Max Lucado Daily: HE WILL MAKE ALL THINGS NEW
Make 2 Peter 3:13 one of the building blocks in your foundation. It reads, “In keeping with God’s promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.” God has promised to reclaim his creation. He is a God of restoration, not destruction. He is a God of renewal, redemption, regeneration, and resurrection. God loves to redo and restore.
“I am making everything new!” he announced in Revelation 21:5. Everything new. The old will be gone. Gone with the hospital waiting rooms. Gone with cancer. God will lay hold of every atom, emotion, insect, animal, and galaxy. He will reclaim every diseased body and afflicted mind. I am making all things new! This is God’s promise. And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!
Read more Unshakable Hope
Joshua 7
Achan
Then the People of Israel violated the holy curse. Achan son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah, took some of the cursed things. God became angry with the People of Israel.
2 Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai (The Ruin), which is near Beth Aven just east of Bethel. He instructed them, “Go up and spy out the land.” The men went up and spied out Ai.
3 They returned to Joshua and reported, “Don’t bother sending a lot of people—two or three thousand men are enough to defeat Ai. Don’t wear out the whole army; there aren’t that many people there.”
4-5 So three thousand men went up—and then fled in defeat before the men of Ai! The men of Ai killed thirty-six—chased them from the city gate as far as The Quarries, killing them at the descent. The heart of the people sank, all spirit knocked out of them.
6 Joshua ripped his clothes and fell on his face to the ground before the Chest of God, he and the leaders throwing dirt on their heads, prostrate until evening.
7-9 Joshua said, “Oh, oh, oh . . . Master, God. Why did you insist on bringing this people across the Jordan? To make us victims of the Amorites? To wipe us out? Why didn’t we just settle down on the east side of the Jordan? Oh, Master, what can I say after this, after Israel has been run off by its enemies? When the Canaanites and all the others living here get wind of this, they’ll gang up on us and make short work of us—and then how will you keep up your reputation?”
10-12 God said to Joshua, “Get up. Why are you groveling? Israel has sinned: They’ve broken the covenant I commanded them; they’ve taken forbidden plunder—stolen and then covered up the theft, squirreling it away with their own stuff. The People of Israel can no longer look their enemies in the eye—they themselves are plunder. I can’t continue with you if you don’t rid yourselves of the cursed things.
13 “So get started. Purify the people. Tell them: Get ready for tomorrow by purifying yourselves. For this is what God, the God of Israel, says: There are cursed things in the camp. You won’t be able to face your enemies until you have gotten rid of these cursed things.
14-15 “First thing in the morning you will be called up by tribes. The tribe God names will come up clan by clan; the clan God names will come up family by family; and the family God names will come up man by man. The person found with the cursed things will be burned, he and everything he has, because he broke God’s covenant and did this despicable thing in Israel.”
16-18 Joshua was up at the crack of dawn and called Israel up tribe by tribe. The tribe of Judah was singled out. Then he called up the clans and singled out the Zerahites. He called up the Zerahite families and singled out the Zabdi family. He called up the family members one by one and singled out Achan son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah.
19 Joshua spoke to Achan, “My son, give glory to God, the God of Israel. Make your confession to him. Tell me what you did. Don’t keep back anything from me.”
20-21 Achan answered Joshua, “It’s true. I sinned against God, the God of Israel. This is how I did it. In the plunder I spotted a beautiful Shinar robe, two hundred shekels of silver, and a fifty-shekel bar of gold, and I coveted and took them. They are buried in my tent with the silver at the bottom.”
22-23 Joshua sent off messengers. They ran to the tent. And there it was, buried in the tent with the silver at the bottom. They took the stuff from the tent and brought it to Joshua and to all the People of Israel and spread it out before God.
24 Joshua took Achan son of Zerah, took the silver, the robe, the gold bar, his sons and daughters, his ox, donkey, sheep, and tent—everything connected with him. All Israel was there. They led them off to the Valley of Achor (Trouble Valley).
25-26 Joshua said, “Why have you troubled us? God will now trouble you. Today!” And all Israel stoned him—burned him with fire and stoned him with stones. They piled a huge pile of stones over him. It’s still there. Only then did God turn from his hot anger. That’s how the place came to be called Trouble Valley right up to the present time.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, September 12, 2018
Read: Proverbs 15:9–21
The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord,
but he loves him who pursues righteousness.
10 There is severe discipline for him who forsakes the way;
whoever hates reproof will die.
11 Sheol and Abaddon lie open before the Lord;
how much more the hearts of the children of man!
12 A scoffer does not like to be reproved;
he will not go to the wise.
13 A glad heart makes a cheerful face,
but by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed.
14 The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge,
but the mouths of fools feed on folly.
15 All the days of the afflicted are evil,
but the cheerful of heart has a continual feast.
16 Better is a little with the fear of the Lord
than great treasure and trouble with it.
17 Better is a dinner of herbs where love is
than a fattened ox and hatred with it.
18 A hot-tempered man stirs up strife,
but he who is slow to anger quiets contention.
19 The way of a sluggard is like a hedge of thorns,
but the path of the upright is a level highway.
20 A wise son makes a glad father,
but a foolish man despises his mother.
21 Folly is a joy to him who lacks sense,
but a man of understanding walks straight ahead.
INSIGHT
Much of the book of Proverbs is comprised of pithy observations on how to live life well. For example, we learn about how to handle our anger, how to respond to others with respect, what to do about enemies, and the wisdom of controlling our tongues.
Most of these sayings are written in pairs called couplets. There are three kinds of couplets in Hebrew poetry: synonymous—both lines say essentially the same thing, but the second line restates the first with a different image (see Proverbs 15:10); synthetic—the second line adds to the first, enhancing it and specifying the concept (see Proverbs 15:11); and antithetical—the second line contrasts with the first (see Proverbs 15:1).
The next time you read Proverbs, pay close attention to how the two lines of a proverb go together. They are meant to express one idea. - J.R. Hudberg
Is There Wi-Fi?
By Poh Fang Chia
A wise person is hungry for knowledge, while the fool feeds on trash. Proverbs 15:14 nlt
As I was preparing to go on a mission trip with some young people, the most frequently asked question was, “Is there Wi-Fi?” And I assured them there would be. So just imagine the wails and groans one night when the Wi-Fi was down!
Many of us become anxious when we’re separated from our smartphones. And when we do have our iPhones or Androids in our hands, we can be fixated on our screens.
Like many things, the internet and all that it allows us to access can become either a distraction or a blessing. It depends on what we do with it. In Proverbs we read, “A wise person is hungry for knowledge, while the fool feeds on trash” (15:14 nlt).
Applying the wisdom of God’s Word to life, we can ask ourselves: Do we check our social networks compulsively throughout the day? What does that say about the things we hunger for? And do the things we read or view online encourage sensible living (vv. 16–21), or are we feeding on trash—gossip, slander, materialism, or sexual impurity?
As we yield to the work of the Holy Spirit, we can fill our minds with things that are “true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable” (Philippians 4:8 nlt). By God’s wisdom we can make good choices that honor Him.
God, help me to use my time well and to fill my mind with what is pure.
Read Being Jesus Online at discoveryseries.org/q0737.
What we let into our minds shapes the state of our souls.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, September 12, 2018
Jesus answered and said, "You do not know what you ask." —Matthew 20:22
There are times in your spiritual life when there is confusion, and the way out of it is not simply to say that you should not be confused. It is not a matter of right and wrong, but a matter of God taking you through a way that you temporarily do not understand. And it is only by going through the spiritual confusion that you will come to the understanding of what God wants for you.
The Shrouding of His Friendship (see Luke 11:5-8). Jesus gave the illustration here of a man who appears not to care for his friend. He was saying, in effect, that is how the heavenly Father will appear to you at times. You will think that He is an unkind friend, but remember— He is not. The time will come when everything will be explained. There seems to be a cloud on the friendship of the heart, and often even love itself has to wait in pain and tears for the blessing of fuller fellowship and oneness. When God appears to be completely shrouded, will you hang on with confidence in Him?
The Shadow on His Fatherhood (see Luke 11:11-13). Jesus said that there are times when your Father will appear as if He were an unnatural father— as if He were callous and indifferent— but remember, He is not. “Everyone who asks receives…” (Luke 11:10). If all you see is a shadow on the face of the Father right now, hang on to the fact that He will ultimately give you clear understanding and will fully justify Himself in everything that He has allowed into your life.
The Strangeness of His Faithfulness (see Luke 18:1-8). “When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). Will He find the kind of faith that counts on Him in spite of the confusion? Stand firm in faith, believing that what Jesus said is true, although in the meantime you do not understand what God is doing. He has bigger issues at stake than the particular things you are asking of Him right now.
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, 1465 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, September 12, 2018
The Deadly Silence - #8263
Jack Phillips was a senior radioman on the maiden voyage of the ill-fated Titanic. On that fatal night when two-thirds of her passengers and crew would die, Phillips actually received a message from a ship called the Masaba. That ship was reporting on a major ice field ahead and the message gave the coordinates where the Titanic could expect to encounter those icebergs. It was the place where just two hours later, the Titanic would, in fact, hit one of those icebergs; the one that would sink what was supposed to be the unsinkable ship. The message with the warning of what was ahead-would you believe it-didn't get delivered. Jack Phillips was really busy at the time - a lot of radio traffic - and he stuck the message on a spindle to be delivered sometime later, and it never was. That one decision would cost the lives of 1,500 people and the life of the radioman himself.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Deadly Silence."
Life-saving information never delivered. That is a tragedy that has been repeated countless times, as followers of Jesus Christ fail to deliver the life-saving message God has given to them. The message of how His Son's death on the cross paid the penalty for our sin and made the way for our sin to be forgiven so we could go to heaven. But if those who know it never tell those who don't, lives are going to be lost forever. That is the deadly silence.
If you belong to Jesus, you may not fully realize the reason you are where you are and the incredibly important role you play in the plans of God and in the eternal destiny of people you know. There's a story in the Bible that wonderfully illustrates your position in the lives of your family, your coworkers, and your neighbors. It's found in 2 Kings 5:1-3, and it's our word for today from the Word of God.
The Bible says: "Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. Naaman was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy." Okay, highly successful, very famous leader suddenly facing something bigger than he is-the fatal disease of leprosy.
The story continues: "Now bands from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, 'If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria (that was Elijah) he would cure him of his leprosy.'" Ultimately, General Naaman acts on that information. His body is healed and he opens his heart to Jehovah God.
Someone close to him knew how he could be saved and she took the risk to point him to the only person who could help. Humanly speaking, she was working there because of something bad that had happened to her; she was captured by enemy soldiers. But she came to understand that she had been divinely positioned where she was to save a life there. So have you. God, not circumstances, has positioned you where you are so you can help save the lives of the people there by pointing them to your Jesus; the only one who can save them.
Like the girl working as a servant in the home of a very important man, it's a risk to tell them how they can be cured of the cancer of sin and how they can live forever. You won't take that risk if you're thinking about yourself. You will take the risk if you realize that the greatest risk of all is that they will die without the information that could have helped them go to heaven with you. We can't be this close to them for so long and never tell them the life-saving information we know.
Pray each day that God will give you natural opportunities to share what you know about Jesus. Ask God to show you how to approach each person, and even ask Him to give you the words to say. He's promised He would. Living a Christlike life in front of them is very important, but it's not enough. They'll never guess that Jesus died for them just cause you're a good person. You'll have to tell them that. You have the message that can save their life. To leave that message undelivered is unthinkable.
Wednesday, September 12, 2018
Tuesday, September 11, 2018
Luke 9:18-36, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: VICTORY OVER DEATH
You’ve never seen yourself at your best. You’ve never known yourself as God intended. But you will! Try to imagine a body with no pain, a mind with no wandering thoughts. Envision yourself as you were meant to be, completely whole. And envision this earth as it was intended to be…completely calm.
Scripture says, “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them” (Isaiah 11:6). The removal of the curse will return God’s people and the universe to their intended states. Satan, the tempter, will be thrown “into the eternal fire.” In that moment “Death is swallowed up in victory” (I Corinthians 15:54). This is God’s promise. And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable.
Read more Unshakable Hope
Luke 9:18-36
Don’t Run from Suffering
18 One time when Jesus was off praying by himself, his disciples nearby, he asked them, “What are the crowds saying about me, about who I am?”
19 They said, “John the Baptizer. Others say Elijah. Still others say that one of the prophets from long ago has come back.”
20-21 He then asked, “And you—what are you saying about me? Who am I?”
Peter answered, “The Messiah of God.” Jesus then warned them to keep it quiet. They were to tell no one what Peter had said.
22 He went on, “It is necessary that the Son of Man proceed to an ordeal of suffering, be tried and found guilty by the religious leaders, high priests, and religion scholars, be killed, and on the third day be raised up alive.”
23-27 Then he told them what they could expect for themselves: “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat—I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? If any of you is embarrassed with me and the way I’m leading you, know that the Son of Man will be far more embarrassed with you when he arrives in all his splendor in company with the Father and the holy angels. This isn’t, you realize, pie in the sky by and by. Some who have taken their stand right here are going to see it happen, see with their own eyes the kingdom of God.”
Jesus in His Glory
28-31 About eight days after saying this, he climbed the mountain to pray, taking Peter, John, and James along. While he was in prayer, the appearance of his face changed and his clothes became blinding white. At once two men were there talking with him. They turned out to be Moses and Elijah—and what a glorious appearance they made! They talked over his exodus, the one Jesus was about to complete in Jerusalem.
32-33 Meanwhile, Peter and those with him were slumped over in sleep. When they came to, rubbing their eyes, they saw Jesus in his glory and the two men standing with him. When Moses and Elijah had left, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, this is a great moment! Let’s build three memorials: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He blurted this out without thinking.
34-35 While he was babbling on like this, a light-radiant cloud enveloped them. As they found themselves buried in the cloud, they became deeply aware of God. Then there was a voice out of the cloud: “This is my Son, the Chosen! Listen to him.”
36 When the sound of the voice died away, they saw Jesus there alone. They were speechless. And they continued speechless, said not one thing to anyone during those days of what they had seen.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, September 11, 2018
Read: Psalm 23:1–6
The Lord Is My Shepherd
A Psalm of David.
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.[a]
3 He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness[b]
for his name's sake.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,[c]
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely[d] goodness and mercy[e] shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell[f] in the house of the Lord
forever.[g]
Footnotes:
Psalm 23:2 Hebrew beside waters of rest
Psalm 23:3 Or in right paths
Psalm 23:4 Or the valley of deep darkness
Psalm 23:6 Or Only
Psalm 23:6 Or steadfast love
Psalm 23:6 Or shall return to dwell
Psalm 23:6 Hebrew for length of days
INSIGHT
Psalm 23 describes God's intimate love for us. We see the same theme in the New Testament. In John 10, Jesus described Himself as the “good shepherd” who lays down His life for the sheep (v. 11). But this is only one facet of His personal, intimate care for the flock. In verse 3 Jesus says, “He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” He calls His sheep “by name”! This is beautifully pictured on resurrection day. Mary Magdalene went to the tomb to mourn Jesus’s death and to complete the burial process (20:1–18). Finding the tomb empty, she wept (v. 11); and the risen Jesus came to her, asking questions that probed her heart. She failed to recognize Jesus—until He called her by name (v. 16). In that moment, she was aware that Christ Himself stood before her. No wonder Jesus said in John 10:27, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” To be loved and known by God is one of salvation’s greatest gifts! - Bill Crowder
He Knows Our Names
By David C. McCasland
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. Isaiah 43:1
During a visit to the National September 11 Memorial in New York City, I quickly photographed one of the twin reflecting pools. Around these two pools, the names of the nearly 3,000 people who died in the World Trade Center attacks are etched into bronze panels. Later, while looking more closely at the photo, my eyes were drawn to the hand of a woman resting on a name. Many people come to this place to touch a name and remember someone they loved.
The prophet Isaiah reminded God’s people of His unfailing love and concern for them, even though they had often turned away from Him. The Lord said, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine” (Isaiah 43:1).
In the 23rd Psalm, David wrote, “Even though I walk through the darkest valley [the valley of the shadow of death], I will fear no evil, for you are with me . . . . Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (vv. 4, 6).
God never forgets us. No matter where we are or whatever our situation, He knows our names and holds us fast in His unfailing love.
Father in heaven, thank You for calling us by name and surrounding us with Your love, today and forever.
God knows our names and He holds us fast in His love.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, September 11, 2018
Missionary Weapons (2)
If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. —John 13:14
Ministering in Everyday Opportunities. Ministering in everyday opportunities that surround us does not mean that we select our own surroundings— it means being God’s very special choice to be available for use in any of the seemingly random surroundings which He has engineered for us. The very character we exhibit in our present surroundings is an indication of what we will be like in other surroundings.
The things Jesus did were the most menial of everyday tasks, and this is an indication that it takes all of God’s power in me to accomplish even the most common tasks in His way. Can I use a towel as He did? Towels, dishes, sandals, and all the other ordinary things in our lives reveal what we are made of more quickly than anything else. It takes God Almighty Incarnate in us to do the most menial duty as it ought to be done.
Jesus said, “I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you” (John 13:15). Notice the kind of people that God brings around you, and you will be humiliated once you realize that this is actually His way of revealing to you the kind of person you have been to Him. Now He says we should exhibit to those around us exactly what He has exhibited to us.
Do you find yourself responding by saying, “Oh, I will do all that once I’m out on the mission field”? Talking in this way is like trying to produce the weapons of war while in the trenches of the battlefield— you will be killed while trying to do it.
We have to go the “second mile” with God (see Matthew 5:41). Yet some of us become worn out in the first ten steps. Then we say, “Well, I’ll just wait until I get closer to the next big crisis in my life.” But if we do not steadily minister in everyday opportunities, we will do nothing when the crisis comes.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are all based on a conception of importance, either our own importance, or the importance of someone else; Jesus tells us to go and teach based on the revelation of His importance. “All power is given unto Me.… Go ye therefore ….” So Send I You, 1325 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, September 11, 2018
The Terror-Proof Cross - #8262
Beslan-it's a Russian town that joined the ranks of places known for the terror that happened there. Some have called that three-day terrorist takeover of a school in Beslan, and the violent deaths of hundreds of school children and adults there, Russia's equivalent to America's September 11. In the midst of Beslan's horror, there emerged a photo that embodied hope in the middle of death. It showed a girl's bloodied hand clutching a golden cross. Viktoria was hospitalized with shrapnel in her brain, but she was still a survivor. The fourteen-year-old said that she prayed every day while she was being held captive, always clinging to her cross even after being wounded in the violent ending of that awful siege that killed more than 330 hostages. Even as she lost consciousness, she never let go of the cross. In Viktoria's own words, "I felt that if I had that cross in my hand, then everything would be fine."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Terror-Proof Cross."
In a scary world, an uncertain world, there's nothing better to hang onto than the cross. No, not a piece of jewelry or a religious symbol-there's no power there-but in the substance of what that cross represents. In terms of the only security we can never lose, it's our only hope. You can know about the cross, you can wear the cross, you can worship at a cross, and still not be hanging onto the cross as if it's your only hope. And that's what matters.
To some, the death of Jesus Christ on an old rugged cross is just a historical event. To others, it's an important religious focus. But you'll never have your own personal relationship with God. You'll never enter the gates of heaven until you understand how intensely personal what happened on that cross is for you.
In Colossians 1, beginning with verse 20, our word for today from the Word of God, He shows us the real meaning of what happened that day that nails were driven into the hands and feet of the Son of God and the day He cried, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46) Colossians 1:20 says He was "making peace through His blood, shed on the cross."
Our sin-that's every wrong thing we've ever thought or done-was a declaration of war against the God of the universe. The lifetime unrest that you've felt in your soul is because you've been away from the God you were made for. No peace with God; well, there's no peace in your heart. But Jesus executed a peace treaty between you and God, signed in His blood.
The book of Colossians goes on to say, "He forgave us all our sins...He took it away, nailing it to the cross" (2:13-14). So, you can be clean inside. You can be clean in God's eyes, because when He was nailed to the cross, the guilt of your sins was nailed there, too. When He cried out, "Father, forgive them" (Luke 23:34), He was forgiving you. Now the question is: has there ever been a time in your life when you abandoned all other spiritual hopes, your goodness, your church, your religion, your Christian beliefs or background and you've pinned all your hopes on one thing; what Jesus did on the cross for you? If you don't know you did, you probably didn't.
A young girl clinging tightly to a blood-stained cross. Wow, what a picture of your only true safe place in a dangerous world, anchored to an unloseable love relationship with God because you're hanging onto what Jesus, His Son, did on the cross for you. His love is recession-proof, terror-proof, divorce-proof, and death-proof. And your personal relationship with Him can begin this very day if you'll tell Him, "Lord, I'm yours. I'm placing all my hope in you and your death on the cross for me and your resurrection from the dead. You're alive, and I welcome you into my life this day."
Really that's what our website is all about, to help kind of build a bridge so you can know for sure that you belong to Him. So I urge you to go there. I think it would be worth the visit - ANewStory.com.
See, life's way too uncertain to hang onto anything but the only thing you can never lose, and that would be that nail-scarred hand of Jesus Christ.
You’ve never seen yourself at your best. You’ve never known yourself as God intended. But you will! Try to imagine a body with no pain, a mind with no wandering thoughts. Envision yourself as you were meant to be, completely whole. And envision this earth as it was intended to be…completely calm.
Scripture says, “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them” (Isaiah 11:6). The removal of the curse will return God’s people and the universe to their intended states. Satan, the tempter, will be thrown “into the eternal fire.” In that moment “Death is swallowed up in victory” (I Corinthians 15:54). This is God’s promise. And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable.
Read more Unshakable Hope
Luke 9:18-36
Don’t Run from Suffering
18 One time when Jesus was off praying by himself, his disciples nearby, he asked them, “What are the crowds saying about me, about who I am?”
19 They said, “John the Baptizer. Others say Elijah. Still others say that one of the prophets from long ago has come back.”
20-21 He then asked, “And you—what are you saying about me? Who am I?”
Peter answered, “The Messiah of God.” Jesus then warned them to keep it quiet. They were to tell no one what Peter had said.
22 He went on, “It is necessary that the Son of Man proceed to an ordeal of suffering, be tried and found guilty by the religious leaders, high priests, and religion scholars, be killed, and on the third day be raised up alive.”
23-27 Then he told them what they could expect for themselves: “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat—I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? If any of you is embarrassed with me and the way I’m leading you, know that the Son of Man will be far more embarrassed with you when he arrives in all his splendor in company with the Father and the holy angels. This isn’t, you realize, pie in the sky by and by. Some who have taken their stand right here are going to see it happen, see with their own eyes the kingdom of God.”
Jesus in His Glory
28-31 About eight days after saying this, he climbed the mountain to pray, taking Peter, John, and James along. While he was in prayer, the appearance of his face changed and his clothes became blinding white. At once two men were there talking with him. They turned out to be Moses and Elijah—and what a glorious appearance they made! They talked over his exodus, the one Jesus was about to complete in Jerusalem.
32-33 Meanwhile, Peter and those with him were slumped over in sleep. When they came to, rubbing their eyes, they saw Jesus in his glory and the two men standing with him. When Moses and Elijah had left, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, this is a great moment! Let’s build three memorials: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He blurted this out without thinking.
34-35 While he was babbling on like this, a light-radiant cloud enveloped them. As they found themselves buried in the cloud, they became deeply aware of God. Then there was a voice out of the cloud: “This is my Son, the Chosen! Listen to him.”
36 When the sound of the voice died away, they saw Jesus there alone. They were speechless. And they continued speechless, said not one thing to anyone during those days of what they had seen.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, September 11, 2018
Read: Psalm 23:1–6
The Lord Is My Shepherd
A Psalm of David.
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.[a]
3 He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness[b]
for his name's sake.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,[c]
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely[d] goodness and mercy[e] shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell[f] in the house of the Lord
forever.[g]
Footnotes:
Psalm 23:2 Hebrew beside waters of rest
Psalm 23:3 Or in right paths
Psalm 23:4 Or the valley of deep darkness
Psalm 23:6 Or Only
Psalm 23:6 Or steadfast love
Psalm 23:6 Or shall return to dwell
Psalm 23:6 Hebrew for length of days
INSIGHT
Psalm 23 describes God's intimate love for us. We see the same theme in the New Testament. In John 10, Jesus described Himself as the “good shepherd” who lays down His life for the sheep (v. 11). But this is only one facet of His personal, intimate care for the flock. In verse 3 Jesus says, “He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” He calls His sheep “by name”! This is beautifully pictured on resurrection day. Mary Magdalene went to the tomb to mourn Jesus’s death and to complete the burial process (20:1–18). Finding the tomb empty, she wept (v. 11); and the risen Jesus came to her, asking questions that probed her heart. She failed to recognize Jesus—until He called her by name (v. 16). In that moment, she was aware that Christ Himself stood before her. No wonder Jesus said in John 10:27, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” To be loved and known by God is one of salvation’s greatest gifts! - Bill Crowder
He Knows Our Names
By David C. McCasland
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. Isaiah 43:1
During a visit to the National September 11 Memorial in New York City, I quickly photographed one of the twin reflecting pools. Around these two pools, the names of the nearly 3,000 people who died in the World Trade Center attacks are etched into bronze panels. Later, while looking more closely at the photo, my eyes were drawn to the hand of a woman resting on a name. Many people come to this place to touch a name and remember someone they loved.
The prophet Isaiah reminded God’s people of His unfailing love and concern for them, even though they had often turned away from Him. The Lord said, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine” (Isaiah 43:1).
In the 23rd Psalm, David wrote, “Even though I walk through the darkest valley [the valley of the shadow of death], I will fear no evil, for you are with me . . . . Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (vv. 4, 6).
God never forgets us. No matter where we are or whatever our situation, He knows our names and holds us fast in His unfailing love.
Father in heaven, thank You for calling us by name and surrounding us with Your love, today and forever.
God knows our names and He holds us fast in His love.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, September 11, 2018
Missionary Weapons (2)
If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. —John 13:14
Ministering in Everyday Opportunities. Ministering in everyday opportunities that surround us does not mean that we select our own surroundings— it means being God’s very special choice to be available for use in any of the seemingly random surroundings which He has engineered for us. The very character we exhibit in our present surroundings is an indication of what we will be like in other surroundings.
The things Jesus did were the most menial of everyday tasks, and this is an indication that it takes all of God’s power in me to accomplish even the most common tasks in His way. Can I use a towel as He did? Towels, dishes, sandals, and all the other ordinary things in our lives reveal what we are made of more quickly than anything else. It takes God Almighty Incarnate in us to do the most menial duty as it ought to be done.
Jesus said, “I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you” (John 13:15). Notice the kind of people that God brings around you, and you will be humiliated once you realize that this is actually His way of revealing to you the kind of person you have been to Him. Now He says we should exhibit to those around us exactly what He has exhibited to us.
Do you find yourself responding by saying, “Oh, I will do all that once I’m out on the mission field”? Talking in this way is like trying to produce the weapons of war while in the trenches of the battlefield— you will be killed while trying to do it.
We have to go the “second mile” with God (see Matthew 5:41). Yet some of us become worn out in the first ten steps. Then we say, “Well, I’ll just wait until I get closer to the next big crisis in my life.” But if we do not steadily minister in everyday opportunities, we will do nothing when the crisis comes.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are all based on a conception of importance, either our own importance, or the importance of someone else; Jesus tells us to go and teach based on the revelation of His importance. “All power is given unto Me.… Go ye therefore ….” So Send I You, 1325 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, September 11, 2018
The Terror-Proof Cross - #8262
Beslan-it's a Russian town that joined the ranks of places known for the terror that happened there. Some have called that three-day terrorist takeover of a school in Beslan, and the violent deaths of hundreds of school children and adults there, Russia's equivalent to America's September 11. In the midst of Beslan's horror, there emerged a photo that embodied hope in the middle of death. It showed a girl's bloodied hand clutching a golden cross. Viktoria was hospitalized with shrapnel in her brain, but she was still a survivor. The fourteen-year-old said that she prayed every day while she was being held captive, always clinging to her cross even after being wounded in the violent ending of that awful siege that killed more than 330 hostages. Even as she lost consciousness, she never let go of the cross. In Viktoria's own words, "I felt that if I had that cross in my hand, then everything would be fine."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Terror-Proof Cross."
In a scary world, an uncertain world, there's nothing better to hang onto than the cross. No, not a piece of jewelry or a religious symbol-there's no power there-but in the substance of what that cross represents. In terms of the only security we can never lose, it's our only hope. You can know about the cross, you can wear the cross, you can worship at a cross, and still not be hanging onto the cross as if it's your only hope. And that's what matters.
To some, the death of Jesus Christ on an old rugged cross is just a historical event. To others, it's an important religious focus. But you'll never have your own personal relationship with God. You'll never enter the gates of heaven until you understand how intensely personal what happened on that cross is for you.
In Colossians 1, beginning with verse 20, our word for today from the Word of God, He shows us the real meaning of what happened that day that nails were driven into the hands and feet of the Son of God and the day He cried, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46) Colossians 1:20 says He was "making peace through His blood, shed on the cross."
Our sin-that's every wrong thing we've ever thought or done-was a declaration of war against the God of the universe. The lifetime unrest that you've felt in your soul is because you've been away from the God you were made for. No peace with God; well, there's no peace in your heart. But Jesus executed a peace treaty between you and God, signed in His blood.
The book of Colossians goes on to say, "He forgave us all our sins...He took it away, nailing it to the cross" (2:13-14). So, you can be clean inside. You can be clean in God's eyes, because when He was nailed to the cross, the guilt of your sins was nailed there, too. When He cried out, "Father, forgive them" (Luke 23:34), He was forgiving you. Now the question is: has there ever been a time in your life when you abandoned all other spiritual hopes, your goodness, your church, your religion, your Christian beliefs or background and you've pinned all your hopes on one thing; what Jesus did on the cross for you? If you don't know you did, you probably didn't.
A young girl clinging tightly to a blood-stained cross. Wow, what a picture of your only true safe place in a dangerous world, anchored to an unloseable love relationship with God because you're hanging onto what Jesus, His Son, did on the cross for you. His love is recession-proof, terror-proof, divorce-proof, and death-proof. And your personal relationship with Him can begin this very day if you'll tell Him, "Lord, I'm yours. I'm placing all my hope in you and your death on the cross for me and your resurrection from the dead. You're alive, and I welcome you into my life this day."
Really that's what our website is all about, to help kind of build a bridge so you can know for sure that you belong to Him. So I urge you to go there. I think it would be worth the visit - ANewStory.com.
See, life's way too uncertain to hang onto anything but the only thing you can never lose, and that would be that nail-scarred hand of Jesus Christ.
Monday, September 10, 2018
Joshua 6, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN YOU DIE?
What will happen when you die? Scripture reveals some intriguing assurances! Jesus said to the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). “Today,” Christ promised. No delay. No pause.
The thief closed his eyes on earth and awoke in paradise. The soul of the believer journeys home while the body of the believer awaits the resurrection. Paradise is the first stage of heaven. But it’s not the final version of heaven. The final age will begin when Christ returns on the final day. He who created us will collect us. Scripture says “The LORD who scattered his people, will gather them!” (Jeremiah 31:10). Just as a seed becomes a plant, our fleshly body will become a spiritual body. This is God’s promise to you. And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!
Read more Unshakable Hope
Joshua 6
Jericho
Jericho was shut up tight as a drum because of the People of Israel: no one going in, no one coming out.
2-5 God spoke to Joshua, “Look sharp now. I’ve already given Jericho to you, along with its king and its crack troops. Here’s what you are to do: March around the city, all your soldiers. Circle the city once. Repeat this for six days. Have seven priests carry seven ram’s horn trumpets in front of the Chest. On the seventh day march around the city seven times, the priests blowing away on the trumpets. And then, a long blast on the ram’s horn—when you hear that, all the people are to shout at the top of their lungs. The city wall will collapse at once. All the people are to enter, every man straight on in.”
6 So Joshua son of Nun called the priests and told them, “Take up the Chest of the Covenant. Seven priests are to carry seven ram’s horn trumpets leading God’s Chest.”
7 Then he told the people, “Set out! March around the city. Have the armed guard march before the Chest of God.”
8-9 And it happened. Joshua spoke, the people moved: Seven priests with their seven ram’s horn trumpets set out before God. They blew the trumpets, leading God’s Chest of the Covenant. The armed guard marched ahead of the trumpet-blowing priests; the rear guard was marching after the Chest, marching and blowing their trumpets.
10 Joshua had given orders to the people, “Don’t shout. In fact, don’t even speak—not so much as a whisper until you hear me say, ‘Shout!’—then shout away!”
11-13 He sent the Chest of God on its way around the city. It circled once, came back to camp, and stayed for the night. Joshua was up early the next morning and the priests took up the Chest of God. The seven priests carrying the seven ram’s horn trumpets marched before the Chest of God, marching and blowing the trumpets, with the armed guard marching before and the rear guard marching after. Marching and blowing of trumpets!
14 On the second day they again circled the city once and returned to camp. They did this six days.
15-17 When the seventh day came, they got up early and marched around the city this same way but seven times—yes, this day they circled the city seven times. On the seventh time around the priests blew the trumpets and Joshua signaled the people, “Shout!—God has given you the city! The city and everything in it is under a holy curse and offered up to God.
“Except for Rahab the harlot—she is to live, she and everyone in her house with her, because she hid the agents we sent.
18-19 “As for you, watch yourselves in the city under holy curse. Be careful that you don’t covet anything in it and take something that’s cursed, endangering the camp of Israel with the curse and making trouble for everyone. All silver and gold, all vessels of bronze and iron are holy to God. Put them in God’s treasury.”
20 The priests blew the trumpets.
When the people heard the blast of the trumpets, they gave a thunderclap shout. The wall fell at once. The people rushed straight into the city and took it.
21 They put everything in the city under the holy curse, killing man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and donkey.
22-24 Joshua ordered the two men who had spied out the land, “Enter the house of the harlot and rescue the woman and everyone connected with her, just as you promised her.” So the young spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father, mother, and brothers—everyone connected with her. They got the whole family out and gave them a place outside the camp of Israel. But they burned down the city and everything in it, except for the gold and silver and the bronze and iron vessels—all that they put in the treasury of God’s house.
25 But Joshua let Rahab the harlot live—Rahab and her father’s household and everyone connected to her. She is still alive and well in Israel because she hid the agents whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.
26 Joshua swore a solemn oath at that time:
Cursed before God is the man
who sets out to rebuild this city Jericho.
He’ll pay for the foundation with his firstborn son,
he’ll pay for the gates with his youngest son.
27 God was with Joshua. He became famous all over the land.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, September 10, 2018
Read: Jude 1:24–25
Doxology
24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time[a] and now and forever. Amen.
Footnotes:
Jude 1:25 Or before any age
INSIGHT
Assertiveness training often includes guidelines for approaching conflict. Instead of being reactive, we are taught to calmly articulate our viewpoint while showing respect to the other person, even if they are behaving badly.
In his letter to believers, Jude offers similar insights into how to respond to harmful influences, but offers a far more profound foundation. Responding to false teachers (Jude 1:4), Jude pulled no punches when it came to describing their behavior. He described them as people who lied (v. 10) and selfishly manipulated others (v. 16), concluding they were not living from the Spirit (v. 19).
But after exposing the false teachers’ dangerous character, Jude didn’t suggest the believers respond by aggressively fighting against them. He suggested, instead, that they focus on their own spiritual growth. Instead of being reactive or returning evil for evil, as they grew deep roots in God’s love (vv. 20–21), they could more naturally rely on the Spirit’s leading for how to best respond (vv. 22–23). But in every situation, they could remain unshaken, anchored in the rock-solid truth of God’s love, power, and beautiful future for them (v. 24). - Monica Brands
How to Stand Firm
By Arthur Jackson
To him who is able to keep you from stumbling. Jude 1:24
It was a cold, icy winter’s day, and my mind was focused on getting from my warm vehicle to a warm building. The next thing I knew I was on the ground, my knees turned inward and my lower legs turned outward. Nothing was broken, but I was in pain. The pain would get worse as time went by and it would be weeks before I was whole again.
Who among us hasn’t taken a spill of some sort? Wouldn’t it be nice to have something or someone to keep us on our feet all the time? While there are no guarantees of surefootedness in the physical sense, there is One who stands ready to assist us in our quest to honor Christ in this life and prepare us to stand joyfully before Him in the next.
Every day we face temptations (and even false teachings) that seek to divert us, confuse us, and entangle us. Yet, it’s not ultimately through our own efforts that we remain on our feet as we walk in this world. How assuring to know that when we hold our peace when tempted to speak angrily, to opt for honesty over deceit, to choose love over hate, or to select truth over error—we experience God’s power to keep us standing (Jude 1:24). And when we appear approved before God when Christ returns, the praise that we offer now for His sustaining grace will echo throughout eternity (v. 25).
Father, thank You for Your constant care for our souls.
Dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne. Edward Mote
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, September 10, 2018
Missionary Weapons (1)
When you were under the fig tree, I saw you. —John 1:48
Worshiping in Everyday Occasions. We presume that we would be ready for battle if confronted with a great crisis, but it is not the crisis that builds something within us— it simply reveals what we are made of already. Do you find yourself saying, “If God calls me to battle, of course I will rise to the occasion”? Yet you won’t rise to the occasion unless you have done so on God’s training ground. If you are not doing the task that is closest to you now, which God has engineered into your life, when the crisis comes, instead of being fit for battle, you will be revealed as being unfit. Crises always reveal a person’s true character.
A private relationship of worshiping God is the greatest essential element of spiritual fitness. The time will come, as Nathanael experienced in this passage, that a private “fig-tree” life will no longer be possible. Everything will be out in the open, and you will find yourself to be of no value there if you have not been worshiping in everyday occasions in your own home. If your worship is right in your private relationship with God, then when He sets you free, you will be ready. It is in the unseen life, which only God saw, that you have become perfectly fit. And when the strain of the crisis comes, you can be relied upon by God.
Are you saying, “But I can’t be expected to live a sanctified life in my present circumstances; I have no time for prayer or Bible study right now; besides, my opportunity for battle hasn’t come yet, but when it does, of course I will be ready”? No, you will not. If you have not been worshiping in everyday occasions, when you get involved in God’s work, you will not only be useless yourself but also a hindrance to those around you.
God’s training ground, where the missionary weapons are found, is the hidden, personal, worshiping life of the saint.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are all based on a conception of importance, either our own importance, or the importance of someone else; Jesus tells us to go and teach based on the revelation of His importance. “All power is given unto Me.… Go ye therefore ….” So Send I You, 1325 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, September 10, 2018
What The Lion Is Waiting For - #8261
Some friends are involved in a ministry whose offices are out in the country. The setting is beautiful and far enough out that it even has some interesting four-legged neighbors. Like the mountain lion that several workers and neighbors say they've spotted. There's not supposed to be a mountain lion in their area, but someone forgot to tell the mountain lion. (He didn't get the memo.) I understand this has caused the folks who work there – especially if they're there after dark – just a little more vigilance when they're coming or going from their car. Personally, I think it's better for the person to see the lion before the lion sees the person. Right?
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "What The Lion Is Waiting For."
Before you breathe a sigh of relief that you don't have a lion prowling around where you are, consider our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Peter 5:7-8. Verse 8 says, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour."
Satan is a spiritual predator. He stalks the children of God. He hates God, and he hates you because you were made in God's image. And like a big cat, he is looking for an opportunity to pounce on you and bring you down. I'm sure you can think of times when he succeeded in doing that. Now, the more you grow in Christ, the more you start to make a difference for Christ, the more the lion of hell is going to want to have you.
Now there are many ways we give the devil an opportunity to get us. But one major one is actually spelled out in the verse that immediately precedes this lion bulletin we just read. You might be surprised what gives the lion his opening. It's not drugs or alcohol or sex or some mega-temptation; although he can certainly use those. Listen to what prompts Peter to tell us to be self-controlled and alert against the lion's attack. In verse 7, he says, "Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you."
Implication: if you don't cast your worries on the Lord, you are giving the devil the opening he needs to bring you down. Imagine – worry is apparently a favorite weapon of Satan to get you to do what he wants instead of what God wants. Why? Well, for one thing, worrying makes you be all about yourself. You're focused on your stress, your problems, yourself and not on the Lord who promises, "In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us" (Romans 8:37). The lion can bring you down, but he's no match for Jesus. When you're all about Jesus, you're invincible. When you're all about yourself, you are lion lunch. And worry makes you all about you.
When you dwell on your anxieties, your fears, you tend to become discouraged – a condition Satan can use to get you to do all kinds of things you'll later regret. You tend to panic and leave the will of God to do something to fix things. Except your panic response will probably only make things worse and spoil what God was doing. Worry takes you away from your time with God, away from your trust in God, away from good sleep and important disciplines, and you abandon the very things you need to keep you strong in those times of stress.
If your worries are a heavy backpack, bending you low, it's time you took off that backpack and gave it to that strong friend who walks every mile by your side. You know that's Jesus. You have no business carrying all that junk. He's asking you to put those worries on His shoulders. When you do, you rob hell's devouring lion of one of his greatest tools to use against you.
When the Australians say, "No worries, mate," they've got the right idea. You've got Almighty God asking for your backpack of anxiety. What in the world are you doing still carrying it around then? Trying to be lion bait? Cast all your cares on Him – He cares for you!
What will happen when you die? Scripture reveals some intriguing assurances! Jesus said to the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). “Today,” Christ promised. No delay. No pause.
The thief closed his eyes on earth and awoke in paradise. The soul of the believer journeys home while the body of the believer awaits the resurrection. Paradise is the first stage of heaven. But it’s not the final version of heaven. The final age will begin when Christ returns on the final day. He who created us will collect us. Scripture says “The LORD who scattered his people, will gather them!” (Jeremiah 31:10). Just as a seed becomes a plant, our fleshly body will become a spiritual body. This is God’s promise to you. And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!
Read more Unshakable Hope
Joshua 6
Jericho
Jericho was shut up tight as a drum because of the People of Israel: no one going in, no one coming out.
2-5 God spoke to Joshua, “Look sharp now. I’ve already given Jericho to you, along with its king and its crack troops. Here’s what you are to do: March around the city, all your soldiers. Circle the city once. Repeat this for six days. Have seven priests carry seven ram’s horn trumpets in front of the Chest. On the seventh day march around the city seven times, the priests blowing away on the trumpets. And then, a long blast on the ram’s horn—when you hear that, all the people are to shout at the top of their lungs. The city wall will collapse at once. All the people are to enter, every man straight on in.”
6 So Joshua son of Nun called the priests and told them, “Take up the Chest of the Covenant. Seven priests are to carry seven ram’s horn trumpets leading God’s Chest.”
7 Then he told the people, “Set out! March around the city. Have the armed guard march before the Chest of God.”
8-9 And it happened. Joshua spoke, the people moved: Seven priests with their seven ram’s horn trumpets set out before God. They blew the trumpets, leading God’s Chest of the Covenant. The armed guard marched ahead of the trumpet-blowing priests; the rear guard was marching after the Chest, marching and blowing their trumpets.
10 Joshua had given orders to the people, “Don’t shout. In fact, don’t even speak—not so much as a whisper until you hear me say, ‘Shout!’—then shout away!”
11-13 He sent the Chest of God on its way around the city. It circled once, came back to camp, and stayed for the night. Joshua was up early the next morning and the priests took up the Chest of God. The seven priests carrying the seven ram’s horn trumpets marched before the Chest of God, marching and blowing the trumpets, with the armed guard marching before and the rear guard marching after. Marching and blowing of trumpets!
14 On the second day they again circled the city once and returned to camp. They did this six days.
15-17 When the seventh day came, they got up early and marched around the city this same way but seven times—yes, this day they circled the city seven times. On the seventh time around the priests blew the trumpets and Joshua signaled the people, “Shout!—God has given you the city! The city and everything in it is under a holy curse and offered up to God.
“Except for Rahab the harlot—she is to live, she and everyone in her house with her, because she hid the agents we sent.
18-19 “As for you, watch yourselves in the city under holy curse. Be careful that you don’t covet anything in it and take something that’s cursed, endangering the camp of Israel with the curse and making trouble for everyone. All silver and gold, all vessels of bronze and iron are holy to God. Put them in God’s treasury.”
20 The priests blew the trumpets.
When the people heard the blast of the trumpets, they gave a thunderclap shout. The wall fell at once. The people rushed straight into the city and took it.
21 They put everything in the city under the holy curse, killing man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and donkey.
22-24 Joshua ordered the two men who had spied out the land, “Enter the house of the harlot and rescue the woman and everyone connected with her, just as you promised her.” So the young spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father, mother, and brothers—everyone connected with her. They got the whole family out and gave them a place outside the camp of Israel. But they burned down the city and everything in it, except for the gold and silver and the bronze and iron vessels—all that they put in the treasury of God’s house.
25 But Joshua let Rahab the harlot live—Rahab and her father’s household and everyone connected to her. She is still alive and well in Israel because she hid the agents whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.
26 Joshua swore a solemn oath at that time:
Cursed before God is the man
who sets out to rebuild this city Jericho.
He’ll pay for the foundation with his firstborn son,
he’ll pay for the gates with his youngest son.
27 God was with Joshua. He became famous all over the land.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, September 10, 2018
Read: Jude 1:24–25
Doxology
24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time[a] and now and forever. Amen.
Footnotes:
Jude 1:25 Or before any age
INSIGHT
Assertiveness training often includes guidelines for approaching conflict. Instead of being reactive, we are taught to calmly articulate our viewpoint while showing respect to the other person, even if they are behaving badly.
In his letter to believers, Jude offers similar insights into how to respond to harmful influences, but offers a far more profound foundation. Responding to false teachers (Jude 1:4), Jude pulled no punches when it came to describing their behavior. He described them as people who lied (v. 10) and selfishly manipulated others (v. 16), concluding they were not living from the Spirit (v. 19).
But after exposing the false teachers’ dangerous character, Jude didn’t suggest the believers respond by aggressively fighting against them. He suggested, instead, that they focus on their own spiritual growth. Instead of being reactive or returning evil for evil, as they grew deep roots in God’s love (vv. 20–21), they could more naturally rely on the Spirit’s leading for how to best respond (vv. 22–23). But in every situation, they could remain unshaken, anchored in the rock-solid truth of God’s love, power, and beautiful future for them (v. 24). - Monica Brands
How to Stand Firm
By Arthur Jackson
To him who is able to keep you from stumbling. Jude 1:24
It was a cold, icy winter’s day, and my mind was focused on getting from my warm vehicle to a warm building. The next thing I knew I was on the ground, my knees turned inward and my lower legs turned outward. Nothing was broken, but I was in pain. The pain would get worse as time went by and it would be weeks before I was whole again.
Who among us hasn’t taken a spill of some sort? Wouldn’t it be nice to have something or someone to keep us on our feet all the time? While there are no guarantees of surefootedness in the physical sense, there is One who stands ready to assist us in our quest to honor Christ in this life and prepare us to stand joyfully before Him in the next.
Every day we face temptations (and even false teachings) that seek to divert us, confuse us, and entangle us. Yet, it’s not ultimately through our own efforts that we remain on our feet as we walk in this world. How assuring to know that when we hold our peace when tempted to speak angrily, to opt for honesty over deceit, to choose love over hate, or to select truth over error—we experience God’s power to keep us standing (Jude 1:24). And when we appear approved before God when Christ returns, the praise that we offer now for His sustaining grace will echo throughout eternity (v. 25).
Father, thank You for Your constant care for our souls.
Dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne. Edward Mote
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, September 10, 2018
Missionary Weapons (1)
When you were under the fig tree, I saw you. —John 1:48
Worshiping in Everyday Occasions. We presume that we would be ready for battle if confronted with a great crisis, but it is not the crisis that builds something within us— it simply reveals what we are made of already. Do you find yourself saying, “If God calls me to battle, of course I will rise to the occasion”? Yet you won’t rise to the occasion unless you have done so on God’s training ground. If you are not doing the task that is closest to you now, which God has engineered into your life, when the crisis comes, instead of being fit for battle, you will be revealed as being unfit. Crises always reveal a person’s true character.
A private relationship of worshiping God is the greatest essential element of spiritual fitness. The time will come, as Nathanael experienced in this passage, that a private “fig-tree” life will no longer be possible. Everything will be out in the open, and you will find yourself to be of no value there if you have not been worshiping in everyday occasions in your own home. If your worship is right in your private relationship with God, then when He sets you free, you will be ready. It is in the unseen life, which only God saw, that you have become perfectly fit. And when the strain of the crisis comes, you can be relied upon by God.
Are you saying, “But I can’t be expected to live a sanctified life in my present circumstances; I have no time for prayer or Bible study right now; besides, my opportunity for battle hasn’t come yet, but when it does, of course I will be ready”? No, you will not. If you have not been worshiping in everyday occasions, when you get involved in God’s work, you will not only be useless yourself but also a hindrance to those around you.
God’s training ground, where the missionary weapons are found, is the hidden, personal, worshiping life of the saint.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are all based on a conception of importance, either our own importance, or the importance of someone else; Jesus tells us to go and teach based on the revelation of His importance. “All power is given unto Me.… Go ye therefore ….” So Send I You, 1325 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, September 10, 2018
What The Lion Is Waiting For - #8261
Some friends are involved in a ministry whose offices are out in the country. The setting is beautiful and far enough out that it even has some interesting four-legged neighbors. Like the mountain lion that several workers and neighbors say they've spotted. There's not supposed to be a mountain lion in their area, but someone forgot to tell the mountain lion. (He didn't get the memo.) I understand this has caused the folks who work there – especially if they're there after dark – just a little more vigilance when they're coming or going from their car. Personally, I think it's better for the person to see the lion before the lion sees the person. Right?
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "What The Lion Is Waiting For."
Before you breathe a sigh of relief that you don't have a lion prowling around where you are, consider our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Peter 5:7-8. Verse 8 says, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour."
Satan is a spiritual predator. He stalks the children of God. He hates God, and he hates you because you were made in God's image. And like a big cat, he is looking for an opportunity to pounce on you and bring you down. I'm sure you can think of times when he succeeded in doing that. Now, the more you grow in Christ, the more you start to make a difference for Christ, the more the lion of hell is going to want to have you.
Now there are many ways we give the devil an opportunity to get us. But one major one is actually spelled out in the verse that immediately precedes this lion bulletin we just read. You might be surprised what gives the lion his opening. It's not drugs or alcohol or sex or some mega-temptation; although he can certainly use those. Listen to what prompts Peter to tell us to be self-controlled and alert against the lion's attack. In verse 7, he says, "Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you."
Implication: if you don't cast your worries on the Lord, you are giving the devil the opening he needs to bring you down. Imagine – worry is apparently a favorite weapon of Satan to get you to do what he wants instead of what God wants. Why? Well, for one thing, worrying makes you be all about yourself. You're focused on your stress, your problems, yourself and not on the Lord who promises, "In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us" (Romans 8:37). The lion can bring you down, but he's no match for Jesus. When you're all about Jesus, you're invincible. When you're all about yourself, you are lion lunch. And worry makes you all about you.
When you dwell on your anxieties, your fears, you tend to become discouraged – a condition Satan can use to get you to do all kinds of things you'll later regret. You tend to panic and leave the will of God to do something to fix things. Except your panic response will probably only make things worse and spoil what God was doing. Worry takes you away from your time with God, away from your trust in God, away from good sleep and important disciplines, and you abandon the very things you need to keep you strong in those times of stress.
If your worries are a heavy backpack, bending you low, it's time you took off that backpack and gave it to that strong friend who walks every mile by your side. You know that's Jesus. You have no business carrying all that junk. He's asking you to put those worries on His shoulders. When you do, you rob hell's devouring lion of one of his greatest tools to use against you.
When the Australians say, "No worries, mate," they've got the right idea. You've got Almighty God asking for your backpack of anxiety. What in the world are you doing still carrying it around then? Trying to be lion bait? Cast all your cares on Him – He cares for you!
Sunday, September 9, 2018
Joshua 5, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Settling for Crumbs
Rather than worship the Creator, we worship the creation! No wonder there is no wonder. We have figured it all out. Ever wonder why people sleep in on Sunday mornings, whether in bed or in the sanctuary? They've seen it all. Why get excited? They know it all! There's nothing sacred. The holy becomes humdrum.
Can you see why Paul says in Romans 1:24 that people became full of sexual sin, using their bodies wrongly with each other? You've got to get excitement somewhere. If there's no purpose to this life, nothing sacred about this life, what's to keep us from doing whatever we want? How does God feel about such a view of life? Well, let me give you a hint. How would you feel if you saw your children settling for crumbs when you had prepared for them a feast?…Exactly!
From In the Grip of Grace
Joshua 5
When all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and the Canaanite kings along the seacoast heard how God had stopped the Jordan River before the People of Israel until they had crossed over, their hearts sank; the courage drained out of them just thinking about the People of Israel.
2-3 At that time God said to Joshua, “Make stone knives and circumcise the People of Israel a second time.” So Joshua made stone knives and circumcised the People of Israel at Foreskins Hill.
4-7 This is why Joshua conducted the circumcision. All the males who had left Egypt, the soldiers, had died in the wilderness on the journey out of Egypt. All the people who had come out of Egypt, of course, had been circumcised, but all those born in the wilderness along the way since leaving Egypt had not been. The fact is that the People of Israel had walked through that wilderness for forty years until the entire nation died out, all the men of military age who had come out of Egypt but had disobeyed the call of God. God vowed that these would never lay eyes on the land God had solemnly promised their ancestors to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. But their children had replaced them. These are the ones Joshua circumcised. They had never been circumcised; no one had circumcised them along the way.
8 When they had completed the circumcising of the whole nation, they stayed where they were in camp until they were healed.
9 God said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt.” That’s why the place is called The Gilgal. It’s still called that.
10 The People of Israel continued to camp at The Gilgal. They celebrated the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month on the plains of Jericho.
11-12 Right away, the day after the Passover, they started eating the produce of that country, unraised bread and roasted grain. And then no more manna; the manna stopped. As soon as they started eating food grown in the land, there was no more manna for the People of Israel. That year they ate from the crops of Canaan.
13 And then this, while Joshua was there near Jericho: He looked up and saw right in front of him a man standing, holding his drawn sword. Joshua stepped up to him and said, “Whose side are you on—ours or our enemies’?”
14 He said, “Neither. I’m commander of God’s army. I’ve just arrived.” Joshua fell, face to the ground, and worshiped. He asked, “What orders does my Master have for his servant?”
15 God’s army commander ordered Joshua, “Take your sandals off your feet. The place you are standing is holy.”
Joshua did it.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, September 09, 2018
Read: 2 Corinthians 2:14–17
But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? 17 For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.
INSIGHT
The phrase “pleasing aroma” or “aroma pleasing” occurs thirty-nine times in the Old Testament—once in Genesis when Noah made a sacrifice to the Lord after the flood (8:21) and three times in Exodus (dealing with the consecration of the priests in chapter 29). The remainder are found in Leviticus and Numbers, most of which provide details about the various sacrifices or offerings the Israelite people were to bring God, such as burnt (Leviticus 1:13), grain (2:9), fellowship (4:31), drink (Numbers 15:10), sin (v. 24), and food (29:6). All of these offerings and sacrifices, when given in the prescribed way, were an “aroma pleasing to the Lord” (Leviticus 3:5). Two of these sacrifices were required: the sin offering and trespass offering, which were to atone for sin.
In the New Testament this phrase appears only once, here in today’s passage: “We are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing” (2 Corinthians 2:15). No longer are sacrifices necessary, for Jesus paid the sacrifice for our sins. When we follow Him, God is pleased with us because of what Christ did on our behalf. - Alyson Kieda
They Smelled Like Christ
By Amy Peterson
For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved. 2 Corinthians 2:15
Hot and dusty, Bob dismounted from the bus he had ridden to a city far from home. He was tired from a long day of travel and grateful that he would be able to have dinner with friends of friends who lived in the area. They welcomed him in, and he immediately felt a sense of peace. He felt at home, comfortable, safe, and valued.
Later, wondering why he had felt such peace in an unfamiliar place, Bob found an answer in 2 Corinthians. The apostle Paul describes people who follow God as having the “pleasing aroma of Christ.” “That’s exactly it!” Bob said to himself. His hosts had “smelled like” Christ.
When Paul says that God leads His people in Christ’s “triumphal procession” spreading the fragrance of His truth, he’s referring to a practice in the ancient world. Victorious armies would burn incense as they marched through the streets. For their supporters, the smell brought joy. In the same way, Paul says the people of God carry a pleasing fragrance to those who believe. It isn’t something we create on our own but something God gives as He leads us in spreading the knowledge of Him.
Bob is my dad, and that trip to a faraway town took place more than forty years ago, but he’s never forgotten it. He’s still telling the story of the people who smelled like Christ.
Heavenly Father, thank You for leading Your people in triumph and spreading the fragrance of Your truth through us.
Who smells like Christ to you?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, September 09, 2018
Do It Yourself (2)
…bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ… —2 Corinthians 10:5
Determinedly Discipline Other Things. This is another difficult aspect of the strenuous nature of sainthood. Paul said, according to the Moffatt translation of this verse, “…I take every project prisoner to make it obey Christ….” So much Christian work today has never been disciplined, but has simply come into being by impulse! In our Lord’s life every project was disciplined to the will of His Father. There was never the slightest tendency to follow the impulse of His own will as distinct from His Father’s will— “the Son can do nothing of Himself…” (John 5:19). Then compare this with what we do— we take “every thought” or project that comes to us by impulse and jump into action immediately, instead of imprisoning and disciplining ourselves to obey Christ.
Practical work for Christians is greatly overemphasized today, and the saints who are “bringing every thought [and project] into captivity” are criticized and told that they are not determined, and that they lack zeal for God or zeal for the souls of others. But true determination and zeal are found in obeying God, not in the inclination to serve Him that arises from our own undisciplined human nature. It is inconceivable, but true nevertheless, that saints are not “bringing every thought [and project] into captivity,” but are simply doing work for God that has been instigated by their own human nature, and has not been made spiritual through determined discipline.
We have a tendency to forget that a person is not only committed to Jesus Christ for salvation, but is also committed, responsible, and accountable to Jesus Christ’s view of God, the world, and of sin and the devil. This means that each person must recognize the responsibility to “be transformed by the renewing of [his] mind….” (Romans 12:2).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Seeing is never believing: we interpret what we see in the light of what we believe. Faith is confidence in God before you see God emerging; therefore the nature of faith is that it must be tried. He Shall Glorify Me, 494 R
Rather than worship the Creator, we worship the creation! No wonder there is no wonder. We have figured it all out. Ever wonder why people sleep in on Sunday mornings, whether in bed or in the sanctuary? They've seen it all. Why get excited? They know it all! There's nothing sacred. The holy becomes humdrum.
Can you see why Paul says in Romans 1:24 that people became full of sexual sin, using their bodies wrongly with each other? You've got to get excitement somewhere. If there's no purpose to this life, nothing sacred about this life, what's to keep us from doing whatever we want? How does God feel about such a view of life? Well, let me give you a hint. How would you feel if you saw your children settling for crumbs when you had prepared for them a feast?…Exactly!
From In the Grip of Grace
Joshua 5
When all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and the Canaanite kings along the seacoast heard how God had stopped the Jordan River before the People of Israel until they had crossed over, their hearts sank; the courage drained out of them just thinking about the People of Israel.
2-3 At that time God said to Joshua, “Make stone knives and circumcise the People of Israel a second time.” So Joshua made stone knives and circumcised the People of Israel at Foreskins Hill.
4-7 This is why Joshua conducted the circumcision. All the males who had left Egypt, the soldiers, had died in the wilderness on the journey out of Egypt. All the people who had come out of Egypt, of course, had been circumcised, but all those born in the wilderness along the way since leaving Egypt had not been. The fact is that the People of Israel had walked through that wilderness for forty years until the entire nation died out, all the men of military age who had come out of Egypt but had disobeyed the call of God. God vowed that these would never lay eyes on the land God had solemnly promised their ancestors to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. But their children had replaced them. These are the ones Joshua circumcised. They had never been circumcised; no one had circumcised them along the way.
8 When they had completed the circumcising of the whole nation, they stayed where they were in camp until they were healed.
9 God said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt.” That’s why the place is called The Gilgal. It’s still called that.
10 The People of Israel continued to camp at The Gilgal. They celebrated the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month on the plains of Jericho.
11-12 Right away, the day after the Passover, they started eating the produce of that country, unraised bread and roasted grain. And then no more manna; the manna stopped. As soon as they started eating food grown in the land, there was no more manna for the People of Israel. That year they ate from the crops of Canaan.
13 And then this, while Joshua was there near Jericho: He looked up and saw right in front of him a man standing, holding his drawn sword. Joshua stepped up to him and said, “Whose side are you on—ours or our enemies’?”
14 He said, “Neither. I’m commander of God’s army. I’ve just arrived.” Joshua fell, face to the ground, and worshiped. He asked, “What orders does my Master have for his servant?”
15 God’s army commander ordered Joshua, “Take your sandals off your feet. The place you are standing is holy.”
Joshua did it.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, September 09, 2018
Read: 2 Corinthians 2:14–17
But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? 17 For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.
INSIGHT
The phrase “pleasing aroma” or “aroma pleasing” occurs thirty-nine times in the Old Testament—once in Genesis when Noah made a sacrifice to the Lord after the flood (8:21) and three times in Exodus (dealing with the consecration of the priests in chapter 29). The remainder are found in Leviticus and Numbers, most of which provide details about the various sacrifices or offerings the Israelite people were to bring God, such as burnt (Leviticus 1:13), grain (2:9), fellowship (4:31), drink (Numbers 15:10), sin (v. 24), and food (29:6). All of these offerings and sacrifices, when given in the prescribed way, were an “aroma pleasing to the Lord” (Leviticus 3:5). Two of these sacrifices were required: the sin offering and trespass offering, which were to atone for sin.
In the New Testament this phrase appears only once, here in today’s passage: “We are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing” (2 Corinthians 2:15). No longer are sacrifices necessary, for Jesus paid the sacrifice for our sins. When we follow Him, God is pleased with us because of what Christ did on our behalf. - Alyson Kieda
They Smelled Like Christ
By Amy Peterson
For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved. 2 Corinthians 2:15
Hot and dusty, Bob dismounted from the bus he had ridden to a city far from home. He was tired from a long day of travel and grateful that he would be able to have dinner with friends of friends who lived in the area. They welcomed him in, and he immediately felt a sense of peace. He felt at home, comfortable, safe, and valued.
Later, wondering why he had felt such peace in an unfamiliar place, Bob found an answer in 2 Corinthians. The apostle Paul describes people who follow God as having the “pleasing aroma of Christ.” “That’s exactly it!” Bob said to himself. His hosts had “smelled like” Christ.
When Paul says that God leads His people in Christ’s “triumphal procession” spreading the fragrance of His truth, he’s referring to a practice in the ancient world. Victorious armies would burn incense as they marched through the streets. For their supporters, the smell brought joy. In the same way, Paul says the people of God carry a pleasing fragrance to those who believe. It isn’t something we create on our own but something God gives as He leads us in spreading the knowledge of Him.
Bob is my dad, and that trip to a faraway town took place more than forty years ago, but he’s never forgotten it. He’s still telling the story of the people who smelled like Christ.
Heavenly Father, thank You for leading Your people in triumph and spreading the fragrance of Your truth through us.
Who smells like Christ to you?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, September 09, 2018
Do It Yourself (2)
…bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ… —2 Corinthians 10:5
Determinedly Discipline Other Things. This is another difficult aspect of the strenuous nature of sainthood. Paul said, according to the Moffatt translation of this verse, “…I take every project prisoner to make it obey Christ….” So much Christian work today has never been disciplined, but has simply come into being by impulse! In our Lord’s life every project was disciplined to the will of His Father. There was never the slightest tendency to follow the impulse of His own will as distinct from His Father’s will— “the Son can do nothing of Himself…” (John 5:19). Then compare this with what we do— we take “every thought” or project that comes to us by impulse and jump into action immediately, instead of imprisoning and disciplining ourselves to obey Christ.
Practical work for Christians is greatly overemphasized today, and the saints who are “bringing every thought [and project] into captivity” are criticized and told that they are not determined, and that they lack zeal for God or zeal for the souls of others. But true determination and zeal are found in obeying God, not in the inclination to serve Him that arises from our own undisciplined human nature. It is inconceivable, but true nevertheless, that saints are not “bringing every thought [and project] into captivity,” but are simply doing work for God that has been instigated by their own human nature, and has not been made spiritual through determined discipline.
We have a tendency to forget that a person is not only committed to Jesus Christ for salvation, but is also committed, responsible, and accountable to Jesus Christ’s view of God, the world, and of sin and the devil. This means that each person must recognize the responsibility to “be transformed by the renewing of [his] mind….” (Romans 12:2).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Seeing is never believing: we interpret what we see in the light of what we believe. Faith is confidence in God before you see God emerging; therefore the nature of faith is that it must be tried. He Shall Glorify Me, 494 R
Saturday, September 8, 2018
Joshua 4, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: The Purpose of Life
As surely as a child breathes, he will someday wonder, "What is the purpose of my life?" Some search for meaning in a career. My purpose is to be a dentist. Fine vocation but hardly a justification for existence. They opt to be a human doing rather than a human being. They work many hours, because if they don't, they have no identify. For others, who they are is what they have. They find meaning in a new car, a new house, new clothes. They are great for the economy because they're always seeking meaning in something they own. Sports, entertainment, cults, sex, you name it. Paul says in Romans 1:22, "Claiming themselves to be wise without God, they became utter fools instead." Contrast that to God's vision of life when he said, "We are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to devote ourselves to the good deeds for which God has designed us!" (Ephesians 2:10).
From In the Grip of Grace
Joshua 4
When the whole nation was finally across, God spoke to Joshua: “Select twelve men from the people, a man from each tribe, and tell them, ‘From right here, the middle of the Jordan where the feet of the priests are standing firm, take twelve stones. Carry them across with you and set them down in the place where you camp tonight.’”
4-7 Joshua called out the twelve men whom he selected from the People of Israel, one man from each tribe. Joshua directed them, “Cross to the middle of the Jordan and take your place in front of the Chest of God, your God. Each of you heft a stone to your shoulder, a stone for each of the tribes of the People of Israel, so you’ll have something later to mark the occasion. When your children ask you, ‘What are these stones to you?’ you’ll say, ‘The flow of the Jordan was stopped in front of the Chest of the Covenant of God as it crossed the Jordan—stopped in its tracks. These stones are a permanent memorial for the People of Israel.’”
8-9 The People of Israel did exactly as Joshua commanded: They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan—a stone for each of the twelve tribes, just as God had instructed Joshua—carried them across with them to the camp, and set them down there. Joshua set up the twelve stones taken from the middle of the Jordan that had marked the place where the priests who carried the Chest of the Covenant had stood. They are still there today.
10-11 The priests carrying the Chest continued standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything God had instructed Joshua to tell the people to do was done (confirming what Moses had instructed Joshua). The people crossed; no one dawdled. When the crossing of all the people was complete, they watched as the Chest of the Covenant and the priests crossed over.
12-13 The Reubenites, Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh had crossed over in battle formation in front of the People of Israel, obedient to Moses’ instructions. All told, about forty thousand armed soldiers crossed over before God to the plains of Jericho, ready for battle.
14 God made Joshua great that day in the sight of all Israel. They were in awe of him just as they had been in awe of Moses all his life.
15-16 God told Joshua, “Command the priests carrying the Chest of The Testimony to come up from the Jordan.”
17 Joshua commanded the priests, “Come up out of the Jordan.”
18 They did it. The priests carrying God’s Chest of the Covenant came up from the middle of the Jordan. As soon as the soles of the priests’ feet touched dry land, the Jordan’s waters resumed their flow within the banks, just as before.
19-22 The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month. They set up camp at The Gilgal (The Circle) to the east of Jericho. Joshua erected a monument at The Gilgal, using the twelve stones that they had taken from the Jordan. And then he told the People of Israel, “In the days to come, when your children ask their fathers, ‘What are these stones doing here?’ tell your children this: ‘Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry ground.’
23-24 “Yes, God, your God, dried up the Jordan’s waters for you until you had crossed, just as God, your God, did at the Red Sea, which had dried up before us until we had crossed. This was so that everybody on earth would recognize how strong God’s rescuing hand is and so that you would hold God in solemn reverence always.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, September 08, 2018
Read: 1 Peter 5:6–10
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
INSIGHT
Because God cares so deeply for us, we can pray about everything (Philippians 4:6–7). Nothing is too small to bring to Him. And nothing is too big for God either, for nothing is impossible with Him (Matthew 19:26). Prayer acknowledges that we are weak and totally dependent on God. We may not fully understand the circumstances of our life, but we can rest in the knowledge that God is in control. He gives us His peace: “[God] will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in [Him]” (Isaiah 26:3).
For further study on prayer, see Talking with My Father at discoveryseries.org/hp171. - K. T. Sim
Being Real with God
By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7
I bow my head, close my eyes, lace my fingers together and begin to pray. “Dear Lord, I’m coming to you today as your child. I recognize your power and goodness. . .” Suddenly, my eyes snap open. I remember that my son hasn’t finished his history project, which is due the next day. I recall that he has an after-school basketball game, and I imagine him awake until midnight finishing his schoolwork. This leads me to worry that his fatigue will put him at risk for the flu!
C. S. Lewis wrote about distractions during prayer in his book The Screwtape Letters. He noted that when our minds wander, we tend to use willpower to steer ourselves back to our original prayer. Lewis concluded, though, that it was better to accept “the distraction as [our] present problem and [lay] that before [God] and make it the main theme of [our] prayers.”
A persistent worry or even a sinful thought that disrupts a prayer may become the centerpiece of our discussion with God. God wants us to be real as we talk with Him and open up about our deepest concerns, fears, and struggles. He is not surprised by anything we mention. His interest in us is like the attention we would receive from a close friend. That’s why we’re encouraged to give all of our worries and cares to God—because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7).
Dear God, You know what’s on my mind today. Help me to experience the peace that comes from sharing my concerns with You.
Distractions don’t have to derail our prayers.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, September 08, 2018
Do It Yourself (1)
…casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God… —2 Corinthians 10:5
Determinedly Demolish Some Things. Deliverance from sin is not the same as deliverance from human nature. There are things in human nature, such as prejudices, that the saint can only destroy through sheer neglect. But there are other things that have to be destroyed through violence, that is, through God’s divine strength imparted by His Spirit. There are some things over which we are not to fight, but only to “stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord…” (see Exodus 14:13). But every theory or thought that raises itself up as a fortified barrier “against the knowledge of God” is to be determinedly demolished by drawing on God’s power, not through human effort or by compromise (see 2 Corinthians 10:4).
It is only when God has transformed our nature and we have entered into the experience of sanctification that the fight begins. The warfare is not against sin; we can never fight against sin— Jesus Christ conquered that in His redemption of us. The conflict is waged over turning our natural life into a spiritual life. This is never done easily, nor does God intend that it be so. It is accomplished only through a series of moral choices. God does not make us holy in the sense that He makes our character holy. He makes us holy in the sense that He has made us innocent before Him. And then we have to turn that innocence into holy character through the moral choices we make. These choices are continually opposed and hostile to the things of our natural life which have become so deeply entrenched— the very things that raise themselves up as fortified barriers “against the knowledge of God.” We can either turn back, making ourselves of no value to the kingdom of God, or we can determinedly demolish these things, allowing Jesus to bring another son to glory (see Hebrews 2:10).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The truth is we have nothing to fear and nothing to overcome because He is all in all and we are more than conquerors through Him. The recognition of this truth is not flattering to the worker’s sense of heroics, but it is amazingly glorifying to the work of Christ. Approved Unto God, 4 R
As surely as a child breathes, he will someday wonder, "What is the purpose of my life?" Some search for meaning in a career. My purpose is to be a dentist. Fine vocation but hardly a justification for existence. They opt to be a human doing rather than a human being. They work many hours, because if they don't, they have no identify. For others, who they are is what they have. They find meaning in a new car, a new house, new clothes. They are great for the economy because they're always seeking meaning in something they own. Sports, entertainment, cults, sex, you name it. Paul says in Romans 1:22, "Claiming themselves to be wise without God, they became utter fools instead." Contrast that to God's vision of life when he said, "We are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to devote ourselves to the good deeds for which God has designed us!" (Ephesians 2:10).
From In the Grip of Grace
Joshua 4
When the whole nation was finally across, God spoke to Joshua: “Select twelve men from the people, a man from each tribe, and tell them, ‘From right here, the middle of the Jordan where the feet of the priests are standing firm, take twelve stones. Carry them across with you and set them down in the place where you camp tonight.’”
4-7 Joshua called out the twelve men whom he selected from the People of Israel, one man from each tribe. Joshua directed them, “Cross to the middle of the Jordan and take your place in front of the Chest of God, your God. Each of you heft a stone to your shoulder, a stone for each of the tribes of the People of Israel, so you’ll have something later to mark the occasion. When your children ask you, ‘What are these stones to you?’ you’ll say, ‘The flow of the Jordan was stopped in front of the Chest of the Covenant of God as it crossed the Jordan—stopped in its tracks. These stones are a permanent memorial for the People of Israel.’”
8-9 The People of Israel did exactly as Joshua commanded: They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan—a stone for each of the twelve tribes, just as God had instructed Joshua—carried them across with them to the camp, and set them down there. Joshua set up the twelve stones taken from the middle of the Jordan that had marked the place where the priests who carried the Chest of the Covenant had stood. They are still there today.
10-11 The priests carrying the Chest continued standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything God had instructed Joshua to tell the people to do was done (confirming what Moses had instructed Joshua). The people crossed; no one dawdled. When the crossing of all the people was complete, they watched as the Chest of the Covenant and the priests crossed over.
12-13 The Reubenites, Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh had crossed over in battle formation in front of the People of Israel, obedient to Moses’ instructions. All told, about forty thousand armed soldiers crossed over before God to the plains of Jericho, ready for battle.
14 God made Joshua great that day in the sight of all Israel. They were in awe of him just as they had been in awe of Moses all his life.
15-16 God told Joshua, “Command the priests carrying the Chest of The Testimony to come up from the Jordan.”
17 Joshua commanded the priests, “Come up out of the Jordan.”
18 They did it. The priests carrying God’s Chest of the Covenant came up from the middle of the Jordan. As soon as the soles of the priests’ feet touched dry land, the Jordan’s waters resumed their flow within the banks, just as before.
19-22 The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month. They set up camp at The Gilgal (The Circle) to the east of Jericho. Joshua erected a monument at The Gilgal, using the twelve stones that they had taken from the Jordan. And then he told the People of Israel, “In the days to come, when your children ask their fathers, ‘What are these stones doing here?’ tell your children this: ‘Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry ground.’
23-24 “Yes, God, your God, dried up the Jordan’s waters for you until you had crossed, just as God, your God, did at the Red Sea, which had dried up before us until we had crossed. This was so that everybody on earth would recognize how strong God’s rescuing hand is and so that you would hold God in solemn reverence always.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, September 08, 2018
Read: 1 Peter 5:6–10
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
INSIGHT
Because God cares so deeply for us, we can pray about everything (Philippians 4:6–7). Nothing is too small to bring to Him. And nothing is too big for God either, for nothing is impossible with Him (Matthew 19:26). Prayer acknowledges that we are weak and totally dependent on God. We may not fully understand the circumstances of our life, but we can rest in the knowledge that God is in control. He gives us His peace: “[God] will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in [Him]” (Isaiah 26:3).
For further study on prayer, see Talking with My Father at discoveryseries.org/hp171. - K. T. Sim
Being Real with God
By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7
I bow my head, close my eyes, lace my fingers together and begin to pray. “Dear Lord, I’m coming to you today as your child. I recognize your power and goodness. . .” Suddenly, my eyes snap open. I remember that my son hasn’t finished his history project, which is due the next day. I recall that he has an after-school basketball game, and I imagine him awake until midnight finishing his schoolwork. This leads me to worry that his fatigue will put him at risk for the flu!
C. S. Lewis wrote about distractions during prayer in his book The Screwtape Letters. He noted that when our minds wander, we tend to use willpower to steer ourselves back to our original prayer. Lewis concluded, though, that it was better to accept “the distraction as [our] present problem and [lay] that before [God] and make it the main theme of [our] prayers.”
A persistent worry or even a sinful thought that disrupts a prayer may become the centerpiece of our discussion with God. God wants us to be real as we talk with Him and open up about our deepest concerns, fears, and struggles. He is not surprised by anything we mention. His interest in us is like the attention we would receive from a close friend. That’s why we’re encouraged to give all of our worries and cares to God—because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7).
Dear God, You know what’s on my mind today. Help me to experience the peace that comes from sharing my concerns with You.
Distractions don’t have to derail our prayers.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, September 08, 2018
Do It Yourself (1)
…casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God… —2 Corinthians 10:5
Determinedly Demolish Some Things. Deliverance from sin is not the same as deliverance from human nature. There are things in human nature, such as prejudices, that the saint can only destroy through sheer neglect. But there are other things that have to be destroyed through violence, that is, through God’s divine strength imparted by His Spirit. There are some things over which we are not to fight, but only to “stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord…” (see Exodus 14:13). But every theory or thought that raises itself up as a fortified barrier “against the knowledge of God” is to be determinedly demolished by drawing on God’s power, not through human effort or by compromise (see 2 Corinthians 10:4).
It is only when God has transformed our nature and we have entered into the experience of sanctification that the fight begins. The warfare is not against sin; we can never fight against sin— Jesus Christ conquered that in His redemption of us. The conflict is waged over turning our natural life into a spiritual life. This is never done easily, nor does God intend that it be so. It is accomplished only through a series of moral choices. God does not make us holy in the sense that He makes our character holy. He makes us holy in the sense that He has made us innocent before Him. And then we have to turn that innocence into holy character through the moral choices we make. These choices are continually opposed and hostile to the things of our natural life which have become so deeply entrenched— the very things that raise themselves up as fortified barriers “against the knowledge of God.” We can either turn back, making ourselves of no value to the kingdom of God, or we can determinedly demolish these things, allowing Jesus to bring another son to glory (see Hebrews 2:10).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The truth is we have nothing to fear and nothing to overcome because He is all in all and we are more than conquerors through Him. The recognition of this truth is not flattering to the worker’s sense of heroics, but it is amazingly glorifying to the work of Christ. Approved Unto God, 4 R
Friday, September 7, 2018
Joshua 3, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: THE GIFT GOD HAS GIVEN YOU
A cynic asked an elderly woman about the security of her salvation. He said, “How can you be so sure that after all these years God won’t let you sink into hell?” Her answer: “He would lose more than I would. All I would lose would be my own soul, but He would lose his good name.”
What a gift God has given to you! You’ve won the greatest lottery in the history of humanity, and you didn’t even pay for the ticket. Your soul is secure, your salvation guaranteed. Your name is written in the only book that matters. This is the message of God, the promise of grace. The Bible says “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ” (Romans 8:1). This is a promise from God. And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!
Read more Unshakable Hope
Joshua 3
The Jordan
Joshua was up early and on his way from Shittim with all the People of Israel with him. He arrived at the Jordan and camped before crossing over. After three days, leaders went through the camp and gave out orders to the people: “When you see the Covenant-Chest of God, your God, carried by the Levitical priests, start moving. Follow it. Make sure you keep a proper distance between you and it, about half a mile—be sure now to keep your distance!—and you’ll see clearly the route to take. You’ve never been on this road before.”
5 Then Joshua addressed the people: “Sanctify yourselves. Tomorrow God will work miracle-wonders among you.”
6 Joshua instructed the priests, “Take up the Chest of the Covenant and step out before the people.” So they took it up and processed before the people.
7-8 God said to Joshua, “This very day I will begin to make you great in the eyes of all Israel. They’ll see for themselves that I’m with you in the same way that I was with Moses. You will command the priests who are carrying the Chest of the Covenant: ‘When you come to the edge of the Jordan’s waters, stand there on the river bank.’”
9-13 Then Joshua addressed the People of Israel: “Attention! Listen to what God, your God, has to say. This is how you’ll know that God is alive among you—he will completely dispossess before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites. Look at what’s before you: the Chest of the Covenant. Think of it—the Master of the entire earth is crossing the Jordan as you watch. Now take twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man from each tribe. When the soles of the feet of the priests carrying the Chest of God, Master of all the earth, touch the Jordan’s water, the flow of water will be stopped—the water coming from upstream will pile up in a heap.”
14-16 And that’s what happened. The people left their tents to cross the Jordan, led by the priests carrying the Chest of the Covenant. When the priests got to the Jordan and their feet touched the water at the edge (the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest), the flow of water stopped. It piled up in a heap—a long way off—at Adam, which is near Zarethan. The river went dry all the way down to the Arabah Sea (the Salt Sea). And the people crossed, facing Jericho.
17 And there they stood; those priests carrying the Chest of the Covenant stood firmly planted on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel crossed on dry ground. Finally the whole nation was across the Jordan, and not one wet foot.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, September 07, 2018
Read: Psalm 103:13–22
As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
14 For he knows our frame;[a]
he remembers that we are dust.
15 As for man, his days are like grass;
he flourishes like a flower of the field;
16 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place knows it no more.
17 But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,
and his righteousness to children's children,
18 to those who keep his covenant
and remember to do his commandments.
19 The Lord has established his throne in the heavens,
and his kingdom rules over all.
20 Bless the Lord, O you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his word,
obeying the voice of his word!
21 Bless the Lord, all his hosts,
his ministers, who do his will!
22 Bless the Lord, all his works,
in all places of his dominion.
Bless the Lord, O my soul!
Footnotes:
Psalm 103:14 Or knows how we are formed
INSIGHT
In the middle of Psalm 103 a potentially dark subtheme surfaces: life passes by all too quickly (vv. 15–16). As David poetically responds to this sobering awareness, we might well expect his song to become one of resignation or despondency. Yet the psalm remains joyful from beginning to end. Is David in denial? No! He frames the psalm, and his whole life, with praise to God, beginning and ending with this phrase: “Praise the Lord, my soul” (vv. 1, 22). The truth of God’s goodness provides the platform from which David’s whole life becomes a song of triumph.
Our awareness that life is fleeting need not cause us to panic or sink into despair. Rather, it can remind us that our life is in God. We find joy and meaning in singing His praises.
As seasons change and we sense life’s transience, what questions come to mind? Do those big questions cause us to reevaluate our priorities? Are we finding joy and fulfillment in relationship with our Creator? - Tim Gustafson
Unchanging Love
By James Banks
The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. 1 John 2:17
When I was in high school I played on the varsity tennis team. I spent many hours of my teenage years trying to improve my skills on four concrete courts located just two blocks from my home.
The last time I visited that city, one of the first things I did was drive to the tennis courts, hoping to watch others play and reminisce for a moment. But the old courts, so familiar to my memory, were nowhere to be seen. In their place was a vacant field, inhabited only by an occasional weed waving silently in the breeze.
That afternoon remains in my mind as a stark reminder of the brevity of life. One of the places where I expended some of my best youthful strength no longer existed! Reflecting on that experience later brought me to this truth, expressed by an aging King David: “The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him” (Psalm 103:15–17).
We grow older and the world around us may change, but God’s love doesn’t. He can always be trusted to take care of those who turn to Him.
Faithful Father, thank You for Your love that never changes! Help me to love You by serving You faithfully today.
In our changing world, we can always depend on our unchanging God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, September 07, 2018
Fountains of Blessings
The water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. —John 4:14
The picture our Lord described here is not that of a simple stream of water, but an overflowing fountain. Continue to “be filled” (Ephesians 5:18) and the sweetness of your vital relationship to Jesus will flow as generously out of you as it has been given to you. If you find that His life is not springing up as it should, you are to blame— something is obstructing the flow. Was Jesus saying to stay focused on the Source so that you may be blessed personally? No, you are to focus on the Source so that out of you “will flow rivers of living water”— irrepressible life (John 7:38).
We are to be fountains through which Jesus can flow as “rivers of living water” in blessing to everyone. Yet some of us are like the Dead Sea, always receiving but never giving, because our relationship is not right with the Lord Jesus. As surely as we receive blessings from Him, He will pour out blessings through us. But whenever the blessings are not being poured out in the same measure they are received, there is a defect in our relationship with Him. Is there anything between you and Jesus Christ? Is there anything hindering your faith in Him? If not, then Jesus says that out of you “will flow rivers of living water.” It is not a blessing that you pass on, or an experience that you share with others, but a river that continually flows through you. Stay at the Source, closely guarding your faith in Jesus Christ and your relationship to Him, and there will be a steady flow into the lives of others with no dryness or deadness whatsoever.
Is it excessive to say that rivers will flow out of one individual believer? Do you look at yourself and say, “But I don’t see the rivers”? Through the history of God’s work you will usually find that He has started with the obscure, the unknown, the ignored, but those who have been steadfastly true to Jesus Christ.
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
Friday, September 07, 2018
One Fatal Flaw - #8260
Each generation has its unforgettable events and photographs that sort of sear those events into our memories. So often, those images are tragedies: the falling towers, of course, of September 11, the bombed out Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City. Before either of those, came the images of the sudden explosion of the Challenger shuttle over Cape Canaveral-those horrible trails of smoke against the sky, reminding us of the deaths of all those heroic astronauts aboard. After an extensive investigation, that cataclysmic explosion was traced to a simple O-ring that malfunctioned in cold weather and started a chain of events that doomed the shuttle and its crew. Then came the more recent explosion of the shuttle Columbia; this time apparently traceable to a loose piece of foam that came off during liftoff and ended up causing the loss of everyone aboard.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "One Fatal Flaw."
Great crews, great ships, great missions-doomed by one fatal flaw. You know, one fatal flaw can be very costly. Eternally costly if it's a spiritual condition that can keep you from the God who made you; that can keep you from heaven some day.
Our word for today from the Word of God tells the story of a man whose fatal flaw almost cost him everything, and man, he had a lot to lose. It vividly represents the life of someone who's listening today, I believe, and it comes as a loving warning from a God who just does not want to lose you. 2 Kings 5, beginning at verse 1, tells the story of a Syrian military hero named Naaman, who was, in the Bible's words, "a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded...he was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy." Here's a man with a great reputation, great victories, a great life and a deadly condition totally beyond his control, in spite of all he's got going for him.
The Bible diagnoses our spiritual leprosy as sin, our rebellion against God that's caused us to hijack the running of our life from the God who gave us our life. The Bible says, "The wages of our sin is death" (Romans 6:23), as in separation from God here, and then eternal separation from Him forever in hell. Sin, like leprosy in those days, carries the sentence of death.
Someone points Naaman to God's man in Israel, the only man who can save him. And Naaman heads out with this great entourage and with 750 pounds of silver and 150 pounds of gold. He's planning to buy his cure! But God's man tells him the only way he can be saved is to humble himself and wash seven times in the muddy Jordan River and he says, "your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed." Naaman's pride almost causes him to miss God's answer, but ultimately he surrenders any efforts of his own to be saved and he does it God's way. And the Bible says that "his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy."
Many a man has been too proud to come to God on just the terms God has; to lay aside any hope of earning his way to heaven, of buying his way to heaven, of doing something great to get to heaven. See, your fatal sin condition can only be cured one way. You have to humble yourself at the foot of Jesus' cross, confessing that He, and He alone, is your only hope. Without that, you will die of your spiritual leprosy. But with that step of humble faith, you can finally be clean, and forgiven, and right with God, and you can be ready for eternity whenever it comes, however it comes.
Please, don't let your pride keep you from the only one who can save you. It's arrogance, it's stubbornness that will cost you heaven and give you hell; a hell that Jesus already took in your place. Will you go to Him today? Give yourself to Him.
I'd love to invite you to our website, because I think you'll find there some very practical information of how to be sure your sins have been erased from God's book and you belong to Jesus. It's ANewStory.com. Please take some time to go there today.
In the words of the Bible: "Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed...and get a new heart. Why will you die? Repent and live!" (Ezekiel 18:31-32).
A cynic asked an elderly woman about the security of her salvation. He said, “How can you be so sure that after all these years God won’t let you sink into hell?” Her answer: “He would lose more than I would. All I would lose would be my own soul, but He would lose his good name.”
What a gift God has given to you! You’ve won the greatest lottery in the history of humanity, and you didn’t even pay for the ticket. Your soul is secure, your salvation guaranteed. Your name is written in the only book that matters. This is the message of God, the promise of grace. The Bible says “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ” (Romans 8:1). This is a promise from God. And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!
Read more Unshakable Hope
Joshua 3
The Jordan
Joshua was up early and on his way from Shittim with all the People of Israel with him. He arrived at the Jordan and camped before crossing over. After three days, leaders went through the camp and gave out orders to the people: “When you see the Covenant-Chest of God, your God, carried by the Levitical priests, start moving. Follow it. Make sure you keep a proper distance between you and it, about half a mile—be sure now to keep your distance!—and you’ll see clearly the route to take. You’ve never been on this road before.”
5 Then Joshua addressed the people: “Sanctify yourselves. Tomorrow God will work miracle-wonders among you.”
6 Joshua instructed the priests, “Take up the Chest of the Covenant and step out before the people.” So they took it up and processed before the people.
7-8 God said to Joshua, “This very day I will begin to make you great in the eyes of all Israel. They’ll see for themselves that I’m with you in the same way that I was with Moses. You will command the priests who are carrying the Chest of the Covenant: ‘When you come to the edge of the Jordan’s waters, stand there on the river bank.’”
9-13 Then Joshua addressed the People of Israel: “Attention! Listen to what God, your God, has to say. This is how you’ll know that God is alive among you—he will completely dispossess before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites. Look at what’s before you: the Chest of the Covenant. Think of it—the Master of the entire earth is crossing the Jordan as you watch. Now take twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man from each tribe. When the soles of the feet of the priests carrying the Chest of God, Master of all the earth, touch the Jordan’s water, the flow of water will be stopped—the water coming from upstream will pile up in a heap.”
14-16 And that’s what happened. The people left their tents to cross the Jordan, led by the priests carrying the Chest of the Covenant. When the priests got to the Jordan and their feet touched the water at the edge (the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest), the flow of water stopped. It piled up in a heap—a long way off—at Adam, which is near Zarethan. The river went dry all the way down to the Arabah Sea (the Salt Sea). And the people crossed, facing Jericho.
17 And there they stood; those priests carrying the Chest of the Covenant stood firmly planted on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel crossed on dry ground. Finally the whole nation was across the Jordan, and not one wet foot.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, September 07, 2018
Read: Psalm 103:13–22
As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
14 For he knows our frame;[a]
he remembers that we are dust.
15 As for man, his days are like grass;
he flourishes like a flower of the field;
16 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place knows it no more.
17 But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,
and his righteousness to children's children,
18 to those who keep his covenant
and remember to do his commandments.
19 The Lord has established his throne in the heavens,
and his kingdom rules over all.
20 Bless the Lord, O you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his word,
obeying the voice of his word!
21 Bless the Lord, all his hosts,
his ministers, who do his will!
22 Bless the Lord, all his works,
in all places of his dominion.
Bless the Lord, O my soul!
Footnotes:
Psalm 103:14 Or knows how we are formed
INSIGHT
In the middle of Psalm 103 a potentially dark subtheme surfaces: life passes by all too quickly (vv. 15–16). As David poetically responds to this sobering awareness, we might well expect his song to become one of resignation or despondency. Yet the psalm remains joyful from beginning to end. Is David in denial? No! He frames the psalm, and his whole life, with praise to God, beginning and ending with this phrase: “Praise the Lord, my soul” (vv. 1, 22). The truth of God’s goodness provides the platform from which David’s whole life becomes a song of triumph.
Our awareness that life is fleeting need not cause us to panic or sink into despair. Rather, it can remind us that our life is in God. We find joy and meaning in singing His praises.
As seasons change and we sense life’s transience, what questions come to mind? Do those big questions cause us to reevaluate our priorities? Are we finding joy and fulfillment in relationship with our Creator? - Tim Gustafson
Unchanging Love
By James Banks
The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. 1 John 2:17
When I was in high school I played on the varsity tennis team. I spent many hours of my teenage years trying to improve my skills on four concrete courts located just two blocks from my home.
The last time I visited that city, one of the first things I did was drive to the tennis courts, hoping to watch others play and reminisce for a moment. But the old courts, so familiar to my memory, were nowhere to be seen. In their place was a vacant field, inhabited only by an occasional weed waving silently in the breeze.
That afternoon remains in my mind as a stark reminder of the brevity of life. One of the places where I expended some of my best youthful strength no longer existed! Reflecting on that experience later brought me to this truth, expressed by an aging King David: “The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him” (Psalm 103:15–17).
We grow older and the world around us may change, but God’s love doesn’t. He can always be trusted to take care of those who turn to Him.
Faithful Father, thank You for Your love that never changes! Help me to love You by serving You faithfully today.
In our changing world, we can always depend on our unchanging God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, September 07, 2018
Fountains of Blessings
The water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. —John 4:14
The picture our Lord described here is not that of a simple stream of water, but an overflowing fountain. Continue to “be filled” (Ephesians 5:18) and the sweetness of your vital relationship to Jesus will flow as generously out of you as it has been given to you. If you find that His life is not springing up as it should, you are to blame— something is obstructing the flow. Was Jesus saying to stay focused on the Source so that you may be blessed personally? No, you are to focus on the Source so that out of you “will flow rivers of living water”— irrepressible life (John 7:38).
We are to be fountains through which Jesus can flow as “rivers of living water” in blessing to everyone. Yet some of us are like the Dead Sea, always receiving but never giving, because our relationship is not right with the Lord Jesus. As surely as we receive blessings from Him, He will pour out blessings through us. But whenever the blessings are not being poured out in the same measure they are received, there is a defect in our relationship with Him. Is there anything between you and Jesus Christ? Is there anything hindering your faith in Him? If not, then Jesus says that out of you “will flow rivers of living water.” It is not a blessing that you pass on, or an experience that you share with others, but a river that continually flows through you. Stay at the Source, closely guarding your faith in Jesus Christ and your relationship to Him, and there will be a steady flow into the lives of others with no dryness or deadness whatsoever.
Is it excessive to say that rivers will flow out of one individual believer? Do you look at yourself and say, “But I don’t see the rivers”? Through the history of God’s work you will usually find that He has started with the obscure, the unknown, the ignored, but those who have been steadfastly true to Jesus Christ.
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
Friday, September 07, 2018
One Fatal Flaw - #8260
Each generation has its unforgettable events and photographs that sort of sear those events into our memories. So often, those images are tragedies: the falling towers, of course, of September 11, the bombed out Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City. Before either of those, came the images of the sudden explosion of the Challenger shuttle over Cape Canaveral-those horrible trails of smoke against the sky, reminding us of the deaths of all those heroic astronauts aboard. After an extensive investigation, that cataclysmic explosion was traced to a simple O-ring that malfunctioned in cold weather and started a chain of events that doomed the shuttle and its crew. Then came the more recent explosion of the shuttle Columbia; this time apparently traceable to a loose piece of foam that came off during liftoff and ended up causing the loss of everyone aboard.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "One Fatal Flaw."
Great crews, great ships, great missions-doomed by one fatal flaw. You know, one fatal flaw can be very costly. Eternally costly if it's a spiritual condition that can keep you from the God who made you; that can keep you from heaven some day.
Our word for today from the Word of God tells the story of a man whose fatal flaw almost cost him everything, and man, he had a lot to lose. It vividly represents the life of someone who's listening today, I believe, and it comes as a loving warning from a God who just does not want to lose you. 2 Kings 5, beginning at verse 1, tells the story of a Syrian military hero named Naaman, who was, in the Bible's words, "a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded...he was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy." Here's a man with a great reputation, great victories, a great life and a deadly condition totally beyond his control, in spite of all he's got going for him.
The Bible diagnoses our spiritual leprosy as sin, our rebellion against God that's caused us to hijack the running of our life from the God who gave us our life. The Bible says, "The wages of our sin is death" (Romans 6:23), as in separation from God here, and then eternal separation from Him forever in hell. Sin, like leprosy in those days, carries the sentence of death.
Someone points Naaman to God's man in Israel, the only man who can save him. And Naaman heads out with this great entourage and with 750 pounds of silver and 150 pounds of gold. He's planning to buy his cure! But God's man tells him the only way he can be saved is to humble himself and wash seven times in the muddy Jordan River and he says, "your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed." Naaman's pride almost causes him to miss God's answer, but ultimately he surrenders any efforts of his own to be saved and he does it God's way. And the Bible says that "his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy."
Many a man has been too proud to come to God on just the terms God has; to lay aside any hope of earning his way to heaven, of buying his way to heaven, of doing something great to get to heaven. See, your fatal sin condition can only be cured one way. You have to humble yourself at the foot of Jesus' cross, confessing that He, and He alone, is your only hope. Without that, you will die of your spiritual leprosy. But with that step of humble faith, you can finally be clean, and forgiven, and right with God, and you can be ready for eternity whenever it comes, however it comes.
Please, don't let your pride keep you from the only one who can save you. It's arrogance, it's stubbornness that will cost you heaven and give you hell; a hell that Jesus already took in your place. Will you go to Him today? Give yourself to Him.
I'd love to invite you to our website, because I think you'll find there some very practical information of how to be sure your sins have been erased from God's book and you belong to Jesus. It's ANewStory.com. Please take some time to go there today.
In the words of the Bible: "Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed...and get a new heart. Why will you die? Repent and live!" (Ezekiel 18:31-32).
Thursday, September 6, 2018
Joshua 2, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: THE MESSAGE OF GRACE
Salvation, from beginning to end, is a work of our Father. God does not stand on a mountain and tell us to climb it and find him. He comes down into our dark valley and finds us. God does not offer to pay all the debt minus a dollar if we’ll pay the dollar. He pays every penny! He doesn’t bargain with us, telling us to clean up our lives so he can help. He washes our sins without our help.
The message of God is the message of grace. Grace that is entirely God’s. God loving. God offering. God caring and God carrying! As you consider the insurmountable debt you owe, the debt you can never pay, let this promise be declared: “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!
Read more Unshakable Hope
Joshua 2
Rahab
Joshua son of Nun secretly sent out from Shittim two men as spies: “Go. Look over the land. Check out Jericho.” They left and arrived at the house of a harlot named Rahab and stayed there.
2 The king of Jericho was told, “We’ve just learned that men arrived tonight to spy out the land. They’re from the People of Israel.”
3 The king of Jericho sent word to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you to stay the night in your house. They’re spies; they’ve come to spy out the whole country.”
4-7 The woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, two men did come to me, but I didn’t know where they’d come from. At dark, when the gate was about to be shut, the men left. But I have no idea where they went. Hurry up! Chase them—you can still catch them!” (She had actually taken them up on the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax that were spread out for her on the roof.) So the men set chase down the Jordan road toward the fords. As soon as they were gone, the gate was shut.
8-11 Before the spies were down for the night, the woman came up to them on the roof and said, “I know that God has given you the land. We’re all afraid. Everyone in the country feels hopeless. We heard how God dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you when you left Egypt, and what he did to the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you put under a holy curse and destroyed. We heard it and our hearts sank. We all had the wind knocked out of us. And all because of you, you and God, your God, God of the heavens above and God of the earth below.
12-13 “Now promise me by God. I showed you mercy; now show my family mercy. And give me some tangible proof, a guarantee of life for my father and mother, my brothers and sisters—everyone connected with my family. Save our souls from death!”
14 “Our lives for yours!” said the men. “But don’t tell anyone our business. When God turns this land over to us, we’ll do right by you in loyal mercy.”
15-16 She lowered them down out a window with a rope because her house was on the city wall to the outside. She told them, “Run for the hills so your pursuers won’t find you. Hide out for three days and give your pursuers time to return. Then get on your way.”
17-20 The men told her, “In order to keep this oath you made us swear, here is what you must do: Hang this red rope out the window through which you let us down and gather your entire family with you in your house—father, mother, brothers, and sisters. Anyone who goes out the doors of your house into the street and is killed, it’s his own fault—we aren’t responsible. But for everyone within the house we take full responsibility. If anyone lays a hand on one of them, it’s our fault. But if you tell anyone of our business here, the oath you made us swear is canceled—we’re no longer responsible.”
21 She said, “If that’s what you say, that’s the way it is,” and sent them off. They left and she hung the red rope out the window.
22 They headed for the hills and stayed there for three days until the pursuers had returned. The pursuers had looked high and low but found nothing.
23-24 The men headed back. They came down out of the hills, crossed the river, and returned to Joshua son of Nun and reported all their experiences. They told Joshua, “Yes! God has given the whole country to us. Everybody there is in a state of panic because of us.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, September 06, 2018
READ 2 CHRONICLES 20:2–3, 14–22
Some men came and told Jehoshaphat, “A great multitude is coming against you from Edom,[a] from beyond the sea; and, behold, they are in Hazazon-tamar” (that is, Engedi). 3 Then Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.
And the Spirit of the Lord came[a] upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, son of Benaiah, son of Jeiel, son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly. 15 And he said, “Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the Lord to you, ‘Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God's. 16 Tomorrow go down against them. Behold, they will come up by the ascent of Ziz. You will find them at the end of the valley, east of the wilderness of Jeruel. 17 You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.’ Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, and the Lord will be with you.”
18 Then Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. 19 And the Levites, of the Kohathites and the Korahites, stood up to praise the Lord, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice.
20 And they rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa. And when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Believe in the Lord your God, and you will be established; believe his prophets, and you will succeed.” 21 And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the Lord and praise him in holy attire, as they went before the army, and say,
“Give thanks to the Lord,
for his steadfast love endures forever.”
22 And when they began to sing and praise, the Lord set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed.
Muscling Through
By Kirsten Holmberg
Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah.
2 Chronicles 20:3
Competitive bodybuilders put themselves through a rigorous training cycle. During the initial months, they emphasize gaining size and strength. As the competition nears, the focus shifts to losing any fat that hides the muscle. In the final days before the competition, they consume less water than normal so their muscle tissue is easily visible. Because of the reduced consumption of nourishment, the competitors are actually at their weakest on the day of competition, despite appearing strong.
In 2 Chronicles 20, we read of the opposite reality: acknowledging weakness in order to experience God’s strength. “A vast army is coming against you,” people told King Jehoshaphat. So “he proclaimed a fast for all Judah” (v. 3), depriving himself and all his people of nourishment. Then they asked God for help. When he finally mustered his military, Jehoshaphat placed singers who praised God at the front of his army (v. 21). As they began to sing, the Lord “set ambushes against the men . . . who were invading Judah, and they were defeated” (v. 22).
Jehoshaphat’s decision demonstrated deep faith in God. He purposefully chose not to depend on his own human and military prowess but instead to lean on God. Rather than trying to muscle our way through the trials we face, may we turn to Him and allow Him to be our strength.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, September 06, 2018
The Far-Reaching Rivers of Life
He who believes in Me…out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. —John 7:38
A river reaches places which its source never knows. And Jesus said that, if we have received His fullness, “rivers of living water” will flow out of us, reaching in blessing even “to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8) regardless of how small the visible effects of our lives may appear to be. We have nothing to do with the outflow— “This is the work of God, that you believe…” (John 6:29). God rarely allows a person to see how great a blessing he is to others.
A river is victoriously persistent, overcoming all barriers. For a while it goes steadily on its course, but then comes to an obstacle. And for a while it is blocked, yet it soon makes a pathway around the obstacle. Or a river will drop out of sight for miles, only later to emerge again even broader and greater than ever. Do you see God using the lives of others, but an obstacle has come into your life and you do not seem to be of any use to God? Then keep paying attention to the Source, and God will either take you around the obstacle or remove it. The river of the Spirit of God overcomes all obstacles. Never focus your eyes on the obstacle or the difficulty. The obstacle will be a matter of total indifference to the river that will flow steadily through you if you will simply remember to stay focused on the Source. Never allow anything to come between you and Jesus Christ— not emotion nor experience— nothing must keep you from the one great sovereign Source.
Think of the healing and far-reaching rivers developing and nourishing themselves in our souls! God has been opening up wonderful truths to our minds, and every point He has opened up is another indication of the wider power of the river that He will flow through us. If you believe in Jesus, you will find that God has developed and nourished in you mighty, rushing rivers of blessing for others.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The place for the comforter is not that of one who preaches, but of the comrade who says nothing, but prays to God about the matter. The biggest thing you can do for those who are suffering is not to talk platitudes, not to ask questions, but to get into contact with God, and the “greater works” will be done by prayer (see John 14:12–13). Baffled to Fight Better, 56 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, September 06, 2018
The Joy of Facing Forward - #8259
Oh, it was a happy day for our then one-year-old granddaughter! It was a milestone day. I mean, ever since she started riding in the car with her parents, she had been in the back seat in her infant seat, facing backward – just like the safety folks recommend you should do. Her Mom and Dad travel a lot of miles, and so even as a little girl, she saw a lot of country as it was going by. But not then! No, not anymore! Not after she got twenty pounds. Yeah, she weighed twenty pounds, the magic threshold. When you get to twenty pounds, you reach that great milestone. Mom and Dad turn your seat around and you get to see where you're going instead of where you've been.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Joy of Facing Forward."
Our granddaughter was much happier looking forward than when she was looking backward. You will be, too. Sadly, too many of us spend a whole lot of our life looking at where we've already been. You know, dwelling on the past, rehearsing those past hurts, past slights, and past injustices. And we can spend a lot of time looking backward – not just at things that have been done to us, but at things we've done. We keep rewinding those past failures, and past sins, and past mistakes. We can't seem to ever close the chapters that are already behind us. So, they're not over for us because, well, we keep dragging the past into our present and our future.
Maybe our word for today from the Word of God is for you at this point of life – an encouragement to face the other direction – to trade in despair for hope. Isaiah 43:18-19 – God gets right to the bottom line: "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? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland." In other words, "Hey, stop looking backward – focus on the road ahead." Why? Because the past can't be changed. So, focusing on what can't be changed can only lead to paralyzing self-pity, shame, bitterness, despair, and depression. Focusing on the past is a recipe for hopelessness.
And God says, "If you keep dwelling on the past, you're going to miss the whole new thing I'm trying to do in your life!" This isn't living in denial – that means you've never faced the ugly things in your past, and frankly, there's no conquering them until you face them. But if you just keep dredging them up over and over, you're missing so much of what God wants to be doing in your life now.
I want to encourage you, on behalf of the Lord of new beginnings, to make today the day that you choose to finally close that dark old chapter. That may require forgiving someone who has wronged you – not because they deserve it, any more than you and I deserved Jesus' forgiveness. You'll do it because Jesus commanded us to follow His example and release that person by forgiving them – leaving them to God to make it right, committing to treat them, not the way they treated you, but the way Jesus treated you. Closing the old chapter may mean claiming forgiveness for yourself; for the sins and the failures you just continue to replay. You stake everything on Jesus' promise – "I will forgive their wickedness and I will remember their sins no more" (Hebrews 8:12). Jesus said that. If you've been to Jesus' cross with the sin of your past, it is no longer an issue to the One who died for that sin. So, who are you to keep unburying it over and over?
You've been a slave to your past long enough. Let this be the day you claim a fresh new beginning from the Lord Jesus. Release all the darkness and pain of your past to the One who died to liberate you from it. And focus on all the new things God is birthing right in front of you.
You know that little girl in the car seat that has faced both ways. Well, we can all learn something from her. You'll be a whole lot happier looking at what's ahead of you than what's already behind you!
Salvation, from beginning to end, is a work of our Father. God does not stand on a mountain and tell us to climb it and find him. He comes down into our dark valley and finds us. God does not offer to pay all the debt minus a dollar if we’ll pay the dollar. He pays every penny! He doesn’t bargain with us, telling us to clean up our lives so he can help. He washes our sins without our help.
The message of God is the message of grace. Grace that is entirely God’s. God loving. God offering. God caring and God carrying! As you consider the insurmountable debt you owe, the debt you can never pay, let this promise be declared: “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!
Read more Unshakable Hope
Joshua 2
Rahab
Joshua son of Nun secretly sent out from Shittim two men as spies: “Go. Look over the land. Check out Jericho.” They left and arrived at the house of a harlot named Rahab and stayed there.
2 The king of Jericho was told, “We’ve just learned that men arrived tonight to spy out the land. They’re from the People of Israel.”
3 The king of Jericho sent word to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you to stay the night in your house. They’re spies; they’ve come to spy out the whole country.”
4-7 The woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, two men did come to me, but I didn’t know where they’d come from. At dark, when the gate was about to be shut, the men left. But I have no idea where they went. Hurry up! Chase them—you can still catch them!” (She had actually taken them up on the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax that were spread out for her on the roof.) So the men set chase down the Jordan road toward the fords. As soon as they were gone, the gate was shut.
8-11 Before the spies were down for the night, the woman came up to them on the roof and said, “I know that God has given you the land. We’re all afraid. Everyone in the country feels hopeless. We heard how God dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you when you left Egypt, and what he did to the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you put under a holy curse and destroyed. We heard it and our hearts sank. We all had the wind knocked out of us. And all because of you, you and God, your God, God of the heavens above and God of the earth below.
12-13 “Now promise me by God. I showed you mercy; now show my family mercy. And give me some tangible proof, a guarantee of life for my father and mother, my brothers and sisters—everyone connected with my family. Save our souls from death!”
14 “Our lives for yours!” said the men. “But don’t tell anyone our business. When God turns this land over to us, we’ll do right by you in loyal mercy.”
15-16 She lowered them down out a window with a rope because her house was on the city wall to the outside. She told them, “Run for the hills so your pursuers won’t find you. Hide out for three days and give your pursuers time to return. Then get on your way.”
17-20 The men told her, “In order to keep this oath you made us swear, here is what you must do: Hang this red rope out the window through which you let us down and gather your entire family with you in your house—father, mother, brothers, and sisters. Anyone who goes out the doors of your house into the street and is killed, it’s his own fault—we aren’t responsible. But for everyone within the house we take full responsibility. If anyone lays a hand on one of them, it’s our fault. But if you tell anyone of our business here, the oath you made us swear is canceled—we’re no longer responsible.”
21 She said, “If that’s what you say, that’s the way it is,” and sent them off. They left and she hung the red rope out the window.
22 They headed for the hills and stayed there for three days until the pursuers had returned. The pursuers had looked high and low but found nothing.
23-24 The men headed back. They came down out of the hills, crossed the river, and returned to Joshua son of Nun and reported all their experiences. They told Joshua, “Yes! God has given the whole country to us. Everybody there is in a state of panic because of us.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, September 06, 2018
READ 2 CHRONICLES 20:2–3, 14–22
Some men came and told Jehoshaphat, “A great multitude is coming against you from Edom,[a] from beyond the sea; and, behold, they are in Hazazon-tamar” (that is, Engedi). 3 Then Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.
And the Spirit of the Lord came[a] upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, son of Benaiah, son of Jeiel, son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly. 15 And he said, “Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the Lord to you, ‘Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God's. 16 Tomorrow go down against them. Behold, they will come up by the ascent of Ziz. You will find them at the end of the valley, east of the wilderness of Jeruel. 17 You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.’ Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, and the Lord will be with you.”
18 Then Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. 19 And the Levites, of the Kohathites and the Korahites, stood up to praise the Lord, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice.
20 And they rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa. And when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Believe in the Lord your God, and you will be established; believe his prophets, and you will succeed.” 21 And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the Lord and praise him in holy attire, as they went before the army, and say,
“Give thanks to the Lord,
for his steadfast love endures forever.”
22 And when they began to sing and praise, the Lord set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed.
Muscling Through
By Kirsten Holmberg
Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah.
2 Chronicles 20:3
Competitive bodybuilders put themselves through a rigorous training cycle. During the initial months, they emphasize gaining size and strength. As the competition nears, the focus shifts to losing any fat that hides the muscle. In the final days before the competition, they consume less water than normal so their muscle tissue is easily visible. Because of the reduced consumption of nourishment, the competitors are actually at their weakest on the day of competition, despite appearing strong.
In 2 Chronicles 20, we read of the opposite reality: acknowledging weakness in order to experience God’s strength. “A vast army is coming against you,” people told King Jehoshaphat. So “he proclaimed a fast for all Judah” (v. 3), depriving himself and all his people of nourishment. Then they asked God for help. When he finally mustered his military, Jehoshaphat placed singers who praised God at the front of his army (v. 21). As they began to sing, the Lord “set ambushes against the men . . . who were invading Judah, and they were defeated” (v. 22).
Jehoshaphat’s decision demonstrated deep faith in God. He purposefully chose not to depend on his own human and military prowess but instead to lean on God. Rather than trying to muscle our way through the trials we face, may we turn to Him and allow Him to be our strength.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, September 06, 2018
The Far-Reaching Rivers of Life
He who believes in Me…out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. —John 7:38
A river reaches places which its source never knows. And Jesus said that, if we have received His fullness, “rivers of living water” will flow out of us, reaching in blessing even “to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8) regardless of how small the visible effects of our lives may appear to be. We have nothing to do with the outflow— “This is the work of God, that you believe…” (John 6:29). God rarely allows a person to see how great a blessing he is to others.
A river is victoriously persistent, overcoming all barriers. For a while it goes steadily on its course, but then comes to an obstacle. And for a while it is blocked, yet it soon makes a pathway around the obstacle. Or a river will drop out of sight for miles, only later to emerge again even broader and greater than ever. Do you see God using the lives of others, but an obstacle has come into your life and you do not seem to be of any use to God? Then keep paying attention to the Source, and God will either take you around the obstacle or remove it. The river of the Spirit of God overcomes all obstacles. Never focus your eyes on the obstacle or the difficulty. The obstacle will be a matter of total indifference to the river that will flow steadily through you if you will simply remember to stay focused on the Source. Never allow anything to come between you and Jesus Christ— not emotion nor experience— nothing must keep you from the one great sovereign Source.
Think of the healing and far-reaching rivers developing and nourishing themselves in our souls! God has been opening up wonderful truths to our minds, and every point He has opened up is another indication of the wider power of the river that He will flow through us. If you believe in Jesus, you will find that God has developed and nourished in you mighty, rushing rivers of blessing for others.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The place for the comforter is not that of one who preaches, but of the comrade who says nothing, but prays to God about the matter. The biggest thing you can do for those who are suffering is not to talk platitudes, not to ask questions, but to get into contact with God, and the “greater works” will be done by prayer (see John 14:12–13). Baffled to Fight Better, 56 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, September 06, 2018
The Joy of Facing Forward - #8259
Oh, it was a happy day for our then one-year-old granddaughter! It was a milestone day. I mean, ever since she started riding in the car with her parents, she had been in the back seat in her infant seat, facing backward – just like the safety folks recommend you should do. Her Mom and Dad travel a lot of miles, and so even as a little girl, she saw a lot of country as it was going by. But not then! No, not anymore! Not after she got twenty pounds. Yeah, she weighed twenty pounds, the magic threshold. When you get to twenty pounds, you reach that great milestone. Mom and Dad turn your seat around and you get to see where you're going instead of where you've been.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Joy of Facing Forward."
Our granddaughter was much happier looking forward than when she was looking backward. You will be, too. Sadly, too many of us spend a whole lot of our life looking at where we've already been. You know, dwelling on the past, rehearsing those past hurts, past slights, and past injustices. And we can spend a lot of time looking backward – not just at things that have been done to us, but at things we've done. We keep rewinding those past failures, and past sins, and past mistakes. We can't seem to ever close the chapters that are already behind us. So, they're not over for us because, well, we keep dragging the past into our present and our future.
Maybe our word for today from the Word of God is for you at this point of life – an encouragement to face the other direction – to trade in despair for hope. Isaiah 43:18-19 – God gets right to the bottom line: "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? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland." In other words, "Hey, stop looking backward – focus on the road ahead." Why? Because the past can't be changed. So, focusing on what can't be changed can only lead to paralyzing self-pity, shame, bitterness, despair, and depression. Focusing on the past is a recipe for hopelessness.
And God says, "If you keep dwelling on the past, you're going to miss the whole new thing I'm trying to do in your life!" This isn't living in denial – that means you've never faced the ugly things in your past, and frankly, there's no conquering them until you face them. But if you just keep dredging them up over and over, you're missing so much of what God wants to be doing in your life now.
I want to encourage you, on behalf of the Lord of new beginnings, to make today the day that you choose to finally close that dark old chapter. That may require forgiving someone who has wronged you – not because they deserve it, any more than you and I deserved Jesus' forgiveness. You'll do it because Jesus commanded us to follow His example and release that person by forgiving them – leaving them to God to make it right, committing to treat them, not the way they treated you, but the way Jesus treated you. Closing the old chapter may mean claiming forgiveness for yourself; for the sins and the failures you just continue to replay. You stake everything on Jesus' promise – "I will forgive their wickedness and I will remember their sins no more" (Hebrews 8:12). Jesus said that. If you've been to Jesus' cross with the sin of your past, it is no longer an issue to the One who died for that sin. So, who are you to keep unburying it over and over?
You've been a slave to your past long enough. Let this be the day you claim a fresh new beginning from the Lord Jesus. Release all the darkness and pain of your past to the One who died to liberate you from it. And focus on all the new things God is birthing right in front of you.
You know that little girl in the car seat that has faced both ways. Well, we can all learn something from her. You'll be a whole lot happier looking at what's ahead of you than what's already behind you!
Wednesday, September 5, 2018
Joshua 1 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: A GOD OF REST
When Christ died on the Cross, “He carried our sins in his body so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right” (1 Peter 2:24). Heaven’s work of redemption was finished. Whatever barrier that had separated us, or might ever separate us from God was gone. The nagging questions are gone: Am I good enough? Will I achieve enough?
The legalist finds rest. The atheist finds hope. God is not a god of burdens but a God of rest. He knows we cannot achieve perfection. Jesus invites, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28-30). What a promise! And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakeable!
Read more Unshakable Hope
Joshua 1
After the death of Moses the servant of God, God spoke to Joshua, Moses’ assistant:
“Moses my servant is dead. Get going. Cross this Jordan River, you and all the people. Cross to the country I’m giving to the People of Israel. I’m giving you every square inch of the land you set your foot on—just as I promised Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon east to the Great River, the Euphrates River—all the Hittite country—and then west to the Great Sea. It’s all yours. All your life, no one will be able to hold out against you. In the same way I was with Moses, I’ll be with you. I won’t give up on you; I won’t leave you. Strength! Courage! You are going to lead this people to inherit the land that I promised to give their ancestors. Give it everything you have, heart and soul. Make sure you carry out The Revelation that Moses commanded you, every bit of it. Don’t get off track, either left or right, so as to make sure you get to where you’re going. And don’t for a minute let this Book of The Revelation be out of mind. Ponder and meditate on it day and night, making sure you practice everything written in it. Then you’ll get where you’re going; then you’ll succeed. Haven’t I commanded you? Strength! Courage! Don’t be timid; don’t get discouraged. God, your God, is with you every step you take.”
The Taking of the Land
10-11 Then Joshua gave orders to the people’s leaders: “Go through the camp and give this order to the people: ‘Pack your bags. In three days you will cross this Jordan River to enter and take the land God, your God, is giving you to possess.’”
12-15 Then Joshua addressed the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. He said, “Remember what Moses the servant of God commanded you: God, your God, gives you rest and he gives you this land. Your wives, your children, and your livestock can stay here east of the Jordan, the country Moses gave you; but you, tough soldiers all, must cross the River in battle formation, leading your brothers, helping them until God, your God, gives your brothers a place of rest just as he has done for you. They also will take possession of the land that God, your God, is giving them. Then you will be free to return to your possession, given to you by Moses the servant of God, across the Jordan to the east.”
16-18 They answered Joshua: “Everything you commanded us, we’ll do. Wherever you send us, we’ll go. We obeyed Moses to the letter; we’ll also obey you—we just pray that God, your God, will be with you as he was with Moses. Anyone who questions what you say and refuses to obey whatever you command him will be put to death. Strength! Courage!”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, September 05, 2018
Wednesday, September 05, 2018
Read: John 4:7–14, 39–42
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.[a] The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Footnotes:
John 4:14 Greek forever
John 4:39-42 English Standard Version (ESV)
39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”
INSIGHT
Jewish-Samaritan tension had a long history. When Israel was overrun by Assyria (743–720 bc; see 2 Kings 15–18), most of the people were taken into exile, but a small remnant stayed behind under Assyrian rule. In the ensuing years, these populations intermarried, producing the ethnically mixed group known as Samaritans. This perceived ethnic “impurity” was the basis for Jewish disregard for their northern cousins.
Are there people you’re disregarding because of perceived inferiority? - Bill Crowder
Building Bridges
By Lawrence Darmani
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28
In our neighborhood, high concrete walls surround our homes. Many of these walls are enhanced with electric barbed wires lining the top. The purpose? To ward off robbers.
Frequent power outages are also a problem in our community. These outages render the front gate-bell useless. Because of the wall, a visitor may be kept out in the scorching sun or torrential rain during these outages. Yet even when the gate-bell works, to admit the visitor might depend on who they are. Our fence-walls serve a good purpose, but they can become walls of discrimination—even when the visitor is obviously not an intruder.
The Samaritan woman whom Jesus met at the well had a similar difficulty with discrimination. The Jews had nothing to do with Samaritans. When Jesus asked her for a drink, she said, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (John 4:9). As she began to open up to Jesus, she had a life-changing experience that positively affected her and her neighbors (vv. 39–42). Jesus became the bridge that broke the wall of hostility and favoritism.
The lure to discriminate is real, and we need to identify it in our lives. As Jesus showed us, we can reach out to all people regardless of nationality, social status, or reputation. He came to build bridges.
Lord, thank You for teaching me not to discriminate among people. Help me to see people through Your eyes so that I may honor You.
Jesus breaks down the walls of discrimination.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, September 05, 2018
Watching With Jesus
Stay here and watch with Me. —Matthew 26:38
“Watch with Me.” Jesus was saying, in effect, “Watch with no private point of view at all, but watch solely and entirely with Me.” In the early stages of our Christian life, we do not watch with Jesus, we watch for Him. We do not watch with Him through the revealed truth of the Bible even in the circumstances of our own lives. Our Lord is trying to introduce us to identification with Himself through a particular “Gethsemane” experience of our own. But we refuse to go, saying, “No, Lord, I can’t see the meaning of this, and besides, it’s very painful.” And how can we possibly watch with Someone who is so incomprehensible? How are we going to understand Jesus sufficiently to watch with Him in His Gethsemane, when we don’t even know why He is suffering? We don’t know how to watch with Him— we are only used to the idea of Jesus watching with us.
The disciples loved Jesus Christ to the limit of their natural capacity, but they did not fully understand His purpose. In the Garden of Gethsemane they slept as a result of their own sorrow, and at the end of three years of the closest and most intimate relationship of their lives they “all…forsook Him and fled” (Matthew 26:56).
“They were all filled with the Holy Spirit…” (Acts 2:4). “They” refers to the same people, but something wonderful has happened between these two events— our Lord’s death, resurrection, and ascension— and the disciples have now been invaded and “filled with the Holy Spirit.” Our Lord had said, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…” (Acts 1:8). This meant that they learned to watch with Him the rest of their lives.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Bible does not thrill; the Bible nourishes. Give time to the reading of the Bible and the recreating effect is as real as that of fresh air physically. Disciples Indeed, 387 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, September 05, 2018
Beauty From Brokenness - #8258
Our daughter-in-law grew up in the desert. So, the first time she saw the ocean, and the seashells that are all over the beach at low tide, she said, "Can you keep them?" She did! I mean, the good news is, "Yes, you can." And we've loved collecting seashells when we've had opportunity to spend time along the coast. Some of those shells make it to the shore totally intact. Others, well you know, are broken, sometimes by the surf, sometimes by seagulls who've peck them open to get at their yummy tenants. Occasionally, I've found a particularly striking treasure, though, like the conch shell that I picked up a few years ago. It was badly broken. But inside there was some amazing beauty-beautiful swirls in white and blue and pearl, and it made an incredible design to behold. Outside, that shell was just like rough and plain-just another shell-but not on the inside. I never would have seen its unforgettable beauty if it hadn't been broken.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Beauty From Brokenness."
God displays some of His most beautiful creations through broken things. Maybe broken is a word that in some way describes you right now. Then it's possible He could show folks some of His beauty through you.
As hard as that might be for you to believe right now, you need to hear what your Creator has promised to broken people in our word for today from the Word of God. It's in Isaiah 61, beginning with verse 1. Speaking of Jesus, the Bible says, "The Sovereign Lord has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners...to comfort all those who mourn...to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair." God says that, through His Son, He wants to unleash in your soul healing for the pain of your past, and a freedom from the darkness that has brought you down. He wants to turn what's been something ugly into something beautiful and something life-giving.
He goes on to say of the broken people He touches that "they will be called oaks of righteousness...for the display of His splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated...All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the Lord has blessed." So, God says He wants to do a powerful restoring, hope-giving work in broken people, so He can use them to do a powerful, hope-giving work for Him in a broken world.
I know He does that. I've seen it in a team of young Native Americans who have lived the despair of the highest rates of alcohol and drug abuse, and sexual abuse, and suicide on this continent. They are broken! But with Christ now in their lives, they go on our On Eagles' Wings team to the heart of North America's reservations telling their hope stories. And a generation that hasn't listened to anyone, that's written off Jesus as the white man's God, listens to them. And they have led literally thousands of Native Americans to Christ, because the light shines more brightly through broken vessels...a broken vessel like you maybe.
They will listen to you because of your scars. They can see through your wounds the amazing beauty of a joy and a hope that only a Savior like Jesus can give. If you'll turn away from your despair, and maybe your bitterness, anger, self-pity, and give your brokenness to Him, He can do that miracle for you.
The songwriter was right when he said this, "All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife. But He made something beautiful of my life."
When Christ died on the Cross, “He carried our sins in his body so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right” (1 Peter 2:24). Heaven’s work of redemption was finished. Whatever barrier that had separated us, or might ever separate us from God was gone. The nagging questions are gone: Am I good enough? Will I achieve enough?
The legalist finds rest. The atheist finds hope. God is not a god of burdens but a God of rest. He knows we cannot achieve perfection. Jesus invites, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28-30). What a promise! And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakeable!
Read more Unshakable Hope
Joshua 1
After the death of Moses the servant of God, God spoke to Joshua, Moses’ assistant:
“Moses my servant is dead. Get going. Cross this Jordan River, you and all the people. Cross to the country I’m giving to the People of Israel. I’m giving you every square inch of the land you set your foot on—just as I promised Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon east to the Great River, the Euphrates River—all the Hittite country—and then west to the Great Sea. It’s all yours. All your life, no one will be able to hold out against you. In the same way I was with Moses, I’ll be with you. I won’t give up on you; I won’t leave you. Strength! Courage! You are going to lead this people to inherit the land that I promised to give their ancestors. Give it everything you have, heart and soul. Make sure you carry out The Revelation that Moses commanded you, every bit of it. Don’t get off track, either left or right, so as to make sure you get to where you’re going. And don’t for a minute let this Book of The Revelation be out of mind. Ponder and meditate on it day and night, making sure you practice everything written in it. Then you’ll get where you’re going; then you’ll succeed. Haven’t I commanded you? Strength! Courage! Don’t be timid; don’t get discouraged. God, your God, is with you every step you take.”
The Taking of the Land
10-11 Then Joshua gave orders to the people’s leaders: “Go through the camp and give this order to the people: ‘Pack your bags. In three days you will cross this Jordan River to enter and take the land God, your God, is giving you to possess.’”
12-15 Then Joshua addressed the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. He said, “Remember what Moses the servant of God commanded you: God, your God, gives you rest and he gives you this land. Your wives, your children, and your livestock can stay here east of the Jordan, the country Moses gave you; but you, tough soldiers all, must cross the River in battle formation, leading your brothers, helping them until God, your God, gives your brothers a place of rest just as he has done for you. They also will take possession of the land that God, your God, is giving them. Then you will be free to return to your possession, given to you by Moses the servant of God, across the Jordan to the east.”
16-18 They answered Joshua: “Everything you commanded us, we’ll do. Wherever you send us, we’ll go. We obeyed Moses to the letter; we’ll also obey you—we just pray that God, your God, will be with you as he was with Moses. Anyone who questions what you say and refuses to obey whatever you command him will be put to death. Strength! Courage!”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, September 05, 2018
Wednesday, September 05, 2018
Read: John 4:7–14, 39–42
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.[a] The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Footnotes:
John 4:14 Greek forever
John 4:39-42 English Standard Version (ESV)
39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”
INSIGHT
Jewish-Samaritan tension had a long history. When Israel was overrun by Assyria (743–720 bc; see 2 Kings 15–18), most of the people were taken into exile, but a small remnant stayed behind under Assyrian rule. In the ensuing years, these populations intermarried, producing the ethnically mixed group known as Samaritans. This perceived ethnic “impurity” was the basis for Jewish disregard for their northern cousins.
Are there people you’re disregarding because of perceived inferiority? - Bill Crowder
Building Bridges
By Lawrence Darmani
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28
In our neighborhood, high concrete walls surround our homes. Many of these walls are enhanced with electric barbed wires lining the top. The purpose? To ward off robbers.
Frequent power outages are also a problem in our community. These outages render the front gate-bell useless. Because of the wall, a visitor may be kept out in the scorching sun or torrential rain during these outages. Yet even when the gate-bell works, to admit the visitor might depend on who they are. Our fence-walls serve a good purpose, but they can become walls of discrimination—even when the visitor is obviously not an intruder.
The Samaritan woman whom Jesus met at the well had a similar difficulty with discrimination. The Jews had nothing to do with Samaritans. When Jesus asked her for a drink, she said, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (John 4:9). As she began to open up to Jesus, she had a life-changing experience that positively affected her and her neighbors (vv. 39–42). Jesus became the bridge that broke the wall of hostility and favoritism.
The lure to discriminate is real, and we need to identify it in our lives. As Jesus showed us, we can reach out to all people regardless of nationality, social status, or reputation. He came to build bridges.
Lord, thank You for teaching me not to discriminate among people. Help me to see people through Your eyes so that I may honor You.
Jesus breaks down the walls of discrimination.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, September 05, 2018
Watching With Jesus
Stay here and watch with Me. —Matthew 26:38
“Watch with Me.” Jesus was saying, in effect, “Watch with no private point of view at all, but watch solely and entirely with Me.” In the early stages of our Christian life, we do not watch with Jesus, we watch for Him. We do not watch with Him through the revealed truth of the Bible even in the circumstances of our own lives. Our Lord is trying to introduce us to identification with Himself through a particular “Gethsemane” experience of our own. But we refuse to go, saying, “No, Lord, I can’t see the meaning of this, and besides, it’s very painful.” And how can we possibly watch with Someone who is so incomprehensible? How are we going to understand Jesus sufficiently to watch with Him in His Gethsemane, when we don’t even know why He is suffering? We don’t know how to watch with Him— we are only used to the idea of Jesus watching with us.
The disciples loved Jesus Christ to the limit of their natural capacity, but they did not fully understand His purpose. In the Garden of Gethsemane they slept as a result of their own sorrow, and at the end of three years of the closest and most intimate relationship of their lives they “all…forsook Him and fled” (Matthew 26:56).
“They were all filled with the Holy Spirit…” (Acts 2:4). “They” refers to the same people, but something wonderful has happened between these two events— our Lord’s death, resurrection, and ascension— and the disciples have now been invaded and “filled with the Holy Spirit.” Our Lord had said, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…” (Acts 1:8). This meant that they learned to watch with Him the rest of their lives.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Bible does not thrill; the Bible nourishes. Give time to the reading of the Bible and the recreating effect is as real as that of fresh air physically. Disciples Indeed, 387 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, September 05, 2018
Beauty From Brokenness - #8258
Our daughter-in-law grew up in the desert. So, the first time she saw the ocean, and the seashells that are all over the beach at low tide, she said, "Can you keep them?" She did! I mean, the good news is, "Yes, you can." And we've loved collecting seashells when we've had opportunity to spend time along the coast. Some of those shells make it to the shore totally intact. Others, well you know, are broken, sometimes by the surf, sometimes by seagulls who've peck them open to get at their yummy tenants. Occasionally, I've found a particularly striking treasure, though, like the conch shell that I picked up a few years ago. It was badly broken. But inside there was some amazing beauty-beautiful swirls in white and blue and pearl, and it made an incredible design to behold. Outside, that shell was just like rough and plain-just another shell-but not on the inside. I never would have seen its unforgettable beauty if it hadn't been broken.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Beauty From Brokenness."
God displays some of His most beautiful creations through broken things. Maybe broken is a word that in some way describes you right now. Then it's possible He could show folks some of His beauty through you.
As hard as that might be for you to believe right now, you need to hear what your Creator has promised to broken people in our word for today from the Word of God. It's in Isaiah 61, beginning with verse 1. Speaking of Jesus, the Bible says, "The Sovereign Lord has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners...to comfort all those who mourn...to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair." God says that, through His Son, He wants to unleash in your soul healing for the pain of your past, and a freedom from the darkness that has brought you down. He wants to turn what's been something ugly into something beautiful and something life-giving.
He goes on to say of the broken people He touches that "they will be called oaks of righteousness...for the display of His splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated...All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the Lord has blessed." So, God says He wants to do a powerful restoring, hope-giving work in broken people, so He can use them to do a powerful, hope-giving work for Him in a broken world.
I know He does that. I've seen it in a team of young Native Americans who have lived the despair of the highest rates of alcohol and drug abuse, and sexual abuse, and suicide on this continent. They are broken! But with Christ now in their lives, they go on our On Eagles' Wings team to the heart of North America's reservations telling their hope stories. And a generation that hasn't listened to anyone, that's written off Jesus as the white man's God, listens to them. And they have led literally thousands of Native Americans to Christ, because the light shines more brightly through broken vessels...a broken vessel like you maybe.
They will listen to you because of your scars. They can see through your wounds the amazing beauty of a joy and a hope that only a Savior like Jesus can give. If you'll turn away from your despair, and maybe your bitterness, anger, self-pity, and give your brokenness to Him, He can do that miracle for you.
The songwriter was right when he said this, "All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife. But He made something beautiful of my life."
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