Max Lucado Daily: Guard Your Attitude
It's easy to forget who is the servant and who is to be served. The tool of distortion is one of Satan's slyest. When the focus is on yourself, you worry that your co-workers won't appreciate you or your leaders will overwork you. With time, your agenda becomes more important than God's. You're more concerned with presenting self than pleasing Him. You may even find yourself doubting God's judgment.
Remember Martha criticizing her sister Mary, "Lord don't you care that my sister has left me alone to do all the work? Tell her to help me" (Luke 10:40). What had Mary chosen? She'd chosen to sit at the feet of Christ. God is more pleased with the quiet attention of a sincere servant than the noisy service of a sour one!
Guard your attitude. If you concern yourself with your neighbor's talents, you'll neglect your own. But if you concern yourself with yours, you could inspire both!
from He Still Moves Stones
Deuteronomy 28
If you listen obediently to the Voice of God, your God, and heartily obey all his commandments that I command you today, God, your God, will place you on high, high above all the nations of the world. All these blessings will come down on you and spread out beyond you because you have responded to the Voice of God, your God:
God’s blessing inside the city,
God’s blessing in the country;
God’s blessing on your children,
the crops of your land,
the young of your livestock,
the calves of your herds,
the lambs of your flocks.
God’s blessing on your basket and bread bowl;
God’s blessing in your coming in,
God’s blessing in your going out.
7 God will defeat your enemies who attack you. They’ll come at you on one road and run away on seven roads.
8 God will order a blessing on your barns and workplaces; he’ll bless you in the land that God, your God, is giving you.
9 God will form you as a people holy to him, just as he promised you, if you keep the commandments of God, your God, and live the way he has shown you.
10 All the peoples on Earth will see you living under the Name of God and hold you in respectful awe.
11-14 God will lavish you with good things: children from your womb, offspring from your animals, and crops from your land, the land that God promised your ancestors that he would give you. God will throw open the doors of his sky vaults and pour rain on your land on schedule and bless the work you take in hand. You will lend to many nations but you yourself won’t have to take out a loan. God will make you the head, not the tail; you’ll always be the top dog, never the bottom dog, as you obediently listen to and diligently keep the commands of God, your God, that I am commanding you today. Don’t swerve an inch to the right or left from the words that I command you today by going off following and worshiping other gods.
15-19 Here’s what will happen if you don’t obediently listen to the Voice of God, your God, and diligently keep all the commandments and guidelines that I’m commanding you today. All these curses will come down hard on you:
God’s curse in the city,
God’s curse in the country;
God’s curse on your basket and bread bowl;
God’s curse on your children,
the crops of your land,
the young of your livestock,
the calves of your herds,
the lambs of your flocks.
God’s curse in your coming in,
God’s curse in your going out.
20 God will send The Curse, The Confusion, The Contrariness down on everything you try to do until you’ve been destroyed and there’s nothing left of you—all because of your evil pursuits that led you to abandon me.
21 God will infect you with The Disease, wiping you right off the land that you’re going in to possess.
22 God will set consumption and fever and rash and seizures and dehydration and blight and jaundice on you. They’ll hunt you down until they kill you.
23-24 The sky over your head will become an iron roof, the ground under your feet, a slab of concrete. From out of the skies God will rain ash and dust down on you until you suffocate.
25-26 God will defeat you by enemy attack. You’ll come at your enemies on one road and run away on seven roads. All the kingdoms of Earth will see you as a horror. Carrion birds and animals will boldly feast on your dead body with no one to chase them away.
27-29 God will hit you hard with the boils of Egypt, hemorrhoids, scabs, and an incurable itch. He’ll make you go crazy and blind and senile. You’ll grope around in the middle of the day like a blind person feeling his way through a lifetime of darkness; you’ll never get to where you’re going. Not a day will go by that you’re not abused and robbed. And no one is going to help you.
30-31 You’ll get engaged to a woman and another man will take her for his mistress; you’ll build a house and never live in it; you’ll plant a garden and never eat so much as a carrot; you’ll watch your ox get butchered and not get a single steak from it; your donkey will be stolen from in front of you and you’ll never see it again; your sheep will be sent off to your enemies and no one will lift a hand to help you.
32-34 Your sons and daughters will be shipped off to foreigners; you’ll wear your eyes out looking vainly for them, helpless to do a thing. Your crops and everything you work for will be eaten and used by foreigners; you’ll spend the rest of your lives abused and knocked around. What you see will drive you crazy.
35 God will hit you with painful boils on your knees and legs and no healing or relief from head to foot.
36-37 God will lead you and the king you set over you to a country neither you nor your ancestors have heard of; there you’ll worship other gods, no-gods of wood and stone. Among all the peoples where God will take you, you’ll be treated as a lesson or a proverb—a horror!
38-42 You’ll plant sacks and sacks of seed in the field but get almost nothing—the grasshoppers will devour it. You’ll plant and hoe and prune vineyards but won’t drink or put up any wine—the worms will devour them. You’ll have groves of olive trees everywhere, but you’ll have no oil to rub on your face or hands—the olives will have fallen off. You’ll have sons and daughters but they won’t be yours for long—they’ll go off to captivity. Locusts will take over all your trees and crops.
43-44 The foreigner who lives among you will climb the ladder, higher and higher, while you go deeper and deeper into the hole. He’ll lend to you; you won’t lend to him. He’ll be the head; you’ll be the tail.
45-46 All these curses are going to come on you. They’re going to hunt you down and get you until there’s nothing left of you because you didn’t obediently listen to the Voice of God, your God, and diligently keep his commandments and guidelines that I commanded you. The curses will serve as signposts, warnings to your children ever after.
47-48 Because you didn’t serve God, your God, out of the joy and goodness of your heart in the great abundance, you’ll have to serve your enemies whom God will send against you. Life will be famine and drought, rags and wretchedness; then he’ll put an iron yoke on your neck until he’s destroyed you.
48-52 Yes, God will raise up a faraway nation against you, swooping down on you like an eagle, a nation whose language you can’t understand, a mean-faced people, cruel to grandmothers and babies alike. They’ll ravage the young of your animals and the crops from your fields until you’re destroyed. They’ll leave nothing behind: no grain, no wine, no oil, no calves, no lambs—and finally, no you. They’ll lay siege to you while you’re huddled behind your town gates. They’ll knock those high, proud walls flat, those walls behind which you felt so safe. They’ll lay siege to your fortified cities all over the country, this country that God, your God, has given you.
53-55 And you’ll end up cannibalizing your own sons and daughters that God, your God, has given you. When the suffering from the siege gets extreme, you’re going to eat your own babies. The most gentle and caring man among you will turn hard, his eye evil, against his own brother, his cherished wife, and even the rest of his children who are still alive, refusing to share with them a scrap of meat from the cannibal child-stew he is eating. He’s lost everything, even his humanity, in the suffering of the siege that your enemy mounts against your fortified towns.
56-57 And the most gentle and caring woman among you, a woman who wouldn’t step on a wildflower, will turn hard, her eye evil, against her cherished husband, against her son, against her daughter, against even the afterbirth of her newborn infants; she plans to eat them in secret—she does eat them!—because she has lost everything, even her humanity, in the suffering of the siege that your enemy mounts against your fortified towns.
58-61 If you don’t diligently keep all the words of this Revelation written in this book, living in holy awe before This Name glorious and terrible, God, your God, then God will pound you with catastrophes, you and your children, huge interminable catastrophes, hideous interminable illnesses. He’ll bring back and stick you with every old Egyptian malady that once terrorized you. And yes, every disease and catastrophe imaginable—things not even written in the Book of this Revelation—God will bring on you until you’re destroyed.
62 Because you didn’t listen obediently to the Voice of God, your God, you’ll be left with a few pitiful stragglers in place of the dazzling stars-in-the-heavens multitude you had become.
63-66 And this is how things will end up: Just as God once enjoyed you, took pleasure in making life good for you, giving you many children, so God will enjoy getting rid of you, clearing you off the Earth. He’ll weed you out of the very soil that you are entering in to possess. He’ll scatter you to the four winds, from one end of the Earth to the other. You’ll worship all kinds of other gods, gods neither you nor your parents ever heard of, wood and stone no-gods. But you won’t find a home there, you’ll not be able to settle down. God will give you a restless heart, longing eyes, a homesick soul. You will live in constant jeopardy, terrified of every shadow, never knowing what you’ll meet around the next corner.
67 In the morning you’ll say, “I wish it were evening.” In the evening you’ll say, “I wish it were morning.” Afraid, terrorized at what’s coming next, afraid of the unknown, because of the sights you’ve witnessed.
68 God will ship you back to Egypt by a road I promised you’d never see again. There you’ll offer yourselves for sale, both men and women, as slaves to your enemies. And not a buyer to be found.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, August 26, 2018
Read: Galatians 2:11–16
Paul Opposes Peter
11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.[a] 13 And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
Justified by Faith
15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is not justified[b] by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
Footnotes:
Galatians 2:12 Or fearing those of the circumcision
Galatians 2:16 Or counted righteous (three times in verse 16); also verse 17
INSIGHT
Galatians 2 offers a compelling example of necessary confrontation. First, Paul’s confrontation of Peter was rooted on the foundation of the truth of the gospel. Paul chose to confront not because of personal dislike but out of love for the gospel. Paul recognized that Peter’s behavior—refusing to fellowship with those who were not obeying Old Testament ceremonial law—denied the good news that Christ’s victory, not ceremonial law, is the foundation for the believer’s new life in the Spirit (v. 21). Peter’s behavior denied the good news that in Christ there is equality among all believers. So Paul confronted, not to shame Peter but to restore the integrity of the faith community.
When bad behavior threatens the integrity of the Christian community’s witness to the good news, we too must confront—but always with a spirit of love that hopes for full restoration of fellowship.
Is there someone you need to confront in the spirit of love? - Monica Brands
Unfrozen
By Tim Gustafson
When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face. Galatians 2:11
At a roundtable discussion about reconciliation, one participant wisely said, “Don’t freeze people in time.” He observed how we tend to remember mistakes people make and never grant them the opportunity to change.
There are so many moments in Peter’s life when God could have “frozen” him in time. But He never did. Peter—the impulsive disciple—“corrected” Jesus, earning a sharp rebuke from the Lord (Matthew 16:21–23). He famously denied Christ (John 18:15–27), only to be restored later (21:15–19). And he once contributed to racial divisions within the church.
The issue arose when Peter (also called Cephas) had separated himself from the Gentiles (Galatians 2:11–12). Only recently he associated freely with them. But some Jews arrived who insisted that circumcision was required for believers in Christ, so Peter began avoiding the uncircumcised Gentiles. This marked a dangerous return to the law of Moses. Paul called Peter’s behavior “hypocrisy” (v. 13). Because of Paul’s bold confrontation, the issue was resolved. Peter went on to serve God in the beautiful spirit of unity He intends for us.
No one needs to remain frozen in their worst moments. In God’s grace we can embrace each other, learn from each other, confront each other when it’s necessary, and grow together in His love.
Lord, draw us close to You today, so that we may also be closer to each other. Protect Your church’s unity. Give us understanding where there is distrust. Heal us where we are divided.
If we confront someone, we should have one goal in mind: restoration, not embarrassment. Chuck Swindoll
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, August 26, 2018
Are You Ever Troubled?
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you… —John 14:27
There are times in our lives when our peace is based simply on our own ignorance. But when we are awakened to the realities of life, true inner peace is impossible unless it is received from Jesus. When our Lord speaks peace, He creates peace, because the words that He speaks are always “spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). Have I ever received what Jesus speaks? “…My peace I give to you…”— a peace that comes from looking into His face and fully understanding and receiving His quiet contentment.
Are you severely troubled right now? Are you afraid and confused by the waves and the turbulence God sovereignly allows to enter your life? Have you left no stone of your faith unturned, yet still not found any well of peace, joy, or comfort? Does your life seem completely barren to you? Then look up and receive the quiet contentment of the Lord Jesus. Reflecting His peace is proof that you are right with God, because you are exhibiting the freedom to turn your mind to Him. If you are not right with God, you can never turn your mind anywhere but on yourself. Allowing anything to hide the face of Jesus Christ from you either causes you to become troubled or gives you a false sense of security.
With regard to the problem that is pressing in on you right now, are you “looking unto Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2) and receiving peace from Him? If so, He will be a gracious blessing of peace exhibited in and through you. But if you only try to worry your way out of the problem, you destroy His effectiveness in you, and you deserve whatever you get. We become troubled because we have not been taking Him into account. When a person confers with Jesus Christ, the confusion stops, because there is no confusion in Him. Lay everything out before Him, and when you are faced with difficulty, bereavement, and sorrow, listen to Him say, “Let not your heart be troubled…” (John 14:27).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One Who is leading. My Utmost for His Highest, March 19, 761 L
Sunday, August 26, 2018
Saturday, August 25, 2018
Luke 7:31-50, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: A Voluntary Act of Gratitude
Worship happens when you are aware that what you've been given is far greater than what you can give. Worship is the awareness that were it not for God's touch, you'd still be hobbling and hurting, bitter and broken. It is the glazed expression on the parched face of a desert pilgrim who discovers the oasis is not a mirage.
We have tried to make a science out of worship. We can't do that! We can't do that any more than we can sell love or negotiate peace. Worship is a voluntary act of gratitude offered by the saved to the Savior, by the healed to the Healer, and by the delivered to the Deliverer. If you and I can go days without feeling an urge to say "thank you" to the One who saved, healed, and delivered us, then we would do well to remember what He did!
From In the Eye of the Storm
Luke 7:31-50
“How can I account for the people of this generation? They’re like spoiled children complaining to their parents, ‘We wanted to skip rope and you were always too tired; we wanted to talk but you were always too busy.’ John the Baptizer came fasting and you called him crazy. The Son of Man came feasting and you called him a lush. Opinion polls don’t count for much, do they? The proof of the pudding is in the eating.”
Anointing His Feet
36-39 One of the Pharisees asked him over for a meal. He went to the Pharisee’s house and sat down at the dinner table. Just then a woman of the village, the town harlot, having learned that Jesus was a guest in the home of the Pharisee, came with a bottle of very expensive perfume and stood at his feet, weeping, raining tears on his feet. Letting down her hair, she dried his feet, kissed them, and anointed them with the perfume. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man was the prophet I thought he was, he would have known what kind of woman this is who is falling all over him.”
40 Jesus said to him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Oh? Tell me.”
41-42 “Two men were in debt to a banker. One owed five hundred silver pieces, the other fifty. Neither of them could pay up, and so the banker canceled both debts. Which of the two would be more grateful?”
43-47 Simon answered, “I suppose the one who was forgiven the most.”
“That’s right,” said Jesus. Then turning to the woman, but speaking to Simon, he said, “Do you see this woman? I came to your home; you provided no water for my feet, but she rained tears on my feet and dried them with her hair. You gave me no greeting, but from the time I arrived she hasn’t quit kissing my feet. You provided nothing for freshening up, but she has soothed my feet with perfume. Impressive, isn’t it? She was forgiven many, many sins, and so she is very, very grateful. If the forgiveness is minimal, the gratitude is minimal.”
48 Then he spoke to her: “I forgive your sins.”
49 That set the dinner guests talking behind his back: “Who does he think he is, forgiving sins!”
50 He ignored them and said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, August 25, 2018
Read: 1 Chronicles 29:1–14
Offerings for the Temple
29 And David the king said to all the assembly, “Solomon my son, whom alone God has chosen, is young and inexperienced, and the work is great, for the palace will not be for man but for the Lord God. 2 So I have provided for the house of my God, so far as I was able, the gold for the things of gold, the silver for the things of silver, and the bronze for the things of bronze, the iron for the things of iron, and wood for the things of wood, besides great quantities of onyx and stones for setting, antimony, colored stones, all sorts of precious stones and marble. 3 Moreover, in addition to all that I have provided for the holy house, I have a treasure of my own of gold and silver, and because of my devotion to the house of my God I give it to the house of my God: 4 3,000 talents[a] of gold, of the gold of Ophir, and 7,000 talents of refined silver, for overlaying the walls of the house,[b] 5 and for all the work to be done by craftsmen, gold for the things of gold and silver for the things of silver. Who then will offer willingly, consecrating himself[c] today to the Lord?”
6 Then the leaders of fathers' houses made their freewill offerings, as did also the leaders of the tribes, the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and the officers over the king's work. 7 They gave for the service of the house of God 5,000 talents and 10,000 darics[d] of gold, 10,000 talents of silver, 18,000 talents of bronze and 100,000 talents of iron. 8 And whoever had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the house of the Lord, in the care of Jehiel the Gershonite. 9 Then the people rejoiced because they had given willingly, for with a whole heart they had offered freely to the Lord. David the king also rejoiced greatly.
David Prays in the Assembly
10 Therefore David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly. And David said: “Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. 11 Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. 12 Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. 13 And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.
14 “But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you.
Footnotes:
1 Chronicles 29:4 A talent was about 75 pounds or 34 kilograms
1 Chronicles 29:4 Septuagint; Hebrew houses
1 Chronicles 29:5 Or ordaining himself; Hebrew filling his hand
1 Chronicles 29:7 A daric was a coin weighing about 1/4 ounce or 8.5 grams
For further study, see Cultivating a Heart of Contentment at discoveryseries.org/hp052.
Generous Givers
By Xochitl Dixon
Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand. 1 Chronicles 29:14
After reviewing all God had already done throughout our church’s history, leaders presented the congregation with a proposal for a new gym to help us better serve our community. The leadership team announced they’d be the first to sign pledge notes to fund the construction. I initially prayed with a heart soured by selfishness, not wanting to offer more money than we had already committed to give. Still, my husband and I agreed to pray for the ongoing project. While considering all God continued providing for us, we eventually decided on a monthly offering. The combined gifts of our church family paid for the entire building.
Grateful for the many ways God’s used that gym for community events since we celebrated opening its doors for ministry, I’m reminded of another generous giver—King David. Though the Lord didn’t choose him to build His temple, David invested all his resources to the project (1 Chronicles 29:1–5). The leaders under him and the people they served gave generously too (vv. 6–9). The king acknowledged all they’d contributed had first been given to them by God—the Creator, Sustainer, and Owner of everything (vv. 10–16).
When we recognize God owns it all, we can commit to grateful, generous, and faithful giving for the benefit of others. And we can trust the Lord will provide—and may even use the generosity of others to help us when we’re in need.
Lord, please help us remember You own it all as we commit to giving You our all, willingly and selflessly.
God gives first, and He always outgives His most generous givers.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, August 25, 2018
Sacrifice and Friendship
I have called you friends… —John 15:15
We will never know the joy of self-sacrifice until we surrender in every detail of our lives. Yet self-surrender is the most difficult thing for us to do. We make it conditional by saying, “I’ll surrender if…!” Or we approach it by saying, “I suppose I have to devote my life to God.” We will never find the joy of self-sacrifice in either of these ways.
But as soon as we do totally surrender, abandoning ourselves to Jesus, the Holy Spirit gives us a taste of His joy. The ultimate goal of self-sacrifice is to lay down our lives for our Friend (see John 15:13-14). When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, our greatest desire is to lay down our lives for Jesus. Yet the thought of self-sacrifice never even crosses our minds, because sacrifice is the Holy Spirit’s ultimate expression of love.
Our Lord is our example of a life of self-sacrifice, and He perfectly exemplified Psalm 40:8, “I delight to do Your will, O my God….” He endured tremendous personal sacrifice, yet with overflowing joy. Have I ever yielded myself in absolute submission to Jesus Christ? If He is not the One to whom I am looking for direction and guidance, then there is no benefit in my sacrifice. But when my sacrifice is made with my eyes focused on Him, slowly but surely His molding influence becomes evident in my life (see Hebrews 12:1-2).
Beware of letting your natural desires hinder your walk in love before God. One of the cruelest ways to kill natural love is through the rejection that results from having built the love on natural desires. But the one true desire of a saint is the Lord Jesus. Love for God is not something sentimental or emotional— for a saint to love as God loves is the most practical thing imaginable.
“I have called you friends….” Our friendship with Jesus is based on the new life He created in us, which has no resemblance or attraction to our old life but only to the life of God. It is a life that is completely humble, pure, and devoted to God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else. “Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord”;… The Highest Good—The Pilgrim’s Song Book, 537 L
Friday, August 24, 2018
Luke 7:1-30, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: YOU HAVE CLOUT WITH GOD
You may find yourself in an impossible situation. You feel outnumbered and outmaneuvered. You want to quit. Could I ask you to memorize this promise and ask God to bring it to mind? Write it where you’ll find it. Tattoo it, if not on your skin at least on your heart: “When a believing person prays, great things happen” (James 5:16).
If you’ve taken on the name of Christ, you have clout with the most powerful being in the universe. When you speak, God listens. Jesus said, “When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action” (Matthew 18:19). Prayer is just the first step. God has power you’ve never seen, strength you’ve never known. He delights in answering prayer! And because his promises are unbreakable, our hope in unshakable!
Read more Unshakable Hope
Luke 7:1-30
A Place of Holy Mystery
7 1-5 When he finished speaking to the people, he entered Capernaum. A Roman captain there had a servant who was on his deathbed. He prized him highly and didn’t want to lose him. When he heard Jesus was back, he sent leaders from the Jewish community asking him to come and heal his servant. They came to Jesus and urged him to do it, saying, “He deserves this. He loves our people. He even built our meeting place.”
6-8 Jesus went with them. When he was still quite far from the house, the captain sent friends to tell him, “Master, you don’t have to go to all this trouble. I’m not that good a person, you know. I’d be embarrassed for you to come to my house, even embarrassed to come to you in person. Just give the order and my servant will get well. I’m a man under orders; I also give orders. I tell one soldier, ‘Go,’ and he goes; another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
9-10 Taken aback, Jesus addressed the accompanying crowd: “I’ve yet to come across this kind of simple trust anywhere in Israel, the very people who are supposed to know about God and how he works.” When the messengers got back home, they found the servant up and well.
11-15 Not long after that, Jesus went to the village Nain. His disciples were with him, along with quite a large crowd. As they approached the village gate, they met a funeral procession—a woman’s only son was being carried out for burial. And the mother was a widow. When Jesus saw her, his heart broke. He said to her, “Don’t cry.” Then he went over and touched the coffin. The pallbearers stopped. He said, “Young man, I tell you: Get up.” The dead son sat up and began talking. Jesus presented him to his mother.
16-17 They all realized they were in a place of holy mystery, that God was at work among them. They were quietly worshipful—and then noisily grateful, calling out among themselves, “God is back, looking to the needs of his people!” The news of Jesus spread all through the country.
Is This What You Were Expecting?
18-19 John’s disciples reported back to him the news of all these events taking place. He sent two of them to the Master to ask the question, “Are you the One we’ve been expecting, or are we still waiting?”
20 The men showed up before Jesus and said, “John the Baptizer sent us to ask you, ‘Are you the One we’ve been expecting, or are we still waiting?’”
21-23 In the next two or three hours Jesus healed many from diseases, distress, and evil spirits. To many of the blind he gave the gift of sight. Then he gave his answer: “Go back and tell John what you have just seen and heard:
The blind see,
The lame walk,
Lepers are cleansed,
The deaf hear,
The dead are raised,
The wretched of the earth
have God’s salvation hospitality extended to them.
“Is this what you were expecting? Then count yourselves fortunate!”
24-27 After John’s messengers left to make their report, Jesus said more about John to the crowd of people. “What did you expect when you went out to see him in the wild? A weekend camper? Hardly. What then? A sheik in silk pajamas? Not in the wilderness, not by a long shot. What then? A messenger from God? That’s right, a messenger! Probably the greatest messenger you’ll ever hear. He is the messenger Malachi announced when he wrote,
I’m sending my messenger on ahead
To make the road smooth for you.
28-30 “Let me lay it out for you as plainly as I can: No one in history surpasses John the Baptizer, but in the kingdom he prepared you for, the lowliest person is ahead of him. The ordinary and disreputable people who heard John, by being baptized by him into the kingdom, are the clearest evidence; the Pharisees and religious officials would have nothing to do with such a baptism, wouldn’t think of giving up their place in line to their inferiors.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, August 24, 2018
Read: John 12:20–26
Some Greeks Seek Jesus
20 Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. 21 So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
INSIGHT
At first glance, it might appear that Jesus brushes off the Greeks who requested to see Him. But characteristically, His indirect reply points to a far more profound reality. Jesus is explaining the significance of what will happen to Him later that week. First He says, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (John 12:23), a reference to His death and resurrection for the salvation of the world—including the Greeks. Then He uses the metaphor of wheat to describe Himself and His mission. William Hendriksen points out the significance of the kernel of wheat in the context of the approaching Passover celebration. The seed must die before it can grow into a wheat stalk, producing many more seeds that will be made into bread—bread that will be eaten at Passover. Jesus (the Bread of Life) would have to die to produce “many seeds” (v. 24). And anyone who wants to serve Jesus must hate their life in this world (v. 25)—in other words, die to self.
Am I willing to die to self in order to serve the One who died for me? Will I do what is necessary to “see Jesus”? - Tim Gustafson
We Would See Jesus
By Amy Boucher Pye
Read: John 12:20–26 | Bible in a Year: Psalms 116–118; 1 Corinthians 7:1–19
They came to Philip . . . with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” John 12:21
As I looked down at the pulpit where I was sharing prayers at a funeral, I glimpsed a brass plaque bearing words from John 12:21: “Sir, we would see Jesus” (kjv). Yes, I thought, how fitting to consider how we saw Jesus in the woman we were celebrating with tears and smiles. Although she faced challenges and disappointments in her life, she never gave up her faith in Christ. And because God’s Spirit lived in her, we could see Jesus.
John’s gospel recounts how after Jesus rode into Jerusalem (see John 12:12–16), some Greeks approached Philip, one of the disciples, asking, “Sir, . . . we would like to see Jesus” (v. 21). They were probably curious about Jesus’s healings and miracles, but as they weren’t Jewish, they weren’t allowed into the inner courts of the temple. When their request was passed along to Jesus, He announced that His hour had come to be glorified (v. 23). And by that, He meant that He would die for the sins of many. He would fulfill His mission to reach not only the Jews but the Gentiles (the “Greeks” in verse 20), and now they would see Jesus.
After Jesus died, He sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in His followers (14:16–17). Thus as we love and serve Jesus, we see Him active in our lives. And, amazingly, those around us too can see Jesus!
Lord Jesus Christ, I am humbled and amazed that You would come and live in me. Help me to share this amazing gift with those I meet today.
We can see Jesus in the lives of His followers.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, August 24, 2018
The Spiritual Search
What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? —Matthew 7:9
The illustration of prayer that our Lord used here is one of a good child who is asking for something good. We talk about prayer as if God hears us regardless of what our relationship is to Him (see Matthew 5:45). Never say that it is not God’s will to give you what you ask. Don’t faint and give up, but find out the reason you have not received; increase the intensity of your search and examine the evidence. Is your relationship right with your spouse, your children, and your fellow students? Are you a “good child” in those relationships? Do you have to say to the Lord, “I have been irritable and cross, but I still want spiritual blessings”? You cannot receive and will have to do without them until you have the attitude of a “good child.”
We mistake defiance for devotion, arguing with God instead of surrendering. We refuse to look at the evidence that clearly indicates where we are wrong. Have I been asking God to give me money for something I want, while refusing to pay someone what I owe him? Have I been asking God for liberty while I am withholding it from someone who belongs to me? Have I refused to forgive someone, and have I been unkind to that person? Have I been living as God’s child among my relatives and friends? (see Matthew 7:12).
I am a child of God only by being born again, and as His child I am good only as I “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7). For most of us, prayer simply becomes some trivial religious expression, a matter of mystical and emotional fellowship with God. We are all good at producing spiritual fog that blinds our sight. But if we will search out and examine the evidence, we will see very clearly what is wrong— a friendship, an unpaid debt, or an improper attitude. There is no use praying unless we are living as children of God. Then Jesus says, regarding His children, “Everyone who asks receives…” (Matthew 7:8).
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
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, August 24, 2018
When It's Too High To Climb - #8250
Lots and lots of marble steps – that's one thing I remember from our family trip to Washington D.C. when the kids were little. In fact, our youngest was about two years old the first time we went there. In fact, he told me that at that time he was very interested in seeing the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of the government firsthand. Yeah, he said that to me. Oh, but those steps! Have you ever been to the U. S. Capitol building or the Lincoln Memorial? Maybe you remember feeling new feelings in your legs by the time you reached the top. Imagine our little guy. He looked up at those stairs and he knew there was no way with those short little legs. So he was stuck at the bottom with no hope of reaching the top of the steps. No, wait a minute. That's not true. He had me! And I had one of those child carriers on my back which he got in. And he made it where he never could have gone himself, because someone bigger carried him.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "When It's Too High To Climb.”
Maybe you're looking at a pretty daunting climb right now. You've got something ahead of you that looks very big and your legs just aren't long enough and strong enough to climb this one. Good news! Someone bigger wants to carry you.
Our word for today from the Word of God, Isaiah chapter 43 begins at verse 16. Before God gives you some great hope news though, He reminds you who is backing you up. This is what the Lord says, "He who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick.” With the Red Sea behind them and the mighty Egyptian Army in front of them, God's ancient people must have thought, "No way.” But when we say, "No way”, God says, "Way!” He parted the Red Sea. He snuffed out the mightiest army on earth like we would blow out a candle. Implied question, "Do you think He can handle the thing that threatens to overwhelm you then?”
God's instructions: "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” The God who brought you through all the oceans and the armies of the past is promising to carry you into this next exciting episode – His new thing.
In case you're wondering about a way through the wilderness ahead, He says, "I am making a way in the desert.” If you're wondering about the resources you're going to need but you don't have, He says, "I will make streams in the wasteland.” Or, like a two-year-old facing steps that he couldn't possibly climb, your way-making Father wants to carry you where you could never go yourself.
The steps may look insurmountable right now. You may be saying, "Yeah, but there's no job, there's no money, there's no mate, there's no way.” Or you may be looking at a huge medical challenge or emotional challenge. There may be some fearful possibilities out there or a situation maybe that will demand answers or resources that you just don't have.
Welcome to the "Carry me, Daddy” Zone. God wants to rewrite your definition of the word impossible. Listen to His promise earlier in Isaiah 43 (verses 1-3), "Fear not for I have redeemed you. I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned. For I am the Lord your God, your Savior.”
No, your legs won't make it. Those steps are just too high for you to climb, and your Father knows it. Oh, but you'll make it to the top – not on your legs, no, but in your Father's arms.
You may find yourself in an impossible situation. You feel outnumbered and outmaneuvered. You want to quit. Could I ask you to memorize this promise and ask God to bring it to mind? Write it where you’ll find it. Tattoo it, if not on your skin at least on your heart: “When a believing person prays, great things happen” (James 5:16).
If you’ve taken on the name of Christ, you have clout with the most powerful being in the universe. When you speak, God listens. Jesus said, “When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action” (Matthew 18:19). Prayer is just the first step. God has power you’ve never seen, strength you’ve never known. He delights in answering prayer! And because his promises are unbreakable, our hope in unshakable!
Read more Unshakable Hope
Luke 7:1-30
A Place of Holy Mystery
7 1-5 When he finished speaking to the people, he entered Capernaum. A Roman captain there had a servant who was on his deathbed. He prized him highly and didn’t want to lose him. When he heard Jesus was back, he sent leaders from the Jewish community asking him to come and heal his servant. They came to Jesus and urged him to do it, saying, “He deserves this. He loves our people. He even built our meeting place.”
6-8 Jesus went with them. When he was still quite far from the house, the captain sent friends to tell him, “Master, you don’t have to go to all this trouble. I’m not that good a person, you know. I’d be embarrassed for you to come to my house, even embarrassed to come to you in person. Just give the order and my servant will get well. I’m a man under orders; I also give orders. I tell one soldier, ‘Go,’ and he goes; another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
9-10 Taken aback, Jesus addressed the accompanying crowd: “I’ve yet to come across this kind of simple trust anywhere in Israel, the very people who are supposed to know about God and how he works.” When the messengers got back home, they found the servant up and well.
11-15 Not long after that, Jesus went to the village Nain. His disciples were with him, along with quite a large crowd. As they approached the village gate, they met a funeral procession—a woman’s only son was being carried out for burial. And the mother was a widow. When Jesus saw her, his heart broke. He said to her, “Don’t cry.” Then he went over and touched the coffin. The pallbearers stopped. He said, “Young man, I tell you: Get up.” The dead son sat up and began talking. Jesus presented him to his mother.
16-17 They all realized they were in a place of holy mystery, that God was at work among them. They were quietly worshipful—and then noisily grateful, calling out among themselves, “God is back, looking to the needs of his people!” The news of Jesus spread all through the country.
Is This What You Were Expecting?
18-19 John’s disciples reported back to him the news of all these events taking place. He sent two of them to the Master to ask the question, “Are you the One we’ve been expecting, or are we still waiting?”
20 The men showed up before Jesus and said, “John the Baptizer sent us to ask you, ‘Are you the One we’ve been expecting, or are we still waiting?’”
21-23 In the next two or three hours Jesus healed many from diseases, distress, and evil spirits. To many of the blind he gave the gift of sight. Then he gave his answer: “Go back and tell John what you have just seen and heard:
The blind see,
The lame walk,
Lepers are cleansed,
The deaf hear,
The dead are raised,
The wretched of the earth
have God’s salvation hospitality extended to them.
“Is this what you were expecting? Then count yourselves fortunate!”
24-27 After John’s messengers left to make their report, Jesus said more about John to the crowd of people. “What did you expect when you went out to see him in the wild? A weekend camper? Hardly. What then? A sheik in silk pajamas? Not in the wilderness, not by a long shot. What then? A messenger from God? That’s right, a messenger! Probably the greatest messenger you’ll ever hear. He is the messenger Malachi announced when he wrote,
I’m sending my messenger on ahead
To make the road smooth for you.
28-30 “Let me lay it out for you as plainly as I can: No one in history surpasses John the Baptizer, but in the kingdom he prepared you for, the lowliest person is ahead of him. The ordinary and disreputable people who heard John, by being baptized by him into the kingdom, are the clearest evidence; the Pharisees and religious officials would have nothing to do with such a baptism, wouldn’t think of giving up their place in line to their inferiors.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, August 24, 2018
Read: John 12:20–26
Some Greeks Seek Jesus
20 Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. 21 So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
INSIGHT
At first glance, it might appear that Jesus brushes off the Greeks who requested to see Him. But characteristically, His indirect reply points to a far more profound reality. Jesus is explaining the significance of what will happen to Him later that week. First He says, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (John 12:23), a reference to His death and resurrection for the salvation of the world—including the Greeks. Then He uses the metaphor of wheat to describe Himself and His mission. William Hendriksen points out the significance of the kernel of wheat in the context of the approaching Passover celebration. The seed must die before it can grow into a wheat stalk, producing many more seeds that will be made into bread—bread that will be eaten at Passover. Jesus (the Bread of Life) would have to die to produce “many seeds” (v. 24). And anyone who wants to serve Jesus must hate their life in this world (v. 25)—in other words, die to self.
Am I willing to die to self in order to serve the One who died for me? Will I do what is necessary to “see Jesus”? - Tim Gustafson
We Would See Jesus
By Amy Boucher Pye
Read: John 12:20–26 | Bible in a Year: Psalms 116–118; 1 Corinthians 7:1–19
They came to Philip . . . with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” John 12:21
As I looked down at the pulpit where I was sharing prayers at a funeral, I glimpsed a brass plaque bearing words from John 12:21: “Sir, we would see Jesus” (kjv). Yes, I thought, how fitting to consider how we saw Jesus in the woman we were celebrating with tears and smiles. Although she faced challenges and disappointments in her life, she never gave up her faith in Christ. And because God’s Spirit lived in her, we could see Jesus.
John’s gospel recounts how after Jesus rode into Jerusalem (see John 12:12–16), some Greeks approached Philip, one of the disciples, asking, “Sir, . . . we would like to see Jesus” (v. 21). They were probably curious about Jesus’s healings and miracles, but as they weren’t Jewish, they weren’t allowed into the inner courts of the temple. When their request was passed along to Jesus, He announced that His hour had come to be glorified (v. 23). And by that, He meant that He would die for the sins of many. He would fulfill His mission to reach not only the Jews but the Gentiles (the “Greeks” in verse 20), and now they would see Jesus.
After Jesus died, He sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in His followers (14:16–17). Thus as we love and serve Jesus, we see Him active in our lives. And, amazingly, those around us too can see Jesus!
Lord Jesus Christ, I am humbled and amazed that You would come and live in me. Help me to share this amazing gift with those I meet today.
We can see Jesus in the lives of His followers.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, August 24, 2018
The Spiritual Search
What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? —Matthew 7:9
The illustration of prayer that our Lord used here is one of a good child who is asking for something good. We talk about prayer as if God hears us regardless of what our relationship is to Him (see Matthew 5:45). Never say that it is not God’s will to give you what you ask. Don’t faint and give up, but find out the reason you have not received; increase the intensity of your search and examine the evidence. Is your relationship right with your spouse, your children, and your fellow students? Are you a “good child” in those relationships? Do you have to say to the Lord, “I have been irritable and cross, but I still want spiritual blessings”? You cannot receive and will have to do without them until you have the attitude of a “good child.”
We mistake defiance for devotion, arguing with God instead of surrendering. We refuse to look at the evidence that clearly indicates where we are wrong. Have I been asking God to give me money for something I want, while refusing to pay someone what I owe him? Have I been asking God for liberty while I am withholding it from someone who belongs to me? Have I refused to forgive someone, and have I been unkind to that person? Have I been living as God’s child among my relatives and friends? (see Matthew 7:12).
I am a child of God only by being born again, and as His child I am good only as I “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7). For most of us, prayer simply becomes some trivial religious expression, a matter of mystical and emotional fellowship with God. We are all good at producing spiritual fog that blinds our sight. But if we will search out and examine the evidence, we will see very clearly what is wrong— a friendship, an unpaid debt, or an improper attitude. There is no use praying unless we are living as children of God. Then Jesus says, regarding His children, “Everyone who asks receives…” (Matthew 7:8).
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
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, August 24, 2018
When It's Too High To Climb - #8250
Lots and lots of marble steps – that's one thing I remember from our family trip to Washington D.C. when the kids were little. In fact, our youngest was about two years old the first time we went there. In fact, he told me that at that time he was very interested in seeing the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of the government firsthand. Yeah, he said that to me. Oh, but those steps! Have you ever been to the U. S. Capitol building or the Lincoln Memorial? Maybe you remember feeling new feelings in your legs by the time you reached the top. Imagine our little guy. He looked up at those stairs and he knew there was no way with those short little legs. So he was stuck at the bottom with no hope of reaching the top of the steps. No, wait a minute. That's not true. He had me! And I had one of those child carriers on my back which he got in. And he made it where he never could have gone himself, because someone bigger carried him.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "When It's Too High To Climb.”
Maybe you're looking at a pretty daunting climb right now. You've got something ahead of you that looks very big and your legs just aren't long enough and strong enough to climb this one. Good news! Someone bigger wants to carry you.
Our word for today from the Word of God, Isaiah chapter 43 begins at verse 16. Before God gives you some great hope news though, He reminds you who is backing you up. This is what the Lord says, "He who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick.” With the Red Sea behind them and the mighty Egyptian Army in front of them, God's ancient people must have thought, "No way.” But when we say, "No way”, God says, "Way!” He parted the Red Sea. He snuffed out the mightiest army on earth like we would blow out a candle. Implied question, "Do you think He can handle the thing that threatens to overwhelm you then?”
God's instructions: "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” The God who brought you through all the oceans and the armies of the past is promising to carry you into this next exciting episode – His new thing.
In case you're wondering about a way through the wilderness ahead, He says, "I am making a way in the desert.” If you're wondering about the resources you're going to need but you don't have, He says, "I will make streams in the wasteland.” Or, like a two-year-old facing steps that he couldn't possibly climb, your way-making Father wants to carry you where you could never go yourself.
The steps may look insurmountable right now. You may be saying, "Yeah, but there's no job, there's no money, there's no mate, there's no way.” Or you may be looking at a huge medical challenge or emotional challenge. There may be some fearful possibilities out there or a situation maybe that will demand answers or resources that you just don't have.
Welcome to the "Carry me, Daddy” Zone. God wants to rewrite your definition of the word impossible. Listen to His promise earlier in Isaiah 43 (verses 1-3), "Fear not for I have redeemed you. I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned. For I am the Lord your God, your Savior.”
No, your legs won't make it. Those steps are just too high for you to climb, and your Father knows it. Oh, but you'll make it to the top – not on your legs, no, but in your Father's arms.
Thursday, August 23, 2018
Deuteronomy 27, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: YOUR PRAYERS MATTER TO GOD
Do you know that God delights in hearing your prayers! We can’t even get the plumber to call us back, so why would God listen to our prayers? Your prayers matter to God because you matter to God. You aren’t just anybody, you are his child.
When God saved you, he enlisted you. He gave not only forgiveness for your past but also authority in the present and a role in the future. This life is on-the-job training for eternity. “If we endure, we will also reign with him” (2 Timothy 2:12).
When you, as God’s child, seek to honor the family business, God hears your requests. Will God do what you ask? Perhaps. Or perhaps he will do more than you imagined. Stand firmly on this promise: “When a believing person prays, great things happen” (James 5:16). And because God’s promises are unbreakable, our hope is unshakable!
Read more Unshakable Hope
Deuteronomy 27
Moses commanded the leaders of Israel and charged the people: Keep every commandment that I command you today. On the day you cross the Jordan into the land that God, your God, is giving you, erect large stones and coat them with plaster. As soon as you cross over the river, write on the stones all the words of this Revelation so that you’ll enter the land that God, your God, is giving you, that land flowing with milk and honey that God, the God-of-Your-Fathers, promised you.
4-7 So when you’ve crossed the Jordan, erect these stones on Mount Ebal. Then coat them with plaster. Build an Altar of stones for God, your God, there on the mountain. Don’t use an iron tool on the stones; build the Altar to God, your God, with uncut stones and offer your Whole-Burnt-Offerings on it to God, your God. When you sacrifice your Peace-Offerings you will also eat them there, rejoicing in the Presence of God, your God.
8 Write all the words of this Revelation on the stones. Incise them sharply.
9-10 Moses and the Levitical priests addressed all Israel: Quiet. Listen obediently, Israel. This very day you have become the people of God, your God. Listen to the Voice of God, your God. Keep his commandments and regulations that I’m commanding you today.
11-13 That day Moses commanded: After you’ve crossed the Jordan, these tribes will stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. And these will stand on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.
14-26 The Levites, acting as spokesmen and speaking loudly, will address Israel:
God’s curse on anyone who carves or casts a god-image—an abomination to God made by a craftsman—and sets it up in secret.
All respond: Yes. Absolutely.
God’s curse on anyone who demeans a parent.
All respond: Yes. Absolutely.
God’s curse on anyone who moves his neighbor’s boundary marker.
All respond: Yes. Absolutely.
God’s curse on anyone who misdirects a blind man on the road.
All respond: Yes. Absolutely.
God’s curse on anyone who interferes with justice due the foreigner, orphan, or widow.
All respond: Yes. Absolutely.
God’s curse on anyone who has sex with his father’s wife; he has violated the woman who belongs to his father.
All respond: Yes. Absolutely.
God’s curse on anyone who has sex with an animal.
All respond: Yes. Absolutely.
God’s curse on anyone who has sex with his sister, the daughter of his father or mother.
All respond: Yes. Absolutely.
God’s curse on anyone who has sex with his mother-in-law.
All respond: Yes. Absolutely.
God’s curse on anyone who kills his neighbor in secret.
All respond: Yes. Absolutely.
God’s curse on anyone who takes a bribe to kill an innocent person.
All respond: Yes. Absolutely.
God’s curse on whoever does not give substance to the words of this Revelation by living them.
All respond: Yes. Absolutely.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, August 23, 2018
Read: Psalm 34:1–14
Taste and See That the Lord Is Good
[a] Of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away.
34 I will bless the Lord at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2 My soul makes its boast in the Lord;
let the humble hear and be glad.
3 Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt his name together!
4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
5 Those who look to him are radiant,
and their faces shall never be ashamed.
6 This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him
and saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the Lord encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.
8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
9 Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints,
for those who fear him have no lack!
10 The young lions suffer want and hunger;
but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
11 Come, O children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
12 What man is there who desires life
and loves many days, that he may see good?
13 Keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from speaking deceit.
14 Turn away from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.
Footnotes:
Psalm 34:1 This psalm is an acrostic poem, each verse beginning with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet
INSIGHT
In Psalm 34:14, David calls us to “turn from evil and do good.” What is good? Micah 6:8 says God has shown us what is good: “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Yet in another psalm, David says, “There is no one who does good” (14:1–3)! So how is good possible? David provides a clue in still another psalm, “Trust in the Lord and do good” (37:3). Doing good is tied to trust in God. In the New Testament we see over and over again that doing good is dependent on a relationship with God through Jesus. Jesus equips us to do good and then produces good in us through the Spirit (Hebrews 13:20–21; Galatians 5:16–25).
What good is God calling you to do in His strength? - Alyson Kieda
An Enduring Happiness
By David H. Roper
Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days . . . . Turn from evil and do good. Psalm 34:12,14
Often we hear that happiness comes from doing things our own way. That, however, is not true. That philosophy leads only to emptiness, anxiety, and heartache.
Poet W. H. Auden observed people as they attempted to find an escape in pleasures. He wrote of such people: “Lost in a haunted wood, / Children afraid of the night / Who have never been happy or good.”
The psalmist David sings of the remedy for our fears and unhappiness. “I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears” (Psalm 34:4). Happiness is doing things God’s way, a fact that can be verified every day. “Those who look to him are radiant,” writes David (v. 5). Just try it and you’ll see. That’s what he means when he says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (v. 8).
We say, “Seeing is believing.” That’s how we know things in this world. Show me proof and I’ll believe it. God puts it the other way around. Believing is seeing. “Taste and then you will see.”
Take the Lord at His word. Do the very next thing He is asking you to do and you will see. He will give you grace to do the right thing and more: He will give you Himself—the only source of goodness—and with it, enduring happiness.
Lord, sometimes we must simply pray: “I believe. Help my unbelief.” Help us trust You by doing what You have given us to do today.
Happiness is doing the right thing.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, August 23, 2018
Prayer—Battle in “The Secret Place”
When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. —Matthew 6:6
Jesus did not say, “Dream about your Father who is in the secret place,” but He said, “…pray to your Father who is in the secret place….” Prayer is an effort of the will. After we have entered our secret place and shut the door, the most difficult thing to do is to pray. We cannot seem to get our minds into good working order, and the first thing we have to fight is wandering thoughts. The great battle in private prayer is overcoming this problem of our idle and wandering thinking. We have to learn to discipline our minds and concentrate on willful, deliberate prayer.
We must have a specially selected place for prayer, but once we get there this plague of wandering thoughts begins, as we begin to think to ourselves, “This needs to be done, and I have to do that today.” Jesus says to “shut your door.” Having a secret stillness before God means deliberately shutting the door on our emotions and remembering Him. God is in secret, and He sees us from “the secret place”— He does not see us as other people do, or as we see ourselves. When we truly live in “the secret place,” it becomes impossible for us to doubt God. We become more sure of Him than of anyone or anything else. Enter into “the secret place,” and you will find that God was right in the middle of your everyday circumstances all the time. Get into the habit of dealing with God about everything. Unless you learn to open the door of your life completely and let God in from your first waking moment of each new day, you will be working on the wrong level throughout the day. But if you will swing the door of your life fully open and “pray to your Father who is in the secret place,” every public thing in your life will be marked with the lasting imprint of the presence of God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Always keep in contact with those books and those people that enlarge your horizon and make it possible for you to stretch yourself mentally. The Moral Foundations of Life, 721 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, August 23, 2018
Surprisingly Welcome - #8249
"Y'all come see us!" You hear that pretty often in the South. It's called southern hospitality; sort of an open invitation to stop by, as they say, and "visit." That's why I was surprised at the welcome mat they had at a cabin we recently stayed in. I was speaking at a conference in the south, and my wife and I were wonderfully given a picturesque log cabin to stay in. But then there was the welcome mat. Well, it was sort of a welcome mat-maybe more of an unwelcome mat. You walk up to the door, you look down at the mat, and you're greeted with these wonderful words, "Oh no! Not you again!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Surprisingly Welcome."
Somewhere, sometime, you're going to let yourself think about one of life's most important questions, "What's going to happen when my heart beats for the last time, when I keep my personal appointment with God at the end of my life?" How will God treat you? Will He welcome you into His heaven or will He tell you your name was never written in what the Bible calls God's "book of life?"
That won't be decided after you die. It will be decided based on what you do with Jesus while you're still here. And I've gone to enough funerals of people of all ages, and so have you probably, and it's clear that none of us knows how close or how far off our appointment with God is. The point is to be ready whenever and however it comes. Your question might be, "Well, will Jesus welcome me if I come to Him?" You're looking at some of the things you've done, some of the dark secrets that maybe He alone knows about your life, and you're afraid you'll be greeted by words like these: "No. Not you."
Well, you don't have to guess how Jesus feels about you or how He will respond if you come to Him. He tells us in our word for today from the Word of God in John 6:37. Here are the words of Jesus, "Whoever comes to me, I will never drive away." In the original language this was written in, the sense is, "I will never, never, under any circumstance drive away." It's about as emphatic as it can get.
The picture Jesus gives us of this is in His story of the Prodigal Son-the young man who asks his father for his inheritance while his dad is still alive. He squanders it in wild living in another country. So, he ends up in shame, feeding pigs, hoping to eat some of their cornhusks. When he finally comes to his senses, he decides to risk going back to his father in this totally wasted condition. He'll consider himself lucky if his Dad will let him work as one of his hired servants. After what he's done with his life, he expects anything but a welcome. Maybe like you with God. But the Bible says, "while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him."
That boy represents you and me. The Father is God. And that's how He's waiting to welcome you if you'll come to Him. That's why Jesus told that story. That means recognizing that the blood Jesus shed on the cross was to pay for your sins, giving yourself to Jesus as the only hope of having your sins erased and then being able to have an eternity in heaven. His welcome awaits you until your life is over. If you haven't come to Him by then, it's too late. He won't be able to welcome you into His heaven because you never trusted Jesus to forgive your sins.
The question isn't so much about whether Jesus will welcome you if you come to Him. It's whether you welcome Him when He comes to you, knocking on the door of your heart, which He may very well be doing right now. If you welcome Him into your life as your only hope, you can be sure He will welcome you into His heaven.
You ready to get this done, get this settled? Tell Him, "Jesus, I'm yours.” Go to our website, ANewStory.com. There you'll find the information that will help you be sure you belong to him.
Remember, Jesus promised "whoever comes to Me, I will never drive away." That "whoever" includes you, so start heading His direction. He'll come running to meet you. After all, He gave His life for you.
Wednesday, August 22, 2018
Deuteronomy 26, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: FACING A WALL OF FEAR?
Perhaps standing before you is a wall of fear. Brick upon brick of anxiety and dread. Haunting you are the kings of confusion. Thanks to them, you’ve struggled with your identity and destiny. You’ve bought the lie that life has no purpose…that life has no absolutes. As a child of God, it comes down to a simple decision to believe and receive your position as an heir of God and coheir with Christ.
The Scriptures say in 1 John 4:17, “In this world we are like Jesus.” Our inheritance is every bit as abundant as that of Jesus himself. What he receives, we receive. What message are you carving on that wall of fear? What words are you writing? Choose hope, not despair. Choose life, not death. Choose God’s promises. You are a new person. Live like one! Because God’s promises are unbreakable, our hope is unshakable!
Read more Unshakable Hope
Deuteronomy 26
Once you enter the land that God, your God, is giving you as an inheritance and take it over and settle down, you are to take some of all the firstfruits of what you grow in the land that God, your God, is giving you, put them in a basket and go to the place God, your God, sets apart for you to worship him. At that time, go to the priest who is there and say, “I announce to God, your God, today that I have entered the land that God promised our ancestors that he’d give to us.” The priest will take the basket from you and place it on the Altar of God, your God. And there in the Presence of God, your God, you will recite:
5-10 A wandering Aramean was my father,
he went down to Egypt and sojourned there,
he and just a handful of his brothers at first, but soon
they became a great nation, mighty and many.
The Egyptians abused and battered us,
in a cruel and savage slavery.
We cried out to God, the God-of-Our-Fathers:
He listened to our voice, he saw
our destitution, our trouble, our cruel plight.
And God took us out of Egypt
with his strong hand and long arm, terrible and great,
with signs and miracle-wonders.
And he brought us to this place,
gave us this land flowing with milk and honey.
So here I am. I’ve brought the firstfruits
of what I’ve grown on this ground you gave me, O God.
10-11 Then place it in the Presence of God, your God. Prostrate yourselves in the Presence of God, your God. And rejoice! Celebrate all the good things that God, your God, has given you and your family; you and the Levite and the foreigner who lives with you.
12-14 Every third year, the year of the tithe, give a tenth of your produce to the Levite, the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow so that they may eat their fill in your cities. And then, in the Presence of God, your God, say this:
I have brought the sacred share,
I’ve given it to the Levite, foreigner, orphan, and widow.
What you commanded, I’ve done.
I haven’t detoured around your commands,
I haven’t forgotten a single one.
I haven’t eaten from the sacred share while mourning,
I haven’t removed any of it while ritually unclean,
I haven’t used it in funeral feasts.
I have listened obediently to the Voice of God, my God,
I have lived the way you commanded me.
15 Look down from your holy house in Heaven!
Bless your people Israel and the ground you gave us,
just as you promised our ancestors you would,
this land flowing with milk and honey.
16-17 This very day God, your God, commands you to follow these rules and regulations, to live them out with everything you have in you. You’ve renewed your vows today that God is your God, that you’ll live the way he shows you; do what he tells you in the rules, regulations, and commandments; and listen obediently to him.
18-19 And today God has reaffirmed that you are dearly held treasure just as he promised, a people entrusted with keeping his commandments, a people set high above all other nations that he’s made, high in praise, fame, and honor: you’re a people holy to God, your God. That’s what he has promised.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, August 22, 2018
Read: Genesis 3:1–13
The Fall
3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You[a] shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise,[b] she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool[c] of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”[d] 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Footnotes:
Genesis 3:1 In Hebrew you is plural in verses 1–5
Genesis 3:6 Or to give insight
Genesis 3:8 Hebrew wind
Genesis 3:9 In Hebrew you is singular in verses 9 and 11
God’s Care for Us
By Alyson Kieda
The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. Genesis 3:21
My young grandsons enjoy dressing themselves. Sometimes they pull their shirts on backwards and often the younger one puts his shoes on the wrong feet. I usually don’t have the heart to tell them; besides, I find their innocence endearing.
I love seeing the world through their eyes. To them, everything is an adventure, whether walking the length of a fallen tree, spying a turtle sunning itself on a log, or excitedly watching a fire truck roar by. But I know that even my little grandsons are not truly innocent. They can make up a dozen excuses about why they can’t stay in their beds at night and are quick to yank a wanted toy from the other. Yet I love them dearly.
I picture Adam and Eve, God’s first people, as being in some ways like my grandchildren. Everything they saw in the garden must have been a marvel as they walked with God. But one day they willfully disobeyed. They ate of the one tree they were forbidden to eat (Genesis 2:15–17; 3:6). And that disobedience immediately led to lies and blame-shifting (3:8–13).
Still, God loved and cared for them. He sacrificed animals in order to clothe them (v. 21)—and later He provided a way of salvation for all sinners through the sacrifice of His Son (John 3:16). He loves us that much!
Dear Lord, thank You for loving us, despite our sin, and for making a way for us to be with You forever!
For help in your spiritual growth, see this course: christianuniversity.org/spiritual-life-basics.
Jesus loves us so much He sacrificed Himself for our sins.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, August 22, 2018
“I Indeed. . . But He”
I indeed baptize you with water…but He…will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. —Matthew 3:11
Have I ever come to the point in my life where I can say, “I indeed…but He…”? Until that moment comes, I will never know what the baptism of the Holy Spirit means. I indeed am at the end, and I cannot do anything more— but He begins right there— He does the things that no one else can ever do. Am I prepared for His coming? Jesus cannot come and do His work in me as long as there is anything blocking the way, whether it is something good or bad. When He comes to me, am I prepared for Him to drag every wrong thing I have ever done into the light? That is exactly where He comes. Wherever I know I am unclean is where He will put His feet and stand, and wherever I think I am clean is where He will remove His feet and walk away.
Repentance does not cause a sense of sin— it causes a sense of inexpressible unworthiness. When I repent, I realize that I am absolutely helpless, and I know that through and through I am not worthy even to carry His sandals. Have I repented like that, or do I have a lingering thought of possibly trying to defend my actions? The reason God cannot come into my life is that I am not at the point of complete repentance.
“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” John is not speaking here of the baptism of the Holy Spirit as an experience, but as a work performed by Jesus Christ. “He will baptize you….” The only experience that those who are baptized with the Holy Spirit are ever conscious of is the experience of sensing their absolute unworthiness.
“I indeed” was this in the past, “but He” came and something miraculous happened. Get to the end of yourself where you can do nothing, but where He does everything.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The sympathy which is reverent with what it cannot understand is worth its weight in gold. Baffled to Fight Better, 69 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, August 22, 2018
Living with Someone Else's Heart - #8248
Some dear friends of ours lost their 19-year-old son. Because of the way it happened, his death was a sudden, gut-wrenching tragedy. With Jesus as their anchor, even through this, they made this incredible faith statement, his mom and dad. They said, "God wants life to come from his death.” One way that's happened is through their decision to donate his organs to help save and improve some other lives. Not long after their son's death, the word came back that someone in a neighboring state had received their son's heart. That's been a source of comfort and encouragement to them. As they say, "Our son's heart is giving life to someone else.”
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Living with Someone Else's Heart.”
In a sense, Jesus wants to give you a new life by giving you a new heart spiritually-His heart. To live your life seeing what He sees in the lives around you, caring about the things He cares about. It's part of the miracle that happens when you turn your life over to Jesus. He fulfills this promise from Ezekiel 36:26-27, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit in you.”
When you ask Jesus to put His heart in you, your life can never be the same. Paul talked about what a Jesus-heart does in our word for today from the Word of God. It's in 2 Corinthians 5, beginning with verse 14. "Christ's love compels us.” Suddenly the love Jesus has for this world is part of you, and that love drives you to touch as many lives as possible with that love. Paul goes on to describe the dramatic revolution that takes place in what, or who, you live for. "He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again.”
Look, what's our natural bent? To live for ourselves, right? What makes us look good, what makes us comfortable, what fulfills our desires, advances our agenda. But when Jesus puts His selfless heart in you, it's not all about you anymore. It's all about Him and the people He died for, and your life is never the same.
A life that's all about your needs and your agenda is a very small life. A life that's all about Jesus, all about the needs of others, all about introducing people to Jesus-that's a super-sized life-one with the satisfaction of knowing you are fulfilling your created destiny. But it takes a new heart, because our heart is, by itself, self-centered and earth-centered - not eternity centered.
When Jesus plants His heart in you, you finally realize who you really are and why you are where you are. Paul says, "We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God was making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: be reconciled to God.”
Going to work is never the same again; going to school, going to the club or the gym, even going home to your neighborhood, because now you see the people there through Jesus' eyes, and He sees future inhabitants of hell unless someone helps them get to heaven by getting them to Jesus. You now know you are there on Christ's behalf, saying what He would say to them, trying to rescue them as He would rescue them. And your everyday stuff? It's never everyday again; it's got eternal significance.
If your life has been very full but not very fulfilling, if you want the rest of your life to really count, if you want to live your life for something that will outlast you, then it's time for you to open up your heart to receive the heart of your Jesus. It begins when you pray, "Go ahead, God, and break my heart for the things that break yours. Go ahead and fill my heart with the love and the burden that fills yours.” Then fasten your seatbelt for a life of spiritual greatness.
With His heart in you, you will live a life you could have no other way. Don't settle for anything less.
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
Luke 6:27-49, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: CHOOSE YOUR INHERITANCE
One of the most famous stories in the Bible has to do with inheritance. The Hebrews had just been delivered from Egyptian captivity. God led them and Moses to the edge of the promised land and made this offer. “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders” (Numbers 13:1-2).
God didn’t tell the Israelites to conquer, invade, or secure the land. He told them he was giving it to them. Their choice was clear: promises or circumstances? The circumstances said, No way. Stay out. There are giants in the land. God’s promise said, The land is yours. The victory is yours. Take it.
Circumstances say, cower to your fears. Your inheritance says otherwise: You are a child of the King. And because God’s promises are unbreakable, our hope is unshakable!
Read more Unshakable Hope
Luke 6:27-49
“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.
37-38 “Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults—unless, of course, you want the same treatment. Don’t condemn those who are down; that hardness can boomerang. Be easy on people; you’ll find life a lot easier. Give away your life; you’ll find life given back, but not merely given back—given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity.”
39-40 He quoted a proverb: “‘Can a blind man guide a blind man?’ Wouldn’t they both end up in the ditch? An apprentice doesn’t lecture the master. The point is to be careful who you follow as your teacher.
41-42 “It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you,’ when your own face is distorted by contempt? It’s this I-know-better-than-you mentality again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your own part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.
Work the Words into Your Life
43-45 “You don’t get wormy apples off a healthy tree, nor good apples off a diseased tree. The health of the apple tells the health of the tree. You must begin with your own life-giving lives. It’s who you are, not what you say and do, that counts. Your true being brims over into true words and deeds.
46-47 “Why are you so polite with me, always saying ‘Yes, sir,’ and ‘That’s right, sir,’ but never doing a thing I tell you? These words I speak to you are not mere additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundation words, words to build a life on.
48-49 “If you work the words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who dug deep and laid the foundation of his house on bedrock. When the river burst its banks and crashed against the house, nothing could shake it; it was built to last. But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a dumb carpenter who built a house but skipped the foundation. When the swollen river came crashing in, it collapsed like a house of cards. It was a total loss.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
Luke 23:44–48
The Death of Jesus
44 It was now about the sixth hour,[a] and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour,[b] 45 while the sun's light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. 47 Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!” 48 And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts.
Footnotes:
Luke 23:44 That is, noon
Luke 23:44 That is, 3 p.m.
INSIGHT
In Luke’s account of Christ’s death, we see several dramatic events. A seemingly inexplicable darkness was present over the entire earth—not just over Jerusalem where the crucifixion took place (vv. 44–45). Inside the temple in Jerusalem the curtain that separated worshipers from the holy of holies was torn in two, symbolizing that through Christ our access to God has been opened (v. 45). After Christ died, a Roman soldier who had participated in His execution declared, “Surely this was a righteous man” (v. 47). And others watching lamented and beat their breasts (v. 48).
The witness in the sky, within the temple, and by people at the foot of the cross demonstrate that this was no ordinary death. It was the death of the loving God-Man who shed His blood to redeem all who would believe in Him.
For further study, see The Passion of Christ at discoveryseries.org/q0210. - Dennis Fisher
A Prayer to Point Us Home
By James Banks
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. John 1:12
One of the first prayers I learned as a little boy was “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep . . .” It was a prayer I learned from my parents, and I taught it to my son and daughter when they were little. As a child, I found great comfort in placing myself in God’s hands with those words before I fell asleep.
There’s a similar prayer neatly tucked away in the “prayer book” of the Bible, the Psalms. Some biblical scholars suggest that the phrase “Into your hands I commit my spirit” (Psalm 31:5) was a “bedtime” prayer taught to children in Jesus’s day.
You may recognize that prayer as Jesus’s final cry from the cross. But Jesus added one more word to it: Father (Luke 23:46). By praying that word in the moments before His death, Jesus demonstrated His intimate relationship with the Father and pointed believers toward their home with Him (John 14:3).
Jesus died on the cross so we could live in the wonder of a relationship with God as our heavenly Father. How comforting it is to know that because of Jesus’s sacrificial love for us, we can rest in God’s care as His children! We can close our eyes without fear because our Father watches over us and has promised to wake us up to life with Him (1 Thessalonians 4:14).
Lord Jesus, I receive the gift of forgiveness You offer me through the cross. Help me to turn from my sins and follow You, all the way home.
A bright new morning awaits us in Jesus.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
The Ministry of the Unnoticed
Blessed are the poor in spirit… —Matthew 5:3
The New Testament notices things that do not seem worthy of notice by our standards. “Blessed are the poor in spirit….” This literally means, “Blessed are the paupers.” Paupers are remarkably commonplace! The preaching of today tends to point out a person’s strength of will or the beauty of his character— things that are easily noticed. The statement we so often hear, “Make a decision for Jesus Christ,” places the emphasis on something our Lord never trusted. He never asks us to decide for Him, but to yield to Him— something very different. At the foundation of Jesus Christ’s kingdom is the genuine loveliness of those who are commonplace. I am truly blessed in my poverty. If I have no strength of will and a nature without worth or excellence, then Jesus says to me, “Blessed are you, because it is through your poverty that you can enter My kingdom.” I cannot enter His kingdom by virtue of my goodness— I can only enter it as an absolute pauper.
The true character of the loveliness that speaks for God is always unnoticed by the one possessing that quality. Conscious influence is prideful and unchristian. If I wonder if I am being of any use to God, I instantly lose the beauty and the freshness of the touch of the Lord. “He who believes in Me…out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). And if I examine the outflow, I lose the touch of the Lord.
Who are the people who have influenced us most? Certainly not the ones who thought they did, but those who did not have even the slightest idea that they were influencing us. In the Christian life, godly influence is never conscious of itself. If we are conscious of our influence, it ceases to have the genuine loveliness which is characteristic of the touch of Jesus. We always know when Jesus is at work because He produces in the commonplace something that is inspiring.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is no allowance whatever in the New Testament for the man who says he is saved by grace but who does not produce the graceful goods. Jesus Christ by His Redemption can make our actual life in keeping with our religious profession.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
Missing the Light You Can't Afford to Miss - #8247
Chaco Culture National Historical Park-it's situated in a remote corner of New Mexico. It's a place where a thousand years ago, the ancient ancestors of some of today's Indian tribes enjoyed this thriving civilization. They were, as an article in USA Today reported, "astronomically observant." For modern observers, it's still a great spot to be astronomically observant; a place where you can see the heavens without the interference of the artificial light that's all around us much of the time. Several years ago, a woman came to the visitor's center desk to report something remarkable she'd seen in the sky. The ranger held his breath for another "UFO sighting," only to be surprised by the woman's excited description of a "lane of white powder" she said that she had seen spanning the heavens above her campsite. The ranger had the great pleasure of informing this lady that, for the first time in her life, she had actually seen the Milky Way.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Missing the Light You Can't Afford to Miss."
It's estimated that more than two-thirds of the people in the United States and Europe cannot see their home galaxy from their backyard because of all the other light in their world. We're actually blinded to God's real light by the artificial light around us. We are. There's so much distraction all around us we can miss the one light we can't afford to miss. For you, today could be the day that God wants to help you take a step away and see that light for yourself, and I will tell you, your life will never be the same.
In 2 Corinthians 4, beginning with verse 4, our word for today from the Word of God, we have unveiled for us a spiritual conspiracy to actually keep you blinded to the greatest light of all. You need this information. Here's what it says: "The god of this age..." When the Bible says that, it's referring to the enemy of your soul and mine, the Devil. Who, by the way, hates you and wants you in hell with him forever. "...the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so they cannot see the light of the gospel (or the Good News) of the glory of Christ."
All your life, Satan has been flashing artificial lights in your eyes to keep you from seeing the only light that can direct you to heaven. That light is Jesus Christ, who loved you enough to die to pay for your sins, who's powerful enough to walk out of His grave under His own power.
The Devil has a pretty simple strategy for keeping you out of God's family and keeping you out of heaven forever..."anything but Jesus." He doesn't care what your heart turns to as long as it's not Jesus. Satan doesn't care if you get real religious, if you're active in your church or community, if you pursue spirituality, even if you get a lot of Christianity, just as long as he can use all your Christianity to blind you to the fact that you're missing Christ. He'll keep your heart busy with a boyfriend, or a girlfriend, a marriage, a family, all kinds of demands on you, a career, recreation, fitness, a house, a car, retirement-whatever it takes to keep you from seeing your need of Jesus until one day it is forever too late.
But the Bible tells us that God has mounted a counterattack so you don't miss the one who came here to rescue you. The Bible says, "God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.'" That's what God is doing in your heart right now as you listen to these words. He's turning on the light in your heart.
It's important you give yourself to Jesus while the light is still where you can see it, because very soon your enemy from hell will come again and turn on the artificial lights that have made you miss Jesus all this time. This is your day to meet the One who created you, to begin a personal relationship with the One you were made by and made for, and who loved you enough to die for you. It starts when you say, "Jesus, I'm yours." I'd love to help you get the rest of the way. Go to our website ANewStory.com.
God's shining His light in your heart right now. Please don't miss it.
One of the most famous stories in the Bible has to do with inheritance. The Hebrews had just been delivered from Egyptian captivity. God led them and Moses to the edge of the promised land and made this offer. “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders” (Numbers 13:1-2).
God didn’t tell the Israelites to conquer, invade, or secure the land. He told them he was giving it to them. Their choice was clear: promises or circumstances? The circumstances said, No way. Stay out. There are giants in the land. God’s promise said, The land is yours. The victory is yours. Take it.
Circumstances say, cower to your fears. Your inheritance says otherwise: You are a child of the King. And because God’s promises are unbreakable, our hope is unshakable!
Read more Unshakable Hope
Luke 6:27-49
“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.
37-38 “Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults—unless, of course, you want the same treatment. Don’t condemn those who are down; that hardness can boomerang. Be easy on people; you’ll find life a lot easier. Give away your life; you’ll find life given back, but not merely given back—given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity.”
39-40 He quoted a proverb: “‘Can a blind man guide a blind man?’ Wouldn’t they both end up in the ditch? An apprentice doesn’t lecture the master. The point is to be careful who you follow as your teacher.
41-42 “It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you,’ when your own face is distorted by contempt? It’s this I-know-better-than-you mentality again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your own part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.
Work the Words into Your Life
43-45 “You don’t get wormy apples off a healthy tree, nor good apples off a diseased tree. The health of the apple tells the health of the tree. You must begin with your own life-giving lives. It’s who you are, not what you say and do, that counts. Your true being brims over into true words and deeds.
46-47 “Why are you so polite with me, always saying ‘Yes, sir,’ and ‘That’s right, sir,’ but never doing a thing I tell you? These words I speak to you are not mere additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundation words, words to build a life on.
48-49 “If you work the words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who dug deep and laid the foundation of his house on bedrock. When the river burst its banks and crashed against the house, nothing could shake it; it was built to last. But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a dumb carpenter who built a house but skipped the foundation. When the swollen river came crashing in, it collapsed like a house of cards. It was a total loss.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
Luke 23:44–48
The Death of Jesus
44 It was now about the sixth hour,[a] and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour,[b] 45 while the sun's light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. 47 Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!” 48 And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts.
Footnotes:
Luke 23:44 That is, noon
Luke 23:44 That is, 3 p.m.
INSIGHT
In Luke’s account of Christ’s death, we see several dramatic events. A seemingly inexplicable darkness was present over the entire earth—not just over Jerusalem where the crucifixion took place (vv. 44–45). Inside the temple in Jerusalem the curtain that separated worshipers from the holy of holies was torn in two, symbolizing that through Christ our access to God has been opened (v. 45). After Christ died, a Roman soldier who had participated in His execution declared, “Surely this was a righteous man” (v. 47). And others watching lamented and beat their breasts (v. 48).
The witness in the sky, within the temple, and by people at the foot of the cross demonstrate that this was no ordinary death. It was the death of the loving God-Man who shed His blood to redeem all who would believe in Him.
For further study, see The Passion of Christ at discoveryseries.org/q0210. - Dennis Fisher
A Prayer to Point Us Home
By James Banks
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. John 1:12
One of the first prayers I learned as a little boy was “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep . . .” It was a prayer I learned from my parents, and I taught it to my son and daughter when they were little. As a child, I found great comfort in placing myself in God’s hands with those words before I fell asleep.
There’s a similar prayer neatly tucked away in the “prayer book” of the Bible, the Psalms. Some biblical scholars suggest that the phrase “Into your hands I commit my spirit” (Psalm 31:5) was a “bedtime” prayer taught to children in Jesus’s day.
You may recognize that prayer as Jesus’s final cry from the cross. But Jesus added one more word to it: Father (Luke 23:46). By praying that word in the moments before His death, Jesus demonstrated His intimate relationship with the Father and pointed believers toward their home with Him (John 14:3).
Jesus died on the cross so we could live in the wonder of a relationship with God as our heavenly Father. How comforting it is to know that because of Jesus’s sacrificial love for us, we can rest in God’s care as His children! We can close our eyes without fear because our Father watches over us and has promised to wake us up to life with Him (1 Thessalonians 4:14).
Lord Jesus, I receive the gift of forgiveness You offer me through the cross. Help me to turn from my sins and follow You, all the way home.
A bright new morning awaits us in Jesus.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
The Ministry of the Unnoticed
Blessed are the poor in spirit… —Matthew 5:3
The New Testament notices things that do not seem worthy of notice by our standards. “Blessed are the poor in spirit….” This literally means, “Blessed are the paupers.” Paupers are remarkably commonplace! The preaching of today tends to point out a person’s strength of will or the beauty of his character— things that are easily noticed. The statement we so often hear, “Make a decision for Jesus Christ,” places the emphasis on something our Lord never trusted. He never asks us to decide for Him, but to yield to Him— something very different. At the foundation of Jesus Christ’s kingdom is the genuine loveliness of those who are commonplace. I am truly blessed in my poverty. If I have no strength of will and a nature without worth or excellence, then Jesus says to me, “Blessed are you, because it is through your poverty that you can enter My kingdom.” I cannot enter His kingdom by virtue of my goodness— I can only enter it as an absolute pauper.
The true character of the loveliness that speaks for God is always unnoticed by the one possessing that quality. Conscious influence is prideful and unchristian. If I wonder if I am being of any use to God, I instantly lose the beauty and the freshness of the touch of the Lord. “He who believes in Me…out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). And if I examine the outflow, I lose the touch of the Lord.
Who are the people who have influenced us most? Certainly not the ones who thought they did, but those who did not have even the slightest idea that they were influencing us. In the Christian life, godly influence is never conscious of itself. If we are conscious of our influence, it ceases to have the genuine loveliness which is characteristic of the touch of Jesus. We always know when Jesus is at work because He produces in the commonplace something that is inspiring.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is no allowance whatever in the New Testament for the man who says he is saved by grace but who does not produce the graceful goods. Jesus Christ by His Redemption can make our actual life in keeping with our religious profession.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
Missing the Light You Can't Afford to Miss - #8247
Chaco Culture National Historical Park-it's situated in a remote corner of New Mexico. It's a place where a thousand years ago, the ancient ancestors of some of today's Indian tribes enjoyed this thriving civilization. They were, as an article in USA Today reported, "astronomically observant." For modern observers, it's still a great spot to be astronomically observant; a place where you can see the heavens without the interference of the artificial light that's all around us much of the time. Several years ago, a woman came to the visitor's center desk to report something remarkable she'd seen in the sky. The ranger held his breath for another "UFO sighting," only to be surprised by the woman's excited description of a "lane of white powder" she said that she had seen spanning the heavens above her campsite. The ranger had the great pleasure of informing this lady that, for the first time in her life, she had actually seen the Milky Way.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Missing the Light You Can't Afford to Miss."
It's estimated that more than two-thirds of the people in the United States and Europe cannot see their home galaxy from their backyard because of all the other light in their world. We're actually blinded to God's real light by the artificial light around us. We are. There's so much distraction all around us we can miss the one light we can't afford to miss. For you, today could be the day that God wants to help you take a step away and see that light for yourself, and I will tell you, your life will never be the same.
In 2 Corinthians 4, beginning with verse 4, our word for today from the Word of God, we have unveiled for us a spiritual conspiracy to actually keep you blinded to the greatest light of all. You need this information. Here's what it says: "The god of this age..." When the Bible says that, it's referring to the enemy of your soul and mine, the Devil. Who, by the way, hates you and wants you in hell with him forever. "...the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so they cannot see the light of the gospel (or the Good News) of the glory of Christ."
All your life, Satan has been flashing artificial lights in your eyes to keep you from seeing the only light that can direct you to heaven. That light is Jesus Christ, who loved you enough to die to pay for your sins, who's powerful enough to walk out of His grave under His own power.
The Devil has a pretty simple strategy for keeping you out of God's family and keeping you out of heaven forever..."anything but Jesus." He doesn't care what your heart turns to as long as it's not Jesus. Satan doesn't care if you get real religious, if you're active in your church or community, if you pursue spirituality, even if you get a lot of Christianity, just as long as he can use all your Christianity to blind you to the fact that you're missing Christ. He'll keep your heart busy with a boyfriend, or a girlfriend, a marriage, a family, all kinds of demands on you, a career, recreation, fitness, a house, a car, retirement-whatever it takes to keep you from seeing your need of Jesus until one day it is forever too late.
But the Bible tells us that God has mounted a counterattack so you don't miss the one who came here to rescue you. The Bible says, "God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.'" That's what God is doing in your heart right now as you listen to these words. He's turning on the light in your heart.
It's important you give yourself to Jesus while the light is still where you can see it, because very soon your enemy from hell will come again and turn on the artificial lights that have made you miss Jesus all this time. This is your day to meet the One who created you, to begin a personal relationship with the One you were made by and made for, and who loved you enough to die for you. It starts when you say, "Jesus, I'm yours." I'd love to help you get the rest of the way. Go to our website ANewStory.com.
God's shining His light in your heart right now. Please don't miss it.
Monday, August 20, 2018
Deuteronomy 25, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: AN ADVENTUROUSLY EXPECTANT LIFE
As a child of God, “this resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant…greeting God with a childlike, ‘What’s next, Papa?’ God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get an unbelievable inheritance!” (Romans 8:15-17 MSG).
God says, “Hey, Lucado. You are an heir to the joy of Christ. Why not ask Jesus to help you?” “And you, Mr. Without-a-Clue. Aren’t you an heir to God’s storehouse of wisdom?” “Mrs. Worrywart, Why do you let fears steal your sleep? Are you not a beneficiary of God’s trust fund?” Approach God’s throne not as an interloper but as a child of the living and loving God! Because God’s promises are unbreakable, our hope is unshakable.
Read more Unshakable Hope
Deuteronomy 25
When men have a legal dispute, let them go to court; the judges will decide between them, declaring one innocent and the other guilty. If the guilty one deserves punishment, the judge will have him prostrate himself before him and lashed as many times as his crime deserves, but not more than forty. If you hit him more than forty times, you will degrade him to something less than human.
4 Don’t muzzle an ox while it is threshing.
5-6 When brothers are living together and one of them dies without having had a son, the widow of the dead brother shall not marry a stranger from outside the family; her husband’s brother is to come to her and marry her and do the brother-in-law’s duty by her. The first son that she bears shall be named after her dead husband so his name won’t die out in Israel.
7-10 But if the brother doesn’t want to marry his sister-in-law, she is to go to the leaders at the city gate and say, “My brother-in-law refuses to keep his brother’s name alive in Israel; he won’t agree to do the brother-in-law’s duty by me.” Then the leaders will call for the brother and confront him. If he stands there defiant and says, “I don’t want her,” his sister-in-law is to pull his sandal off his foot, spit in his face, and say, “This is what happens to the man who refuses to build up the family of his brother—his name in Israel will be Family-No-Sandal.”
11-12 When two men are in a fight and the wife of the one man, trying to rescue her husband, grabs the genitals of the man hitting him, you are to cut off her hand. Show no pity.
13-16 Don’t carry around with you two weights, one heavy and the other light, and don’t keep two measures at hand, one large and the other small. Use only one weight, a true and honest weight, and one measure, a true and honest measure, so that you will live a long time on the land that God, your God, is giving you. Dishonest weights and measures are an abomination to God, your God—all this corruption in business deals!
17-19 Don’t forget what Amalek did to you on the road after you left Egypt, how he attacked you when you were tired, barely able to put one foot in front of another, mercilessly cut off your stragglers, and had no regard for God. When God, your God, gives you rest from all the enemies that surround you in the inheritance-land God, your God, is giving you to possess, you are to wipe the name of Amalek from off the Earth. Don’t forget!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, August 20, 2018
Read: Hebrews 10:5–14
Consequently, when Christ[a] came into the world, he said,
“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
but a body have you prepared for me;
6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings
you have taken no pleasure.
7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,
as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”
8 When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), 9 then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. 10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ[b] had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
Footnotes:
Hebrews 10:5 Greek he
Hebrews 10:12 Greek this one
INSIGHT
The words “It’s finished!” can mean different things to different people. For the student, they might mean, “I’m finally graduating!” For the Jewish leaders at the time of Jesus, these words could mean they had succeeded in killing Jesus (John 11:53). For the Roman soldiers, it could describe the death penalty they had successfully carried out (19:16–18). For the disciples, these words could mean that their hopes of the Messiah delivering them from Roman bondage were dashed (Luke 24:19–21). But when Jesus uttered, “It is finished” (John 19:30), He was declaring He had completed the work the Father gave Him to do (17:4)—to be “an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
For more about the death and resurrection of Jesus, check out our free online course at christianuniversity.org/CA206. - K. T. Sim
In Progress or Completed?
By Adam Holz
For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. Hebrews 10:14
It’s satisfying to finish a job. Each month, for instance, one of my job responsibilities gets moved from one category to another, from “In Progress” to “Completed.” I love clicking that “Completed” button. But last month when I clicked it, I thought, If only I could overcome rough spots in my faith so easily! It can seem like the Christian life is always in progress, never completed.
Then I remembered Hebrews 10:14. It describes how Christ’s sacrifice redeems us totally. So in one important sense, that “completed button” has been pressed for us. Jesus’s death did for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves: He made us acceptable in God’s eyes when we place our faith in Him. It is finished, as Jesus Himself said (John 19:30). Paradoxically, even though His sacrifice is complete and total, we spend the rest of our lives living into that spiritual reality—“being made holy,” as Hebrews’ author writes.
The fact that Jesus has finished something that’s still being worked out in our lives is hard to understand. When I’m struggling spiritually, it’s encouraging to remember that Jesus’s sacrifice for me—and for you—is complete . . . even if our living it out in this life is still a work in progress. Nothing can stop His intended end from being achieved eventually: being transformed into His likeness (see 2 Corinthians 3:18).
Jesus, thank You for giving Your life for us. Help us trust You as we grow into followers whose lives look more and more like Yours, knowing that You are the one who makes us complete.
God is at work to make us who He intends us to be.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, August 20, 2018
Christ-Awareness
…and I will give you rest. —Matthew 11:28
Whenever anything begins to disintegrate your life with Jesus Christ, turn to Him at once, asking Him to re-establish your rest. Never allow anything to remain in your life that is causing the unrest. Think of every detail of your life that is causing the disintegration as something to fight against, not as something you should allow to remain. Ask the Lord to put awareness of Himself in you, and your self-awareness will disappear. Then He will be your all in all. Beware of allowing your self-awareness to continue, because slowly but surely it will awaken self-pity, and self-pity is satanic. Don’t allow yourself to say, “Well, they have just misunderstood me, and this is something over which they should be apologizing to me; I’m sure I must have this cleared up with them already.” Learn to leave others alone regarding this. Simply ask the Lord to give you Christ-awareness, and He will steady you until your completeness in Him is absolute.
A complete life is the life of a child. When I am fully conscious of my awareness of Christ, there is something wrong. It is the sick person who really knows what health is. A child of God is not aware of the will of God because he is the will of God. When we have deviated even slightly from the will of God, we begin to ask, “Lord, what is your will?” A child of God never prays to be made aware of the fact that God answers prayer, because he is so restfully certain that God always answers prayer.
If we try to overcome our self-awareness through any of our own commonsense methods, we will only serve to strengthen our self-awareness tremendously. Jesus says, “Come to Me…and I will give you rest,” that is, Christ-awareness will take the place of self-awareness. Wherever Jesus comes He establishes rest— the rest of the completion of activity in our lives that is never aware of itself.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
God engineers circumstances to see what we will do. Will we be the children of our Father in heaven, or will we go back again to the meaner, common-sense attitude? Will we stake all and stand true to Him? “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” The crown of life means I shall see that my Lord has got the victory after all, even in me. The Highest Good—The Pilgrim’s Song Book, 530 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, August 20, 2018
Spiritually Cross-Eyed - #8246
And now once again it's time for another of my science guy experiments. Let's say I'm looking at this beautiful scene on a calendar. It's a picture of snow-capped mountains in the background with stately evergreen trees in the foreground and a azure-blue sky. In the upper left-hand corner, an eagle is soaring majestically over the trees. I love eagles, so I decide that's the thing in the picture that most catches my attention. In fact, forget the rest of the picture, I'll just take a closer look at the eagle. So I bring him closer to my eyes and closer and now my nose is touching the calendar. I am totally focused on the eagle and I am suddenly cross-eyed!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Spiritually Cross-Eyed.”
It's an interesting phenomenon. When you get too focused on one part, too close to one part of a bigger picture, things start to get distorted. That's not only true of physical vision. No, it happens to people spiritually, too.
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Corinthians 1:10. It says, "I appeal to you, brothers, that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.” How did they become divided? He says, "There are quarrels among you. One of you says, 'I follow Paul'; another 'I follow Apollos'; another, 'I follow Cephas'; still another, 'I follow Christ.'” Well, these people had gotten really focused on the teaching of one particular leader and they'd forgotten the big picture of the whole body of Christ. And they were dividing into separate camps, seeing each other as theological adversaries, instead of brothers and sisters who will be together forever.
Paul tries to bring them back to the big picture that unites God's people and away from this narrow focus that divides God's people. He says, "Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you?” Later he will remind them and us, "The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.”(1 Corinthians 12:12)
When believers get fixated on their particular group, or their particular theological distinctive, or their spiritual hobbyhorse, their vision gets distorted. When you get too close to, too focused on one part of the Christian faith, you start to become spiritually cross-eyed. And we tend to become a little arrogant about our particular viewpoint, a little judgmental of those who don't see it our way. And sometimes you become the center of dissension and division, which puts you on God's hate list in Proverbs 6, "There are six things the Lord hates,” and it starts with "a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.” Wow!
There are many wonderful truths in God's Word, all of which are meant to be rounded out by other truths in God's Word. When we move in real close to one truth, we almost always become lopsided and even divisive. The gifts of the Spirit are a wonderful part of the Christian experience, but just focus on that and you'll start to become spiritually cross-eyed. The same thing can happen when you become fixated on God's predestination in our salvation, or on man's choice; or on one particular view of baptism, or prophecy, or one particular sin or behavior, or one group's distinctives. You can become too focused on the analytical side of the Christian life and miss the experience part; or you can become too focused on the experience side and miss the solid study of God's Word.
We need each other no matter how noble the truth, or it can become distorted and divisive because that's all we focus on. The body of Jesus has been broken enough. He doesn't need for us to break it more with doctrine wars or theological crusades over one part of God's infinite truth.
Those who divide God's people are probably too close to one part. They got spiritually cross-eyed. Those who are agents of love and unity about God's people are those who stand back and appreciate the big picture with all its color, all its diversity, and all the panorama of the whole truth of God.
As a child of God, “this resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant…greeting God with a childlike, ‘What’s next, Papa?’ God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get an unbelievable inheritance!” (Romans 8:15-17 MSG).
God says, “Hey, Lucado. You are an heir to the joy of Christ. Why not ask Jesus to help you?” “And you, Mr. Without-a-Clue. Aren’t you an heir to God’s storehouse of wisdom?” “Mrs. Worrywart, Why do you let fears steal your sleep? Are you not a beneficiary of God’s trust fund?” Approach God’s throne not as an interloper but as a child of the living and loving God! Because God’s promises are unbreakable, our hope is unshakable.
Read more Unshakable Hope
Deuteronomy 25
When men have a legal dispute, let them go to court; the judges will decide between them, declaring one innocent and the other guilty. If the guilty one deserves punishment, the judge will have him prostrate himself before him and lashed as many times as his crime deserves, but not more than forty. If you hit him more than forty times, you will degrade him to something less than human.
4 Don’t muzzle an ox while it is threshing.
5-6 When brothers are living together and one of them dies without having had a son, the widow of the dead brother shall not marry a stranger from outside the family; her husband’s brother is to come to her and marry her and do the brother-in-law’s duty by her. The first son that she bears shall be named after her dead husband so his name won’t die out in Israel.
7-10 But if the brother doesn’t want to marry his sister-in-law, she is to go to the leaders at the city gate and say, “My brother-in-law refuses to keep his brother’s name alive in Israel; he won’t agree to do the brother-in-law’s duty by me.” Then the leaders will call for the brother and confront him. If he stands there defiant and says, “I don’t want her,” his sister-in-law is to pull his sandal off his foot, spit in his face, and say, “This is what happens to the man who refuses to build up the family of his brother—his name in Israel will be Family-No-Sandal.”
11-12 When two men are in a fight and the wife of the one man, trying to rescue her husband, grabs the genitals of the man hitting him, you are to cut off her hand. Show no pity.
13-16 Don’t carry around with you two weights, one heavy and the other light, and don’t keep two measures at hand, one large and the other small. Use only one weight, a true and honest weight, and one measure, a true and honest measure, so that you will live a long time on the land that God, your God, is giving you. Dishonest weights and measures are an abomination to God, your God—all this corruption in business deals!
17-19 Don’t forget what Amalek did to you on the road after you left Egypt, how he attacked you when you were tired, barely able to put one foot in front of another, mercilessly cut off your stragglers, and had no regard for God. When God, your God, gives you rest from all the enemies that surround you in the inheritance-land God, your God, is giving you to possess, you are to wipe the name of Amalek from off the Earth. Don’t forget!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, August 20, 2018
Read: Hebrews 10:5–14
Consequently, when Christ[a] came into the world, he said,
“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
but a body have you prepared for me;
6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings
you have taken no pleasure.
7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,
as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”
8 When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), 9 then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. 10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ[b] had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
Footnotes:
Hebrews 10:5 Greek he
Hebrews 10:12 Greek this one
INSIGHT
The words “It’s finished!” can mean different things to different people. For the student, they might mean, “I’m finally graduating!” For the Jewish leaders at the time of Jesus, these words could mean they had succeeded in killing Jesus (John 11:53). For the Roman soldiers, it could describe the death penalty they had successfully carried out (19:16–18). For the disciples, these words could mean that their hopes of the Messiah delivering them from Roman bondage were dashed (Luke 24:19–21). But when Jesus uttered, “It is finished” (John 19:30), He was declaring He had completed the work the Father gave Him to do (17:4)—to be “an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
For more about the death and resurrection of Jesus, check out our free online course at christianuniversity.org/CA206. - K. T. Sim
In Progress or Completed?
By Adam Holz
For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. Hebrews 10:14
It’s satisfying to finish a job. Each month, for instance, one of my job responsibilities gets moved from one category to another, from “In Progress” to “Completed.” I love clicking that “Completed” button. But last month when I clicked it, I thought, If only I could overcome rough spots in my faith so easily! It can seem like the Christian life is always in progress, never completed.
Then I remembered Hebrews 10:14. It describes how Christ’s sacrifice redeems us totally. So in one important sense, that “completed button” has been pressed for us. Jesus’s death did for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves: He made us acceptable in God’s eyes when we place our faith in Him. It is finished, as Jesus Himself said (John 19:30). Paradoxically, even though His sacrifice is complete and total, we spend the rest of our lives living into that spiritual reality—“being made holy,” as Hebrews’ author writes.
The fact that Jesus has finished something that’s still being worked out in our lives is hard to understand. When I’m struggling spiritually, it’s encouraging to remember that Jesus’s sacrifice for me—and for you—is complete . . . even if our living it out in this life is still a work in progress. Nothing can stop His intended end from being achieved eventually: being transformed into His likeness (see 2 Corinthians 3:18).
Jesus, thank You for giving Your life for us. Help us trust You as we grow into followers whose lives look more and more like Yours, knowing that You are the one who makes us complete.
God is at work to make us who He intends us to be.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, August 20, 2018
Christ-Awareness
…and I will give you rest. —Matthew 11:28
Whenever anything begins to disintegrate your life with Jesus Christ, turn to Him at once, asking Him to re-establish your rest. Never allow anything to remain in your life that is causing the unrest. Think of every detail of your life that is causing the disintegration as something to fight against, not as something you should allow to remain. Ask the Lord to put awareness of Himself in you, and your self-awareness will disappear. Then He will be your all in all. Beware of allowing your self-awareness to continue, because slowly but surely it will awaken self-pity, and self-pity is satanic. Don’t allow yourself to say, “Well, they have just misunderstood me, and this is something over which they should be apologizing to me; I’m sure I must have this cleared up with them already.” Learn to leave others alone regarding this. Simply ask the Lord to give you Christ-awareness, and He will steady you until your completeness in Him is absolute.
A complete life is the life of a child. When I am fully conscious of my awareness of Christ, there is something wrong. It is the sick person who really knows what health is. A child of God is not aware of the will of God because he is the will of God. When we have deviated even slightly from the will of God, we begin to ask, “Lord, what is your will?” A child of God never prays to be made aware of the fact that God answers prayer, because he is so restfully certain that God always answers prayer.
If we try to overcome our self-awareness through any of our own commonsense methods, we will only serve to strengthen our self-awareness tremendously. Jesus says, “Come to Me…and I will give you rest,” that is, Christ-awareness will take the place of self-awareness. Wherever Jesus comes He establishes rest— the rest of the completion of activity in our lives that is never aware of itself.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
God engineers circumstances to see what we will do. Will we be the children of our Father in heaven, or will we go back again to the meaner, common-sense attitude? Will we stake all and stand true to Him? “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” The crown of life means I shall see that my Lord has got the victory after all, even in me. The Highest Good—The Pilgrim’s Song Book, 530 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, August 20, 2018
Spiritually Cross-Eyed - #8246
And now once again it's time for another of my science guy experiments. Let's say I'm looking at this beautiful scene on a calendar. It's a picture of snow-capped mountains in the background with stately evergreen trees in the foreground and a azure-blue sky. In the upper left-hand corner, an eagle is soaring majestically over the trees. I love eagles, so I decide that's the thing in the picture that most catches my attention. In fact, forget the rest of the picture, I'll just take a closer look at the eagle. So I bring him closer to my eyes and closer and now my nose is touching the calendar. I am totally focused on the eagle and I am suddenly cross-eyed!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Spiritually Cross-Eyed.”
It's an interesting phenomenon. When you get too focused on one part, too close to one part of a bigger picture, things start to get distorted. That's not only true of physical vision. No, it happens to people spiritually, too.
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Corinthians 1:10. It says, "I appeal to you, brothers, that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.” How did they become divided? He says, "There are quarrels among you. One of you says, 'I follow Paul'; another 'I follow Apollos'; another, 'I follow Cephas'; still another, 'I follow Christ.'” Well, these people had gotten really focused on the teaching of one particular leader and they'd forgotten the big picture of the whole body of Christ. And they were dividing into separate camps, seeing each other as theological adversaries, instead of brothers and sisters who will be together forever.
Paul tries to bring them back to the big picture that unites God's people and away from this narrow focus that divides God's people. He says, "Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you?” Later he will remind them and us, "The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.”(1 Corinthians 12:12)
When believers get fixated on their particular group, or their particular theological distinctive, or their spiritual hobbyhorse, their vision gets distorted. When you get too close to, too focused on one part of the Christian faith, you start to become spiritually cross-eyed. And we tend to become a little arrogant about our particular viewpoint, a little judgmental of those who don't see it our way. And sometimes you become the center of dissension and division, which puts you on God's hate list in Proverbs 6, "There are six things the Lord hates,” and it starts with "a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.” Wow!
There are many wonderful truths in God's Word, all of which are meant to be rounded out by other truths in God's Word. When we move in real close to one truth, we almost always become lopsided and even divisive. The gifts of the Spirit are a wonderful part of the Christian experience, but just focus on that and you'll start to become spiritually cross-eyed. The same thing can happen when you become fixated on God's predestination in our salvation, or on man's choice; or on one particular view of baptism, or prophecy, or one particular sin or behavior, or one group's distinctives. You can become too focused on the analytical side of the Christian life and miss the experience part; or you can become too focused on the experience side and miss the solid study of God's Word.
We need each other no matter how noble the truth, or it can become distorted and divisive because that's all we focus on. The body of Jesus has been broken enough. He doesn't need for us to break it more with doctrine wars or theological crusades over one part of God's infinite truth.
Those who divide God's people are probably too close to one part. They got spiritually cross-eyed. Those who are agents of love and unity about God's people are those who stand back and appreciate the big picture with all its color, all its diversity, and all the panorama of the whole truth of God.
Sunday, August 19, 2018
Deuteronomy 24, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Lists
Everyone likes a list. Lists are reassuring. They comfort us. To list is to understand, solve, and even control. Moses brought a list down from the mountain. There are lists of the gifts of the Spirit. Lists of good fruit and bad. I've compiled a list of some God-given, time-tested truths that define the way to navigate life. May I share it with you?
" When no one is watching, live as if someone is.
" Succeed at home first.
" Pray twice as much as you fret.
" Listen twice as much as you speak.
" God has forgiven you; you'd be wise to do the same.
" Once a week, let a child take you on a walk.
" Only harbor a grudge when God does.
" Never let the important be the victim of the trivial.
Those are just a few ideas on my list. Why don't you compile your own?
From In the Eye of the Storm
Deuteronomy 24
If a man marries a woman and then it happens that he no longer likes her because he has found something wrong with her, he may give her divorce papers, put them in her hand, and send her off. After she leaves, if she becomes another man’s wife and he also comes to hate her and this second husband also gives her divorce papers, puts them in her hand, and sends her off, or if he should die, then the first husband who divorced her can’t marry her again. She has made herself ritually unclean, and her remarriage would be an abomination in the Presence of God and defile the land with sin, this land that God, your God, is giving you as an inheritance.
5 When a man takes a new wife, he is not to go out with the army or be given any business or work duties. He gets one year off simply to be at home making his wife happy.
6 Don’t seize a handmill or an upper millstone as collateral for a loan. You’d be seizing someone’s very life.
7 If a man is caught kidnapping one of his kinsmen, someone of the People of Israel, to enslave or sell him, the kidnapper must die. Purge that evil from among you.
8-9 Warning! If a serious skin disease breaks out, follow exactly the rules set down by the Levitical priests. Follow them precisely as I commanded them. Don’t forget what God, your God, did to Miriam on your way out of Egypt.
10-13 When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, don’t enter his house to claim his pledge. Wait outside. Let the man to whom you made the pledge bring the pledge to you outside. And if he is destitute, don’t use his cloak as a bedroll; return it to him at nightfall so that he can sleep in his cloak and bless you. In the sight of God, your God, that will be viewed as a righteous act.
14-15 Don’t abuse a laborer who is destitute and needy, whether he is a fellow Israelite living in your land and in your city. Pay him at the end of each workday; he’s living from hand to mouth and needs it now. If you hold back his pay, he’ll protest to God and you’ll have sin on your books.
16 Parents shall not be put to death for their children, nor children for their parents. Each person shall be put to death for his own sin.
17-18 Make sure foreigners and orphans get their just rights. Don’t take the cloak of a widow as security for a loan. Don’t ever forget that you were once slaves in Egypt and God, your God, got you out of there. I command you: Do what I’m telling you.
19-22 When you harvest your grain and forget a sheaf back in the field, don’t go back and get it; leave it for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow so that God, your God, will bless you in all your work. When you shake the olives off your trees, don’t go back over the branches and strip them bare—what’s left is for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow. And when you cut the grapes in your vineyard, don’t take every last grape—leave a few for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow. Don’t ever forget that you were a slave in Egypt. I command you: Do what I’m telling you.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, August 19, 2018
Read: Psalm 104:24–34
O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom have you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
25 Here is the sea, great and wide,
which teems with creatures innumerable,
living things both small and great.
26 There go the ships,
and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it.[a]
27 These all look to you,
to give them their food in due season.
28 When you give it to them, they gather it up;
when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
29 When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
when you take away their breath, they die
and return to their dust.
30 When you send forth your Spirit,[b] they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground.
31 May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
may the Lord rejoice in his works,
32 who looks on the earth and it trembles,
who touches the mountains and they smoke!
33 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
34 May my meditation be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the Lord.
Footnotes:
Psalm 104:26 Or you formed to play with
Psalm 104:30 Or breath
INSIGHT
This remarkable psalm is like an orchestra proclaiming the different sights and sounds of creation. Land and sea; sky and clouds; animal and plant life; light and darkness all point to the ultimate reality of God. It’s easy for the reader to be reminded of the Genesis account of creation that describes the glory of God (Genesis 1–2). Psalm 104 doesn’t read like an objective and dispassionate record of what we see in nature, however. Instead, the psalmist finds in all of creation a marvelous symphony that exalts the Creator. Creation is the signpost pointing to the majesty of God: “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made” (Romans 1:20).
Be on the lookout today for something in creation for which you can express praise to God. - Dennis Fisher
Marvelous Maker
By Xochitl Dixon
How many are your works, Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. Psalm 104:24
As an amateur photographer, I enjoy capturing glimpses of God’s creativity with my camera. I see His fingerprints on each delicate flower petal, each vibrant sunrise and sunset, and each cloud-painted and star-speckled sky canvas.
My camera’s powerful zoom option allows me to take photos of the Lord’s creatures too. I’ve snapped shots of a chattering squirrel in a cherry blossom tree, a colorful butterfly flitting from bloom to bloom, and sea turtles sunning on a rocky, black beach. Each one-of-a-kind image prompted me to worship my marvelous Maker.
I’m not the first of God’s people to praise Him while admiring His unique creations. The writer of Psalm 104 sings of the Lord’s many works of art in nature (v. 24). He regards “the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number” (v. 25) and rejoices in God for providing constant and complete care for His masterpieces (vv. 27–31). Considering the majesty of the God-given life around him, the psalmist bursts with worshipful gratitude: “I will sing to the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live” (v. 33).
While reflecting on the Lord’s magnificent and immense creation, we can look closely at His intentional creativity and attention to detail. And like the psalmist, we can sing to our Creator with thankful praise for how powerful, majestic, and loving He is and always will be. Hallelujah!
Share your favorite photo of God’s creation at Facebook.com/ourdailybread.
God’s works are marvelous, and so is He.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, August 19, 2018
Self-Awareness
Come to Me… —Matthew 11:28
God intends for us to live a well-rounded life in Christ Jesus, but there are times when that life is attacked from the outside. Then we tend to fall back into self-examination, a habit that we thought was gone. Self-awareness is the first thing that will upset the completeness of our life in God, and self-awareness continually produces a sense of struggling and turmoil in our lives. Self-awareness is not sin, and it can be produced by nervous emotions or by suddenly being dropped into a totally new set of circumstances. Yet it is never God’s will that we should be anything less than absolutely complete in Him. Anything that disturbs our rest in Him must be rectified at once, and it is not rectified by being ignored but only by coming to Jesus Christ. If we will come to Him, asking Him to produce Christ-awareness in us, He will always do it, until we fully learn to abide in Him.
Never allow anything that divides or destroys the oneness of your life with Christ to remain in your life without facing it. Beware of allowing the influence of your friends or your circumstances to divide your life. This only serves to sap your strength and slow your spiritual growth. Beware of anything that can split your oneness with Him, causing you to see yourself as separate from Him. Nothing is as important as staying right spiritually. And the only solution is a very simple one— “Come to Me….” The intellectual, moral, and spiritual depth of our reality as a person is tested and measured by these words. Yet in every detail of our lives where we are found not to be real, we would rather dispute the findings than come to Jesus.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
I have no right to say I believe in God unless I order my life as under His all-seeing Eye. Disciples Indeed, 385 L
Everyone likes a list. Lists are reassuring. They comfort us. To list is to understand, solve, and even control. Moses brought a list down from the mountain. There are lists of the gifts of the Spirit. Lists of good fruit and bad. I've compiled a list of some God-given, time-tested truths that define the way to navigate life. May I share it with you?
" When no one is watching, live as if someone is.
" Succeed at home first.
" Pray twice as much as you fret.
" Listen twice as much as you speak.
" God has forgiven you; you'd be wise to do the same.
" Once a week, let a child take you on a walk.
" Only harbor a grudge when God does.
" Never let the important be the victim of the trivial.
Those are just a few ideas on my list. Why don't you compile your own?
From In the Eye of the Storm
Deuteronomy 24
If a man marries a woman and then it happens that he no longer likes her because he has found something wrong with her, he may give her divorce papers, put them in her hand, and send her off. After she leaves, if she becomes another man’s wife and he also comes to hate her and this second husband also gives her divorce papers, puts them in her hand, and sends her off, or if he should die, then the first husband who divorced her can’t marry her again. She has made herself ritually unclean, and her remarriage would be an abomination in the Presence of God and defile the land with sin, this land that God, your God, is giving you as an inheritance.
5 When a man takes a new wife, he is not to go out with the army or be given any business or work duties. He gets one year off simply to be at home making his wife happy.
6 Don’t seize a handmill or an upper millstone as collateral for a loan. You’d be seizing someone’s very life.
7 If a man is caught kidnapping one of his kinsmen, someone of the People of Israel, to enslave or sell him, the kidnapper must die. Purge that evil from among you.
8-9 Warning! If a serious skin disease breaks out, follow exactly the rules set down by the Levitical priests. Follow them precisely as I commanded them. Don’t forget what God, your God, did to Miriam on your way out of Egypt.
10-13 When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, don’t enter his house to claim his pledge. Wait outside. Let the man to whom you made the pledge bring the pledge to you outside. And if he is destitute, don’t use his cloak as a bedroll; return it to him at nightfall so that he can sleep in his cloak and bless you. In the sight of God, your God, that will be viewed as a righteous act.
14-15 Don’t abuse a laborer who is destitute and needy, whether he is a fellow Israelite living in your land and in your city. Pay him at the end of each workday; he’s living from hand to mouth and needs it now. If you hold back his pay, he’ll protest to God and you’ll have sin on your books.
16 Parents shall not be put to death for their children, nor children for their parents. Each person shall be put to death for his own sin.
17-18 Make sure foreigners and orphans get their just rights. Don’t take the cloak of a widow as security for a loan. Don’t ever forget that you were once slaves in Egypt and God, your God, got you out of there. I command you: Do what I’m telling you.
19-22 When you harvest your grain and forget a sheaf back in the field, don’t go back and get it; leave it for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow so that God, your God, will bless you in all your work. When you shake the olives off your trees, don’t go back over the branches and strip them bare—what’s left is for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow. And when you cut the grapes in your vineyard, don’t take every last grape—leave a few for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow. Don’t ever forget that you were a slave in Egypt. I command you: Do what I’m telling you.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, August 19, 2018
Read: Psalm 104:24–34
O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom have you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
25 Here is the sea, great and wide,
which teems with creatures innumerable,
living things both small and great.
26 There go the ships,
and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it.[a]
27 These all look to you,
to give them their food in due season.
28 When you give it to them, they gather it up;
when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
29 When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
when you take away their breath, they die
and return to their dust.
30 When you send forth your Spirit,[b] they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground.
31 May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
may the Lord rejoice in his works,
32 who looks on the earth and it trembles,
who touches the mountains and they smoke!
33 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
34 May my meditation be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the Lord.
Footnotes:
Psalm 104:26 Or you formed to play with
Psalm 104:30 Or breath
INSIGHT
This remarkable psalm is like an orchestra proclaiming the different sights and sounds of creation. Land and sea; sky and clouds; animal and plant life; light and darkness all point to the ultimate reality of God. It’s easy for the reader to be reminded of the Genesis account of creation that describes the glory of God (Genesis 1–2). Psalm 104 doesn’t read like an objective and dispassionate record of what we see in nature, however. Instead, the psalmist finds in all of creation a marvelous symphony that exalts the Creator. Creation is the signpost pointing to the majesty of God: “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made” (Romans 1:20).
Be on the lookout today for something in creation for which you can express praise to God. - Dennis Fisher
Marvelous Maker
By Xochitl Dixon
How many are your works, Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. Psalm 104:24
As an amateur photographer, I enjoy capturing glimpses of God’s creativity with my camera. I see His fingerprints on each delicate flower petal, each vibrant sunrise and sunset, and each cloud-painted and star-speckled sky canvas.
My camera’s powerful zoom option allows me to take photos of the Lord’s creatures too. I’ve snapped shots of a chattering squirrel in a cherry blossom tree, a colorful butterfly flitting from bloom to bloom, and sea turtles sunning on a rocky, black beach. Each one-of-a-kind image prompted me to worship my marvelous Maker.
I’m not the first of God’s people to praise Him while admiring His unique creations. The writer of Psalm 104 sings of the Lord’s many works of art in nature (v. 24). He regards “the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number” (v. 25) and rejoices in God for providing constant and complete care for His masterpieces (vv. 27–31). Considering the majesty of the God-given life around him, the psalmist bursts with worshipful gratitude: “I will sing to the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live” (v. 33).
While reflecting on the Lord’s magnificent and immense creation, we can look closely at His intentional creativity and attention to detail. And like the psalmist, we can sing to our Creator with thankful praise for how powerful, majestic, and loving He is and always will be. Hallelujah!
Share your favorite photo of God’s creation at Facebook.com/ourdailybread.
God’s works are marvelous, and so is He.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, August 19, 2018
Self-Awareness
Come to Me… —Matthew 11:28
God intends for us to live a well-rounded life in Christ Jesus, but there are times when that life is attacked from the outside. Then we tend to fall back into self-examination, a habit that we thought was gone. Self-awareness is the first thing that will upset the completeness of our life in God, and self-awareness continually produces a sense of struggling and turmoil in our lives. Self-awareness is not sin, and it can be produced by nervous emotions or by suddenly being dropped into a totally new set of circumstances. Yet it is never God’s will that we should be anything less than absolutely complete in Him. Anything that disturbs our rest in Him must be rectified at once, and it is not rectified by being ignored but only by coming to Jesus Christ. If we will come to Him, asking Him to produce Christ-awareness in us, He will always do it, until we fully learn to abide in Him.
Never allow anything that divides or destroys the oneness of your life with Christ to remain in your life without facing it. Beware of allowing the influence of your friends or your circumstances to divide your life. This only serves to sap your strength and slow your spiritual growth. Beware of anything that can split your oneness with Him, causing you to see yourself as separate from Him. Nothing is as important as staying right spiritually. And the only solution is a very simple one— “Come to Me….” The intellectual, moral, and spiritual depth of our reality as a person is tested and measured by these words. Yet in every detail of our lives where we are found not to be real, we would rather dispute the findings than come to Jesus.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
I have no right to say I believe in God unless I order my life as under His all-seeing Eye. Disciples Indeed, 385 L
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