramped?” “No, it’s just that my car is my safe place. Somehow I feel protected there.”
Her comment challenged me to consider my own personal “safe place.” Immediately I thought of Proverbs 18:10, “The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.” In Old Testament times, the walls and watchtower of a city provided warning of danger from without and shielding for its citizens within. The writer’s point is that God’s name, which stands for His character, person, and everything that He is, provides true protection for His people.
The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. Proverbs 18:10
Certain physical places promise longed-for safety in moments that seem dangerous. A sturdy roof overhead in the midst of a storm. A hospital offering medical care. The embrace of a loved one.
What is your “safe place”? Wherever we seek safety, it is God’s presence with us in that place that provides the strength and protection we really need.
Dear God, thank You that no matter what worries and concerns we have today, when we think about You, we find safety in Your presence.
Where is your safe place? Share at Facebook.com/ourdailybread.
God is a safe place in life’s storms.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, October 21, 2017
Impulsiveness or Discipleship?
But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith… —Jude 20
There was nothing of the nature of impulsive or thoughtless action about our Lord, but only a calm strength that never got into a panic. Most of us develop our Christianity along the lines of our own nature, not along the lines of God’s nature. Impulsiveness is a trait of the natural life, and our Lord always ignores it, because it hinders the development of the life of a disciple. Watch how the Spirit of God gives a sense of restraint to impulsiveness, suddenly bringing us a feeling of self-conscious foolishness, which makes us instantly want to vindicate ourselves. Impulsiveness is all right in a child, but is disastrous in a man or woman— an impulsive adult is always a spoiled person. Impulsiveness needs to be trained into intuition through discipline.
Discipleship is built entirely on the supernatural grace of God. Walking on water is easy to someone with impulsive boldness, but walking on dry land as a disciple of Jesus Christ is something altogether different. Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus, but he “followed Him at a distance” on dry land (Mark 14:54). We do not need the grace of God to withstand crises— human nature and pride are sufficient for us to face the stress and strain magnificently. But it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours of every day as a saint, going through drudgery, and living an ordinary, unnoticed, and ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is ingrained in us that we have to do exceptional things for God— but we do not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life, and holy on the ordinary streets, among ordinary people— and this is not learned in five minutes.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Am I getting nobler, better, more helpful, more humble, as I get older? Am I exhibiting the life that men take knowledge of as having been with Jesus, or am I getting more self-assertive, more deliberately determined to have my own way? It is a great thing to tell yourself the truth. The Place of Help, 1005 R
Matthew 7 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Approaching God
Jesus invites us to approach God the way a child approaches his or her daddy! And how do children approach their daddies? I went to a school playground to find out. When a five-year-old spots his father in the parking lot, how does he react?
"Yippee!" screamed a redheaded boy wearing a Batman backpack.
"Pop!" Over here! Push me!" yelled a boy wearing a Boston Red Sox cap who scooted straight to the swings.
Here's what I didn't hear: "Father, it is most gracious of thee to drive thy car to my place of education. Please know of my deep gratitude for your benevolence. For thou art splendid in they attentive care and diligent in they dedication."
I heard kids who were happy to see their dads and eager to speak to them! God invites us to approach Him in the same manner. What a relief!
Before Amen
He Carried Our Diseases
8 1-2 Jesus came down the mountain with the cheers of the crowd still ringing in his ears. Then a leper appeared and went to his knees before Jesus, praying, “Master, if you want to, you can heal my body.”
3-4 Jesus reached out and touched him, saying, “I want to. Be clean.” Then and there, all signs of the leprosy were gone. Jesus said, “Don’t talk about this all over town. Just quietly present your healed body to the priest, along with the appropriate expressions of thanks to God. Your cleansed and grateful life, not your words, will bear witness to what I have done.”
5-6 As Jesus entered the village of Capernaum, a Roman captain came up in a panic and said, “Master, my servant is sick. He can’t walk. He’s in terrible pain.”
7 Jesus said, “I’ll come and heal him.”
8-9 “Oh, no,” said the captain. “I don’t want to put you to all that trouble. Just give the order and my servant will be fine. I’m a man who takes orders and gives orders. I tell one soldier, ‘Go,’ and he goes; to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
10-12 Taken aback, Jesus said, “I’ve yet to come across this kind of simple trust in Israel, the very people who are supposed to know all about God and how he works. This man is the vanguard of many outsiders who will soon be coming from all directions—streaming in from the east, pouring in from the west, sitting down at God’s kingdom banquet alongside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then those who grew up ‘in the faith’ but had no faith will find themselves out in the cold, outsiders to grace and wondering what happened.”
13 Then Jesus turned to the captain and said, “Go. What you believed could happen has happened.” At that moment his servant became well.
14-15 By this time they were in front of Peter’s house. On entering, Jesus found Peter’s mother-in-law sick in bed, burning up with fever. He touched her hand and the fever was gone. No sooner was she up on her feet than she was fixing dinner for him.
16-17 That evening a lot of demon-afflicted people were brought to him. He relieved the inwardly tormented. He cured the bodily ill. He fulfilled Isaiah’s well-known sermon:
He took our illnesses,
He carried our diseases.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, October 21, 2017
Read: Proverbs 18:10–11
God’s name is a place of protection—
good people can run there and be safe.
11 The rich think their wealth protects them;
they imagine themselves safe behind it.
INSIGHT
One of the greatest biblical descriptions of a truly “safe place” is found in the familiar words of Psalm 23. Some scholars envision David writing this Shepherd-psalm while still a young boy, perhaps lying under a star-filled night sky. Others see so much maturity and wisdom in the song that they imagine Psalm 23 as the reflections of an elderly person who has lived long and learned much. Either way, the song clearly describes David’s “safe place.” It was a place of provision (v. 1); a place of green pastures and quiet, relaxing waters (v. 2); and a place for spiritual restoration and spiritual guidance (v. 3). But, most of all, it was a place where David experienced the presence of God, who removed all his fear and provided deep comfort (v. 4). - Bill Crowder
Your Safe Place
By Elisa Morgan
The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. Proverbs 18:10
My daughter and I were arranging to attend an extended family gathering. Because she was nervous about the trip, I offered to drive. “Okay. But I feel safer in my car. Can you drive it?” she asked. I assumed she preferred her more spacious vehicle to my compact one so I responded, “Is my car too cramped?” “No, it’s just that my car is my safe place. Somehow I feel protected there.”
Her comment challenged me to consider my own personal “safe place.” Immediately I thought of Proverbs 18:10, “The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.” In Old Testament times, the walls and watchtower of a city provided warning of danger from without and shielding for its citizens within. The writer’s point is that God’s name, which stands for His character, person, and everything that He is, provides true protection for His people.
The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. Proverbs 18:10
Certain physical places promise longed-for safety in moments that seem dangerous. A sturdy roof overhead in the midst of a storm. A hospital offering medical care. The embrace of a loved one.
What is your “safe place”? Wherever we seek safety, it is God’s presence with us in that place that provides the strength and protection we really need.
Dear God, thank You that no matter what worries and concerns we have today, when we think about You, we find safety in Your presence.
Where is your safe place? Share at Facebook.com/ourdailybread.
God is a safe place in life’s storms.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, October 21, 2017
Impulsiveness or Discipleship?
But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith… —Jude 20
There was nothing of the nature of impulsive or thoughtless action about our Lord, but only a calm strength that never got into a panic. Most of us develop our Christianity along the lines of our own nature, not along the lines of God’s nature. Impulsiveness is a trait of the natural life, and our Lord always ignores it, because it hinders the development of the life of a disciple. Watch how the Spirit of God gives a sense of restraint to impulsiveness, suddenly bringing us a feeling of self-conscious foolishness, which makes us instantly want to vindicate ourselves. Impulsiveness is all right in a child, but is disastrous in a man or woman— an impulsive adult is always a spoiled person. Impulsiveness needs to be trained into intuition through discipline.
Discipleship is built entirely on the supernatural grace of God. Walking on water is easy to someone with impulsive boldness, but walking on dry land as a disciple of Jesus Christ is something altogether different. Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus, but he “followed Him at a distance” on dry land (Mark 14:54). We do not need the grace of God to withstand crises— human nature and pride are sufficient for us to face the stress and strain magnificently. But it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours of every day as a saint, going through drudgery, and living an ordinary, unnoticed, and ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is ingrained in us that we have to do exceptional things for God— but we do not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life, and holy on the ordinary streets, among ordinary people— and this is not learned in five minutes.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Am I getting nobler, better, more helpful, more humble, as I get older? Am I exhibiting the life that men take knowledge of as having been with Jesus, or am I getting more self-assertive, more deliberately determined to have my own way? It is a great thing to tell yourself the truth. The Place of Help, 1005 R
Jesus invites us to approach God the way a child approaches his or her daddy! And how do children approach their daddies? I went to a school playground to find out. When a five-year-old spots his father in the parking lot, how does he react?
"Yippee!" screamed a redheaded boy wearing a Batman backpack.
"Pop!" Over here! Push me!" yelled a boy wearing a Boston Red Sox cap who scooted straight to the swings.
Here's what I didn't hear: "Father, it is most gracious of thee to drive thy car to my place of education. Please know of my deep gratitude for your benevolence. For thou art splendid in they attentive care and diligent in they dedication."
I heard kids who were happy to see their dads and eager to speak to them! God invites us to approach Him in the same manner. What a relief!
Before Amen
He Carried Our Diseases
8 1-2 Jesus came down the mountain with the cheers of the crowd still ringing in his ears. Then a leper appeared and went to his knees before Jesus, praying, “Master, if you want to, you can heal my body.”
3-4 Jesus reached out and touched him, saying, “I want to. Be clean.” Then and there, all signs of the leprosy were gone. Jesus said, “Don’t talk about this all over town. Just quietly present your healed body to the priest, along with the appropriate expressions of thanks to God. Your cleansed and grateful life, not your words, will bear witness to what I have done.”
5-6 As Jesus entered the village of Capernaum, a Roman captain came up in a panic and said, “Master, my servant is sick. He can’t walk. He’s in terrible pain.”
7 Jesus said, “I’ll come and heal him.”
8-9 “Oh, no,” said the captain. “I don’t want to put you to all that trouble. Just give the order and my servant will be fine. I’m a man who takes orders and gives orders. I tell one soldier, ‘Go,’ and he goes; to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
10-12 Taken aback, Jesus said, “I’ve yet to come across this kind of simple trust in Israel, the very people who are supposed to know all about God and how he works. This man is the vanguard of many outsiders who will soon be coming from all directions—streaming in from the east, pouring in from the west, sitting down at God’s kingdom banquet alongside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then those who grew up ‘in the faith’ but had no faith will find themselves out in the cold, outsiders to grace and wondering what happened.”
13 Then Jesus turned to the captain and said, “Go. What you believed could happen has happened.” At that moment his servant became well.
14-15 By this time they were in front of Peter’s house. On entering, Jesus found Peter’s mother-in-law sick in bed, burning up with fever. He touched her hand and the fever was gone. No sooner was she up on her feet than she was fixing dinner for him.
16-17 That evening a lot of demon-afflicted people were brought to him. He relieved the inwardly tormented. He cured the bodily ill. He fulfilled Isaiah’s well-known sermon:
He took our illnesses,
He carried our diseases.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, October 21, 2017
Read: Proverbs 18:10–11
God’s name is a place of protection—
good people can run there and be safe.
11 The rich think their wealth protects them;
they imagine themselves safe behind it.
INSIGHT
One of the greatest biblical descriptions of a truly “safe place” is found in the familiar words of Psalm 23. Some scholars envision David writing this Shepherd-psalm while still a young boy, perhaps lying under a star-filled night sky. Others see so much maturity and wisdom in the song that they imagine Psalm 23 as the reflections of an elderly person who has lived long and learned much. Either way, the song clearly describes David’s “safe place.” It was a place of provision (v. 1); a place of green pastures and quiet, relaxing waters (v. 2); and a place for spiritual restoration and spiritual guidance (v. 3). But, most of all, it was a place where David experienced the presence of God, who removed all his fear and provided deep comfort (v. 4). - Bill Crowder
Your Safe Place
By Elisa Morgan
The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. Proverbs 18:10
My daughter and I were arranging to attend an extended family gathering. Because she was nervous about the trip, I offered to drive. “Okay. But I feel safer in my car. Can you drive it?” she asked. I assumed she preferred her more spacious vehicle to my compact one so I responded, “Is my car too cramped?” “No, it’s just that my car is my safe place. Somehow I feel protected there.”
Her comment challenged me to consider my own personal “safe place.” Immediately I thought of Proverbs 18:10, “The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.” In Old Testament times, the walls and watchtower of a city provided warning of danger from without and shielding for its citizens within. The writer’s point is that God’s name, which stands for His character, person, and everything that He is, provides true protection for His people.
The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. Proverbs 18:10
Certain physical places promise longed-for safety in moments that seem dangerous. A sturdy roof overhead in the midst of a storm. A hospital offering medical care. The embrace of a loved one.
What is your “safe place”? Wherever we seek safety, it is God’s presence with us in that place that provides the strength and protection we really need.
Dear God, thank You that no matter what worries and concerns we have today, when we think about You, we find safety in Your presence.
Where is your safe place? Share at Facebook.com/ourdailybread.
God is a safe place in life’s storms.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, October 21, 2017
Impulsiveness or Discipleship?
But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith… —Jude 20
There was nothing of the nature of impulsive or thoughtless action about our Lord, but only a calm strength that never got into a panic. Most of us develop our Christianity along the lines of our own nature, not along the lines of God’s nature. Impulsiveness is a trait of the natural life, and our Lord always ignores it, because it hinders the development of the life of a disciple. Watch how the Spirit of God gives a sense of restraint to impulsiveness, suddenly bringing us a feeling of self-conscious foolishness, which makes us instantly want to vindicate ourselves. Impulsiveness is all right in a child, but is disastrous in a man or woman— an impulsive adult is always a spoiled person. Impulsiveness needs to be trained into intuition through discipline.
Discipleship is built entirely on the supernatural grace of God. Walking on water is easy to someone with impulsive boldness, but walking on dry land as a disciple of Jesus Christ is something altogether different. Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus, but he “followed Him at a distance” on dry land (Mark 14:54). We do not need the grace of God to withstand crises— human nature and pride are sufficient for us to face the stress and strain magnificently. But it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours of every day as a saint, going through drudgery, and living an ordinary, unnoticed, and ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is ingrained in us that we have to do exceptional things for God— but we do not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life, and holy on the ordinary streets, among ordinary people— and this is not learned in five minutes.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Am I getting nobler, better, more helpful, more humble, as I get older? Am I exhibiting the life that men take knowledge of as having been with Jesus, or am I getting more self-assertive, more deliberately determined to have my own way? It is a great thing to tell yourself the truth. The Place of Help, 1005 R
Friday, October 20, 2017
Matthew 7, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: THE PERFECT STORM
When mariners describe a tempest no sailor can escape, they call it a perfect storm. Not perfect in the sense of ideal. But perfect in the sense of combining contributing factors. You don’t need to be a fisherman to experience a perfect storm. All you need is a layoff plus a recession. A disease plus a breakup. We can handle one challenge—but two or three at a time? It’s enough to make you wonder, will I survive?
Paul’s answer to that question is profound and concise. “The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). This is not a peace from God. Our Father gives us the very peace of God. We should be upset, but we aren’t. The peace of God transcends all logic. This kind of peace is not a human achievement. It is a gift from above. A perfect gift for the perfect storm!
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Matthew 7
Judging Others
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
6 “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.
Ask, Seek, Knock
7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
The Narrow and Wide Gates
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
True and False Prophets
15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
True and False Disciples
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
The Wise and Foolish Builders
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, October 20, 2017
Read: Psalm 27:1–4
A David Psalm
Light, space, zest—
that’s God!
So, with him on my side I’m fearless,
afraid of no one and nothing.
2 When vandal hordes ride down
ready to eat me alive,
Those bullies and toughs
fall flat on their faces.
3 When besieged,
I’m calm as a baby.
When all hell breaks loose,
I’m collected and cool.
4 I’m asking God for one thing,
only one thing:
To live with him in his house
my whole life long.
I’ll contemplate his beauty;
I’ll study at his feet.
INSIGHT
God is worthy of our faith, hope, and confidence; His power and presence are the foundation of many of the Old Testament stories. But sometimes life makes us question what we know. It's hard to see these truths about God when life is hard. That's when we need to view our experience through the lens of Scripture.
David does just that in Psalm 27. Despite having been anointed king by Samuel, he is living as a vagrant and fugitive. Even though he is on the run and enemy armies are pursuing him (vv. 2–3), he is confident in the Lord (v. 3). It is just then—when David’s immediate experience suggests hopelessness—that he rests in the power and protection of the Lord. Turning his eyes away from his circumstances and toward the Lord bolstered David’s confidence. His one desire was not to be vindicated in front of his enemies, but to be in the presence of the Lord (v. 4). Turning to the Lord is what gave him confidence in the day of trouble (v. 5).
Where does your experience need to be understood through the lens of Scripture? What truth about God do you need to be reminded of today? - J.R. Hudberg
When Beauty Never Ends
By James Banks
Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. Psalm 63:3
I love looking at the Grand Canyon. Whenever I stand at the canyon rim I see new brushstrokes of God’s handiwork that take my breath away.
Even though it’s just a (very large) “hole” in the ground, the Grand Canyon causes me to reflect on heaven. A very honest twelve-year-old asked me once, “Won’t heaven be boring? Don’t you think we’ll get tired of praising God all the time?” But if a “hole in the ground” can be so overwhelmingly beautiful we can’t stop looking at it, we can only imagine the joy of one day seeing the very Source of beauty—our loving Creator—in all of the pristine wonder of the new creation.
We were created to enjoy God forever.
David expressed this longing when he wrote, “One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord” (Ps. 27:4). There’s nothing more beautiful than the presence of God, which draws near to us on this earth as we seek Him by faith, looking forward to seeing Him face to face.
On that day we’ll never tire of praising our amazing Lord, because we will never come to an end of fresh, new discoveries of His exquisite goodness and the wonders of the works of His hands. Every moment in His presence will bring a breathtaking revelation of His beauty and His love.
Beautiful Savior, please help me to seek You every day and to live even now in Your presence and Your love.
We were created to enjoy God forever.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, October 20, 2017
Is God’s Will My Will?
This is the will of God, your sanctification… —1 Thessalonians 4:3
Sanctification is not a question of whether God is willing to sanctify me— is it my will? Am I willing to let God do in me everything that has been made possible through the atonement of the Cross of Christ? Am I willing to let Jesus become sanctification to me, and to let His life be exhibited in my human flesh? (see 1 Corinthians 1:30). Beware of saying, “Oh, I am longing to be sanctified.” No, you are not. Recognize your need, but stop longing and make it a matter of action. Receive Jesus Christ to become sanctification for you by absolute, unquestioning faith, and the great miracle of the atonement of Jesus will become real in you.
All that Jesus made possible becomes mine through the free and loving gift of God on the basis of what Christ accomplished on the cross. And my attitude as a saved and sanctified soul is that of profound, humble holiness (there is no such thing as proud holiness). It is a holiness based on agonizing repentance, a sense of inexpressible shame and degradation, and also on the amazing realization that the love of God demonstrated itself to me while I cared nothing about Him (see Romans 5:8). He completed everything for my salvation and sanctification. No wonder Paul said that nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).
Sanctification makes me one with Jesus Christ, and in Him one with God, and it is accomplished only through the magnificent atonement of Christ. Never confuse the effect with the cause. The effect in me is obedience, service, and prayer, and is the outcome of inexpressible thanks and adoration for the miraculous sanctification that has been brought about in me because of the atonement through the Cross of Christ.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are in danger of being stern where God is tender, and of being tender where God is stern. The Love of God—The Message of Invincible Consolation, 673 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, October 20, 2017
How Immunization Can Cost You Your Life - #8030
Today's children have barely even heard of the disease, but when I was a kid, it was every parent's greatest fear for their child - that crippling, sometimes deadly disease called polio. I can distinctly remember how my mother didn't even want me to be in big crowds because of how polio seemed to spread so quickly. But then along came the vaccine. We all got our shots and we were immune to polio. Since then, there are a lot more shots like that for everything from smallpox, to tetanus, to the flu. And they all work basically on the same principle; in essence, you get a little of the virus injected into your system so that your body will build up an immunity to what could otherwise cripple you or kill you. That kind of immunization can save your life. But, on the other hand, immunization can be really dangerous spiritually…even deadly.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How Immunization Can Cost You Your Life."
Yep, we are talking spiritual immunization - the kind where you get injected with just enough Christianity to immunize you to your personal need for Jesus Christ. Literally, all you know about Jesus can spiritually kill you, if it numbs you and keeps you from acting on what Jesus did on the cross for you.
That's why we have this warning in Hebrews 4:7, our word for today from the Word of God. It says, "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts." Let's say you've been around the message of Jesus a lot. You know - you agree - that all of us have a sin problem. We're in trouble with God; we're away from God because we have run our own lives instead of God running them. You know, and you agree that Jesus Christ, God's Son, loved us so much that He gave His life to pay our death penalty. You know and you agree that people need to put their trust in Jesus to make Him their personal Rescuer from their personal sin and its penalty.
And you have, as the verse says, "heard His voice." You have felt the tug of Jesus, urging you to give yourself to Him. But even though you know all about belonging to Jesus, you don't belong to Him. You agree with Him, but you've never really reached out to Him in the way that a drowning person grabs the lifeguard whose come to save them.
And every time you've heard about Jesus and you've done nothing, you've been unknowingly "hardening your heart" a little more. You've become almost immune to the prompting of the Holy Spirit when He says, "Hey, this is for you." You watch others come to Christ, but you never have. When someone asks people to come to Christ, you subconsciously are thinking, "Oh, that's for somebody else." Maybe not. Maybe today the call to come to Christ is finally for you.
Hear the words of God again, "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart." In John 12, the Bible describes some people who it says "would not believe in Him" (John 12:37). Then it says ultimately "they could not believe" (John 12:39). You never know how close you are to the point of no return. So if you've never actually begun your personal relationship with Jesus Christ, why don't you do it right now? Do it right where you are.
This is the only opportunity you could be sure of. Do not harden your heart. The tug you feel is Jesus knocking on the door of your heart. Tell Him, "Jesus, I don't want to just agree with You or know about You. I want to know you. I want to belong to you.
Our website is a great place for you to go right now. It's a place to find exactly the information you need biblically to confirm that you actually have this relationship with Jesus. That is the key to being in heaven with Him some day. Would you go to ANewStory.com?
Immunity to Jesus can cost you your life - your eternal life in heaven. Before it's forever too late, please give yourself to this Savior that you've known about for so long.
When mariners describe a tempest no sailor can escape, they call it a perfect storm. Not perfect in the sense of ideal. But perfect in the sense of combining contributing factors. You don’t need to be a fisherman to experience a perfect storm. All you need is a layoff plus a recession. A disease plus a breakup. We can handle one challenge—but two or three at a time? It’s enough to make you wonder, will I survive?
Paul’s answer to that question is profound and concise. “The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). This is not a peace from God. Our Father gives us the very peace of God. We should be upset, but we aren’t. The peace of God transcends all logic. This kind of peace is not a human achievement. It is a gift from above. A perfect gift for the perfect storm!
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Matthew 7
Judging Others
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
6 “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.
Ask, Seek, Knock
7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
The Narrow and Wide Gates
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
True and False Prophets
15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
True and False Disciples
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
The Wise and Foolish Builders
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, October 20, 2017
Read: Psalm 27:1–4
A David Psalm
Light, space, zest—
that’s God!
So, with him on my side I’m fearless,
afraid of no one and nothing.
2 When vandal hordes ride down
ready to eat me alive,
Those bullies and toughs
fall flat on their faces.
3 When besieged,
I’m calm as a baby.
When all hell breaks loose,
I’m collected and cool.
4 I’m asking God for one thing,
only one thing:
To live with him in his house
my whole life long.
I’ll contemplate his beauty;
I’ll study at his feet.
INSIGHT
God is worthy of our faith, hope, and confidence; His power and presence are the foundation of many of the Old Testament stories. But sometimes life makes us question what we know. It's hard to see these truths about God when life is hard. That's when we need to view our experience through the lens of Scripture.
David does just that in Psalm 27. Despite having been anointed king by Samuel, he is living as a vagrant and fugitive. Even though he is on the run and enemy armies are pursuing him (vv. 2–3), he is confident in the Lord (v. 3). It is just then—when David’s immediate experience suggests hopelessness—that he rests in the power and protection of the Lord. Turning his eyes away from his circumstances and toward the Lord bolstered David’s confidence. His one desire was not to be vindicated in front of his enemies, but to be in the presence of the Lord (v. 4). Turning to the Lord is what gave him confidence in the day of trouble (v. 5).
Where does your experience need to be understood through the lens of Scripture? What truth about God do you need to be reminded of today? - J.R. Hudberg
When Beauty Never Ends
By James Banks
Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. Psalm 63:3
I love looking at the Grand Canyon. Whenever I stand at the canyon rim I see new brushstrokes of God’s handiwork that take my breath away.
Even though it’s just a (very large) “hole” in the ground, the Grand Canyon causes me to reflect on heaven. A very honest twelve-year-old asked me once, “Won’t heaven be boring? Don’t you think we’ll get tired of praising God all the time?” But if a “hole in the ground” can be so overwhelmingly beautiful we can’t stop looking at it, we can only imagine the joy of one day seeing the very Source of beauty—our loving Creator—in all of the pristine wonder of the new creation.
We were created to enjoy God forever.
David expressed this longing when he wrote, “One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord” (Ps. 27:4). There’s nothing more beautiful than the presence of God, which draws near to us on this earth as we seek Him by faith, looking forward to seeing Him face to face.
On that day we’ll never tire of praising our amazing Lord, because we will never come to an end of fresh, new discoveries of His exquisite goodness and the wonders of the works of His hands. Every moment in His presence will bring a breathtaking revelation of His beauty and His love.
Beautiful Savior, please help me to seek You every day and to live even now in Your presence and Your love.
We were created to enjoy God forever.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, October 20, 2017
Is God’s Will My Will?
This is the will of God, your sanctification… —1 Thessalonians 4:3
Sanctification is not a question of whether God is willing to sanctify me— is it my will? Am I willing to let God do in me everything that has been made possible through the atonement of the Cross of Christ? Am I willing to let Jesus become sanctification to me, and to let His life be exhibited in my human flesh? (see 1 Corinthians 1:30). Beware of saying, “Oh, I am longing to be sanctified.” No, you are not. Recognize your need, but stop longing and make it a matter of action. Receive Jesus Christ to become sanctification for you by absolute, unquestioning faith, and the great miracle of the atonement of Jesus will become real in you.
All that Jesus made possible becomes mine through the free and loving gift of God on the basis of what Christ accomplished on the cross. And my attitude as a saved and sanctified soul is that of profound, humble holiness (there is no such thing as proud holiness). It is a holiness based on agonizing repentance, a sense of inexpressible shame and degradation, and also on the amazing realization that the love of God demonstrated itself to me while I cared nothing about Him (see Romans 5:8). He completed everything for my salvation and sanctification. No wonder Paul said that nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).
Sanctification makes me one with Jesus Christ, and in Him one with God, and it is accomplished only through the magnificent atonement of Christ. Never confuse the effect with the cause. The effect in me is obedience, service, and prayer, and is the outcome of inexpressible thanks and adoration for the miraculous sanctification that has been brought about in me because of the atonement through the Cross of Christ.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are in danger of being stern where God is tender, and of being tender where God is stern. The Love of God—The Message of Invincible Consolation, 673 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, October 20, 2017
How Immunization Can Cost You Your Life - #8030
Today's children have barely even heard of the disease, but when I was a kid, it was every parent's greatest fear for their child - that crippling, sometimes deadly disease called polio. I can distinctly remember how my mother didn't even want me to be in big crowds because of how polio seemed to spread so quickly. But then along came the vaccine. We all got our shots and we were immune to polio. Since then, there are a lot more shots like that for everything from smallpox, to tetanus, to the flu. And they all work basically on the same principle; in essence, you get a little of the virus injected into your system so that your body will build up an immunity to what could otherwise cripple you or kill you. That kind of immunization can save your life. But, on the other hand, immunization can be really dangerous spiritually…even deadly.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How Immunization Can Cost You Your Life."
Yep, we are talking spiritual immunization - the kind where you get injected with just enough Christianity to immunize you to your personal need for Jesus Christ. Literally, all you know about Jesus can spiritually kill you, if it numbs you and keeps you from acting on what Jesus did on the cross for you.
That's why we have this warning in Hebrews 4:7, our word for today from the Word of God. It says, "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts." Let's say you've been around the message of Jesus a lot. You know - you agree - that all of us have a sin problem. We're in trouble with God; we're away from God because we have run our own lives instead of God running them. You know, and you agree that Jesus Christ, God's Son, loved us so much that He gave His life to pay our death penalty. You know and you agree that people need to put their trust in Jesus to make Him their personal Rescuer from their personal sin and its penalty.
And you have, as the verse says, "heard His voice." You have felt the tug of Jesus, urging you to give yourself to Him. But even though you know all about belonging to Jesus, you don't belong to Him. You agree with Him, but you've never really reached out to Him in the way that a drowning person grabs the lifeguard whose come to save them.
And every time you've heard about Jesus and you've done nothing, you've been unknowingly "hardening your heart" a little more. You've become almost immune to the prompting of the Holy Spirit when He says, "Hey, this is for you." You watch others come to Christ, but you never have. When someone asks people to come to Christ, you subconsciously are thinking, "Oh, that's for somebody else." Maybe not. Maybe today the call to come to Christ is finally for you.
Hear the words of God again, "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart." In John 12, the Bible describes some people who it says "would not believe in Him" (John 12:37). Then it says ultimately "they could not believe" (John 12:39). You never know how close you are to the point of no return. So if you've never actually begun your personal relationship with Jesus Christ, why don't you do it right now? Do it right where you are.
This is the only opportunity you could be sure of. Do not harden your heart. The tug you feel is Jesus knocking on the door of your heart. Tell Him, "Jesus, I don't want to just agree with You or know about You. I want to know you. I want to belong to you.
Our website is a great place for you to go right now. It's a place to find exactly the information you need biblically to confirm that you actually have this relationship with Jesus. That is the key to being in heaven with Him some day. Would you go to ANewStory.com?
Immunity to Jesus can cost you your life - your eternal life in heaven. Before it's forever too late, please give yourself to this Savior that you've known about for so long.
Thursday, October 19, 2017
Job 2 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: IN CHRIST YOU HAVE EVERYTHING
Define yourself by stuff, and you’ll feel good when you have a lot, and you’ll feel bad when you don’t. The cycle is predictable. If I get a car, I’ll be happy. If I get married, I’ll be happy…or if I get the new job. But in each case the joy comes and then diminishes. By the time you reach old age, you’ve ridden a roller coaster of hope and disappointment. And you are suspicious that life will let you down again.
Contingent contentment turns us into wounded, worried people. But Christ-based contentment turns us into happy people. Death, failure, betrayal, sickness, disappointment—they cannot take our joy, because they cannot take our Jesus. Write this down! In Christ you have everything! He can give you a happiness that can never be taken, a grace that will never expire, and a wisdom that will ever increase. He is a fountain of living hope that will never be exhausted!
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Job 2
The Second Test: Health
1-3 One day when the angels came to report to God, Satan also showed up. God singled out Satan, saying, “And what have you been up to?” Satan answered God, “Oh, going here and there, checking things out.” Then God said to Satan, “Have you noticed my friend Job? There’s no one quite like him, is there—honest and true to his word, totally devoted to God and hating evil? He still has a firm grip on his integrity! You tried to trick me into destroying him, but it didn’t work.”
4-5 Satan answered, “A human would do anything to save his life. But what do you think would happen if you reached down and took away his health? He’d curse you to your face, that’s what.”
6 God said, “All right. Go ahead—you can do what you like with him. But mind you, don’t kill him.”
7-8 Satan left God and struck Job with terrible sores. Job was ulcers and scabs from head to foot. They itched and oozed so badly that he took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself, then went and sat on a trash heap, among the ashes.
9 His wife said, “Still holding on to your precious integrity, are you? Curse God and be done with it!”
10 He told her, “You’re talking like an empty-headed fool. We take the good days from God—why not also the bad days?”
Not once through all this did Job sin. He said nothing against God.
Job’s Three Friends
11-13 Three of Job’s friends heard of all the trouble that had fallen on him. Each traveled from his own country—Eliphaz from Teman, Bildad from Shuhah, Zophar from Naamath—and went together to Job to keep him company and comfort him. When they first caught sight of him, they couldn’t believe what they saw—they hardly recognized him! They cried out in lament, ripped their robes, and dumped dirt on their heads as a sign of their grief. Then they sat with him on the ground. Seven days and nights they sat there without saying a word. They could see how rotten he felt, how deeply he was suffering.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, October 19, 2017
Read: Romans 7:14–25
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[a] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature[b] a slave to the law of sin.
Footnotes:
Romans 7:18 Or my flesh
Romans 7:25 Or in the flesh
INSIGHT
In Romans 7 the apostle Paul laments that sinful tendencies within us sometimes win out over righteous impulses. In what ways can we yield to the Holy Spirit’s power to experience more righteous living?
For further reading see ourdailyjourney.org/spirits-wind. -Dennis Fisher
We’ve Got the Power!
By Xochitl Dixon
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Galatians 5:25
The loud crackling noise startled me. Recognizing the sound, I raced to the kitchen. I’d accidently tapped the start button on the empty coffee maker. Unplugging the appliance, I grabbed the handle of the carafe. Then I touched the bottom of the container to ensure it wasn’t too hot to place on the tile counter. The smooth surface burned my fingertips, blistering my tender skin.
As my husband nursed my wound, I shook my head. I knew the glass would be hot. “I honestly do not know why I touched it,” I said.
The Holy Spirit transforms us through His love and by His grace.
My response after making such a mistake reminded me of Paul’s reaction to a more serious issue in Scripture—the nature of sin.
The apostle admits to not knowing why he does things he knows he shouldn’t do and doesn’t want to do (Rom. 7:15). Affirming that Scripture determines right and wrong (v. 7), he acknowledges the real, complex war constantly waging between the flesh and the spirit in the struggle against sin (vv. 15–23). Confessing his own weaknesses, he offers hope for victory now and forever (vv. 24–25).
When we surrender our lives to Christ, He gives us His Holy Spirit who empowers us to choose to do right (8:8–10). As He enables us to obey God’s Word, we can avoid the searing sin that separates us from the abundant life God promises those who love Him.
Lord, thanks for breaking the chains that used to bind us to a life controlled by our sinful nature.
The Holy Spirit transforms us through His love and by His grace.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, October 19, 2017
The Unheeded Secret
Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world." —John 18:36
The great enemy of the Lord Jesus Christ today is the idea of practical work that has no basis in the New Testament but comes from the systems of the world. This work insists upon endless energy and activities, but no private life with God. The emphasis is put on the wrong thing. Jesus said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation….For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20-21). It is a hidden, obscure thing. An active Christian worker too often lives to be seen by others, while it is the innermost, personal area that reveals the power of a person’s life.
We must get rid of the plague of the spirit of this religious age in which we live. In our Lord’s life there was none of the pressure and the rushing of tremendous activity that we regard so highly today, and a disciple is to be like His Master. The central point of the kingdom of Jesus Christ is a personal relationship with Him, not public usefulness to others.
It is not the practical activities that are the strength of this Bible Training College— its entire strength lies in the fact that here you are immersed in the truths of God to soak in them before Him. You have no idea of where or how God is going to engineer your future circumstances, and no knowledge of what stress and strain is going to be placed on you either at home or abroad. And if you waste your time in overactivity, instead of being immersed in the great fundamental truths of God’s redemption, then you will snap when the stress and strain do come. But if this time of soaking before God is being spent in getting rooted and grounded in Him, which may appear to be impractical, then you will remain true to Him whatever happens.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Sincerity means that the appearance and the reality are exactly the same.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, October 19, 2017
Recycling Your Garbage - #8029
It was exciting that first time I landed at LaGuardia Airport in New York City. There's the skyline of Manhattan out the window, and water all around us as the plane touched down on the runway. It was only after I had landed that my host in New York told me how they built LaGuardia Airport. He said, "Oh, they built it on the garbage of New York." Landfill in the bay created a base on which an airport could be built. By the way, on which my airplane just landed.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Recycling Your Garbage."
It's amazing what they can do with garbage, isn't it? They recycle what seems vile and useless and they make it into something useful. That's the very kind of miracle God's been doing for people for a long time, and He wants to do it for you.
This past summer God used the brokenness, the courage of a team of young Native Americans to bring unprecedented numbers of reservation young people to a commitment to Jesus Christ. I've seen it happen summer after summer. Some of the most powerful moments we experienced with our "On Eagles' Wings" team were when some of these young people, representing some 35 different tribes, stood in the middle of Indian villages and shared what they call their Hope Story. They poured out the pain of some horrific backgrounds, and then the incredible hope they have found in Jesus Christ. And kids who listen to no one listened to them, and by the hundreds, they gave themselves publicly to Jesus Christ.
One night, at a reservation outreach, Mary shared her heart-wrenching story of sexual abuse and the drugs and alcohol she used to sedate her pain. It's a story that's always hard for her to tell, but one which powerfully turns young people's hearts to Jesus. After telling her story at a second outreach, Mary came to me and said, "I can't believe how God uses the stuff I've been through to change so many lives."
That's it. Garbage, recycled by God, to help other people find life and find hope. In Genesis 50:20, our word for today from the Word of God, Joseph summarizes the perspective God has given him on the junk of his life. He's been nearly murdered by his brothers as a teenager, he's been sold into slavery, unjustly imprisoned in a foreign land, but ultimately rescued by God and made the assistant Pharaoh of Egypt, the second most powerful man in the world. In that position, his God-directed plans to prepare for a coming famine, save many lives in Egypt and even the lives of the brothers who betrayed him many years before. No betrayal and he never would have been in Egypt. No Egypt and many would have died, possibly even his own family.
So here's Joseph's summary of it all, explained to his brothers: "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish...the saving of many lives." See, that's what God wants to do with all the garbage of your life - make it into something that can touch and heal many other lives.
If you'll release all that junk, all that pain to Jesus, He alone can heal it and He alone can redeem it, and He'll make it into a magnet for some other hurting lives. If you harbor it, it's just going to make you hard and bitter and largely useless in a wounded world. But if you surrender all that garbage to Jesus, He can turn it into a beautiful compassion, because you know how it feels. And that will cause many other struggling people to identify with you, to open their hearts to you, to trust you, and perhaps to let you lead them to Jesus. He's the One who was "a man of sorrows," the Bible says, "familiar with suffering," who "took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows." And the Bible says it is "by His wounds we are healed" (Isaiah 53:4-5).
Or in the words of a broken young Indian woman who has experienced His healing, He will "use the things you've been through to change so many lives."
Define yourself by stuff, and you’ll feel good when you have a lot, and you’ll feel bad when you don’t. The cycle is predictable. If I get a car, I’ll be happy. If I get married, I’ll be happy…or if I get the new job. But in each case the joy comes and then diminishes. By the time you reach old age, you’ve ridden a roller coaster of hope and disappointment. And you are suspicious that life will let you down again.
Contingent contentment turns us into wounded, worried people. But Christ-based contentment turns us into happy people. Death, failure, betrayal, sickness, disappointment—they cannot take our joy, because they cannot take our Jesus. Write this down! In Christ you have everything! He can give you a happiness that can never be taken, a grace that will never expire, and a wisdom that will ever increase. He is a fountain of living hope that will never be exhausted!
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Job 2
The Second Test: Health
1-3 One day when the angels came to report to God, Satan also showed up. God singled out Satan, saying, “And what have you been up to?” Satan answered God, “Oh, going here and there, checking things out.” Then God said to Satan, “Have you noticed my friend Job? There’s no one quite like him, is there—honest and true to his word, totally devoted to God and hating evil? He still has a firm grip on his integrity! You tried to trick me into destroying him, but it didn’t work.”
4-5 Satan answered, “A human would do anything to save his life. But what do you think would happen if you reached down and took away his health? He’d curse you to your face, that’s what.”
6 God said, “All right. Go ahead—you can do what you like with him. But mind you, don’t kill him.”
7-8 Satan left God and struck Job with terrible sores. Job was ulcers and scabs from head to foot. They itched and oozed so badly that he took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself, then went and sat on a trash heap, among the ashes.
9 His wife said, “Still holding on to your precious integrity, are you? Curse God and be done with it!”
10 He told her, “You’re talking like an empty-headed fool. We take the good days from God—why not also the bad days?”
Not once through all this did Job sin. He said nothing against God.
Job’s Three Friends
11-13 Three of Job’s friends heard of all the trouble that had fallen on him. Each traveled from his own country—Eliphaz from Teman, Bildad from Shuhah, Zophar from Naamath—and went together to Job to keep him company and comfort him. When they first caught sight of him, they couldn’t believe what they saw—they hardly recognized him! They cried out in lament, ripped their robes, and dumped dirt on their heads as a sign of their grief. Then they sat with him on the ground. Seven days and nights they sat there without saying a word. They could see how rotten he felt, how deeply he was suffering.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, October 19, 2017
Read: Romans 7:14–25
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[a] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature[b] a slave to the law of sin.
Footnotes:
Romans 7:18 Or my flesh
Romans 7:25 Or in the flesh
INSIGHT
In Romans 7 the apostle Paul laments that sinful tendencies within us sometimes win out over righteous impulses. In what ways can we yield to the Holy Spirit’s power to experience more righteous living?
For further reading see ourdailyjourney.org/spirits-wind. -Dennis Fisher
We’ve Got the Power!
By Xochitl Dixon
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Galatians 5:25
The loud crackling noise startled me. Recognizing the sound, I raced to the kitchen. I’d accidently tapped the start button on the empty coffee maker. Unplugging the appliance, I grabbed the handle of the carafe. Then I touched the bottom of the container to ensure it wasn’t too hot to place on the tile counter. The smooth surface burned my fingertips, blistering my tender skin.
As my husband nursed my wound, I shook my head. I knew the glass would be hot. “I honestly do not know why I touched it,” I said.
The Holy Spirit transforms us through His love and by His grace.
My response after making such a mistake reminded me of Paul’s reaction to a more serious issue in Scripture—the nature of sin.
The apostle admits to not knowing why he does things he knows he shouldn’t do and doesn’t want to do (Rom. 7:15). Affirming that Scripture determines right and wrong (v. 7), he acknowledges the real, complex war constantly waging between the flesh and the spirit in the struggle against sin (vv. 15–23). Confessing his own weaknesses, he offers hope for victory now and forever (vv. 24–25).
When we surrender our lives to Christ, He gives us His Holy Spirit who empowers us to choose to do right (8:8–10). As He enables us to obey God’s Word, we can avoid the searing sin that separates us from the abundant life God promises those who love Him.
Lord, thanks for breaking the chains that used to bind us to a life controlled by our sinful nature.
The Holy Spirit transforms us through His love and by His grace.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, October 19, 2017
The Unheeded Secret
Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world." —John 18:36
The great enemy of the Lord Jesus Christ today is the idea of practical work that has no basis in the New Testament but comes from the systems of the world. This work insists upon endless energy and activities, but no private life with God. The emphasis is put on the wrong thing. Jesus said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation….For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20-21). It is a hidden, obscure thing. An active Christian worker too often lives to be seen by others, while it is the innermost, personal area that reveals the power of a person’s life.
We must get rid of the plague of the spirit of this religious age in which we live. In our Lord’s life there was none of the pressure and the rushing of tremendous activity that we regard so highly today, and a disciple is to be like His Master. The central point of the kingdom of Jesus Christ is a personal relationship with Him, not public usefulness to others.
It is not the practical activities that are the strength of this Bible Training College— its entire strength lies in the fact that here you are immersed in the truths of God to soak in them before Him. You have no idea of where or how God is going to engineer your future circumstances, and no knowledge of what stress and strain is going to be placed on you either at home or abroad. And if you waste your time in overactivity, instead of being immersed in the great fundamental truths of God’s redemption, then you will snap when the stress and strain do come. But if this time of soaking before God is being spent in getting rooted and grounded in Him, which may appear to be impractical, then you will remain true to Him whatever happens.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Sincerity means that the appearance and the reality are exactly the same.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, October 19, 2017
Recycling Your Garbage - #8029
It was exciting that first time I landed at LaGuardia Airport in New York City. There's the skyline of Manhattan out the window, and water all around us as the plane touched down on the runway. It was only after I had landed that my host in New York told me how they built LaGuardia Airport. He said, "Oh, they built it on the garbage of New York." Landfill in the bay created a base on which an airport could be built. By the way, on which my airplane just landed.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Recycling Your Garbage."
It's amazing what they can do with garbage, isn't it? They recycle what seems vile and useless and they make it into something useful. That's the very kind of miracle God's been doing for people for a long time, and He wants to do it for you.
This past summer God used the brokenness, the courage of a team of young Native Americans to bring unprecedented numbers of reservation young people to a commitment to Jesus Christ. I've seen it happen summer after summer. Some of the most powerful moments we experienced with our "On Eagles' Wings" team were when some of these young people, representing some 35 different tribes, stood in the middle of Indian villages and shared what they call their Hope Story. They poured out the pain of some horrific backgrounds, and then the incredible hope they have found in Jesus Christ. And kids who listen to no one listened to them, and by the hundreds, they gave themselves publicly to Jesus Christ.
One night, at a reservation outreach, Mary shared her heart-wrenching story of sexual abuse and the drugs and alcohol she used to sedate her pain. It's a story that's always hard for her to tell, but one which powerfully turns young people's hearts to Jesus. After telling her story at a second outreach, Mary came to me and said, "I can't believe how God uses the stuff I've been through to change so many lives."
That's it. Garbage, recycled by God, to help other people find life and find hope. In Genesis 50:20, our word for today from the Word of God, Joseph summarizes the perspective God has given him on the junk of his life. He's been nearly murdered by his brothers as a teenager, he's been sold into slavery, unjustly imprisoned in a foreign land, but ultimately rescued by God and made the assistant Pharaoh of Egypt, the second most powerful man in the world. In that position, his God-directed plans to prepare for a coming famine, save many lives in Egypt and even the lives of the brothers who betrayed him many years before. No betrayal and he never would have been in Egypt. No Egypt and many would have died, possibly even his own family.
So here's Joseph's summary of it all, explained to his brothers: "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish...the saving of many lives." See, that's what God wants to do with all the garbage of your life - make it into something that can touch and heal many other lives.
If you'll release all that junk, all that pain to Jesus, He alone can heal it and He alone can redeem it, and He'll make it into a magnet for some other hurting lives. If you harbor it, it's just going to make you hard and bitter and largely useless in a wounded world. But if you surrender all that garbage to Jesus, He can turn it into a beautiful compassion, because you know how it feels. And that will cause many other struggling people to identify with you, to open their hearts to you, to trust you, and perhaps to let you lead them to Jesus. He's the One who was "a man of sorrows," the Bible says, "familiar with suffering," who "took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows." And the Bible says it is "by His wounds we are healed" (Isaiah 53:4-5).
Or in the words of a broken young Indian woman who has experienced His healing, He will "use the things you've been through to change so many lives."
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Job 1 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: THE SECRET OF BEING CONTENT
Count your blessings! Focus more on what you have and less on what you don’t! The apostle Paul modeled gratitude. He said, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. . .I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation. . . I can do all things through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:11-13 NIV).
The circumstances of Paul’s life in jail were miserable. Yet with shackles dangling from his wrists, he announced, “I have learned the secret of being content.” He doesn’t say, I have learned the principle or I have learned the concept. He says, “I have learned the secret of being content—whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need” (v.12 HCSB). Paul focused on eternal life, the love of God, and the forgiveness of sins. What he had in Christ was far greater than what he didn’t have in life!
Count your blessings and focus more on what you have and less on what you don’t!
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Job 1
1-3 Job was a man who lived in Uz. He was honest inside and out, a man of his word, who was totally devoted to God and hated evil with a passion. He had seven sons and three daughters. He was also very wealthy—seven thousand head of sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred teams of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and a huge staff of servants—the most influential man in all the East!
4-5 His sons used to take turns hosting parties in their homes, always inviting their three sisters to join them in their merrymaking. When the parties were over, Job would get up early in the morning and sacrifice a burnt offering for each of his children, thinking, “Maybe one of them sinned by defying God inwardly.” Job made a habit of this sacrificial atonement, just in case they’d sinned.
The First Test: Family and Fortune
6-7 One day when the angels came to report to God, Satan, who was the Designated Accuser, came along with them. God singled out Satan and said, “What have you been up to?”
Satan answered God, “Going here and there, checking things out on earth.”
8 God said to Satan, “Have you noticed my friend Job? There’s no one quite like him—honest and true to his word, totally devoted to God and hating evil.”
9-10 Satan retorted, “So do you think Job does all that out of the sheer goodness of his heart? Why, no one ever had it so good! You pamper him like a pet, make sure nothing bad ever happens to him or his family or his possessions, bless everything he does—he can’t lose!
11 “But what do you think would happen if you reached down and took away everything that is his? He’d curse you right to your face, that’s what.”
12 God replied, “We’ll see. Go ahead—do what you want with all that is his. Just don’t hurt him.” Then Satan left the presence of God.
13-15 Sometime later, while Job’s children were having one of their parties at the home of the oldest son, a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys grazing in the field next to us when Sabeans attacked. They stole the animals and killed the field hands. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”
16 While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, “Bolts of lightning struck the sheep and the shepherds and fried them—burned them to a crisp. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”
17 While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, “Chaldeans coming from three directions raided the camels and massacred the camel drivers. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”
18-19 While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, “Your children were having a party at the home of the oldest brother when a tornado swept in off the desert and struck the house. It collapsed on the young people and they died. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”
20 Job got to his feet, ripped his robe, shaved his head, then fell to the ground and worshiped:
21 Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
naked I’ll return to the womb of the earth.
God gives, God takes.
God’s name be ever blessed.
22 Not once through all this did Job sin; not once did he blame God.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Read: Isaiah 53:1–6 |
Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
INSIGHT
In their context, few Old Testament prophecies of Jesus look like clear predictions. For the most part, it is only by reading backward that we can see how Jesus brought fullness of meaning to words that were mysterious in their own time. Yet when read in light of Jesus, these words can now be life-changing.
Isaiah’s prophecy of the Suffering Servant is an example of this. Many in Israel believed it was their own persecuted nation that was bearing the sins of the world. Only by looking back can people like us realize that “we” were the ones who unwittingly demanded the death of our own God and Savior (Zech. 12:10–14).
As hard as it is to admit, this is the kind of grief that is for our good and comfort. This is how we can read words that were once so mysterious and see how much our God loves us. - Mart DeHaan
An Encounter with Stones
By David C. McCasland
He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Isaiah 53:5
After centuries of war and destruction, the modern city of Jerusalem is literally built on its own rubble. During a family visit, we walked the Via Dolorosa (the Way of Sorrow), the route tradition says Jesus followed on His way to the cross. The day was hot, so we paused for a rest and descended to the cool basement of the Convent of the Sisters of Zion. There I was intrigued by the sight of ancient pavement stones unearthed during recent construction—stones etched with games played by Roman soldiers during their idle moments.
Those particular stones, even though likely from a period later than Jesus, caused me to ponder my spiritual life at the time. Like a bored soldier passing time in idle moments, I had become complacent and uncaring toward God and others. I was deeply moved by remembering that near the place I was standing, the Lord was beaten, mocked, insulted, and abused as He took all of my failure and rebellion on Himself.
Our sin is great—God’s grace is greater.
“He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isa. 53:5).
My encounter with the stones still speaks to me of Jesus’s loving grace that is greater than all my sin.
Lord Jesus, through Your great sacrifice for us, we find forgiveness, healing, and hope. Thank You that we live today and forever in Your love.
Our sin is great—God’s grace is greater.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
The Key to the Missionary’s Devotion
…they went forth for His name’s sake… —3 John 7
Our Lord told us how our love for Him is to exhibit itself when He asked, “Do you love Me?” (John 21:17). And then He said, “Feed My sheep.” In effect, He said, “Identify yourself with My interests in other people,” not, “Identify Me with your interests in other people.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 shows us the characteristics of this love— it is actually the love of God expressing itself. The true test of my love for Jesus is a very practical one, and all the rest is sentimental talk.
Faithfulness to Jesus Christ is the supernatural work of redemption that has been performed in me by the Holy Spirit— “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit…” (Romans 5:5). And it is that love in me that effectively works through me and comes in contact with everyone I meet. I remain faithful to His name, even though the commonsense view of my life may seemingly deny that, and may appear to be declaring that He has no more power than the morning mist.
The key to the missionary’s devotion is that he is attached to nothing and to no one except our Lord Himself. It does not mean simply being detached from the external things surrounding us. Our Lord was amazingly in touch with the ordinary things of life, but He had an inner detachment except toward God. External detachment is often an actual indication of a secret, growing, inner attachment to the things we stay away from externally.
The duty of a faithful missionary is to concentrate on keeping his soul completely and continually open to the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. The men and women our Lord sends out on His endeavors are ordinary human people, but people who are controlled by their devotion to Him, which has been brought about through the work of the Holy Spirit.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Much of the misery in our Christian life comes not because the devil tackles us, but because we have never understood the simple laws of our make-up. We have to treat the body as the servant of Jesus Christ: when the body says “Sit,” and He says “Go,” go! When the body says “Eat,” and He says “Fast,” fast! When the body says “Yawn,” and He says “Pray,” pray! Biblical Ethics, 107 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
The Fugitive In the Mirror - #8028
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was not only the creator of Sherlock Holmes, but apparently he was a creative practical joker, too. The story is told of one horrendous - although clever - practical joke that he played one time. He just wrote a short, unsigned telegram - all in fun - to 12 of the best known men in England. The anonymous message was the same; only six words - six scary words: "All is discovered. Flee at once." You want to guess what happened? As the story goes, within 24 hours not one of those men could be found.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Fugitive In the Mirror."
Interesting! These men were chased, ultimately not by what someone else knew they had done, but by what they knew they had done.
It reminds me of the insightful words of Proverbs 28:1 in the Bible, "The wicked man flees though no one pursues." You know, twice America has run a popular TV series, and then there was ultimately a blockbuster movie called "The Fugitive." It's about a man on the run who can't shake his pursuer. In a sense, we're all "the fugitive." Every one of us knows what it is to be chased emotionally and spiritually by what we've done in the past: the people we've hurt, the messes we've made, the wrong we've done. Maybe nobody else knows, but we know and we can't shake the guilt, the regrets, and that nagging fear of having to face God with it some day.
And like the fugitive on the screen, we can get away from it for a while, but it eventually overtakes us again. Is there no way to erase the guilt of the past instead of being chased by the guilt of the past? Thank God, there is. It's described in our word for today from the Word of God in Zechariah 3:1. In a very real way, the man called "Joshua the high priest" is a picture of you and me.
Here's what it says: He is "standing before the angel of the Lord" - Who, by the way, many believe is actually Christ in the Old Testament - "and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him." The devil, who will not let you forget what you have done, stands there telling God, "Hey, there's no way You can take this one, not when You know what he's really like." Maybe you've felt that way too: too dirty for God to ever really love you - to ever let you into His heaven. The Bible describes this man as "dressed in filthy clothes."
But it goes on to say, "the angel said, 'Take off his filthy clothes.' Then he said to Joshua" - and I believe He wants to say this to you today - "'See I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you.'" You'll never get anywhere with God as long as you're trying to stand before Him trying to look all religious and righteous. We're filthy, according to Him. That's what our sin makes us. But because Jesus loved you enough to take all the guilt and all the hell of your sins and pay for it on the cross, He can literally take away the guilt and take away all the penalty of all your sin.
Can I tell you what today is about? It's about you finally being clean inside, totally forgiven, and totally free from every sin you have ever committed. But you have to respond to what Jesus has done for you by trusting Him to be your personal Savior from your personal sin. You do that when you say to Him, "Jesus, I believe what You did on the cross is my only hope. I've been running my life long enough. I want to be Yours from today on, and I'm grabbing You like a drowning person would grab their rescuer."
There's some wonderful information that will help you nail down once and for all to know you have done this; to know you belong to Him at our website. Would you go there as soon as you can today? It's ANewStory.com, where maybe your new story could begin.
Today the flight of a spiritual fugitive can finally end, because it ends at the foot of Jesus' cross.
Count your blessings! Focus more on what you have and less on what you don’t! The apostle Paul modeled gratitude. He said, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. . .I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation. . . I can do all things through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:11-13 NIV).
The circumstances of Paul’s life in jail were miserable. Yet with shackles dangling from his wrists, he announced, “I have learned the secret of being content.” He doesn’t say, I have learned the principle or I have learned the concept. He says, “I have learned the secret of being content—whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need” (v.12 HCSB). Paul focused on eternal life, the love of God, and the forgiveness of sins. What he had in Christ was far greater than what he didn’t have in life!
Count your blessings and focus more on what you have and less on what you don’t!
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Job 1
1-3 Job was a man who lived in Uz. He was honest inside and out, a man of his word, who was totally devoted to God and hated evil with a passion. He had seven sons and three daughters. He was also very wealthy—seven thousand head of sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred teams of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and a huge staff of servants—the most influential man in all the East!
4-5 His sons used to take turns hosting parties in their homes, always inviting their three sisters to join them in their merrymaking. When the parties were over, Job would get up early in the morning and sacrifice a burnt offering for each of his children, thinking, “Maybe one of them sinned by defying God inwardly.” Job made a habit of this sacrificial atonement, just in case they’d sinned.
The First Test: Family and Fortune
6-7 One day when the angels came to report to God, Satan, who was the Designated Accuser, came along with them. God singled out Satan and said, “What have you been up to?”
Satan answered God, “Going here and there, checking things out on earth.”
8 God said to Satan, “Have you noticed my friend Job? There’s no one quite like him—honest and true to his word, totally devoted to God and hating evil.”
9-10 Satan retorted, “So do you think Job does all that out of the sheer goodness of his heart? Why, no one ever had it so good! You pamper him like a pet, make sure nothing bad ever happens to him or his family or his possessions, bless everything he does—he can’t lose!
11 “But what do you think would happen if you reached down and took away everything that is his? He’d curse you right to your face, that’s what.”
12 God replied, “We’ll see. Go ahead—do what you want with all that is his. Just don’t hurt him.” Then Satan left the presence of God.
13-15 Sometime later, while Job’s children were having one of their parties at the home of the oldest son, a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys grazing in the field next to us when Sabeans attacked. They stole the animals and killed the field hands. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”
16 While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, “Bolts of lightning struck the sheep and the shepherds and fried them—burned them to a crisp. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”
17 While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, “Chaldeans coming from three directions raided the camels and massacred the camel drivers. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”
18-19 While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, “Your children were having a party at the home of the oldest brother when a tornado swept in off the desert and struck the house. It collapsed on the young people and they died. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”
20 Job got to his feet, ripped his robe, shaved his head, then fell to the ground and worshiped:
21 Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
naked I’ll return to the womb of the earth.
God gives, God takes.
God’s name be ever blessed.
22 Not once through all this did Job sin; not once did he blame God.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Read: Isaiah 53:1–6 |
Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
INSIGHT
In their context, few Old Testament prophecies of Jesus look like clear predictions. For the most part, it is only by reading backward that we can see how Jesus brought fullness of meaning to words that were mysterious in their own time. Yet when read in light of Jesus, these words can now be life-changing.
Isaiah’s prophecy of the Suffering Servant is an example of this. Many in Israel believed it was their own persecuted nation that was bearing the sins of the world. Only by looking back can people like us realize that “we” were the ones who unwittingly demanded the death of our own God and Savior (Zech. 12:10–14).
As hard as it is to admit, this is the kind of grief that is for our good and comfort. This is how we can read words that were once so mysterious and see how much our God loves us. - Mart DeHaan
An Encounter with Stones
By David C. McCasland
He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Isaiah 53:5
After centuries of war and destruction, the modern city of Jerusalem is literally built on its own rubble. During a family visit, we walked the Via Dolorosa (the Way of Sorrow), the route tradition says Jesus followed on His way to the cross. The day was hot, so we paused for a rest and descended to the cool basement of the Convent of the Sisters of Zion. There I was intrigued by the sight of ancient pavement stones unearthed during recent construction—stones etched with games played by Roman soldiers during their idle moments.
Those particular stones, even though likely from a period later than Jesus, caused me to ponder my spiritual life at the time. Like a bored soldier passing time in idle moments, I had become complacent and uncaring toward God and others. I was deeply moved by remembering that near the place I was standing, the Lord was beaten, mocked, insulted, and abused as He took all of my failure and rebellion on Himself.
Our sin is great—God’s grace is greater.
“He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isa. 53:5).
My encounter with the stones still speaks to me of Jesus’s loving grace that is greater than all my sin.
Lord Jesus, through Your great sacrifice for us, we find forgiveness, healing, and hope. Thank You that we live today and forever in Your love.
Our sin is great—God’s grace is greater.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
The Key to the Missionary’s Devotion
…they went forth for His name’s sake… —3 John 7
Our Lord told us how our love for Him is to exhibit itself when He asked, “Do you love Me?” (John 21:17). And then He said, “Feed My sheep.” In effect, He said, “Identify yourself with My interests in other people,” not, “Identify Me with your interests in other people.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 shows us the characteristics of this love— it is actually the love of God expressing itself. The true test of my love for Jesus is a very practical one, and all the rest is sentimental talk.
Faithfulness to Jesus Christ is the supernatural work of redemption that has been performed in me by the Holy Spirit— “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit…” (Romans 5:5). And it is that love in me that effectively works through me and comes in contact with everyone I meet. I remain faithful to His name, even though the commonsense view of my life may seemingly deny that, and may appear to be declaring that He has no more power than the morning mist.
The key to the missionary’s devotion is that he is attached to nothing and to no one except our Lord Himself. It does not mean simply being detached from the external things surrounding us. Our Lord was amazingly in touch with the ordinary things of life, but He had an inner detachment except toward God. External detachment is often an actual indication of a secret, growing, inner attachment to the things we stay away from externally.
The duty of a faithful missionary is to concentrate on keeping his soul completely and continually open to the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. The men and women our Lord sends out on His endeavors are ordinary human people, but people who are controlled by their devotion to Him, which has been brought about through the work of the Holy Spirit.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Much of the misery in our Christian life comes not because the devil tackles us, but because we have never understood the simple laws of our make-up. We have to treat the body as the servant of Jesus Christ: when the body says “Sit,” and He says “Go,” go! When the body says “Eat,” and He says “Fast,” fast! When the body says “Yawn,” and He says “Pray,” pray! Biblical Ethics, 107 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
The Fugitive In the Mirror - #8028
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was not only the creator of Sherlock Holmes, but apparently he was a creative practical joker, too. The story is told of one horrendous - although clever - practical joke that he played one time. He just wrote a short, unsigned telegram - all in fun - to 12 of the best known men in England. The anonymous message was the same; only six words - six scary words: "All is discovered. Flee at once." You want to guess what happened? As the story goes, within 24 hours not one of those men could be found.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Fugitive In the Mirror."
Interesting! These men were chased, ultimately not by what someone else knew they had done, but by what they knew they had done.
It reminds me of the insightful words of Proverbs 28:1 in the Bible, "The wicked man flees though no one pursues." You know, twice America has run a popular TV series, and then there was ultimately a blockbuster movie called "The Fugitive." It's about a man on the run who can't shake his pursuer. In a sense, we're all "the fugitive." Every one of us knows what it is to be chased emotionally and spiritually by what we've done in the past: the people we've hurt, the messes we've made, the wrong we've done. Maybe nobody else knows, but we know and we can't shake the guilt, the regrets, and that nagging fear of having to face God with it some day.
And like the fugitive on the screen, we can get away from it for a while, but it eventually overtakes us again. Is there no way to erase the guilt of the past instead of being chased by the guilt of the past? Thank God, there is. It's described in our word for today from the Word of God in Zechariah 3:1. In a very real way, the man called "Joshua the high priest" is a picture of you and me.
Here's what it says: He is "standing before the angel of the Lord" - Who, by the way, many believe is actually Christ in the Old Testament - "and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him." The devil, who will not let you forget what you have done, stands there telling God, "Hey, there's no way You can take this one, not when You know what he's really like." Maybe you've felt that way too: too dirty for God to ever really love you - to ever let you into His heaven. The Bible describes this man as "dressed in filthy clothes."
But it goes on to say, "the angel said, 'Take off his filthy clothes.' Then he said to Joshua" - and I believe He wants to say this to you today - "'See I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you.'" You'll never get anywhere with God as long as you're trying to stand before Him trying to look all religious and righteous. We're filthy, according to Him. That's what our sin makes us. But because Jesus loved you enough to take all the guilt and all the hell of your sins and pay for it on the cross, He can literally take away the guilt and take away all the penalty of all your sin.
Can I tell you what today is about? It's about you finally being clean inside, totally forgiven, and totally free from every sin you have ever committed. But you have to respond to what Jesus has done for you by trusting Him to be your personal Savior from your personal sin. You do that when you say to Him, "Jesus, I believe what You did on the cross is my only hope. I've been running my life long enough. I want to be Yours from today on, and I'm grabbing You like a drowning person would grab their rescuer."
There's some wonderful information that will help you nail down once and for all to know you have done this; to know you belong to Him at our website. Would you go there as soon as you can today? It's ANewStory.com, where maybe your new story could begin.
Today the flight of a spiritual fugitive can finally end, because it ends at the foot of Jesus' cross.
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
Matthew 6:19-34 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS
My friend Jerry has taught me the value of gratitude. He is seventy-eight years old and regularly shoots his age on the golf course. If I ever do the same, I’ll need to live to be a hundred! His dear wife, Ginger, battles Parkinson’s disease. What should have been a wonderful season of retirement has been marred by multiple hospital stays, medication, and struggles. Many days she cannot keep her balance. Jerry has to be at her side. Yet he never complains. He always has a smile and a joke. And he relentlessly beats me in golf!
I asked Jerry his secret. He said, “Every morning Ginger and I sit together and sing a hymn. I ask her what she wants to sing. She always says, Count Your Blessings. So we sing it; and we count our blessings.” Take a moment. Follow Jerry’s example and count your blessings.
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Matthew 6:19-34
A Life of God-Worship
19-21 “Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.
22-23 “Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!
24 “You can’t worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you’ll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can’t worship God and Money both.
25-26 “If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.
27-29 “Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.
30-33 “If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.
34 “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
Read: 1 Thessalonians 5:16–24
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt 21 but test them all; hold on to what is good, 22 reject every kind of evil.
23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.
INSIGHT
In Paul’s day, Thessalonica was the largest city of Macedonia with as many as 200,000 people (mainly Greeks). The city had a thriving seaport and was located on the Egnatian Way, a famous trade route built by the Romans. Paul and Silas visited this city on Paul’s second missionary journey, and while there Paul preached in its synagogues for three Sabbaths (Acts 17:1–3). During their visit, some Jews plus “a large number of God-fearing Greeks” and many prominent women were persuaded to follow Jesus (v. 4). But Paul’s stay was cut short when some jealous Jews formed a mob and started a riot (vv. 5–9). As soon as he could, Paul sent Timothy to the young church to encourage and strengthen the new believers in their faith (1 Thess. 3:1–5). Timothy returned to Paul with good news: the people were standing firm despite persecution (vv. 6–8). In response, Paul wrote First Thessalonians from Corinth to further encourage the church. His warning to not “quench the Spirit” appears in a list of final instructions he gave the Thessalonians (5:19).
Is there an area of your life where you’ve been resisting the “nudge” of the Holy Spirit? - Alyson Kieda
Invisible Influence
By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
Do not quench the Spirit. 1 Thessalonians 5:19
On a visit to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, I saw a masterpiece called The Wind. The painting showed a storm moving through a wooded area. Tall, thin trees leaned to the left. Bushes thrashed in the same direction.
In an even more powerful sense, the Holy Spirit is able to sway believers in the direction of God’s goodness and truth. If we go along with the Spirit, we can expect to become more courageous and more loving. We will also become more discerning about how to handle our desires (2 Tim. 1:7).
The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. 1 Thessalonians 5:24
In some situations, however, the Spirit nudges us toward spiritual growth and change, but we respond with a “no.” Continually stonewalling this conviction is what Scripture calls “quench[ing] the Spirit” (1 Thess. 5:19). Over time, things we once considered wrong appear not to be quite as bad.
When our relationship with God seems distant and disconnected, this may be because the Spirit’s conviction has been repeatedly brushed aside. The longer this goes on, the harder it is to see the root of the problem. Thankfully, we can pray and ask God to show us our sin. If we turn away from sin and recommit ourselves to Him, God will forgive us and revive the power and influence of His Spirit within us.
God, show me how I have resisted Your Holy Spirit. Help me to listen when You speak. I want to be right with You again.
Yielding to the Holy Spirit leads to right living.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
The Key of the Greater Work
…I say to you, he who believes in Me,…greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. —John 14:12
Prayer does not equip us for greater works— prayer is the greater work. Yet we think of prayer as some commonsense exercise of our higher powers that simply prepares us for God’s work. In the teachings of Jesus Christ, prayer is the working of the miracle of redemption in me, which produces the miracle of redemption in others, through the power of God. The way fruit remains firm is through prayer, but remember that it is prayer based on the agony of Christ in redemption, not on my own agony. We must go to God as His child, because only a child gets his prayers answered; a “wise” man does not (see Matthew 11:25).
Prayer is the battle, and it makes no difference where you are. However God may engineer your circumstances, your duty is to pray. Never allow yourself this thought, “I am of no use where I am,” because you certainly cannot be used where you have not yet been placed. Wherever God has placed you and whatever your circumstances, you should pray, continually offering up prayers to Him. And He promises, “Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do…” (John 14:13). Yet we refuse to pray unless it thrills or excites us, which is the most intense form of spiritual selfishness. We must learn to work according to God’s direction, and He says to pray. “Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” (Matthew 9:38).
There is nothing thrilling about a laboring person’s work, but it is the laboring person who makes the ideas of the genius possible. And it is the laboring saint who makes the ideas of his Master possible. When you labor at prayer, from God’s perspective there are always results. What an astonishment it will be to see, once the veil is finally lifted, all the souls that have been reaped by you, simply because you have been in the habit of taking your orders from Jesus Christ.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Christian Church should not be a secret society of specialists, but a public manifestation of believers in Jesus. Facing Reality, 34 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
Lifting Them Higher - #8027
During an opportunity I had to work with my son on some Native American youth outreaches, one of our attractions that night was various basketball competitions. Alex was one of those who showed up to compete in the 3-point shooting contest. Alex is probably about 12, and he appears to have Down's Syndrome. But he doesn't let any Special Ed limitations slow him down. Alex plunges right into things. It's neat to watch. Now, his shooting didn't win any prizes, but his attitude sure would have. In fact, later in the evening, I saw this very special scene at the far end of the gym. Our son, Brad, who is a moose, was holding Alex in his arms and letting him shoot baskets from that improved altitude. Alex was loving it. But the best part came a few minutes later. I glanced down the gym floor and I saw a similar scene – except this time it was Alex lifting up a boy smaller than he was so that little guy could shoot some baskets! Wow!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Lifting Them Higher."
Actually, isn't that what we're all supposed to be about - lifting other people up so they can shoot higher than they've been able to shoot before? One of the places where God calls us to that kind of lifestyle is in our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Thessalonians 5:12. "Respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone."
Now he's saying here, first of all, give a lift to the spiritual leaders in your life by saying thanks, by complimenting them, by offering to do something that would lighten their load. And then give a lift to those who are quiet and timid, maybe the ones who often get overlooked or ignored. When you have the spirit of Jesus, you look for those who are on the edges, who tend to be left out, and you lift them up by showing interest, by including them, by building their confidence.
God also tells us to encourage the weak, the people who, on the surface, may not seem to have much going for them. But if you give them a lift, they're the people who can find the strength to do what they've never done before.
Actually, we're supposed to be lifting everyone around us. The Bible says the only words that should be coming out of our mouths are those that are "helpful for building others up." That's Ephesians 4:29. If there's one thing a follower of Christ should be known for, it's for being an encourager. Are you? Most people are suffering from a huge encouragement deficit, with a basketful of what's wrong with them and very little of what's right with them. It's not exactly "home, home on the range" out there, where "seldom is heard a discouraging word."
No, we need to dedicate each new day to consciously, intentionally lift up the people we work with, the people we live with, go to school with, even those we just meet. And church, well that should be a place where everyone comes away having been lifted up by someone. When our son picked up young Alex, Alex was able to do what otherwise would have been out of his reach. That's the kind of effect you can have on the people around you as an encourager. Did you ever notice, encourage - you put courage into somebody when you encourage them.
So be the one who sets the tone of encouragement. Somebody has to start it. How about you? And don't be surprised if it starts a chain of encouragement. As I witnessed in that gym that night, when somebody gets lifted up, they feel like lifting someone else up! Now look what you've started!
My friend Jerry has taught me the value of gratitude. He is seventy-eight years old and regularly shoots his age on the golf course. If I ever do the same, I’ll need to live to be a hundred! His dear wife, Ginger, battles Parkinson’s disease. What should have been a wonderful season of retirement has been marred by multiple hospital stays, medication, and struggles. Many days she cannot keep her balance. Jerry has to be at her side. Yet he never complains. He always has a smile and a joke. And he relentlessly beats me in golf!
I asked Jerry his secret. He said, “Every morning Ginger and I sit together and sing a hymn. I ask her what she wants to sing. She always says, Count Your Blessings. So we sing it; and we count our blessings.” Take a moment. Follow Jerry’s example and count your blessings.
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Matthew 6:19-34
A Life of God-Worship
19-21 “Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.
22-23 “Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!
24 “You can’t worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you’ll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can’t worship God and Money both.
25-26 “If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.
27-29 “Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.
30-33 “If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.
34 “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
Read: 1 Thessalonians 5:16–24
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt 21 but test them all; hold on to what is good, 22 reject every kind of evil.
23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.
INSIGHT
In Paul’s day, Thessalonica was the largest city of Macedonia with as many as 200,000 people (mainly Greeks). The city had a thriving seaport and was located on the Egnatian Way, a famous trade route built by the Romans. Paul and Silas visited this city on Paul’s second missionary journey, and while there Paul preached in its synagogues for three Sabbaths (Acts 17:1–3). During their visit, some Jews plus “a large number of God-fearing Greeks” and many prominent women were persuaded to follow Jesus (v. 4). But Paul’s stay was cut short when some jealous Jews formed a mob and started a riot (vv. 5–9). As soon as he could, Paul sent Timothy to the young church to encourage and strengthen the new believers in their faith (1 Thess. 3:1–5). Timothy returned to Paul with good news: the people were standing firm despite persecution (vv. 6–8). In response, Paul wrote First Thessalonians from Corinth to further encourage the church. His warning to not “quench the Spirit” appears in a list of final instructions he gave the Thessalonians (5:19).
Is there an area of your life where you’ve been resisting the “nudge” of the Holy Spirit? - Alyson Kieda
Invisible Influence
By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
Do not quench the Spirit. 1 Thessalonians 5:19
On a visit to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, I saw a masterpiece called The Wind. The painting showed a storm moving through a wooded area. Tall, thin trees leaned to the left. Bushes thrashed in the same direction.
In an even more powerful sense, the Holy Spirit is able to sway believers in the direction of God’s goodness and truth. If we go along with the Spirit, we can expect to become more courageous and more loving. We will also become more discerning about how to handle our desires (2 Tim. 1:7).
The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. 1 Thessalonians 5:24
In some situations, however, the Spirit nudges us toward spiritual growth and change, but we respond with a “no.” Continually stonewalling this conviction is what Scripture calls “quench[ing] the Spirit” (1 Thess. 5:19). Over time, things we once considered wrong appear not to be quite as bad.
When our relationship with God seems distant and disconnected, this may be because the Spirit’s conviction has been repeatedly brushed aside. The longer this goes on, the harder it is to see the root of the problem. Thankfully, we can pray and ask God to show us our sin. If we turn away from sin and recommit ourselves to Him, God will forgive us and revive the power and influence of His Spirit within us.
God, show me how I have resisted Your Holy Spirit. Help me to listen when You speak. I want to be right with You again.
Yielding to the Holy Spirit leads to right living.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
The Key of the Greater Work
…I say to you, he who believes in Me,…greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. —John 14:12
Prayer does not equip us for greater works— prayer is the greater work. Yet we think of prayer as some commonsense exercise of our higher powers that simply prepares us for God’s work. In the teachings of Jesus Christ, prayer is the working of the miracle of redemption in me, which produces the miracle of redemption in others, through the power of God. The way fruit remains firm is through prayer, but remember that it is prayer based on the agony of Christ in redemption, not on my own agony. We must go to God as His child, because only a child gets his prayers answered; a “wise” man does not (see Matthew 11:25).
Prayer is the battle, and it makes no difference where you are. However God may engineer your circumstances, your duty is to pray. Never allow yourself this thought, “I am of no use where I am,” because you certainly cannot be used where you have not yet been placed. Wherever God has placed you and whatever your circumstances, you should pray, continually offering up prayers to Him. And He promises, “Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do…” (John 14:13). Yet we refuse to pray unless it thrills or excites us, which is the most intense form of spiritual selfishness. We must learn to work according to God’s direction, and He says to pray. “Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” (Matthew 9:38).
There is nothing thrilling about a laboring person’s work, but it is the laboring person who makes the ideas of the genius possible. And it is the laboring saint who makes the ideas of his Master possible. When you labor at prayer, from God’s perspective there are always results. What an astonishment it will be to see, once the veil is finally lifted, all the souls that have been reaped by you, simply because you have been in the habit of taking your orders from Jesus Christ.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Christian Church should not be a secret society of specialists, but a public manifestation of believers in Jesus. Facing Reality, 34 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
Lifting Them Higher - #8027
During an opportunity I had to work with my son on some Native American youth outreaches, one of our attractions that night was various basketball competitions. Alex was one of those who showed up to compete in the 3-point shooting contest. Alex is probably about 12, and he appears to have Down's Syndrome. But he doesn't let any Special Ed limitations slow him down. Alex plunges right into things. It's neat to watch. Now, his shooting didn't win any prizes, but his attitude sure would have. In fact, later in the evening, I saw this very special scene at the far end of the gym. Our son, Brad, who is a moose, was holding Alex in his arms and letting him shoot baskets from that improved altitude. Alex was loving it. But the best part came a few minutes later. I glanced down the gym floor and I saw a similar scene – except this time it was Alex lifting up a boy smaller than he was so that little guy could shoot some baskets! Wow!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Lifting Them Higher."
Actually, isn't that what we're all supposed to be about - lifting other people up so they can shoot higher than they've been able to shoot before? One of the places where God calls us to that kind of lifestyle is in our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Thessalonians 5:12. "Respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone."
Now he's saying here, first of all, give a lift to the spiritual leaders in your life by saying thanks, by complimenting them, by offering to do something that would lighten their load. And then give a lift to those who are quiet and timid, maybe the ones who often get overlooked or ignored. When you have the spirit of Jesus, you look for those who are on the edges, who tend to be left out, and you lift them up by showing interest, by including them, by building their confidence.
God also tells us to encourage the weak, the people who, on the surface, may not seem to have much going for them. But if you give them a lift, they're the people who can find the strength to do what they've never done before.
Actually, we're supposed to be lifting everyone around us. The Bible says the only words that should be coming out of our mouths are those that are "helpful for building others up." That's Ephesians 4:29. If there's one thing a follower of Christ should be known for, it's for being an encourager. Are you? Most people are suffering from a huge encouragement deficit, with a basketful of what's wrong with them and very little of what's right with them. It's not exactly "home, home on the range" out there, where "seldom is heard a discouraging word."
No, we need to dedicate each new day to consciously, intentionally lift up the people we work with, the people we live with, go to school with, even those we just meet. And church, well that should be a place where everyone comes away having been lifted up by someone. When our son picked up young Alex, Alex was able to do what otherwise would have been out of his reach. That's the kind of effect you can have on the people around you as an encourager. Did you ever notice, encourage - you put courage into somebody when you encourage them.
So be the one who sets the tone of encouragement. Somebody has to start it. How about you? And don't be surprised if it starts a chain of encouragement. As I witnessed in that gym that night, when somebody gets lifted up, they feel like lifting someone else up! Now look what you've started!
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