Max Lucado Daily: IT’S YOUR SERVE
“And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:27–28).
Jesus came to serve. Suppose you took that role. Be the family member who offers to wash the dishes after dinner. Be the neighbor who mows the grass of the elderly people. Find happiness in serving others. Doing good does the doer good.
What would happen if everyone took on the role of a servant? How many marriages would be blessed? If politicians set out to serve people more than serve themselves, would their country benefit? If churches were populated by sincere servants, how many people would hear the invitation of a lifetime? Service… it’s how happiness happens.
Philippians 3
And that’s about it, friends. Be glad in God!
I don’t mind repeating what I have written in earlier letters, and I hope you don’t mind hearing it again. Better safe than sorry—so here goes.
2-6 Steer clear of the barking dogs, those religious busybodies, all bark and no bite. All they’re interested in is appearances—knife-happy circumcisers, I call them. The real believers are the ones the Spirit of God leads to work away at this ministry, filling the air with Christ’s praise as we do it. We couldn’t carry this off by our own efforts, and we know it—even though we can list what many might think are impressive credentials. You know my pedigree: a legitimate birth, circumcised on the eighth day; an Israelite from the elite tribe of Benjamin; a strict and devout adherent to God’s law; a fiery defender of the purity of my religion, even to the point of persecuting the church; a meticulous observer of everything set down in God’s law Book.
7-9 The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness.
10-11 I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it.
12-14 I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back.
15-16 So let’s keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us. If any of you have something else in mind, something less than total commitment, God will clear your blurred vision—you’ll see it yet! Now that we’re on the right track, let’s stay on it.
17-19 Stick with me, friends. Keep track of those you see running this same course, headed for this same goal. There are many out there taking other paths, choosing other goals, and trying to get you to go along with them. I’ve warned you of them many times; sadly, I’m having to do it again. All they want is easy street. They hate Christ’s Cross. But easy street is a dead-end street. Those who live there make their bellies their gods; belches are their praise; all they can think of is their appetites.
20-21 But there’s far more to life for us. We’re citizens of high heaven! We’re waiting the arrival of the Savior, the Master, Jesus Christ, who will transform our earthy bodies into glorious bodies like his own. He’ll make us beautiful and whole with the same powerful skill by which he is putting everything as it should be, under and around him.
The Message (MSG)
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, October 04, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Matthew 14:23–33
After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
29 “Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
Insight
The gospels of Matthew and Mark describe two separate occasions when Jesus, in the presence of His frightened disciples, calms a storm on the lake of Galilee. In the first of these events, Jesus is asleep in the bow of the boat when a storm threatens to sink it (Matthew 8:23–27; Mark 4:35–41). In the second, the disciples are crossing the lake by themselves when Jesus comes to them in the storm walking on the waves (Matthew 14:22–33; Mark 6:45–51).
Although Luke describes only the occasion when Jesus was asleep in the boat (8:22–25) and John describes only the storm that occurred while He walked on water (6:16–21), the accounts in Matthew and Mark show us that by the time Christ stepped into the boat and calmed a storm with His presence, the disciples had already seen Him calm a storm with His command. By: Mart DeHaan
He Calms the Storms
But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Matthew 14:27
Jim was frantically sharing about problems he was encountering with his work team: division, judgmental attitudes, and misunderstandings. After an hour of patiently listening to his concerns, I suggested, “Let’s ask Jesus what He would have us do in this situation.” We sat quietly for five minutes. Then something amazing happened. We both felt God’s peace cover us like a blanket. We were more relaxed as we experienced His presence and guidance, and we felt confident to wade back into the difficulties.
Peter, one of Jesus’s disciples, needed God’s comforting presence. One night he and the other disciples were sailing across the Sea of Galilee when a strong storm arose. All of a sudden, Jesus showed up walking on water! Naturally, this took the disciples by surprise. He reassured them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid” (Matthew 14:27). Peter impulsively asked Jesus if he could join Him. He stepped out of the boat and walked toward Jesus. But he soon lost focus, became aware of the dangerous and humanly impossible circumstance he was in, and started sinking. He cried out, “Lord, save me!” and Jesus lovingly rescued him (vv. 30–31).
Like Peter, we can learn that Jesus, the Son of God, is with us even in the storms of life! By: Estera Pirosca Escobar
Reflect & Pray
What storm of life are you going through today? What can you do to shift your focus from the storm to the One who can calm it?
Jesus, thank You that You have the power and authority to calm the storms in our lives. Help us to trust You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, October 04, 2019
The Vision and The Reality
…to those who are…called to be saints… —1 Corinthians 1:2
Thank God for being able to see all that you have not yet been. You have had the vision, but you are not yet to the reality of it by any means. It is when we are in the valley, where we prove whether we will be the choice ones, that most of us turn back. We are not quite prepared for the bumps and bruises that must come if we are going to be turned into the shape of the vision. We have seen what we are not, and what God wants us to be, but are we willing to be battered into the shape of the vision to be used by God? The beatings will always come in the most common, everyday ways and through common, everyday people.
There are times when we do know what God’s purpose is; whether we will let the vision be turned into actual character depends on us, not on God. If we prefer to relax on the mountaintop and live in the memory of the vision, then we will be of no real use in the ordinary things of which human life is made. We have to learn to live in reliance upon what we saw in the vision, not simply live in ecstatic delight and conscious reflection upon God. This means living the realities of our lives in the light of the vision until the truth of the vision is actually realized in us. Every bit of our training is in that direction. Learn to thank God for making His demands known.
Our little “I am” always sulks and pouts when God says do. Let your little “I am” be shriveled up in God’s wrath and indignation— “I AM WHO I AM…has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14). He must dominate. Isn’t it piercing to realize that God not only knows where we live, but also knows the gutters into which we crawl! He will hunt us down as fast as a flash of lightning. No human being knows human beings as God does.
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
Friday, October 04, 2019
How to Be Sure You'll Make it Home - #8540
Our friend commuted in his private plane hundreds of times. He flew from a little airfield near his house to the community where his office was. Well, knowing that he wanted to get home one day before the weather set in, he left his office earlier than usual and he headed for his plane. As he was boarding, he told a friend, "I'm going home!" Those may have been his last words. As he landed a few minutes later, the plane went into a skid and slammed into a tree. He probably died instantly, but he still made it home.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Be Sure You'll Make it Home."
Our friend had made it known to a lot of people that he cared about that he had placed his total trust in Jesus Christ to forgive his sins and take him to heaven when he died. And while it was his home on earth he thought he was heading for, his last words had more meaning than he could have ever known. He really was going home - to the eternal home in heaven that we all hope we'll go to when we take our last flight.
I hope you have that kind of security. I hope you know beyond any shadow of a doubt that you are, in the words of the Bible, "prepared to meet your God" (Amos 4:12). That you are going to heaven when you die. It has nothing to do with being good enough to be in heaven. It has everything to do with what Jesus did when He died to remove the only thing that will keep you out of heaven, which is all the sins of your life.
There's a peace and a security that is beyond words in knowing that death no longer has any hold over you. It is, in reality, a non-issue because of Jesus. In Hebrews 2:14, our word for today from the Word of God, God says that Jesus "shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death - that is the devil - and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." Or as another Bible writer says, "Christ Jesus...has destroyed death" (2 Timothy 1:10).
The Bible doesn't take death lightly. In fact, it refers to death as "the last enemy to be destroyed" (1 Corinthians 15:26). But it goes on to say that "death has been swallowed up in victory" by Jesus blowing the doors off death when He rose from the dead on Easter morning.
One Easter Sunday morning, Dr. Adrian Rogers' daughter read an amazing poem in their church service. King Death and Father Time are talking outside of Jesus' tomb. Death tells Time that he is "guarding just one grave" because Jesus has threatened to challenge him. And Death says, "When I steps in to cut 'em down, it's for eternity." But three days later, Time finds Death quivering on the ground.
When Time asks what happened, Death says, "He came and got ahold of me and He threw me to the ground. He put His foot here on my neck and He took my keys and crown. Two angels came to talk with Him. They glistened like the sun. He said, 'The job's all finished, boys. Redemption's work is done.'" Wow! And Death concludes by saying, "I'm just a lowly servant now. I've little time to roam. I open up the soul gate and help the saints go home."
That's the only thing death can do now is take you to heaven if you know Jesus Christ personally. Maybe you've never grabbed Jesus as your only hope. Eternity is just too long to risk one more day without Him. Today why don't you tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours. I believe I was made by You and I was made for You, but I've wandered away from You. I've done things that have broken Your laws and broken Your heart. And I believe You loved me so much that when You died on the cross, some of that sin You were dying for was my sin. And I believe You're alive today, and I want You to be alive in me. I want to belong to You from this day on."
You know, if that's where your heart is right now, you're feeling that tug of Jesus his direction, I want to ask you to make one of your next steps to go to our website and find there, the information that will help you get this settled once and for all. That site is ANewStory.com.
Beginning this day, you can know beyond any shadow of a doubt that you are going to heaven when you die. Why? Because you've put yourself in the hands of the only One who can take you there. And whenever your last day on earth is, you'll just be going home.
Friday, October 4, 2019
Thursday, October 3, 2019
Psalm 92, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: JESUS SERVED HIS DISCIPLES
The disciples were on the Sea of Galilee when they heard Jesus call out from the shore. When they reached the beach, they saw the most extraordinary sight. Jesus was cooking! He told them, “Come and eat breakfast” (John 21:12).
Shouldn’t the roles be reversed? Jesus had just ripped the gates of hell off their hinges. He’d made a deposit of grace that forever offsets our debt of sin. He, the unrivaled Commander of the Universe, wore the apron? Even more, he has yet to remove it. He promises a feast in heaven at which “he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them” (Luke 12:37).
Can you imagine the sight? Someone asks, “Has anyone seen Jesus?” “Yes, He’s on the other side of the banquet room serving ice tea.” This is how happiness happens.
Psalm 92
A Sabbath Song
What a beautiful thing, God, to give thanks,
to sing an anthem to you, the High God!
To announce your love each daybreak,
sing your faithful presence all through the night,
Accompanied by dulcimer and harp,
the full-bodied music of strings.
4-9 You made me so happy, God
I saw your work and I shouted for joy.
How magnificent your work, God!
How profound your thoughts!
Dullards never notice what you do;
fools never do get it.
When the wicked popped up like weeds
and all the evil men and women took over,
You mowed them down,
finished them off once and for all.
You, God, are High and Eternal.
Look at your enemies, God!
Look at your enemies—ruined!
Scattered to the winds, all those hirelings of evil!
10-14 But you’ve made me strong as a charging bison,
you’ve honored me with a festive parade.
The sight of my critics going down is still fresh,
the rout of my malicious detractors.
My ears are filled with the sounds of promise:
“Good people will prosper like palm trees,
Grow tall like Lebanon cedars;
transplanted to God’s courtyard,
They’ll grow tall in the presence of God,
lithe and green, virile still in old age.”
15 Such witnesses to upright God!
My Mountain, my huge, holy Mountain!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, October 03, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 139:1–10
For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.
1 You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
Insight
A simple definition of the word theology is “the study of God.” In Psalm 139, David didn’t set out to write a mini-course on theology, but his prayer-filled composition is just that. Verses 1–18 include three unique characteristics of the God of the Bible: He is omniscient (all-knowing, vv. 1–6), omnipresent (always present, vv. 7–12), and omnipotent (all-powerful, vv. 13–18). It’s staggering when we think of God in the way Psalm 139 depicts Him. The psalmist’s writing is very personal (notice the number of first-person pronouns). David doesn’t leave us with abstract thoughts about a distant God, but his reflections lead to personal application: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (vv. 23–24).
To learn more about basic Christian beliefs visit christianuniversity.org/ST101. By: Arthur Jackson
Love’s Long Reach
Oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! Romans 11:33
Mary Lee is a sixteen-foot, 3,500-pound great white shark tagged by oceanographers off the east coast of the US in 2012. The transmitter attached to her dorsal fin would be tracked by satellite when she surfaced. For the next five years Mary Lee’s movements were observed online by everyone from researchers to surfers, up and down the coast. She was tracked for nearly 40,000 miles until one day her signal stopped—probably because the battery on her transmitter expired.
Human knowledge and technology reach only so far. Those “following” Mary Lee lost track of her, but you and I can never evade God’s awareness throughout every moment of our lives. David prayed, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there” (Psalm 139:7–8). “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,” he exclaims gratefully (v. 6).
God chooses to know us because He loves us. He cares enough not only to observe our lives but also to enter into them and make them new. He drew near through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, so we could know Him in return and love Him for eternity. We can never go beyond the reach of God’s love. By: James Banks
Reflect & Pray
How does the thought that God knows and loves us completely encourage you? How will you reach out to others with His love today?
Thank You for always seeing me, Father! Help me to live today with a growing awareness of Your presence and perfect love.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, October 03, 2019
The Place of Ministry
He said to them, "This kind [of unclean spirit] can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting." —Mark 9:29
“His disciples asked Him privately, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’ ” (Mark 9:28). The answer lies in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. “This kind can come out by nothing but” concentrating on Him, and then doubling and redoubling that concentration on Him. We can remain powerless forever, as the disciples were in this situation, by trying to do God’s work without concentrating on His power, and by following instead the ideas that we draw from our own nature. We actually slander and dishonor God by our very eagerness to serve Him without knowing Him.
When you are brought face to face with a difficult situation and nothing happens externally, you can still know that freedom and release will be given because of your continued concentration on Jesus Christ. Your duty in service and ministry is to see that there is nothing between Jesus and yourself. Is there anything between you and Jesus even now? If there is, you must get through it, not by ignoring it as an irritation, or by going up and over it, but by facing it and getting through it into the presence of Jesus Christ. Then that very problem itself, and all that you have been through in connection with it, will glorify Jesus Christ in a way that you will never know until you see Him face to face.
We must be able to “mount up with wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:31), but we must also know how to come down. The power of the saint lies in the coming down and in the living that is done in the valley. Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13) and what he was referring to were mostly humiliating things. And yet it is in our power to refuse to be humiliated and to say, “No, thank you, I much prefer to be on the mountaintop with God.” Can I face things as they actually are in the light of the reality of Jesus Christ, or do things as they really are destroy my faith in Him, and put me into a panic?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Our danger is to water down God’s word to suit ourselves. God never fits His word to suit me; He fits me to suit His word. Not Knowing Whither, 901 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, October 03, 2019
Out of Sight - #8539
I had been going through this basement closet. I found some buried treasure. Actually, it was a little suitcase filled with the love letters that my wife and I had exchanged over two years of our courtship and engagement - and no you can't see them. It was pretty moving for me to read them again after all these years. As I relived our early romance through those letters, I had an idea, why not put some of these in a scrapbook and give them as a gift to my wife. Small problem: how am I going to do this and keep it a surprise? I actually set up a partition in the back half of our basement. I moved some big furniture around to further obstruct the view, and I made myself a secret "No Trespassing" workshop! Finally, one day I presented to my Honey this book entitled "Chronicles of a Lifetime Love." She had no idea what I'd been working on for her, because, see, I did all the work on it out of her sight!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Out of Sight."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Hebrews 11:1 - I think you'll see what this has to do with it. "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Why is it so important to understand what faith is all about? Well, chapter 11 verse 6 says, "Without faith it is impossible to please God." Faith is the way to God's heart. Faith is "...being certain of what we do not see." This is not how we're wired to think. Right? Instinctively, we're only sure of what we can see - what we can hold. We're slaves to the visible - the tangible. God is like me working on that scrapbook in the basement, He's doing something really special, but He's doing it mostly out of our sight.
Faith isn't based on the evidence that you can see. It's based on the character of the God you're trusting. In chapter 11 verse 3 in Hebrews it says, "By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command." Hello! If He can do that, isn't your situation like a piece of cake compared to forming the universe? It could be that what you can see right now is pretty discouraging: 'I can't see where the money is going to come from, the place I need, the person I need, the strength, the healing I need.' What's in your hand or even in your reach isn't going to do it. But, remember much of God's greatest work is done out of your sight.
The flowers that burst and bloom in the spring? Well, they've been germinating out of sight for a long time before that. That new born baby you hold in your hands has been developing out of sight for months. In fact, it takes a test to find out that that little person's even there at first. God does some awesome work invisibly, and He's doing invisible work for you right now. If you react or you decide, based on just what you can see, you're going to be proceeding on incomplete data, and you're likely to make a mistake!
Faith reaches beyond the visible and it says, "God is going to keep His promises." He always does. The God factor radically changes the whole equation. He's working right now on the answer that will bring Him the most glory and me the most good.
Now look, I don't need to panic, I'm not going to abandon ship, I'm not going to act as if things are out of control. Run around and try to fix it myself. Why? Because faith is being certain of what we do not see because of the kind of God we have.
My wife had no idea what was going on behind that screen in the basement, but she trusted me. Behind the screen, God is working on a gift for you that is very special, and you'll see it when it's done. Until then, trust in the One whose work you cannot see, but whose love you should never doubt.
The disciples were on the Sea of Galilee when they heard Jesus call out from the shore. When they reached the beach, they saw the most extraordinary sight. Jesus was cooking! He told them, “Come and eat breakfast” (John 21:12).
Shouldn’t the roles be reversed? Jesus had just ripped the gates of hell off their hinges. He’d made a deposit of grace that forever offsets our debt of sin. He, the unrivaled Commander of the Universe, wore the apron? Even more, he has yet to remove it. He promises a feast in heaven at which “he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them” (Luke 12:37).
Can you imagine the sight? Someone asks, “Has anyone seen Jesus?” “Yes, He’s on the other side of the banquet room serving ice tea.” This is how happiness happens.
Psalm 92
A Sabbath Song
What a beautiful thing, God, to give thanks,
to sing an anthem to you, the High God!
To announce your love each daybreak,
sing your faithful presence all through the night,
Accompanied by dulcimer and harp,
the full-bodied music of strings.
4-9 You made me so happy, God
I saw your work and I shouted for joy.
How magnificent your work, God!
How profound your thoughts!
Dullards never notice what you do;
fools never do get it.
When the wicked popped up like weeds
and all the evil men and women took over,
You mowed them down,
finished them off once and for all.
You, God, are High and Eternal.
Look at your enemies, God!
Look at your enemies—ruined!
Scattered to the winds, all those hirelings of evil!
10-14 But you’ve made me strong as a charging bison,
you’ve honored me with a festive parade.
The sight of my critics going down is still fresh,
the rout of my malicious detractors.
My ears are filled with the sounds of promise:
“Good people will prosper like palm trees,
Grow tall like Lebanon cedars;
transplanted to God’s courtyard,
They’ll grow tall in the presence of God,
lithe and green, virile still in old age.”
15 Such witnesses to upright God!
My Mountain, my huge, holy Mountain!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, October 03, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 139:1–10
For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.
1 You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
Insight
A simple definition of the word theology is “the study of God.” In Psalm 139, David didn’t set out to write a mini-course on theology, but his prayer-filled composition is just that. Verses 1–18 include three unique characteristics of the God of the Bible: He is omniscient (all-knowing, vv. 1–6), omnipresent (always present, vv. 7–12), and omnipotent (all-powerful, vv. 13–18). It’s staggering when we think of God in the way Psalm 139 depicts Him. The psalmist’s writing is very personal (notice the number of first-person pronouns). David doesn’t leave us with abstract thoughts about a distant God, but his reflections lead to personal application: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (vv. 23–24).
To learn more about basic Christian beliefs visit christianuniversity.org/ST101. By: Arthur Jackson
Love’s Long Reach
Oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! Romans 11:33
Mary Lee is a sixteen-foot, 3,500-pound great white shark tagged by oceanographers off the east coast of the US in 2012. The transmitter attached to her dorsal fin would be tracked by satellite when she surfaced. For the next five years Mary Lee’s movements were observed online by everyone from researchers to surfers, up and down the coast. She was tracked for nearly 40,000 miles until one day her signal stopped—probably because the battery on her transmitter expired.
Human knowledge and technology reach only so far. Those “following” Mary Lee lost track of her, but you and I can never evade God’s awareness throughout every moment of our lives. David prayed, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there” (Psalm 139:7–8). “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,” he exclaims gratefully (v. 6).
God chooses to know us because He loves us. He cares enough not only to observe our lives but also to enter into them and make them new. He drew near through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, so we could know Him in return and love Him for eternity. We can never go beyond the reach of God’s love. By: James Banks
Reflect & Pray
How does the thought that God knows and loves us completely encourage you? How will you reach out to others with His love today?
Thank You for always seeing me, Father! Help me to live today with a growing awareness of Your presence and perfect love.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, October 03, 2019
The Place of Ministry
He said to them, "This kind [of unclean spirit] can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting." —Mark 9:29
“His disciples asked Him privately, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’ ” (Mark 9:28). The answer lies in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. “This kind can come out by nothing but” concentrating on Him, and then doubling and redoubling that concentration on Him. We can remain powerless forever, as the disciples were in this situation, by trying to do God’s work without concentrating on His power, and by following instead the ideas that we draw from our own nature. We actually slander and dishonor God by our very eagerness to serve Him without knowing Him.
When you are brought face to face with a difficult situation and nothing happens externally, you can still know that freedom and release will be given because of your continued concentration on Jesus Christ. Your duty in service and ministry is to see that there is nothing between Jesus and yourself. Is there anything between you and Jesus even now? If there is, you must get through it, not by ignoring it as an irritation, or by going up and over it, but by facing it and getting through it into the presence of Jesus Christ. Then that very problem itself, and all that you have been through in connection with it, will glorify Jesus Christ in a way that you will never know until you see Him face to face.
We must be able to “mount up with wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:31), but we must also know how to come down. The power of the saint lies in the coming down and in the living that is done in the valley. Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13) and what he was referring to were mostly humiliating things. And yet it is in our power to refuse to be humiliated and to say, “No, thank you, I much prefer to be on the mountaintop with God.” Can I face things as they actually are in the light of the reality of Jesus Christ, or do things as they really are destroy my faith in Him, and put me into a panic?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Our danger is to water down God’s word to suit ourselves. God never fits His word to suit me; He fits me to suit His word. Not Knowing Whither, 901 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, October 03, 2019
Out of Sight - #8539
I had been going through this basement closet. I found some buried treasure. Actually, it was a little suitcase filled with the love letters that my wife and I had exchanged over two years of our courtship and engagement - and no you can't see them. It was pretty moving for me to read them again after all these years. As I relived our early romance through those letters, I had an idea, why not put some of these in a scrapbook and give them as a gift to my wife. Small problem: how am I going to do this and keep it a surprise? I actually set up a partition in the back half of our basement. I moved some big furniture around to further obstruct the view, and I made myself a secret "No Trespassing" workshop! Finally, one day I presented to my Honey this book entitled "Chronicles of a Lifetime Love." She had no idea what I'd been working on for her, because, see, I did all the work on it out of her sight!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Out of Sight."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Hebrews 11:1 - I think you'll see what this has to do with it. "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Why is it so important to understand what faith is all about? Well, chapter 11 verse 6 says, "Without faith it is impossible to please God." Faith is the way to God's heart. Faith is "...being certain of what we do not see." This is not how we're wired to think. Right? Instinctively, we're only sure of what we can see - what we can hold. We're slaves to the visible - the tangible. God is like me working on that scrapbook in the basement, He's doing something really special, but He's doing it mostly out of our sight.
Faith isn't based on the evidence that you can see. It's based on the character of the God you're trusting. In chapter 11 verse 3 in Hebrews it says, "By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command." Hello! If He can do that, isn't your situation like a piece of cake compared to forming the universe? It could be that what you can see right now is pretty discouraging: 'I can't see where the money is going to come from, the place I need, the person I need, the strength, the healing I need.' What's in your hand or even in your reach isn't going to do it. But, remember much of God's greatest work is done out of your sight.
The flowers that burst and bloom in the spring? Well, they've been germinating out of sight for a long time before that. That new born baby you hold in your hands has been developing out of sight for months. In fact, it takes a test to find out that that little person's even there at first. God does some awesome work invisibly, and He's doing invisible work for you right now. If you react or you decide, based on just what you can see, you're going to be proceeding on incomplete data, and you're likely to make a mistake!
Faith reaches beyond the visible and it says, "God is going to keep His promises." He always does. The God factor radically changes the whole equation. He's working right now on the answer that will bring Him the most glory and me the most good.
Now look, I don't need to panic, I'm not going to abandon ship, I'm not going to act as if things are out of control. Run around and try to fix it myself. Why? Because faith is being certain of what we do not see because of the kind of God we have.
My wife had no idea what was going on behind that screen in the basement, but she trusted me. Behind the screen, God is working on a gift for you that is very special, and you'll see it when it's done. Until then, trust in the One whose work you cannot see, but whose love you should never doubt.
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Psalm 89, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: QUIET SERVANTS
“For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13).
Quiet servants. The supporting cast of the kingdom of God. They seek to do what is right. They cook dinners. They visit the sick. It was the servant spirit of Mary that led God to select her to be the mother of Jesus. She was simple. She said, “I am the servant of the Lord. Let this happen to me as you say” (Luke 1:38).
When God wants to bring Christ into the world, he looks for servants. No diploma, specific bloodline, prestigious birthplace, or fat bank account required. Let all unassuming people of the world be reminded: God can use you. This is how happiness happens.
Psalm 89
An Ethan Prayer
Your love, God, is my song, and I’ll sing it!
I’m forever telling everyone how faithful you are.
I’ll never quit telling the story of your love—
how you built the cosmos
and guaranteed everything in it.
Your love has always been our lives’ foundation,
your fidelity has been the roof over our world.
You once said, “I joined forces with my chosen leader,
I pledged my word to my servant, David, saying,
‘Everyone descending from you is guaranteed life;
I’ll make your rule as solid and lasting as rock.’”
5-18 God! Let the cosmos praise your wonderful ways,
the choir of holy angels sing anthems to your faithful ways!
Search high and low, scan skies and land,
you’ll find nothing and no one quite like God.
The holy angels are in awe before him;
he looms immense and august over everyone around him.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies, who is like you,
powerful and faithful from every angle?
You put the arrogant ocean in its place
and calm its waves when they turn unruly.
You gave that old hag Egypt the back of your hand,
you brushed off your enemies with a flick of your wrist.
You own the cosmos—you made everything in it,
everything from atom to archangel.
You positioned the North and South Poles;
the mountains Tabor and Hermon sing duets to you.
With your well-muscled arm and your grip of steel—
nobody trifles with you!
The Right and Justice are the roots of your rule;
Love and Truth are its fruits.
Blessed are the people who know the passwords of praise,
who shout on parade in the bright presence of God.
Delighted, they dance all day long; they know
who you are, what you do—they can’t keep it quiet!
Your vibrant beauty has gotten inside us—
you’ve been so good to us! We’re walking on air!
All we are and have we owe to God,
Holy God of Israel, our King!
19-37 A long time ago you spoke in a vision,
you spoke to your faithful beloved:
“I’ve crowned a hero,
I chose the best I could find;
I found David, my servant,
poured holy oil on his head,
And I’ll keep my hand steadily on him,
yes, I’ll stick with him through thick and thin.
No enemy will get the best of him,
no scoundrel will do him in.
I’ll weed out all who oppose him,
I’ll clean out all who hate him.
I’m with him for good and I’ll love him forever;
I’ve set him on high—he’s riding high!
I’ve put Ocean in his one hand, River in the other;
he’ll call out, ‘Oh, my Father—my God, my Rock of Salvation!’
Yes, I’m setting him apart as the First of the royal line,
High King over all of earth’s kings.
I’ll preserve him eternally in my love,
I’ll faithfully do all I so solemnly promised.
I’ll guarantee his family tree
and underwrite his rule.
If his children refuse to do what I tell them,
if they refuse to walk in the way I show them,
If they spit on the directions I give them
and tear up the rules I post for them—
I’ll rub their faces in the dirt of their rebellion
and make them face the music.
But I’ll never throw them out,
never abandon or disown them.
Do you think I’d withdraw my holy promise?
or take back words I’d already spoken?
I’ve given my word, my whole and holy word;
do you think I would lie to David?
His family tree is here for good,
his sovereignty as sure as the sun,
Dependable as the phases of the moon,
inescapable as weather.”
38-51 But God, you did walk off and leave us,
you lost your temper with the one you anointed.
You tore up the promise you made to your servant,
you stomped his crown in the mud.
You blasted his home to kingdom come,
reduced his city to a pile of rubble
Picked clean by wayfaring strangers,
a joke to all the neighbors.
You declared a holiday for all his enemies,
and they’re celebrating for all they’re worth.
Angry, you opposed him in battle,
refused to fight on his side;
You robbed him of his splendor, humiliated this warrior,
ground his kingly honor in the dirt.
You took the best years of his life
and left him an impotent, ruined husk.
How long do we put up with this, God?
Are you gone for good? Will you hold this grudge forever?
Remember my sorrow and how short life is.
Did you create men and women for nothing but this?
We’ll see death soon enough. Everyone does.
And there’s no back door out of hell.
So where is the love you’re so famous for, Lord?
What happened to your promise to David?
Take a good look at your servant, dear Lord;
I’m the butt of the jokes of all nations,
The taunting jokes of your enemies, God,
as they dog the steps of your dear anointed.
52 Blessed be God forever and always!
Yes. Oh, yes.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, October 02, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Ephesians 5:1–13
Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. 4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. 5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.[a] 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. 7 Therefore do not be partners with them.
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.
Footnotes:
Ephesians 5:5 Or kingdom of the Messiah and God
Insight
Today’s passage flows seamlessly out of chapter 4, in which Paul tells us how to live our lives in Christ. First he notes the futile thinking of those who live apart from God. “They are darkened in their understanding” (Ephesians 4:18) and so “indulge in every kind of impurity” (v. 19). But we’re to “put on the new self, created to be like God” (v. 24). This means a lifestyle of honesty and integrity, usefulness and generosity (vv. 25–28). Above all, it’s marked by kindness, compassion, and forgiveness (v. 32). Such Christlike behavior starkly contrasts with the darkness we once lived in. “As children of light” (5:8) we reflect the One who is the Light (see 1 John 1:5–7). By: Tim Gustafson
Catching Foxes
Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards. Song of Songs 2:15
The first time a bat invaded our home we dismissed it as a fluke. But after a second nighttime visit, I read up on the little critters and discovered they don’t need much of an opening to pay humans a visit. In fact, if they find a gap as small as the side of a coin they’ll let themselves in.
So I loaded up my caulk gun and went on a mission. I went around the house and closed up every tiny opening I could find.
In Songs of Songs 2:15, Solomon mentions another troublesome mammal. He writes of the danger of “little foxes,” which can “ruin the vineyards.” Symbolically, he’s speaking of threats that can enter a relationship and ruin it. Now I don’t mean to offend bat-lovers or fox-lovers, but keeping bats out of the house and foxes out of the vineyard is a bit like dealing with sin in our lives (Ephesians 5:3). By the grace of God, the Holy Spirit works within us so that we don’t have to “live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:4). By the Spirit’s power we can resist the temptation to sin.
Praise God that, in Christ, we’re now “light in the Lord” and can live in a way that “pleases” Him (Ephesians 5:8–10). The Spirit helps us catch those little foxes. By: Dave Branon
Reflect & Pray
When you’re tempted to sin, how can you lean into the Holy Spirit’s power to resist it? What little foxes can the Spirit help you deal with today?
God, use Your power to give me the strength to resist sinning and damaging my relationship with You and others.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, October 02, 2019
The Place of Humiliation
If You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. —Mark 9:22
After every time of exaltation, we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they really are, where it is neither beautiful, poetic, nor thrilling. The height of the mountaintop is measured by the dismal drudgery of the valley, but it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God. We see His glory on the mountain, but we never live for His glory there. It is in the place of humiliation that we find our true worth to God— that is where our faithfulness is revealed. Most of us can do things if we are always at some heroic level of intensity, simply because of the natural selfishness of our own hearts. But God wants us to be at the drab everyday level, where we live in the valley according to our personal relationship with Him. Peter thought it would be a wonderful thing for them to remain on the mountain, but Jesus Christ took the disciples down from the mountain and into the valley, where the true meaning of the vision was explained (see Mark 9:5-6, Mark 9:14-23).
“If you can do anything….” It takes the valley of humiliation to remove the skepticism from us. Look back at your own experience and you will find that until you learned who Jesus really was, you were a skillful skeptic about His power. When you were on the mountaintop you could believe anything, but what about when you were faced with the facts of the valley? You may be able to give a testimony regarding your sanctification, but what about the thing that is a humiliation to you right now? The last time you were on the mountain with God, you saw that all the power in heaven and on earth belonged to Jesus— will you be skeptical now, simply because you are in the valley of humiliation?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Our danger is to water down God’s word to suit ourselves. God never fits His word to suit me; He fits me to suit His word. Not Knowing Whither, 901 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, October 02, 2019
One Life-or-Death Moment - #8538
Our friend Jack was heading out on a canoe trip with some friends, totally undaunted by a river that was rising from the heavy rains. No sooner had they pushed off into the water but the stronger-than-expected current dumped their canoe. All their supplies for the weekend, "See you!" - headed downstream. Instinctively, Jack started swimming after the supplies to retrieve them. Well, you know what happened? Yeah, he got caught in the current, and he was caught off guard at how cold that water was. In no time, he was beginning to feel the first indications of hypothermia with no way to get out. At that seemingly hopeless moment, a life jacket floated by. Jack knew this was his chance. He grabbed that life jacket in that one moment of hope. Good news. It saved his life.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "One Life-or-Death Moment."
That's what my friend had on the river. He had an opportunity to reach out and grab the only thing that could save him. It's the kind of opportunity that is talked about, actually, in our word for today from the Word of God. It is a chance to grab what is our only hope of being saved.
Here is God's important statement in Isaiah 55:6. "Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near." Implication: God will put His spiritual life preserver within your reach, but you need to grab it while the opportunity is there. Because, apparently, there will be a time when He can't be found, when He's no longer near.
The spiritual rescue that God has sent to us is nothing less than His one and only Son. God explains Jesus' life-saving mission very clearly in 1 John 4:9-10. "This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. He loves us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."
See, that's the life-or-death issue - the penalty for a lifetime of living pretty much our way instead of God's way. Our culture may not take sin very seriously, but God has said since the Garden of Eden, that sin would cost our relationship with Him and our eternity in heaven. It is called spiritual death. There's no way to escape the deadly current of sin and hell in our own strength.
You can be sure if there was any other way that we could be forgiven, any other way we could go to heaven, God would have never had His Son go through what He did on the cross. But all the goodness, all the spirituality, all the religion in the world can't pay our spiritual death penalty. Somebody's got to die to pay a death penalty and somebody did. You and I did the sinning, but Jesus did the dying. He's your only hope, and He's offering you a chance to reach out and grab Him as your Savior today. He could be found today. He's near today. Tomorrow, there's no guarantee.
If you've never grabbed Jesus with all the faith you've got, it's just not something to put off. Not if He's working in your heart right now to come to Him right now, because you don't come to Jesus when you're ready. You come when He's ready. And if you feel that tug His direction, He is ready right now. The Bible says that "No one can come to Him unless the Father is drawing him." And you're experiencing that right now.
Your eternal rescue happens when you say, "Jesus, I have no other hope of rescue but You and Your death on that cross for my sins. And I know you're alive. You walked out of your grave. I want you to walk into my life today. I'm grabbing You today with all the faith I've got to be my Savior from my sin."
I hope this is your day if it hasn't been before. Don't wait another day. In fact, let me suggest you go to our website, and I think it will help you get this nailed down and settled once and for all. That's why it's there. It's ANewStory.com. Go there as soon as you can.
Life is within your reach right now. It won't always be. So, call on the Lord while He is near.
“For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13).
Quiet servants. The supporting cast of the kingdom of God. They seek to do what is right. They cook dinners. They visit the sick. It was the servant spirit of Mary that led God to select her to be the mother of Jesus. She was simple. She said, “I am the servant of the Lord. Let this happen to me as you say” (Luke 1:38).
When God wants to bring Christ into the world, he looks for servants. No diploma, specific bloodline, prestigious birthplace, or fat bank account required. Let all unassuming people of the world be reminded: God can use you. This is how happiness happens.
Psalm 89
An Ethan Prayer
Your love, God, is my song, and I’ll sing it!
I’m forever telling everyone how faithful you are.
I’ll never quit telling the story of your love—
how you built the cosmos
and guaranteed everything in it.
Your love has always been our lives’ foundation,
your fidelity has been the roof over our world.
You once said, “I joined forces with my chosen leader,
I pledged my word to my servant, David, saying,
‘Everyone descending from you is guaranteed life;
I’ll make your rule as solid and lasting as rock.’”
5-18 God! Let the cosmos praise your wonderful ways,
the choir of holy angels sing anthems to your faithful ways!
Search high and low, scan skies and land,
you’ll find nothing and no one quite like God.
The holy angels are in awe before him;
he looms immense and august over everyone around him.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies, who is like you,
powerful and faithful from every angle?
You put the arrogant ocean in its place
and calm its waves when they turn unruly.
You gave that old hag Egypt the back of your hand,
you brushed off your enemies with a flick of your wrist.
You own the cosmos—you made everything in it,
everything from atom to archangel.
You positioned the North and South Poles;
the mountains Tabor and Hermon sing duets to you.
With your well-muscled arm and your grip of steel—
nobody trifles with you!
The Right and Justice are the roots of your rule;
Love and Truth are its fruits.
Blessed are the people who know the passwords of praise,
who shout on parade in the bright presence of God.
Delighted, they dance all day long; they know
who you are, what you do—they can’t keep it quiet!
Your vibrant beauty has gotten inside us—
you’ve been so good to us! We’re walking on air!
All we are and have we owe to God,
Holy God of Israel, our King!
19-37 A long time ago you spoke in a vision,
you spoke to your faithful beloved:
“I’ve crowned a hero,
I chose the best I could find;
I found David, my servant,
poured holy oil on his head,
And I’ll keep my hand steadily on him,
yes, I’ll stick with him through thick and thin.
No enemy will get the best of him,
no scoundrel will do him in.
I’ll weed out all who oppose him,
I’ll clean out all who hate him.
I’m with him for good and I’ll love him forever;
I’ve set him on high—he’s riding high!
I’ve put Ocean in his one hand, River in the other;
he’ll call out, ‘Oh, my Father—my God, my Rock of Salvation!’
Yes, I’m setting him apart as the First of the royal line,
High King over all of earth’s kings.
I’ll preserve him eternally in my love,
I’ll faithfully do all I so solemnly promised.
I’ll guarantee his family tree
and underwrite his rule.
If his children refuse to do what I tell them,
if they refuse to walk in the way I show them,
If they spit on the directions I give them
and tear up the rules I post for them—
I’ll rub their faces in the dirt of their rebellion
and make them face the music.
But I’ll never throw them out,
never abandon or disown them.
Do you think I’d withdraw my holy promise?
or take back words I’d already spoken?
I’ve given my word, my whole and holy word;
do you think I would lie to David?
His family tree is here for good,
his sovereignty as sure as the sun,
Dependable as the phases of the moon,
inescapable as weather.”
38-51 But God, you did walk off and leave us,
you lost your temper with the one you anointed.
You tore up the promise you made to your servant,
you stomped his crown in the mud.
You blasted his home to kingdom come,
reduced his city to a pile of rubble
Picked clean by wayfaring strangers,
a joke to all the neighbors.
You declared a holiday for all his enemies,
and they’re celebrating for all they’re worth.
Angry, you opposed him in battle,
refused to fight on his side;
You robbed him of his splendor, humiliated this warrior,
ground his kingly honor in the dirt.
You took the best years of his life
and left him an impotent, ruined husk.
How long do we put up with this, God?
Are you gone for good? Will you hold this grudge forever?
Remember my sorrow and how short life is.
Did you create men and women for nothing but this?
We’ll see death soon enough. Everyone does.
And there’s no back door out of hell.
So where is the love you’re so famous for, Lord?
What happened to your promise to David?
Take a good look at your servant, dear Lord;
I’m the butt of the jokes of all nations,
The taunting jokes of your enemies, God,
as they dog the steps of your dear anointed.
52 Blessed be God forever and always!
Yes. Oh, yes.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, October 02, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Ephesians 5:1–13
Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. 4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. 5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.[a] 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. 7 Therefore do not be partners with them.
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.
Footnotes:
Ephesians 5:5 Or kingdom of the Messiah and God
Insight
Today’s passage flows seamlessly out of chapter 4, in which Paul tells us how to live our lives in Christ. First he notes the futile thinking of those who live apart from God. “They are darkened in their understanding” (Ephesians 4:18) and so “indulge in every kind of impurity” (v. 19). But we’re to “put on the new self, created to be like God” (v. 24). This means a lifestyle of honesty and integrity, usefulness and generosity (vv. 25–28). Above all, it’s marked by kindness, compassion, and forgiveness (v. 32). Such Christlike behavior starkly contrasts with the darkness we once lived in. “As children of light” (5:8) we reflect the One who is the Light (see 1 John 1:5–7). By: Tim Gustafson
Catching Foxes
Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards. Song of Songs 2:15
The first time a bat invaded our home we dismissed it as a fluke. But after a second nighttime visit, I read up on the little critters and discovered they don’t need much of an opening to pay humans a visit. In fact, if they find a gap as small as the side of a coin they’ll let themselves in.
So I loaded up my caulk gun and went on a mission. I went around the house and closed up every tiny opening I could find.
In Songs of Songs 2:15, Solomon mentions another troublesome mammal. He writes of the danger of “little foxes,” which can “ruin the vineyards.” Symbolically, he’s speaking of threats that can enter a relationship and ruin it. Now I don’t mean to offend bat-lovers or fox-lovers, but keeping bats out of the house and foxes out of the vineyard is a bit like dealing with sin in our lives (Ephesians 5:3). By the grace of God, the Holy Spirit works within us so that we don’t have to “live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:4). By the Spirit’s power we can resist the temptation to sin.
Praise God that, in Christ, we’re now “light in the Lord” and can live in a way that “pleases” Him (Ephesians 5:8–10). The Spirit helps us catch those little foxes. By: Dave Branon
Reflect & Pray
When you’re tempted to sin, how can you lean into the Holy Spirit’s power to resist it? What little foxes can the Spirit help you deal with today?
God, use Your power to give me the strength to resist sinning and damaging my relationship with You and others.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, October 02, 2019
The Place of Humiliation
If You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. —Mark 9:22
After every time of exaltation, we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they really are, where it is neither beautiful, poetic, nor thrilling. The height of the mountaintop is measured by the dismal drudgery of the valley, but it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God. We see His glory on the mountain, but we never live for His glory there. It is in the place of humiliation that we find our true worth to God— that is where our faithfulness is revealed. Most of us can do things if we are always at some heroic level of intensity, simply because of the natural selfishness of our own hearts. But God wants us to be at the drab everyday level, where we live in the valley according to our personal relationship with Him. Peter thought it would be a wonderful thing for them to remain on the mountain, but Jesus Christ took the disciples down from the mountain and into the valley, where the true meaning of the vision was explained (see Mark 9:5-6, Mark 9:14-23).
“If you can do anything….” It takes the valley of humiliation to remove the skepticism from us. Look back at your own experience and you will find that until you learned who Jesus really was, you were a skillful skeptic about His power. When you were on the mountaintop you could believe anything, but what about when you were faced with the facts of the valley? You may be able to give a testimony regarding your sanctification, but what about the thing that is a humiliation to you right now? The last time you were on the mountain with God, you saw that all the power in heaven and on earth belonged to Jesus— will you be skeptical now, simply because you are in the valley of humiliation?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Our danger is to water down God’s word to suit ourselves. God never fits His word to suit me; He fits me to suit His word. Not Knowing Whither, 901 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, October 02, 2019
One Life-or-Death Moment - #8538
Our friend Jack was heading out on a canoe trip with some friends, totally undaunted by a river that was rising from the heavy rains. No sooner had they pushed off into the water but the stronger-than-expected current dumped their canoe. All their supplies for the weekend, "See you!" - headed downstream. Instinctively, Jack started swimming after the supplies to retrieve them. Well, you know what happened? Yeah, he got caught in the current, and he was caught off guard at how cold that water was. In no time, he was beginning to feel the first indications of hypothermia with no way to get out. At that seemingly hopeless moment, a life jacket floated by. Jack knew this was his chance. He grabbed that life jacket in that one moment of hope. Good news. It saved his life.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "One Life-or-Death Moment."
That's what my friend had on the river. He had an opportunity to reach out and grab the only thing that could save him. It's the kind of opportunity that is talked about, actually, in our word for today from the Word of God. It is a chance to grab what is our only hope of being saved.
Here is God's important statement in Isaiah 55:6. "Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near." Implication: God will put His spiritual life preserver within your reach, but you need to grab it while the opportunity is there. Because, apparently, there will be a time when He can't be found, when He's no longer near.
The spiritual rescue that God has sent to us is nothing less than His one and only Son. God explains Jesus' life-saving mission very clearly in 1 John 4:9-10. "This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. He loves us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."
See, that's the life-or-death issue - the penalty for a lifetime of living pretty much our way instead of God's way. Our culture may not take sin very seriously, but God has said since the Garden of Eden, that sin would cost our relationship with Him and our eternity in heaven. It is called spiritual death. There's no way to escape the deadly current of sin and hell in our own strength.
You can be sure if there was any other way that we could be forgiven, any other way we could go to heaven, God would have never had His Son go through what He did on the cross. But all the goodness, all the spirituality, all the religion in the world can't pay our spiritual death penalty. Somebody's got to die to pay a death penalty and somebody did. You and I did the sinning, but Jesus did the dying. He's your only hope, and He's offering you a chance to reach out and grab Him as your Savior today. He could be found today. He's near today. Tomorrow, there's no guarantee.
If you've never grabbed Jesus with all the faith you've got, it's just not something to put off. Not if He's working in your heart right now to come to Him right now, because you don't come to Jesus when you're ready. You come when He's ready. And if you feel that tug His direction, He is ready right now. The Bible says that "No one can come to Him unless the Father is drawing him." And you're experiencing that right now.
Your eternal rescue happens when you say, "Jesus, I have no other hope of rescue but You and Your death on that cross for my sins. And I know you're alive. You walked out of your grave. I want you to walk into my life today. I'm grabbing You today with all the faith I've got to be my Savior from my sin."
I hope this is your day if it hasn't been before. Don't wait another day. In fact, let me suggest you go to our website, and I think it will help you get this nailed down and settled once and for all. That's why it's there. It's ANewStory.com. Go there as soon as you can.
Life is within your reach right now. It won't always be. So, call on the Lord while He is near.
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Philippians 2, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: HAPPINESS IN INTERCESSORY MINISTRY
Nothing activates happiness like intercessory ministry. The scripture says, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God” (1 John 3:1).
So you come, not as a stranger, but as an heir to the promise. You are his ambassador. “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us; we implore you on Christ’s behalf to be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20).
Our King will listen to our request. After all, you are a member of his priesthood. Peter said, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people” (1 Peter 2:9). So in our intercession we function as priests, standing in the gap between the people of earth and God. This is how happiness happens.
Philippians 2
If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.
5-8 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.
9-11 Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.
12-13 What I’m getting at, friends, is that you should simply keep on doing what you’ve done from the beginning. When I was living among you, you lived in responsive obedience. Now that I’m separated from you, keep it up. Better yet, redouble your efforts. Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God’s energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure.
14-16 Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I’ll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You’ll be living proof that I didn’t go to all this work for nothing.
17-18 Even if I am executed here and now, I’ll rejoice in being an element in the offering of your faith that you make on Christ’s altar, a part of your rejoicing. But turnabout’s fair play—you must join me in my rejoicing. Whatever you do, don’t feel sorry for me.
19-24 I plan (according to Jesus’ plan) to send Timothy to you very soon so he can bring back all the news of you he can gather. Oh, how that will do my heart good! I have no one quite like Timothy. He is loyal, and genuinely concerned for you. Most people around here are looking out for themselves, with little concern for the things of Jesus. But you know yourselves that Timothy’s the real thing. He’s been a devoted son to me as together we’ve delivered the Message. As soon as I see how things are going to fall out for me here, I plan to send him off. And then I’m hoping and praying to be right on his heels.
25-27 But for right now, I’m dispatching Epaphroditus, my good friend and companion in my work. You sent him to help me out; now I’m sending him to help you out. He has been wanting in the worst way to get back with you. Especially since recovering from the illness you heard about, he’s been wanting to get back and reassure you that he is just fine. He nearly died, as you know, but God had mercy on him. And not only on him—he had mercy on me, too. His death would have been one huge grief piled on top of all the others.
28-30 So you can see why I’m so delighted to send him on to you. When you see him again, hale and hearty, how you’ll rejoice and how relieved I’ll be. Give him a grand welcome, a joyful embrace! People like him deserve the best you can give. Remember the ministry to me that you started but weren’t able to complete? Well, in the process of finishing up that work, he put his life on the line and nearly died doing it.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, October 01, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Exodus 16:14–18
When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was.
Moses said to them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. 16 This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Everyone is to gather as much as they need. Take an omer[a] for each person you have in your tent.’”
17 The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. 18 And when they measured it by the omer, the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed.
Footnotes:
Exodus 16:16 That is, possibly about 3 pounds or about 1.4 kilograms; also in verses 18, 32, 33 and 36
Insight
The Hebrew word for manna means “what is it?” Manna looked like white flakes of frost on the ground and tasted “like wafers made with honey” (Exodus 16:14, 31). The poetic language of Psalm 78:24 tells us, “[God] rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven.” This image of manna as bread is picked up in the New Testament. In John 6, the people said it was “bread from heaven” (v. 31), then Jesus lifted this bread up to its highest level as a picture of Himself (vv. 32–33)! Christ called Himself “the bread that came down from heaven” (v. 41). Jesus said, “Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die” (vv. 49–50). By: Bill Crowder
Eat and Repeat
We have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna! Numbers 11:6
When Kerry and Paul got married, neither one knew how to cook. But one night Kerry decided to try her hand at spaghetti—making so much that the couple had it for dinner again the next day. On the third day, Paul volunteered to cook, doubling the amount of pasta and sauce, hoping the huge pot would last through the weekend. As the couple sat down for dinner that night, however, it was Kerry who confessed, “I’m sick of spaghetti.”
Just imagine eating the same meal as the Israelites did—for forty years. Each morning they gathered the sweet “super food” God supplied and cooked it (no leftovers unless the next day was the Sabbath, Exodus 16:23–26). Sure, they got creative—baking it, boiling it (v. 23). But, oh, how they missed the good food they had enjoyed in Egypt (v. 3; Numbers 11:1–9), even though that nourishment had come at the high cost of cruelty and enslavement!
We too may sometimes resent that our life isn’t what it once was. Or perhaps the “sameness” of life has caused us to be discontent. But Exodus 16 tells of God’s faithful provision to the Israelites, causing them to trust and depend on His care each day.
God promises to give us everything we need. He satisfies our longings and fills up our soul with “good things” (Psalm 107:9 esv). By: Cindy Hess Kasper
Reflect & Pray
In what ways has God provided for you in the past? What longing is keeping you from trusting Him more?
Father, thank You for Your promise to faithfully care for me and provide what I need.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, October 01, 2019
The Place of Exaltation
…Jesus took…them up on a high mountain apart by themselves… —Mark 9:2
We have all experienced times of exaltation on the mountain, when we have seen things from God’s perspective and have wanted to stay there. But God will never allow us to stay there. The true test of our spiritual life is in exhibiting the power to descend from the mountain. If we only have the power to go up, something is wrong. It is a wonderful thing to be on the mountain with God, but a person only gets there so that he may later go down and lift up the demon-possessed people in the valley (see Mark 9:14-18). We are not made for the mountains, for sunrises, or for the other beautiful attractions in life— those are simply intended to be moments of inspiration. We are made for the valley and the ordinary things of life, and that is where we have to prove our stamina and strength. Yet our spiritual selfishness always wants repeated moments on the mountain. We feel that we could talk and live like perfect angels, if we could only stay on the mountaintop. Those times of exaltation are exceptional and they have their meaning in our life with God, but we must beware to prevent our spiritual selfishness from wanting to make them the only time.
We are inclined to think that everything that happens is to be turned into useful teaching. In actual fact, it is to be turned into something even better than teaching, namely, character. The mountaintop is not meant to teach us anything, it is meant to make us something. There is a terrible trap in always asking, “What’s the use of this experience?” We can never measure spiritual matters in that way. The moments on the mountaintop are rare moments, and they are meant for something in God’s purpose.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
If a man cannot prove his religion in the valley, it is not worth anything. Shade of His Hand, 1200 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, October 01, 2019
Hanging Up Your Black Robe - #8537
You know, things can become pretty nasty when it comes to settling whose land a certain piece of ground is. Actually, we have some friends who have an interest in a controversy like that and the stakes are pretty high. And the judge has to decide who really owns this particular property; how it should be handled. And honestly, there's a lot of rumors, a lot of drama in the air; intrigue. Before the legal proceedings start, the judge has suddenly recused himself from that case. In other words, he's stepped down on this one because for some reason - maybe a conflict of interest - he's basically saying, "I don't think I should be the one to judge this one."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I'd like to have A Word With You today about "Hanging Up Your Black Robe."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Romans 12:18-20. Brace yourself for some radical relationship advice from God that really flies in the face of what we feel like doing. Here's what it says, "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath. For it is written, 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' says the Lord. On the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink."
Some Scripture, you know, you can sort of sit back, smile and say, "Oh, isn't that nice. I'll do that." But this is one of those that makes an honest person say, "Wait a minute! Woah! You want me to give up the idea of retaliating? Of getting even? You want me to minister to that person that hurt me?" God says, "Yes." See, that's the Jesus-difference.
There may be someone about whom you have some pretty negative feelings, angry feelings and maybe for real reasons. And it's very natural - it's sinfully natural - to want to even the score or to respond in like kind. There might be someone you're having a hard time forgiving. God's orders, if I can paraphrase, "Hang up your black robe." Recuse yourself from the case.
When we have unforgiveness toward someone, we tend to put on our black judge's robe and sit in judgment of them. We sit in judgment of their actions, their motives, of what should happen to them because of what they've done. In our hearts, we pass judgment on their guilt and we decide what kind of penalty they should receive for what they've done.
But God's instructions - the ones we just read - they tell us that there's only one Judge qualified to rule on this case. And it isn't you. It isn't me. It's God, of course. We all look silly in His big black robe. It's way too big for you or me, and so is the task of judging another sinner like yourself.
We want to fix this thing. We want to make things right. And when we do, all we seem to do is interfere with the perfect justice that God is working on giving that person. "Do not take revenge...leave room for God's wrath," the Bible says. Fascinating words. He will arrange a payback for the guilty person that is better than anything you could ever devise. He says, "I will repay." That means you don't repay what was done.
God is the Master at making things right. You've got to trust God for His justice in this situation and don't mess things up by sticking your hands in it. God's justice may take longer than yours would, but be patient. Justice delayed is not justice canceled. And when God is finished, I think you'll be amazed at how skillfully, how totally He did what needed to be done without you doing something that He will have to judge you for.
So trade in your black robe for a servant's uniform. Your job is to serve the one that you'd like to judge. That's what God will judge you for. So excuse yourself from this case. This is one for The Judge to do His way.
Nothing activates happiness like intercessory ministry. The scripture says, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God” (1 John 3:1).
So you come, not as a stranger, but as an heir to the promise. You are his ambassador. “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us; we implore you on Christ’s behalf to be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20).
Our King will listen to our request. After all, you are a member of his priesthood. Peter said, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people” (1 Peter 2:9). So in our intercession we function as priests, standing in the gap between the people of earth and God. This is how happiness happens.
Philippians 2
If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.
5-8 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.
9-11 Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.
12-13 What I’m getting at, friends, is that you should simply keep on doing what you’ve done from the beginning. When I was living among you, you lived in responsive obedience. Now that I’m separated from you, keep it up. Better yet, redouble your efforts. Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God’s energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure.
14-16 Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I’ll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You’ll be living proof that I didn’t go to all this work for nothing.
17-18 Even if I am executed here and now, I’ll rejoice in being an element in the offering of your faith that you make on Christ’s altar, a part of your rejoicing. But turnabout’s fair play—you must join me in my rejoicing. Whatever you do, don’t feel sorry for me.
19-24 I plan (according to Jesus’ plan) to send Timothy to you very soon so he can bring back all the news of you he can gather. Oh, how that will do my heart good! I have no one quite like Timothy. He is loyal, and genuinely concerned for you. Most people around here are looking out for themselves, with little concern for the things of Jesus. But you know yourselves that Timothy’s the real thing. He’s been a devoted son to me as together we’ve delivered the Message. As soon as I see how things are going to fall out for me here, I plan to send him off. And then I’m hoping and praying to be right on his heels.
25-27 But for right now, I’m dispatching Epaphroditus, my good friend and companion in my work. You sent him to help me out; now I’m sending him to help you out. He has been wanting in the worst way to get back with you. Especially since recovering from the illness you heard about, he’s been wanting to get back and reassure you that he is just fine. He nearly died, as you know, but God had mercy on him. And not only on him—he had mercy on me, too. His death would have been one huge grief piled on top of all the others.
28-30 So you can see why I’m so delighted to send him on to you. When you see him again, hale and hearty, how you’ll rejoice and how relieved I’ll be. Give him a grand welcome, a joyful embrace! People like him deserve the best you can give. Remember the ministry to me that you started but weren’t able to complete? Well, in the process of finishing up that work, he put his life on the line and nearly died doing it.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, October 01, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Exodus 16:14–18
When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was.
Moses said to them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. 16 This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Everyone is to gather as much as they need. Take an omer[a] for each person you have in your tent.’”
17 The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. 18 And when they measured it by the omer, the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed.
Footnotes:
Exodus 16:16 That is, possibly about 3 pounds or about 1.4 kilograms; also in verses 18, 32, 33 and 36
Insight
The Hebrew word for manna means “what is it?” Manna looked like white flakes of frost on the ground and tasted “like wafers made with honey” (Exodus 16:14, 31). The poetic language of Psalm 78:24 tells us, “[God] rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven.” This image of manna as bread is picked up in the New Testament. In John 6, the people said it was “bread from heaven” (v. 31), then Jesus lifted this bread up to its highest level as a picture of Himself (vv. 32–33)! Christ called Himself “the bread that came down from heaven” (v. 41). Jesus said, “Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die” (vv. 49–50). By: Bill Crowder
Eat and Repeat
We have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna! Numbers 11:6
When Kerry and Paul got married, neither one knew how to cook. But one night Kerry decided to try her hand at spaghetti—making so much that the couple had it for dinner again the next day. On the third day, Paul volunteered to cook, doubling the amount of pasta and sauce, hoping the huge pot would last through the weekend. As the couple sat down for dinner that night, however, it was Kerry who confessed, “I’m sick of spaghetti.”
Just imagine eating the same meal as the Israelites did—for forty years. Each morning they gathered the sweet “super food” God supplied and cooked it (no leftovers unless the next day was the Sabbath, Exodus 16:23–26). Sure, they got creative—baking it, boiling it (v. 23). But, oh, how they missed the good food they had enjoyed in Egypt (v. 3; Numbers 11:1–9), even though that nourishment had come at the high cost of cruelty and enslavement!
We too may sometimes resent that our life isn’t what it once was. Or perhaps the “sameness” of life has caused us to be discontent. But Exodus 16 tells of God’s faithful provision to the Israelites, causing them to trust and depend on His care each day.
God promises to give us everything we need. He satisfies our longings and fills up our soul with “good things” (Psalm 107:9 esv). By: Cindy Hess Kasper
Reflect & Pray
In what ways has God provided for you in the past? What longing is keeping you from trusting Him more?
Father, thank You for Your promise to faithfully care for me and provide what I need.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, October 01, 2019
The Place of Exaltation
…Jesus took…them up on a high mountain apart by themselves… —Mark 9:2
We have all experienced times of exaltation on the mountain, when we have seen things from God’s perspective and have wanted to stay there. But God will never allow us to stay there. The true test of our spiritual life is in exhibiting the power to descend from the mountain. If we only have the power to go up, something is wrong. It is a wonderful thing to be on the mountain with God, but a person only gets there so that he may later go down and lift up the demon-possessed people in the valley (see Mark 9:14-18). We are not made for the mountains, for sunrises, or for the other beautiful attractions in life— those are simply intended to be moments of inspiration. We are made for the valley and the ordinary things of life, and that is where we have to prove our stamina and strength. Yet our spiritual selfishness always wants repeated moments on the mountain. We feel that we could talk and live like perfect angels, if we could only stay on the mountaintop. Those times of exaltation are exceptional and they have their meaning in our life with God, but we must beware to prevent our spiritual selfishness from wanting to make them the only time.
We are inclined to think that everything that happens is to be turned into useful teaching. In actual fact, it is to be turned into something even better than teaching, namely, character. The mountaintop is not meant to teach us anything, it is meant to make us something. There is a terrible trap in always asking, “What’s the use of this experience?” We can never measure spiritual matters in that way. The moments on the mountaintop are rare moments, and they are meant for something in God’s purpose.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
If a man cannot prove his religion in the valley, it is not worth anything. Shade of His Hand, 1200 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, October 01, 2019
Hanging Up Your Black Robe - #8537
You know, things can become pretty nasty when it comes to settling whose land a certain piece of ground is. Actually, we have some friends who have an interest in a controversy like that and the stakes are pretty high. And the judge has to decide who really owns this particular property; how it should be handled. And honestly, there's a lot of rumors, a lot of drama in the air; intrigue. Before the legal proceedings start, the judge has suddenly recused himself from that case. In other words, he's stepped down on this one because for some reason - maybe a conflict of interest - he's basically saying, "I don't think I should be the one to judge this one."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I'd like to have A Word With You today about "Hanging Up Your Black Robe."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Romans 12:18-20. Brace yourself for some radical relationship advice from God that really flies in the face of what we feel like doing. Here's what it says, "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath. For it is written, 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' says the Lord. On the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink."
Some Scripture, you know, you can sort of sit back, smile and say, "Oh, isn't that nice. I'll do that." But this is one of those that makes an honest person say, "Wait a minute! Woah! You want me to give up the idea of retaliating? Of getting even? You want me to minister to that person that hurt me?" God says, "Yes." See, that's the Jesus-difference.
There may be someone about whom you have some pretty negative feelings, angry feelings and maybe for real reasons. And it's very natural - it's sinfully natural - to want to even the score or to respond in like kind. There might be someone you're having a hard time forgiving. God's orders, if I can paraphrase, "Hang up your black robe." Recuse yourself from the case.
When we have unforgiveness toward someone, we tend to put on our black judge's robe and sit in judgment of them. We sit in judgment of their actions, their motives, of what should happen to them because of what they've done. In our hearts, we pass judgment on their guilt and we decide what kind of penalty they should receive for what they've done.
But God's instructions - the ones we just read - they tell us that there's only one Judge qualified to rule on this case. And it isn't you. It isn't me. It's God, of course. We all look silly in His big black robe. It's way too big for you or me, and so is the task of judging another sinner like yourself.
We want to fix this thing. We want to make things right. And when we do, all we seem to do is interfere with the perfect justice that God is working on giving that person. "Do not take revenge...leave room for God's wrath," the Bible says. Fascinating words. He will arrange a payback for the guilty person that is better than anything you could ever devise. He says, "I will repay." That means you don't repay what was done.
God is the Master at making things right. You've got to trust God for His justice in this situation and don't mess things up by sticking your hands in it. God's justice may take longer than yours would, but be patient. Justice delayed is not justice canceled. And when God is finished, I think you'll be amazed at how skillfully, how totally He did what needed to be done without you doing something that He will have to judge you for.
So trade in your black robe for a servant's uniform. Your job is to serve the one that you'd like to judge. That's what God will judge you for. So excuse yourself from this case. This is one for The Judge to do His way.
Monday, September 30, 2019
Psalm 71, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: PRAYER IS ALL YOU NEED
We have the opportunity to offer heartfelt prayers for every person we see. The attendant at the grocery store. The nurse in the doctor’s office. You don’t have to tell them of your intercessory prayer.
When we seek to bless others through prayer, we are blessed. Studies draw causal links between prayer and faith and health and happiness. The act of praying for others has a boomerang effect. It allows us to shift the burden we carry for others to the shoulders of God. Don’t grow angry at the church’s condition. Pray for her. Don’t fret about the future of your family, pray for them. Assume the posture of prayer.
Is there a crisis in your world? Are you called to give hope where hope cannot be found? Is prayer all that you have? That’s okay. Prayer is all you need. And this is how happiness happens.
Psalm 71
I run for dear life to God,
I’ll never live to regret it.
Do what you do so well:
get me out of this mess and up on my feet.
Put your ear to the ground and listen,
give me space for salvation.
Be a guest room where I can retreat;
you said your door was always open!
You’re my salvation—my vast, granite fortress.
4-7 My God, free me from the grip of Wicked,
from the clutch of Bad and Bully.
You keep me going when times are tough—
my bedrock, God, since my childhood.
I’ve hung on you from the day of my birth,
the day you took me from the cradle;
I’ll never run out of praise.
Many gasp in alarm when they see me,
but you take me in stride.
8-11 Just as each day brims with your beauty,
my mouth brims with praise.
But don’t turn me out to pasture when I’m old
or put me on the shelf when I can’t pull my weight.
My enemies are talking behind my back,
watching for their chance to knife me.
The gossip is: “God has abandoned him.
Pounce on him now; no one will help him.”
12-16 God, don’t just watch from the sidelines.
Come on! Run to my side!
My accusers—make them lose face.
Those out to get me—make them look
Like idiots, while I stretch out, reaching for you,
and daily add praise to praise.
I’ll write the book on your righteousness,
talk up your salvation the livelong day,
never run out of good things to write or say.
I come in the power of the Lord God,
I post signs marking his right-of-way.
17-24 You got me when I was an unformed youth,
God, and taught me everything I know.
Now I’m telling the world your wonders;
I’ll keep at it until I’m old and gray.
God, don’t walk off and leave me
until I get out the news
Of your strong right arm to this world,
news of your power to the world yet to come,
Your famous and righteous
ways, O God.
God, you’ve done it all!
Who is quite like you?
You, who made me stare trouble in the face,
Turn me around;
Now let me look life in the face.
I’ve been to the bottom;
Bring me up, streaming with honors;
turn to me, be tender to me,
And I’ll take up the lute and thank you
to the tune of your faithfulness, God.
I’ll make music for you on a harp,
Holy One of Israel.
When I open up in song to you,
I let out lungsful of praise,
my rescued life a song.
All day long I’m chanting
about you and your righteous ways,
While those who tried to do me in
slink off looking ashamed.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, September 30, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Isaiah 53:1–6
Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
Insight
Isaiah 53 gives us the clearest description of the sacrifice of Christ in the Old Testament, describing His rejection (vv. 1–3), His suffering in our place (vv. 4–6), His sacrificial death and burial (vv. 7–9), and His reconciling atonement and resurrection (vv. 10–12). The chapter is the last of four messianic prophecies in the book of Isaiah (42:1–9; 49:1–13, 50:4–11; 52:13–53:12) known as the “Servant Songs” because they prophetically refer to Jesus the Messiah as Servant (42:1; 49:3; 50:10; 52:13), although Jewish scholars tend to identify the Servant as Israel itself.
In the New Testament, Isaiah is quoted or alluded to sixty-two times. New Testament writers unequivocally apply quotes from Isaiah 53 to Jesus Christ (Matthew 8:17; Mark 15:28; Luke 22:37; John 12:38–41; Acts 8:32–35; Romans 10:16; 1 Peter 2:24).
A Ready Remedy
The punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:5
Following the park guide, I scribbled notes as he taught about the plants of the Bahamian primeval forest. He told us which trees to avoid. The poisonwood tree, he said, secretes a black sap that causes a painful, itchy rash. But not to worry! The antidote could usually be found growing right next it. “Cut into the red bark of the gum elemi tree,” he said, “and rub the sap on the rash. It will immediately begin to heal.”
I nearly dropped my pencil in astonishment. I hadn’t expected to find a picture of salvation in the forest. But in the gum elemi tree, I saw Jesus. He’s the ready remedy wherever the poison of sin is found. Like the red bark of that tree, the blood of Jesus brings healing.
The prophet Isaiah understood that humanity needed healing. The rash of sin had infected us. Isaiah promised that our healing would come through “a man of suffering” who would take our sickness upon Himself (Isaiah 53:3). That man was Jesus. We were sick, but Christ was willing to be wounded in our place. When we believe in Him, we are healed from the sickness of sin (v. 5). It may take a lifetime to learn to live as those who’re healed—to recognize our sins and to reject them in favor of our new identity—but because of Jesus, we can. By: Amy Peterson
Reflect & Pray
What other pictures in the natural world do you see of the salvation God offers us? What has the healing He offers meant to you?
Wherever sin is, Jesus is there, ready to save.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, September 30, 2019
The Assigning of the Call
I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church… —Colossians 1:24
We take our own spiritual consecration and try to make it into a call of God, but when we get right with Him He brushes all this aside. Then He gives us a tremendous, riveting pain to fasten our attention on something that we never even dreamed could be His call for us. And for one radiant, flashing moment we see His purpose, and we say, “Here am I! Send me” (Isaiah 6:8).
This call has nothing to do with personal sanctification, but with being made broken bread and poured-out wine. Yet God can never make us into wine if we object to the fingers He chooses to use to crush us. We say, “If God would only use His own fingers, and make me broken bread and poured-out wine in a special way, then I wouldn’t object!” But when He uses someone we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, to crush us, then we object. Yet we must never try to choose the place of our own martyrdom. If we are ever going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed—you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed.
I wonder what finger and thumb God has been using to squeeze you? Have you been as hard as a marble and escaped? If you are not ripe yet, and if God had squeezed you anyway, the wine produced would have been remarkably bitter. To be a holy person means that the elements of our natural life experience the very presence of God as they are providentially broken in His service. We have to be placed into God and brought into agreement with Him before we can be broken bread in His hands. Stay right with God and let Him do as He likes, and you will find that He is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit His other children.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Always keep in contact with those books and those people that enlarge your horizon and make it possible for you to stretch yourself mentally. The Moral Foundations of Life, 721 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, September 30, 2019
Crawling is Not Enough - #8536
Our son was so excited when he called us. Our year-old granddaughter had just gotten up and walked about 30 steps across the floor! We had seen her crawl for the first time...we'd seen her stand by herself and even take a step. But this time she had suddenly exploded into big-time walking. Our son seemed to have an immediate revelation about what this development was going to mean for the life of her parents. He simply introduced his announcement of her walking with these four words, "Let the games begin!" No kidding!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Crawling is Not Enough."
You know, it's been fun and educational to watch grandchildren explode in their capabilities in the early months of their life. Now, our little granddaughter I was telling you about, back then she wasn't content with baby food for long. No, she kept following our forks as we put real food into our mouths. So, she realized she wanted some of that. And she wasn't content for long with depending on someone else to feed her. No, early on she was reaching out for food and insisting on feeding herself. Our little darlin' crawled for a while, but oh, boy, we could tell she was impatient with that being her only means of transportation. She really wanted to walk and she really did. Let the games begin! Actually, let a whole new life adventure begin.
A healthy child is never content to stay at the same level, and neither is a healthy child of God. Unfortunately, too many of God's kids have reached a particular level of growing up in Jesus and they have just settled down there. They don't feed themselves much spiritually. They depend largely on others feeding them. They think spiritual crawling is just fine, maybe because most of the Christians they know are stuck in the crawling stage. Our son was like any father; he was happy his daughter wasn't content to stay where she was. She was restless for more. He would have every reason to be very concerned if she was content to stay at a level that was below where she was meant to live. Right? Wonder if that's how your Heavenly Father feels about you?
Maybe you know that deep in your heart you're restless for something more. Your life is full, it's just not fulfilling. That's because God wants you to want the rest of what His Son died to give you. The writer of Hebrews challenged believers who he said "ought to be teachers" by this time but instead were needing someone to "teach you the elementary truths of God's Word all over again." He told them to "leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity" (Hebrews 5:12, 6:1).
In Philippians 3, beginning with verse 12, our word for today from the word of God, we hear what a healthy child of God wants. Remember, this was written by the Apostle Paul, maybe the most powerful Christian of all time. But still he says, "I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
Maybe you've been coasting at the same spiritual speed for a while; you've been content with - let's face it - mediocrity - with crawling. But you're restless. God's made you restless. He has so much more for you. It's time to get on your knees and say, "Jesus, I'm not content where I am anymore. I want to know you more than I've ever known you before, and I'm going to be pursuing You in Your Word and in prayer, and in Your church as I've never pursued You before. And, Lord, I want to make a greater difference with the rest of my life than I've ever made before. It's Yours to use as you see fit from now on."
He's been waiting to hear that from you. You are about to "press on to take hold of" something for which Christ Jesus "took hold of" you. So let the games begin as the lid comes off your relationship with Jesus. Let the greatest adventure of your life begin! And if you've never begun your relationship with this man who died for you, who will give you the meaning your life was meant to have, tell Him today, "Jesus, I want to belong to You. You are the more I was made for."
Get to our website, ANewStory.com, and find out exactly how to be sure you belong to Him. God has so much more for you. Listen to these words, "Made for more." You'll find it when you find Him.
We have the opportunity to offer heartfelt prayers for every person we see. The attendant at the grocery store. The nurse in the doctor’s office. You don’t have to tell them of your intercessory prayer.
When we seek to bless others through prayer, we are blessed. Studies draw causal links between prayer and faith and health and happiness. The act of praying for others has a boomerang effect. It allows us to shift the burden we carry for others to the shoulders of God. Don’t grow angry at the church’s condition. Pray for her. Don’t fret about the future of your family, pray for them. Assume the posture of prayer.
Is there a crisis in your world? Are you called to give hope where hope cannot be found? Is prayer all that you have? That’s okay. Prayer is all you need. And this is how happiness happens.
Psalm 71
I run for dear life to God,
I’ll never live to regret it.
Do what you do so well:
get me out of this mess and up on my feet.
Put your ear to the ground and listen,
give me space for salvation.
Be a guest room where I can retreat;
you said your door was always open!
You’re my salvation—my vast, granite fortress.
4-7 My God, free me from the grip of Wicked,
from the clutch of Bad and Bully.
You keep me going when times are tough—
my bedrock, God, since my childhood.
I’ve hung on you from the day of my birth,
the day you took me from the cradle;
I’ll never run out of praise.
Many gasp in alarm when they see me,
but you take me in stride.
8-11 Just as each day brims with your beauty,
my mouth brims with praise.
But don’t turn me out to pasture when I’m old
or put me on the shelf when I can’t pull my weight.
My enemies are talking behind my back,
watching for their chance to knife me.
The gossip is: “God has abandoned him.
Pounce on him now; no one will help him.”
12-16 God, don’t just watch from the sidelines.
Come on! Run to my side!
My accusers—make them lose face.
Those out to get me—make them look
Like idiots, while I stretch out, reaching for you,
and daily add praise to praise.
I’ll write the book on your righteousness,
talk up your salvation the livelong day,
never run out of good things to write or say.
I come in the power of the Lord God,
I post signs marking his right-of-way.
17-24 You got me when I was an unformed youth,
God, and taught me everything I know.
Now I’m telling the world your wonders;
I’ll keep at it until I’m old and gray.
God, don’t walk off and leave me
until I get out the news
Of your strong right arm to this world,
news of your power to the world yet to come,
Your famous and righteous
ways, O God.
God, you’ve done it all!
Who is quite like you?
You, who made me stare trouble in the face,
Turn me around;
Now let me look life in the face.
I’ve been to the bottom;
Bring me up, streaming with honors;
turn to me, be tender to me,
And I’ll take up the lute and thank you
to the tune of your faithfulness, God.
I’ll make music for you on a harp,
Holy One of Israel.
When I open up in song to you,
I let out lungsful of praise,
my rescued life a song.
All day long I’m chanting
about you and your righteous ways,
While those who tried to do me in
slink off looking ashamed.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, September 30, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Isaiah 53:1–6
Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
Insight
Isaiah 53 gives us the clearest description of the sacrifice of Christ in the Old Testament, describing His rejection (vv. 1–3), His suffering in our place (vv. 4–6), His sacrificial death and burial (vv. 7–9), and His reconciling atonement and resurrection (vv. 10–12). The chapter is the last of four messianic prophecies in the book of Isaiah (42:1–9; 49:1–13, 50:4–11; 52:13–53:12) known as the “Servant Songs” because they prophetically refer to Jesus the Messiah as Servant (42:1; 49:3; 50:10; 52:13), although Jewish scholars tend to identify the Servant as Israel itself.
In the New Testament, Isaiah is quoted or alluded to sixty-two times. New Testament writers unequivocally apply quotes from Isaiah 53 to Jesus Christ (Matthew 8:17; Mark 15:28; Luke 22:37; John 12:38–41; Acts 8:32–35; Romans 10:16; 1 Peter 2:24).
A Ready Remedy
The punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:5
Following the park guide, I scribbled notes as he taught about the plants of the Bahamian primeval forest. He told us which trees to avoid. The poisonwood tree, he said, secretes a black sap that causes a painful, itchy rash. But not to worry! The antidote could usually be found growing right next it. “Cut into the red bark of the gum elemi tree,” he said, “and rub the sap on the rash. It will immediately begin to heal.”
I nearly dropped my pencil in astonishment. I hadn’t expected to find a picture of salvation in the forest. But in the gum elemi tree, I saw Jesus. He’s the ready remedy wherever the poison of sin is found. Like the red bark of that tree, the blood of Jesus brings healing.
The prophet Isaiah understood that humanity needed healing. The rash of sin had infected us. Isaiah promised that our healing would come through “a man of suffering” who would take our sickness upon Himself (Isaiah 53:3). That man was Jesus. We were sick, but Christ was willing to be wounded in our place. When we believe in Him, we are healed from the sickness of sin (v. 5). It may take a lifetime to learn to live as those who’re healed—to recognize our sins and to reject them in favor of our new identity—but because of Jesus, we can. By: Amy Peterson
Reflect & Pray
What other pictures in the natural world do you see of the salvation God offers us? What has the healing He offers meant to you?
Wherever sin is, Jesus is there, ready to save.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, September 30, 2019
The Assigning of the Call
I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church… —Colossians 1:24
We take our own spiritual consecration and try to make it into a call of God, but when we get right with Him He brushes all this aside. Then He gives us a tremendous, riveting pain to fasten our attention on something that we never even dreamed could be His call for us. And for one radiant, flashing moment we see His purpose, and we say, “Here am I! Send me” (Isaiah 6:8).
This call has nothing to do with personal sanctification, but with being made broken bread and poured-out wine. Yet God can never make us into wine if we object to the fingers He chooses to use to crush us. We say, “If God would only use His own fingers, and make me broken bread and poured-out wine in a special way, then I wouldn’t object!” But when He uses someone we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, to crush us, then we object. Yet we must never try to choose the place of our own martyrdom. If we are ever going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed—you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed.
I wonder what finger and thumb God has been using to squeeze you? Have you been as hard as a marble and escaped? If you are not ripe yet, and if God had squeezed you anyway, the wine produced would have been remarkably bitter. To be a holy person means that the elements of our natural life experience the very presence of God as they are providentially broken in His service. We have to be placed into God and brought into agreement with Him before we can be broken bread in His hands. Stay right with God and let Him do as He likes, and you will find that He is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit His other children.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Always keep in contact with those books and those people that enlarge your horizon and make it possible for you to stretch yourself mentally. The Moral Foundations of Life, 721 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, September 30, 2019
Crawling is Not Enough - #8536
Our son was so excited when he called us. Our year-old granddaughter had just gotten up and walked about 30 steps across the floor! We had seen her crawl for the first time...we'd seen her stand by herself and even take a step. But this time she had suddenly exploded into big-time walking. Our son seemed to have an immediate revelation about what this development was going to mean for the life of her parents. He simply introduced his announcement of her walking with these four words, "Let the games begin!" No kidding!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Crawling is Not Enough."
You know, it's been fun and educational to watch grandchildren explode in their capabilities in the early months of their life. Now, our little granddaughter I was telling you about, back then she wasn't content with baby food for long. No, she kept following our forks as we put real food into our mouths. So, she realized she wanted some of that. And she wasn't content for long with depending on someone else to feed her. No, early on she was reaching out for food and insisting on feeding herself. Our little darlin' crawled for a while, but oh, boy, we could tell she was impatient with that being her only means of transportation. She really wanted to walk and she really did. Let the games begin! Actually, let a whole new life adventure begin.
A healthy child is never content to stay at the same level, and neither is a healthy child of God. Unfortunately, too many of God's kids have reached a particular level of growing up in Jesus and they have just settled down there. They don't feed themselves much spiritually. They depend largely on others feeding them. They think spiritual crawling is just fine, maybe because most of the Christians they know are stuck in the crawling stage. Our son was like any father; he was happy his daughter wasn't content to stay where she was. She was restless for more. He would have every reason to be very concerned if she was content to stay at a level that was below where she was meant to live. Right? Wonder if that's how your Heavenly Father feels about you?
Maybe you know that deep in your heart you're restless for something more. Your life is full, it's just not fulfilling. That's because God wants you to want the rest of what His Son died to give you. The writer of Hebrews challenged believers who he said "ought to be teachers" by this time but instead were needing someone to "teach you the elementary truths of God's Word all over again." He told them to "leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity" (Hebrews 5:12, 6:1).
In Philippians 3, beginning with verse 12, our word for today from the word of God, we hear what a healthy child of God wants. Remember, this was written by the Apostle Paul, maybe the most powerful Christian of all time. But still he says, "I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
Maybe you've been coasting at the same spiritual speed for a while; you've been content with - let's face it - mediocrity - with crawling. But you're restless. God's made you restless. He has so much more for you. It's time to get on your knees and say, "Jesus, I'm not content where I am anymore. I want to know you more than I've ever known you before, and I'm going to be pursuing You in Your Word and in prayer, and in Your church as I've never pursued You before. And, Lord, I want to make a greater difference with the rest of my life than I've ever made before. It's Yours to use as you see fit from now on."
He's been waiting to hear that from you. You are about to "press on to take hold of" something for which Christ Jesus "took hold of" you. So let the games begin as the lid comes off your relationship with Jesus. Let the greatest adventure of your life begin! And if you've never begun your relationship with this man who died for you, who will give you the meaning your life was meant to have, tell Him today, "Jesus, I want to belong to You. You are the more I was made for."
Get to our website, ANewStory.com, and find out exactly how to be sure you belong to Him. God has so much more for you. Listen to these words, "Made for more." You'll find it when you find Him.
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Psalm 67, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Living Out of Your Inheritance
Promised Land people say I'm a victor in spite of my surroundings. Wilderness people say These are difficult days and I'll never get through them. But God's people say, These days are Glory Days…and God will get me through!
John 1:12 says, "Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God." Imagine what would happen if a generation of Christians lived out of their inheritance. The lonely would find comfort in God, not in the arms of strangers. Struggling couples would spend more time in prayer and less time in anger. And children would consider it a blessing to care for their aging parents.
Paul said, "I can do all things through Christ, because He gives me strength" (Philippians 4:13). Join me in claiming your inheritance in a special 4-week journey of scripture memory at GloryDaysToday.com!
Claim Your Inheritance
We are in the middle of our 4 week Scripture Memory Challenge. This week's verse is John 1:12."Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God."
Claim your inheritance! As a child of God you have the power of God in you to fight any battle you face. He set us free so he could raise us up. The gift has been given. Will you trust it?
God said to Joshua, "Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses." The people of Moses' day chose the wilderness. Don't make the same mistake! Joshua didn't. He took God at his word and set about the task of inheriting the land! I encourage you to do the same!
Psalm 67
God, mark us with grace
and blessing! Smile!
The whole country will see how you work,
all the godless nations see how you save.
God! Let people thank and enjoy you.
Let all people thank and enjoy you.
Let all far-flung people become happy
and shout their happiness because
You judge them fair and square,
you tend the far-flung peoples.
God! Let people thank and enjoy you.
Let all people thank and enjoy you.
Earth, display your exuberance!
You mark us with blessing, O God, our God.
You mark us with blessing, O God.
Earth’s four corners—honor him!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Exodus 3:10–17
So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you[a] will worship God on this mountain.”
13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.[b] This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”
15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord,[c] the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’
“This is my name forever,
the name you shall call me
from generation to generation.
16 “Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. 17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’
Footnotes:
Exodus 3:12 The Hebrew is plural.
Exodus 3:14 Or I will be what I will be
Exodus 3:15 The Hebrew for Lord sounds like and may be related to the Hebrew for I am in verse 14.
Insight
When Moses asked “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?” (Exodus 3:11), God reassured him of His presence. “I will be with you” (v. 12) corresponds to the statement “I am who I am” (v. 14), which identifies God as an existing being. He expanded on this when He called Himself “The Lord” (v. 15), from the Hebrew Yehovah, which means “self-existing.” Regardless of abilities Moses possessed, the self-existing Sustainer of the universe would be with him. By: Julie Schwab
Who Am I?
“I am who I am.” Exodus 3:14
Dave enjoyed his job, but for a long time he’d sensed a pull toward something else. Now he was about to fulfill his dream and step into mission work. But strangely, he began to have serious doubts.
“I don’t deserve this,” he told a friend. “The mission board doesn’t know the real me. I’m not good enough.”
Dave has some pretty good company. Mention the name of Moses and we think of leadership, strength, and the Ten Commandments. We tend to forget that Moses fled to the desert after murdering a man. We lose sight of his forty years as a fugitive. We overlook his anger problem and his intense reluctance to say yes to God.
When God showed up with marching orders (Exodus 3:1–10), Moses played the I’m-not-good-enough card. He even got into a lengthy argument with God, asking Him: “Who am I?” (v. 11). Then God told Moses who He was: “I am who I am” (v. 14). It’s impossible for us to explain that mysterious name because our indescribable God is describing His eternal presence to Moses.
A sense of our own weaknesses is healthy. But if we use them as an excuse to keep God from using us, we insult Him. What we’re really saying is that God isn’t good enough.
The question isn’t Who am I? The question is Who is the I am? By: Tim Gustafson
Reflect & Pray
When has thinking you’re not good enough kept you from serving God? How does it encourage you to look at Bible characters God used despite their flaws?
Eternal God, so often we doubt that You could ever use people like us. But You sent Your Son to die for the likes of us, so please forgive our doubts. Help us accept the challenges You bring our way.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, September 29, 2019
The Awareness of the Call
…for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel! —1 Corinthians 9:16
We are inclined to forget the deeply spiritual and supernatural touch of God. If you are able to tell exactly where you were when you received the call of God and can explain all about it, I question whether you have truly been called. The call of God does not come like that; it is much more supernatural. The realization of the call in a person’s life may come like a clap of thunder or it may dawn gradually. But however quickly or slowly this awareness comes, it is always accompanied with an undercurrent of the supernatural— something that is inexpressible and produces a “glow.” At any moment the sudden awareness of this incalculable, supernatural, surprising call that has taken hold of your life may break through— “I chose you…” (John 15:16). The call of God has nothing to do with salvation and sanctification. You are not called to preach the gospel because you are sanctified; the call to preach the gospel is infinitely different. Paul describes it as a compulsion that was placed upon him.
If you have ignored, and thereby removed, the great supernatural call of God in your life, take a review of your circumstances. See where you have put your own ideas of service or your particular abilities ahead of the call of God. Paul said, “…woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!” He had become aware of the call of God, and his compulsion to “preach the gospel” was so strong that nothing else was any longer even a competitor for his strength.
If a man or woman is called of God, it doesn’t matter how difficult the circumstances may be. God orchestrates every force at work for His purpose in the end. If you will agree with God’s purpose, He will bring not only your conscious level but also all the deeper levels of your life, which you yourself cannot reach, into perfect harmony.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Defenders of the faith are inclined to be bitter until they learn to walk in the light of the Lord. When you have learned to walk in the light of the Lord, bitterness and contention are impossible.
Biblical Psychology
Promised Land people say I'm a victor in spite of my surroundings. Wilderness people say These are difficult days and I'll never get through them. But God's people say, These days are Glory Days…and God will get me through!
John 1:12 says, "Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God." Imagine what would happen if a generation of Christians lived out of their inheritance. The lonely would find comfort in God, not in the arms of strangers. Struggling couples would spend more time in prayer and less time in anger. And children would consider it a blessing to care for their aging parents.
Paul said, "I can do all things through Christ, because He gives me strength" (Philippians 4:13). Join me in claiming your inheritance in a special 4-week journey of scripture memory at GloryDaysToday.com!
Claim Your Inheritance
We are in the middle of our 4 week Scripture Memory Challenge. This week's verse is John 1:12."Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God."
Claim your inheritance! As a child of God you have the power of God in you to fight any battle you face. He set us free so he could raise us up. The gift has been given. Will you trust it?
God said to Joshua, "Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses." The people of Moses' day chose the wilderness. Don't make the same mistake! Joshua didn't. He took God at his word and set about the task of inheriting the land! I encourage you to do the same!
Psalm 67
God, mark us with grace
and blessing! Smile!
The whole country will see how you work,
all the godless nations see how you save.
God! Let people thank and enjoy you.
Let all people thank and enjoy you.
Let all far-flung people become happy
and shout their happiness because
You judge them fair and square,
you tend the far-flung peoples.
God! Let people thank and enjoy you.
Let all people thank and enjoy you.
Earth, display your exuberance!
You mark us with blessing, O God, our God.
You mark us with blessing, O God.
Earth’s four corners—honor him!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Exodus 3:10–17
So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you[a] will worship God on this mountain.”
13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.[b] This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”
15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord,[c] the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’
“This is my name forever,
the name you shall call me
from generation to generation.
16 “Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. 17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’
Footnotes:
Exodus 3:12 The Hebrew is plural.
Exodus 3:14 Or I will be what I will be
Exodus 3:15 The Hebrew for Lord sounds like and may be related to the Hebrew for I am in verse 14.
Insight
When Moses asked “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?” (Exodus 3:11), God reassured him of His presence. “I will be with you” (v. 12) corresponds to the statement “I am who I am” (v. 14), which identifies God as an existing being. He expanded on this when He called Himself “The Lord” (v. 15), from the Hebrew Yehovah, which means “self-existing.” Regardless of abilities Moses possessed, the self-existing Sustainer of the universe would be with him. By: Julie Schwab
Who Am I?
“I am who I am.” Exodus 3:14
Dave enjoyed his job, but for a long time he’d sensed a pull toward something else. Now he was about to fulfill his dream and step into mission work. But strangely, he began to have serious doubts.
“I don’t deserve this,” he told a friend. “The mission board doesn’t know the real me. I’m not good enough.”
Dave has some pretty good company. Mention the name of Moses and we think of leadership, strength, and the Ten Commandments. We tend to forget that Moses fled to the desert after murdering a man. We lose sight of his forty years as a fugitive. We overlook his anger problem and his intense reluctance to say yes to God.
When God showed up with marching orders (Exodus 3:1–10), Moses played the I’m-not-good-enough card. He even got into a lengthy argument with God, asking Him: “Who am I?” (v. 11). Then God told Moses who He was: “I am who I am” (v. 14). It’s impossible for us to explain that mysterious name because our indescribable God is describing His eternal presence to Moses.
A sense of our own weaknesses is healthy. But if we use them as an excuse to keep God from using us, we insult Him. What we’re really saying is that God isn’t good enough.
The question isn’t Who am I? The question is Who is the I am? By: Tim Gustafson
Reflect & Pray
When has thinking you’re not good enough kept you from serving God? How does it encourage you to look at Bible characters God used despite their flaws?
Eternal God, so often we doubt that You could ever use people like us. But You sent Your Son to die for the likes of us, so please forgive our doubts. Help us accept the challenges You bring our way.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, September 29, 2019
The Awareness of the Call
…for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel! —1 Corinthians 9:16
We are inclined to forget the deeply spiritual and supernatural touch of God. If you are able to tell exactly where you were when you received the call of God and can explain all about it, I question whether you have truly been called. The call of God does not come like that; it is much more supernatural. The realization of the call in a person’s life may come like a clap of thunder or it may dawn gradually. But however quickly or slowly this awareness comes, it is always accompanied with an undercurrent of the supernatural— something that is inexpressible and produces a “glow.” At any moment the sudden awareness of this incalculable, supernatural, surprising call that has taken hold of your life may break through— “I chose you…” (John 15:16). The call of God has nothing to do with salvation and sanctification. You are not called to preach the gospel because you are sanctified; the call to preach the gospel is infinitely different. Paul describes it as a compulsion that was placed upon him.
If you have ignored, and thereby removed, the great supernatural call of God in your life, take a review of your circumstances. See where you have put your own ideas of service or your particular abilities ahead of the call of God. Paul said, “…woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!” He had become aware of the call of God, and his compulsion to “preach the gospel” was so strong that nothing else was any longer even a competitor for his strength.
If a man or woman is called of God, it doesn’t matter how difficult the circumstances may be. God orchestrates every force at work for His purpose in the end. If you will agree with God’s purpose, He will bring not only your conscious level but also all the deeper levels of your life, which you yourself cannot reach, into perfect harmony.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Defenders of the faith are inclined to be bitter until they learn to walk in the light of the Lord. When you have learned to walk in the light of the Lord, bitterness and contention are impossible.
Biblical Psychology
Saturday, September 28, 2019
Philippians 1, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Claim Your Inheritance
We are in the middle of our 4 week Scripture Memory Challenge. This week's verse is John 1:12."Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God."
Claim your inheritance! As a child of God you have the power of God in you to fight any battle you face. He set us free so he could raise us up. The gift has been given. Will you trust it?
God said to Joshua, "Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses." The people of Moses' day chose the wilderness. Don't make the same mistake! Joshua didn't. He took God at his word and set about the task of inheriting the land! I encourage you to do the same!
Get started at GloryDaysToday.com.
The Authoritative Word
Let God's Word be the authoritative word in your world! It's a decision that rubs against the skin of our culture. We prefer the authority of the voting booth, pollster, or whatever feels good.
Paul reminded the young pastor, Timothy, in 2 Timothy 3:15: "Since you were a child you have known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise." And in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Paul states the power of Scripture against any stronghold. "All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
Philippians 1
Paul and Timothy, both of us committed servants of Christ Jesus, write this letter to all the followers of Jesus in Philippi, pastors and ministers included. We greet you with the grace and peace that comes from God our Father and our Master, Jesus Christ.
3-6 Every time you cross my mind, I break out in exclamations of thanks to God. Each exclamation is a trigger to prayer. I find myself praying for you with a glad heart. I am so pleased that you have continued on in this with us, believing and proclaiming God’s Message, from the day you heard it right up to the present. There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.
7-8 It’s not at all fanciful for me to think this way about you. My prayers and hopes have deep roots in reality. You have, after all, stuck with me all the way from the time I was thrown in jail, put on trial, and came out of it in one piece. All along you have experienced with me the most generous help from God. He knows how much I love and miss you these days. Sometimes I think I feel as strongly about you as Christ does!
9-11 So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover’s life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God.
12-14 I want to report to you, friends, that my imprisonment here has had the opposite of its intended effect. Instead of being squelched, the Message has actually prospered. All the soldiers here, and everyone else, too, found out that I’m in jail because of this Messiah. That piqued their curiosity, and now they’ve learned all about him. Not only that, but most of the followers of Jesus here have become far more sure of themselves in the faith than ever, speaking out fearlessly about God, about the Messiah.
15-17 It’s true that some here preach Christ because with me out of the way, they think they’ll step right into the spotlight. But the others do it with the best heart in the world. One group is motivated by pure love, knowing that I am here defending the Message, wanting to help. The others, now that I’m out of the picture, are merely greedy, hoping to get something out of it for themselves. Their motives are bad. They see me as their competition, and so the worse it goes for me, the better—they think—for them.
18-21 So how am I to respond? I’ve decided that I really don’t care about their motives, whether mixed, bad, or indifferent. Every time one of them opens his mouth, Christ is proclaimed, so I just cheer them on!
And I’m going to keep that celebration going because I know how it’s going to turn out. Through your faithful prayers and the generous response of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, everything he wants to do in and through me will be done. I can hardly wait to continue on my course. I don’t expect to be embarrassed in the least. On the contrary, everything happening to me in this jail only serves to make Christ more accurately known, regardless of whether I live or die. They didn’t shut me up; they gave me a pulpit! Alive, I’m Christ’s messenger; dead, I’m his bounty. Life versus even more life! I can’t lose.
22-26 As long as I’m alive in this body, there is good work for me to do. If I had to choose right now, I hardly know which I’d choose. Hard choice! The desire to break camp here and be with Christ is powerful. Some days I can think of nothing better. But most days, because of what you are going through, I am sure that it’s better for me to stick it out here. So I plan to be around awhile, companion to you as your growth and joy in this life of trusting God continues. You can start looking forward to a great reunion when I come visit you again. We’ll be praising Christ, enjoying each other.
27-30 Meanwhile, live in such a way that you are a credit to the Message of Christ. Let nothing in your conduct hang on whether I come or not. Your conduct must be the same whether I show up to see things for myself or hear of it from a distance. Stand united, singular in vision, contending for people’s trust in the Message, the good news, not flinching or dodging in the slightest before the opposition. Your courage and unity will show them what they’re up against: defeat for them, victory for you—and both because of God. There’s far more to this life than trusting in Christ. There’s also suffering for him. And the suffering is as much a gift as the trusting. You’re involved in the same kind of struggle you saw me go through, on which you are now getting an updated report in this letter.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, September 28, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Ephesians 1:15–23
For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit[a] of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
Footnotes:
Ephesians 1:17 Or a spirit
Insight
Paul’s prayer in the first chapter of his letter to the Ephesians (vv. 15–23) works hand-in-hand with the prayer of the third chapter (3:14–21). Together they show what it takes to sense something of the astonishing, inexpressible, and expansive purposes, power, and love of God. Both prayers remind us that growing in the immeasurable love and boundless scope of God’s plans require more than our desire and capacity to believe (1:17–19; 3:14–21). Such “knowing” is a gift and evidence of the Holy Spirit who is with us and in us. Both prayers give us reason to consciously draw near to God. And both lead us into an understanding of what it takes to prayerfully counter the strategies of our spiritual enemy—by drawing near to and relying on the Spirit (1:15–17; 6:18). By: Mart DeHaan
“Just the Office”?
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you. Ephesians 1:18
I gazed out at the rolling, green hills in Lancashire in northern England, noticing the stone fences enclosing some sheep dotted around the hills. Puffy clouds moved across the bright sky, and I inhaled deeply, drinking in the sight. When I remarked about the beautiful scene to the woman working at the retreat center I was visiting, she said, “You know, I never used to notice it before our guests would point it out. We’ve lived here for years; and when we were farmers, this was just the office!”
We can easily miss the gift of what’s right in front of us, especially beauty that’s part of our everyday lives. We can also easily miss the beautiful ways God works in and around us daily. But believers in Jesus can ask God’s Spirit to open our spiritual eyes so we can understand how He’s at work, as the apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesian believers. Paul yearned that God would give them the wisdom and revelation to know Him better (Ephesians 1:17). He prayed that their hearts would be enlightened so that they’d know God’s hope, promised future, and power (vv. 18–19).
God’s gift of the Spirit of Christ can awaken us to His work in us and through us. With Him, what may have once seemed like “just the office” can be understood as a place that displays His light and glory. By: Amy Boucher Pye
Reflect & Pray
Where do you see God at work around you? How does seeing the world through spiritual eyes help?
Jesus, shine Your light on me and open my eyes and my heart to better understand Your goodness and Your grace. I want to receive Your love.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, September 28, 2019
The “Go” of Unconditional Identification
Jesus…said to him, "One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor…and come, take up the cross, and follow Me." —Mark 10:21
The rich young ruler had the controlling passion to be perfect. When he saw Jesus Christ, he wanted to be like Him. Our Lord never places anyone’s personal holiness above everything else when He calls a disciple. Jesus’ primary consideration is my absolute annihilation of my right to myself and my identification with Him, which means having a relationship with Him in which there are no other relationships. Luke 14:26 has nothing to do with salvation or sanctification, but deals solely with unconditional identification with Jesus Christ. Very few of us truly know what is meant by the absolute “go” of unconditional identification with, and abandonment and surrender to, Jesus.
“Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him…” (Mark 10:21). This look of Jesus will require breaking your heart away forever from allegiance to any other person or thing. Has Jesus ever looked in this way at you? This look of Jesus transforms, penetrates, and captivates. Where you are soft and pliable with God is where the Lord has looked at you. If you are hard and vindictive, insistent on having your own way, and always certain that the other person is more likely to be in the wrong than you are, then there are whole areas of your nature that have never been transformed by His gaze.
“One thing you lack….” From Jesus Christ’s perspective, oneness with Him, with nothing between, is the only good thing.
“…sell whatever you have….” I must humble myself until I am merely a living person. I must essentially renounce possessions of all kinds, not for salvation (for only one thing saves a person and that is absolute reliance in faith upon Jesus Christ), but to follow Jesus. “…come…and follow Me.” And the road is the way He went.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Defenders of the faith are inclined to be bitter until they learn to walk in the light of the Lord. When you have learned to walk in the light of the Lord, bitterness and contention are impossible.
Biblical Psychology
We are in the middle of our 4 week Scripture Memory Challenge. This week's verse is John 1:12."Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God."
Claim your inheritance! As a child of God you have the power of God in you to fight any battle you face. He set us free so he could raise us up. The gift has been given. Will you trust it?
God said to Joshua, "Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses." The people of Moses' day chose the wilderness. Don't make the same mistake! Joshua didn't. He took God at his word and set about the task of inheriting the land! I encourage you to do the same!
Get started at GloryDaysToday.com.
The Authoritative Word
Let God's Word be the authoritative word in your world! It's a decision that rubs against the skin of our culture. We prefer the authority of the voting booth, pollster, or whatever feels good.
Paul reminded the young pastor, Timothy, in 2 Timothy 3:15: "Since you were a child you have known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise." And in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Paul states the power of Scripture against any stronghold. "All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
Philippians 1
Paul and Timothy, both of us committed servants of Christ Jesus, write this letter to all the followers of Jesus in Philippi, pastors and ministers included. We greet you with the grace and peace that comes from God our Father and our Master, Jesus Christ.
3-6 Every time you cross my mind, I break out in exclamations of thanks to God. Each exclamation is a trigger to prayer. I find myself praying for you with a glad heart. I am so pleased that you have continued on in this with us, believing and proclaiming God’s Message, from the day you heard it right up to the present. There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.
7-8 It’s not at all fanciful for me to think this way about you. My prayers and hopes have deep roots in reality. You have, after all, stuck with me all the way from the time I was thrown in jail, put on trial, and came out of it in one piece. All along you have experienced with me the most generous help from God. He knows how much I love and miss you these days. Sometimes I think I feel as strongly about you as Christ does!
9-11 So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover’s life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God.
12-14 I want to report to you, friends, that my imprisonment here has had the opposite of its intended effect. Instead of being squelched, the Message has actually prospered. All the soldiers here, and everyone else, too, found out that I’m in jail because of this Messiah. That piqued their curiosity, and now they’ve learned all about him. Not only that, but most of the followers of Jesus here have become far more sure of themselves in the faith than ever, speaking out fearlessly about God, about the Messiah.
15-17 It’s true that some here preach Christ because with me out of the way, they think they’ll step right into the spotlight. But the others do it with the best heart in the world. One group is motivated by pure love, knowing that I am here defending the Message, wanting to help. The others, now that I’m out of the picture, are merely greedy, hoping to get something out of it for themselves. Their motives are bad. They see me as their competition, and so the worse it goes for me, the better—they think—for them.
18-21 So how am I to respond? I’ve decided that I really don’t care about their motives, whether mixed, bad, or indifferent. Every time one of them opens his mouth, Christ is proclaimed, so I just cheer them on!
And I’m going to keep that celebration going because I know how it’s going to turn out. Through your faithful prayers and the generous response of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, everything he wants to do in and through me will be done. I can hardly wait to continue on my course. I don’t expect to be embarrassed in the least. On the contrary, everything happening to me in this jail only serves to make Christ more accurately known, regardless of whether I live or die. They didn’t shut me up; they gave me a pulpit! Alive, I’m Christ’s messenger; dead, I’m his bounty. Life versus even more life! I can’t lose.
22-26 As long as I’m alive in this body, there is good work for me to do. If I had to choose right now, I hardly know which I’d choose. Hard choice! The desire to break camp here and be with Christ is powerful. Some days I can think of nothing better. But most days, because of what you are going through, I am sure that it’s better for me to stick it out here. So I plan to be around awhile, companion to you as your growth and joy in this life of trusting God continues. You can start looking forward to a great reunion when I come visit you again. We’ll be praising Christ, enjoying each other.
27-30 Meanwhile, live in such a way that you are a credit to the Message of Christ. Let nothing in your conduct hang on whether I come or not. Your conduct must be the same whether I show up to see things for myself or hear of it from a distance. Stand united, singular in vision, contending for people’s trust in the Message, the good news, not flinching or dodging in the slightest before the opposition. Your courage and unity will show them what they’re up against: defeat for them, victory for you—and both because of God. There’s far more to this life than trusting in Christ. There’s also suffering for him. And the suffering is as much a gift as the trusting. You’re involved in the same kind of struggle you saw me go through, on which you are now getting an updated report in this letter.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, September 28, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Ephesians 1:15–23
For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit[a] of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
Footnotes:
Ephesians 1:17 Or a spirit
Insight
Paul’s prayer in the first chapter of his letter to the Ephesians (vv. 15–23) works hand-in-hand with the prayer of the third chapter (3:14–21). Together they show what it takes to sense something of the astonishing, inexpressible, and expansive purposes, power, and love of God. Both prayers remind us that growing in the immeasurable love and boundless scope of God’s plans require more than our desire and capacity to believe (1:17–19; 3:14–21). Such “knowing” is a gift and evidence of the Holy Spirit who is with us and in us. Both prayers give us reason to consciously draw near to God. And both lead us into an understanding of what it takes to prayerfully counter the strategies of our spiritual enemy—by drawing near to and relying on the Spirit (1:15–17; 6:18). By: Mart DeHaan
“Just the Office”?
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you. Ephesians 1:18
I gazed out at the rolling, green hills in Lancashire in northern England, noticing the stone fences enclosing some sheep dotted around the hills. Puffy clouds moved across the bright sky, and I inhaled deeply, drinking in the sight. When I remarked about the beautiful scene to the woman working at the retreat center I was visiting, she said, “You know, I never used to notice it before our guests would point it out. We’ve lived here for years; and when we were farmers, this was just the office!”
We can easily miss the gift of what’s right in front of us, especially beauty that’s part of our everyday lives. We can also easily miss the beautiful ways God works in and around us daily. But believers in Jesus can ask God’s Spirit to open our spiritual eyes so we can understand how He’s at work, as the apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesian believers. Paul yearned that God would give them the wisdom and revelation to know Him better (Ephesians 1:17). He prayed that their hearts would be enlightened so that they’d know God’s hope, promised future, and power (vv. 18–19).
God’s gift of the Spirit of Christ can awaken us to His work in us and through us. With Him, what may have once seemed like “just the office” can be understood as a place that displays His light and glory. By: Amy Boucher Pye
Reflect & Pray
Where do you see God at work around you? How does seeing the world through spiritual eyes help?
Jesus, shine Your light on me and open my eyes and my heart to better understand Your goodness and Your grace. I want to receive Your love.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, September 28, 2019
The “Go” of Unconditional Identification
Jesus…said to him, "One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor…and come, take up the cross, and follow Me." —Mark 10:21
The rich young ruler had the controlling passion to be perfect. When he saw Jesus Christ, he wanted to be like Him. Our Lord never places anyone’s personal holiness above everything else when He calls a disciple. Jesus’ primary consideration is my absolute annihilation of my right to myself and my identification with Him, which means having a relationship with Him in which there are no other relationships. Luke 14:26 has nothing to do with salvation or sanctification, but deals solely with unconditional identification with Jesus Christ. Very few of us truly know what is meant by the absolute “go” of unconditional identification with, and abandonment and surrender to, Jesus.
“Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him…” (Mark 10:21). This look of Jesus will require breaking your heart away forever from allegiance to any other person or thing. Has Jesus ever looked in this way at you? This look of Jesus transforms, penetrates, and captivates. Where you are soft and pliable with God is where the Lord has looked at you. If you are hard and vindictive, insistent on having your own way, and always certain that the other person is more likely to be in the wrong than you are, then there are whole areas of your nature that have never been transformed by His gaze.
“One thing you lack….” From Jesus Christ’s perspective, oneness with Him, with nothing between, is the only good thing.
“…sell whatever you have….” I must humble myself until I am merely a living person. I must essentially renounce possessions of all kinds, not for salvation (for only one thing saves a person and that is absolute reliance in faith upon Jesus Christ), but to follow Jesus. “…come…and follow Me.” And the road is the way He went.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Defenders of the faith are inclined to be bitter until they learn to walk in the light of the Lord. When you have learned to walk in the light of the Lord, bitterness and contention are impossible.
Biblical Psychology
Friday, September 27, 2019
Psalm 66, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily:THE POWER POSTURE
Someone you know is under attack. Your neighbor is depressed. Your sibling is off track. Your child is facing an uphill challenge. You may not know what to say. You may not have resources to help. But you have this– you have prayer. According to this promise your prayers prompt the response of God in the lives of those you love. James 5:16 says, “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”
When we pray for one another, we enter God’s workshop, we pick up a hammer, and help him accomplish his purposes. Our prayers unlock the storehouses of heaven. The link between God’s goodness and your friends is your prayers. When you pray, when you speak for the ones who need help to the One who can give it, something wonderful happens.
Psalm 66
For the director of music. A song. A psalm.
1 Shout for joy to God, all the earth!
2 Sing the glory of his name;
make his praise glorious.
3 Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!
So great is your power
that your enemies cringe before you.
4 All the earth bows down to you;
they sing praise to you,
they sing the praises of your name.”[a]
5 Come and see what God has done,
his awesome deeds for mankind!
6 He turned the sea into dry land,
they passed through the waters on foot—
come, let us rejoice in him.
7 He rules forever by his power,
his eyes watch the nations—
let not the rebellious rise up against him.
8 Praise our God, all peoples,
let the sound of his praise be heard;
9 he has preserved our lives
and kept our feet from slipping.
10 For you, God, tested us;
you refined us like silver.
11 You brought us into prison
and laid burdens on our backs.
12 You let people ride over our heads;
we went through fire and water,
but you brought us to a place of abundance.
13 I will come to your temple with burnt offerings
and fulfill my vows to you—
14 vows my lips promised and my mouth spoke
when I was in trouble.
15 I will sacrifice fat animals to you
and an offering of rams;
I will offer bulls and goats.
16 Come and hear, all you who fear God;
let me tell you what he has done for me.
17 I cried out to him with my mouth;
his praise was on my tongue.
18 If I had cherished sin in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened;
19 but God has surely listened
and has heard my prayer.
20 Praise be to God,
who has not rejected my prayer
or withheld his love from me!
Footnotes:
Psalm 66:4 The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here and at the end of verses 7 and 15.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, September 27, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Matthew 25:1–13
The Parable of the Ten Virgins
25 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
6 “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’
7 “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’
9 “‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’
10 “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.
11 “Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’
12 “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’
13 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.
Insight
What is the “kingdom of heaven” referred to in Matthew 25:1? This phrase occurs thirty-one times in the New Testament—only in Matthew. It’s first used by John the Baptist: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (3:2). Just as these are the first recorded words of John when he begins his ministry, they’re also Christ’s first words after He initiates His own ministry (4:17). Most scholars consider this phrase another name for the kingdom of God. Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible defines it as “the sovereign rule of God, initiated by Christ’s earthly ministry and to be consummated when ‘the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ’ (Revelation 11:15).”
By: Alyson Kieda
Live Like Jesus Is Coming
Keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. Matthew 25:13
I’m inspired by country singer Tim McGraw’s song “Live Like You Were Dying.” In it he describes some of the exciting “bucket list” things a man did after receiving some bad news about his health. He also chose to love and forgive people more freely—speaking to them more tenderly. The song recommends that we live well, as if knowing our lives will end soon.
This song reminds us that our time is limited. It’s important for us to not put off for tomorrow what we can do today, because one day we’ll run out of tomorrows. This is particularly urgent for believers in Jesus, who believe that Jesus may return at any moment (perhaps in the very second you’re reading this sentence!). Jesus urges us to be ready, not living like the five “foolish” virgins who were caught unprepared when the bridegroom returned (Matthew 25:6–10).
But McGraw’s song doesn’t tell the whole story. We who love Jesus will never run out of tomorrows. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die” (John 11:25–26). Our life in Him never ends.
So don’t live like you’re dying. Because you’re not. Rather, live like Jesus is coming. Because He is!
By: Mike Wittmer
Reflect & Pray
How will you live today like Jesus is coming soon? How does knowing He could return any day affect your choices?
Jesus, I look forward to the day You’ll return. May I use the time I’ve been given to honor You and to serve others well.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, September 27, 2019
The “Go” of Renunciation
…someone said to Him, "Lord, I will follow You wherever You go." —Luke 9:57
Our Lord’s attitude toward this man was one of severe discouragement, “for He knew what was in man” (John 2:25). We would have said, “I can’t imagine why He lost the opportunity of winning that man! Imagine being so cold to him and turning him away so discouraged!” Never apologize for your Lord. The words of the Lord hurt and offend until there is nothing left to be hurt or offended. Jesus Christ had no tenderness whatsoever toward anything that was ultimately going to ruin a person in his service to God. Our Lord’s answers were not based on some whim or impulsive thought, but on the knowledge of “what was in man.” If the Spirit of God brings to your mind a word of the Lord that hurts you, you can be sure that there is something in you that He wants to hurt to the point of its death.
Luke 9:58. These words destroy the argument of serving Jesus Christ because it is a pleasant thing to do. And the strictness of the rejection that He demands of me allows for nothing to remain in my life but my Lord, myself, and a sense of desperate hope. He says that I must let everyone else come or go, and that I must be guided solely by my relationship to Him. And He says, “…the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Luke 9:59. This man did not want to disappoint Jesus, nor did he want to show a lack of respect for his father. We put our sense of loyalty to our relatives ahead of our loyalty to Jesus Christ, forcing Him to take last place. When your loyalties conflict, always obey Jesus Christ whatever the cost.
Luke 9:61. The person who says, “Lord, I will follow You, but…,” is the person who is intensely ready to go, but never goes. This man had reservations about going. The exacting call of Jesus has no room for good-byes; good-byes, as we often use them, are pagan, not Christian, because they divert us from the call. Once the call of God comes to you, start going and never stop.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Jesus Christ is always unyielding to my claim to my right to myself. The one essential element in all our Lord’s teaching about discipleship is abandon, no calculation, no trace of self-interest.
Disciples Indeed
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, September 27, 2019
UNFLAPPABLE - #8535
I always thought they were buzzards - but a friend of mine who grew up with them circling overhead told me they are officially turkey vultures. Excuse me. Most of us think of them as nature's garbage collectors, but on a past vacation I developed an appreciation for their grace in flight. Watching them every day I saw them soaring in these graceful circles above me. And, amazingly, they almost never flapped their wings once they were airborne! They ride the warm air currents that rise from the earth as the days temperature gets warmer. They seem to just go where the thermals carry them. And I've got to tell you, it's beautiful.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Unflappable."
Some people live where they can watch eagles soar. I pretty much had to settle for turkey vultures. Apparently, Isaiah was an eagle watcher and one whom God had taught to live like one. It's our word for today from the Word of God - familiar words - Isaiah 40:30-31. "Even youths grow tired and weary and young men stumble and fall. But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles (and maybe turkey vultures); they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not grow faint."
These great soaring birds are ultimately not sustained in flight by the flapping of their own wings but by the currents that carry them. That's why they can go so far and so long. God's inviting us here to do a new kind of soaring - it's for those who hope, who trust in the Lord - because they realize their wings can't do it for them. The King James Version says it's "those who wait on the Lord." It reminds me of those turkey vultures; they wait for those thermal currents to carry them before they even tackle their day.
The problem is a lot of us are instinctive, addicted wing-flappers! I know. I am one. I can get it done if I make a good plan, motivate the right people, work enough hours, sacrifice enough sleep, have enough control. Listen to those wings flapping wildly in the wind! I'm flying as high and as long as my resources can carry me. For too many years I settled for that altitude. I settled for the stress of trying to make things happen myself.
But I'm learning something about waiting for God's thermals - to not push to make things happen, but to wait until the Lord does it in His way and in His time. This doesn't mean that you're totally passive sitting there doing nothing. You still plan, and prepare, and work hard, but only after seeing what God wants you planning, and preparing, and working on. The issue is this: do you think it's just your wings flapping that will get you there? No, it will be finding where God's current is going, and then you spread your wings to be carried that direction that day. That's what Jesus meant when he said "follow Me," checking with Him to see where is He taking you instead of trying to take Him where you want to go.
When you're totally riding on God's provision, you can fly when you have no fly left. I'm broke, but God isn't. I'm exhausted, but God isn't. I'm out of answers, but God isn't. It's at that point where you experience the promise of Isaiah 40:29, "He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak."
I watched those soaring birds and I asked God to help me fly as they do. Not carried by the flapping of my own wings, but only by those warm currents of God.
Someone you know is under attack. Your neighbor is depressed. Your sibling is off track. Your child is facing an uphill challenge. You may not know what to say. You may not have resources to help. But you have this– you have prayer. According to this promise your prayers prompt the response of God in the lives of those you love. James 5:16 says, “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”
When we pray for one another, we enter God’s workshop, we pick up a hammer, and help him accomplish his purposes. Our prayers unlock the storehouses of heaven. The link between God’s goodness and your friends is your prayers. When you pray, when you speak for the ones who need help to the One who can give it, something wonderful happens.
Psalm 66
For the director of music. A song. A psalm.
1 Shout for joy to God, all the earth!
2 Sing the glory of his name;
make his praise glorious.
3 Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!
So great is your power
that your enemies cringe before you.
4 All the earth bows down to you;
they sing praise to you,
they sing the praises of your name.”[a]
5 Come and see what God has done,
his awesome deeds for mankind!
6 He turned the sea into dry land,
they passed through the waters on foot—
come, let us rejoice in him.
7 He rules forever by his power,
his eyes watch the nations—
let not the rebellious rise up against him.
8 Praise our God, all peoples,
let the sound of his praise be heard;
9 he has preserved our lives
and kept our feet from slipping.
10 For you, God, tested us;
you refined us like silver.
11 You brought us into prison
and laid burdens on our backs.
12 You let people ride over our heads;
we went through fire and water,
but you brought us to a place of abundance.
13 I will come to your temple with burnt offerings
and fulfill my vows to you—
14 vows my lips promised and my mouth spoke
when I was in trouble.
15 I will sacrifice fat animals to you
and an offering of rams;
I will offer bulls and goats.
16 Come and hear, all you who fear God;
let me tell you what he has done for me.
17 I cried out to him with my mouth;
his praise was on my tongue.
18 If I had cherished sin in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened;
19 but God has surely listened
and has heard my prayer.
20 Praise be to God,
who has not rejected my prayer
or withheld his love from me!
Footnotes:
Psalm 66:4 The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here and at the end of verses 7 and 15.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, September 27, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Matthew 25:1–13
The Parable of the Ten Virgins
25 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
6 “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’
7 “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’
9 “‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’
10 “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.
11 “Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’
12 “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’
13 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.
Insight
What is the “kingdom of heaven” referred to in Matthew 25:1? This phrase occurs thirty-one times in the New Testament—only in Matthew. It’s first used by John the Baptist: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (3:2). Just as these are the first recorded words of John when he begins his ministry, they’re also Christ’s first words after He initiates His own ministry (4:17). Most scholars consider this phrase another name for the kingdom of God. Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible defines it as “the sovereign rule of God, initiated by Christ’s earthly ministry and to be consummated when ‘the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ’ (Revelation 11:15).”
By: Alyson Kieda
Live Like Jesus Is Coming
Keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. Matthew 25:13
I’m inspired by country singer Tim McGraw’s song “Live Like You Were Dying.” In it he describes some of the exciting “bucket list” things a man did after receiving some bad news about his health. He also chose to love and forgive people more freely—speaking to them more tenderly. The song recommends that we live well, as if knowing our lives will end soon.
This song reminds us that our time is limited. It’s important for us to not put off for tomorrow what we can do today, because one day we’ll run out of tomorrows. This is particularly urgent for believers in Jesus, who believe that Jesus may return at any moment (perhaps in the very second you’re reading this sentence!). Jesus urges us to be ready, not living like the five “foolish” virgins who were caught unprepared when the bridegroom returned (Matthew 25:6–10).
But McGraw’s song doesn’t tell the whole story. We who love Jesus will never run out of tomorrows. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die” (John 11:25–26). Our life in Him never ends.
So don’t live like you’re dying. Because you’re not. Rather, live like Jesus is coming. Because He is!
By: Mike Wittmer
Reflect & Pray
How will you live today like Jesus is coming soon? How does knowing He could return any day affect your choices?
Jesus, I look forward to the day You’ll return. May I use the time I’ve been given to honor You and to serve others well.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, September 27, 2019
The “Go” of Renunciation
…someone said to Him, "Lord, I will follow You wherever You go." —Luke 9:57
Our Lord’s attitude toward this man was one of severe discouragement, “for He knew what was in man” (John 2:25). We would have said, “I can’t imagine why He lost the opportunity of winning that man! Imagine being so cold to him and turning him away so discouraged!” Never apologize for your Lord. The words of the Lord hurt and offend until there is nothing left to be hurt or offended. Jesus Christ had no tenderness whatsoever toward anything that was ultimately going to ruin a person in his service to God. Our Lord’s answers were not based on some whim or impulsive thought, but on the knowledge of “what was in man.” If the Spirit of God brings to your mind a word of the Lord that hurts you, you can be sure that there is something in you that He wants to hurt to the point of its death.
Luke 9:58. These words destroy the argument of serving Jesus Christ because it is a pleasant thing to do. And the strictness of the rejection that He demands of me allows for nothing to remain in my life but my Lord, myself, and a sense of desperate hope. He says that I must let everyone else come or go, and that I must be guided solely by my relationship to Him. And He says, “…the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Luke 9:59. This man did not want to disappoint Jesus, nor did he want to show a lack of respect for his father. We put our sense of loyalty to our relatives ahead of our loyalty to Jesus Christ, forcing Him to take last place. When your loyalties conflict, always obey Jesus Christ whatever the cost.
Luke 9:61. The person who says, “Lord, I will follow You, but…,” is the person who is intensely ready to go, but never goes. This man had reservations about going. The exacting call of Jesus has no room for good-byes; good-byes, as we often use them, are pagan, not Christian, because they divert us from the call. Once the call of God comes to you, start going and never stop.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Jesus Christ is always unyielding to my claim to my right to myself. The one essential element in all our Lord’s teaching about discipleship is abandon, no calculation, no trace of self-interest.
Disciples Indeed
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, September 27, 2019
UNFLAPPABLE - #8535
I always thought they were buzzards - but a friend of mine who grew up with them circling overhead told me they are officially turkey vultures. Excuse me. Most of us think of them as nature's garbage collectors, but on a past vacation I developed an appreciation for their grace in flight. Watching them every day I saw them soaring in these graceful circles above me. And, amazingly, they almost never flapped their wings once they were airborne! They ride the warm air currents that rise from the earth as the days temperature gets warmer. They seem to just go where the thermals carry them. And I've got to tell you, it's beautiful.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Unflappable."
Some people live where they can watch eagles soar. I pretty much had to settle for turkey vultures. Apparently, Isaiah was an eagle watcher and one whom God had taught to live like one. It's our word for today from the Word of God - familiar words - Isaiah 40:30-31. "Even youths grow tired and weary and young men stumble and fall. But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles (and maybe turkey vultures); they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not grow faint."
These great soaring birds are ultimately not sustained in flight by the flapping of their own wings but by the currents that carry them. That's why they can go so far and so long. God's inviting us here to do a new kind of soaring - it's for those who hope, who trust in the Lord - because they realize their wings can't do it for them. The King James Version says it's "those who wait on the Lord." It reminds me of those turkey vultures; they wait for those thermal currents to carry them before they even tackle their day.
The problem is a lot of us are instinctive, addicted wing-flappers! I know. I am one. I can get it done if I make a good plan, motivate the right people, work enough hours, sacrifice enough sleep, have enough control. Listen to those wings flapping wildly in the wind! I'm flying as high and as long as my resources can carry me. For too many years I settled for that altitude. I settled for the stress of trying to make things happen myself.
But I'm learning something about waiting for God's thermals - to not push to make things happen, but to wait until the Lord does it in His way and in His time. This doesn't mean that you're totally passive sitting there doing nothing. You still plan, and prepare, and work hard, but only after seeing what God wants you planning, and preparing, and working on. The issue is this: do you think it's just your wings flapping that will get you there? No, it will be finding where God's current is going, and then you spread your wings to be carried that direction that day. That's what Jesus meant when he said "follow Me," checking with Him to see where is He taking you instead of trying to take Him where you want to go.
When you're totally riding on God's provision, you can fly when you have no fly left. I'm broke, but God isn't. I'm exhausted, but God isn't. I'm out of answers, but God isn't. It's at that point where you experience the promise of Isaiah 40:29, "He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak."
I watched those soaring birds and I asked God to help me fly as they do. Not carried by the flapping of my own wings, but only by those warm currents of God.
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