Max Lucado Daily: SEE THE NEED
He sat near a gate called Beautiful. The man, however, was anything but. He couldn’t walk but had to drag himself about on his knees. “Peter and John looked straight at him and said, ‘Look at us!’” (Acts 3:4 NCV).
The thick, meaty hand of the fisherman reached for the frail, thin one of the beggar. Peter lifted the man toward himself. The cripple stood and began to shout, and passersby began to stop. Peter explained that faith in Christ leads to a clean slate with God. What Jesus did for the legs of the cripple, he does for our soul. We’re made brand-new!
An honest look led to a helping hand that led to a conversation about eternity. Works done in God’s name long outlive our earthly life. Let’s be the people who stop at the gate. Let’s look at the face until we see the person.
1 Chronicles 25
Next David and the worship leaders selected some from the family of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun for special service in preaching and music. Here is the roster of names and assignments: From the family of Asaph: Zaccur, Joseph, Nethaniah, and Asarelah; they were supervised by Asaph, who spoke for God backed up by the king’s authority. From the family of Jeduthun there were six sons: Gedaliah, Zeri, Jeshaiah, Shimei, Hashabiah, and Mattithiah; they were supervised by their father Jeduthun, who preached and accompanied himself with the zither—he was responsible for leading the thanks and praise to God. From the family of Heman: Bukkiah, Mattaniah, Uzziel, Shubael, Jerimoth, Hananiah, Hanani, Eliathah, Giddalti, Romamti-Ezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir, and Mahazioth. These were the sons of Heman the king’s seer; they supported and assisted him in his divinely appointed work. God gave Heman fourteen sons and three daughters. Under their father’s supervision they were in charge of leading the singing and providing musical accompaniment in the work of worship in the sanctuary of God (Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman took their orders directly from the king). They were well-trained in the sacred music, all of them masters. There were 288 of them.
8 They drew names at random to see who would do what. Nobody, whether young or old, teacher or student, was given preference or advantage over another.
9-31 The first name from Asaph’s family was Joseph and his twelve sons and brothers; second, Gedaliah and his twelve sons and brothers; third, Zaccur and his twelve sons and brothers; fourth, Izri and his twelve sons and brothers; fifth, Nethaniah and his twelve sons and brothers; sixth, Bukkiah and his twelve sons and brothers; seventh, Jesarelah and his twelve sons and brothers; eighth, Jeshaiah and his twelve sons and brothers; ninth, Mattaniah and his twelve sons and brothers; tenth, Shimei and his twelve sons and brothers; eleventh, Azarel and his twelve sons and brothers; twelfth, Hashabiah and his twelve sons and brothers; thirteenth, Shubael and his twelve sons and brothers; fourteenth, Mattithiah and his twelve sons and brothers; fifteenth, Jerimoth and his twelve sons and brothers; sixteenth, Hananiah and his twelve sons and brothers; seventeenth, Joshbekashah and his twelve sons and brothers; eighteenth, Hanani and his twelve sons and brothers; nineteenth, Mallothi and his twelve sons and brothers; twentieth, Eliathah and his twelve sons and brothers; twenty-first, Hothir and his twelve sons and brothers; twenty-second, Giddalti and his twelve sons and brothers; twenty-third, Mahazioth and his twelve sons and brothers; twenty-fourth, Romamti-Ezer and his twelve sons and brothers.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
2 Samuel 12:1–14
Nathan Rebukes David
The Lord sent Nathanh to David.i When he came to him,j he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, 3 but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.
4 “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”
5 Davidk burned with angerl against the manm and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives,n the man who did this must die! 6 He must pay for that lamb four times over,o because he did such a thing and had no pity.”
7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man!p This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointedq your king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave your master’s house to you,s and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. 9 Why did you despiset the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck downu Uriahv the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killedw him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now, therefore, the swordx will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’
11 “This is what the Lord says: ‘Out of your own householdy I am going to bring calamity on you.z Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight.a 12 You did it in secret,b but I will do this thing in broad daylightc before all Israel.’ ”
13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinnedd against the Lord.”
Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken awaye your sin.f You are not going to die.g 14 But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt fora the Lord,h the son born to you will die.”
Insight
David committed adultery and murder (2 Samuel 11) and assumed that as king he was answerable to no one. A year later, God sent the prophet Nathan to confront him about his wickedness (ch. 12). After confessing and repenting of his sins, David wrote Psalm 51, and many believe this is also the context for Psalm 32. Though forgiven, David had to face the consequences of his sin. His son conceived with Bathsheba died (2 Samuel 12:13–18). And just as Uriah was killed by the sword (vv. 9–10), three of David’s other sons—Amnon (13:28–29), Absalom (18:14–15), and Adonijah (1 King 2:23–25)—died by the sword.
Where Are You Headed?
Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man!” 2 Samuel 12:7
In northern Thailand, the Wild Boars youth soccer team decided to explore a cave together. After an hour they turned to go back and found that the entrance to the cave was flooded. Rising water pushed them deeper into the cave, day after day, until they were finally trapped more than two miles (four kilometers) inside. When they were heroically rescued two weeks later, many wondered how they had become so hopelessly trapped. Answer: one step at a time.
In Israel, Nathan confronted David for killing his loyal soldier, Uriah. How did the man “after [God’s] own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14) become guilty of murder? One step at a time. David didn’t go from zero to murder in one afternoon. He warmed up to it, over time, as one bad decision bled into others. It started with a second glance that turned into a lustful stare. He abused his kingly power by sending for Bathsheba, then tried to cover up her pregnancy by calling her husband home from the front. When Uriah refused to visit his wife while his comrades were at war, David decided he would have to die.
We may not be guilty of murder or trapped in a cave of our own making, but we’re either moving toward Jesus or toward trouble. Big problems don’t develop overnight. They break upon us gradually, one step at a time. By: Mike Wittmer
Reflect & Pray
What decision can you make right now to move toward Jesus and away from trouble? What must you do to confirm this decision?
Jesus, I’m running to You!
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
Recall What God Remembers
Thus says the Lord: "I remember…the kindness of your youth…" —Jeremiah 2:2
Am I as spontaneously kind to God as I used to be, or am I only expecting God to be kind to me? Does everything in my life fill His heart with gladness, or do I constantly complain because things don’t seem to be going my way? A person who has forgotten what God treasures will not be filled with joy. It is wonderful to remember that Jesus Christ has needs which we can meet— “Give Me a drink” (John 4:7). How much kindness have I shown Him in the past week? Has my life been a good reflection on His reputation?
God is saying to His people, “You are not in love with Me now, but I remember a time when you were.” He says, “I remember…the love of your betrothal…” (Jeremiah 2:2). Am I as filled to overflowing with love for Jesus Christ as I was in the beginning, when I went out of my way to prove my devotion to Him? Does He ever find me pondering the time when I cared only for Him? Is that where I am now, or have I chosen man’s wisdom over true love for Him? Am I so in love with Him that I take no thought for where He might lead me? Or am I watching to see how much respect I get as I measure how much service I should give Him?
As I recall what God remembers about me, I may also begin to realize that He is not what He used to be to me. When this happens, I should allow the shame and humiliation it creates in my life, because it will bring godly sorrow, and “godly sorrow produces repentance…” (2 Corinthians 7:10).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Christian Church should not be a secret society of specialists, but a public manifestation of believers in Jesus. Facing Reality, 34 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
Knowing Before the Day - #8617
Graduation day was a suspenseful day for our younger son. He wasn't totally sure what was going to be inside that diploma that the college President handed him. See, he had been informed several days before graduation that no one would know for sure that they were actually going to receive their diploma until they returned to their seat and looked inside the cover. The seniors didn't know their final grades, and if there were any unpaid fees they weren't going to know that either, until they opened their diploma cover and found a bill instead of a diploma.
Well, our son's name was called and he did that long march across that stage, he took what the President gave him, and returned to the bleachers. A moment later he looked my way, flashed a big smile and nodded his head, yes! Whoa! He made it! But it sure would have been nice to know that in advance, wouldn't it?
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Knowing Before the Day."
Now, you may have all your schooling behind you, but you've still got one more graduation day, and so do I. It's the day we graduate from this life to whatever is beyond this life. Jesus talks about the only document that will matter that day when our heart beats for the last time - the day eternity begins for us.
In Luke 10:20 He says, "Rejoice that your names are written in heaven." Really? Written where? Well, our word today from the Word of God, Revelation 21:23, 25 describe heaven a little bit. It talks about a city that "does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the Glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb (that's Jesus, the Lamb of God) is its lamp...On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there." And then verse 27 says, "Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life." That's the deciding document on the day you and I keep our appointment with God. It's the Lamb's Book of Life.
Now, if Jesus said to rejoice because you're in it, obviously we can know in advance, right? That contradicts the usual conception that we don't know until we die if we're headed for heaven or hell, which by the way, Jesus presented frequently. And always as literal real places. Apparently, either your name is in the Lamb's Book of Life or it isn't. If it isn't, you can't enter heaven.
Now, my son didn't know until his graduation day if he made it or not. According to Jesus it doesn't have to be that way for us when it comes to that graduation day that matters forever. So, how can you know your name is in His book - the one that records all those who are going to have life forever? See, the reason we think we can't know until graduation day is because we have the wrong idea about what gets a person into heaven. Most folks think it will be based on whether our good deeds outweighed our bad deeds, and we couldn't know then until we die and get God's verdict. That's totally contrary to what God says. He says He saved us, "not because of the righteous things we had done (this is the Bible), but because of His mercy." That mercy is described a few verses earlier in Titus 2:14, "Jesus Christ gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness."
The only thing that's going to keep us out of heaven will be our sin; all the choices of our lives that we've done our way instead of God's way. There've been a ton of them! Our sin carries a death penalty which Jesus, the Lamb of God, paid as our substitute when He died on the cross. And it's the Lamb's Book of Life. First John 5:12, "He who has the Son has life, he who does not have the Son of God, does not have life." So, is your name in the Lamb's Book of Life? It all depends what you've done with Jesus. The only way to heaven is to put your total trust in the One who died so you can live.
You could open your heart to Him right now, right where you are, and know before this day is over that you will graduate to heaven. If there has never been a time when you've made Jesus your personal Savior, your name isn't there. But it could be beginning today and lasting forever.
If you want to make sure you belong to Him and get this nailed down once and for all, go to our website. I think it will really help. It's ANewStory.com.
Jesus is waiting to hear your prayer of total trust in Him and He's waiting to enter your name.
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
Monday, January 20, 2020
1 Chronicles 24, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: TO LOVE A STRANGER
“Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay” (1 Peter 4:9).
The Greek word for hospitality compounds two terms: love and stranger. The word literally means to love a stranger. All of us can welcome a guest we know and love. But can we welcome a stranger? Every morning in America more than 39 million people wake up in poverty. When we provide food stamps, we stave off hunger. But when we invite the hungry to our tables, we address the deeper issues of value and self-worth. God’s secret weapons in the war on poverty include your kitchen table and mine.
We encounter people. We detect an urge to open our doors to them. In these moments let’s heed the inner voice. We never know whom we may be hosting for dinner.
1 Chronicles 24
The family of Aaron was grouped as follows: Aaron’s sons were Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. Nadab and Abihu died before their father and left no sons. So Eleazar and Ithamar filled the office of priest. David assigned Zadok from the family of Eleazar and Ahimelech from the family of Ithamar and assigned them to separate divisions for carrying out their appointed ministries. It turned out that there were more leaders in Eleazar’s family than in Ithamar’s and so they divided them proportionately: sixteen clan leaders from Eleazar’s family and eight clan leaders from Ithamar’s family. They assigned the leaders by lot, treating both families alike, for there were officials of the sanctuary and officials of God among both the Eleazar and Ithamar families.
6 The secretary Shemaiah son of Nethanel, a Levite, wrote down their names in the presence of the king, the officials, Zadok the priest, Ahimelech son of Abiathar, and the leaders of the priestly and Levitical families. They took turns: One family was selected from Eleazar and then one from Ithamar.
7-18 The first lot fell to Jehoiarib,
the second to Jedaiah,
the third to Harim,
the fourth to Seorim,
the fifth to Malkijah,
the sixth to Mijamin,
the seventh to Hakkoz,
the eighth to Abijah,
the ninth to Jeshua,
the tenth to Shecaniah,
the eleventh to Eliashib,
the twelfth to Jakim,
the thirteenth to Huppah,
the fourteenth to Jeshebeab,
the fifteenth to Bilgah,
the sixteenth to Immer,
the seventeenth to Hezir,
the eighteenth to Happizzez,
the nineteenth to Pethahiah,
the twentieth to Jehezkel,
the twenty-first to Jakin,
the twenty-second to Gamul,
the twenty-third to Delaiah,
and the twenty-fourth to Maaziah.
19 They served in this appointed order when they entered The Temple of God, following the procedures laid down by their ancestor Aaron as God, the God of Israel, had commanded him.
20 The rest of the Levites are as follows:
From the sons of Amram: Shubael; from the sons of Shubael: Jehdeiah.
21 Concerning Rehabiah: from his sons, Isshiah was the first.
22 From the Izharites: Shelomoth; from the sons of Shelomoth: Jahath.
23 The sons of Hebron: Jeriah the first, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, and Jekameam the fourth.
24-25 The son of Uzziel: Micah, and from the sons of Micah: Shamir. The brother of Micah was Isshiah, and from the sons of Isshiah: Zechariah.
26-27 The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. The son of Jaaziah: Beno. The sons of Merari from Jaaziah: Beno, Shoham, Zaccur, and Ibri.
28 From Mahli: Eleazar, who had no sons.
29 From Kish: Jerahmeel, the son of Kish.
30-31 And from the sons of Mushi: Mahli, Eder, and Jerimoth.
These were the Levites by their families. They also cast lots, the same as their kindred the sons of Aaron had done, in the presence of David the king, Zadok, Ahimelech, and the leaders of the priestly and Levitical families. The families of the oldest and youngest brothers were treated the same.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, January 20, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
1 Peter 4:7–11
The end of all things is near.e Therefore be alert and of sober mindf so that you may pray. 8 Above all, love each other deeply,g because love covers over a multitude of sins.h 9 Offer hospitalityi to one another without grumbling.j 10 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others,k as faithfull stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 11 If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God.m If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides,n so that in all things God may be praisedo through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
Insight
Ancient letter-writing followed a general formula: opening/greeting, thanksgiving, body, and closing. Each of these sections has distinct subsections and characteristics, and each serves an important function in delivering the message of the writer.
Today’s passage is part of the closing section. It’s also what’s known as a hortatory (“to exhort”) section. Here the writer gives last-minute instructions to the reader. This section isn’t always a well-organized and progressive argument; rather, it’s more like random-fire instructions of everything the writer, through the inspiration of the Spirit, wanted to say but didn’t find a place to say in the body of the letter. Here at the end of his first letter, Peter urges his readers to pray, love, be hospitable, use their gifts, speak God’s words, and serve.
Clean Containers
Hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs. Proverbs 10:12
“Hatred corrodes the container that carries it.” These words were spoken by former Senator Alan Simpson at the funeral of George H. W. Bush. Attempting to describe his dear friend’s kindness, Senator Simpson recalled how the forty-first president of the United States embraced humor and love rather than hatred in his professional leadership and personal relationships.
I relate to the senator’s quote, don’t you? Oh, the damage done to me when I harbor hatred!
Medical research reveals the damage done to our bodies when we cling to the negative or release bursts of anger. Our blood pressure rises. Our hearts pound. Our spirits sag. Our containers corrode.
In Proverbs 10:12, King Solomon observes, “Hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs.” The conflict that results from hatred here is a blood feud between rivaling peoples of different tribes and races. Such hatred fuels the drive for revenge so that people who despise each other can’t connect.
By contrast, God’s way of love covers—draws a veil over, conceals, or forgives—all wrongs. That doesn’t mean we overlook errors or enable a wrongdoer. But we don’t nurse the wrong when someone is truly remorseful. And if they never apologize, we still release our feelings to God. We who know the Great Lover are to “love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). By: Elisa Morgan
Reflect & Pray
What things cause you to hate? How might the hard-hearted heat of hostility eat away at our personal joy and our world’s peace?
O God, help me surrender to Your great love that covers all sins and makes me into a clean container in which You dwell in love.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, January 20, 2020
Are You Fresh for Everything?
Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." —John 3:3
Sometimes we are fresh and eager to attend a prayer meeting, but do we feel that same freshness for such mundane tasks as polishing shoes?
Being born again by the Spirit is an unmistakable work of God, as mysterious as the wind, and as surprising as God Himself. We don’t know where it begins— it is hidden away in the depths of our soul. Being born again from above is an enduring, perpetual, and eternal beginning. It provides a freshness all the time in thinking, talking, and living— a continual surprise of the life of God. Staleness is an indication that something in our lives is out of step with God. We say to ourselves, “I have to do this thing or it will never get done.” That is the first sign of staleness. Do we feel fresh this very moment or are we stale, frantically searching our minds for something to do? Freshness is not the result of obedience; it comes from the Holy Spirit. Obedience keeps us “in the light as He is in the light…” (1 John 1:7).
Jealously guard your relationship with God. Jesus prayed “that they may be one just as We are one” — with nothing in between (John 17:22). Keep your whole life continually open to Jesus Christ. Don’t pretend to be open with Him. Are you drawing your life from any source other than God Himself? If you are depending on something else as your source of freshness and strength, you will not realize when His power is gone.
Being born of the Spirit means much more than we usually think. It gives us new vision and keeps us absolutely fresh for everything through the never-ending supply of the life of God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is no allowance whatever in the New Testament for the man who says he is saved by grace but who does not produce the graceful goods. Jesus Christ by His Redemption can make our actual life in keeping with our religious profession.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, January 20, 2020
The High Price of Brake Failure - #8616
Our friends, Dan and Ellen, were living in this beautiful farmhouse that became a little less beautiful one day. They'd been doing some heavy outdoor work and they were using a big old dump truck. Ellen was a city girl. She lived on a farm for so many years that there isn't much that she couldn't do though - including driving a dump truck! She'd learned to be a good farm girl. This particular night they had just started it up when she had to run in the house for something, maybe a phone call. (You getting ahead of me now?) She left it running for just a minute. I guess it was more minutes inside than she had anticipated. You know how phone calls can be. Something happened as the air pressure built up in the truck's air brakes and they somehow released! Yeah, that big old dump truck started rolling until something stopped it...Dan and Ellen's dining room and kitchen stopped it! That truck ploughed right through their dining room wall. The brakes on their vehicle failed and the result? Major damage to their home!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The High Price of Brake Failure."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Proverbs 27:23-24. Here's what it says, "Be sure you know the condition of your flocks. Give careful attention to your herds for riches do not endure forever and a crown is not secure for all generations." Well, that's good advice for farmers. Oh, no. Not just for farmers. It's especially for those who are growing a home, or a marriage, or children. Developing a marriage is a lot like farming. Parenting is emotional and spiritual farming. Raising the most precious crop of all, children who are, as my wife often said, messengers to a time we will not see. Your family is your flock, the one you're supposed to know the condition of and give careful attention to.
A lot of families are damaged today because of brake failure in a man or woman's vehicle. I mean your job, your career, your business. That's the vehicle for earning money and maybe even for making a difference in other people's lives. But the problem comes when your work gets out of control and you don't have your work anymore, your work has you! It's easy to become so preoccupied with your work you don't know the condition of your flock and you don't give careful attention to it. The long hours, they drain you. All you have left for your mate or your kids is your leftovers.
The vehicle might be crashing right into your home! Or maybe the runaway vehicle is work you're doing for the Lord. Who could fault you for serving the Lord for so many hours with admirable dedication, right? Maybe your wife, or your husband, or your son or your daughter could. Maybe even the Lord you're working so hard for. Your family is your first and foremost ministry, and the ministry to them may be suffering because of all you're doing at church or some ministry - wonderful vehicles for serving Christ - but if your vehicle is damaging your home, it's gone too far.
Whether it's your job, your ministry, some project you're preoccupied with, maybe God's trying to tell you to put on the brakes, even if that means making less money or sacrificing some prestige, or some pursuit of personal significance. Even if it means people will not understand you, you cannot neglect your most important relationships any longer.
Neglect will ruin a garden, it will ruin a car, it will ruin your figure. You don't have to do anything to wreck them, just do nothing. And neglect may be doing slow but ultimately expensive damage to your family. Why? Because of the same thing that damag
ed our friend's home, a vehicle out of control because of brake failure. Your brake failure.
Is it time to get with God and get some new priorities? Only you can apply the brakes. Please, don't wait for the crash.
“Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay” (1 Peter 4:9).
The Greek word for hospitality compounds two terms: love and stranger. The word literally means to love a stranger. All of us can welcome a guest we know and love. But can we welcome a stranger? Every morning in America more than 39 million people wake up in poverty. When we provide food stamps, we stave off hunger. But when we invite the hungry to our tables, we address the deeper issues of value and self-worth. God’s secret weapons in the war on poverty include your kitchen table and mine.
We encounter people. We detect an urge to open our doors to them. In these moments let’s heed the inner voice. We never know whom we may be hosting for dinner.
1 Chronicles 24
The family of Aaron was grouped as follows: Aaron’s sons were Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. Nadab and Abihu died before their father and left no sons. So Eleazar and Ithamar filled the office of priest. David assigned Zadok from the family of Eleazar and Ahimelech from the family of Ithamar and assigned them to separate divisions for carrying out their appointed ministries. It turned out that there were more leaders in Eleazar’s family than in Ithamar’s and so they divided them proportionately: sixteen clan leaders from Eleazar’s family and eight clan leaders from Ithamar’s family. They assigned the leaders by lot, treating both families alike, for there were officials of the sanctuary and officials of God among both the Eleazar and Ithamar families.
6 The secretary Shemaiah son of Nethanel, a Levite, wrote down their names in the presence of the king, the officials, Zadok the priest, Ahimelech son of Abiathar, and the leaders of the priestly and Levitical families. They took turns: One family was selected from Eleazar and then one from Ithamar.
7-18 The first lot fell to Jehoiarib,
the second to Jedaiah,
the third to Harim,
the fourth to Seorim,
the fifth to Malkijah,
the sixth to Mijamin,
the seventh to Hakkoz,
the eighth to Abijah,
the ninth to Jeshua,
the tenth to Shecaniah,
the eleventh to Eliashib,
the twelfth to Jakim,
the thirteenth to Huppah,
the fourteenth to Jeshebeab,
the fifteenth to Bilgah,
the sixteenth to Immer,
the seventeenth to Hezir,
the eighteenth to Happizzez,
the nineteenth to Pethahiah,
the twentieth to Jehezkel,
the twenty-first to Jakin,
the twenty-second to Gamul,
the twenty-third to Delaiah,
and the twenty-fourth to Maaziah.
19 They served in this appointed order when they entered The Temple of God, following the procedures laid down by their ancestor Aaron as God, the God of Israel, had commanded him.
20 The rest of the Levites are as follows:
From the sons of Amram: Shubael; from the sons of Shubael: Jehdeiah.
21 Concerning Rehabiah: from his sons, Isshiah was the first.
22 From the Izharites: Shelomoth; from the sons of Shelomoth: Jahath.
23 The sons of Hebron: Jeriah the first, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, and Jekameam the fourth.
24-25 The son of Uzziel: Micah, and from the sons of Micah: Shamir. The brother of Micah was Isshiah, and from the sons of Isshiah: Zechariah.
26-27 The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. The son of Jaaziah: Beno. The sons of Merari from Jaaziah: Beno, Shoham, Zaccur, and Ibri.
28 From Mahli: Eleazar, who had no sons.
29 From Kish: Jerahmeel, the son of Kish.
30-31 And from the sons of Mushi: Mahli, Eder, and Jerimoth.
These were the Levites by their families. They also cast lots, the same as their kindred the sons of Aaron had done, in the presence of David the king, Zadok, Ahimelech, and the leaders of the priestly and Levitical families. The families of the oldest and youngest brothers were treated the same.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, January 20, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
1 Peter 4:7–11
The end of all things is near.e Therefore be alert and of sober mindf so that you may pray. 8 Above all, love each other deeply,g because love covers over a multitude of sins.h 9 Offer hospitalityi to one another without grumbling.j 10 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others,k as faithfull stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 11 If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God.m If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides,n so that in all things God may be praisedo through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
Insight
Ancient letter-writing followed a general formula: opening/greeting, thanksgiving, body, and closing. Each of these sections has distinct subsections and characteristics, and each serves an important function in delivering the message of the writer.
Today’s passage is part of the closing section. It’s also what’s known as a hortatory (“to exhort”) section. Here the writer gives last-minute instructions to the reader. This section isn’t always a well-organized and progressive argument; rather, it’s more like random-fire instructions of everything the writer, through the inspiration of the Spirit, wanted to say but didn’t find a place to say in the body of the letter. Here at the end of his first letter, Peter urges his readers to pray, love, be hospitable, use their gifts, speak God’s words, and serve.
Clean Containers
Hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs. Proverbs 10:12
“Hatred corrodes the container that carries it.” These words were spoken by former Senator Alan Simpson at the funeral of George H. W. Bush. Attempting to describe his dear friend’s kindness, Senator Simpson recalled how the forty-first president of the United States embraced humor and love rather than hatred in his professional leadership and personal relationships.
I relate to the senator’s quote, don’t you? Oh, the damage done to me when I harbor hatred!
Medical research reveals the damage done to our bodies when we cling to the negative or release bursts of anger. Our blood pressure rises. Our hearts pound. Our spirits sag. Our containers corrode.
In Proverbs 10:12, King Solomon observes, “Hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs.” The conflict that results from hatred here is a blood feud between rivaling peoples of different tribes and races. Such hatred fuels the drive for revenge so that people who despise each other can’t connect.
By contrast, God’s way of love covers—draws a veil over, conceals, or forgives—all wrongs. That doesn’t mean we overlook errors or enable a wrongdoer. But we don’t nurse the wrong when someone is truly remorseful. And if they never apologize, we still release our feelings to God. We who know the Great Lover are to “love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). By: Elisa Morgan
Reflect & Pray
What things cause you to hate? How might the hard-hearted heat of hostility eat away at our personal joy and our world’s peace?
O God, help me surrender to Your great love that covers all sins and makes me into a clean container in which You dwell in love.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, January 20, 2020
Are You Fresh for Everything?
Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." —John 3:3
Sometimes we are fresh and eager to attend a prayer meeting, but do we feel that same freshness for such mundane tasks as polishing shoes?
Being born again by the Spirit is an unmistakable work of God, as mysterious as the wind, and as surprising as God Himself. We don’t know where it begins— it is hidden away in the depths of our soul. Being born again from above is an enduring, perpetual, and eternal beginning. It provides a freshness all the time in thinking, talking, and living— a continual surprise of the life of God. Staleness is an indication that something in our lives is out of step with God. We say to ourselves, “I have to do this thing or it will never get done.” That is the first sign of staleness. Do we feel fresh this very moment or are we stale, frantically searching our minds for something to do? Freshness is not the result of obedience; it comes from the Holy Spirit. Obedience keeps us “in the light as He is in the light…” (1 John 1:7).
Jealously guard your relationship with God. Jesus prayed “that they may be one just as We are one” — with nothing in between (John 17:22). Keep your whole life continually open to Jesus Christ. Don’t pretend to be open with Him. Are you drawing your life from any source other than God Himself? If you are depending on something else as your source of freshness and strength, you will not realize when His power is gone.
Being born of the Spirit means much more than we usually think. It gives us new vision and keeps us absolutely fresh for everything through the never-ending supply of the life of God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is no allowance whatever in the New Testament for the man who says he is saved by grace but who does not produce the graceful goods. Jesus Christ by His Redemption can make our actual life in keeping with our religious profession.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, January 20, 2020
The High Price of Brake Failure - #8616
Our friends, Dan and Ellen, were living in this beautiful farmhouse that became a little less beautiful one day. They'd been doing some heavy outdoor work and they were using a big old dump truck. Ellen was a city girl. She lived on a farm for so many years that there isn't much that she couldn't do though - including driving a dump truck! She'd learned to be a good farm girl. This particular night they had just started it up when she had to run in the house for something, maybe a phone call. (You getting ahead of me now?) She left it running for just a minute. I guess it was more minutes inside than she had anticipated. You know how phone calls can be. Something happened as the air pressure built up in the truck's air brakes and they somehow released! Yeah, that big old dump truck started rolling until something stopped it...Dan and Ellen's dining room and kitchen stopped it! That truck ploughed right through their dining room wall. The brakes on their vehicle failed and the result? Major damage to their home!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The High Price of Brake Failure."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Proverbs 27:23-24. Here's what it says, "Be sure you know the condition of your flocks. Give careful attention to your herds for riches do not endure forever and a crown is not secure for all generations." Well, that's good advice for farmers. Oh, no. Not just for farmers. It's especially for those who are growing a home, or a marriage, or children. Developing a marriage is a lot like farming. Parenting is emotional and spiritual farming. Raising the most precious crop of all, children who are, as my wife often said, messengers to a time we will not see. Your family is your flock, the one you're supposed to know the condition of and give careful attention to.
A lot of families are damaged today because of brake failure in a man or woman's vehicle. I mean your job, your career, your business. That's the vehicle for earning money and maybe even for making a difference in other people's lives. But the problem comes when your work gets out of control and you don't have your work anymore, your work has you! It's easy to become so preoccupied with your work you don't know the condition of your flock and you don't give careful attention to it. The long hours, they drain you. All you have left for your mate or your kids is your leftovers.
The vehicle might be crashing right into your home! Or maybe the runaway vehicle is work you're doing for the Lord. Who could fault you for serving the Lord for so many hours with admirable dedication, right? Maybe your wife, or your husband, or your son or your daughter could. Maybe even the Lord you're working so hard for. Your family is your first and foremost ministry, and the ministry to them may be suffering because of all you're doing at church or some ministry - wonderful vehicles for serving Christ - but if your vehicle is damaging your home, it's gone too far.
Whether it's your job, your ministry, some project you're preoccupied with, maybe God's trying to tell you to put on the brakes, even if that means making less money or sacrificing some prestige, or some pursuit of personal significance. Even if it means people will not understand you, you cannot neglect your most important relationships any longer.
Neglect will ruin a garden, it will ruin a car, it will ruin your figure. You don't have to do anything to wreck them, just do nothing. And neglect may be doing slow but ultimately expensive damage to your family. Why? Because of the same thing that damag
ed our friend's home, a vehicle out of control because of brake failure. Your brake failure.
Is it time to get with God and get some new priorities? Only you can apply the brakes. Please, don't wait for the crash.
Sunday, January 19, 2020
1 Chronicles 23, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Getting Over It
You've been hurt! Part of you is broken, and the other part is bitter. Part of you wants to cry, and part of you wants to fight. And you're left with a decision. Do I get over it or get even? Do I release it or resent it?
Resentment is when you allow what's eating you to eat you up. Revenge is the raging fire that consumes the arsonist. Bitterness is the trap that snares the hunter. And mercy is the choice that can set them all free.
"Blessed are the merciful," Jesus said on the mountain. "They shall be shown mercy." (Mt. 5:7)
Forgiving others allows us to see how God has forgiven us. The dynamic of giving grace is the key to understanding grace. For it is when we forgive others that we begin to feel what God feels. Set your enemy-and yourself-free!
From Max on Life
1 Chronicles 23
When David got to be an old man, he made his son Solomon king over Israel.
2-5 At the same time he brought together all the leaders of Israel, the priests, and the Levites. The Levites thirty years and older were counted; the total was thirty-eight thousand. David sorted them into work groups: “Twenty-four thousand are in charge of administering worship in the sanctuary; six thousand are officials and judges; four thousand are security guards; and four thousand are to serve in the orchestra, praising God with instruments that I have provided for praise.”
6 David then divided the Levites into groupings named after the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
7-11 The Gershonites: Ladan and Shimei. The three sons of Ladan: Jehiel, Zetham, and Joel. The three sons of Shimei: Shelomoth, Haziel, and Haran, all heads of the families of Ladan. The four sons of Shimei: Jahath, Ziza, Jeush, and Beriah. Jahath came first, followed by Ziza. Jeush and Beriah did not have many sons so they were counted as one family with one task.
12-14 The four sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. The sons of Amram: Aaron and Moses. Aaron was especially ordained to work in the Holy of Holies, to burn incense before God, to serve God and bless his Name always. This was a permanent appointment for Aaron and his sons. Moses and his sons were counted in the tribe of Levi.
15-17 The sons of Moses: Gershom and Eliezer. Shubael was the first son of Gershom. Rehabiah was the first and only son of Eliezer; but though Eliezer had no other sons, Rehabiah had many sons.
18-23 Shelomith was the first son of Izhar. Hebron had four sons: Jeriah, Amariah, Jahaziel, and Jekameam. Uzziel had two sons: Micah and Isshiah. The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. The sons of Mahli: Eleazar and Kish. Eleazar died without any sons, only daughters. Their cousins, the sons of Kish, married the daughters. Mushi had three sons: Mahli, Eder, and Jerimoth.
24 These are the sons of Levi twenty years and older, divided up according to families and heads of families and listed in the work groups that took care of the worship in the sanctuary of God.
25-27 David said, “Now that the God of Israel has given rest to his people and made Jerusalem his permanent home, the Levites no longer have to carry the Tabernacle and all the furniture required for the work of worship.” These last words of David referred only to Levites twenty years old and above.
28-31 From now on the assigned work of the Levites was to assist Aaron’s sons in the work of worship in God’s house: maintain courtyards and closets, keep the furniture and utensils of worship clean, take care of any extra work needed in the work of worship, and provide bread for the table and flour for the Meal Offerings and the unraised wafers—all baking and mixing, all measuring and weighing. Also they were to be present for morning prayers, thanking and praising God, for evening prayers, and at the service of Whole-Burnt-Offerings to God on Sabbath, at New Moons, and at all festivals. They were on regular duty to serve God according to their assignment and the required number.
32 In short, the Levites, with the sons of Aaron as their companions in the ministry of holy worship, were responsible for everything that had to do with worship: the place and times and ordering of worship.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, January 19, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Numbers 23:13–23
Balaam’s Second Message
13 Then Balak said to him, “Come with me to another placea where you can see them; you will not see them all but only the outskirts of their camp.b And from there, curse them for me.c” 14 So he took him to the field of Zophim on the top of Pisgah,d and there he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.e
15 Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your offering while I meet with him over there.”
16 The Lord met with Balaam and put a word in his mouthf and said, “Go back to Balak and give him this word.”
17 So he went to him and found him standing beside his offering, with the Moabite officials.g Balak asked him, “What did the Lord say?”
18 Then he spoke his message:h
“Arise, Balak, and listen;
hear me, son of Zippor.i
19 God is not human,j that he should lie,k
not a human being, that he should change his mind.l
Does he speak and then not act?
Does he promisem and not fulfill?
20 I have received a command to bless;n
he has blessed,o and I cannot change it.p
21 “No misfortune is seen in Jacob,q
no misery observeda in Israel.r
The Lord their God is with them;s
the shout of the Kingt is among them.
22 God brought them out of Egypt;u
they have the strength of a wild ox.v
23 There is no divination againstb Jacob,
no evil omensw againstc Israel.
It will now be said of Jacob
and of Israel, ‘See what God has done!’
Insight
Balaam was a prophet for hire (Numbers 22:7; Deuteronomy 23:4; Joshua 13:22)—a sin that remains prevalent even today. Peter warns of false teachers who “followed the footsteps of Balaam son of Beor, who loved to earn money by doing wrong” (2 Peter 2:15–16 nlt). Jude likewise warns of ungodly people who abuse their positions and misuse their giftedness for monetary gain (Jude 1:11). And John warns of greedy leaders, who, like Balaam, entice people to commit spiritual adultery and sexual immorality (Revelation 2:14).
When God Intervenes
Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm. Psalm 105:15
In a poem titled “This Child Is Beloved,” Omawumi Efueye, known affectionately as Pastor O, writes about his parents’ attempts to end the pregnancy that would result in his birth. After several unusual events that prevented them from aborting him, they decided to welcome their child instead. The knowledge of God’s preservation of his life motivated Omawumi to give up a lucrative career in favor of full-time ministry. Today, he faithfully pastors a London church.
Like Pastor O, the Israelites experienced God’s intervention at a vulnerable time in their history. While traveling through the wilderness, they came within sight of King Balak of Moab. Terrified of their conquests and their vast population, Balak engaged a seer named Balaam to place a curse on the unsuspecting travelers (Numbers 22:2–6).
But something amazing happened. Whenever Balaam opened his mouth to curse, a blessing issued instead. “I have received a command to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot change it,” he declared. “No misfortune is seen in Jacob, no misery observed in Israel. The Lord their God is with them; . . . God brought them out of Egypt” (Numbers 23:20–22). God preserved the Israelites from a battle they didn’t even know was raging!
Whether we see it or not, God still watches over His people today. May we worship in gratitude and awe the One who calls us blessed. By: Remi Oyedele
Reflect & Pray
How often do you stop to consider the daily protection God extends over you? What does the knowledge that He saves you from unseen dangers mean to you?
Father in heaven, forgive us for the many times we take Your care and protection for granted. Give us eyes to see how much You bless us.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, January 19, 2020
Vision and Darkness
When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. —Genesis 15:12
Whenever God gives a vision to a Christian, it is as if He puts him in “the shadow of His hand” (Isaiah 49:2). The saint’s duty is to be still and listen. There is a “darkness” that comes from too much light— that is the time to listen. The story of Abram and Hagar in Genesis 16 is an excellent example of listening to so-called good advice during a time of darkness, rather than waiting for God to send the light. When God gives you a vision and darkness follows, wait. God will bring the vision He has given you to reality in your life if you will wait on His timing. Never try to help God fulfill His word. Abram went through thirteen years of silence, but in those years all of his self-sufficiency was destroyed. He grew past the point of relying on his own common sense. Those years of silence were a time of discipline, not a period of God’s displeasure. There is never any need to pretend that your life is filled with joy and confidence; just wait upon God and be grounded in Him (see Isaiah 50:10-11).
Do I trust at all in the flesh? Or have I learned to go beyond all confidence in myself and other people of God? Do I trust in books and prayers or other joys in my life? Or have I placed my confidence in God Himself, not in His blessings? “I am Almighty God…”— El-Shaddai, the All-Powerful God (Genesis 17:1). The reason we are all being disciplined is that we will know God is real. As soon as God becomes real to us, people pale by comparison, becoming shadows of reality. Nothing that other saints do or say can ever upset the one who is built on God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
“When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” We all have faith in good principles, in good management, in good common sense, but who amongst us has faith in Jesus Christ? Physical courage is grand, moral courage is grander, but the man who trusts Jesus Christ in the face of the terrific problems of life is worth a whole crowd of heroes. The Highest Good, 544 R
You've been hurt! Part of you is broken, and the other part is bitter. Part of you wants to cry, and part of you wants to fight. And you're left with a decision. Do I get over it or get even? Do I release it or resent it?
Resentment is when you allow what's eating you to eat you up. Revenge is the raging fire that consumes the arsonist. Bitterness is the trap that snares the hunter. And mercy is the choice that can set them all free.
"Blessed are the merciful," Jesus said on the mountain. "They shall be shown mercy." (Mt. 5:7)
Forgiving others allows us to see how God has forgiven us. The dynamic of giving grace is the key to understanding grace. For it is when we forgive others that we begin to feel what God feels. Set your enemy-and yourself-free!
From Max on Life
1 Chronicles 23
When David got to be an old man, he made his son Solomon king over Israel.
2-5 At the same time he brought together all the leaders of Israel, the priests, and the Levites. The Levites thirty years and older were counted; the total was thirty-eight thousand. David sorted them into work groups: “Twenty-four thousand are in charge of administering worship in the sanctuary; six thousand are officials and judges; four thousand are security guards; and four thousand are to serve in the orchestra, praising God with instruments that I have provided for praise.”
6 David then divided the Levites into groupings named after the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
7-11 The Gershonites: Ladan and Shimei. The three sons of Ladan: Jehiel, Zetham, and Joel. The three sons of Shimei: Shelomoth, Haziel, and Haran, all heads of the families of Ladan. The four sons of Shimei: Jahath, Ziza, Jeush, and Beriah. Jahath came first, followed by Ziza. Jeush and Beriah did not have many sons so they were counted as one family with one task.
12-14 The four sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. The sons of Amram: Aaron and Moses. Aaron was especially ordained to work in the Holy of Holies, to burn incense before God, to serve God and bless his Name always. This was a permanent appointment for Aaron and his sons. Moses and his sons were counted in the tribe of Levi.
15-17 The sons of Moses: Gershom and Eliezer. Shubael was the first son of Gershom. Rehabiah was the first and only son of Eliezer; but though Eliezer had no other sons, Rehabiah had many sons.
18-23 Shelomith was the first son of Izhar. Hebron had four sons: Jeriah, Amariah, Jahaziel, and Jekameam. Uzziel had two sons: Micah and Isshiah. The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. The sons of Mahli: Eleazar and Kish. Eleazar died without any sons, only daughters. Their cousins, the sons of Kish, married the daughters. Mushi had three sons: Mahli, Eder, and Jerimoth.
24 These are the sons of Levi twenty years and older, divided up according to families and heads of families and listed in the work groups that took care of the worship in the sanctuary of God.
25-27 David said, “Now that the God of Israel has given rest to his people and made Jerusalem his permanent home, the Levites no longer have to carry the Tabernacle and all the furniture required for the work of worship.” These last words of David referred only to Levites twenty years old and above.
28-31 From now on the assigned work of the Levites was to assist Aaron’s sons in the work of worship in God’s house: maintain courtyards and closets, keep the furniture and utensils of worship clean, take care of any extra work needed in the work of worship, and provide bread for the table and flour for the Meal Offerings and the unraised wafers—all baking and mixing, all measuring and weighing. Also they were to be present for morning prayers, thanking and praising God, for evening prayers, and at the service of Whole-Burnt-Offerings to God on Sabbath, at New Moons, and at all festivals. They were on regular duty to serve God according to their assignment and the required number.
32 In short, the Levites, with the sons of Aaron as their companions in the ministry of holy worship, were responsible for everything that had to do with worship: the place and times and ordering of worship.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, January 19, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Numbers 23:13–23
Balaam’s Second Message
13 Then Balak said to him, “Come with me to another placea where you can see them; you will not see them all but only the outskirts of their camp.b And from there, curse them for me.c” 14 So he took him to the field of Zophim on the top of Pisgah,d and there he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.e
15 Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your offering while I meet with him over there.”
16 The Lord met with Balaam and put a word in his mouthf and said, “Go back to Balak and give him this word.”
17 So he went to him and found him standing beside his offering, with the Moabite officials.g Balak asked him, “What did the Lord say?”
18 Then he spoke his message:h
“Arise, Balak, and listen;
hear me, son of Zippor.i
19 God is not human,j that he should lie,k
not a human being, that he should change his mind.l
Does he speak and then not act?
Does he promisem and not fulfill?
20 I have received a command to bless;n
he has blessed,o and I cannot change it.p
21 “No misfortune is seen in Jacob,q
no misery observeda in Israel.r
The Lord their God is with them;s
the shout of the Kingt is among them.
22 God brought them out of Egypt;u
they have the strength of a wild ox.v
23 There is no divination againstb Jacob,
no evil omensw againstc Israel.
It will now be said of Jacob
and of Israel, ‘See what God has done!’
Insight
Balaam was a prophet for hire (Numbers 22:7; Deuteronomy 23:4; Joshua 13:22)—a sin that remains prevalent even today. Peter warns of false teachers who “followed the footsteps of Balaam son of Beor, who loved to earn money by doing wrong” (2 Peter 2:15–16 nlt). Jude likewise warns of ungodly people who abuse their positions and misuse their giftedness for monetary gain (Jude 1:11). And John warns of greedy leaders, who, like Balaam, entice people to commit spiritual adultery and sexual immorality (Revelation 2:14).
When God Intervenes
Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm. Psalm 105:15
In a poem titled “This Child Is Beloved,” Omawumi Efueye, known affectionately as Pastor O, writes about his parents’ attempts to end the pregnancy that would result in his birth. After several unusual events that prevented them from aborting him, they decided to welcome their child instead. The knowledge of God’s preservation of his life motivated Omawumi to give up a lucrative career in favor of full-time ministry. Today, he faithfully pastors a London church.
Like Pastor O, the Israelites experienced God’s intervention at a vulnerable time in their history. While traveling through the wilderness, they came within sight of King Balak of Moab. Terrified of their conquests and their vast population, Balak engaged a seer named Balaam to place a curse on the unsuspecting travelers (Numbers 22:2–6).
But something amazing happened. Whenever Balaam opened his mouth to curse, a blessing issued instead. “I have received a command to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot change it,” he declared. “No misfortune is seen in Jacob, no misery observed in Israel. The Lord their God is with them; . . . God brought them out of Egypt” (Numbers 23:20–22). God preserved the Israelites from a battle they didn’t even know was raging!
Whether we see it or not, God still watches over His people today. May we worship in gratitude and awe the One who calls us blessed. By: Remi Oyedele
Reflect & Pray
How often do you stop to consider the daily protection God extends over you? What does the knowledge that He saves you from unseen dangers mean to you?
Father in heaven, forgive us for the many times we take Your care and protection for granted. Give us eyes to see how much You bless us.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, January 19, 2020
Vision and Darkness
When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. —Genesis 15:12
Whenever God gives a vision to a Christian, it is as if He puts him in “the shadow of His hand” (Isaiah 49:2). The saint’s duty is to be still and listen. There is a “darkness” that comes from too much light— that is the time to listen. The story of Abram and Hagar in Genesis 16 is an excellent example of listening to so-called good advice during a time of darkness, rather than waiting for God to send the light. When God gives you a vision and darkness follows, wait. God will bring the vision He has given you to reality in your life if you will wait on His timing. Never try to help God fulfill His word. Abram went through thirteen years of silence, but in those years all of his self-sufficiency was destroyed. He grew past the point of relying on his own common sense. Those years of silence were a time of discipline, not a period of God’s displeasure. There is never any need to pretend that your life is filled with joy and confidence; just wait upon God and be grounded in Him (see Isaiah 50:10-11).
Do I trust at all in the flesh? Or have I learned to go beyond all confidence in myself and other people of God? Do I trust in books and prayers or other joys in my life? Or have I placed my confidence in God Himself, not in His blessings? “I am Almighty God…”— El-Shaddai, the All-Powerful God (Genesis 17:1). The reason we are all being disciplined is that we will know God is real. As soon as God becomes real to us, people pale by comparison, becoming shadows of reality. Nothing that other saints do or say can ever upset the one who is built on God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
“When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” We all have faith in good principles, in good management, in good common sense, but who amongst us has faith in Jesus Christ? Physical courage is grand, moral courage is grander, but the man who trusts Jesus Christ in the face of the terrific problems of life is worth a whole crowd of heroes. The Highest Good, 544 R
Saturday, January 18, 2020
1 Corinthians 14:1-25, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Grace Makes All the Difference
If life is… "because I have to"-where's the joy in that? Too often I hear folks rejecting Christ because they think the Christian life is all about rules and regulations-all about stifling and suffocating ritual.
This happens when we confuse Christ with legalism. Legalism is joyless because it's endless. There's always another class to attend. Inmates incarcerated in self-salvation find work, but never joy!
Grace! It makes all the difference. I like this quote: "Gone are the exertions of law-keeping, gone the disciplines of legalism, the anxiety that having done everything we might not have done enough. We reach the goal, not by the stairs, but by the lift-God pledges his promised righteousness to those who will stop trying to save themselves!"1
Grace offers rest. Legalism? Never!
From GRACE
1 Corinthians 14:1-25
Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it—because it does. Give yourselves to the gifts God gives you. Most of all, try to proclaim his truth. If you praise him in the private language of tongues, God understands you but no one else does, for you are sharing intimacies just between you and him. But when you proclaim his truth in everyday speech, you’re letting others in on the truth so that they can grow and be strong and experience his presence with you.
4-5 The one who prays using a private “prayer language” certainly gets a lot out of it, but proclaiming God’s truth to the church in its common language brings the whole church into growth and strength. I want all of you to develop intimacies with God in prayer, but please don’t stop with that. Go on and proclaim his clear truth to others. It’s more important that everyone have access to the knowledge and love of God in language everyone understands than that you go off and cultivate God’s presence in a mysterious prayer language—unless, of course, there is someone who can interpret what you are saying for the benefit of all.
6-8 Think, friends: If I come to you and all I do is pray privately to God in a way only he can understand, what are you going to get out of that? If I don’t address you plainly with some insight or truth or proclamation or teaching, what help am I to you? If musical instruments—flutes, say, or harps—aren’t played so that each note is distinct and in tune, how will anyone be able to catch the melody and enjoy the music? If the trumpet call can’t be distinguished, will anyone show up for the battle?
9-12 So if you speak in a way no one can understand, what’s the point of opening your mouth? There are many languages in the world and they all mean something to someone. But if I don’t understand the language, it’s not going to do me much good. It’s no different with you. Since you’re so eager to participate in what God is doing, why don’t you concentrate on doing what helps everyone in the church?
13-17 So, when you pray in your private prayer language, don’t hoard the experience for yourself. Pray for the insight and ability to bring others into that intimacy. If I pray in tongues, my spirit prays but my mind lies fallow, and all that intelligence is wasted. So what’s the solution? The answer is simple enough. Do both. I should be spiritually free and expressive as I pray, but I should also be thoughtful and mindful as I pray. I should sing with my spirit, and sing with my mind. If you give a blessing using your private prayer language, which no one else understands, how can some outsider who has just shown up and has no idea what’s going on know when to say “Amen”? Your blessing might be beautiful, but you have very effectively cut that person out of it.
18-19 I’m grateful to God for the gift of praying in tongues that he gives us for praising him, which leads to wonderful intimacies we enjoy with him. I enter into this as much or more than any of you. But when I’m in a church assembled for worship, I’d rather say five words that everyone can understand and learn from than say ten thousand that sound to others like gibberish.
20-25 To be perfectly frank, I’m getting exasperated with your infantile thinking. How long before you grow up and use your head—your adult head? It’s all right to have a childlike unfamiliarity with evil; a simple no is all that’s needed there. But there’s far more to saying yes to something. Only mature and well-exercised intelligence can save you from falling into gullibility. It’s written in Scripture that God said,
In strange tongues
and from the mouths of strangers
I will preach to this people,
but they’ll neither listen nor believe.
So where does it get you, all this speaking in tongues no one understands? It doesn’t help believers, and it only gives unbelievers something to gawk at. Plain truth-speaking, on the other hand, goes straight to the heart of believers and doesn’t get in the way of unbelievers. If you come together as a congregation and some unbelieving outsiders walk in on you as you’re all praying in tongues, unintelligible to each other and to them, won’t they assume you’ve taken leave of your senses and get out of there as fast as they can? But if some unbelieving outsiders walk in on a service where people are speaking out God’s truth, the plain words will bring them up against the truth and probe their hearts. Before you know it, they’re going to be on their faces before God, recognizing that God is among you.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, January 18, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Romans 12:17–21
Do not repay anyone evil for evil.j Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.k 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.l 19 Do not take revenge,m my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”d n says the Lord. 20 On the contrary:
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”e o
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Insight
Paul’s letter to the Romans follows the consistent pattern that marks most of his church letters. He opens with an extended discussion of important theological issues and then follows with practical application. It’s been said that the former shows us what we’re to believe, while the latter describes how we’re to behave because of what we believe. Romans 12, with its opening call to commitment and spiritual service, launches the application section, leading perfectly into today’s text (vv. 17–21). This list of practices is intended to be the outflow of a life lived in relationship with the God whose Son has purchased our forgiveness and new life.
For more on Paul’s letter to the church at Rome, check out Knowing God through Romans at discoveryseries.org/sb221. By: Bill Crowder
Instead of Revenge
If your enemy is hungry, feed him. Romans 12:20
After Jim Elliot and four other missionaries were killed by Huaorani tribesmen in 1956, no one expected what happened next. Jim’s wife, Elisabeth, their young daughter, and another missionary’s sister willingly chose to make their home among the very people who killed their loved ones. They spent several years living in the Huaorani community, learning their language, and translating the Bible for them. These women’s testimony of forgiveness and kindness convinced the Huaorani of God’s love for them and many received Jesus as their Savior.
What Elisabeth and her friend did is an incredible example of not repaying evil with evil but with good (Romans 12:17). The apostle Paul encouraged the church in Rome to show through their actions the transformation that God had brought into their own lives. What did Paul have in mind? They were to go beyond the natural desire to take revenge; instead, they were to show love to their enemies by meeting their needs, such as providing food or water.
Why do this? Paul quotes a proverb from the Old Testament: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink” (v. 20; Proverbs 25:21–22). The apostle was revealing that the kindness shown by believers to their enemies could win them over and light the fire of repentance in their hearts. By: Estera Pirosca Escobar
Reflect & Pray
How did Jesus live out the command to love one’s enemies? What will you do today to show God’s love to those who have harmed you?
Abba, Father, it’s difficult, even impossible, for us to love others in our own strength. Help us through Your Spirit to truly love our enemies, and use us to bring them to You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, January 18, 2020
“It Is the Lord!”
Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" —John 20:28
“Jesus said to her, ‘Give Me a drink’ ” (John 4:7). How many of us are expecting Jesus Christ to quench our thirst when we should be satisfying Him! We should be pouring out our lives, investing our total beings, not drawing on Him to satisfy us. “You shall be witnesses to Me…” (Acts 1:8). That means lives of pure, uncompromising, and unrestrained devotion to the Lord Jesus, which will be satisfying to Him wherever He may send us.
Beware of anything that competes with your loyalty to Jesus Christ. The greatest competitor of true devotion to Jesus is the service we do for Him. It is easier to serve than to pour out our lives completely for Him. The goal of the call of God is His satisfaction, not simply that we should do something for Him. We are not sent to do battle for God, but to be used by God in His battles. Are we more devoted to service than we are to Jesus Christ Himself?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The main characteristic which is the proof of the indwelling Spirit is an amazing tenderness in personal dealing, and a blazing truthfulness with regard to God’s Word. Disciples Indeed, 386 R
If life is… "because I have to"-where's the joy in that? Too often I hear folks rejecting Christ because they think the Christian life is all about rules and regulations-all about stifling and suffocating ritual.
This happens when we confuse Christ with legalism. Legalism is joyless because it's endless. There's always another class to attend. Inmates incarcerated in self-salvation find work, but never joy!
Grace! It makes all the difference. I like this quote: "Gone are the exertions of law-keeping, gone the disciplines of legalism, the anxiety that having done everything we might not have done enough. We reach the goal, not by the stairs, but by the lift-God pledges his promised righteousness to those who will stop trying to save themselves!"1
Grace offers rest. Legalism? Never!
From GRACE
1 Corinthians 14:1-25
Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it—because it does. Give yourselves to the gifts God gives you. Most of all, try to proclaim his truth. If you praise him in the private language of tongues, God understands you but no one else does, for you are sharing intimacies just between you and him. But when you proclaim his truth in everyday speech, you’re letting others in on the truth so that they can grow and be strong and experience his presence with you.
4-5 The one who prays using a private “prayer language” certainly gets a lot out of it, but proclaiming God’s truth to the church in its common language brings the whole church into growth and strength. I want all of you to develop intimacies with God in prayer, but please don’t stop with that. Go on and proclaim his clear truth to others. It’s more important that everyone have access to the knowledge and love of God in language everyone understands than that you go off and cultivate God’s presence in a mysterious prayer language—unless, of course, there is someone who can interpret what you are saying for the benefit of all.
6-8 Think, friends: If I come to you and all I do is pray privately to God in a way only he can understand, what are you going to get out of that? If I don’t address you plainly with some insight or truth or proclamation or teaching, what help am I to you? If musical instruments—flutes, say, or harps—aren’t played so that each note is distinct and in tune, how will anyone be able to catch the melody and enjoy the music? If the trumpet call can’t be distinguished, will anyone show up for the battle?
9-12 So if you speak in a way no one can understand, what’s the point of opening your mouth? There are many languages in the world and they all mean something to someone. But if I don’t understand the language, it’s not going to do me much good. It’s no different with you. Since you’re so eager to participate in what God is doing, why don’t you concentrate on doing what helps everyone in the church?
13-17 So, when you pray in your private prayer language, don’t hoard the experience for yourself. Pray for the insight and ability to bring others into that intimacy. If I pray in tongues, my spirit prays but my mind lies fallow, and all that intelligence is wasted. So what’s the solution? The answer is simple enough. Do both. I should be spiritually free and expressive as I pray, but I should also be thoughtful and mindful as I pray. I should sing with my spirit, and sing with my mind. If you give a blessing using your private prayer language, which no one else understands, how can some outsider who has just shown up and has no idea what’s going on know when to say “Amen”? Your blessing might be beautiful, but you have very effectively cut that person out of it.
18-19 I’m grateful to God for the gift of praying in tongues that he gives us for praising him, which leads to wonderful intimacies we enjoy with him. I enter into this as much or more than any of you. But when I’m in a church assembled for worship, I’d rather say five words that everyone can understand and learn from than say ten thousand that sound to others like gibberish.
20-25 To be perfectly frank, I’m getting exasperated with your infantile thinking. How long before you grow up and use your head—your adult head? It’s all right to have a childlike unfamiliarity with evil; a simple no is all that’s needed there. But there’s far more to saying yes to something. Only mature and well-exercised intelligence can save you from falling into gullibility. It’s written in Scripture that God said,
In strange tongues
and from the mouths of strangers
I will preach to this people,
but they’ll neither listen nor believe.
So where does it get you, all this speaking in tongues no one understands? It doesn’t help believers, and it only gives unbelievers something to gawk at. Plain truth-speaking, on the other hand, goes straight to the heart of believers and doesn’t get in the way of unbelievers. If you come together as a congregation and some unbelieving outsiders walk in on you as you’re all praying in tongues, unintelligible to each other and to them, won’t they assume you’ve taken leave of your senses and get out of there as fast as they can? But if some unbelieving outsiders walk in on a service where people are speaking out God’s truth, the plain words will bring them up against the truth and probe their hearts. Before you know it, they’re going to be on their faces before God, recognizing that God is among you.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, January 18, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Romans 12:17–21
Do not repay anyone evil for evil.j Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.k 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.l 19 Do not take revenge,m my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”d n says the Lord. 20 On the contrary:
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”e o
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Insight
Paul’s letter to the Romans follows the consistent pattern that marks most of his church letters. He opens with an extended discussion of important theological issues and then follows with practical application. It’s been said that the former shows us what we’re to believe, while the latter describes how we’re to behave because of what we believe. Romans 12, with its opening call to commitment and spiritual service, launches the application section, leading perfectly into today’s text (vv. 17–21). This list of practices is intended to be the outflow of a life lived in relationship with the God whose Son has purchased our forgiveness and new life.
For more on Paul’s letter to the church at Rome, check out Knowing God through Romans at discoveryseries.org/sb221. By: Bill Crowder
Instead of Revenge
If your enemy is hungry, feed him. Romans 12:20
After Jim Elliot and four other missionaries were killed by Huaorani tribesmen in 1956, no one expected what happened next. Jim’s wife, Elisabeth, their young daughter, and another missionary’s sister willingly chose to make their home among the very people who killed their loved ones. They spent several years living in the Huaorani community, learning their language, and translating the Bible for them. These women’s testimony of forgiveness and kindness convinced the Huaorani of God’s love for them and many received Jesus as their Savior.
What Elisabeth and her friend did is an incredible example of not repaying evil with evil but with good (Romans 12:17). The apostle Paul encouraged the church in Rome to show through their actions the transformation that God had brought into their own lives. What did Paul have in mind? They were to go beyond the natural desire to take revenge; instead, they were to show love to their enemies by meeting their needs, such as providing food or water.
Why do this? Paul quotes a proverb from the Old Testament: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink” (v. 20; Proverbs 25:21–22). The apostle was revealing that the kindness shown by believers to their enemies could win them over and light the fire of repentance in their hearts. By: Estera Pirosca Escobar
Reflect & Pray
How did Jesus live out the command to love one’s enemies? What will you do today to show God’s love to those who have harmed you?
Abba, Father, it’s difficult, even impossible, for us to love others in our own strength. Help us through Your Spirit to truly love our enemies, and use us to bring them to You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, January 18, 2020
“It Is the Lord!”
Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" —John 20:28
“Jesus said to her, ‘Give Me a drink’ ” (John 4:7). How many of us are expecting Jesus Christ to quench our thirst when we should be satisfying Him! We should be pouring out our lives, investing our total beings, not drawing on Him to satisfy us. “You shall be witnesses to Me…” (Acts 1:8). That means lives of pure, uncompromising, and unrestrained devotion to the Lord Jesus, which will be satisfying to Him wherever He may send us.
Beware of anything that competes with your loyalty to Jesus Christ. The greatest competitor of true devotion to Jesus is the service we do for Him. It is easier to serve than to pour out our lives completely for Him. The goal of the call of God is His satisfaction, not simply that we should do something for Him. We are not sent to do battle for God, but to be used by God in His battles. Are we more devoted to service than we are to Jesus Christ Himself?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The main characteristic which is the proof of the indwelling Spirit is an amazing tenderness in personal dealing, and a blazing truthfulness with regard to God’s Word. Disciples Indeed, 386 R
Friday, January 17, 2020
1 Chronicles 22 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: OPEN YOUR DOOR
Hospitality and hospital come from the same Latin word, for they both lead to the same result– healing. When you open your door to someone, you are sending this message: “You matter to me and to God.”
Do you know people who need this message? Your hospitality can be their hospital. All you need are a few basic practices.
Issue a genuine invitation. Let your guests know you want them to come.
Make a big deal of their arrival. One of God’s children is coming to your house!
Address the needs of your guests. Modern-day hospitality includes the sharing of food and drink along with time to talk and listen.
Send them out with a blessing. Make it clear you are glad your guests came. Offer a prayer for their safety and a word of encouragement for their travel.
Open your table. Even more, open your circle.
1 Chronicles 22
David ordered all the resident aliens in the land to come together; he sent them to the stone quarries to cut dressed stone to build The Temple of God. He also stockpiled a huge quantity of iron for nails and bracings for the doors of the gates, more bronze than could be weighed, and cedar logs past counting (the Sidonians and Tyrians shipped in huge loads of cedar logs for David).
5-6 David was thinking, “My son Solomon is too young to plan ahead for this. But the sanctuary that is to be built for God has to be the greatest, the talk of all the nations; so I’ll get the construction materials together.” That’s why David prepared this huge stockpile of building materials before he died. Then he called in Solomon his son and commanded him to build a sanctuary for the God of Israel.
7-10 David said to Solomon, “I wanted in the worst way to build a sanctuary to honor my God. But God prevented me, saying, ‘You’ve killed too many people, fought too many wars. You are not the one to honor me by building a sanctuary—you’ve been responsible for too much killing, too much bloodshed. But you are going to have a son and he will be a quiet and peaceful man, and I will calm his enemies down on all sides. His very name will speak peace—that is, Solomon, which means Peace—and I’ll give peace and rest under his rule. He will be the one to build a sanctuary in my honor. He’ll be my royal adopted son and I’ll be his father; and I’ll make sure that the authority of his kingdom over Israel lasts forever.’
11-16 “So now, son, God be with you. God-speed as you build the sanctuary for your God, the job God has given you. And may God also give you discernment and understanding when he puts you in charge of Israel so that you will rule in reverent obedience under God’s Revelation. That’s what will make you successful, following the directions and doing the things that God commanded Moses for Israel. Courage! Take charge! Don’t be timid; don’t hold back. Look at this—I’ve gone to a lot of trouble to stockpile materials for the sanctuary of God: a hundred thousand talents (3,775 tons) of gold, a million talents (37,750 tons) of silver, tons of bronze and iron—too much to weigh—and all this timber and stone. And you’re free to add more. And workers both plentiful and prepared: stonecutters, masons, carpenters, artisans in gold and silver, bronze and iron. You’re all set—get to work! And God-speed!”
17-19 David gave orders to all of Israel’s leaders to help his son Solomon, saying, “Isn’t it obvious that your God is present with you; that he has given you peaceful relations with everyone around? My part in this was to put down the enemies, subdue the land to God and his people; your part is to give yourselves, heart and soul, to praying to your God. So get moving—build the sacred house of worship to God! Then bring the Chest of the Covenant of God and all the holy furnishings for the worship of God into the sanctuary built in honor of God.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, January 17, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 107:23–32
Some went out on the seaa in ships;b
they were merchants on the mighty waters.
24 They saw the works of the Lord,c
his wonderful deeds in the deep.
25 For he spoked and stirred up a tempeste
that lifted high the waves.f
26 They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths;
in their perilg their courage meltedh away.
27 They reeledi and staggered like drunkards;
they were at their wits’ end.
28 Then they criedj out to the Lord in their trouble,
and he brought them out of their distress.k
29 He stilled the storml to a whisper;
the wavesm of the seab were hushed.n
30 They were glad when it grew calm,
and he guided themo to their desired haven.
31 Let them give thanksp to the Lord for his unfailing loveq
and his wonderful deedsr for mankind.
32 Let them exalts him in the assemblyt of the people
and praise him in the council of the elders.
Insight
The author of Psalm 107 is unknown. Many scholars believe it was written sometime after a remnant of Jews returned to Israel following their seventy-year exile in Babylon. The psalm features four types of people in distress and how God rescued them. They include those in the wilderness (vv. 4–9), people in captivity (vv. 10–16), those who are sick (vv. 17–22), and those in distress (vv. 23–32). In each section we find the refrain: “Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress” (vv. 6, 13, 19, 28). And each time after God graciously delivers them, the people are exhorted: “Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind” (vv. 8, 15, 21, 31). By: Alyson Kieda
Storm Chasers
He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. Psalm 107:29
Chasing tornadoes,” says Warren Faidley, “is often like a giant game of 3D-chess played out over thousands of square miles.” The photojournalist and storm-chaser adds: “Being in the right place at the right time is a symphony of forecasting and navigation while dodging everything from softball-sized hailstones to dust storms and slow-moving farm equipment.”
Faidley’s words make my palms sweat and heart beat faster. While admiring the raw courage and scientific hunger storm chasers display, I balk at throwing myself into the middle of potentially fatal weather events.
In my experience, however, I don’t have to chase storms in life—they seem to be chasing me. That experience is mirrored by Psalm 107 as it describes sailors trapped in a storm. They were being chased by the consequences of their wrong choices but the psalmist says, “They cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. They were glad when it grew calm” (Psalm 107:28–30).
Whether the storms of life are of our own making or the result of living in a broken world, our Father is greater. When we are being chased by storms, He alone is able to calm them—or to calm the storm within us. By: Bill Crowder
Reflect & Pray
When facing difficulties, where do you turn for help? How might you trust your heavenly Father today, who is greater than your storms?
Thank You, Father, that You’re with me in my struggles and Your power is greater than any storm on my horizon.
To learn about why suffering occurs, visit christianuniversity.org/CA211.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, January 17, 2020
The Call of the Natural Life
When it pleased God…to reveal His Son in me… —Galatians 1:15-16
The call of God is not a call to serve Him in any particular way. My contact with the nature of God will shape my understanding of His call and will help me realize what I truly desire to do for Him. The call of God is an expression of His nature; the service which results in my life is suited to me and is an expression of my nature. The call of the natural life was stated by the apostle Paul— “When it pleased God…to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him [that is, purely and solemnly express Him] among the Gentiles….”
Service is the overflow which pours from a life filled with love and devotion. But strictly speaking, there is no call to that. Service is what I bring to the relationship and is the reflection of my identification with the nature of God. Service becomes a natural part of my life. God brings me into the proper relationship with Himself so that I can understand His call, and then I serve Him on my own out of a motivation of absolute love. Service to God is the deliberate love-gift of a nature that has heard the call of God. Service is an expression of my nature, and God’s call is an expression of His nature. Therefore, when I receive His nature and hear His call, His divine voice resounds throughout His nature and mine and the two become one in service. The Son of God reveals Himself in me, and out of devotion to Him service becomes my everyday way of life.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The life of Abraham is an illustration of two things: of unreserved surrender to God, and of God’s complete possession of a child of His for His own highest end.
Not Knowing Whither
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, January 17, 2020
Four-Way Theft - #8615
Remember the old days? Yeah, with hotels, you know, and the keys? Yeah, the keys; not the little card they give you that opens the door. In those days I had a little problem. I don't remember when a guy asked me when I checked out of a hotel one day, "Ron did you turn in your key?" I thought somewhere along the way he talked to my wife, because see was the one who got to mail all those keys back. It's true, I have been known to own a hotel key collection. I mean, everybody needs a hobby, right? Some people collect stamps, coins, you get the idea! Well, actually it's never my intention to walk off with hotel keys, but sometimes I end up taking what I never meant to take. When I didn't even know I was taking it.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Four-Way Theft."
Now our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Thessalonians 4:3. These are some revealing words for people who are living in a sex-saturated culture. I mean, let's face it, it's everywhere. And here is some insight from the inventor of sex, on invisible tragedy that takes place when people have sex premaritally or extramaritally. Here's what he says, "It is God's will that you should be sanctified, that you should avoid sexual immorality. Each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable. Not in passionate lust like the heathen who do not know God. And in this matter, none should wrong his brother, or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins."
Now notice here it says first of all that it is God's will that we keep sex pure. I mean, this is like a destiny thing. And he says I want him to be sanctified which means kept special, not diminished by sex with anyone but your lifetime partner. He says the way to do that is to "avoid sexual immorality." In other words, don't be anywhere near where you could mess this up. And then he says you do it by controlling your own body. Don't let your body, don't let your mind get to a point where your passions are controlling you... Then there's this sudden tack about not wronging or taking advantage of your brother. What's this all about? Well obviously there is a third person being hurt when two people are physically involved outside of marriage. What's happening is really four-way theft.
First, sex outside of marriage boundaries hurt you, and then it hurts your partner. You're robbing yourselves of the enjoyment of sex that is guilt free, regret free, judgment free, inside of marriage. This unique love gift is no longer unique because you've given it to someone else which in tum robs two other people - both your future partners, or both of your present partners if you're married.
Four-way theft, four people - two of them innocent parties - lose what could be so special because someone could not control their hormones. In reality it's total selfishness, probably masquerading as love. Like my key problem, you may not know what you're taking, you may not even mean to be taking it, but it's gone. However, it's not easy to return what you've taken in this case.
If you are in the middle of a sexual relationship with anyone other than your marriage partne
r whether it's your present or future partner - please take this program as a warning from God. He stands ready to forgive you if you'll honestly repent at the cross where Jesus died for every sin now that you wish you could take back. And He'll strengthen you as you face whatever fall out there might be. And if you're on the edge of a sexual mistake or just flirting with fantasies, would you run from it now! The bill's going to last longer than the thrill.
And if all of this has just reminded you of which you wish you had not done, but it seems to be an indelible ink in your soul, I can tell you this, Jesus died for it. He died to pay for every wrong thing, every dirty thing, every angry thing, every forget God thing you've ever done. And today He offers to erase that from God's Book once and for all. You will be forgiven and clean.
If you want that, tell Him, "Jesus, I'm yours." Go to our website and get the information you need to begin your relationship with Him. That's ANewStory.com.
Sexual sin? It's a four-way robbery! It costs so many people, so very much.
Hospitality and hospital come from the same Latin word, for they both lead to the same result– healing. When you open your door to someone, you are sending this message: “You matter to me and to God.”
Do you know people who need this message? Your hospitality can be their hospital. All you need are a few basic practices.
Issue a genuine invitation. Let your guests know you want them to come.
Make a big deal of their arrival. One of God’s children is coming to your house!
Address the needs of your guests. Modern-day hospitality includes the sharing of food and drink along with time to talk and listen.
Send them out with a blessing. Make it clear you are glad your guests came. Offer a prayer for their safety and a word of encouragement for their travel.
Open your table. Even more, open your circle.
1 Chronicles 22
David ordered all the resident aliens in the land to come together; he sent them to the stone quarries to cut dressed stone to build The Temple of God. He also stockpiled a huge quantity of iron for nails and bracings for the doors of the gates, more bronze than could be weighed, and cedar logs past counting (the Sidonians and Tyrians shipped in huge loads of cedar logs for David).
5-6 David was thinking, “My son Solomon is too young to plan ahead for this. But the sanctuary that is to be built for God has to be the greatest, the talk of all the nations; so I’ll get the construction materials together.” That’s why David prepared this huge stockpile of building materials before he died. Then he called in Solomon his son and commanded him to build a sanctuary for the God of Israel.
7-10 David said to Solomon, “I wanted in the worst way to build a sanctuary to honor my God. But God prevented me, saying, ‘You’ve killed too many people, fought too many wars. You are not the one to honor me by building a sanctuary—you’ve been responsible for too much killing, too much bloodshed. But you are going to have a son and he will be a quiet and peaceful man, and I will calm his enemies down on all sides. His very name will speak peace—that is, Solomon, which means Peace—and I’ll give peace and rest under his rule. He will be the one to build a sanctuary in my honor. He’ll be my royal adopted son and I’ll be his father; and I’ll make sure that the authority of his kingdom over Israel lasts forever.’
11-16 “So now, son, God be with you. God-speed as you build the sanctuary for your God, the job God has given you. And may God also give you discernment and understanding when he puts you in charge of Israel so that you will rule in reverent obedience under God’s Revelation. That’s what will make you successful, following the directions and doing the things that God commanded Moses for Israel. Courage! Take charge! Don’t be timid; don’t hold back. Look at this—I’ve gone to a lot of trouble to stockpile materials for the sanctuary of God: a hundred thousand talents (3,775 tons) of gold, a million talents (37,750 tons) of silver, tons of bronze and iron—too much to weigh—and all this timber and stone. And you’re free to add more. And workers both plentiful and prepared: stonecutters, masons, carpenters, artisans in gold and silver, bronze and iron. You’re all set—get to work! And God-speed!”
17-19 David gave orders to all of Israel’s leaders to help his son Solomon, saying, “Isn’t it obvious that your God is present with you; that he has given you peaceful relations with everyone around? My part in this was to put down the enemies, subdue the land to God and his people; your part is to give yourselves, heart and soul, to praying to your God. So get moving—build the sacred house of worship to God! Then bring the Chest of the Covenant of God and all the holy furnishings for the worship of God into the sanctuary built in honor of God.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, January 17, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 107:23–32
Some went out on the seaa in ships;b
they were merchants on the mighty waters.
24 They saw the works of the Lord,c
his wonderful deeds in the deep.
25 For he spoked and stirred up a tempeste
that lifted high the waves.f
26 They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths;
in their perilg their courage meltedh away.
27 They reeledi and staggered like drunkards;
they were at their wits’ end.
28 Then they criedj out to the Lord in their trouble,
and he brought them out of their distress.k
29 He stilled the storml to a whisper;
the wavesm of the seab were hushed.n
30 They were glad when it grew calm,
and he guided themo to their desired haven.
31 Let them give thanksp to the Lord for his unfailing loveq
and his wonderful deedsr for mankind.
32 Let them exalts him in the assemblyt of the people
and praise him in the council of the elders.
Insight
The author of Psalm 107 is unknown. Many scholars believe it was written sometime after a remnant of Jews returned to Israel following their seventy-year exile in Babylon. The psalm features four types of people in distress and how God rescued them. They include those in the wilderness (vv. 4–9), people in captivity (vv. 10–16), those who are sick (vv. 17–22), and those in distress (vv. 23–32). In each section we find the refrain: “Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress” (vv. 6, 13, 19, 28). And each time after God graciously delivers them, the people are exhorted: “Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind” (vv. 8, 15, 21, 31). By: Alyson Kieda
Storm Chasers
He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. Psalm 107:29
Chasing tornadoes,” says Warren Faidley, “is often like a giant game of 3D-chess played out over thousands of square miles.” The photojournalist and storm-chaser adds: “Being in the right place at the right time is a symphony of forecasting and navigation while dodging everything from softball-sized hailstones to dust storms and slow-moving farm equipment.”
Faidley’s words make my palms sweat and heart beat faster. While admiring the raw courage and scientific hunger storm chasers display, I balk at throwing myself into the middle of potentially fatal weather events.
In my experience, however, I don’t have to chase storms in life—they seem to be chasing me. That experience is mirrored by Psalm 107 as it describes sailors trapped in a storm. They were being chased by the consequences of their wrong choices but the psalmist says, “They cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. They were glad when it grew calm” (Psalm 107:28–30).
Whether the storms of life are of our own making or the result of living in a broken world, our Father is greater. When we are being chased by storms, He alone is able to calm them—or to calm the storm within us. By: Bill Crowder
Reflect & Pray
When facing difficulties, where do you turn for help? How might you trust your heavenly Father today, who is greater than your storms?
Thank You, Father, that You’re with me in my struggles and Your power is greater than any storm on my horizon.
To learn about why suffering occurs, visit christianuniversity.org/CA211.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, January 17, 2020
The Call of the Natural Life
When it pleased God…to reveal His Son in me… —Galatians 1:15-16
The call of God is not a call to serve Him in any particular way. My contact with the nature of God will shape my understanding of His call and will help me realize what I truly desire to do for Him. The call of God is an expression of His nature; the service which results in my life is suited to me and is an expression of my nature. The call of the natural life was stated by the apostle Paul— “When it pleased God…to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him [that is, purely and solemnly express Him] among the Gentiles….”
Service is the overflow which pours from a life filled with love and devotion. But strictly speaking, there is no call to that. Service is what I bring to the relationship and is the reflection of my identification with the nature of God. Service becomes a natural part of my life. God brings me into the proper relationship with Himself so that I can understand His call, and then I serve Him on my own out of a motivation of absolute love. Service to God is the deliberate love-gift of a nature that has heard the call of God. Service is an expression of my nature, and God’s call is an expression of His nature. Therefore, when I receive His nature and hear His call, His divine voice resounds throughout His nature and mine and the two become one in service. The Son of God reveals Himself in me, and out of devotion to Him service becomes my everyday way of life.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The life of Abraham is an illustration of two things: of unreserved surrender to God, and of God’s complete possession of a child of His for His own highest end.
Not Knowing Whither
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, January 17, 2020
Four-Way Theft - #8615
Remember the old days? Yeah, with hotels, you know, and the keys? Yeah, the keys; not the little card they give you that opens the door. In those days I had a little problem. I don't remember when a guy asked me when I checked out of a hotel one day, "Ron did you turn in your key?" I thought somewhere along the way he talked to my wife, because see was the one who got to mail all those keys back. It's true, I have been known to own a hotel key collection. I mean, everybody needs a hobby, right? Some people collect stamps, coins, you get the idea! Well, actually it's never my intention to walk off with hotel keys, but sometimes I end up taking what I never meant to take. When I didn't even know I was taking it.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Four-Way Theft."
Now our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Thessalonians 4:3. These are some revealing words for people who are living in a sex-saturated culture. I mean, let's face it, it's everywhere. And here is some insight from the inventor of sex, on invisible tragedy that takes place when people have sex premaritally or extramaritally. Here's what he says, "It is God's will that you should be sanctified, that you should avoid sexual immorality. Each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable. Not in passionate lust like the heathen who do not know God. And in this matter, none should wrong his brother, or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins."
Now notice here it says first of all that it is God's will that we keep sex pure. I mean, this is like a destiny thing. And he says I want him to be sanctified which means kept special, not diminished by sex with anyone but your lifetime partner. He says the way to do that is to "avoid sexual immorality." In other words, don't be anywhere near where you could mess this up. And then he says you do it by controlling your own body. Don't let your body, don't let your mind get to a point where your passions are controlling you... Then there's this sudden tack about not wronging or taking advantage of your brother. What's this all about? Well obviously there is a third person being hurt when two people are physically involved outside of marriage. What's happening is really four-way theft.
First, sex outside of marriage boundaries hurt you, and then it hurts your partner. You're robbing yourselves of the enjoyment of sex that is guilt free, regret free, judgment free, inside of marriage. This unique love gift is no longer unique because you've given it to someone else which in tum robs two other people - both your future partners, or both of your present partners if you're married.
Four-way theft, four people - two of them innocent parties - lose what could be so special because someone could not control their hormones. In reality it's total selfishness, probably masquerading as love. Like my key problem, you may not know what you're taking, you may not even mean to be taking it, but it's gone. However, it's not easy to return what you've taken in this case.
If you are in the middle of a sexual relationship with anyone other than your marriage partne
r whether it's your present or future partner - please take this program as a warning from God. He stands ready to forgive you if you'll honestly repent at the cross where Jesus died for every sin now that you wish you could take back. And He'll strengthen you as you face whatever fall out there might be. And if you're on the edge of a sexual mistake or just flirting with fantasies, would you run from it now! The bill's going to last longer than the thrill.
And if all of this has just reminded you of which you wish you had not done, but it seems to be an indelible ink in your soul, I can tell you this, Jesus died for it. He died to pay for every wrong thing, every dirty thing, every angry thing, every forget God thing you've ever done. And today He offers to erase that from God's Book once and for all. You will be forgiven and clean.
If you want that, tell Him, "Jesus, I'm yours." Go to our website and get the information you need to begin your relationship with Him. That's ANewStory.com.
Sexual sin? It's a four-way robbery! It costs so many people, so very much.
Thursday, January 16, 2020
1 Chronicles 21, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: BE HOSPITABLE
Our society is set up for isolation. We communicate via e-mail and text messages. Our mantra is “I leave you alone; you leave me alone.” Yet God wants his people to be an exception, people of hospitality.
“Every day in the Temple and in people’s homes they continued teaching the people and telling the Good News— that Jesus is the Christ” (Acts 5:42). Even a casual reading of the New Testament unveils the house as the primary tool of the church. The first generation of Christians was a tinderbox of contrasting cultures and backgrounds. Yet, through the clearest of messages (the Cross) and the simplest of tools (the home), they shared the Gospel.
Do you have a front door? Do you have bread and meat for sandwiches? You just qualified to serve in the most ancient of ministries, that of hospitality.
1 Chronicles 21
Now Satan entered the scene and seduced David into taking a census of Israel. David gave orders to Joab and the army officers under him, “Canvass all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and get a count of the population. I want to know the number.”
3 Joab resisted: “May God multiply his people by hundreds! Don’t they all belong to my master the king? But why on earth would you do a thing like this—why risk getting Israel into trouble with God?”
4-7 But David wouldn’t take no for an answer, so Joab went off and did it—canvassed the country and then came back to Jerusalem and reported the results of the census: There were 1,100,000 fighting men; of that total, Judah accounted for 470,000. Joab, disgusted by the command—it, in fact, turned his stomach!—protested by leaving Levi and Benjamin out of the census-taking. And God, offended by the whole thing, punished Israel.
8 Then David prayed, “I have sinned badly in what I have just done, substituting statistics for trust; forgive my sin—I’ve been really stupid.”
9-10 God answered by speaking to Gad, David’s pastor: “Go and give David this message: ‘God’s word: You have your choice of three punishments; choose one and I’ll do the rest.’”
11-12 Gad delivered the message to David: “Do you want three years of famine, three months of running from your enemies while they chase you down, or three days of the sword of God—an epidemic unleashed on the country by an angel of God? Think it over and make up your mind. What shall I tell the One who sent me?”
13 David told Gad, “They’re all terrible! But I’d rather be punished by God whose mercy is great, than fall into human hands.”
14-15 So God unleashed an epidemic in Israel—seventy thousand Israelites died. God then sent the angel to Jerusalem but when he saw the destruction about to begin, he compassionately changed his mind and ordered the death angel, “Enough’s enough! Pull back!”
15-16 The angel of God had just reached the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. David looked up and saw the angel hovering between earth and sky, sword drawn and about to strike Jerusalem. David and the elders bowed in prayer and covered themselves with rough burlap.
17 David prayed, “Please! I’m the one who sinned; I’m the one at fault. But these sheep, what did they do wrong? Punish me, not them, me and my family; don’t take it out on them.”
18-19 The angel of God ordered Gad to tell David to go and build an altar to God on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. David did what Gad told him in obedience to God’s command.
20-21 Meanwhile Araunah had quit threshing the wheat and was watching the angel; his four sons took cover and hid. David came up to Araunah. When Araunah saw David, he left the threshing floor and bowed deeply before David, honoring the king.
22 David said to Araunah, “Give me the site of the threshing floor so I can build an altar to God. Charge me the market price; we’re going to put an end to this disaster.”
23 “O Master, my king,” said Araunah, “just take it; do whatever you want with it! Look, here’s an ox for the burnt offering and threshing paddles for the fuel and wheat for the meal offering—it’s all yours!”
24-27 David replied to Araunah, “No. I’m buying it from you, and at the full market price. I’m not going to offer God sacrifices that are no sacrifice.” So David bought the place from Araunah for six hundred shekels of gold. He built an altar to God there and sacrificed Whole-Burnt-Offerings and Peace-Offerings. He called out to God and God answered by striking the altar of Whole-Burnt-Offering with lightning. Then God told the angel to put his sword back into its scabbard.
28 And that’s the story of what happened when David saw that God answered him on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite at the time he offered the sacrifice.
29-30 At this time the Tabernacle that Moses had constructed in the desert, and with it the Altar of Burnt Offering, were set up at the worship center at Gibeon. But David, terrified by the angel’s sword, wouldn’t go there to 1 pray to God anymore. So David declared, “From now on, this is the site for the worship of God; this is the place for Israel’s Altar of Burnt Offering.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, January 16, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
John 6:4–14
The Jewish Passover Festivala was near.
5 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip,b “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
7 Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wagesa to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”
8 Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother,c spoke up, 9 “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”d
10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). 11 Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks,e and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.
12 When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” 13 So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.
14 After the people saw the signf Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”g
Insight
The feeding of the 5,000 is the only miracle besides Jesus’ resurrection that’s reported in all four gospels (Matthew 14:13–21; Mark 6:32–44; Luke 9:10–17; John 6:5–14). Quantitatively, this is the biggest miracle Jesus performed, with potentially more than 20,000 beneficiaries. “The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children” (Matthew 14:21). Mark 6:35–37 tells us this was a “remote place,” and the disciples wanted to send the people away so they could get food for themselves. But Jesus ordered His disciples to feed them. He challenged both their faith—they didn’t have the means or resources—and their compassion. Seeing the needs of others, Jesus wanted them to make these needs their responsibility as well.
Bring What You Have
“Bring them here to me,” [Jesus] said. Matthew 14:18
“Stone Soup,” an old tale with many versions, tells of a starving man who comes to a village, but no one there can spare a crumb of food for him. He puts a stone and water in a pot over a fire. Intrigued, the villagers watch him as he begins to stir his “soup.” Eventually, one brings a couple of potatoes to add to the mix; another has a few carrots. One person adds an onion, another a handful of barley. A farmer donates some milk. Eventually, the “stone soup” becomes a tasty chowder.
That tale illustrates the value of sharing, but it also reminds us to bring what we have, even when it seems to be insignificant. In John 6:1–14 we read of a boy who appears to be the only person in a huge crowd who thought about bringing some food. Christ’s disciples had little use for the boy’s sparse lunch of five loaves and two fishes. But when it was surrendered, Jesus increased it and fed thousands of hungry people!
I once heard someone say, “You don’t have to feed the five thousand. You just have to bring your loaves and fishes.” Just as Jesus took one person’s meal and multiplied it far beyond anyone’s expectations or imagination (v. 11), He’ll accept our surrendered efforts, talents, and service. He just wants us to be willing to bring what we have to Him. By: Cindy Hess Kasper
Reflect & Pray
What have you been holding back from God? Why is it difficult to bring that area of your life to Him?
Jesus, help me to surrender whatever I have to You, knowing You can multiply a little into a lot.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, January 16, 2020
The Voice of the Nature of God
I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" —Isaiah 6:8
When we talk about the call of God, we often forget the most important thing, namely, the nature of Him who calls. There are many things calling each of us today. Some of these calls will be answered, and others will not even be heard. The call is the expression of the nature of the One who calls, and we can only recognize the call if that same nature is in us. The call of God is the expression of God’s nature, not ours. God providentially weaves the threads of His call through our lives, and only we can distinguish them. It is the threading of God’s voice directly to us over a certain concern, and it is useless to seek another person’s opinion of it. Our dealings over the call of God should be kept exclusively between ourselves and Him.
The call of God is not a reflection of my nature; my personal desires and temperament are of no consideration. As long as I dwell on my own qualities and traits and think about what I am suited for, I will never hear the call of God. But when God brings me into the right relationship with Himself, I will be in the same condition Isaiah was. Isaiah was so attuned to God, because of the great crisis he had just endured, that the call of God penetrated his soul. The majority of us cannot hear anything but ourselves. And we cannot hear anything God says. But to be brought to the place where we can hear the call of God is to be profoundly changed.
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
Thursday, January 16, 2020
The Mismatch Illusion - #8614
Just a few years ago they had the battle of Little Big Horn again, and Custer lost again. Actually it was part of a movie on the life of the great Oglala Lakota, Chief Crazy Horse. My Lakota friend, Jerry, was asked to be one of Crazy Horse's warriors in the movie. Now, one challenge was riding bareback. They had to do that full speed in the battle scenes, and of course, the big scene was the portrayal of Custer's last stand. Interestingly enough, Jerry can't even find himself in those scenes because the warriors were going by so fast in a cloud of dust. Someone asked him how many warriors they needed to reenact a battle that involved so many Native Americans. He said, "Oh, about 80." Hollywood of course is all about illusion, so they just had these 80 guys keep charging up to the soldiers, turn their horses sharply and circle around again and again and again. There weren't nearly as many warriors on the other side as it looked like in the movie. Custer might have wished that the real odds might have been that even.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Mismatch Illusion."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Kings 6:14. The King of Syria really wants Elisha captured. It says this, "He sent an entire army to get the prophet. He sent horses and chariots and a strong force and at night they surrounded the city. When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning he saw the army and horses and chariots that surrounded the city. 'Oh my Lord, what shall we do?', the servant asked. 'Don't be afraid,' the prophet answered. 'Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.'" At which point his eyes are opened and he can see that unseen army all around him.
The opposing forces looked overwhelming - they weren't. Rather than being overwhelming, they were actually overwhelmed, as the story goes on, by the armies of the Living God who was protecting the Servant of God - which God always does. Based on the forces the servant could see, he reacted with anxiety and fear. It looked like a total mismatch, but the mismatch was an illusion! Kind of like the movie portrayal of Custer's last stand, the attackers looked much stronger than they really were. When you get all the information about who's out there, it doesn't seem nearly as intimidating.
Right now maybe you're in a battle and it looks like a lop-sided mismatch with you almost overwhelmed by the opposition, by the darkness that's attacking, by the responsibilities you have. The tendency, of course, is to retreat, give up, hide, compromise. Maybe you're worried about the bad influences on your son or daughter and what they might become. Or about some strong opposition to a work you're trying to do for the Lord, or the financial odds against you. It could be the pressure that's intimidated you into silence where you should be telling them about Jesus. Whatever it is, what stands in the way looks huge doesn't it? But you need to look again at this battle. This time look at the forces of Jesus who are committed to the battle on your behalf.
Listen to His promises, "The One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." (1 John 4:4). "A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you." (Psalm 91:7). "The chariots of God are tens of thousands, and thousands of thousands, the Lord has come" (Psalm 68:17). Romans 8:31 says, "If God be for us" - you probably know the rest - "who could be against us." You've been intimidated long enough, you've played defense long enough, you've shrunk back in fear long enough and let fear win. The Bible says, "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind." (2 Timothy 1:7)
The enemy isn't nearly as big as he'd like you to believe. You have in you the risen Christ who said, "all authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth" (Matthew 28:18). You have all the power of Jesus' blood and Jesus' name. Sure t
he devil keeps circling to make you think you're outnumbered, and you are, but this battle will be decided by the awesome forces of your Living God. And listen again, "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them."
Our society is set up for isolation. We communicate via e-mail and text messages. Our mantra is “I leave you alone; you leave me alone.” Yet God wants his people to be an exception, people of hospitality.
“Every day in the Temple and in people’s homes they continued teaching the people and telling the Good News— that Jesus is the Christ” (Acts 5:42). Even a casual reading of the New Testament unveils the house as the primary tool of the church. The first generation of Christians was a tinderbox of contrasting cultures and backgrounds. Yet, through the clearest of messages (the Cross) and the simplest of tools (the home), they shared the Gospel.
Do you have a front door? Do you have bread and meat for sandwiches? You just qualified to serve in the most ancient of ministries, that of hospitality.
1 Chronicles 21
Now Satan entered the scene and seduced David into taking a census of Israel. David gave orders to Joab and the army officers under him, “Canvass all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and get a count of the population. I want to know the number.”
3 Joab resisted: “May God multiply his people by hundreds! Don’t they all belong to my master the king? But why on earth would you do a thing like this—why risk getting Israel into trouble with God?”
4-7 But David wouldn’t take no for an answer, so Joab went off and did it—canvassed the country and then came back to Jerusalem and reported the results of the census: There were 1,100,000 fighting men; of that total, Judah accounted for 470,000. Joab, disgusted by the command—it, in fact, turned his stomach!—protested by leaving Levi and Benjamin out of the census-taking. And God, offended by the whole thing, punished Israel.
8 Then David prayed, “I have sinned badly in what I have just done, substituting statistics for trust; forgive my sin—I’ve been really stupid.”
9-10 God answered by speaking to Gad, David’s pastor: “Go and give David this message: ‘God’s word: You have your choice of three punishments; choose one and I’ll do the rest.’”
11-12 Gad delivered the message to David: “Do you want three years of famine, three months of running from your enemies while they chase you down, or three days of the sword of God—an epidemic unleashed on the country by an angel of God? Think it over and make up your mind. What shall I tell the One who sent me?”
13 David told Gad, “They’re all terrible! But I’d rather be punished by God whose mercy is great, than fall into human hands.”
14-15 So God unleashed an epidemic in Israel—seventy thousand Israelites died. God then sent the angel to Jerusalem but when he saw the destruction about to begin, he compassionately changed his mind and ordered the death angel, “Enough’s enough! Pull back!”
15-16 The angel of God had just reached the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. David looked up and saw the angel hovering between earth and sky, sword drawn and about to strike Jerusalem. David and the elders bowed in prayer and covered themselves with rough burlap.
17 David prayed, “Please! I’m the one who sinned; I’m the one at fault. But these sheep, what did they do wrong? Punish me, not them, me and my family; don’t take it out on them.”
18-19 The angel of God ordered Gad to tell David to go and build an altar to God on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. David did what Gad told him in obedience to God’s command.
20-21 Meanwhile Araunah had quit threshing the wheat and was watching the angel; his four sons took cover and hid. David came up to Araunah. When Araunah saw David, he left the threshing floor and bowed deeply before David, honoring the king.
22 David said to Araunah, “Give me the site of the threshing floor so I can build an altar to God. Charge me the market price; we’re going to put an end to this disaster.”
23 “O Master, my king,” said Araunah, “just take it; do whatever you want with it! Look, here’s an ox for the burnt offering and threshing paddles for the fuel and wheat for the meal offering—it’s all yours!”
24-27 David replied to Araunah, “No. I’m buying it from you, and at the full market price. I’m not going to offer God sacrifices that are no sacrifice.” So David bought the place from Araunah for six hundred shekels of gold. He built an altar to God there and sacrificed Whole-Burnt-Offerings and Peace-Offerings. He called out to God and God answered by striking the altar of Whole-Burnt-Offering with lightning. Then God told the angel to put his sword back into its scabbard.
28 And that’s the story of what happened when David saw that God answered him on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite at the time he offered the sacrifice.
29-30 At this time the Tabernacle that Moses had constructed in the desert, and with it the Altar of Burnt Offering, were set up at the worship center at Gibeon. But David, terrified by the angel’s sword, wouldn’t go there to 1 pray to God anymore. So David declared, “From now on, this is the site for the worship of God; this is the place for Israel’s Altar of Burnt Offering.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, January 16, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
John 6:4–14
The Jewish Passover Festivala was near.
5 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip,b “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
7 Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wagesa to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”
8 Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother,c spoke up, 9 “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”d
10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). 11 Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks,e and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.
12 When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” 13 So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.
14 After the people saw the signf Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”g
Insight
The feeding of the 5,000 is the only miracle besides Jesus’ resurrection that’s reported in all four gospels (Matthew 14:13–21; Mark 6:32–44; Luke 9:10–17; John 6:5–14). Quantitatively, this is the biggest miracle Jesus performed, with potentially more than 20,000 beneficiaries. “The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children” (Matthew 14:21). Mark 6:35–37 tells us this was a “remote place,” and the disciples wanted to send the people away so they could get food for themselves. But Jesus ordered His disciples to feed them. He challenged both their faith—they didn’t have the means or resources—and their compassion. Seeing the needs of others, Jesus wanted them to make these needs their responsibility as well.
Bring What You Have
“Bring them here to me,” [Jesus] said. Matthew 14:18
“Stone Soup,” an old tale with many versions, tells of a starving man who comes to a village, but no one there can spare a crumb of food for him. He puts a stone and water in a pot over a fire. Intrigued, the villagers watch him as he begins to stir his “soup.” Eventually, one brings a couple of potatoes to add to the mix; another has a few carrots. One person adds an onion, another a handful of barley. A farmer donates some milk. Eventually, the “stone soup” becomes a tasty chowder.
That tale illustrates the value of sharing, but it also reminds us to bring what we have, even when it seems to be insignificant. In John 6:1–14 we read of a boy who appears to be the only person in a huge crowd who thought about bringing some food. Christ’s disciples had little use for the boy’s sparse lunch of five loaves and two fishes. But when it was surrendered, Jesus increased it and fed thousands of hungry people!
I once heard someone say, “You don’t have to feed the five thousand. You just have to bring your loaves and fishes.” Just as Jesus took one person’s meal and multiplied it far beyond anyone’s expectations or imagination (v. 11), He’ll accept our surrendered efforts, talents, and service. He just wants us to be willing to bring what we have to Him. By: Cindy Hess Kasper
Reflect & Pray
What have you been holding back from God? Why is it difficult to bring that area of your life to Him?
Jesus, help me to surrender whatever I have to You, knowing You can multiply a little into a lot.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, January 16, 2020
The Voice of the Nature of God
I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" —Isaiah 6:8
When we talk about the call of God, we often forget the most important thing, namely, the nature of Him who calls. There are many things calling each of us today. Some of these calls will be answered, and others will not even be heard. The call is the expression of the nature of the One who calls, and we can only recognize the call if that same nature is in us. The call of God is the expression of God’s nature, not ours. God providentially weaves the threads of His call through our lives, and only we can distinguish them. It is the threading of God’s voice directly to us over a certain concern, and it is useless to seek another person’s opinion of it. Our dealings over the call of God should be kept exclusively between ourselves and Him.
The call of God is not a reflection of my nature; my personal desires and temperament are of no consideration. As long as I dwell on my own qualities and traits and think about what I am suited for, I will never hear the call of God. But when God brings me into the right relationship with Himself, I will be in the same condition Isaiah was. Isaiah was so attuned to God, because of the great crisis he had just endured, that the call of God penetrated his soul. The majority of us cannot hear anything but ourselves. And we cannot hear anything God says. But to be brought to the place where we can hear the call of God is to be profoundly changed.
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
Thursday, January 16, 2020
The Mismatch Illusion - #8614
Just a few years ago they had the battle of Little Big Horn again, and Custer lost again. Actually it was part of a movie on the life of the great Oglala Lakota, Chief Crazy Horse. My Lakota friend, Jerry, was asked to be one of Crazy Horse's warriors in the movie. Now, one challenge was riding bareback. They had to do that full speed in the battle scenes, and of course, the big scene was the portrayal of Custer's last stand. Interestingly enough, Jerry can't even find himself in those scenes because the warriors were going by so fast in a cloud of dust. Someone asked him how many warriors they needed to reenact a battle that involved so many Native Americans. He said, "Oh, about 80." Hollywood of course is all about illusion, so they just had these 80 guys keep charging up to the soldiers, turn their horses sharply and circle around again and again and again. There weren't nearly as many warriors on the other side as it looked like in the movie. Custer might have wished that the real odds might have been that even.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Mismatch Illusion."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Kings 6:14. The King of Syria really wants Elisha captured. It says this, "He sent an entire army to get the prophet. He sent horses and chariots and a strong force and at night they surrounded the city. When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning he saw the army and horses and chariots that surrounded the city. 'Oh my Lord, what shall we do?', the servant asked. 'Don't be afraid,' the prophet answered. 'Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.'" At which point his eyes are opened and he can see that unseen army all around him.
The opposing forces looked overwhelming - they weren't. Rather than being overwhelming, they were actually overwhelmed, as the story goes on, by the armies of the Living God who was protecting the Servant of God - which God always does. Based on the forces the servant could see, he reacted with anxiety and fear. It looked like a total mismatch, but the mismatch was an illusion! Kind of like the movie portrayal of Custer's last stand, the attackers looked much stronger than they really were. When you get all the information about who's out there, it doesn't seem nearly as intimidating.
Right now maybe you're in a battle and it looks like a lop-sided mismatch with you almost overwhelmed by the opposition, by the darkness that's attacking, by the responsibilities you have. The tendency, of course, is to retreat, give up, hide, compromise. Maybe you're worried about the bad influences on your son or daughter and what they might become. Or about some strong opposition to a work you're trying to do for the Lord, or the financial odds against you. It could be the pressure that's intimidated you into silence where you should be telling them about Jesus. Whatever it is, what stands in the way looks huge doesn't it? But you need to look again at this battle. This time look at the forces of Jesus who are committed to the battle on your behalf.
Listen to His promises, "The One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." (1 John 4:4). "A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you." (Psalm 91:7). "The chariots of God are tens of thousands, and thousands of thousands, the Lord has come" (Psalm 68:17). Romans 8:31 says, "If God be for us" - you probably know the rest - "who could be against us." You've been intimidated long enough, you've played defense long enough, you've shrunk back in fear long enough and let fear win. The Bible says, "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind." (2 Timothy 1:7)
The enemy isn't nearly as big as he'd like you to believe. You have in you the risen Christ who said, "all authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth" (Matthew 28:18). You have all the power of Jesus' blood and Jesus' name. Sure t
he devil keeps circling to make you think you're outnumbered, and you are, but this battle will be decided by the awesome forces of your Living God. And listen again, "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them."
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
1 Chronicles 20, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: TEAM UP
What if the missing ingredient for changing the world is teamwork? “When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action” (Matthew 18:19 MSG). This is an astounding promise!
The Jerusalem church found a way to work together. They found common ground in the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ. Because they did, lives were changed. As you and I work together, the same will happen. The congregation is a microcosm of God’s plan. No one can do everything, but everyone can do something. And when we do… “God’s great blessing was upon them all. There were no needy people among them” (Acts 4:33–34). Those who suffer belong to all of us. And if all of us respond, there is hope.
1 Chronicles 20
That spring, the time when kings usually go off to war, Joab led the army out and ravaged the Ammonites. He then set siege to Rabbah. David meanwhile was back in Jerusalem. Joab hit Rabbah hard and left it in ruins. David took the crown off the head of their king. Its weight was found to be a talent of gold and set with a precious stone. It was placed on David’s head. He hauled great quantities of loot from the city and put the people to hard labor with saws and picks and axes. This is what he did to all the Ammonites. Then David and his army returned to Jerusalem.
4-8 Later war broke out with the Philistines at Gezer. That was the time Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Sippai of the clan of giants. The Philistines had to eat crow. In another war with the Philistines, Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi, the brother of Goliath the Gittite whose spear was like a ship’s boom. And then there was the war at Gath that featured a hulking giant who had twenty-four fingers and toes, six on each hand and foot—yet another from the clan of giants. When he mocked Israel, Jonathan son of Shimea, David’s brother, killed him. These came from the clan of giants and were killed by David and his men.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Galatians 5:13–18
Life by the Spirit
13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free.h But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesha;i rather, serve one anotherj humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”b k 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit,l and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.m 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.n They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whateverc you want.o 18 But if you are led by the Spirit,p you are not under the law.q
Insight
Paul’s core element of a life lived in the Spirit is found in Galatians 5:14: “For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ” This is significant because the apostle was writing to a community of believers in Jesus who were being lured away from the grace of Christ and back into the law of Moses. So Paul was reminding the Galatians that the issue wasn’t maintaining the smallest details of the law, but embracing the law’s goal—“love your neighbor as yourself.” In focusing on this priority, the apostle was lining up with a consistent message in the Scriptures voiced by Jesus (Mark 12:31), Paul again in Romans 13:9, and James (James 2:8)—all quoting from Moses (Leviticus 19:18). The ethical challenge of life in Christ couldn’t be clearer.
For more on Galatians, see Knowing God through Galatians at discoveryseries.org/sb224. By: Bill Crowder
Walking with the Spirit
Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Galatians 5:16
Ten thousand hours. That’s how long author Malcolm Gladwell suggests it takes to become skillful at any craft. Even for the greatest artists and musicians of all time, their tremendous inborn talent wasn’t enough to achieve the level of expertise that they would eventually attain. They needed to immerse themselves in their craft every single day.
As strange as it might seem, we need a similar mentality when it comes to learning to live in the power of the Holy Spirit. In Galatians, Paul encourages the church to be set apart for God. But Paul explained that this couldn’t be achieved through merely obeying a set of rules. Instead we’re called to walk with the Holy Spirit. The Greek word that Paul uses for “walk” in Galatians 5:16 literally means to walk around and around something, or to journey (peripateo). So for Paul, walking with the Spirit meant journeying with the Spirit each day—it’s not just a one-time experience of His power.
May we pray to be filled with the Spirit daily—to yield to the Spirit’s work as He counsels, guides, comforts, and is simply there with us. And as we’re “led by the Spirit” in this way (v. 18), we become better and better at hearing His voice and following His leading. Holy Spirit, may I walk with You today, and every day! By: Chin Peter
Reflect & Pray
While being indwelt by the Holy Spirit when we receive salvation is a one-time event, how does this differ from being filled or walking with the Spirit? How have you been exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit?
Father, help me to experience the presence and leading of the Holy Spirit today, so that I might walk with You and live in a way that pleases You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Do You Walk In White?
We were buried with Him…that just as Christ was raised from the dead…even so we also should walk in newness of life. —Romans 6:4
No one experiences complete sanctification without going through a “white funeral” — the burial of the old life. If there has never been this crucial moment of change through death, sanctification will never be more than an elusive dream. There must be a “white funeral,” a death with only one resurrection— a resurrection into the life of Jesus Christ. Nothing can defeat a life like this. It has oneness with God for only one purpose— to be a witness for Him.
Have you really come to your last days? You have often come to them in your mind, but have you really experienced them? You cannot die or go to your funeral in a mood of excitement. Death means you stop being. You must agree with God and stop being the intensely striving kind of Christian you have been. We avoid the cemetery and continually refuse our own death. It will not happen by striving, but by yielding to death. It is dying— being “baptized into His death” (Romans 6:3).
Have you had your “white funeral,” or are you piously deceiving your own soul? Has there been a point in your life which you now mark as your last day? Is there a place in your life to which you go back in memory with humility and overwhelming gratitude, so that you can honestly proclaim, “Yes, it was then, at my ‘white funeral,’ that I made an agreement with God.”
“This is the will of God, your sanctification…” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). Once you truly realize this is God’s will, you will enter into the process of sanctification as a natural response. Are you willing to experience that “white funeral” now? Will you agree with Him that this is your last day on earth? The moment of agreement depends on you.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We all have the trick of saying—If only I were not where I am!—If only I had not got the kind of people I have to live with! If our faith or our religion does not help us in the conditions we are in, we have either a further struggle to go through, or we had better abandon that faith and religion. The Shadow of an Agony, 1178 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
The 3-Open Prayer - #8613
I was supposed to be speaking for an event at the Rosemont Horizon. It's this massive arena near Chicago's O'Hare Airport, and it's surrounded by a "spaghetti bowl" of expressway ramps. My driver was unfamiliar with the roads around the arena, so we spent an exciting few minutes circling the Horizon on one ramp after another. We just couldn't seem to find the ramp or the exit that went to the destination we wanted. It wasn't that we couldn't see the auditorium the whole time. Oh, I saw it plenty of times. It was just because we didn't know how to get into it!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The 3-Open Prayer."
"I want to get there. I just don't know how to get into it!" That's the cry of a lot of us who want to get to someone we care about with the message of Jesus. We understand the eternal urgency of getting there, but it's so hard to know how to get into it. Right?
Actually, there is a unique, Holy Spirit-directed approach for each individual life. But there are also some steps any believer can take in any situation. The starting point for any rescue conversation about Jesus is not talking to a person about God, but talking to God about that person. And the way to "get into" communicating Christ to someone may well be what I call the "3-open prayer." And I can't tell you how many people this has changed their life and changed their entire outlook on how they can share Jesus.
It's actually based on our word for today from the Word of God in Colossians 4:3-4. Paul says, "Pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ...Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should." Using this prayer as a launching pad for your own, you can pave the way for eternity-talk by daily asking God for three supernatural preparations; "Lord, open the door. Lord, open his/her heart. And Lord, open my mouth."
Okay, "Open the door." This is simply a natural opportunity to talk about your Jesus-relationship. The God who opened up the Red Sea for His children can surely engineer a natural, unforced opportunity for you to introduce Jesus into the conversation. Your open door will often arise from one of two sources: a common experience or something your lost friend is going through or talking about. God may open a door through something that happens in the news, or something that's happening in your family or their family, or a hurting time in their life or your life. For those who have eyes to see them, the world is full of opportunities to bring up life's most important relationship.
The second part of the 3-open prayer is asking God to "open their heart" to the Good News about Jesus. God has a lot of ways of answering that prayer; bringing events, or bringing other people and experiences into their lives that can make them surprisingly ready for someone who does what Jesus does for a person.
Finally, you pray, "Lord, open my mouth." See, "Lord, when You open the door, help me see the opportunity you're giving and help me open my mouth to talk about Jesus in the appropriate way." He will give you the words. He will give you the starting point. He will give you the tone. In fact, in Ephesians 6:19, Paul asked his friends to pray this, that "whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me." Great prayer, huh? You know, God's been doing that for His children for 2,000 years. He'll do it for you.
If you want to get into a lost person's life, and I pray you do because eternity's at stake here, try the ramp that's marked "The 3-Open Prayer": "Lord, open the door. Lord, open their heart. Lord, open my mouth." You don't have to pray, "Lord, if it is your will." It is. It's a prayer that God loves to answer! Just wait and see.
What if the missing ingredient for changing the world is teamwork? “When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action” (Matthew 18:19 MSG). This is an astounding promise!
The Jerusalem church found a way to work together. They found common ground in the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ. Because they did, lives were changed. As you and I work together, the same will happen. The congregation is a microcosm of God’s plan. No one can do everything, but everyone can do something. And when we do… “God’s great blessing was upon them all. There were no needy people among them” (Acts 4:33–34). Those who suffer belong to all of us. And if all of us respond, there is hope.
1 Chronicles 20
That spring, the time when kings usually go off to war, Joab led the army out and ravaged the Ammonites. He then set siege to Rabbah. David meanwhile was back in Jerusalem. Joab hit Rabbah hard and left it in ruins. David took the crown off the head of their king. Its weight was found to be a talent of gold and set with a precious stone. It was placed on David’s head. He hauled great quantities of loot from the city and put the people to hard labor with saws and picks and axes. This is what he did to all the Ammonites. Then David and his army returned to Jerusalem.
4-8 Later war broke out with the Philistines at Gezer. That was the time Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Sippai of the clan of giants. The Philistines had to eat crow. In another war with the Philistines, Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi, the brother of Goliath the Gittite whose spear was like a ship’s boom. And then there was the war at Gath that featured a hulking giant who had twenty-four fingers and toes, six on each hand and foot—yet another from the clan of giants. When he mocked Israel, Jonathan son of Shimea, David’s brother, killed him. These came from the clan of giants and were killed by David and his men.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Galatians 5:13–18
Life by the Spirit
13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free.h But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesha;i rather, serve one anotherj humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”b k 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit,l and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.m 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.n They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whateverc you want.o 18 But if you are led by the Spirit,p you are not under the law.q
Insight
Paul’s core element of a life lived in the Spirit is found in Galatians 5:14: “For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ” This is significant because the apostle was writing to a community of believers in Jesus who were being lured away from the grace of Christ and back into the law of Moses. So Paul was reminding the Galatians that the issue wasn’t maintaining the smallest details of the law, but embracing the law’s goal—“love your neighbor as yourself.” In focusing on this priority, the apostle was lining up with a consistent message in the Scriptures voiced by Jesus (Mark 12:31), Paul again in Romans 13:9, and James (James 2:8)—all quoting from Moses (Leviticus 19:18). The ethical challenge of life in Christ couldn’t be clearer.
For more on Galatians, see Knowing God through Galatians at discoveryseries.org/sb224. By: Bill Crowder
Walking with the Spirit
Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Galatians 5:16
Ten thousand hours. That’s how long author Malcolm Gladwell suggests it takes to become skillful at any craft. Even for the greatest artists and musicians of all time, their tremendous inborn talent wasn’t enough to achieve the level of expertise that they would eventually attain. They needed to immerse themselves in their craft every single day.
As strange as it might seem, we need a similar mentality when it comes to learning to live in the power of the Holy Spirit. In Galatians, Paul encourages the church to be set apart for God. But Paul explained that this couldn’t be achieved through merely obeying a set of rules. Instead we’re called to walk with the Holy Spirit. The Greek word that Paul uses for “walk” in Galatians 5:16 literally means to walk around and around something, or to journey (peripateo). So for Paul, walking with the Spirit meant journeying with the Spirit each day—it’s not just a one-time experience of His power.
May we pray to be filled with the Spirit daily—to yield to the Spirit’s work as He counsels, guides, comforts, and is simply there with us. And as we’re “led by the Spirit” in this way (v. 18), we become better and better at hearing His voice and following His leading. Holy Spirit, may I walk with You today, and every day! By: Chin Peter
Reflect & Pray
While being indwelt by the Holy Spirit when we receive salvation is a one-time event, how does this differ from being filled or walking with the Spirit? How have you been exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit?
Father, help me to experience the presence and leading of the Holy Spirit today, so that I might walk with You and live in a way that pleases You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Do You Walk In White?
We were buried with Him…that just as Christ was raised from the dead…even so we also should walk in newness of life. —Romans 6:4
No one experiences complete sanctification without going through a “white funeral” — the burial of the old life. If there has never been this crucial moment of change through death, sanctification will never be more than an elusive dream. There must be a “white funeral,” a death with only one resurrection— a resurrection into the life of Jesus Christ. Nothing can defeat a life like this. It has oneness with God for only one purpose— to be a witness for Him.
Have you really come to your last days? You have often come to them in your mind, but have you really experienced them? You cannot die or go to your funeral in a mood of excitement. Death means you stop being. You must agree with God and stop being the intensely striving kind of Christian you have been. We avoid the cemetery and continually refuse our own death. It will not happen by striving, but by yielding to death. It is dying— being “baptized into His death” (Romans 6:3).
Have you had your “white funeral,” or are you piously deceiving your own soul? Has there been a point in your life which you now mark as your last day? Is there a place in your life to which you go back in memory with humility and overwhelming gratitude, so that you can honestly proclaim, “Yes, it was then, at my ‘white funeral,’ that I made an agreement with God.”
“This is the will of God, your sanctification…” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). Once you truly realize this is God’s will, you will enter into the process of sanctification as a natural response. Are you willing to experience that “white funeral” now? Will you agree with Him that this is your last day on earth? The moment of agreement depends on you.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We all have the trick of saying—If only I were not where I am!—If only I had not got the kind of people I have to live with! If our faith or our religion does not help us in the conditions we are in, we have either a further struggle to go through, or we had better abandon that faith and religion. The Shadow of an Agony, 1178 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
The 3-Open Prayer - #8613
I was supposed to be speaking for an event at the Rosemont Horizon. It's this massive arena near Chicago's O'Hare Airport, and it's surrounded by a "spaghetti bowl" of expressway ramps. My driver was unfamiliar with the roads around the arena, so we spent an exciting few minutes circling the Horizon on one ramp after another. We just couldn't seem to find the ramp or the exit that went to the destination we wanted. It wasn't that we couldn't see the auditorium the whole time. Oh, I saw it plenty of times. It was just because we didn't know how to get into it!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The 3-Open Prayer."
"I want to get there. I just don't know how to get into it!" That's the cry of a lot of us who want to get to someone we care about with the message of Jesus. We understand the eternal urgency of getting there, but it's so hard to know how to get into it. Right?
Actually, there is a unique, Holy Spirit-directed approach for each individual life. But there are also some steps any believer can take in any situation. The starting point for any rescue conversation about Jesus is not talking to a person about God, but talking to God about that person. And the way to "get into" communicating Christ to someone may well be what I call the "3-open prayer." And I can't tell you how many people this has changed their life and changed their entire outlook on how they can share Jesus.
It's actually based on our word for today from the Word of God in Colossians 4:3-4. Paul says, "Pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ...Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should." Using this prayer as a launching pad for your own, you can pave the way for eternity-talk by daily asking God for three supernatural preparations; "Lord, open the door. Lord, open his/her heart. And Lord, open my mouth."
Okay, "Open the door." This is simply a natural opportunity to talk about your Jesus-relationship. The God who opened up the Red Sea for His children can surely engineer a natural, unforced opportunity for you to introduce Jesus into the conversation. Your open door will often arise from one of two sources: a common experience or something your lost friend is going through or talking about. God may open a door through something that happens in the news, or something that's happening in your family or their family, or a hurting time in their life or your life. For those who have eyes to see them, the world is full of opportunities to bring up life's most important relationship.
The second part of the 3-open prayer is asking God to "open their heart" to the Good News about Jesus. God has a lot of ways of answering that prayer; bringing events, or bringing other people and experiences into their lives that can make them surprisingly ready for someone who does what Jesus does for a person.
Finally, you pray, "Lord, open my mouth." See, "Lord, when You open the door, help me see the opportunity you're giving and help me open my mouth to talk about Jesus in the appropriate way." He will give you the words. He will give you the starting point. He will give you the tone. In fact, in Ephesians 6:19, Paul asked his friends to pray this, that "whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me." Great prayer, huh? You know, God's been doing that for His children for 2,000 years. He'll do it for you.
If you want to get into a lost person's life, and I pray you do because eternity's at stake here, try the ramp that's marked "The 3-Open Prayer": "Lord, open the door. Lord, open their heart. Lord, open my mouth." You don't have to pray, "Lord, if it is your will." It is. It's a prayer that God loves to answer! Just wait and see.
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
1 Corinthians 13, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: THE BODY OF CHRIST
None of us can do what all of us can do. Remember Jesus’ commission to his disciples? You (speaking to all of you collectively) will be my witnesses (Acts 1:8). Jesus didn’t issue individual assignments. He works in community.
“Jesus is the head of the body, which is the church” (Colossians 1:18). I am not his body; you are not his body. We—together—are his body. But this body has been known to misbehave. The brain discounts the heart. Academics discount worshippers. The hands criticize the knees. People of action criticize people of prayer. It is a clear case of mutiny on the body. We cannot say, “I have no need of you.” Cooperation is more than a good idea; it is a command. Unity matters to God. May it matter to us.
1 Corinthians 13
If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
2 If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.
3-7 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
8-10 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
11 When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
12 We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
13 But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 90:4, 12–15
A thousand years in your sight
are like a day that has just gone by,
or like a watch in the night.
Psalm 90:12–15
Teach us to number our days,o
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.p
13 Relent, Lord! How longq will it be?
Have compassion on your servants.r
14 Satisfys us in the morning with your unfailing love,t
that we may sing for joyu and be glad all our days.v
15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
for as many years as we have seen trouble.
Insight
We shouldn’t be surprised to see the name of Moses in the superscription of Psalm 90. The broadly gifted Moses wasn’t only a law-giving prophet; he was also a poet. Though just one of his songs appears in the collection of the Psalms, the Bible features other lyrical compositions by him. He likely wrote Exodus 15, which chronicles God’s mighty rescue of the Israelites from Egypt. At the end of his life, Moses penned the song recorded in Deuteronomy 32, which is introduced with these words: “And Moses recited the words of this song from beginning to end in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel” (31:30). Psalm 90:1—“Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations”—echoes Deuteronomy 33:27: “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”
By: Arthur Jackson
Slowing Down Time
Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Psalm 90:12
A lot has changed since the electric clock was invented in the 1840s. We now keep time on smart watches, smart phones, and laptops. The entire pace of life seems faster—with even our “leisurely” walking speeding up. This is especially true in cities and can have a negative effect on health, scholars say. “We’re just moving faster and faster and getting back to people as quickly as we can,” Professor Richard Wiseman observed. “That’s driving us to think everything has to happen now.”
Moses, the writer of one of the oldest of the Bible’s psalms, reflected on time. He reminds us that God controls life’s pace. “A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night,” he wrote (Psalm 90:4).
The secret to time management, therefore, isn’t to go faster or slower. It’s to abide in God, spending more time with Him. Then we get in step with each other, but first with Him—the One who formed us (139:13) and knows our purpose and plans (v. 16).
Our time on earth won’t last forever. Yet we can manage it wisely, not by watching the clock, but by giving each day to God. As Moses said, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (90:12). Then, with God we’ll always be on time, now and forever. By: Patricia Raybon
Reflect & Pray
What’s your pace in life? How could you spend more time with God, getting in step with Him?
Gracious God, when we fall out of step with You, draw us closer to abide in You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Called By God
I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me." —Isaiah 6:8
God did not direct His call to Isaiah— Isaiah overheard God saying, “…who will go for Us?” The call of God is not just for a select few but for everyone. Whether I hear God’s call or not depends on the condition of my ears, and exactly what I hear depends upon my spiritual attitude. “Many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). That is, few prove that they are the chosen ones. The chosen ones are those who have come into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ and have had their spiritual condition changed and their ears opened. Then they hear “the voice of the Lord” continually asking, “…who will go for Us?” However, God doesn’t single out someone and say, “Now, you go.” He did not force His will on Isaiah. Isaiah was in the presence of God, and he overheard the call. His response, performed in complete freedom, could only be to say, “Here am I! Send me.”
Remove the thought from your mind of expecting God to come to force you or to plead with you. When our Lord called His disciples, He did it without irresistible pressure from the outside. The quiet, yet passionate, insistence of His “Follow Me” was spoken to men whose every sense was receptive (Matthew 4:19). If we will allow the Holy Spirit to bring us face to face with God, we too will hear what Isaiah heard— “the voice of the Lord.” In perfect freedom we too will say, “Here am I! Send me.”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is perilously possible to make our conceptions of God like molten lead poured into a specially designed mould, and when it is cold and hard we fling it at the heads of the religious people who don’t agree with us.
Disciples Indeed
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
The Royal Switch - #8612
Tom thought he had the perfect hiding place. In fact, he told me about it the other day. Actually, Tom isn't his real name, but the incident really happened about 20 years ago when he was a teenager. He was raised in a Christian family; he was a nice Christian boy - except for some of his reading material. Yeah, and this was before the Internet, and he got into buying "Playboy" and some other similar magazines. And he hid them where he was sure no one would ever find them - in his old, unused ice box where no one ever went. Well, one day, Tom went to get his dirty magazines and they were gone. But that wasn't the worst part. There was a Bible where the magazines had been! He knew it had to be his Dad. There was never a word spoken about it, but there were no more magazines after that. Great switch, huh?
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Royal Switch."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Corinthians 10:4-5. "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." "Strongholds?" Those are those well-established sinful ways of thinking-about the opposite sex, about suicide, about our relationship with someone who's hurt us, about lust, or depression. Maybe it's bitterness or self-pity. Well, God says there is power in Christ to "take captive every thought" and make it obey Jesus! But until you can master the source of your sin, your wrong thoughts and attitudes, that sin's going to continue to master you. But how can you beat the sinful thoughts that have always beaten you? Well, the royal switch.
David asks in Psalm 119:9, "How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to Your Word." Then in verse 11, he reveals the secret of living by God's Word instead of by his polluted thoughts. "I have hidden Your Word in my heart that I might not sin against You."
Learn a lesson from my friend Tom's very wise father. Where there has been dirt, put the Word of God. That Dad didn't just remove what was dirty, he replaced it with the Bible. That's what it's going to take for you to win the battle to make your thoughts obey Jesus. We're talking about a two-step strategy here for your thought-life victory.
First, take out the garbage thoughts and don't collect anymore. That means consciously turning your eyes away, turning the channel, don't go there, don't click on that, avoid those negative conversations, cancel your subscription, dump that music that turns your heart the wrong way.
But taking out the garbage isn't enough. The second step is to put the Bible where the dirt has been. That means giving your heart and mind a daily Bible-bath, dwelling on what you read in God's Word, journaling what God says to you each day through His Word, using what you read in practical ways that day. And there is simply no substitute for memorizing words from God. Maybe you make it part of your personality and you have it there when the pressure comes.
In the words of D. L. Moody, the great evangelist, "When you think sin, think Scripture!" He also said, "Either sin will keep you from this Book or this Book will
keep you from sin."
You have a weapon that can tear down a stronghold of sin and tame the most sinful of thoughts. "I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You." Put God's Word in the same hiding place where you've been hiding the sin He died to free you from.
None of us can do what all of us can do. Remember Jesus’ commission to his disciples? You (speaking to all of you collectively) will be my witnesses (Acts 1:8). Jesus didn’t issue individual assignments. He works in community.
“Jesus is the head of the body, which is the church” (Colossians 1:18). I am not his body; you are not his body. We—together—are his body. But this body has been known to misbehave. The brain discounts the heart. Academics discount worshippers. The hands criticize the knees. People of action criticize people of prayer. It is a clear case of mutiny on the body. We cannot say, “I have no need of you.” Cooperation is more than a good idea; it is a command. Unity matters to God. May it matter to us.
1 Corinthians 13
If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
2 If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.
3-7 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
8-10 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
11 When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
12 We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
13 But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 90:4, 12–15
A thousand years in your sight
are like a day that has just gone by,
or like a watch in the night.
Psalm 90:12–15
Teach us to number our days,o
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.p
13 Relent, Lord! How longq will it be?
Have compassion on your servants.r
14 Satisfys us in the morning with your unfailing love,t
that we may sing for joyu and be glad all our days.v
15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
for as many years as we have seen trouble.
Insight
We shouldn’t be surprised to see the name of Moses in the superscription of Psalm 90. The broadly gifted Moses wasn’t only a law-giving prophet; he was also a poet. Though just one of his songs appears in the collection of the Psalms, the Bible features other lyrical compositions by him. He likely wrote Exodus 15, which chronicles God’s mighty rescue of the Israelites from Egypt. At the end of his life, Moses penned the song recorded in Deuteronomy 32, which is introduced with these words: “And Moses recited the words of this song from beginning to end in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel” (31:30). Psalm 90:1—“Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations”—echoes Deuteronomy 33:27: “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”
By: Arthur Jackson
Slowing Down Time
Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Psalm 90:12
A lot has changed since the electric clock was invented in the 1840s. We now keep time on smart watches, smart phones, and laptops. The entire pace of life seems faster—with even our “leisurely” walking speeding up. This is especially true in cities and can have a negative effect on health, scholars say. “We’re just moving faster and faster and getting back to people as quickly as we can,” Professor Richard Wiseman observed. “That’s driving us to think everything has to happen now.”
Moses, the writer of one of the oldest of the Bible’s psalms, reflected on time. He reminds us that God controls life’s pace. “A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night,” he wrote (Psalm 90:4).
The secret to time management, therefore, isn’t to go faster or slower. It’s to abide in God, spending more time with Him. Then we get in step with each other, but first with Him—the One who formed us (139:13) and knows our purpose and plans (v. 16).
Our time on earth won’t last forever. Yet we can manage it wisely, not by watching the clock, but by giving each day to God. As Moses said, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (90:12). Then, with God we’ll always be on time, now and forever. By: Patricia Raybon
Reflect & Pray
What’s your pace in life? How could you spend more time with God, getting in step with Him?
Gracious God, when we fall out of step with You, draw us closer to abide in You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Called By God
I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me." —Isaiah 6:8
God did not direct His call to Isaiah— Isaiah overheard God saying, “…who will go for Us?” The call of God is not just for a select few but for everyone. Whether I hear God’s call or not depends on the condition of my ears, and exactly what I hear depends upon my spiritual attitude. “Many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). That is, few prove that they are the chosen ones. The chosen ones are those who have come into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ and have had their spiritual condition changed and their ears opened. Then they hear “the voice of the Lord” continually asking, “…who will go for Us?” However, God doesn’t single out someone and say, “Now, you go.” He did not force His will on Isaiah. Isaiah was in the presence of God, and he overheard the call. His response, performed in complete freedom, could only be to say, “Here am I! Send me.”
Remove the thought from your mind of expecting God to come to force you or to plead with you. When our Lord called His disciples, He did it without irresistible pressure from the outside. The quiet, yet passionate, insistence of His “Follow Me” was spoken to men whose every sense was receptive (Matthew 4:19). If we will allow the Holy Spirit to bring us face to face with God, we too will hear what Isaiah heard— “the voice of the Lord.” In perfect freedom we too will say, “Here am I! Send me.”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is perilously possible to make our conceptions of God like molten lead poured into a specially designed mould, and when it is cold and hard we fling it at the heads of the religious people who don’t agree with us.
Disciples Indeed
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
The Royal Switch - #8612
Tom thought he had the perfect hiding place. In fact, he told me about it the other day. Actually, Tom isn't his real name, but the incident really happened about 20 years ago when he was a teenager. He was raised in a Christian family; he was a nice Christian boy - except for some of his reading material. Yeah, and this was before the Internet, and he got into buying "Playboy" and some other similar magazines. And he hid them where he was sure no one would ever find them - in his old, unused ice box where no one ever went. Well, one day, Tom went to get his dirty magazines and they were gone. But that wasn't the worst part. There was a Bible where the magazines had been! He knew it had to be his Dad. There was never a word spoken about it, but there were no more magazines after that. Great switch, huh?
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Royal Switch."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Corinthians 10:4-5. "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." "Strongholds?" Those are those well-established sinful ways of thinking-about the opposite sex, about suicide, about our relationship with someone who's hurt us, about lust, or depression. Maybe it's bitterness or self-pity. Well, God says there is power in Christ to "take captive every thought" and make it obey Jesus! But until you can master the source of your sin, your wrong thoughts and attitudes, that sin's going to continue to master you. But how can you beat the sinful thoughts that have always beaten you? Well, the royal switch.
David asks in Psalm 119:9, "How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to Your Word." Then in verse 11, he reveals the secret of living by God's Word instead of by his polluted thoughts. "I have hidden Your Word in my heart that I might not sin against You."
Learn a lesson from my friend Tom's very wise father. Where there has been dirt, put the Word of God. That Dad didn't just remove what was dirty, he replaced it with the Bible. That's what it's going to take for you to win the battle to make your thoughts obey Jesus. We're talking about a two-step strategy here for your thought-life victory.
First, take out the garbage thoughts and don't collect anymore. That means consciously turning your eyes away, turning the channel, don't go there, don't click on that, avoid those negative conversations, cancel your subscription, dump that music that turns your heart the wrong way.
But taking out the garbage isn't enough. The second step is to put the Bible where the dirt has been. That means giving your heart and mind a daily Bible-bath, dwelling on what you read in God's Word, journaling what God says to you each day through His Word, using what you read in practical ways that day. And there is simply no substitute for memorizing words from God. Maybe you make it part of your personality and you have it there when the pressure comes.
In the words of D. L. Moody, the great evangelist, "When you think sin, think Scripture!" He also said, "Either sin will keep you from this Book or this Book will
keep you from sin."
You have a weapon that can tear down a stronghold of sin and tame the most sinful of thoughts. "I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You." Put God's Word in the same hiding place where you've been hiding the sin He died to free you from.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)