Max Lucado Daily: Looking Unto Jesus
The writer of Hebrews urges us to "run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:1-2).
Heart disease runs in our family, so I run each morning. And as I'm running, my body is groaning. Things hurt. And as things hurt, I've learned I have options. Go home. Meditate on my hurts until I start imagining I'm having chest pains-or-I can keep running and watch the sun come up. I have a front-row seat to watch God's world go from dark to golden. Guess what? The same happens to my attitude.
Wasn't that the counsel of the Hebrew epistle…"Looking unto Jesus?" Philippians 4:6 says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God."
Now-what were you looking at?
From Traveling Light
Mark 14:54-72
Condemned to Death
53-54 They led Jesus to the Chief Priest, where the high priests, religious leaders, and scholars had gathered together. Peter followed at a safe distance until they got to the Chief Priest’s courtyard, where he mingled with the servants and warmed himself at the fire.
55-59 The high priests conspiring with the Jewish Council looked high and low for evidence against Jesus by which they could sentence him to death. They found nothing. Plenty of people were willing to bring in false charges, but nothing added up, and they ended up canceling each other out. Then a few of them stood up and lied: “We heard him say, ‘I am going to tear down this Temple, built by hard labor, and in three days build another without lifting a hand.’” But even they couldn’t agree exactly.
60-61 In the middle of this, the Chief Priest stood up and asked Jesus, “What do you have to say to the accusation?” Jesus was silent. He said nothing.
The Chief Priest tried again, this time asking, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed?”
62 Jesus said, “Yes, I am, and you’ll see it yourself:
The Son of Man seated
At the right hand of the Mighty One,
Arriving on the clouds of heaven.”
63-64 The Chief Priest lost his temper. Ripping his clothes, he yelled, “Did you hear that? After that do we need witnesses? You heard the blasphemy. Are you going to stand for it?”
They condemned him, one and all. The sentence: death.
65 Some of them started spitting at him. They blindfolded his eyes, then hit him, saying, “Who hit you? Prophesy!” The guards, punching and slapping, took him away.
The Rooster Crowed
66-67 While all this was going on, Peter was down in the courtyard. One of the Chief Priest’s servant girls came in and, seeing Peter warming himself there, looked hard at him and said, “You were with the Nazarene, Jesus.”
68 He denied it: “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He went out on the porch. A rooster crowed.
69-70 The girl spotted him and began telling the people standing around, “He’s one of them.” He denied it again.
After a little while, the bystanders brought it up again. “You’ve got to be one of them. You’ve got ‘Galilean’ written all over you.”
71-72 Now Peter got really nervous and swore, “I never laid eyes on this man you’re talking about.” Just then the rooster crowed a second time. Peter remembered how Jesus had said, “Before a rooster crows twice, you’ll deny me three times.” He collapsed in tears.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, May 27, 2018
Read: Romans 12:9–18
9-10 Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.
11-13 Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.
14-16 Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down. Get along with each other; don’t be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody.
17-19 Don’t hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody. Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,” says God. “I’ll take care of it.”
INSIGHT
The practice of hospitality is a key teaching in the New Testament. Jesus told His disciples to depend on the hospitality of those they ministered to (Matthew 10:11; Luke 10:7–8). Jesus also received hospitality from others (Mark 2:15; 14:3; Luke 7:36). Mary and Martha opened their home to Jesus (Luke 10:38), and this is probably where He stayed each time He came to Jerusalem (see Matthew 21:17). Luke mentioned a group of women who “were helping to support [Jesus and the twelve disciples] out of their own means” (Luke 8:3). The apostle John commended Gaius for his cheerful generosity and loving hospitality because he provided itinerant Bible teachers a place to stay (3 John 1:5–8).
When we lovingly support ministry workers in practical ways, we are their partners in ministry (v. 8). Therefore, Paul urges us, “When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality” (Romans 12:13 nlt). Peter echoed the same sentiment: “Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other . . . . Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay” (1 Peter 4:8–9 nlt). - K. T. Sim
God with Skin On
By Amy Peterson
Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Romans 12:13
My husband left for a month-long trip, and almost immediately I was overwhelmed by the needs of my job, our house, and our children. A writing deadline loomed. The lawn mower broke. My children were on school break and bored. How would I take care of all of these things on my own?
I soon realized I wasn’t on my own. Friends from church showed up to help. Josh came over to fix my lawn mower. John brought me lunch. Cassidy helped with the laundry. Abi invited my kids over to play with hers so I could get my work done. God worked through each of these friends to provide for me. They were a living picture of the kind of community Paul describes in Romans 12. They loved sincerely (v. 9), considered the needs of others rather than just their own (v. 10), shared with me when I was in need, and showed hospitality (v. 13).
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Because of the love my friends showed to me, I remained “joyful in hope” and “patient in affliction” (v. 12), even the mild affliction of solo parenting for a month. My brothers and sisters in Christ became what one friend calls “God with skin on” for me. They showed me the kind of sincere love we ought to show to everyone, especially those in our community of faith (Galatians 6:10). I hope to be more like them.
God, thank You for placing us in communities. Help me to look out for others’ needs and to show hospitality.
Share your ideas of hospitality at odb.org.
To whom do I need to be “God with skin on” today?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, May 27, 2018
The Life To Know Him
…tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high. —Luke 24:49
The disciples had to tarry, staying in Jerusalem until the day of Pentecost, not only for their own preparation but because they had to wait until the Lord was actually glorified. And as soon as He was glorified, what happened? “Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear” (Acts 2:33). The statement in John 7:39— “…for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified”— does not pertain to us. The Holy Spirit has been given; the Lord is glorified— our waiting is not dependent on the providence of God, but on our own spiritual fitness.
The Holy Spirit’s influence and power were at work before Pentecost, but He was not here. Once our Lord was glorified in His ascension, the Holy Spirit came into the world, and He has been here ever since. We have to receive the revealed truth that He is here. The attitude of receiving and welcoming the Holy Spirit into our lives is to be the continual attitude of a believer. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we receive reviving life from our ascended Lord.
It is not the baptism of the Holy Spirit that changes people, but the power of the ascended Christ coming into their lives through the Holy Spirit. We all too often separate things that the New Testament never separates. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not an experience apart from Jesus Christ— it is the evidence of the ascended Christ.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit does not make you think of time or eternity— it is one amazing glorious now. “This is eternal life, that they may know You…” (John 17:3). Begin to know Him now, and never finish.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
If a man cannot prove his religion in the valley, it is not worth anything. Shade of His Hand, 1200 L
Sunday, May 27, 2018
Saturday, May 26, 2018
Numbers 16, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: He Knows What You Need
How did Jesus endure the terror of the crucifixion? He went first to the Father with his fears. He modeled the words of Psalm 56:3, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in You.”
Do the same with yours! And be specific. Jesus was. “Take this cup,” He prayed. Give God the number of the flight. Tell Him the length of the speech. Share the details of the job transfer. He has plenty of time. He also has plenty of compassion. He won’t tell you to “buck up” or “get tough.” He has been where you are. He knows how you feel. And He knows what you need.
That’s why we punctuate our prayers as Jesus did. “If you are willing. . .” Was God willing? Yes and no. He didn’t take away the cross, but he took away the fear. Who’s to say He won’t do the same for you?
From Traveling Light
Numbers 16
The Rebels
1-3 Getting on his high horse one day, Korah son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, along with a few Reubenites—Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth—rebelled against Moses. He had with him 250 leaders of the congregation of Israel, prominent men with positions in the Council. They came as a group and confronted Moses and Aaron, saying, “You’ve overstepped yourself. This entire community is holy and God is in their midst. So why do you act like you’re running the whole show?”
4 On hearing this, Moses threw himself facedown on the ground.
5 Then he addressed Korah and his gang: “In the morning God will make clear who is on his side, who is holy. God will take his stand with the one he chooses.
6-7 “Now, Korah, here’s what I want you, you and your gang, to do: Tomorrow, take censers. In the presence of God, put fire in them and then incense. Then we’ll see who is holy, see whom God chooses. Sons of Levi, you’ve overstepped yourselves!”
8-11 Moses continued with Korah, “Listen well now, sons of Levi. Isn’t it enough for you that the God of Israel has selected you out of the congregation of Israel to bring you near him to serve in the ministries of The Dwelling of God, and to stand before the congregation to minister to them? He has brought you and all your brother Levites into his inner circle, and now you’re grasping for the priesthood, too. It’s God you’ve ganged up against, not us. What do you have against Aaron that you’re bad-mouthing him?”
12-14 Moses then ordered Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, to appear, but they said, “We’re not coming. Isn’t it enough that you yanked us out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness? And now you keep trying to boss us around! Face it, you haven’t produced: You haven’t brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, you haven’t given us the promised inheritance of fields and vineyards. You’d have to poke our eyes out to keep us from seeing what’s going on. Forget it, we’re not coming.”
15 Moses’ temper blazed white-hot. He said to God, “Don’t accept their Grain-Offering. I haven’t taken so much as a single donkey from them; I haven’t hurt a single hair of their heads.”
16-17 Moses said to Korah, “Bring your people before God tomorrow. Appear there with them and Aaron. Have each man bring his censer filled with incense and present it to God—all 250 censers. And you and Aaron do the same, bring your censers.”
18 So they all did it. They brought their censers filled with fire and incense and stood at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. Moses and Aaron did the same.
19 It was Korah and his gang against Moses and Aaron at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. The entire community could see the Glory of God.
20-21 God said to Moses and Aaron, “Separate yourselves from this congregation so that I can finish them off and be done with them.”
22 They threw themselves on their faces and said, “O God, God of everything living, when one man sins are you going to take it out on the whole community?”
23-24 God spoke to Moses: “Speak to the community. Tell them, Back off from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.”
25-26 Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram. The leaders of Israel followed him. He then spoke to the community: “Back off from the tents of these bad men; don’t touch a thing that belongs to them lest you be carried off on the flood of their sins.”
27 So they all backed away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram by now had come out and were standing at the entrance to their tents with their wives, children, and babies.
28-30 Moses continued to address the community: “This is how you’ll know that it was God who sent me to do all these things and that it wasn’t anything I cooked up on my own. If these men die a natural death like all the rest of us, you’ll know that it wasn’t God who sent me. But if God does something unprecedented—if the ground opens up and swallows the lot of them and they are pitched alive into Sheol—then you’ll know that these men have been insolent with God.”
31-33 The words were hardly out of his mouth when the Earth split open. Earth opened its mouth and in one gulp swallowed them down, the men and their families, all the human beings connected with Korah, along with everything they owned. And that was the end of them, pitched alive into Sheol. The Earth closed up over them and that was the last the community heard of them.
34 At the sound of their cries everyone around ran for dear life, shouting, “We’re about to be swallowed up alive!”
35 Then God sent lightning. The fire cremated the 250 men who were offering the incense.
36-38 God spoke to Moses: “Tell Eleazar son of Aaron the priest, Gather up the censers from the smoldering cinders and scatter the coals a distance away for these censers have become holy. Take the censers of the men who have sinned and are now dead and hammer them into thin sheets for covering the Altar. They have been offered to God and are holy to God. Let them serve as a sign to Israel, evidence of what happened this day.”
39-40 So Eleazar gathered all the bronze censers that belonged to those who had been burned up and had them hammered flat and used to overlay the Altar, just as God had instructed him by Moses. This was to serve as a sign to Israel that only descendants of Aaron were allowed to burn incense before God; anyone else trying it would end up like Korah and his gang.
41 Grumbling broke out the next day in the community of Israel, grumbling against Moses and Aaron: “You have killed God’s people!”
42 But it so happened that when the community got together against Moses and Aaron, they looked over at the Tent of Meeting and there was the Cloud—the Glory of God for all to see.
43-45 Moses and Aaron stood at the front of the Tent of Meeting. God spoke to Moses: “Back away from this congregation so that I can do away with them this very minute.”
They threw themselves facedown on the ground.
46 Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer and fill it with incense, along with fire from the Altar. Get to the congregation as fast as you can: make atonement for them. Anger is pouring out from God—the plague has started!”
47-48 Aaron grabbed the censer, as directed by Moses, and ran into the midst of the congregation. The plague had already begun. He put burning incense into the censer and atoned for the people. He stood there between the living and the dead and stopped the plague.
49-50 Fourteen thousand seven hundred people died from the plague, not counting those who died in the affair of Korah. Aaron then went back to join Moses at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. The plague was stopped.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, May 26, 2018
Read: Psalm 142
A David Prayer—When He Was in the Cave
1-2 I cry out loudly to God,
loudly I plead with God for mercy.
I spill out all my complaints before him,
and spell out my troubles in detail:
3-7 “As I sink in despair, my spirit ebbing away,
you know how I’m feeling,
Know the danger I’m in,
the traps hidden in my path.
Look right, look left—
there’s not a soul who cares what happens!
I’m up against it, with no exit—
bereft, left alone.
I cry out, God, call out:
‘You’re my last chance, my only hope for life!’
Oh listen, please listen;
I’ve never been this low.
Rescue me from those who are hunting me down;
I’m no match for them.
Get me out of this dungeon
so I can thank you in public.
Your people will form a circle around me
and you’ll bring me showers of blessing!”
INSIGHT
The heading to Psalm 142 says, “A maskil of David. When he was in the cave. A prayer.” But we might also call this song “David’s cry.” The poetic imagery woven into the lyric rings with authenticity because it flows out of David’s actual experiences. Twice he fled to a cave in fear for his life. Few of us can identify with that situation literally, but nearly all of us can relate to David’s metaphorical cave of loneliness and despair. When he uses words like “cry” (v. 1) and “complaint” (v. 2), we know how he feels. His “spirit grows faint” (v. 3), a “snare” has been set for him (v. 3), and “no one is concerned” (v. 4). David even sees his dilemma as “my prison” (v. 7). Yet he knows the trustworthiness of the One he cries out to, and he anticipates a day when “the righteous will gather about [him]” (v. 7). He will not always be desperately lonely.
Does an emotional cave imprison you today? Consider writing out your thoughts in raw honesty and giving them to God. How might that kind of honesty change your prayers? - Tim Gustafson
Nobody Likes Me
By Kirsten Holmberg
No one is concerned for me. I have no refuge; no one cares for my life. Psalm 142:4
As a child, when I felt lonely, rejected, or sorry for myself, my mother would sometimes attempt to cheer me up by singing a popular ditty: “Nobody likes me, everybody hates me. I think I’ll go eat worms.” After a smile came from my downcast face, she’d help me see the many special relationships and reasons for gratitude I truly did have.
When I read that David felt no one cared for him, that ditty rings in my ears. Yet David’s pain wasn’t at all exaggerated. Where I had feelings of loneliness typical for my age, David actually had good reason to feel abandoned. He wrote these words in the dark depths of a cave where he hid from Saul, who pursued him with murderous plans (1 Samuel 22:1; 24:3–10). David had been anointed as Israel’s future king (16:13), had spent years in Saul’s service, but now he lived “on the move,” always fearing for his life. In the midst of the loneliness David felt, he cried out to God as his “refuge” and “portion in the land of the living” (Psalm 142:5).
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Like David, we can cry out to God when we feel alone, giving voice to our feelings in the safety of His love. God never minimizes our loneliness. He wants to be our companion in the dark caves of our lives. Even when we think no one cares for our life, God cares!
Lord, You are my friend when I feel alone. Thank You for being with me in the dark caves of life.
God is our friend in seasons of loneliness.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, May 26, 2018
Thinking of Prayer as Jesus Taught
Pray without ceasing… —1 Thessalonians 5:17
Our thinking about prayer, whether right or wrong, is based on our own mental conception of it. The correct concept is to think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts. Our blood flows and our breathing continues “without ceasing”; we are not even conscious of it, but it never stops. And we are not always conscious of Jesus keeping us in perfect oneness with God, but if we are obeying Him, He always is. Prayer is not an exercise, it is the life of the saint. Beware of anything that stops the offering up of prayer. “Pray without ceasing…”— maintain the childlike habit of offering up prayer in your heart to God all the time.
Jesus never mentioned unanswered prayer. He had the unlimited certainty of knowing that prayer is always answered. Do we have through the Spirit of God that inexpressible certainty that Jesus had about prayer, or do we think of the times when it seemed that God did not answer our prayer? Jesus said, “…everyone who asks receives…” (Matthew 7:8). Yet we say, “But…, but….” God answers prayer in the best way— not just sometimes, but every time. However, the evidence of the answer in the area we want it may not always immediately follow. Do we expect God to answer prayer?
The danger we have is that we want to water down what Jesus said to make it mean something that aligns with our common sense. But if it were only common sense, what He said would not even be worthwhile. The things Jesus taught about prayer are supernatural truths He reveals to us.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is no condition of life in which we cannot abide in Jesus. We have to learn to abide in Him wherever we are placed. Our Brilliant Heritage, 946 R
How did Jesus endure the terror of the crucifixion? He went first to the Father with his fears. He modeled the words of Psalm 56:3, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in You.”
Do the same with yours! And be specific. Jesus was. “Take this cup,” He prayed. Give God the number of the flight. Tell Him the length of the speech. Share the details of the job transfer. He has plenty of time. He also has plenty of compassion. He won’t tell you to “buck up” or “get tough.” He has been where you are. He knows how you feel. And He knows what you need.
That’s why we punctuate our prayers as Jesus did. “If you are willing. . .” Was God willing? Yes and no. He didn’t take away the cross, but he took away the fear. Who’s to say He won’t do the same for you?
From Traveling Light
Numbers 16
The Rebels
1-3 Getting on his high horse one day, Korah son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, along with a few Reubenites—Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth—rebelled against Moses. He had with him 250 leaders of the congregation of Israel, prominent men with positions in the Council. They came as a group and confronted Moses and Aaron, saying, “You’ve overstepped yourself. This entire community is holy and God is in their midst. So why do you act like you’re running the whole show?”
4 On hearing this, Moses threw himself facedown on the ground.
5 Then he addressed Korah and his gang: “In the morning God will make clear who is on his side, who is holy. God will take his stand with the one he chooses.
6-7 “Now, Korah, here’s what I want you, you and your gang, to do: Tomorrow, take censers. In the presence of God, put fire in them and then incense. Then we’ll see who is holy, see whom God chooses. Sons of Levi, you’ve overstepped yourselves!”
8-11 Moses continued with Korah, “Listen well now, sons of Levi. Isn’t it enough for you that the God of Israel has selected you out of the congregation of Israel to bring you near him to serve in the ministries of The Dwelling of God, and to stand before the congregation to minister to them? He has brought you and all your brother Levites into his inner circle, and now you’re grasping for the priesthood, too. It’s God you’ve ganged up against, not us. What do you have against Aaron that you’re bad-mouthing him?”
12-14 Moses then ordered Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, to appear, but they said, “We’re not coming. Isn’t it enough that you yanked us out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness? And now you keep trying to boss us around! Face it, you haven’t produced: You haven’t brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, you haven’t given us the promised inheritance of fields and vineyards. You’d have to poke our eyes out to keep us from seeing what’s going on. Forget it, we’re not coming.”
15 Moses’ temper blazed white-hot. He said to God, “Don’t accept their Grain-Offering. I haven’t taken so much as a single donkey from them; I haven’t hurt a single hair of their heads.”
16-17 Moses said to Korah, “Bring your people before God tomorrow. Appear there with them and Aaron. Have each man bring his censer filled with incense and present it to God—all 250 censers. And you and Aaron do the same, bring your censers.”
18 So they all did it. They brought their censers filled with fire and incense and stood at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. Moses and Aaron did the same.
19 It was Korah and his gang against Moses and Aaron at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. The entire community could see the Glory of God.
20-21 God said to Moses and Aaron, “Separate yourselves from this congregation so that I can finish them off and be done with them.”
22 They threw themselves on their faces and said, “O God, God of everything living, when one man sins are you going to take it out on the whole community?”
23-24 God spoke to Moses: “Speak to the community. Tell them, Back off from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.”
25-26 Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram. The leaders of Israel followed him. He then spoke to the community: “Back off from the tents of these bad men; don’t touch a thing that belongs to them lest you be carried off on the flood of their sins.”
27 So they all backed away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram by now had come out and were standing at the entrance to their tents with their wives, children, and babies.
28-30 Moses continued to address the community: “This is how you’ll know that it was God who sent me to do all these things and that it wasn’t anything I cooked up on my own. If these men die a natural death like all the rest of us, you’ll know that it wasn’t God who sent me. But if God does something unprecedented—if the ground opens up and swallows the lot of them and they are pitched alive into Sheol—then you’ll know that these men have been insolent with God.”
31-33 The words were hardly out of his mouth when the Earth split open. Earth opened its mouth and in one gulp swallowed them down, the men and their families, all the human beings connected with Korah, along with everything they owned. And that was the end of them, pitched alive into Sheol. The Earth closed up over them and that was the last the community heard of them.
34 At the sound of their cries everyone around ran for dear life, shouting, “We’re about to be swallowed up alive!”
35 Then God sent lightning. The fire cremated the 250 men who were offering the incense.
36-38 God spoke to Moses: “Tell Eleazar son of Aaron the priest, Gather up the censers from the smoldering cinders and scatter the coals a distance away for these censers have become holy. Take the censers of the men who have sinned and are now dead and hammer them into thin sheets for covering the Altar. They have been offered to God and are holy to God. Let them serve as a sign to Israel, evidence of what happened this day.”
39-40 So Eleazar gathered all the bronze censers that belonged to those who had been burned up and had them hammered flat and used to overlay the Altar, just as God had instructed him by Moses. This was to serve as a sign to Israel that only descendants of Aaron were allowed to burn incense before God; anyone else trying it would end up like Korah and his gang.
41 Grumbling broke out the next day in the community of Israel, grumbling against Moses and Aaron: “You have killed God’s people!”
42 But it so happened that when the community got together against Moses and Aaron, they looked over at the Tent of Meeting and there was the Cloud—the Glory of God for all to see.
43-45 Moses and Aaron stood at the front of the Tent of Meeting. God spoke to Moses: “Back away from this congregation so that I can do away with them this very minute.”
They threw themselves facedown on the ground.
46 Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer and fill it with incense, along with fire from the Altar. Get to the congregation as fast as you can: make atonement for them. Anger is pouring out from God—the plague has started!”
47-48 Aaron grabbed the censer, as directed by Moses, and ran into the midst of the congregation. The plague had already begun. He put burning incense into the censer and atoned for the people. He stood there between the living and the dead and stopped the plague.
49-50 Fourteen thousand seven hundred people died from the plague, not counting those who died in the affair of Korah. Aaron then went back to join Moses at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. The plague was stopped.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, May 26, 2018
Read: Psalm 142
A David Prayer—When He Was in the Cave
1-2 I cry out loudly to God,
loudly I plead with God for mercy.
I spill out all my complaints before him,
and spell out my troubles in detail:
3-7 “As I sink in despair, my spirit ebbing away,
you know how I’m feeling,
Know the danger I’m in,
the traps hidden in my path.
Look right, look left—
there’s not a soul who cares what happens!
I’m up against it, with no exit—
bereft, left alone.
I cry out, God, call out:
‘You’re my last chance, my only hope for life!’
Oh listen, please listen;
I’ve never been this low.
Rescue me from those who are hunting me down;
I’m no match for them.
Get me out of this dungeon
so I can thank you in public.
Your people will form a circle around me
and you’ll bring me showers of blessing!”
INSIGHT
The heading to Psalm 142 says, “A maskil of David. When he was in the cave. A prayer.” But we might also call this song “David’s cry.” The poetic imagery woven into the lyric rings with authenticity because it flows out of David’s actual experiences. Twice he fled to a cave in fear for his life. Few of us can identify with that situation literally, but nearly all of us can relate to David’s metaphorical cave of loneliness and despair. When he uses words like “cry” (v. 1) and “complaint” (v. 2), we know how he feels. His “spirit grows faint” (v. 3), a “snare” has been set for him (v. 3), and “no one is concerned” (v. 4). David even sees his dilemma as “my prison” (v. 7). Yet he knows the trustworthiness of the One he cries out to, and he anticipates a day when “the righteous will gather about [him]” (v. 7). He will not always be desperately lonely.
Does an emotional cave imprison you today? Consider writing out your thoughts in raw honesty and giving them to God. How might that kind of honesty change your prayers? - Tim Gustafson
Nobody Likes Me
By Kirsten Holmberg
No one is concerned for me. I have no refuge; no one cares for my life. Psalm 142:4
As a child, when I felt lonely, rejected, or sorry for myself, my mother would sometimes attempt to cheer me up by singing a popular ditty: “Nobody likes me, everybody hates me. I think I’ll go eat worms.” After a smile came from my downcast face, she’d help me see the many special relationships and reasons for gratitude I truly did have.
When I read that David felt no one cared for him, that ditty rings in my ears. Yet David’s pain wasn’t at all exaggerated. Where I had feelings of loneliness typical for my age, David actually had good reason to feel abandoned. He wrote these words in the dark depths of a cave where he hid from Saul, who pursued him with murderous plans (1 Samuel 22:1; 24:3–10). David had been anointed as Israel’s future king (16:13), had spent years in Saul’s service, but now he lived “on the move,” always fearing for his life. In the midst of the loneliness David felt, he cried out to God as his “refuge” and “portion in the land of the living” (Psalm 142:5).
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Like David, we can cry out to God when we feel alone, giving voice to our feelings in the safety of His love. God never minimizes our loneliness. He wants to be our companion in the dark caves of our lives. Even when we think no one cares for our life, God cares!
Lord, You are my friend when I feel alone. Thank You for being with me in the dark caves of life.
God is our friend in seasons of loneliness.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, May 26, 2018
Thinking of Prayer as Jesus Taught
Pray without ceasing… —1 Thessalonians 5:17
Our thinking about prayer, whether right or wrong, is based on our own mental conception of it. The correct concept is to think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts. Our blood flows and our breathing continues “without ceasing”; we are not even conscious of it, but it never stops. And we are not always conscious of Jesus keeping us in perfect oneness with God, but if we are obeying Him, He always is. Prayer is not an exercise, it is the life of the saint. Beware of anything that stops the offering up of prayer. “Pray without ceasing…”— maintain the childlike habit of offering up prayer in your heart to God all the time.
Jesus never mentioned unanswered prayer. He had the unlimited certainty of knowing that prayer is always answered. Do we have through the Spirit of God that inexpressible certainty that Jesus had about prayer, or do we think of the times when it seemed that God did not answer our prayer? Jesus said, “…everyone who asks receives…” (Matthew 7:8). Yet we say, “But…, but….” God answers prayer in the best way— not just sometimes, but every time. However, the evidence of the answer in the area we want it may not always immediately follow. Do we expect God to answer prayer?
The danger we have is that we want to water down what Jesus said to make it mean something that aligns with our common sense. But if it were only common sense, what He said would not even be worthwhile. The things Jesus taught about prayer are supernatural truths He reveals to us.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is no condition of life in which we cannot abide in Jesus. We have to learn to abide in Him wherever we are placed. Our Brilliant Heritage, 946 R
Friday, May 25, 2018
Numbers 15, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: DNA TEST FOR LOVE - May 25, 2018
Have you ever made decisions about your relationships based on your feelings instead of the facts? When it comes to love, feelings rule the day. Emotions guide the ship.
Ever wish you had a DNA test for love? Paul offers us one, “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6). In this verse lies a test for love. Love doesn’t ask someone to do what is wrong. If you find yourself prompting evil in others, heed the alarm. And if others prompt evil in you, be alert. That siren you hear? It’s the phony-love detector.
Love doesn’t tear down the convictions of others. Quite the contrary. “Love builds up!” (1 Corinthians 8:1). Ask yourself this: Do I encourage this person to do what is right? For true love “takes no pleasure in other people’s sins but delights in the truth.”
Read more Love Worth Giving
Numbers 15
Matters of Worship
1-5 God spoke to Moses: “Speak to the People of Israel. Tell them, When you enter your homeland that I am giving to you and sacrifice a Fire-Gift to God, a Whole-Burnt-Offering or any sacrifice from the herd or flock for a Vow-Offering or Freewill-Offering at one of the appointed feasts, as a pleasing fragrance for God, the one bringing the offering shall present to God a Grain-Offering of two quarts of fine flour mixed with a quart of oil. With each lamb for the Whole-Burnt-Offering or other sacrifice, prepare a quart of oil and a quart of wine as a Drink-Offering.
6-7 “For a ram prepare a Grain-Offering of four quarts of fine flour mixed with one and a quarter quarts of oil and one and a quarter quarts of wine as a Drink-Offering. Present it as a pleasing fragrance to God.
8-10 “When you prepare a young bull as a Whole-Burnt-Offering or sacrifice for a special vow or a Peace-Offering to God, bring with the bull a Grain-Offering of six quarts of fine flour and two quarts of oil. Also bring two quarts of wine as a Drink-Offering. It will be a Fire-Gift, a pleasing fragrance to God.
11-12 “Each bull or ram, each lamb or young goat, is to be prepared in this same way. Carry out this procedure for each one, no matter how many you have to prepare.
13-16 “Every native-born Israelite is to follow this procedure when he brings a Fire-Gift as a pleasing fragrance to God. In future generations, when a foreigner or visitor living at length among you presents a Fire-Gift as a pleasing fragrance to God, the same procedures must be followed. The community has the same rules for you and the foreigner living among you. This is the regular rule for future generations. You and the foreigner are the same before God. The same laws and regulations apply to both you and the foreigner who lives with you.”
17-21 God spoke to Moses: “Speak to the People of Israel. Tell them, When you enter the land into which I’m bringing you, and you eat the food of that country, set some aside as an offering for God. From the first batch of bread dough make a round loaf for an offering—an offering from the threshing floor. Down through the future generations make this offering to God from each first batch of dough.
22-26 “But if you should get off the beaten track and not keep the commands which God spoke to Moses, any of the things that God commanded you under the authority of Moses from the time that God first commanded you right up to this present time, and if it happened more or less by mistake, with the congregation unaware of it, then the whole congregation is to sacrifice one young bull as a Whole-Burnt-Offering, a pleasing fragrance to God, accompanied by its Grain-Offering and Drink-Offering as stipulated in the rules, and a he-goat as an Absolution-Offering. The priest is to atone for the entire community of the People of Israel and they will stand forgiven. The sin was not deliberate, and they offered to God the Fire-Gift and Absolution-Offering for their inadvertence. The whole community of Israel including the foreigners living there will be absolved, because everyone was involved in the error.
27-28 “But if it’s just one person who sins by mistake, not realizing what he’s doing, he is to bring a yearling she-goat as an Absolution-Offering. The priest then is to atone for the person who accidentally sinned, to make atonement before God so that it won’t be held against him.
29 “The same standard holds for everyone who sins by mistake; the native-born Israelites and the foreigners go by the same rules.
30-31 “But the person, native or foreigner, who sins defiantly, deliberately blaspheming God, must be cut off from his people: He has despised God’s word, he has violated God’s command; that person must be kicked out of the community, ostracized, left alone in his wrongdoing.”
32-35 Once, during those wilderness years of the People of Israel, a man was caught gathering wood on the Sabbath. The ones who caught him hauled him before Moses and Aaron and the entire congregation. They put him in custody until it became clear what to do with him. Then God spoke to Moses: “Give the man the death penalty. Yes, kill him, the whole community hurling stones at him outside the camp.”
36 So the whole community took him outside the camp and threw stones at him, an execution commanded by God and given through Moses.
37-41 God spoke to Moses: “Speak to the People of Israel. Tell them that from now on they are to make tassels on the corners of their garments and to mark each corner tassel with a blue thread. When you look at these tassels you’ll remember and keep all the commandments of God, and not get distracted by everything you feel or see that seduces you into infidelities. The tassels will signal remembrance and observance of all my commandments, to live a holy life to God. I am your God who rescued you from the land of Egypt to be your personal God. Yes, I am God, your God.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, May 25, 2018
Read: Philippians 4:4–9
Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!
6-7 Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
8-9 Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.
INSIGHT
The virtuous life described in Philippians 4:8 is to be the believer’s focus. What is “true” refers to basing one’s life on reality according to God’s Word. “Noble” means honest or worthy of respect. “Right” corresponds to a moral sense of what is fair. “Pure” indicates a character that is not polluted by sin. “Lovely” means expressing love toward others in relationships. Finally, “admirable” carries with it the idea of a positive reputation and reliable Christian character.
What are some specific ways you can display these virtues this week?
For further reading, see Kingdom Living: Embracing the Virtues of the King at discoveryseries.org/hp091.- Dennis Fisher
Accidental Wisdom
By Randy Kilgore
Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable . . . think about such things. Philippians 4:8
A few years ago, a woman shared with me a story about finding her preteen son watching news coverage of a violent event. Instinctively, she reached for the remote and changed the channel. “You don’t need to be watching that stuff,” she told him rather abruptly. An argument followed, and eventually she shared that he needed to fill his mind with “whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely . . .” (Philippians 4:8). After dinner, she and her husband were watching the news when suddenly their five-year-old daughter burst in and turned off the television. “You don’t need to be watching that stuff,” she declared in her best “mom” voice. “Now, think about those Bible things!”
As adults, we can better absorb and process the news than our children. Still, the couple’s daughter was both amusing and wise when she echoed her mother’s earlier instructions. Even well-adjusted adults can be affected by a steady diet of the darker side of life. Meditating on the kind of things Paul lists in Philippians 4:8 is a powerful antidote to the gloom that sometimes settles on us as we see the condition of our world.
Your gift can help bring people back to the Lord.
LEARN MORE»
Making careful decisions about what fills our minds is an excellent way to honor God and guard our hearts as well.
Father, open our eyes today to what’s beautiful. Teach us to meditate on You.
What we let into our minds shapes the state of our souls.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, May 25, 2018
The Good or The Best?
If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left. —Genesis 13:9
As soon as you begin to live the life of faith in God, fascinating and physically gratifying possibilities will open up before you. These things are yours by right, but if you are living the life of faith you will exercise your right to waive your rights, and let God make your choice for you. God sometimes allows you to get into a place of testing where your own welfare would be the appropriate thing to consider, if you were not living the life of faith. But if you are, you will joyfully waive your right and allow God to make your choice for you. This is the discipline God uses to transform the natural into the spiritual through obedience to His voice.
Whenever our right becomes the guiding factor of our lives, it dulls our spiritual insight. The greatest enemy of the life of faith in God is not sin, but good choices which are not quite good enough. The good is always the enemy of the best. In this passage, it would seem that the wisest thing in the world for Abram to do would be to choose. It was his right, and the people around him would consider him to be a fool for not choosing.
Many of us do not continue to grow spiritually because we prefer to choose on the basis of our rights, instead of relying on God to make the choice for us. We have to learn to walk according to the standard which has its eyes focused on God. And God says to us, as He did to Abram, “…walk before Me…” (Genesis 17:1).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
To live a life alone with God does not mean that we live it apart from everyone else. The connection between godly men and women and those associated with them is continually revealed in the Bible, e.g., 1 Timothy 4:10. Not Knowing Whither, 867 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, May 25, 2018
No Birthday Without Him - #8185
Amid all the amusement and theme parks clustered in Orlando, Florida, there's one that is pretty distinctive. It's that Holy Land theme park that attempts to bring some of the scenes and the stories of the Bible to life. Our daughter and son-in-law were there once with two of our grandsons. And the kids, who are pretty up on their Bible stories, really enjoyed walking through those stories and meeting some of the characters (Well, actually, people portraying some of those characters.). The one that impressed our then two-year-old grandson the most was Jesus. A man portraying Jesus stood in the middle of that small crowd and He spoke some of the very stories He told in the Bible. But then came the moment our little guy will not soon forget. Jesus came over and picked Him up, just like Jesus did with the children when He was here. The next day Mom and our little guy were talking about his upcoming third birthday party, and suddenly out of the blue, he said, "I want Jesus at my birthday party."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Birthday Without Him."
That's a great idea: Jesus at your birthday party. Talk about a guest of honor! Actually, when it comes to the most important birthday of all, there's no birthday without Jesus. And if there's no birthday, there's no life. Well, eternal life, that is. The most important birthday of all is the day you get born into God's family. You say, "Isn't everyone God's child?" Well, everyone is God's creation, but you're not God's child unless you've been born spiritually into the family of the Heavenly Father.
Jesus Himself put it this way in John 3:3, our word for today from the Word of God. "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." Obviously, Birth One was the day you were born into your parents' family. No birthday, no life. Jesus is talking here about Birth Two-the day you actually begin to belong to God. No birthday, no life. Whatever "born again" is, Jesus said you can't enter God's heaven without it, because heaven is only for family-God's family. Anyone can be in God's family, no matter what their religion or their background, but not everyone is, because they've never been born again.
John 1:12 describes just how a person gets born into God's family: "To all who received Him (that's Jesus), to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God." So you see, it's all about what you do with Jesus. Why? Because the only way to be in God's family is to take care of what keeps you from being one of His kids, and that is something called sin. He's an all-holy, totally perfect God. You and I have turned our back on Him-sometimes with a lot of religion in our lives that gives us a sense of being okay. That's false security. We've used our mouth He gave us to hurt people, to lie and to swear. We've used the hands and eyes and ears He gave us to touch and explore what we never should have touched. We've hurt most the people we love the most, we've lusted, we've boasted and we've been selfish. All that sin has to be paid for, but Jesus died as our substitute paying for it.
He's the only One who could forgive your sin, because He's the only One who died for your sin and then rose again to prove that He can. He's the only One who can get you into heaven. But you need a birthday-a definite beginning with Him. If you don't have that, you have no chance of being God's child.
You may have had a baptism day, a confirmation day, a lot of church days, but you've missed your spiritual birthday. Which only comes the day you, as it says, "believe in" Jesus; which means welcoming Him into your life with total trust in Him as your only hope. Have you ever done that? If you've done that, you know you have. If you don't know, you probably haven't. But you can get that done this very day. Just tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours. You died for me; I am Yours."
Look, our website is all about being sure you belong to Jesus, a great place for you to go and get the information that will help you nail this down once and for all. The website is ANewStory.com.
See, today's date could become the most important day of your life if you'll make it your Jesus-day-your birthday. The day you receive the most awesome, most expensive birthday present of all-eternal life paid for with the life of God's Son.
Have you ever made decisions about your relationships based on your feelings instead of the facts? When it comes to love, feelings rule the day. Emotions guide the ship.
Ever wish you had a DNA test for love? Paul offers us one, “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6). In this verse lies a test for love. Love doesn’t ask someone to do what is wrong. If you find yourself prompting evil in others, heed the alarm. And if others prompt evil in you, be alert. That siren you hear? It’s the phony-love detector.
Love doesn’t tear down the convictions of others. Quite the contrary. “Love builds up!” (1 Corinthians 8:1). Ask yourself this: Do I encourage this person to do what is right? For true love “takes no pleasure in other people’s sins but delights in the truth.”
Read more Love Worth Giving
Numbers 15
Matters of Worship
1-5 God spoke to Moses: “Speak to the People of Israel. Tell them, When you enter your homeland that I am giving to you and sacrifice a Fire-Gift to God, a Whole-Burnt-Offering or any sacrifice from the herd or flock for a Vow-Offering or Freewill-Offering at one of the appointed feasts, as a pleasing fragrance for God, the one bringing the offering shall present to God a Grain-Offering of two quarts of fine flour mixed with a quart of oil. With each lamb for the Whole-Burnt-Offering or other sacrifice, prepare a quart of oil and a quart of wine as a Drink-Offering.
6-7 “For a ram prepare a Grain-Offering of four quarts of fine flour mixed with one and a quarter quarts of oil and one and a quarter quarts of wine as a Drink-Offering. Present it as a pleasing fragrance to God.
8-10 “When you prepare a young bull as a Whole-Burnt-Offering or sacrifice for a special vow or a Peace-Offering to God, bring with the bull a Grain-Offering of six quarts of fine flour and two quarts of oil. Also bring two quarts of wine as a Drink-Offering. It will be a Fire-Gift, a pleasing fragrance to God.
11-12 “Each bull or ram, each lamb or young goat, is to be prepared in this same way. Carry out this procedure for each one, no matter how many you have to prepare.
13-16 “Every native-born Israelite is to follow this procedure when he brings a Fire-Gift as a pleasing fragrance to God. In future generations, when a foreigner or visitor living at length among you presents a Fire-Gift as a pleasing fragrance to God, the same procedures must be followed. The community has the same rules for you and the foreigner living among you. This is the regular rule for future generations. You and the foreigner are the same before God. The same laws and regulations apply to both you and the foreigner who lives with you.”
17-21 God spoke to Moses: “Speak to the People of Israel. Tell them, When you enter the land into which I’m bringing you, and you eat the food of that country, set some aside as an offering for God. From the first batch of bread dough make a round loaf for an offering—an offering from the threshing floor. Down through the future generations make this offering to God from each first batch of dough.
22-26 “But if you should get off the beaten track and not keep the commands which God spoke to Moses, any of the things that God commanded you under the authority of Moses from the time that God first commanded you right up to this present time, and if it happened more or less by mistake, with the congregation unaware of it, then the whole congregation is to sacrifice one young bull as a Whole-Burnt-Offering, a pleasing fragrance to God, accompanied by its Grain-Offering and Drink-Offering as stipulated in the rules, and a he-goat as an Absolution-Offering. The priest is to atone for the entire community of the People of Israel and they will stand forgiven. The sin was not deliberate, and they offered to God the Fire-Gift and Absolution-Offering for their inadvertence. The whole community of Israel including the foreigners living there will be absolved, because everyone was involved in the error.
27-28 “But if it’s just one person who sins by mistake, not realizing what he’s doing, he is to bring a yearling she-goat as an Absolution-Offering. The priest then is to atone for the person who accidentally sinned, to make atonement before God so that it won’t be held against him.
29 “The same standard holds for everyone who sins by mistake; the native-born Israelites and the foreigners go by the same rules.
30-31 “But the person, native or foreigner, who sins defiantly, deliberately blaspheming God, must be cut off from his people: He has despised God’s word, he has violated God’s command; that person must be kicked out of the community, ostracized, left alone in his wrongdoing.”
32-35 Once, during those wilderness years of the People of Israel, a man was caught gathering wood on the Sabbath. The ones who caught him hauled him before Moses and Aaron and the entire congregation. They put him in custody until it became clear what to do with him. Then God spoke to Moses: “Give the man the death penalty. Yes, kill him, the whole community hurling stones at him outside the camp.”
36 So the whole community took him outside the camp and threw stones at him, an execution commanded by God and given through Moses.
37-41 God spoke to Moses: “Speak to the People of Israel. Tell them that from now on they are to make tassels on the corners of their garments and to mark each corner tassel with a blue thread. When you look at these tassels you’ll remember and keep all the commandments of God, and not get distracted by everything you feel or see that seduces you into infidelities. The tassels will signal remembrance and observance of all my commandments, to live a holy life to God. I am your God who rescued you from the land of Egypt to be your personal God. Yes, I am God, your God.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, May 25, 2018
Read: Philippians 4:4–9
Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!
6-7 Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
8-9 Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.
INSIGHT
The virtuous life described in Philippians 4:8 is to be the believer’s focus. What is “true” refers to basing one’s life on reality according to God’s Word. “Noble” means honest or worthy of respect. “Right” corresponds to a moral sense of what is fair. “Pure” indicates a character that is not polluted by sin. “Lovely” means expressing love toward others in relationships. Finally, “admirable” carries with it the idea of a positive reputation and reliable Christian character.
What are some specific ways you can display these virtues this week?
For further reading, see Kingdom Living: Embracing the Virtues of the King at discoveryseries.org/hp091.- Dennis Fisher
Accidental Wisdom
By Randy Kilgore
Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable . . . think about such things. Philippians 4:8
A few years ago, a woman shared with me a story about finding her preteen son watching news coverage of a violent event. Instinctively, she reached for the remote and changed the channel. “You don’t need to be watching that stuff,” she told him rather abruptly. An argument followed, and eventually she shared that he needed to fill his mind with “whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely . . .” (Philippians 4:8). After dinner, she and her husband were watching the news when suddenly their five-year-old daughter burst in and turned off the television. “You don’t need to be watching that stuff,” she declared in her best “mom” voice. “Now, think about those Bible things!”
As adults, we can better absorb and process the news than our children. Still, the couple’s daughter was both amusing and wise when she echoed her mother’s earlier instructions. Even well-adjusted adults can be affected by a steady diet of the darker side of life. Meditating on the kind of things Paul lists in Philippians 4:8 is a powerful antidote to the gloom that sometimes settles on us as we see the condition of our world.
Your gift can help bring people back to the Lord.
LEARN MORE»
Making careful decisions about what fills our minds is an excellent way to honor God and guard our hearts as well.
Father, open our eyes today to what’s beautiful. Teach us to meditate on You.
What we let into our minds shapes the state of our souls.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, May 25, 2018
The Good or The Best?
If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left. —Genesis 13:9
As soon as you begin to live the life of faith in God, fascinating and physically gratifying possibilities will open up before you. These things are yours by right, but if you are living the life of faith you will exercise your right to waive your rights, and let God make your choice for you. God sometimes allows you to get into a place of testing where your own welfare would be the appropriate thing to consider, if you were not living the life of faith. But if you are, you will joyfully waive your right and allow God to make your choice for you. This is the discipline God uses to transform the natural into the spiritual through obedience to His voice.
Whenever our right becomes the guiding factor of our lives, it dulls our spiritual insight. The greatest enemy of the life of faith in God is not sin, but good choices which are not quite good enough. The good is always the enemy of the best. In this passage, it would seem that the wisest thing in the world for Abram to do would be to choose. It was his right, and the people around him would consider him to be a fool for not choosing.
Many of us do not continue to grow spiritually because we prefer to choose on the basis of our rights, instead of relying on God to make the choice for us. We have to learn to walk according to the standard which has its eyes focused on God. And God says to us, as He did to Abram, “…walk before Me…” (Genesis 17:1).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
To live a life alone with God does not mean that we live it apart from everyone else. The connection between godly men and women and those associated with them is continually revealed in the Bible, e.g., 1 Timothy 4:10. Not Knowing Whither, 867 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, May 25, 2018
No Birthday Without Him - #8185
Amid all the amusement and theme parks clustered in Orlando, Florida, there's one that is pretty distinctive. It's that Holy Land theme park that attempts to bring some of the scenes and the stories of the Bible to life. Our daughter and son-in-law were there once with two of our grandsons. And the kids, who are pretty up on their Bible stories, really enjoyed walking through those stories and meeting some of the characters (Well, actually, people portraying some of those characters.). The one that impressed our then two-year-old grandson the most was Jesus. A man portraying Jesus stood in the middle of that small crowd and He spoke some of the very stories He told in the Bible. But then came the moment our little guy will not soon forget. Jesus came over and picked Him up, just like Jesus did with the children when He was here. The next day Mom and our little guy were talking about his upcoming third birthday party, and suddenly out of the blue, he said, "I want Jesus at my birthday party."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Birthday Without Him."
That's a great idea: Jesus at your birthday party. Talk about a guest of honor! Actually, when it comes to the most important birthday of all, there's no birthday without Jesus. And if there's no birthday, there's no life. Well, eternal life, that is. The most important birthday of all is the day you get born into God's family. You say, "Isn't everyone God's child?" Well, everyone is God's creation, but you're not God's child unless you've been born spiritually into the family of the Heavenly Father.
Jesus Himself put it this way in John 3:3, our word for today from the Word of God. "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." Obviously, Birth One was the day you were born into your parents' family. No birthday, no life. Jesus is talking here about Birth Two-the day you actually begin to belong to God. No birthday, no life. Whatever "born again" is, Jesus said you can't enter God's heaven without it, because heaven is only for family-God's family. Anyone can be in God's family, no matter what their religion or their background, but not everyone is, because they've never been born again.
John 1:12 describes just how a person gets born into God's family: "To all who received Him (that's Jesus), to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God." So you see, it's all about what you do with Jesus. Why? Because the only way to be in God's family is to take care of what keeps you from being one of His kids, and that is something called sin. He's an all-holy, totally perfect God. You and I have turned our back on Him-sometimes with a lot of religion in our lives that gives us a sense of being okay. That's false security. We've used our mouth He gave us to hurt people, to lie and to swear. We've used the hands and eyes and ears He gave us to touch and explore what we never should have touched. We've hurt most the people we love the most, we've lusted, we've boasted and we've been selfish. All that sin has to be paid for, but Jesus died as our substitute paying for it.
He's the only One who could forgive your sin, because He's the only One who died for your sin and then rose again to prove that He can. He's the only One who can get you into heaven. But you need a birthday-a definite beginning with Him. If you don't have that, you have no chance of being God's child.
You may have had a baptism day, a confirmation day, a lot of church days, but you've missed your spiritual birthday. Which only comes the day you, as it says, "believe in" Jesus; which means welcoming Him into your life with total trust in Him as your only hope. Have you ever done that? If you've done that, you know you have. If you don't know, you probably haven't. But you can get that done this very day. Just tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours. You died for me; I am Yours."
Look, our website is all about being sure you belong to Jesus, a great place for you to go and get the information that will help you nail this down once and for all. The website is ANewStory.com.
See, today's date could become the most important day of your life if you'll make it your Jesus-day-your birthday. The day you receive the most awesome, most expensive birthday present of all-eternal life paid for with the life of God's Son.
Thursday, May 24, 2018
Numbers 14, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: FILLING OUR MINDS WITH GOD’S LOVE - May 24, 2018
What happens when we fill our minds with thoughts of God’s love? Will standing beneath the downpour of his grace change the way we feel about others?
It’s not enough to keep the bad stuff out. We’ve got to let the good stuff in. It’s not enough to keep no list of wrongs. We need to cultivate a list of blessings. Paul says in Philippians 4:8, “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
Thinking conveys the idea of pondering, studying, and focusing…allowing what is viewed to have an impact on us. You want to make a list? Then list his mercies. List the times God has forgiven you. Rather than store up the sour, store up the sweet!
Read more A Love Worth Giving
Numbers 14
1-3 The whole community was in an uproar, wailing all night long. All the People of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The entire community was in on it: “Why didn’t we die in Egypt? Or in this wilderness? Why has God brought us to this country to kill us? Our wives and children are about to become plunder. Why don’t we just head back to Egypt? And right now!”
4 Soon they were all saying it to one another: “Let’s pick a new leader; let’s head back to Egypt.”
5 Moses and Aaron fell on their faces in front of the entire community, gathered in emergency session.
6-9 Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, members of the scouting party, ripped their clothes and addressed the assembled People of Israel: “The land we walked through and scouted out is a very good land—very good indeed. If God is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land that flows, as they say, with milk and honey. And he’ll give it to us. Just don’t rebel against God! And don’t be afraid of those people. Why, we’ll have them for lunch! They have no protection and God is on our side. Don’t be afraid of them!”
10-12 But, up in arms now, the entire community was talking of hurling stones at them.
Just then the bright Glory of God appeared at the Tent of Meeting. Every Israelite saw it. God said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me like dirt? How long refuse to trust me? And with all these signs I’ve done among them! I’ve had enough—I’m going to hit them with a plague and kill them. But I’ll make you into a nation bigger and stronger than they ever were.”
13-16 But Moses said to God, “The Egyptians are going to hear about this! You delivered this people from Egypt with a great show of strength, and now this? The Egyptians will tell everyone. They’ve already heard that you are God, that you are on the side of this people, that you are present among them, that they see you with their own eyes in your Cloud that hovers over them, in the Pillar of Cloud that leads them by day and the Pillar of Fire at night. If you kill this entire people in one stroke, all the nations that have heard what has been going on will say, ‘Since God couldn’t get these people into the land which he had promised to give them, he slaughtered them out in the wilderness.’
17 “Now, please, let the power of the Master expand, enlarge itself greatly, along the lines you have laid out earlier when you said,
18 God, slow to get angry and huge in loyal love,
forgiving iniquity and rebellion and sin;
Still, never just whitewashing sin.
But extending the fallout of parents’ sins
to children into the third,
even the fourth generation.
19 “Please forgive the wrongdoing of this people out of the extravagance of your loyal love just as all along, from the time they left Egypt, you have been forgiving this people.”
20-23 God said, “I forgive them, honoring your words. But as I live and as the Glory of God fills the whole Earth—not a single person of those who saw my Glory, saw the miracle signs I did in Egypt and the wilderness, and who have tested me over and over and over again, turning a deaf ear to me—not one of them will set eyes on the land I so solemnly promised to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with such repeated contempt will see it.
24 “But my servant Caleb—this is a different story. He has a different spirit; he follows me passionately. I’ll bring him into the land that he scouted and his children will inherit it.
25 “Since the Amalekites and Canaanites are so well established in the valleys, for right now change course and head back into the wilderness following the route to the Red Sea.”
26-30 God spoke to Moses and Aaron: “How long is this going to go on, all this grumbling against me by this evil-infested community? I’ve had my fill of complaints from these grumbling Israelites. Tell them, As I live—God’s decree—here’s what I’m going to do: Your corpses are going to litter the wilderness—every one of you twenty years and older who was counted in the census, this whole generation of grumblers and grousers. Not one of you will enter the land and make your home there, the firmly and solemnly promised land, except for Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.
31-34 “Your children, the very ones that you said would be taken for plunder, I’ll bring in to enjoy the land you rejected while your corpses will be rotting in the wilderness. These children of yours will live as shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, living with the fallout of your whoring unfaithfulness until the last of your generation lies a corpse in the wilderness. You scouted out the land for forty days; your punishment will be a year for each day, a forty-year sentence to serve for your sins—a long schooling in my displeasure.
35 “I, God, have spoken. I will most certainly carry out these things against this entire evil-infested community which has banded together against me. In this wilderness they will come to their end. There they will die.”
36-38 So it happened that the men Moses sent to scout out the land returned to circulate false rumors about the land causing the entire community to grumble against Moses—all these men died. Having spread false rumors of the land, they died in a plague, confronted by God. Only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh were left alive of the men who went to scout out the land.
39-40 When Moses told all of this to the People of Israel, they mourned long and hard. But early the next morning they started out for the high hill country, saying, “We’re here; we’re ready—let’s go up and attack the land that God promised us. We sinned, but now we’re ready.”
41-43 But Moses said, “Why are you crossing God’s command yet again? This won’t work. Don’t attack. God isn’t with you in this—you’ll be beaten badly by your enemies. The Amalekites and Canaanites are ready for you and they’ll kill you. Because you have left off obediently following God, God is not going to be with you in this.”
44-45 But they went anyway; recklessly and arrogantly they climbed to the high hill country. But the Chest of the Covenant and Moses didn’t budge from the camp. The Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in the hill country came out of the hills and attacked and beat them, a rout all the way down to Hormah.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, May 24, 2018
Read: Psalm 4
A David Psalm
4 When I call, give me answers. God, take my side!
Once, in a tight place, you gave me room;
Now I’m in trouble again: grace me! hear me!
2 You rabble—how long do I put up with your scorn?
How long will you lust after lies?
How long will you live crazed by illusion?
3 Look at this: look
Who got picked by God!
He listens the split second I call to him.
4-5 Complain if you must, but don’t lash out.
Keep your mouth shut, and let your heart do the talking.
Build your case before God and wait for his verdict.
6-7 Why is everyone hungry for more? “More, more,” they say.
“More, more.”
I have God’s more-than-enough,
More joy in one ordinary day
7-8 Than they get in all their shopping sprees.
At day’s end I’m ready for sound sleep,
For you, God, have put my life back together.
INSIGHT
David’s confident assurance of God’s care was the source of his ability to rest, and this theme of rest winds its way throughout the psalms. In Psalm 46:10 the psalmist says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” The phrase be still can be translated “relax.” It’s as if God is counseling the psalmist, “I’ve got this. Take it easy.” In the shepherd’s psalm, David reminds us, “He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters” (Psalm 23:2). What a wonderful picture of rest—and the source of that rest is the God in whom we confidently trust. This enabled one psalmist to share: “Return to your rest, my soul, for the Lord has been good to you” (Psalm 116:7). Our ability to rest is directly related to our confidence in the Father’s love, care, and concern for us. So in times of anxiety and stress the child of God can look to the Father and know He’s got this. We can be at rest!
What can you entrust to God’s care?-Bill Crowder
Tossing and Turning
By Poh Fang Chia
In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety. Psalm 4:8
What keeps you awake at night? Lately I’ve been losing sleep, tossing and turning on my bed, trying to work out a solution to an issue. Eventually I begin fretting about not getting enough rest to handle the challenges of the next day!
Sound familiar? Troubled relationships, an uncertain future, whatever it is—we all give in to worry at one point or another.
Your gift can help bring people back to the Lord.
King David was clearly in distress when he penned Psalm 4. People were ruining his reputation with groundless accusations (v. 2). And some were questioning his competency to rule (v. 6). David probably felt angry for being treated so unfairly. Surely he could have spent nights stewing about it. Yet we read these remarkable words: “In peace I will lie down and sleep” (v. 8).
Charles Spurgeon explains verse 8 beautifully: “In thus lying down, . . . [David] resigned himself into the hands of another; he did so completely, for in the absence of all care, he slept; there was here a perfect trust.” What inspired this trust? From the start, David was confident that God would answer his prayers (v. 3). And he was sure that since God had chosen to love him, He would lovingly meet his needs.
May God help us to rest in His power and presence when worries threaten. In His sovereign and loving arms, we can “lie down and sleep.”
Dear Father, thank You for hearing me when I call. I surrender my worries to You and rest in Your power and presence.
We can entrust our cares to a wholly trustworthy God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, May 24, 2018
The Delight of Despair
When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. —Revelation 1:17
It may be that, like the apostle John, you know Jesus Christ intimately. Yet when He suddenly appears to you with totally unfamiliar characteristics, the only thing you can do is fall “at His feet as dead.” There are times when God cannot reveal Himself in any other way than in His majesty, and it is the awesomeness of the vision which brings you to the delight of despair. You experience this joy in hopelessness, realizing that if you are ever to be raised up it must be by the hand of God.
“He laid His right hand on me…” (Revelation 1:17). In the midst of the awesomeness, a touch comes, and you know it is the right hand of Jesus Christ. You know it is not the hand of restraint, correction, nor chastisement, but the right hand of the Everlasting Father. Whenever His hand is laid upon you, it gives inexpressible peace and comfort, and the sense that “underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27), full of support, provision, comfort, and strength. And once His touch comes, nothing at all can throw you into fear again. In the midst of all His ascended glory, the Lord Jesus comes to speak to an insignificant disciple, saying, “Do not be afraid” (Revelation 1:17). His tenderness is inexpressibly sweet. Do I know Him like that?
Take a look at some of the things that cause despair. There is despair which has no delight, no limits whatsoever, and no hope of anything brighter. But the delight of despair comes when “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells…” (Romans 7:18). I delight in knowing that there is something in me which must fall prostrate before God when He reveals Himself to me, and also in knowing that if I am ever to be raised up it must be by the hand of God. God can do nothing for me until I recognize the limits of what is humanly possible, allowing Him to do the impossible.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are not fundamentally free; external circumstances are not in our hands, they are in God’s hands, the one thing in which we are free is in our personal relationship to God. We are not responsible for the circumstances we are in, but we are responsible for the way we allow those circumstances to affect us; we can either allow them to get on top of us, or we can allow them to transform us into what God wants us to be. Conformed to His Image, 354 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, May 24, 2018
The Honorary Chairman Charade - #8184
There are lots of people who just love to play golf, and some charitable organizations have found a way to harness golf fever to help support their work. They have these benefit golf tournaments on behalf of their cause. In one major city where a friend of mine is in charitable work, they asked the local NFL quarterback to be the chairman of the golf tournament--well, actually, the honorary chairman. His name on the invitation and the letterhead--ooh, those were impressive, and it made the whole event feel more important. But don't be fooled. Mr. Quarterback had absolutely no say in how that day was organized. Did you get the word? He was the "honorary" chairman. That's a big title, but no real authority.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Honorary Chairman Charade."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from the words of Jesus Himself beginning in Luke 6:46. He begins with an unsettling question. "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord', and do not do what I say?" Jesus says, "You're saying the right words. You're giving Me the right title. But I'm not really in charge. You are." Jesus then proceeds with an example that shows the difference between the person who knows what Jesus wants and the person who does what Jesus wants.
He says, "I will show you what he is like who comes to Me and hears My words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears My words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete."
Here's a believer who is headed for a collapse. Why? Because he has allowed Jesus to become just his honorary chairman. See, a lot of Christians play that game--maybe you. Jesus' name is still on the letterhead. Oh, you've continued to give Him the right title--"Lord". He still has your official allegiance as the final word in your life. But could it be that, in reality, you have given Jesus little real authority over the choices that make up your day?
It's all too easy for that to happen when you've followed Christ for a while. There was a time when you surrendered it all to Jesus. But your life has grown and changed a lot since then. You've got a reputation, you've got a lot more earth-stuff, you've got relationships, you've got a family, you've got your financial position, a career, some scars, some spiritual struggles. And you may not have extended Jesus' Lordship daily as each new day's experiences emerged. And now there's a lot of pieces of your life that are not really under the Lordship of Christ.
Maybe you're depending on a commitment that was very deep and very meaningful at the time, but it wasn't sufficient to cover a lot of the ground that has become now your larger life today. So, what was once passionate with Jesus has become sort of professional. What was once vibrant and alive has just kind of become official and cold.
If Jesus is really just the honorary chairman of your life, it's time to return again to that altar of total surrender. It will be harder this time because you've got a lot more to surrender. But Jesus died, not to have the title but the real authority over your life. An authority that has to be expanded daily as your life grows daily. There's always new ground to give to Him.
Light again that fire that once burned so high in you--the fire that's kindled, not when Jesus is your honorary chairman, but when He is the hands-on Lord of every choice you make!
What happens when we fill our minds with thoughts of God’s love? Will standing beneath the downpour of his grace change the way we feel about others?
It’s not enough to keep the bad stuff out. We’ve got to let the good stuff in. It’s not enough to keep no list of wrongs. We need to cultivate a list of blessings. Paul says in Philippians 4:8, “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
Thinking conveys the idea of pondering, studying, and focusing…allowing what is viewed to have an impact on us. You want to make a list? Then list his mercies. List the times God has forgiven you. Rather than store up the sour, store up the sweet!
Read more A Love Worth Giving
Numbers 14
1-3 The whole community was in an uproar, wailing all night long. All the People of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The entire community was in on it: “Why didn’t we die in Egypt? Or in this wilderness? Why has God brought us to this country to kill us? Our wives and children are about to become plunder. Why don’t we just head back to Egypt? And right now!”
4 Soon they were all saying it to one another: “Let’s pick a new leader; let’s head back to Egypt.”
5 Moses and Aaron fell on their faces in front of the entire community, gathered in emergency session.
6-9 Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, members of the scouting party, ripped their clothes and addressed the assembled People of Israel: “The land we walked through and scouted out is a very good land—very good indeed. If God is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land that flows, as they say, with milk and honey. And he’ll give it to us. Just don’t rebel against God! And don’t be afraid of those people. Why, we’ll have them for lunch! They have no protection and God is on our side. Don’t be afraid of them!”
10-12 But, up in arms now, the entire community was talking of hurling stones at them.
Just then the bright Glory of God appeared at the Tent of Meeting. Every Israelite saw it. God said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me like dirt? How long refuse to trust me? And with all these signs I’ve done among them! I’ve had enough—I’m going to hit them with a plague and kill them. But I’ll make you into a nation bigger and stronger than they ever were.”
13-16 But Moses said to God, “The Egyptians are going to hear about this! You delivered this people from Egypt with a great show of strength, and now this? The Egyptians will tell everyone. They’ve already heard that you are God, that you are on the side of this people, that you are present among them, that they see you with their own eyes in your Cloud that hovers over them, in the Pillar of Cloud that leads them by day and the Pillar of Fire at night. If you kill this entire people in one stroke, all the nations that have heard what has been going on will say, ‘Since God couldn’t get these people into the land which he had promised to give them, he slaughtered them out in the wilderness.’
17 “Now, please, let the power of the Master expand, enlarge itself greatly, along the lines you have laid out earlier when you said,
18 God, slow to get angry and huge in loyal love,
forgiving iniquity and rebellion and sin;
Still, never just whitewashing sin.
But extending the fallout of parents’ sins
to children into the third,
even the fourth generation.
19 “Please forgive the wrongdoing of this people out of the extravagance of your loyal love just as all along, from the time they left Egypt, you have been forgiving this people.”
20-23 God said, “I forgive them, honoring your words. But as I live and as the Glory of God fills the whole Earth—not a single person of those who saw my Glory, saw the miracle signs I did in Egypt and the wilderness, and who have tested me over and over and over again, turning a deaf ear to me—not one of them will set eyes on the land I so solemnly promised to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with such repeated contempt will see it.
24 “But my servant Caleb—this is a different story. He has a different spirit; he follows me passionately. I’ll bring him into the land that he scouted and his children will inherit it.
25 “Since the Amalekites and Canaanites are so well established in the valleys, for right now change course and head back into the wilderness following the route to the Red Sea.”
26-30 God spoke to Moses and Aaron: “How long is this going to go on, all this grumbling against me by this evil-infested community? I’ve had my fill of complaints from these grumbling Israelites. Tell them, As I live—God’s decree—here’s what I’m going to do: Your corpses are going to litter the wilderness—every one of you twenty years and older who was counted in the census, this whole generation of grumblers and grousers. Not one of you will enter the land and make your home there, the firmly and solemnly promised land, except for Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.
31-34 “Your children, the very ones that you said would be taken for plunder, I’ll bring in to enjoy the land you rejected while your corpses will be rotting in the wilderness. These children of yours will live as shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, living with the fallout of your whoring unfaithfulness until the last of your generation lies a corpse in the wilderness. You scouted out the land for forty days; your punishment will be a year for each day, a forty-year sentence to serve for your sins—a long schooling in my displeasure.
35 “I, God, have spoken. I will most certainly carry out these things against this entire evil-infested community which has banded together against me. In this wilderness they will come to their end. There they will die.”
36-38 So it happened that the men Moses sent to scout out the land returned to circulate false rumors about the land causing the entire community to grumble against Moses—all these men died. Having spread false rumors of the land, they died in a plague, confronted by God. Only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh were left alive of the men who went to scout out the land.
39-40 When Moses told all of this to the People of Israel, they mourned long and hard. But early the next morning they started out for the high hill country, saying, “We’re here; we’re ready—let’s go up and attack the land that God promised us. We sinned, but now we’re ready.”
41-43 But Moses said, “Why are you crossing God’s command yet again? This won’t work. Don’t attack. God isn’t with you in this—you’ll be beaten badly by your enemies. The Amalekites and Canaanites are ready for you and they’ll kill you. Because you have left off obediently following God, God is not going to be with you in this.”
44-45 But they went anyway; recklessly and arrogantly they climbed to the high hill country. But the Chest of the Covenant and Moses didn’t budge from the camp. The Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in the hill country came out of the hills and attacked and beat them, a rout all the way down to Hormah.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, May 24, 2018
Read: Psalm 4
A David Psalm
4 When I call, give me answers. God, take my side!
Once, in a tight place, you gave me room;
Now I’m in trouble again: grace me! hear me!
2 You rabble—how long do I put up with your scorn?
How long will you lust after lies?
How long will you live crazed by illusion?
3 Look at this: look
Who got picked by God!
He listens the split second I call to him.
4-5 Complain if you must, but don’t lash out.
Keep your mouth shut, and let your heart do the talking.
Build your case before God and wait for his verdict.
6-7 Why is everyone hungry for more? “More, more,” they say.
“More, more.”
I have God’s more-than-enough,
More joy in one ordinary day
7-8 Than they get in all their shopping sprees.
At day’s end I’m ready for sound sleep,
For you, God, have put my life back together.
INSIGHT
David’s confident assurance of God’s care was the source of his ability to rest, and this theme of rest winds its way throughout the psalms. In Psalm 46:10 the psalmist says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” The phrase be still can be translated “relax.” It’s as if God is counseling the psalmist, “I’ve got this. Take it easy.” In the shepherd’s psalm, David reminds us, “He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters” (Psalm 23:2). What a wonderful picture of rest—and the source of that rest is the God in whom we confidently trust. This enabled one psalmist to share: “Return to your rest, my soul, for the Lord has been good to you” (Psalm 116:7). Our ability to rest is directly related to our confidence in the Father’s love, care, and concern for us. So in times of anxiety and stress the child of God can look to the Father and know He’s got this. We can be at rest!
What can you entrust to God’s care?-Bill Crowder
Tossing and Turning
By Poh Fang Chia
In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety. Psalm 4:8
What keeps you awake at night? Lately I’ve been losing sleep, tossing and turning on my bed, trying to work out a solution to an issue. Eventually I begin fretting about not getting enough rest to handle the challenges of the next day!
Sound familiar? Troubled relationships, an uncertain future, whatever it is—we all give in to worry at one point or another.
Your gift can help bring people back to the Lord.
King David was clearly in distress when he penned Psalm 4. People were ruining his reputation with groundless accusations (v. 2). And some were questioning his competency to rule (v. 6). David probably felt angry for being treated so unfairly. Surely he could have spent nights stewing about it. Yet we read these remarkable words: “In peace I will lie down and sleep” (v. 8).
Charles Spurgeon explains verse 8 beautifully: “In thus lying down, . . . [David] resigned himself into the hands of another; he did so completely, for in the absence of all care, he slept; there was here a perfect trust.” What inspired this trust? From the start, David was confident that God would answer his prayers (v. 3). And he was sure that since God had chosen to love him, He would lovingly meet his needs.
May God help us to rest in His power and presence when worries threaten. In His sovereign and loving arms, we can “lie down and sleep.”
Dear Father, thank You for hearing me when I call. I surrender my worries to You and rest in Your power and presence.
We can entrust our cares to a wholly trustworthy God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, May 24, 2018
The Delight of Despair
When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. —Revelation 1:17
It may be that, like the apostle John, you know Jesus Christ intimately. Yet when He suddenly appears to you with totally unfamiliar characteristics, the only thing you can do is fall “at His feet as dead.” There are times when God cannot reveal Himself in any other way than in His majesty, and it is the awesomeness of the vision which brings you to the delight of despair. You experience this joy in hopelessness, realizing that if you are ever to be raised up it must be by the hand of God.
“He laid His right hand on me…” (Revelation 1:17). In the midst of the awesomeness, a touch comes, and you know it is the right hand of Jesus Christ. You know it is not the hand of restraint, correction, nor chastisement, but the right hand of the Everlasting Father. Whenever His hand is laid upon you, it gives inexpressible peace and comfort, and the sense that “underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27), full of support, provision, comfort, and strength. And once His touch comes, nothing at all can throw you into fear again. In the midst of all His ascended glory, the Lord Jesus comes to speak to an insignificant disciple, saying, “Do not be afraid” (Revelation 1:17). His tenderness is inexpressibly sweet. Do I know Him like that?
Take a look at some of the things that cause despair. There is despair which has no delight, no limits whatsoever, and no hope of anything brighter. But the delight of despair comes when “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells…” (Romans 7:18). I delight in knowing that there is something in me which must fall prostrate before God when He reveals Himself to me, and also in knowing that if I am ever to be raised up it must be by the hand of God. God can do nothing for me until I recognize the limits of what is humanly possible, allowing Him to do the impossible.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are not fundamentally free; external circumstances are not in our hands, they are in God’s hands, the one thing in which we are free is in our personal relationship to God. We are not responsible for the circumstances we are in, but we are responsible for the way we allow those circumstances to affect us; we can either allow them to get on top of us, or we can allow them to transform us into what God wants us to be. Conformed to His Image, 354 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, May 24, 2018
The Honorary Chairman Charade - #8184
There are lots of people who just love to play golf, and some charitable organizations have found a way to harness golf fever to help support their work. They have these benefit golf tournaments on behalf of their cause. In one major city where a friend of mine is in charitable work, they asked the local NFL quarterback to be the chairman of the golf tournament--well, actually, the honorary chairman. His name on the invitation and the letterhead--ooh, those were impressive, and it made the whole event feel more important. But don't be fooled. Mr. Quarterback had absolutely no say in how that day was organized. Did you get the word? He was the "honorary" chairman. That's a big title, but no real authority.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Honorary Chairman Charade."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from the words of Jesus Himself beginning in Luke 6:46. He begins with an unsettling question. "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord', and do not do what I say?" Jesus says, "You're saying the right words. You're giving Me the right title. But I'm not really in charge. You are." Jesus then proceeds with an example that shows the difference between the person who knows what Jesus wants and the person who does what Jesus wants.
He says, "I will show you what he is like who comes to Me and hears My words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears My words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete."
Here's a believer who is headed for a collapse. Why? Because he has allowed Jesus to become just his honorary chairman. See, a lot of Christians play that game--maybe you. Jesus' name is still on the letterhead. Oh, you've continued to give Him the right title--"Lord". He still has your official allegiance as the final word in your life. But could it be that, in reality, you have given Jesus little real authority over the choices that make up your day?
It's all too easy for that to happen when you've followed Christ for a while. There was a time when you surrendered it all to Jesus. But your life has grown and changed a lot since then. You've got a reputation, you've got a lot more earth-stuff, you've got relationships, you've got a family, you've got your financial position, a career, some scars, some spiritual struggles. And you may not have extended Jesus' Lordship daily as each new day's experiences emerged. And now there's a lot of pieces of your life that are not really under the Lordship of Christ.
Maybe you're depending on a commitment that was very deep and very meaningful at the time, but it wasn't sufficient to cover a lot of the ground that has become now your larger life today. So, what was once passionate with Jesus has become sort of professional. What was once vibrant and alive has just kind of become official and cold.
If Jesus is really just the honorary chairman of your life, it's time to return again to that altar of total surrender. It will be harder this time because you've got a lot more to surrender. But Jesus died, not to have the title but the real authority over your life. An authority that has to be expanded daily as your life grows daily. There's always new ground to give to Him.
Light again that fire that once burned so high in you--the fire that's kindled, not when Jesus is your honorary chairman, but when He is the hands-on Lord of every choice you make!
Wednesday, May 23, 2018
Numbers 13, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: YOU ARE NOT A VICTIM OF YOUR THOUGHTS - May 23, 2018
Life has a way of unloading her rubbish on our doorstep! Your husband works too much. Your wife gripes too much. Your boss expects too much. Your kids whine too much. The result? Trash. Loads of pessimism, guilt, anxiety—it all piles up. And what about the Pharisees? They killed Christ in their hearts before they killed him on the cross.
Today’s thoughts are tomorrow’s actions. Could that be why Paul writes, “Love…keeps no record of wrongs?” (1 Corinthians 13:5). We do have a choice. Paul says we do when he writes, “We capture every thought and make it give up and obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Selfishness, step back! Envy…get lost! You are not a victim of your thoughts. If today’s thoughts are tomorrow’s actions, what happens when we fill our minds with thoughts of God’s love? Will standing beneath the downpour of his grace change the way we feel about others? Absolutely!
Read more A Love Worth Giving
Numbers 13
Scouting Out Canaan
1-2 God spoke to Moses: “Send men to scout out the country of Canaan that I am giving to the People of Israel. Send one man from each ancestral tribe, each one a tried-and-true leader in the tribe.”
3-15 So Moses sent them off from the Wilderness of Paran at the command of God. All of them were leaders in Israel, one from each tribe. These were their names:
from Reuben: Shammua son of Zaccur
from Simeon: Shaphat son of Hori
from Judah: Caleb son of Jephunneh
from Issachar: Igal son of Joseph
from Ephraim: Hoshea son of Nun
from Benjamin: Palti son of Raphu
from Zebulun: Gaddiel son of Sodi
from Manasseh (a Joseph tribe): Gaddi son of Susi
from Dan: Ammiel son of Gemalli
from Asher: Sethur son of Michael
from Naphtali: Nahbi son of Vophsi
from Gad: Geuel son of Maki.
16 These are the names of the men Moses sent to scout out the land. Moses gave Hoshea (Salvation) son of Nun a new name—Joshua (God-Saves).
17-20 When Moses sent them off to scout out Canaan, he said, “Go up through the Negev and then into the hill country. Look the land over, see what it is like. Assess the people: Are they strong or weak? Are there few or many? Observe the land: Is it pleasant or harsh? Describe the towns where they live: Are they open camps or fortified with walls? And the soil: Is it fertile or barren? Are there forests? And try to bring back a sample of the produce that grows there—this is the season for the first ripe grapes.”
21-25 With that they were on their way. They scouted out the land from the Wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob toward Lebo Hamath. Their route went through the Negev Desert to the town of Hebron. Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, descendants of the giant Anak, lived there. Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt. When they arrived at the Eshcol Valley they cut off a branch with a single cluster of grapes—it took two men to carry it—slung on a pole. They also picked some pomegranates and figs. They named the place Eshcol Valley (Grape-Cluster-Valley) because of the huge cluster of grapes they had cut down there. After forty days of scouting out the land, they returned home.
26-27 They presented themselves before Moses and Aaron and the whole congregation of the People of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They reported to the whole congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. Then they told the story of their trip:
27-29 “We went to the land to which you sent us and, oh! It does flow with milk and honey! Just look at this fruit! The only thing is that the people who live there are fierce, their cities are huge and well fortified. Worse yet, we saw descendants of the giant Anak. Amalekites are spread out in the Negev; Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites hold the hill country; and the Canaanites are established on the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan.”
30 Caleb interrupted, called for silence before Moses and said, “Let’s go up and take the land—now. We can do it.”
31-33 But the others said, “We can’t attack those people; they’re way stronger than we are.” They spread scary rumors among the People of Israel. They said, “We scouted out the land from one end to the other—it’s a land that swallows people whole. Everybody we saw was huge. Why, we even saw the Nephilim giants (the Anak giants come from the Nephilim). Alongside them we felt like grasshoppers. And they looked down on us as if we were grasshoppers.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, May 23, 2018
Read: Acts 2:22–36
“Fellow Israelites, listen carefully to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man thoroughly accredited by God to you—the miracles and wonders and signs that God did through him are common knowledge—this Jesus, following the deliberate and well-thought-out plan of God, was betrayed by men who took the law into their own hands, and was handed over to you. And you pinned him to a cross and killed him. But God untied the death ropes and raised him up. Death was no match for him. David said it all:
I saw God before me for all time.
Nothing can shake me; he’s right by my side.
I’m glad from the inside out, ecstatic;
I’ve pitched my tent in the land of hope.
I know you’ll never dump me in Hades;
I’ll never even smell the stench of death.
You’ve got my feet on the life-path,
with your face shining sun-joy all around.
29-36 “Dear friends, let me be completely frank with you. Our ancestor David is dead and buried—his tomb is in plain sight today. But being also a prophet and knowing that God had solemnly sworn that a descendant of his would rule his kingdom, seeing far ahead, he talked of the resurrection of the Messiah—‘no trip to Hades, no stench of death.’ This Jesus, God raised up. And every one of us here is a witness to it. Then, raised to the heights at the right hand of God and receiving the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, he poured out the Spirit he had just received. That is what you see and hear. For David himself did not ascend to heaven, but he did say,
God said to my Master, “Sit at my right hand
Until I make your enemies a stool for resting your feet.”
“All Israel, then, know this: There’s no longer room for doubt—God made him Master and Messiah, this Jesus whom you killed on a cross.”
The Babushka Lady
By Bill Crowder
Let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah. Acts 2:36
The “Babushka Lady” is one of the mysteries surrounding the 1963 assassination of US President John F. Kennedy. Captured on film recording the events with a movie camera, she has proven to be elusive. This mystery woman, wearing an overcoat and scarf (resembling a Russian babushka), has never been identified and her film has never been seen. For decades, historians and scholars have speculated that fear has prevented the “Babushka Lady” from telling her story of that dark November day.
No speculation is needed to understand why Jesus’s disciples hid. They cowered in fear because of the authorities who had killed their Master (John 20:19)—reluctant to come forward and declare their experience. But then Jesus rose from the grave. The Holy Spirit soon arrived and you couldn’t keep those once-timid followers of Christ quiet! On the day of Pentecost, a Spirit-empowered Simon Peter declared, “Let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah” (Acts 2:36).
Your gift can help bring people back to the Lord.
The opportunity to boldly speak in Jesus’s name is not limited to those with daring personalities or career ministry training. It is the indwelling Spirit who enables us to tell the good news of Jesus. By His strength, we can experience the courage to share our Savior with others.
Lord, please give me the strength and boldness to talk to others about You.
Speak of the matchless love of Christ to those who need to hear.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, May 23, 2018
Our Careful Unbelief
…do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. —Matthew 6:25
Jesus summed up commonsense carefulness in the life of a disciple as unbelief. If we have received the Spirit of God, He will squeeze right through our lives, as if to ask, “Now where do I come into this relationship, this vacation you have planned, or these new books you want to read?” And He always presses the point until we learn to make Him our first consideration. Whenever we put other things first, there is confusion.
“…do not worry about your life….” Don’t take the pressure of your provision upon yourself. It is not only wrong to worry, it is unbelief; worrying means we do not believe that God can look after the practical details of our lives, and it is never anything but those details that worry us. Have you ever noticed what Jesus said would choke the Word He puts in us? Is it the devil? No— “the cares of this world” (Matthew 13:22). It is always our little worries. We say, “I will not trust when I cannot see”— and that is where unbelief begins. The only cure for unbelief is obedience to the Spirit.
The greatest word of Jesus to His disciples is abandon.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Bible does not thrill; the Bible nourishes. Give time to the reading of the Bible and the recreating effect is as real as that of fresh air physically. Disciples Indeed, 387 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, May 23, 2018
While the Window's Open - #8183
I was sitting on our front porch, and I saw our son-in-law suddenly running full speed across the front yard, headed for the back yard with his camera in his hand. With my incredible detective mind, I surmised that he had seen something that would make a great photo; something that apparently wasn't going to be there for long. Actually, he had seen our horse running across the pasture with her mane flowing and beautifully illuminated by the setting sun. Well, having a wife who's taken some pretty amazing photos over the years, I understood this. I guess you'd call it the "seize the moment" thing. Photographers know about this, and you'd better not get in their way.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "While the Window's Open."
Photographer-types understand a life-principle that a lot of us miss-that there are moments, there are opportunities in life that have to be seized-or they're missed forever. And it isn't just photographs. It's precious life moments where a window of opportunity opens for a brief time, maybe just a moment, and either we stop and we take that opportunity or sometimes we lose it for good.
Thus, God's counsel in Ephesians 5, beginning in verse 15, which is our word for today from the Word of God. He says, "Be very careful, then, how you live–not as unwise but as wise;..." Okay, so what does wise living look like? "...making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is."
Apparently, knowing and doing God's will in your life often depends on seeing the opportunity He has opened up for you and seizing that opportunity. Many of life's regrets are about opportunities we missed because we let them slip by. Like the aging businessman who says, "If only I'd spent more time with my family." As many times as I've heard that lament, I have never heard anybody say, "My only regret is I wish I'd spent more time with my business." Nope, never heard it.
When your child is ready to talk, you'd better drop everything and listen. The window won't be open for long. When your child is ready to be affectionate, you've got nothing more important to do than respond. When your son or daughter has time to be with you, you'd better have time to be with them.
The same applies to your mate, your parents, others that you love. Many a tear at a funeral is over opportunities we did not take when this one that we loved was still touchable, still thankable, still forgivable, still huggable. And how many chances do we have a day to simply compliment someone, encourage someone, stop and listen to someone. Those are God-moments–opportunities to be a channel of God's love into a person's life.
Most importantly, how many times do we pass up a God-given opportunity to talk about our relationship with Jesus Christ, when the eternity of that person may depend on them hearing about our Jesus? Spirit-filled living involves making yourself available each new day to seize the opportunities that God gives you in that day. If you're the kind of person that's all rigid, programmed and inflexible, you'll probably miss or ignore the many times the Holy Spirit is saying, "This is it! This is your chance. Do it now. Seize the moment!"
Like a photographer running to capture his picture before the moment passes, we need to capture the God-moments that He is weaving into each new day. Those scenes are just too good to miss!
Life has a way of unloading her rubbish on our doorstep! Your husband works too much. Your wife gripes too much. Your boss expects too much. Your kids whine too much. The result? Trash. Loads of pessimism, guilt, anxiety—it all piles up. And what about the Pharisees? They killed Christ in their hearts before they killed him on the cross.
Today’s thoughts are tomorrow’s actions. Could that be why Paul writes, “Love…keeps no record of wrongs?” (1 Corinthians 13:5). We do have a choice. Paul says we do when he writes, “We capture every thought and make it give up and obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Selfishness, step back! Envy…get lost! You are not a victim of your thoughts. If today’s thoughts are tomorrow’s actions, what happens when we fill our minds with thoughts of God’s love? Will standing beneath the downpour of his grace change the way we feel about others? Absolutely!
Read more A Love Worth Giving
Numbers 13
Scouting Out Canaan
1-2 God spoke to Moses: “Send men to scout out the country of Canaan that I am giving to the People of Israel. Send one man from each ancestral tribe, each one a tried-and-true leader in the tribe.”
3-15 So Moses sent them off from the Wilderness of Paran at the command of God. All of them were leaders in Israel, one from each tribe. These were their names:
from Reuben: Shammua son of Zaccur
from Simeon: Shaphat son of Hori
from Judah: Caleb son of Jephunneh
from Issachar: Igal son of Joseph
from Ephraim: Hoshea son of Nun
from Benjamin: Palti son of Raphu
from Zebulun: Gaddiel son of Sodi
from Manasseh (a Joseph tribe): Gaddi son of Susi
from Dan: Ammiel son of Gemalli
from Asher: Sethur son of Michael
from Naphtali: Nahbi son of Vophsi
from Gad: Geuel son of Maki.
16 These are the names of the men Moses sent to scout out the land. Moses gave Hoshea (Salvation) son of Nun a new name—Joshua (God-Saves).
17-20 When Moses sent them off to scout out Canaan, he said, “Go up through the Negev and then into the hill country. Look the land over, see what it is like. Assess the people: Are they strong or weak? Are there few or many? Observe the land: Is it pleasant or harsh? Describe the towns where they live: Are they open camps or fortified with walls? And the soil: Is it fertile or barren? Are there forests? And try to bring back a sample of the produce that grows there—this is the season for the first ripe grapes.”
21-25 With that they were on their way. They scouted out the land from the Wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob toward Lebo Hamath. Their route went through the Negev Desert to the town of Hebron. Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, descendants of the giant Anak, lived there. Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt. When they arrived at the Eshcol Valley they cut off a branch with a single cluster of grapes—it took two men to carry it—slung on a pole. They also picked some pomegranates and figs. They named the place Eshcol Valley (Grape-Cluster-Valley) because of the huge cluster of grapes they had cut down there. After forty days of scouting out the land, they returned home.
26-27 They presented themselves before Moses and Aaron and the whole congregation of the People of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They reported to the whole congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. Then they told the story of their trip:
27-29 “We went to the land to which you sent us and, oh! It does flow with milk and honey! Just look at this fruit! The only thing is that the people who live there are fierce, their cities are huge and well fortified. Worse yet, we saw descendants of the giant Anak. Amalekites are spread out in the Negev; Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites hold the hill country; and the Canaanites are established on the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan.”
30 Caleb interrupted, called for silence before Moses and said, “Let’s go up and take the land—now. We can do it.”
31-33 But the others said, “We can’t attack those people; they’re way stronger than we are.” They spread scary rumors among the People of Israel. They said, “We scouted out the land from one end to the other—it’s a land that swallows people whole. Everybody we saw was huge. Why, we even saw the Nephilim giants (the Anak giants come from the Nephilim). Alongside them we felt like grasshoppers. And they looked down on us as if we were grasshoppers.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, May 23, 2018
Read: Acts 2:22–36
“Fellow Israelites, listen carefully to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man thoroughly accredited by God to you—the miracles and wonders and signs that God did through him are common knowledge—this Jesus, following the deliberate and well-thought-out plan of God, was betrayed by men who took the law into their own hands, and was handed over to you. And you pinned him to a cross and killed him. But God untied the death ropes and raised him up. Death was no match for him. David said it all:
I saw God before me for all time.
Nothing can shake me; he’s right by my side.
I’m glad from the inside out, ecstatic;
I’ve pitched my tent in the land of hope.
I know you’ll never dump me in Hades;
I’ll never even smell the stench of death.
You’ve got my feet on the life-path,
with your face shining sun-joy all around.
29-36 “Dear friends, let me be completely frank with you. Our ancestor David is dead and buried—his tomb is in plain sight today. But being also a prophet and knowing that God had solemnly sworn that a descendant of his would rule his kingdom, seeing far ahead, he talked of the resurrection of the Messiah—‘no trip to Hades, no stench of death.’ This Jesus, God raised up. And every one of us here is a witness to it. Then, raised to the heights at the right hand of God and receiving the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, he poured out the Spirit he had just received. That is what you see and hear. For David himself did not ascend to heaven, but he did say,
God said to my Master, “Sit at my right hand
Until I make your enemies a stool for resting your feet.”
“All Israel, then, know this: There’s no longer room for doubt—God made him Master and Messiah, this Jesus whom you killed on a cross.”
The Babushka Lady
By Bill Crowder
Let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah. Acts 2:36
The “Babushka Lady” is one of the mysteries surrounding the 1963 assassination of US President John F. Kennedy. Captured on film recording the events with a movie camera, she has proven to be elusive. This mystery woman, wearing an overcoat and scarf (resembling a Russian babushka), has never been identified and her film has never been seen. For decades, historians and scholars have speculated that fear has prevented the “Babushka Lady” from telling her story of that dark November day.
No speculation is needed to understand why Jesus’s disciples hid. They cowered in fear because of the authorities who had killed their Master (John 20:19)—reluctant to come forward and declare their experience. But then Jesus rose from the grave. The Holy Spirit soon arrived and you couldn’t keep those once-timid followers of Christ quiet! On the day of Pentecost, a Spirit-empowered Simon Peter declared, “Let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah” (Acts 2:36).
Your gift can help bring people back to the Lord.
The opportunity to boldly speak in Jesus’s name is not limited to those with daring personalities or career ministry training. It is the indwelling Spirit who enables us to tell the good news of Jesus. By His strength, we can experience the courage to share our Savior with others.
Lord, please give me the strength and boldness to talk to others about You.
Speak of the matchless love of Christ to those who need to hear.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, May 23, 2018
Our Careful Unbelief
…do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. —Matthew 6:25
Jesus summed up commonsense carefulness in the life of a disciple as unbelief. If we have received the Spirit of God, He will squeeze right through our lives, as if to ask, “Now where do I come into this relationship, this vacation you have planned, or these new books you want to read?” And He always presses the point until we learn to make Him our first consideration. Whenever we put other things first, there is confusion.
“…do not worry about your life….” Don’t take the pressure of your provision upon yourself. It is not only wrong to worry, it is unbelief; worrying means we do not believe that God can look after the practical details of our lives, and it is never anything but those details that worry us. Have you ever noticed what Jesus said would choke the Word He puts in us? Is it the devil? No— “the cares of this world” (Matthew 13:22). It is always our little worries. We say, “I will not trust when I cannot see”— and that is where unbelief begins. The only cure for unbelief is obedience to the Spirit.
The greatest word of Jesus to His disciples is abandon.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Bible does not thrill; the Bible nourishes. Give time to the reading of the Bible and the recreating effect is as real as that of fresh air physically. Disciples Indeed, 387 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, May 23, 2018
While the Window's Open - #8183
I was sitting on our front porch, and I saw our son-in-law suddenly running full speed across the front yard, headed for the back yard with his camera in his hand. With my incredible detective mind, I surmised that he had seen something that would make a great photo; something that apparently wasn't going to be there for long. Actually, he had seen our horse running across the pasture with her mane flowing and beautifully illuminated by the setting sun. Well, having a wife who's taken some pretty amazing photos over the years, I understood this. I guess you'd call it the "seize the moment" thing. Photographers know about this, and you'd better not get in their way.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "While the Window's Open."
Photographer-types understand a life-principle that a lot of us miss-that there are moments, there are opportunities in life that have to be seized-or they're missed forever. And it isn't just photographs. It's precious life moments where a window of opportunity opens for a brief time, maybe just a moment, and either we stop and we take that opportunity or sometimes we lose it for good.
Thus, God's counsel in Ephesians 5, beginning in verse 15, which is our word for today from the Word of God. He says, "Be very careful, then, how you live–not as unwise but as wise;..." Okay, so what does wise living look like? "...making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is."
Apparently, knowing and doing God's will in your life often depends on seeing the opportunity He has opened up for you and seizing that opportunity. Many of life's regrets are about opportunities we missed because we let them slip by. Like the aging businessman who says, "If only I'd spent more time with my family." As many times as I've heard that lament, I have never heard anybody say, "My only regret is I wish I'd spent more time with my business." Nope, never heard it.
When your child is ready to talk, you'd better drop everything and listen. The window won't be open for long. When your child is ready to be affectionate, you've got nothing more important to do than respond. When your son or daughter has time to be with you, you'd better have time to be with them.
The same applies to your mate, your parents, others that you love. Many a tear at a funeral is over opportunities we did not take when this one that we loved was still touchable, still thankable, still forgivable, still huggable. And how many chances do we have a day to simply compliment someone, encourage someone, stop and listen to someone. Those are God-moments–opportunities to be a channel of God's love into a person's life.
Most importantly, how many times do we pass up a God-given opportunity to talk about our relationship with Jesus Christ, when the eternity of that person may depend on them hearing about our Jesus? Spirit-filled living involves making yourself available each new day to seize the opportunities that God gives you in that day. If you're the kind of person that's all rigid, programmed and inflexible, you'll probably miss or ignore the many times the Holy Spirit is saying, "This is it! This is your chance. Do it now. Seize the moment!"
Like a photographer running to capture his picture before the moment passes, we need to capture the God-moments that He is weaving into each new day. Those scenes are just too good to miss!
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
Numbers 12, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: LET GOD ACCEPT YOU - May 22, 2018
Do you think God could heal your angry heart? He asks the same question of you that he asked of the invalid in John 5:6, “Do you want to be healed?” Not everyone does. Anger may be part of your identity.
T.D. Terry’s stressful job stirred in him daily bouts of anger. A tree near his driveway had been tall. Then lost a few limbs. After some time it was nothing more than a stump. T.D. explained, “I took my anger out on the tree. I took an ax to it. I tore the limbs. I didn’t want to come home mad, so I left my anger at the tree.”
Let’s do the same. In fact, let’s take our anger to the tree on the hill. Leave it at the tree of Calvary. Let God accept you. Take a long drink from his limitless love, and cool down!
Read more A Love Worth Giving
Numbers 12
Camp Hazeroth
1-2 Miriam and Aaron talked against Moses behind his back because of his Cushite wife (he had married a Cushite woman). They said, “Is it only through Moses that God speaks? Doesn’t he also speak through us?”
God overheard their talk.
3-8 Now the man Moses was a quietly humble man, more so than anyone living on Earth. God broke in suddenly on Moses and Aaron and Miriam saying, “Come out, you three, to the Tent of Meeting.” The three went out. God descended in a Pillar of Cloud and stood at the entrance to the Tent. He called Aaron and Miriam to him. When they stepped out, he said,
Listen carefully to what I’m telling you.
If there is a prophet of God among you,
I make myself known to him in visions,
I speak to him in dreams.
But I don’t do it that way with my servant Moses;
he has the run of my entire house;
I speak to him intimately, in person,
in plain talk without riddles:
He ponders the very form of God.
So why did you show no reverence or respect
in speaking against my servant, against Moses?
9 The anger of God blazed out against them. And then he left.
10 When the Cloud moved off from the Tent, oh! Miriam had turned leprous, her skin like snow. Aaron took one look at Miriam—a leper!
11-12 He said to Moses, “Please, my master, please don’t come down so hard on us for this foolish and thoughtless sin. Please don’t make her like a stillborn baby coming out of its mother’s womb with half its body decomposed.”
13 And Moses prayed to God:
Please, God, heal her,
please heal her.
14-16 God answered Moses, “If her father had spat in her face, wouldn’t she be ostracized for seven days? Quarantine her outside the camp for seven days. Then she can be readmitted to the camp.” So Miriam was in quarantine outside the camp for seven days. The people didn’t march on until she was readmitted. Only then did the people march from Hazeroth and set up camp in the Wilderness of Paran.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
Read: Jonah 2:1–10
At the Bottom of the Sea
Then Jonah prayed to his God from the belly of the fish.
He prayed:
“In trouble, deep trouble, I prayed to God.
He answered me.
From the belly of the grave I cried, ‘Help!’
You heard my cry.
You threw me into ocean’s depths,
into a watery grave,
With ocean waves, ocean breakers
crashing over me.
I said, ‘I’ve been thrown away,
thrown out, out of your sight.
I’ll never again lay eyes
on your Holy Temple.’
Ocean gripped me by the throat.
The ancient Abyss grabbed me and held tight.
My head was all tangled in seaweed
at the bottom of the sea where the mountains take root.
I was as far down as a body can go,
and the gates were slamming shut behind me forever—
Yet you pulled me up from that grave alive,
O God, my God!
When my life was slipping away,
I remembered God,
And my prayer got through to you,
made it all the way to your Holy Temple.
Those who worship hollow gods, god-frauds,
walk away from their only true love.
But I’m worshiping you, God,
calling out in thanksgiving!
And I’ll do what I promised I’d do!
Salvation belongs to God!”
10 Then God spoke to the fish, and it vomited up Jonah on the seashore.
INSIGHT
The story of Jonah is a story of the unexpected. The only character in the story who doesn’t obey God is the one the reader would expect to be obedient, the one who told the sailors, “I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land” (Jonah 1:9). In contrast to the fugitive prophet, the pagan sailors turn to God (v. 16); the fish did as the Lord commanded (2:10); the Ninevites (a blood-thirsty and pagan people) repented (3:5–10). But the unexpected doesn’t stop there. God goes to great lengths to teach Jonah who He is. Rather than punish the disobedient prophet who is angry at God’s mercy, God invites Jonah (and us) to contemplate the depths of His love and mercy.
When have you experienced the love and mercy of God? - J.R. Hudberg
Up a Tree
By Elisa Morgan
My mother discovered my kitten Velvet atop the kitchen counter, devouring homemade bread. With a huff of frustration, she scooted her out the door. Hours later, we searched our yard for the missing cat without success. A faint meow whistled on the wind, and I looked up to the peak of a poplar tree where a black smudge tilted a branch.
In her haste to flee my mother’s frustration over her behavior, Velvet chose a more precarious predicament. Is it possible that we sometimes do something similar—running from our errors and putting ourselves in danger? And even then God comes to our rescue.
Oh the heights—and the depths—God goes to in rescuing us from our disobedience with His redeeming love! Your gift can help bring people back to the Lord.
The prophet Jonah fled in disobedience from God’s call to preach to Nineveh, and was swallowed up by a great fish. “From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said: ‘In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me’ ” (Jonah 2:1–2). God heard Jonah’s plea and, “commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land” (v. 10). Then God gave Jonah another chance (3:1).
After exhausting our efforts to woo Velvet down, we summoned the local fire department. With the longest ladder fully extended, a kind man climbed high, plucked my kitten from her perch, and returned to place her safely in my arms.
Dear God, how we need Your rescue today!
Jesus’s death on the cross rescued us from our sins.
In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. Jonah 2:2
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
The Explanation For Our Difficulties
…that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us… —John 17:21
If you are going through a time of isolation, seemingly all alone, read John 17 . It will explain exactly why you are where you are— because Jesus has prayed that you “may be one” with the Father as He is. Are you helping God to answer that prayer, or do you have some other goal for your life? Since you became a disciple, you cannot be as independent as you used to be.
God reveals in John 17 that His purpose is not just to answer our prayers, but that through prayer we might come to discern His mind. Yet there is one prayer which God must answer, and that is the prayer of Jesus— “…that they may be one just as We are one…” (John 17:22). Are we as close to Jesus Christ as that?
God is not concerned about our plans; He doesn’t ask, “Do you want to go through this loss of a loved one, this difficulty, or this defeat?” No, He allows these things for His own purpose. The things we are going through are either making us sweeter, better, and nobler men and women, or they are making us more critical and fault-finding, and more insistent on our own way. The things that happen either make us evil, or they make us more saintly, depending entirely on our relationship with God and its level of intimacy. If we will pray, regarding our own lives, “Your will be done” (Matthew 26:42), then we will be encouraged and comforted by John 17, knowing that our Father is working according to His own wisdom, accomplishing what is best. When we understand God’s purpose, we will not become small-minded and cynical. Jesus prayed nothing less for us than absolute oneness with Himself, just as He was one with the Father. Some of us are far from this oneness; yet God will not leave us alone until we are one with Him— because Jesus prayed, “…that they all may be one….”
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
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
Banging The Pan - #8182
Some people really have the gift of sleeping. One of our young friends, Michael, he stayed with us for several months. Oh, does he have the gift of sleeping, but not the gift of waking up. No. It actually became my job to wake him up every morning to get to work. Did somebody say, "Mission Impossible"? It seemed like no matter what I tried, I could not get him to wake up-and if I could, I couldn't get him to stay awake. No alarm clock we tried could do the job, no calling his name, no calling him very loudly, no shaking him. Somehow he always managed to stay asleep or go back to sleep...well, until the pan. Yeah, one morning I marched upstairs, into his room, and right over his head, I banged a metal pan with a metal spoon with everything I had. Yeah! I mean, the neighbor down the street woke up! Michael woke up, got up and stayed up!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Banging The Pan."
Now, I'm not necessarily recommending that as a method of waking people up. But I do know this, when someone needs to wake up, you do whatever it takes to get the job done. And you know what? God does whatever it takes to get the job done. Even if He has to resort to a "banging pan."
Our word for today from the Word of God is about those times when God's people have fallen asleep and need to wake up, and times when we haven't responded to His gentle wakeup calls-like Bible verses, sermons, advice, or the Holy Spirit's conviction. But, like me with our friend Michael, God will not leave you sleeping. He will step up the pressure. Some of the trouble you're dealing with right now might just be God's banging pan.
Our word for today from the Word of God is from 2 Chronicles 7:13. It's followed by that very familiar formula for revival, 2 Chronicles 7:14, "If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." Man, we'd all love to have that kind of power and healing poured out on our lives from heaven wouldn't we?
But what gets God's people to the point where they wake up spiritually? Well, let's go back a verse, to verse 13. God says, "When I shut up the heavens so there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves...." So, God sends or allows major disruptions, major stresses, not to punish us, but to wake us up...to get our attention! To give us what we need and He's wanted to give.
God might be banging His pan loudly right now to wake you up, or to wake up your church, or your ministry, or your family. What's God trying to wake you up to? Well, maybe to your growing tolerance for some sin in your life, or maybe He's trying to wake you up to that neglect of what really matters...you just not been giving attention to the stuff that really counts. Maybe your family. Maybe He's trying to wake you up to some messed up priorities. Or God might be trying to wake you up to your complacency about the lost people around you, the dying people around you. Or maybe He's trying to get your attention to deal with that area of pride, or compromise, or that motive or attitude that's out of line.
When we need to wake up-and we don't respond to God's gentle approaches, well He brings out something heavier, something so "un-ignorable" that will finally get our attention.
There's only one way to silence God's "banging pan." Wake up!
Do you think God could heal your angry heart? He asks the same question of you that he asked of the invalid in John 5:6, “Do you want to be healed?” Not everyone does. Anger may be part of your identity.
T.D. Terry’s stressful job stirred in him daily bouts of anger. A tree near his driveway had been tall. Then lost a few limbs. After some time it was nothing more than a stump. T.D. explained, “I took my anger out on the tree. I took an ax to it. I tore the limbs. I didn’t want to come home mad, so I left my anger at the tree.”
Let’s do the same. In fact, let’s take our anger to the tree on the hill. Leave it at the tree of Calvary. Let God accept you. Take a long drink from his limitless love, and cool down!
Read more A Love Worth Giving
Numbers 12
Camp Hazeroth
1-2 Miriam and Aaron talked against Moses behind his back because of his Cushite wife (he had married a Cushite woman). They said, “Is it only through Moses that God speaks? Doesn’t he also speak through us?”
God overheard their talk.
3-8 Now the man Moses was a quietly humble man, more so than anyone living on Earth. God broke in suddenly on Moses and Aaron and Miriam saying, “Come out, you three, to the Tent of Meeting.” The three went out. God descended in a Pillar of Cloud and stood at the entrance to the Tent. He called Aaron and Miriam to him. When they stepped out, he said,
Listen carefully to what I’m telling you.
If there is a prophet of God among you,
I make myself known to him in visions,
I speak to him in dreams.
But I don’t do it that way with my servant Moses;
he has the run of my entire house;
I speak to him intimately, in person,
in plain talk without riddles:
He ponders the very form of God.
So why did you show no reverence or respect
in speaking against my servant, against Moses?
9 The anger of God blazed out against them. And then he left.
10 When the Cloud moved off from the Tent, oh! Miriam had turned leprous, her skin like snow. Aaron took one look at Miriam—a leper!
11-12 He said to Moses, “Please, my master, please don’t come down so hard on us for this foolish and thoughtless sin. Please don’t make her like a stillborn baby coming out of its mother’s womb with half its body decomposed.”
13 And Moses prayed to God:
Please, God, heal her,
please heal her.
14-16 God answered Moses, “If her father had spat in her face, wouldn’t she be ostracized for seven days? Quarantine her outside the camp for seven days. Then she can be readmitted to the camp.” So Miriam was in quarantine outside the camp for seven days. The people didn’t march on until she was readmitted. Only then did the people march from Hazeroth and set up camp in the Wilderness of Paran.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
Read: Jonah 2:1–10
At the Bottom of the Sea
Then Jonah prayed to his God from the belly of the fish.
He prayed:
“In trouble, deep trouble, I prayed to God.
He answered me.
From the belly of the grave I cried, ‘Help!’
You heard my cry.
You threw me into ocean’s depths,
into a watery grave,
With ocean waves, ocean breakers
crashing over me.
I said, ‘I’ve been thrown away,
thrown out, out of your sight.
I’ll never again lay eyes
on your Holy Temple.’
Ocean gripped me by the throat.
The ancient Abyss grabbed me and held tight.
My head was all tangled in seaweed
at the bottom of the sea where the mountains take root.
I was as far down as a body can go,
and the gates were slamming shut behind me forever—
Yet you pulled me up from that grave alive,
O God, my God!
When my life was slipping away,
I remembered God,
And my prayer got through to you,
made it all the way to your Holy Temple.
Those who worship hollow gods, god-frauds,
walk away from their only true love.
But I’m worshiping you, God,
calling out in thanksgiving!
And I’ll do what I promised I’d do!
Salvation belongs to God!”
10 Then God spoke to the fish, and it vomited up Jonah on the seashore.
INSIGHT
The story of Jonah is a story of the unexpected. The only character in the story who doesn’t obey God is the one the reader would expect to be obedient, the one who told the sailors, “I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land” (Jonah 1:9). In contrast to the fugitive prophet, the pagan sailors turn to God (v. 16); the fish did as the Lord commanded (2:10); the Ninevites (a blood-thirsty and pagan people) repented (3:5–10). But the unexpected doesn’t stop there. God goes to great lengths to teach Jonah who He is. Rather than punish the disobedient prophet who is angry at God’s mercy, God invites Jonah (and us) to contemplate the depths of His love and mercy.
When have you experienced the love and mercy of God? - J.R. Hudberg
Up a Tree
By Elisa Morgan
My mother discovered my kitten Velvet atop the kitchen counter, devouring homemade bread. With a huff of frustration, she scooted her out the door. Hours later, we searched our yard for the missing cat without success. A faint meow whistled on the wind, and I looked up to the peak of a poplar tree where a black smudge tilted a branch.
In her haste to flee my mother’s frustration over her behavior, Velvet chose a more precarious predicament. Is it possible that we sometimes do something similar—running from our errors and putting ourselves in danger? And even then God comes to our rescue.
Oh the heights—and the depths—God goes to in rescuing us from our disobedience with His redeeming love! Your gift can help bring people back to the Lord.
The prophet Jonah fled in disobedience from God’s call to preach to Nineveh, and was swallowed up by a great fish. “From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said: ‘In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me’ ” (Jonah 2:1–2). God heard Jonah’s plea and, “commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land” (v. 10). Then God gave Jonah another chance (3:1).
After exhausting our efforts to woo Velvet down, we summoned the local fire department. With the longest ladder fully extended, a kind man climbed high, plucked my kitten from her perch, and returned to place her safely in my arms.
Dear God, how we need Your rescue today!
Jesus’s death on the cross rescued us from our sins.
In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. Jonah 2:2
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
The Explanation For Our Difficulties
…that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us… —John 17:21
If you are going through a time of isolation, seemingly all alone, read John 17 . It will explain exactly why you are where you are— because Jesus has prayed that you “may be one” with the Father as He is. Are you helping God to answer that prayer, or do you have some other goal for your life? Since you became a disciple, you cannot be as independent as you used to be.
God reveals in John 17 that His purpose is not just to answer our prayers, but that through prayer we might come to discern His mind. Yet there is one prayer which God must answer, and that is the prayer of Jesus— “…that they may be one just as We are one…” (John 17:22). Are we as close to Jesus Christ as that?
God is not concerned about our plans; He doesn’t ask, “Do you want to go through this loss of a loved one, this difficulty, or this defeat?” No, He allows these things for His own purpose. The things we are going through are either making us sweeter, better, and nobler men and women, or they are making us more critical and fault-finding, and more insistent on our own way. The things that happen either make us evil, or they make us more saintly, depending entirely on our relationship with God and its level of intimacy. If we will pray, regarding our own lives, “Your will be done” (Matthew 26:42), then we will be encouraged and comforted by John 17, knowing that our Father is working according to His own wisdom, accomplishing what is best. When we understand God’s purpose, we will not become small-minded and cynical. Jesus prayed nothing less for us than absolute oneness with Himself, just as He was one with the Father. Some of us are far from this oneness; yet God will not leave us alone until we are one with Him— because Jesus prayed, “…that they all may be one….”
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
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
Banging The Pan - #8182
Some people really have the gift of sleeping. One of our young friends, Michael, he stayed with us for several months. Oh, does he have the gift of sleeping, but not the gift of waking up. No. It actually became my job to wake him up every morning to get to work. Did somebody say, "Mission Impossible"? It seemed like no matter what I tried, I could not get him to wake up-and if I could, I couldn't get him to stay awake. No alarm clock we tried could do the job, no calling his name, no calling him very loudly, no shaking him. Somehow he always managed to stay asleep or go back to sleep...well, until the pan. Yeah, one morning I marched upstairs, into his room, and right over his head, I banged a metal pan with a metal spoon with everything I had. Yeah! I mean, the neighbor down the street woke up! Michael woke up, got up and stayed up!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Banging The Pan."
Now, I'm not necessarily recommending that as a method of waking people up. But I do know this, when someone needs to wake up, you do whatever it takes to get the job done. And you know what? God does whatever it takes to get the job done. Even if He has to resort to a "banging pan."
Our word for today from the Word of God is about those times when God's people have fallen asleep and need to wake up, and times when we haven't responded to His gentle wakeup calls-like Bible verses, sermons, advice, or the Holy Spirit's conviction. But, like me with our friend Michael, God will not leave you sleeping. He will step up the pressure. Some of the trouble you're dealing with right now might just be God's banging pan.
Our word for today from the Word of God is from 2 Chronicles 7:13. It's followed by that very familiar formula for revival, 2 Chronicles 7:14, "If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." Man, we'd all love to have that kind of power and healing poured out on our lives from heaven wouldn't we?
But what gets God's people to the point where they wake up spiritually? Well, let's go back a verse, to verse 13. God says, "When I shut up the heavens so there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves...." So, God sends or allows major disruptions, major stresses, not to punish us, but to wake us up...to get our attention! To give us what we need and He's wanted to give.
God might be banging His pan loudly right now to wake you up, or to wake up your church, or your ministry, or your family. What's God trying to wake you up to? Well, maybe to your growing tolerance for some sin in your life, or maybe He's trying to wake you up to that neglect of what really matters...you just not been giving attention to the stuff that really counts. Maybe your family. Maybe He's trying to wake you up to some messed up priorities. Or God might be trying to wake you up to your complacency about the lost people around you, the dying people around you. Or maybe He's trying to get your attention to deal with that area of pride, or compromise, or that motive or attitude that's out of line.
When we need to wake up-and we don't respond to God's gentle approaches, well He brings out something heavier, something so "un-ignorable" that will finally get our attention.
There's only one way to silence God's "banging pan." Wake up!
Monday, May 21, 2018
Mark 14:27-54, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: IT’S ALL ABOUT ME - May 21, 2018
The self-centered see everything through self. Their motto? “It’s all about me!” To the self-centered– the flight schedule, the traffic, the worship styles—everything is filtered through the mini-me in the eye.
Philippians 2:3-4 says, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.” Looking after your personal interests is proper life management. Doing so to the exclusion of the rest of the world is selfishness. Desire success? Fine. Just don’t hurt others in achieving it. Love isn’t selfish! Love builds up relationships but selfishness corrodes relationships.
What’s the cure for selfishness? A smaller “I” and a greater Christ! Don’t focus on yourself; focus on all that you have in Christ—the encouragement in Christ, the fellowship of the Spirit, the affection and compassion of heaven!
Read more A Love Worth Giving
Mark 14:27-54
27-28 Jesus told them, “You’re all going to feel that your world is falling apart and that it’s my fault. There’s a Scripture that says,
I will strike the shepherd;
The sheep will go helter-skelter.
“But after I am raised up, I will go ahead of you, leading the way to Galilee.”
29 Peter blurted out, “Even if everyone else is ashamed of you when things fall to pieces, I won’t be.”
30 Jesus said, “Don’t be so sure. Today, this very night in fact, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.”
31 He blustered in protest, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you.” All the others said the same thing.
Gethsemane
32-34 They came to an area called Gethsemane. Jesus told his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” He took Peter, James, and John with him. He plunged into a sinkhole of dreadful agony. He told them, “I feel bad enough right now to die. Stay here and keep vigil with me.”
35-36 Going a little ahead, he fell to the ground and prayed for a way out: “Papa, Father, you can—can’t you?—get me out of this. Take this cup away from me. But please, not what I want—what do you want?”
37-38 He came back and found them sound asleep. He said to Peter, “Simon, you went to sleep on me? Can’t you stick it out with me a single hour? Stay alert, be in prayer, so you don’t enter the danger zone without even knowing it. Don’t be naive. Part of you is eager, ready for anything in God; but another part is as lazy as an old dog sleeping by the fire.”
39-40 He then went back and prayed the same prayer. Returning, he again found them sound asleep. They simply couldn’t keep their eyes open, and they didn’t have a plausible excuse.
41-42 He came back a third time and said, “Are you going to sleep all night? No—you’ve slept long enough. Time’s up. The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up. Let’s get going. My betrayer has arrived.”
A Gang of Ruffians
43-47 No sooner were the words out of his mouth when Judas, the one out of the Twelve, showed up, and with him a gang of ruffians, sent by the high priests, religion scholars, and leaders, brandishing swords and clubs. The betrayer had worked out a signal with them: “The one I kiss, that’s the one—seize him. Make sure he doesn’t get away.” He went straight to Jesus and said, “Rabbi!” and kissed him. The others then grabbed him and roughed him up. One of the men standing there unsheathed his sword, swung, and came down on the Chief Priest’s servant, lopping off the man’s ear.
48-50 Jesus said to them, “What is this, coming after me with swords and clubs as if I were a dangerous criminal? Day after day I’ve been sitting in the Temple teaching, and you never so much as lifted a hand against me. What you in fact have done is confirm the prophetic writings.” All the disciples cut and ran.
51-52 A young man was following along. All he had on was a bedsheet. Some of the men grabbed him but he got away, running off naked, leaving them holding the sheet.
Condemned to Death
53-54 They led Jesus to the Chief Priest, where the high priests, religious leaders, and scholars had gathered together. Peter followed at a safe distance until they got to the Chief Priest’s courtyard, where he mingled with the servants and warmed himself at the fire.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, May 21, 2018
Read: Luke 6:27–36
27-30 “To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer for that person. If someone slaps you in the face, stand there and take it. If someone grabs your shirt, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.
31-34 “Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill sinners do that. If you only help those who help you, do you expect a medal? Garden-variety sinners do that. If you only give for what you hope to get out of it, do you think that’s charity? The stingiest of pawnbrokers does that.
35-36 “I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You’ll never—I promise—regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we’re at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind.
INSIGHT
Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive [someone] who sins against me? Up to seven times?” (Matthew 18:21). In that day, if you forgave a person three times, you were considered magnanimous. So Peter must have thought he was a super saint to forgive an offender seven times. Jesus corrected him, “Not seven times, but seventy-seven times” (v. 22). Jesus is saying that when it comes to forgiving another, you can’t keep score. We never reach a limit when we can say we have forgiven enough. Although forgiveness doesn’t excuse an offense, we can choose to “be kind and compassionate to one another, [forgive] each other, just as in Christ God forgave [us]” (Ephesians 4:32).
Is there someone who needs your forgiveness today, yet again? - K. T. Sim
A Prayer of Forgiveness
By David C. McCasland
Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Luke 6:27–28
In 1960, six-year-old Ruby Bridges was the first African-American child to integrate an all-white public elementary school in the American South. Every day for months, federal marshals escorted Ruby past a mob of angry parents shouting curses, threats, and insults at her. Safely inside, she sat in a classroom alone with Barbara Henry, the only teacher willing to instruct her while parents kept their children from attending school with Ruby.
Noted child psychologist Robert Coles met with Ruby for several months to help her cope with the fear and stress she experienced. He was amazed by the prayer Ruby said every day as she walked to school and back home. “Please, God, forgive them because they don’t know what they’re doing” (see Luke 23:34).
Your gift can help bring people back to the Lord.
The words of Jesus spoken from the cross were stronger than the hatred and insults hurled at Him. In the most agonizing hours of His life, our Lord demonstrated the radical response He taught His followers: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you . . . . Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:27–28, 36).
This remarkable approach is possible only as we consider the powerful love Jesus has given us—love stronger than even the deepest hatred.
Ruby Bridges helped show us the way.
Father, You have so graciously forgiven us. Help us today to forgive others who have wronged us.
Bless those who curse you and pray for those who mistreat you.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, May 21, 2018
Having God’s “Unreasonable” Faith
Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. —Matthew 6:33
When we look at these words of Jesus, we immediately find them to be the most revolutionary that human ears have ever heard. “…seek first the kingdom of God….” Even the most spiritually-minded of us argue the exact opposite, saying, “But I must live; I must make a certain amount of money; I must be clothed; I must be fed.” The great concern of our lives is not the kingdom of God but how we are going to take care of ourselves to live. Jesus reversed the order by telling us to get the right relationship with God first, maintaining it as the primary concern of our lives, and never to place our concern on taking care of the other things of life.
“…do not worry about your life…” (Matthew 6:25). Our Lord pointed out that from His standpoint it is absolutely unreasonable for us to be anxious, worrying about how we will live. Jesus did not say that the person who takes no thought for anything in his life is blessed— no, that person is a fool. But Jesus did teach that His disciple must make his relationship with God the dominating focus of his life, and to be cautiously carefree about everything else in comparison to that. In essence, Jesus was saying, “Don’t make food and drink the controlling factor of your life, but be focused absolutely on God.” Some people are careless about what they eat and drink, and they suffer for it; they are careless about what they wear, having no business looking the way they do; they are careless with their earthly matters, and God holds them responsible. Jesus is saying that the greatest concern of life is to place our relationship with God first, and everything else second.
It is one of the most difficult, yet critical, disciplines of the Christian life to allow the Holy Spirit to bring us into absolute harmony with the teaching of Jesus in these verses.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Beware of isolation; beware of the idea that you have to develop a holy life alone. It is impossible to develop a holy life alone; you will develop into an oddity and a peculiarism, into something utterly unlike what God wants you to be. The only way to develop spiritually is to go into the society of God’s own children, and you will soon find how God alters your set. God does not contradict our social instincts; He alters them. Biblical Psychology, 189 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, May 21, 2018
The Sobering Truth about the Missing Man - #8181
It was a day of national mourning; an unusual outpouring of emotion and affection for the man who had died. The final farewell to former President Ronald Reagan began with official funeral observances in the nation's Capitol. There were these long, all-night lines of everyday Americans paying their respects at his coffin in the Capitol Rotunda, the highest officials of the land paying tribute to the former President, the memorial service in the National Cathedral, and then that final journey on Air Force One to a family service at his ranch in California. One of the more moving moments of a day with many such moments was when Air Force jets flew over in what is known as the "missing man maneuver." Clusters of jets flew overhead, with one jet in the final cluster suddenly peeling up, away, and out of sight. That's symbol says a lot.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Sobering Truth about the Missing Man."
On that day of national mourning, Ronald Reagan was the missing man-the one who was suddenly not with us anymore. Someday I'll be the missing man. Someday you'll be the missing man, the missing woman. For many of us, that day will come with no warning. In the words of the Bible, "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth" (Proverbs 27:1).
For many people, that "tomorrow" was going to be when they finally got around to making sure they were right with God, and that tomorrow never came. Eternity did and they weren't ready. For you and me, the means of leaving this world may be an accident, a blood clot, a heart attack. But in reality, the "cause of death" really doesn't matter much does it? We're all terminal. That's why the Bible gives this critical warning: "Prepare to meet your God." (Amos 4:12) And there's really only one way to be prepared for that day when you and I are the missing man or missing woman.
In John 3:36, the Bible reveals that, from God's perspective, which is the only perspective that really matters, the whole human race is in one of two groups, facing one of two eternities. For some-eternal life in heaven. For others, what the Bible calls "the wrath of God." What makes the difference is really clear here. John 3:36 says: "Whoever believes in the Son (that's the Son of God, Jesus Christ) has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."
Why is your commitment to Jesus the deciding issue in where you'll spend eternity? Because only Jesus died as your spiritual substitute, paying the death penalty for every wrong thing you've ever done. If you don't grab the only rescuer there is and put your total trust in Him, you're not going to make it. There's just no other way to have your sins forgiven than to stake everything on the only One who paid the price for those sins.
You may say, "Well, I haven't really rejected Christ." Look, if I just sit in the flight lounge, making no decision about boarding my flight, I won't be going on that flight. By not deciding, I decided. That's the way it is with Jesus. If there's never been a moment when you reached out to Him in total faith, making the Savior your Savior, you're not ready for eternity...or even for the rest of this life. And in 2 Corinthians 6:2, our word for today from the Word of God, it says bluntly, "Now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation." When heaven and hell hang in the balance, it makes no sense to wait another day to give yourself to the Man who died so you could be with Him forever.
Don't you want to get this settled? Well, if you're ready to finally get this done, to make your personal commitment to Jesus Christ, tell Him that today. Tell Him that now. Our website is there to help you cross that line and know you belong to Him. I invite you to go there as soon as you can today - ANewStory.com.
Beginning today, you can be ready for eternity whenever it comes, however it comes. And that day, you won't be missing at all. No, you'll be with the Savior who gave His life for you so you could be with Him forever.
The self-centered see everything through self. Their motto? “It’s all about me!” To the self-centered– the flight schedule, the traffic, the worship styles—everything is filtered through the mini-me in the eye.
Philippians 2:3-4 says, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.” Looking after your personal interests is proper life management. Doing so to the exclusion of the rest of the world is selfishness. Desire success? Fine. Just don’t hurt others in achieving it. Love isn’t selfish! Love builds up relationships but selfishness corrodes relationships.
What’s the cure for selfishness? A smaller “I” and a greater Christ! Don’t focus on yourself; focus on all that you have in Christ—the encouragement in Christ, the fellowship of the Spirit, the affection and compassion of heaven!
Read more A Love Worth Giving
Mark 14:27-54
27-28 Jesus told them, “You’re all going to feel that your world is falling apart and that it’s my fault. There’s a Scripture that says,
I will strike the shepherd;
The sheep will go helter-skelter.
“But after I am raised up, I will go ahead of you, leading the way to Galilee.”
29 Peter blurted out, “Even if everyone else is ashamed of you when things fall to pieces, I won’t be.”
30 Jesus said, “Don’t be so sure. Today, this very night in fact, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.”
31 He blustered in protest, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you.” All the others said the same thing.
Gethsemane
32-34 They came to an area called Gethsemane. Jesus told his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” He took Peter, James, and John with him. He plunged into a sinkhole of dreadful agony. He told them, “I feel bad enough right now to die. Stay here and keep vigil with me.”
35-36 Going a little ahead, he fell to the ground and prayed for a way out: “Papa, Father, you can—can’t you?—get me out of this. Take this cup away from me. But please, not what I want—what do you want?”
37-38 He came back and found them sound asleep. He said to Peter, “Simon, you went to sleep on me? Can’t you stick it out with me a single hour? Stay alert, be in prayer, so you don’t enter the danger zone without even knowing it. Don’t be naive. Part of you is eager, ready for anything in God; but another part is as lazy as an old dog sleeping by the fire.”
39-40 He then went back and prayed the same prayer. Returning, he again found them sound asleep. They simply couldn’t keep their eyes open, and they didn’t have a plausible excuse.
41-42 He came back a third time and said, “Are you going to sleep all night? No—you’ve slept long enough. Time’s up. The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up. Let’s get going. My betrayer has arrived.”
A Gang of Ruffians
43-47 No sooner were the words out of his mouth when Judas, the one out of the Twelve, showed up, and with him a gang of ruffians, sent by the high priests, religion scholars, and leaders, brandishing swords and clubs. The betrayer had worked out a signal with them: “The one I kiss, that’s the one—seize him. Make sure he doesn’t get away.” He went straight to Jesus and said, “Rabbi!” and kissed him. The others then grabbed him and roughed him up. One of the men standing there unsheathed his sword, swung, and came down on the Chief Priest’s servant, lopping off the man’s ear.
48-50 Jesus said to them, “What is this, coming after me with swords and clubs as if I were a dangerous criminal? Day after day I’ve been sitting in the Temple teaching, and you never so much as lifted a hand against me. What you in fact have done is confirm the prophetic writings.” All the disciples cut and ran.
51-52 A young man was following along. All he had on was a bedsheet. Some of the men grabbed him but he got away, running off naked, leaving them holding the sheet.
Condemned to Death
53-54 They led Jesus to the Chief Priest, where the high priests, religious leaders, and scholars had gathered together. Peter followed at a safe distance until they got to the Chief Priest’s courtyard, where he mingled with the servants and warmed himself at the fire.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, May 21, 2018
Read: Luke 6:27–36
27-30 “To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer for that person. If someone slaps you in the face, stand there and take it. If someone grabs your shirt, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.
31-34 “Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill sinners do that. If you only help those who help you, do you expect a medal? Garden-variety sinners do that. If you only give for what you hope to get out of it, do you think that’s charity? The stingiest of pawnbrokers does that.
35-36 “I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You’ll never—I promise—regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we’re at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind.
INSIGHT
Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive [someone] who sins against me? Up to seven times?” (Matthew 18:21). In that day, if you forgave a person three times, you were considered magnanimous. So Peter must have thought he was a super saint to forgive an offender seven times. Jesus corrected him, “Not seven times, but seventy-seven times” (v. 22). Jesus is saying that when it comes to forgiving another, you can’t keep score. We never reach a limit when we can say we have forgiven enough. Although forgiveness doesn’t excuse an offense, we can choose to “be kind and compassionate to one another, [forgive] each other, just as in Christ God forgave [us]” (Ephesians 4:32).
Is there someone who needs your forgiveness today, yet again? - K. T. Sim
A Prayer of Forgiveness
By David C. McCasland
Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Luke 6:27–28
In 1960, six-year-old Ruby Bridges was the first African-American child to integrate an all-white public elementary school in the American South. Every day for months, federal marshals escorted Ruby past a mob of angry parents shouting curses, threats, and insults at her. Safely inside, she sat in a classroom alone with Barbara Henry, the only teacher willing to instruct her while parents kept their children from attending school with Ruby.
Noted child psychologist Robert Coles met with Ruby for several months to help her cope with the fear and stress she experienced. He was amazed by the prayer Ruby said every day as she walked to school and back home. “Please, God, forgive them because they don’t know what they’re doing” (see Luke 23:34).
Your gift can help bring people back to the Lord.
The words of Jesus spoken from the cross were stronger than the hatred and insults hurled at Him. In the most agonizing hours of His life, our Lord demonstrated the radical response He taught His followers: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you . . . . Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:27–28, 36).
This remarkable approach is possible only as we consider the powerful love Jesus has given us—love stronger than even the deepest hatred.
Ruby Bridges helped show us the way.
Father, You have so graciously forgiven us. Help us today to forgive others who have wronged us.
Bless those who curse you and pray for those who mistreat you.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, May 21, 2018
Having God’s “Unreasonable” Faith
Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. —Matthew 6:33
When we look at these words of Jesus, we immediately find them to be the most revolutionary that human ears have ever heard. “…seek first the kingdom of God….” Even the most spiritually-minded of us argue the exact opposite, saying, “But I must live; I must make a certain amount of money; I must be clothed; I must be fed.” The great concern of our lives is not the kingdom of God but how we are going to take care of ourselves to live. Jesus reversed the order by telling us to get the right relationship with God first, maintaining it as the primary concern of our lives, and never to place our concern on taking care of the other things of life.
“…do not worry about your life…” (Matthew 6:25). Our Lord pointed out that from His standpoint it is absolutely unreasonable for us to be anxious, worrying about how we will live. Jesus did not say that the person who takes no thought for anything in his life is blessed— no, that person is a fool. But Jesus did teach that His disciple must make his relationship with God the dominating focus of his life, and to be cautiously carefree about everything else in comparison to that. In essence, Jesus was saying, “Don’t make food and drink the controlling factor of your life, but be focused absolutely on God.” Some people are careless about what they eat and drink, and they suffer for it; they are careless about what they wear, having no business looking the way they do; they are careless with their earthly matters, and God holds them responsible. Jesus is saying that the greatest concern of life is to place our relationship with God first, and everything else second.
It is one of the most difficult, yet critical, disciplines of the Christian life to allow the Holy Spirit to bring us into absolute harmony with the teaching of Jesus in these verses.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Beware of isolation; beware of the idea that you have to develop a holy life alone. It is impossible to develop a holy life alone; you will develop into an oddity and a peculiarism, into something utterly unlike what God wants you to be. The only way to develop spiritually is to go into the society of God’s own children, and you will soon find how God alters your set. God does not contradict our social instincts; He alters them. Biblical Psychology, 189 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, May 21, 2018
The Sobering Truth about the Missing Man - #8181
It was a day of national mourning; an unusual outpouring of emotion and affection for the man who had died. The final farewell to former President Ronald Reagan began with official funeral observances in the nation's Capitol. There were these long, all-night lines of everyday Americans paying their respects at his coffin in the Capitol Rotunda, the highest officials of the land paying tribute to the former President, the memorial service in the National Cathedral, and then that final journey on Air Force One to a family service at his ranch in California. One of the more moving moments of a day with many such moments was when Air Force jets flew over in what is known as the "missing man maneuver." Clusters of jets flew overhead, with one jet in the final cluster suddenly peeling up, away, and out of sight. That's symbol says a lot.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Sobering Truth about the Missing Man."
On that day of national mourning, Ronald Reagan was the missing man-the one who was suddenly not with us anymore. Someday I'll be the missing man. Someday you'll be the missing man, the missing woman. For many of us, that day will come with no warning. In the words of the Bible, "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth" (Proverbs 27:1).
For many people, that "tomorrow" was going to be when they finally got around to making sure they were right with God, and that tomorrow never came. Eternity did and they weren't ready. For you and me, the means of leaving this world may be an accident, a blood clot, a heart attack. But in reality, the "cause of death" really doesn't matter much does it? We're all terminal. That's why the Bible gives this critical warning: "Prepare to meet your God." (Amos 4:12) And there's really only one way to be prepared for that day when you and I are the missing man or missing woman.
In John 3:36, the Bible reveals that, from God's perspective, which is the only perspective that really matters, the whole human race is in one of two groups, facing one of two eternities. For some-eternal life in heaven. For others, what the Bible calls "the wrath of God." What makes the difference is really clear here. John 3:36 says: "Whoever believes in the Son (that's the Son of God, Jesus Christ) has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."
Why is your commitment to Jesus the deciding issue in where you'll spend eternity? Because only Jesus died as your spiritual substitute, paying the death penalty for every wrong thing you've ever done. If you don't grab the only rescuer there is and put your total trust in Him, you're not going to make it. There's just no other way to have your sins forgiven than to stake everything on the only One who paid the price for those sins.
You may say, "Well, I haven't really rejected Christ." Look, if I just sit in the flight lounge, making no decision about boarding my flight, I won't be going on that flight. By not deciding, I decided. That's the way it is with Jesus. If there's never been a moment when you reached out to Him in total faith, making the Savior your Savior, you're not ready for eternity...or even for the rest of this life. And in 2 Corinthians 6:2, our word for today from the Word of God, it says bluntly, "Now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation." When heaven and hell hang in the balance, it makes no sense to wait another day to give yourself to the Man who died so you could be with Him forever.
Don't you want to get this settled? Well, if you're ready to finally get this done, to make your personal commitment to Jesus Christ, tell Him that today. Tell Him that now. Our website is there to help you cross that line and know you belong to Him. I invite you to go there as soon as you can today - ANewStory.com.
Beginning today, you can be ready for eternity whenever it comes, however it comes. And that day, you won't be missing at all. No, you'll be with the Savior who gave His life for you so you could be with Him forever.
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