Ezra 8 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: GOD HAS NOT LEFT YOU ADRIFT

“Spiritual life comes from the Spirit” (John 3:6). Your parents may have given you genes, but God gives you grace. Your parents may be responsible for your body, but God has taken charge of your soul. You may get your looks from your mother, but you get your eternal life from your Father, your heavenly Father.

God is willing to give you what your family didn’t. Didn’t have a good dad? God will be your Father. The Scripture says, “Through God you are a son; and, if you are a son, then you are certainly an heir” (Galatians 4:7). Didn’t have a good role model? Try God. God has not left you adrift on a sea of heredity. The past does not have to be your prison. You have a say in your life. You have a choice in the path you take. Choose well…choose God.

Ezra 8

 These are the family heads and those who signed up to go up with me from Babylon in the reign of Artaxerxes the king:

From the family of Phinehas: Gershom

Family of Ithamar: Daniel

Family of David: Hattush

Family of Shecaniah

Family of Parosh: Zechariah, and with him 150 men signed up

Family of Pahath-Moab: Eliehoenai son of Zerahiah, and 200 men

Family of Zattu: Shecaniah son of Jahaziel, and 300 men

Family of Adin: Ebed son of Jonathan, and 50 men

Family of Elam: Jeshaiah son of Athaliah, and 70 men

Family of Shephatiah: Zebadiah son of Michael, and 80 men

Family of Joab: Obadiah son of Jehiel, and 218 men

Family of Bani: Shelomith son of Josiphiah, and 160 men

Family of Bebai: Zechariah son of Bebai, and 28 men

Family of Azgad: Johanan son of Hakkatan, and 110 men

Family of Adonikam (bringing up the rear): their names were Eliphelet, Jeuel, Shemaiah, and 60 men

Family of Bigvai: Uthai and Zaccur, and 70 men.

15-17 I gathered them together at the canal that runs to Ahava. We camped there three days. I looked them over and found that they were all laymen and priests but no Levites. So I sent for the leaders Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah, and Meshullam, and for the teachers Joiarib and Elnathan. I then sent them to Iddo, who is head of the town of Casiphia, and told them what to say to Iddo and his relatives who lived there in Casiphia: “Send us ministers for The Temple of God.”

18-20 Well, the generous hand of our God was on us, and they brought back to us a wise man from the family of Mahli son of Levi, the son of Israel. His name was Sherebiah. With sons and brothers they numbered eighteen. They also brought Hashabiah and Jeshaiah of the family of Merari, with brothers and their sons, another twenty. And then there were 220 temple servants, descendants of the temple servants that David and the princes had assigned to help the Levites in their work. They were all signed up by name.

21-22 I proclaimed a fast there beside the Ahava Canal, a fast to humble ourselves before our God and pray for wise guidance for our journey—all our people and possessions. I was embarrassed to ask the king for a cavalry bodyguard to protect us from bandits on the road. We had just told the king, “Our God lovingly looks after all those who seek him, but turns away in disgust from those who leave him.”

23 So we fasted and prayed about these concerns. And he listened.

24-27 Then I picked twelve of the leading priests—Sherebiah and Hashabiah with ten of their brothers. I weighed out for them the silver, the gold, the vessels, and the offerings for The Temple of our God that the king, his advisors, and all the Israelites had given:

25 tons of silver

100 vessels of silver valued at three and three-quarter tons of gold

20 gold bowls weighing eighteen and a half pounds

2 vessels of bright red copper, as valuable as gold.

28-29 I said to them, “You are holy to God and these vessels are holy. The silver and gold are Freewill-Offerings to the God of your ancestors. Guard them with your lives until you’re able to weigh them out in a secure place in The Temple of our God for the priests and Levites and family heads who are in charge in Jerusalem.”

30 The priests and Levites took charge of all that had been weighed out to them, and prepared to deliver it to Jerusalem to The Temple of our God.

31 We left the Ahava Canal on the twelfth day of the first month to travel to Jerusalem. God was with us all the way and kept us safe from bandits and highwaymen.

32-34 We arrived in Jerusalem and waited there three days. On the fourth day the silver and gold and vessels were weighed out in The Temple of our God into the hands of Meremoth son of Uriah, the priest. Eleazar son of Phinehas was there with him, also the Levites Jozabad son of Jeshua and Noadiah son of Binnui. Everything was counted and weighed and the totals recorded.

35 When they arrived, the exiles, now returned from captivity, offered Whole-Burnt-Offerings to the God of Israel:

12 bulls, representing all Israel

96 rams

77 lambs

12 he-goats as an Absolution-Offering.

All of this was sacrificed as a Whole-Burnt-Offering to God.

36 They also delivered the king’s orders to the king’s provincial administration assigned to the land beyond the Euphrates. They, in turn, gave their support to the people and The Temple of God.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Friday, March 26, 2021

Read: Isaiah 35

Joy of the Redeemed

The desert and the parched land will be glad;
    the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.
Like the crocus, 2 it will burst into bloom;
    it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
    the splendor of Carmel and Sharon;
they will see the glory of the Lord,
    the splendor of our God.

3 Strengthen the feeble hands,
    steady the knees that give way;
4 say to those with fearful hearts,
    “Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
    he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
    he will come to save you.”

5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
    and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
6 Then will the lame leap like a deer,
    and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
    and streams in the desert.
7 The burning sand will become a pool,
    the thirsty ground bubbling springs.
In the haunts where jackals once lay,
    grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.

8 And a highway will be there;
    it will be called the Way of Holiness;
    it will be for those who walk on that Way.
The unclean will not journey on it;
    wicked fools will not go about on it.
9 No lion will be there,
    nor any ravenous beast;
    they will not be found there.
But only the redeemed will walk there,
10     and those the Lord has rescued will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
    everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
    and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

INSIGHT
When we think of words like joy, gladness, and singing, the book of Psalms comes to mind. However, what we see in Isaiah 35—and the book as a whole—enables us to see that labeling Isaiah as the “prophet of praise” isn’t far-fetched. Isaiah 12, which includes two “songs of praise,” is another case in point. The prophet’s worship-leading words include exhortations to “Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things” (v. 5) and “Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you” (v. 6).

Slum Songs -By Sheridan Voysey

They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Isaiah 35:10

Cateura is a small slum in Paraguay, South America. Desperately poor, its villagers survive by recycling items from its rubbish dump. But from these unpromising conditions something beautiful has emerged—an orchestra.

With a violin costing more than a house in Cateura, the orchestra had to get creative, crafting its own instruments from their garbage supply. Violins are made from oil cans with bent forks as tailpieces. Saxophones have come from drainpipes with bottle tops for keys. Cellos are made from tin drums with gnocchi rollers for tuning pegs. Hearing Mozart played on these contraptions is a beautiful thing. The orchestra has gone on tour in many countries, lifting the sights of its young members.

Violins from landfills. Music from slums. That’s symbolic of what God does. For when the prophet Isaiah envisions God’s new creation, a similar picture of beauty-from-poverty emerges, with barren lands bursting into blooming flowers (Isaiah 35:1–2), deserts flowing with streams (vv. 6–7), castaway war tools crafted into garden instruments (2:4), and impoverished people becoming whole to the sounds of joyful songs (35:5–6, 10).

“The world sends us garbage,” Cateura’s orchestra director says. “We send back music.” And as they do, they give the world a glimpse of the future, when God will wipe away the tears of every eye and poverty will be no more.

How have you seen God turn the “garbage” of your life into something beautiful? How might He wish to bring “music” out of your pain?

Holy Spirit, turn the poverty in my life into something beautiful.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, March 26, 2021
Spiritual Vision Through Personal Purity

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. —Matthew 5:8

Purity is not innocence— it is much more than that. Purity is the result of continued spiritual harmony with God. We have to grow in purity. Our life with God may be right and our inner purity unblemished, yet occasionally our outer life may become spotted and stained. God intentionally does not protect us from this possibility, because this is the way we recognize the necessity of maintaining our spiritual vision through personal purity. If the outer level of our spiritual life with God is impaired to the slightest degree, we must put everything else aside until we make it right. Remember that spiritual vision depends on our character— it is “the pure in heart” who “see God.”

God makes us pure by an act of His sovereign grace, but we still have something that we must carefully watch. It is through our bodily life coming in contact with other people and other points of view that we tend to become tarnished. Not only must our “inner sanctuary” be kept right with God, but also the “outer courts” must be brought into perfect harmony with the purity God gives us through His grace. Our spiritual vision and understanding is immediately blurred when our “outer court” is stained. If we want to maintain personal intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ, it will mean refusing to do or even think certain things. And some things that are acceptable for others will become unacceptable for us.

A practical help in keeping your personal purity unblemished in your relations with other people is to begin to see them as God does. Say to yourself, “That man or that woman is perfect in Christ Jesus! That friend or that relative is perfect in Christ Jesus!”

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We can understand the attributes of God in other ways, but we can only understand the Father’s heart in the Cross of Christ.  The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption, 558 L

Bible in a Year: Joshua 22-24; Luke 3

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, March 26, 2021
Disconnected - the Pandemic Toll - #8925

I've never been in a major earthquake. Well, I mean, except for the pandemic. Seems like it's shaken just about everyone and everything. One thing earthquakes do, they reveal the buildings that weren't built strong enough to stand the shock. Just like floods reveal the weaknesses in a levee or a dam. Or a flood wall that wasn't built high enough.

This pandemic thing's gone on so long that there are cracks starting to show. In marriages. In families. In churches. In our mental or physical health. Researcher George Barna released a disturbing report on the damage COVID has done to our human connections. He said that over half of U.S. adults say they're struggling with at least one relational or emotional/mental health issue. Something that impacts their most important relationships: anxiety, depression, loneliness. Always hard, just harder in recent months.

Many times the quake or storm doesn't necessarily cause the damage. It exposes it. That weak spot, that conflict, that hidden pain has probably been there for a while. Unacknowledged. Unaddressed. Until everything starts shaking. Suddenly, that crack becomes a gaping - even dangerous - hole. Things that have been lurking in the dark suddenly can't be hidden any longer.

Ticking time bombs like ungrieved grief. Unresolved conflict. Unforgiven hurts. Unconfronted sin. Things we've stuffed rather than deal with. Hidden, thinking no one will know. Denied, hoping it will go away. One thing they all have in common - a fear of facing inconvenient truth and a reluctance to change. Strangely, like fictional vampires, brokenness grows and thrives in the dark.

But I find a hopeful prescription in an oft-quoted statement by Jesus: "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32). Not "the truth will hurt you more" or "ruin your life." Facing the truth will set you free from the chronic pain and shame of avoiding the truth.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Disconnected - the Pandemic Toll."

All the pandemic shaking has made our broken places harder to hide. Like the damage our anger and searing words do. The dark passions we've entertained. The wounds we've inflicted. The scars we hide. The bitterness we've harbored. The walls we've built. I may not like the truth an x-ray or CAT scan or blood test reveals. But it's the first step to healing.

I've been confronted by some liberating words from the Bible. It begins with "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." So it says, "If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another (horizontal healing), and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin (vertical healing)" (1 John 1:5, 7).

I got to thinking. The things that cause brokenness in our relationships are often things we harbor in the dark. The wounds that cause us to hurt others or ourselves; they ultimately overwhelm us. Those are hurts that we've kept stuffed in the closet. And the reason we feel far from God, just when we need Him most, might be sin-secrets that we conceal in the dark.

But restoring a relationship - with each other or with our Creator - begins when we drag our junk out of the closet and "into the light." Where there is "no darkness at all." The "vampire" of my buried darkness starts to shrivel in the light when I get the long-avoided issues out in the open. Listen, if a pandemic has revealed a crack, a hole, a wound, a need, then this curse could turn out to bring a blessing, letting the light into the darkness that has crippled us for so long. And there, just outside the dark closet, stands Jesus wanting to walk through all that brokenness with you. He knows about broken. He was for you on a cross.

Listen, you want more information about this relationship with Him, go to our website ANewStory.com. Because the Bible says, "He took up our pain and the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him."

And then I love this last part, "And by His wounds we are healed" (Isaiah 53:4-5).

Revelation 15 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: WHITE FLAG OF THE HEART

Maybe your past isn’t much to brag about. So do you rise above the past and make a difference? Or do you remain controlled by the past and make excuses? Many choose the latter. Lean closely and you will hear them say, “If only…” If only I’d been born somewhere else… If only I’d been treated fairly…  If only: the white flag of the heart.

Maybe you have every right to use those words. For you to find an ancestor worth imitating you’d have to flip way back in your family album. If that’s the case, let me show you were to turn. Put down the scrapbook and pick up your Bible. Go to John’s gospel and read Jesus’ words: Human life comes from human parents, but spiritual life comes from the Spirit” (John 3:6). God is willing to give you what your family did not.

Revelation 15

The Song of Moses, the Song of the Lamb

 I saw another Sign in Heaven, huge and breathtaking: seven Angels with seven disasters. These are the final disasters, the wrap-up of God’s wrath.

2-4 I saw something like a sea made of glass, the glass all shot through with fire. Carrying harps of God, triumphant over the Beast, its image, and the number of its name, the saved ones stood on the sea of glass. They sang the Song of Moses, servant of God; they sang the Song of the Lamb:

Mighty your acts and marvelous,
    O God, the Sovereign-Strong!
Righteous your ways and true,
    King of the nations!
Who can fail to fear you, God,
    give glory to your Name?
Because you and you only are holy,
    all nations will come and worship you,
    because they see your judgments are right.

5-8 Then I saw the doors of the Temple, the Tent of Witness in Heaven, open wide. The Seven Angels carrying the seven disasters came out of the Temple. They were dressed in clean, bright linen and wore gold vests. One of the Four Animals handed the Seven Angels seven gold bowls, brimming with the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever. Smoke from God’s glory and power poured out of the Temple. No one was permitted to enter the Temple until the seven disasters of the Seven Angels were finished.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Thursday, March 25, 2021
Read: John 10:1–10

The Good Shepherd and His Sheep

“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.

7 Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.[a] They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

INSIGHT
At the time of Jesus, shepherds kept their flocks in two kinds of sheepfolds. In the villages, flocks were kept in stone-walled, gated, communal sheep-pens, guarded by gatekeepers (John 10:1–5). Out in the fields, sheepfolds were often makeshift enclosures made of stones, tree trunks, and branches, with the shepherd sleeping across a narrow opening in front. Twice, Jesus says He’s “the gate” for the sheep (vv. 7, 9). A “gate” or “door” (esv) symbolizes both protection and provision. The gate reminds us there’s an entrance and an exit: “Whoever enters through me will be saved” (v. 9). The Good Shepherd protects His sheep in a safe, secure place: “They will come in and go out, and find pasture” (v. 9; see Psalm 23:4). The Good Shepherd leads His sheep out to “green pastures . . . beside quiet waters” (Psalm 23:2).

Know His Voice-By Julie Schwab

I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me. John 10:14

One year for vacation Bible school, Ken’s church decided to bring in live animals to illustrate the Scripture. When he arrived to help, Ken was asked to bring a sheep inside. He had to practically drag the wooly animal by a rope into the church gymnasium. But as the week went on, it became less reluctant to follow him. By the end of the week, Ken didn’t have to hold the rope anymore; he just called the sheep and it followed, knowing it could trust him.

In the New Testament, Jesus compares Himself to a shepherd, stating that His people, the sheep, will follow Him because they know His voice (John 10:4). But those same sheep will run from a stranger or thief (v. 5). Like sheep, we (God’s children) get to know the voice of our Shepherd through our relationship with Him. And as we do, we see His character and learn to trust Him.

As we grow to know and love God, we’ll be discerning of His voice and better able to run from the “the thief [who] comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (v. 10)—from those who try to deceive and draw us away from Him. Unlike those false teachers, we can trust the voice of our Shepherd to lead us to safety.

What’s one thing you’ve learned about God’s character through reading Scripture? How did that impact you? What will help you to discern God’s voice?

Heavenly Father, thank You for being my loving Shepherd. Help me to recognize and follow Your voice only.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, March 25, 2021
Maintaining the Proper Relationship

…the friend of the bridegroom… —John 3:29

Goodness and purity should never be traits that draw attention to themselves, but should simply be magnets that draw people to Jesus Christ. If my holiness is not drawing others to Him, it is not the right kind of holiness; it is only an influence which awakens undue emotions and evil desires in people and diverts them from heading in the right direction. A person who is a beautiful saint can be a hindrance in leading people to the Lord by presenting only what Christ has done for him, instead of presenting Jesus Christ Himself. Others will be left with this thought— “What a fine person that man is!” That is not being a true “friend of the bridegroom”— I am increasing all the time; He is not.

To maintain this friendship and faithfulness to the Bridegroom, we have to be more careful to have the moral and vital relationship to Him above everything else, including obedience. Sometimes there is nothing to obey and our only task is to maintain a vital connection with Jesus Christ, seeing that nothing interferes with it. Only occasionally is it a matter of obedience. At those times when a crisis arises, we have to find out what God’s will is. Yet most of our life is not spent in trying to be consciously obedient, but in maintaining this relationship— being the “friend of the bridegroom.” Christian work can actually be a means of diverting a person’s focus away from Jesus Christ. Instead of being friends “of the bridegroom,” we may become amateur providences of God to someone else, working against Him while we use His weapons.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

Re-state to yourself what you believe, then do away with as much of it as possible, and get back to the bedrock of the Cross of Christ.  My Utmost for His Highest, November 25, 848 R

Bible in a Year: Joshua 19-21; Luke 2:25-52

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, March 25, 2021
Security Checks for Families - #8924

In recent years, commercial flying, of course, has become more of an adventure. You've got closer scrutiny just going through airline security. They x-ray, they wand you, they search passengers, they do more hand searches of your bag, they check for explosive residues, and they confiscate lots of things: knives, fingernail files, tools, box cutters (I hope, yeah), clippers. And not many passengers object really. I mean, we know if we want to avoid tragedy, you cannot let anyone or anything that could do something damaging aboard. Yeah, I'm for it.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Security Checks for Families."

Families need to follow a similar security procedure. No, not making everyone go through a metal detector or a wand search before they come in the house. I mean each member of your family needs to be sure that they don't bring anything into the life of your family that cause damage or tragedy. And there are things we each can bring into our home that hurt. We just have to stop letting them in.

Ephesians 5, beginning with verse 21, our word for today from the Word of God, suggests four ways a family member can make things crash at your house. And no matter what your role in your family, there's something for you in these verses. The basic principle of a family that works is this: "Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ." In other words, a family works when each person is doing his or her part to put the other people first. With that in mind, let's look at four people who can sabotage a family. See which one applies to you.

For the husband, this "submitting to one another" goes like this: "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, to make her holy...and to present her to Himself as a radiant church." God's kind of husband is daily sacrificing his self-interest for his wife's best, and as a result, helping her become more radiant than she's ever been before. You can tell a woman who's married to a man who makes her feel special like that. So, the first person who can sabotage a happy family is a selfish husband. If you're a husband, don't bring that kind of "bomb" on board.

If you're a wife, it's supposed to look like this: "Wives, submit to your husband as to the Lord." So, God's kind of wife is loyal, supportive, respecting her husband's God-given responsibility as leader of the home. So the second person who can sabotage a family is a defiant wife.

All right, let's move on to a son or daughter. "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." God goes on to promise unique blessings to a child who respects Him by obeying his parents. Saboteur #3 - a rebellious child.

And if you're a parent, "Fathers, do not exasperate your children. Instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord." You can exasperate your child with crushing expectations, or hypocritical living, or if you just give them a lot of criticism, not much encouragement. So, a frustrating parent can also bring damage to what otherwise could have been a great flight.

A selfish husband, a defiant wife, a rebellious child, a frustrating parent: they each bring things onto a family's flight that can bring it down. But we each can do our part to make our home a safe place to be, where people are built up, not torn down. We each have a position to play to bring love, encouragement and respect to the other members of our family whether they're doing it or not. Be sure you're not bringing things aboard that can hijack your family's health and your family's happiness.

Esther 10, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: RESURRECTION POWER

Faith is trusting what the eye cannot see! Eyes see storms; faith sees Noah’s rainbow. Your eyes see your faults; your faith sees your Savior. Your eyes see your guilt; your faith sees his cleansing blood. Your eyes look in the mirror and see a sinner, a failure. But by faith you look in the mirror and see a robed prodigal bearing the ring of grace on your finger and the kiss of your Father on your face.

“God’s power is very great for those who believe,” Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:19-20. “That power is the same as the great strength God used to raise Christ from the dead!” So the next time you wonder if God can forgive you, read that verse again.  The power that raised Christ from the grave is the power that resurrects hope in our hearts.


Esther 10

 King Xerxes imposed taxes from one end of his empire to the other. For the rest of it, King Xerxes’ extensive accomplishments, along with a detailed account of the brilliance of Mordecai, whom the king had promoted, that’s all written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Media and Persia.

3 Mordecai the Jew ranked second in command to King Xerxes. He was popular among the Jews and greatly respected by them. He worked hard for the good of his people; he cared for the peace and prosperity of his race.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Wednesday, March 24, 2021
Read: 1 Corinthians 3:5–9

 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. 9 For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.

INSIGHT
First Corinthians 3:9 says we’re “co-workers in God’s service.” Later in this book, Paul develops further the idea that believers are complementary co-workers. We may have “different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them” (12:4). Whatever our gifts, God is the gift-giver. And these different gifts lead to “different kinds of service,” which are offered to “the same Lord” (v. 5). Whatever services we may perform, they all serve the same God. Through the variety of “different kinds of working . . . in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work” (v. 6). We’re all working for the same team, and we’re all powered by the same leader of that team—God Himself. In this sense, we’re not only each other’s co-workers, we’re God’s co-workers too (3:9).

Something Much Bigger-By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
We are co-workers in God’s service. 1 Corinthians 3:9

More than two hundred volunteers assisted October Books, a bookstore in Southampton, England, move its inventory to an address down the street. Helpers lined the sidewalk and passed books down a “human conveyor belt.” Having witnessed the volunteers in action, a store employee said, “It was . . . a really moving experience to see people [helping]. . . . They wanted to be part of something bigger.”

We can also be part of something much bigger than ourselves. God uses us to reach the world with the message of His love. Because someone shared the message with us, we can turn to another person and pass it on. Paul compared this—the building of God’s kingdom—to growing a garden. Some of us plant seeds while some of us water the seeds. We are, as Paul said, “co-workers in God’s service” (1 Corinthians 3:9).

Each job is important, yet all are done in the power of God’s Spirit. By His Spirit, God enables people to thrive spiritually when they hear that He loves them and sent His Son to die in their place so that they can be free from their sin (John 3:16).

God does much of His work on earth through “volunteers” like you and me. Although we’re part of a community that’s much bigger than any contribution we may make, we can help it grow by working together to share His love with the world.

Do you see yourself as a part of God’s plan or as someone who works alone in your service for Him? How does this affect the way in which you serve Him and others?

Dear God, thank You for including me in Your plan to tell everyone about Your love. Help me to represent You well with my words and actions.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, March 24, 2021
Decreasing for His Purpose

He must increase, but I must decrease. —John 3:30

If you become a necessity to someone else’s life, you are out of God’s will. As a servant, your primary responsibility is to be a “friend of the bridegroom” (John 3:29). When you see a person who is close to grasping the claims of Jesus Christ, you know that your influence has been used in the right direction. And when you begin to see that person in the middle of a difficult and painful struggle, don’t try to prevent it, but pray that his difficulty will grow even ten times stronger, until no power on earth or in hell could hold him away from Jesus Christ. Over and over again, we try to be amateur providences in someone’s life. We are indeed amateurs, coming in and actually preventing God’s will and saying, “This person should not have to experience this difficulty.” Instead of being friends of the Bridegroom, our sympathy gets in the way. One day that person will say to us, “You are a thief; you stole my desire to follow Jesus, and because of you I lost sight of Him.”

Beware of rejoicing with someone over the wrong thing, but always look to rejoice over the right thing. “…the friend of the bridegroom…rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:29-30). This was spoken with joy, not with sadness— at last they were to see the Bridegroom! And John said this was his joy. It represents a stepping aside, an absolute removal of the servant, never to be thought of again.

Listen intently with your entire being until you hear the Bridegroom’s voice in the life of another person. And never give any thought to what devastation, difficulties, or sickness it will bring. Just rejoice with godly excitement that His voice has been heard. You may often have to watch Jesus Christ wreck a life before He saves it (see Matthew 10:34).

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

Bible in a Year: Joshua 16-18; Luke 2:1-24

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, March 24, 2021
The Storm Can't Stop the Deliveries - #8923

Well, mail service has changed a lot during my lifetime. Certainly the cost of sending a letter has gone up, and up, and up, and up. I don't know, it's probably quadrupled or quintupled or even maybe more in my lifetime. In case any of my grandkids are listening, I don't mean beginning with the Pony Express. No. But, you know, there are new services that are added. I remember when they added overnight delivery they didn't used to have. But I'll tell you what. One thing hasn't changed. Listen, the postal service, they have a big job and they struggle sometimes. But you know what? Those mail carriers still do their best to keep their commitment not to be stopped by sleet, or snow, or dark of night. Remember that's the motto? That the old saying, "Nothing keeps us from our appointed rounds." Actually, you know, they've been pretty faithful getting stuff to me. And other than holidays, pretty much the mail usually makes it no matter what the conditions were. I'm impressed with that kind of commitment, not just from mail delivery.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Storm Can't Stop the Deliveries."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Timothy 4:1. Here's what it says: "In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of His appearing and His kingdom, I give you this charge." Okay, you can tell Paul is really serious here. I mean, he's bringing all this heavyweight stuff to bear on what he's going to say. This is in front of God. This is in front of Christ. This is in view of the fact He's coming back. This is about His whole kingdom. Whatever he's going to say, it's going to be important, huh?

We go to verse 2: "Preach the Word. Be prepared in season and out of season." Paul musters all of this sobering, heavy artillery to drive home this message, "Keep presenting God's Word no matter what kind of season it is." Another translation puts it this way, "Be diligent when it is convenient and when it is inconvenient."

Here's the principle: Your ministry is too important to be at the mercy of your moods. You have a forever mission of representing Jesus Christ, serving Him in whatever the setting He has assigned you. In fact, you can assume that your situation wherever you are right now is your assignment. So, be consistent. Always deliver. If a storm doesn't stop a mail carrier... look, he doesn't look out the window and say, "Oh, looks bad today. I think I'll deliver some other day." Then it should not keep someone who delivers the love and the hope of Christ from doing what they are assigned to do.

No, you've got to come through on this. Too many Christians base their work and their witness on how their emotional weather is that today. But the Bible says we've got to consistently represent Christ in season, out of season, in convenience, and out of convenience.

I shouldn't deny my feelings, but I shouldn't base my spiritual consistency, my spiritual performance on what kind of mood I'm in right now. Honestly pour out your deepest feelings and your darkest feelings to a Christ who won't be surprised by them, but who can really minister to them. Then go after that day as your assignment from God. Go after it with all your heart. Show the difference that Christ makes when life is dark.

See, everything seems to work when your life is going well, no matter what you believe. The test of any belief is going to be what happens when things are really going down hill, what happens on the dark days. Your darkest of days is when yo

u have the best opportunity to show the light of Christ and the difference He makes in the dark. You can't go off duty then. You've got to demonstrate consistency when the moods are down and the darkness is there.

Every day, by my words, by my life, by my attitude I am delivering the message of Christ. I can't let the darkness stop me. Ministry can't be at the mercy of my moods, and that storm cannot stop the deliveries.
 

Esther 9, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

 Max Lucado Daily: GOD WILL DO WHAT IS RIGHT

If you’re rehashing the same hurt every chance you get with anyone who will listen, I have a question: why are you doing God’s work for him? “Vengeance is mine,” God declared. “I will repay” (Hebrews 10:30). To assume otherwise is to assume God can’t do it. When we strike back we are saying, “I know vengeance is yours, God, but I just didn’t think you’d punish enough. I thought I’d better take this situation into my own hands.”

May I restate the obvious? If vengeance is God’s, then it is not ours. God has not asked us to settle the score or get even. Ever. Forgiveness is not saying the one who hurt you was right. Forgiveness is stating that God is fair and he will do what is right. After all, don’t we have enough things to do without trying to do God’s work too?


Esther 9

On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, the king’s order came into effect. This was the very day that the enemies of the Jews had planned to overpower them, but the tables were now turned: the Jews overpowered those who hated them! The Jews had gathered in the cities throughout King Xerxes’ provinces to lay hands on those who were seeking their ruin. Not one man was able to stand up against them—fear made cowards of them all. What’s more, all the government officials, satraps, governors—everyone who worked for the king—actually helped the Jews because of Mordecai; they were afraid of him. Mordecai by now was a power in the palace. As Mordecai became more and more powerful, his reputation had grown in all the provinces.

5-9 So the Jews finished off all their enemies with the sword, slaughtering them right and left, and did as they pleased to those who hated them. In the palace complex of Susa the Jews massacred five hundred men. They also killed the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the archenemy of the Jews:

Parshandatha    Dalphon
Aspatha    Poratha
Adalia    Aridatha
Parmashta    Arisai
Aridai    Vaizatha
10-12 But they took no plunder. That day, when it was all over, the number of those killed in the palace complex was given to the king. The king told Queen Esther, “In the palace complex alone here in Susa the Jews have killed five hundred men, plus Haman’s ten sons. Think of the killing that must have been done in the rest of the provinces! What else do you want? Name it and it’s yours. Your wish is my command.”

13 “If it please the king,” Queen Esther responded, “give the Jews of Susa permission to extend the terms of the order another day. And have the bodies of Haman’s ten sons hanged in public display on the gallows.”

14 The king commanded it: The order was extended; the bodies of Haman’s ten sons were publicly hanged.

15 The Jews in Susa went at it again. On the fourteenth day of Adar they killed another three hundred men in Susa. But again they took no plunder.

16-19 Meanwhile in the rest of the king’s provinces, the Jews had organized and defended themselves, freeing themselves from oppression. On the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, they killed seventy-five thousand of those who hated them but did not take any plunder. The next day, the fourteenth, they took it easy and celebrated with much food and laughter. But in Susa, since the Jews had banded together on both the thirteenth and fourteenth days, they made the fifteenth their holiday for laughing and feasting. (This accounts for why Jews living out in the country in the rural villages remember the fourteenth day of Adar for celebration, their day for parties and the exchange of gifts.)

* * *

20-22 Mordecai wrote all this down and sent copies to all the Jews in all King Xerxes’ provinces, regardless of distance, calling for an annual celebration on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of Adar as the occasion when Jews got relief from their enemies, the month in which their sorrow turned to joy, mourning somersaulted into a holiday for parties and fun and laughter, the sending and receiving of presents and of giving gifts to the poor.

23 And they did it. What started then became a tradition, continuing the practice of what Mordecai had written to them.

* * *

24-26 Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the archenemy of all Jews, had schemed to destroy all Jews. He had cast the pur (the lot) to throw them into a panic and destroy them. But when Queen Esther intervened with the king, he gave written orders that the evil scheme that Haman had worked out should boomerang back on his own head. He and his sons were hanged on the gallows. That’s why these days are called “Purim,” from the word pur or “lot.”

26-28 Therefore, because of everything written in this letter and because of all that they had been through, the Jews agreed to continue. It became a tradition for them, their children, and all future converts to remember these two days every year on the specified dates set down in the letter. These days are to be remembered and kept by every single generation, every last family, every province and city. These days of Purim must never be neglected among the Jews; the memory of them must never die out among their descendants.

29-32 Queen Esther, the daughter of Abihail, backed Mordecai the Jew, using her full queenly authority in this second Purim letter to endorse and ratify what he wrote. Calming and reassuring letters went out to all the Jews throughout the 127 provinces of Xerxes’ kingdom to fix these days of Purim their assigned place on the calendar, dates set by Mordecai the Jew—what they had agreed to for themselves and their descendants regarding their fasting and mourning. Esther’s word confirmed the tradition of Purim and was written in the book.

* * *

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Tuesday, March 23, 2021
Read: Ecclesiastes 2:17–26

Toil Is Meaningless
17 So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. 18 I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. 19 And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. 20 So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. 21 For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. 22 What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? 23 All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.

24 A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, 25 for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? 26 To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

INSIGHT
Ecclesiastes, penned by the “Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem” (1:1, 12), seeks to answer life’s greatest mystery. How can one live a meaningful and purposeful life? Trapped between birth and death (3:2), he explores area after area of life, all that humanity can pursue—intellectual pursuits, knowledge, pleasures, happiness, accomplishments, material possessions, work (chs. 1–3)—to show that a life without God—life “under the sun”—is “meaningless, a chasing after the wind” (1:14). In chapter 2, he discusses human labor, concluding that work without God is pointless, joyless, worrisome, insufferable, miserable, and grievous (vv. 17–26).

The Reason to Rest -By Kirsten Holmberg

What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? Ecclesiastes 2:22

If you want to live longer, take a vacation! Forty years after a study of middle-aged, male executives who each had a risk of heart disease, researchers in Helsinki, Finland, followed up with their study participants. The scientists discovered something they hadn’t been looking for in their original findings: the death rate was lower among those who had taken time off for vacations.

Work is a necessary part of life—a part God appointed to us even before our relationship with Him was fractured in Genesis 3. Solomon wrote of the seeming meaninglessness of work experienced by those not working for God’s honor—recognizing its “anxious striving” and “grief and pain” (Ecclesiastes 2:22–23). Even when they’re not actively working, he says their “minds do not rest” because they’re thinking about what still needs to be done (v. 23).

We too might at times feel like we’re “chasing after the wind” (v. 17) and grow frustrated by our inability to “finish” our work. But when we remember that God is part of our labor—our purpose—we can both work hard and take time to rest. We can trust Him to be our Provider, for He’s the giver of all things. Solomon acknowledges that “without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?” (v. 25). Perhaps by reminding ourselves of that truth, we can work diligently for Him (Colossians 3:23) and also allow ourselves times of rest.

How can you invite God into your labors? How might you allow Him to be your satisfaction even when your work isn’t “finished”?

God, You bring meaning and purpose to all my labors.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Am I Carnally Minded?

Where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal…? —1 Corinthians 3:3

The natural man, or unbeliever, knows nothing about carnality. The desires of the flesh warring against the Spirit, and the Spirit warring against the flesh, which began at rebirth, are what produce carnality and the awareness of it. But Paul said, “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). In other words, carnality will disappear.

Are you quarrelsome and easily upset over small things? Do you think that no one who is a Christian is ever like that? Paul said they are, and he connected these attitudes with carnality. Is there a truth in the Bible that instantly awakens a spirit of malice or resentment in you? If so, that is proof that you are still carnal. If the process of sanctification is continuing in your life, there will be no trace of that kind of spirit remaining.

If the Spirit of God detects anything in you that is wrong, He doesn’t ask you to make it right; He only asks you to accept the light of truth, and then He will make it right. A child of the light will confess sin instantly and stand completely open before God. But a child of the darkness will say, “Oh, I can explain that.” When the light shines and the Spirit brings conviction of sin, be a child of the light. Confess your wrongdoing, and God will deal with it. If, however, you try to vindicate yourself, you prove yourself to be a child of the darkness.

What is the proof that carnality has gone? Never deceive yourself; when carnality is gone you will know it— it is the most real thing you can imagine. And God will see to it that you have a number of opportunities to prove to yourself the miracle of His grace. The proof is in a very practical test. You will find yourself saying, “If this had happened before, I would have had the spirit of resentment!” And you will never cease to be the most amazed person on earth at what God has done for you on the inside.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

To read the Bible according to God’s providential order in your circumstances is the only way to read it, viz., in the blood and passion of personal life. Disciples Indeed, 387 R

Bible in a Year: Joshua 13-15; Luke 1:57-80

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, March 23, 2021
Ill from Overeating - #8922

Well, you know, I've had the opportunity to be close to folks who own several horses. And "City Boy" learns a lot about our equine friend. For example, I now understand that old cliché, "eating like a horse." They really do, in fact, to the point of overeating sometimes. Which, as I understand, it can lead to a painful and even deadly condition called foundering. I looked up "founder" in the dictionary and when it comes to horses, it's defined as "to become ill from overeating." Again, as "City Boy" understands it, when a horse eats too much grain or hay or grass, it can have painful gas build up inside. One way you can tell they're foundering is if they become lethargic, just kind of lying on the ground a lot. In its worst case, foundering can actually be fatal. The horse owner's job at a time like that is to just walk and walk with the horse, making sure it gets exercise. To neglect foundering can actually cost a horse's life.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Ill from Overeating."

If that's what foundering is, then God has plenty of His people who are foundering. They're ill from overeating spiritually. You can tell because they're spiritually lethargic; going to all the meetings, filling up on all the teachings and fellowship, believing all the beliefs but not doing much with what they've been learning all these years. They're in effect, overfed and under exercised. And as they lie down in the pasture, they're not really enjoying their faith much. To be honest, maybe you've been foundering lately.

God talks about people who are all settled down in their comfy pasture in our word for today from the Word of God in Amos 6:1. He says, "Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria." For us, "Zion" and "Mount Samaria" are whatever our secure little spiritual nest is: our church, our ministry, our Christianity. But God says if you belong to Him and you're lethargic and complacent, you're in trouble!

In fact, just a few verses earlier, God says how unimpressed He is by all their religiosity. "I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring Me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them...Away with the noise of your songs" (Amos 5:21-23). God says, "I'm tired of you just going through the motions. I'm tired of you playing church. I want to see you living what you profess...getting out and doing something for Me, not just coming to My meetings!"

Maybe you've been pretty much, well let's call it a spiritual consumer; just kind of stuffing yourself with more teaching, more fellowship, more meetings, more blessing. But all of that is meant to be fuel for you to be actively making a difference for your Lord. If you just keep eating spiritually and not getting any spiritual exercise, you're foundering! Knowing it without doing it is dangerous. Knowing it without sharing it is dangerous.

If your Christian life is mostly passive right now, it's no wonder you're spiritually bored and you're living in a false security that everything is OK. It's not. You're foundering...you're ill from overeating and under exercising. But today could be your day to get up, get busy, and start experiencing what it is to run in God's pasture, not just graze in God's pasture!

Revelation 14 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

 
Max Lucado Daily: THE SONG HE LONGS TO HEAR

In his later years Beethoven spent hours playing a broken harpsichord. The instrument was worthless. Keys were missing, strings stretched. It was out of tune, harsh on the ears. Nonetheless, the great pianist would play till tears came down his cheeks. You’d think he was hearing the sublime, and he was. He was deaf. Beethoven was hearing the sound the instrument should make, not the one it did make.

Maybe you feel like Beethoven’s harpsichord. Out of tune, inadequate. Your service ill-timed, insignificant. Ever wonder what God does when the instrument is broken? How does the Master respond when the keys don’t work? Does he demand a replacement? Or does he patiently tune until he hears the song he longs to hear? I want you to know that the Master Musician fixes what we can’t and hears music when we don’t. And he loves to hear the music that comes from your life.

Revelation 14

A Perfect Offering

I saw—it took my breath away!—the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, 144,000 standing there with him, his Name and the Name of his Father inscribed on their foreheads. And I heard a voice out of Heaven, the sound like rapids, like the crash of thunder.

2-5 And then I heard music, harp music and the harpists singing a new song before the Throne and the Four Animals and the Elders. Only the 144,000 could learn to sing the song. They were bought from earth, lived without compromise, virgin-fresh before God. Wherever the Lamb went, they followed. They were bought from humankind, firstfruits of the harvest for God and the Lamb. Not a false word in their mouths. A perfect offering.

Voices from Heaven
6-7 I saw another Angel soaring in Middle-Heaven. He had an Eternal Message to preach to all who were still on earth, every nation and tribe, every tongue and people. He preached in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory! His hour of judgment has come! Worship the Maker of Heaven and earth, salt sea and fresh water!”

8 A second Angel followed, calling out, “Ruined, ruined, Great Babylon ruined! She made all the nations drunk on the wine of her whoring!”

9-11 A third Angel followed, shouting, warning, “If anyone worships the Beast and its image and takes the mark on forehead or hand, that person will drink the wine of God’s wrath, prepared unmixed in his chalice of anger, and suffer torment from fire and brimstone in the presence of Holy Angels, in the presence of the Lamb. Smoke from their torment will rise age after age. No respite for those who worship the Beast and its image, who take the mark of its name.”

12 Meanwhile, the saints stand passionately patient, keeping God’s commands, staying faithful to Jesus.

13 I heard a voice out of Heaven, “Write this: Blessed are those who die in the Master from now on; how blessed to die that way!”

“Yes,” says the Spirit, “and blessed rest from their hard, hard work. None of what they’ve done is wasted; God blesses them for it all in the end.”

Harvest Time
14-16 I looked up, I caught my breath!—a white cloud and one like the Son of Man sitting on it. He wore a gold crown and held a sharp sickle. Another Angel came out of the Temple, shouting to the Cloud-Enthroned, “Swing your sickle and reap. It’s harvest time. Earth’s harvest is ripe for reaping.” The Cloud-Enthroned gave a mighty sweep of his sickle, began harvesting earth in a stroke.

17-18 Then another Angel came out of the Temple in Heaven. He also had a sharp sickle. Yet another Angel, the one in charge of tending the fire, came from the Altar. He thundered to the Angel who held the sharp sickle, “Swing your sharp sickle. Harvest earth’s vineyard. The grapes are bursting with ripeness.”

19-20 The Angel swung his sickle, harvested earth’s vintage, and heaved it into the winepress, the giant winepress of God’s wrath. The winepress was outside the City. As the vintage was trodden, blood poured from the winepress as high as a horse’s bridle, a river of blood for two hundred miles.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Monday, March 22, 2021
Read: Psalm 119:97–105

? Mem

Oh, how I love your law!
    I meditate on it all day long.
98 Your commands are always with me
    and make me wiser than my enemies.
99 I have more insight than all my teachers,
    for I meditate on your statutes.
100 I have more understanding than the elders,
    for I obey your precepts.
101 I have kept my feet from every evil path
    so that I might obey your word.
102 I have not departed from your laws,
    for you yourself have taught me.
103 How sweet are your words to my taste,
    sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104 I gain understanding from your precepts;
    therefore I hate every wrong path.

? Nun
105 Your word is a lamp for my feet,
    a light on my path.

INSIGHT
In the ancient Near East, lamps were made of clay bowls designed to support a wick and hold oil. Because oil could easily spill, the lamps were generally only used either indoors or in spaces of complete darkness such as a cave, where not even moonlight could be seen. Nighttime could be a particularly dangerous time in those days (Psalm 91:5), making a lamp a particularly powerful metaphor for hope and safety in what would otherwise be a desperately dangerous situation. Similar to Psalm 119:105’s comparison of Scripture to the illuminating guidance of a lamp, Psalm 18:28 praises God by saying, “You, Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.”

Sweeter than Honey -By Amy Boucher Pye

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Psalm 119:103

On Chicago Day in October 1893, the city’s theaters shut down because the owners figured everyone would be attending the World’s Fair. Over seven hundred thousand people went, but Dwight Moody (1837–1899) wanted to fill a music hall at the other end of Chicago with preaching and teaching. His friend R. A. Torrey (1856–1928) was skeptical that Moody could draw a crowd on the same day as the fair. But by God’s grace, he did. As Torrey later concluded, the crowds came because Moody knew “the one Book that this old world most longs to know—the Bible.” Torrey longed for others to love the Bible as Moody did, reading it regularly with dedication and passion.

God through His Spirit brought people back to Himself at the end of the nineteenth century in Chicago, and He continues to speak today. We can echo the psalmist’s love for God and His Scriptures as he exclaims, “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalm 119:103). For the psalmist, God’s messages of grace and truth acted as a light for his path, a lamp for his feet (v. 105).

How can you grow more in love with the Savior and His message? As we immerse ourselves in Scripture, God will increase our devotion to Him and guide us, shining His light along the paths we walk.

In what ways does your life change when you read the Bible regularly? How could you ensure you don’t lose this practice in the busyness of your daily life?

Gracious God, You’ve given me the gift of Scripture. Help me to read it and digest it, that I might serve You faithfully.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, March 22, 2021
The Burning Heart

Did not our heart burn within us…? —Luke 24:32

We need to learn this secret of the burning heart. Suddenly Jesus appears to us, fires are set ablaze, and we are given wonderful visions; but then we must learn to maintain the secret of the burning heart— a heart that can go through anything. It is the simple, dreary day, with its commonplace duties and people, that smothers the burning heart— unless we have learned the secret of abiding in Jesus.

Much of the distress we experience as Christians comes not as the result of sin, but because we are ignorant of the laws of our own nature. For instance, the only test we should use to determine whether or not to allow a particular emotion to run its course in our lives is to examine what the final outcome of that emotion will be. Think it through to its logical conclusion, and if the outcome is something that God would condemn, put a stop to it immediately. But if it is an emotion that has been kindled by the Spirit of God and you don’t allow it to have its way in your life, it will cause a reaction on a lower level than God intended. That is the way unrealistic and overly emotional people are made. And the higher the emotion, the deeper the level of corruption, if it is not exercised on its intended level. If the Spirit of God has stirred you, make as many of your decisions as possible irrevocable, and let the consequences be what they will. We cannot stay forever on the “mount of transfiguration,” basking in the light of our mountaintop experience (see Mark 9:1-9). But we must obey the light we received there; we must put it into action. When God gives us a vision, we must transact business with Him at that point, no matter what the cost.

We cannot kindle when we will
The fire which in the heart resides,
The spirit bloweth and is still,
In mystery our soul abides;
But tasks in hours of insight willed
Can be through hours of gloom fulfilled.

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, 395 L

Bible in a Year: Joshua 10-12; Luke 1:39-56

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, March 22, 2021


God's Strange But Wonderful Recipes - #8921

It was one of my wife's favorite recipes. She served it to our RHM Team at one time. I always smiled when she served what she called "Javanese dinner" because I knew what was going to happen. She'd tell the guests what's in the dinner and she'd instruct them to go through the line and pile the ingredients on in the order that they're served. And several guests are going to look at one another as if to say, "You've got to be kidding." The ingredients could include rice, chicken, celery, coconut, pineapple, noodles, onions, cheese and a hot broth poured over the whole thing. (Look, let me just quickly say, don't ask me to send the recipe. I don't do recipes. I just eat them. OK, I can't send you a recipe.) Now listen, there was often some skepticism about this menu. They couldn't understand how that would all go together. Then the guests would go through the line, they would risk it and they loved it. I saw the person who had the most doubts about what all those ingredients would be like when you put them all together. I saw them going back for seconds and thirds.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "God's Strange But Wonderful Recipes."

When you look at the separate ingredients in my wife's sure-to-please recipe, it might leave you with some doubts. But when all those ingredients got put together, that was a great experience. Sounds a lot like the recipes of God for your life and mine. I can't tell you the number of times when I've looked at some of the ingredients that God had mixed into my life and I wondered why some of them were on my table. Until the time He put them all together, and it was delicious.

One of the most leaned-on verses in the Bible actually promises that kind of outcome. It's Romans 8:28. It's our word for today from the Word of God. As familiar as this verse may be to you, would you let it be God's light to help illuminate what you're going through right now for this situation. The Bible says, "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." All things, including those ingredients you don't like, you don't understand.

Ephesians 1:11 tells us that our lives are unfolding "according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will." Everything! So "why?" is probably the wrong question to ask about what's happening. Why don't you try this one. "How can God use this?"

At any given point in time, you can look at your situation and say with all confidence, "What I see isn't what I get." Because with God, there's always something bigger going on than what you can see. The ways of God include a variety of people and tools that ultimately bring about His loving plan for you. His divine recipe for you includes some breakthroughs and some battles; some trials and som

e triumphs; some victories and some defeats; and a few things that seem unbearable or unexplainable. They're part of the plan. Nothing comes into your life as a child of God without Him either sending it or allowing it, because it will contribute to His plans for you. Plans which He guarantees are "to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29:11).

If you don't belong to Jesus Christ, you're in the Bible's words, "lost." You're missing the plan you were put here for because you're missing the God who put you here. But Jesus died to bring you back to Him. When you give yourself to Jesus, you get a personal relationship with God - you get the meaning you were made for.

Listen, if you want to begin that relationship and know you belong to him from this day on, go to our website. It's ANewStory.com, to help you begin a new story; the one that was written for you by God long ago.

And if you know you're His child through Jesus, don't walk by the recipe God is laying out on the table of your life because you don't like some of the ingredients. Take what He serves you, do what He tells you, and when He finally puts all the ingredients together, you're going to love what He's been making for you! So, trust the Cook - and trust His recipe!

Esther 8, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: So Many Hurts

If hurts were hairs-we'd all look like grizzlies! So many hurts. When teachers ignore your work, their neglect hurts. When your girlfriend drops you, when your husband abandons you, when the company fires you, it hurts.  Rejection always hurts.
People bring pain. Sometimes deliberately. Sometimes randomly. So where do you turn?  Hitman.com?  Jim Beam and friends?  Pity Party Catering Service?  Retaliation has its appeal, but Jesus has a better idea! Grace is not blind. It sees the hurt full well. But Grace chooses to see God's forgiveness even more. Hebrews 12:15 urges us, "See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many."
Where grace is lacking, bitterness abounds. Where grace abounds, forgiveness grows. Forgiveness may not happen all at once. But it can happen with you.
From GRACE

Esther 8

That same day King Xerxes gave Queen Esther the estate of Haman, archenemy of the Jews. And Mordecai came before the king because Esther had explained their relationship. The king took off his signet ring, which he had taken back from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. Esther appointed Mordecai over Haman’s estate.

3-6 Then Esther again spoke to the king, falling at his feet, begging with tears to counter the evil of Haman the Agagite and revoke the plan that he had plotted against the Jews. The king extended his gold scepter to Esther. She got to her feet and stood before the king. She said, “If it please the king and he regards me with favor and thinks this is right, and if he has any affection for me at all, let an order be written that cancels the bulletins authorizing the plan of Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite to annihilate the Jews in all the king’s provinces. How can I stand to see this catastrophe wipe out my people? How can I bear to stand by and watch the massacre of my own relatives?”

7-8 King Xerxes said to Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew: “I’ve given Haman’s estate to Esther and he’s been hanged on the gallows because he attacked the Jews. So go ahead now and write whatever you decide on behalf of the Jews; then seal it with the signet ring.” (An order written in the king’s name and sealed with his signet ring is irrevocable.)

9 So the king’s secretaries were brought in on the twenty-third day of the third month, the month of Sivan, and the order regarding the Jews was written word for word as Mordecai dictated and was addressed to the satraps, governors, and officials of the provinces from India to Ethiopia, 127 provinces in all, to each province in its own script and each people in their own language, including the Jews in their script and language.

10 He wrote under the name of King Xerxes and sealed the order with the royal signet ring; he sent out the bulletins by couriers on horseback, riding the fastest royal steeds bred from the royal stud.

11-13 The king’s order authorized the Jews in every city to arm and defend themselves to the death, killing anyone who threatened them or their women and children, and confiscating for themselves anything owned by their enemies. The day set for this in all King Xerxes’ provinces was the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar. The order was posted in public places in each province so everyone could read it, authorizing the Jews to be prepared on that day to avenge themselves on their enemies.

14 The couriers, fired up by the king’s order, raced off on their royal horses. At the same time, the order was posted in the palace complex of Susa.

15-17 Mordecai walked out of the king’s presence wearing a royal robe of violet and white, a huge gold crown, and a purple cape of fine linen. The city of Susa exploded with joy. For Jews it was all good times and laughter: they celebrated, they were honored. It was that way all over the country, in every province, every city when the king’s bulletin was posted: the Jews took to the streets in celebration, cheering, and feasting. Not only that, but many non-Jews became Jews—now it was dangerous not to be a Jew!

* * *

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Sunday, March 21, 2021
Read: Matthew 27:50–54

And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split 52 and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53 They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and[a] went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

54 When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”

INSIGHT
Matthew records three events and their aftereffects that occurred at the moment of Jesus’ death (Matthew 27:51–53). First, the temple curtain that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place was torn from top to bottom. Many theologians have written that this symbolized God removing the barrier that separated people from His presence (only the high priest was allowed to enter the Most Holy Place, and only once a year with a blood sacrifice). Second, there was an earthquake. This caused rocks to split and tombs to open. An earthquake was a fitting response of creation to the death of its Creator. Finally, after Jesus’ resurrection, the dead from the open tombs were brought back to life and entered the city—another fitting result. When the Giver of life defeated death, the power that raised Him spread to others who had died.

God at Work - By Arthur Jackson
Surely he was the Son of God! Matthew 27:54

“God is crying.” Those were the words whispered by Bill Haley’s ten-year-old daughter as she stood in the rain with a group of multiethnic believers in Jesus. They had come to Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley to seek God and make sense of the legacy of racial discord in America. As they stood on the grounds where former slaves were buried, they joined hands in prayer. Then suddenly the wind began to blow, and it started to rain. As the leader called out for racial healing, the rain began to fall even harder. Those gathered believed that God was at work to bring reconciliation and forgiveness.

And so was it at Calvary—God was at work. After the crucified Jesus breathed His last, “The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open” (Matthew 27:51–52). Though some had denied who Jesus was, a centurion assigned to guard Him had come to a different conclusion: “When the centurion and those with him . . . saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, ‘Surely he was the Son of God!’ ” (v. 54).

In the death of Jesus, God was at work providing forgiveness of sin for all who believe in Him. “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19). And what better way to demonstrate that we’ve been forgiven by God than to extend forgiveness to each other.

In what ways have you shared the forgiveness you’ve received from God with others, even those who are different from you? If you haven’t received forgiveness from God through the death of Jesus, what’s keeping you from doing so today?

Father, thank You for loving the world so much that You sent Jesus so I can be forgiven. Help me to demonstrate forgiveness toward others by the way I live.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, March 21, 2021
Identified or Simply Interested?

I have been crucified with Christ… —Galatians 2:20

The inescapable spiritual need each of us has is the need to sign the death certificate of our sin nature. I must take my emotional opinions and intellectual beliefs and be willing to turn them into a moral verdict against the nature of sin; that is, against any claim I have to my right to myself. Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ….” He did not say, “I have made a determination to imitate Jesus Christ,” or, “I will really make an effort to follow Him” —but— “I have been identified with Him in His death.” Once I reach this moral decision and act on it, all that Christ accomplished for me on the Cross is accomplished in me. My unrestrained commitment of myself to God gives the Holy Spirit the opportunity to grant to me the holiness of Jesus Christ.

“…it is no longer I who live….” My individuality remains, but my primary motivation for living and the nature that rules me are radically changed. I have the same human body, but the old satanic right to myself has been destroyed.

“…and the life which I now live in the flesh,” not the life which I long to live or even pray that I live, but the life I now live in my mortal flesh— the life which others can see, “I live by faith in the Son of God….” This faith was not Paul’s own faith in Jesus Christ, but the faith the Son of God had given to him (see Ephesians 2:8). It is no longer a faith in faith, but a faith that transcends all imaginable limits— a faith that comes only from the Son of God.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

The attitude of a Christian towards the providential order in which he is placed is to recognize that God is behind it for purposes of His own.  Biblical Ethics, 99 R

Bible in a Year: Joshua 7-9; Luke 1:21-38

Esther 7, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Enough of This Frenzy

Attempts at "self-salvation" guarantee nothing but exhaustion. We scamper and scurry, trying to please God, collecting merit badges and brownie points, scowling at anyone who questions our accomplishments.  The result?  The weariest people on earth.  We so fear failure that we create the image of perfection.  Call us the church of hound-dog faces and slumped shoulders. Stop it!  Once and for all, enough of this frenzy!
Hebrews 13:9 says, "Your hearts should be strengthened by God's grace, not by obeying rules."  In Matthew 11:28 Jesus promises, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest."
There is no fine print. A second shoe isn't going to drop. God's promise has no hidden language. Let grace happen. You have His unending affection. Stretch yourself out in the hammock of grace. You can rest now!
From GRACE

Esther 7

So the king and Haman went to dinner with Queen Esther. At this second dinner, while they were drinking wine the king again asked, “Queen Esther, what would you like? Half of my kingdom! Just ask and it’s yours.”

3 Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor in your eyes, O King, and if it please the king, give me my life, and give my people their lives.

4 “We’ve been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed—sold to be massacred, eliminated. If we had just been sold off into slavery, I wouldn’t even have brought it up; our troubles wouldn’t have been worth bothering the king over.”

5 King Xerxes exploded, “Who? Where is he? This is monstrous!”

6 “An enemy. An adversary. This evil Haman,” said Esther.

Haman was terror-stricken before the king and queen.

7-8 The king, raging, left his wine and stomped out into the palace garden.

Haman stood there pleading with Queen Esther for his life—he could see that the king was finished with him and that he was doomed. As the king came back from the palace garden into the banquet hall, Haman was groveling at the couch on which Esther reclined. The king roared out, “Will he even molest the queen while I’m just around the corner?”

When that word left the king’s mouth, all the blood drained from Haman’s face.

9 Harbona, one of the eunuchs attending the king, spoke up: “Look over there! There’s the gallows that Haman had built for Mordecai, who saved the king’s life. It’s right next to Haman’s house—seventy-five feet high!”

The king said, “Hang him on it!”

10 So Haman was hanged on the very gallows that he had built for Mordecai. And the king’s hot anger cooled.

* * *

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Saturday, March 20, 2021
Read: Luke 10:38–42

At the Home of Martha and Mary

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one.[a] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

INSIGHT
There are at least two ways of reading Jesus’ correction of Martha in Luke 10:38–42. One is to hear Him gently telling her to put first things first: to join Mary and sit with the other disciples at His feet, listening to His teaching. There would be time later to prepare something to eat.

The other possibility is to hear the Teacher lovingly addressing what was happening in Martha’s heart. Yes, she was upset with Mary, but she also seems to be questioning Jesus’ concern for her. Didn’t He care that she had to do all the work by herself? Perhaps Jesus wants Martha to see that if she’d been attending to the details of her hospitality with the kind of heart she’d seen in Him—serving her guests out of love for Him and the others—then she, like Mary, would have been expressing a devotion and trust that would never be taken from her.

Loving Correction -By Cindy Hess Kasper

Whoever heeds life-giving correction will be at home among the wise. Proverbs 15:31

For more than fifty years, my dad strove for excellence in his editing. His passion wasn’t to just look for mistakes but also to make the copy better in terms of clarity, logic, flow, and grammar. Dad used a green pen for his corrections, rather than a red one. A green pen he felt was “friendlier,” while slashes of red might be jarring to a novice or less confident writer. His objective was to gently point out a better way.

When Jesus corrected people, He did so in love. In some circumstances—such as when He was confronted with the hypocrisy of the Pharisees (Matthew 23)—He rebuked them harshly, yet still for their benefit. But in the case of his friend Martha, a gentle correction was all that was needed (Luke 10:38–42). While the Pharisees responded poorly to His rebuke, Martha remained one of His dearest friends (John 11:5).

Correction can be uncomfortable and few of us like it. Sometimes, because of our pride, it’s hard to receive it graciously. The book of Proverbs talks much about wisdom and indicates that “heeding correction” is a sign of wisdom and understanding (15:31–32).

God’s loving correction helps us to adjust our direction and to follow Him more closely. Those who refuse it are sternly warned (v. 10), but those who respond to it through the power of the Holy Spirit will gain wisdom and understanding (vv. 31–32).

How do you usually respond to loving correction from your heavenly Father? What correction have you received from someone that’s made a significant difference in your life?

Father, help me learn to graciously accept Your loving correction so I can grow in wisdom and understanding.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, March 20, 2021
Friendship with God

Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing…? —Genesis 18:17

The Delights of His Friendship. Genesis 18 brings out the delight of true friendship with God, as compared with simply feeling His presence occasionally in prayer. This friendship means being so intimately in touch with God that you never even need to ask Him to show you His will. It is evidence of a level of intimacy which confirms that you are nearing the final stage of your discipline in the life of faith. When you have a right-standing relationship with God, you have a life of freedom, liberty, and delight; you are God’s will. And all of your commonsense decisions are actually His will for you, unless you sense a feeling of restraint brought on by a check in your spirit. You are free to make decisions in the light of a perfect and delightful friendship with God, knowing that if your decisions are wrong He will lovingly produce that sense of restraint. Once he does, you must stop immediately.

The Difficulties of His Friendship. Why did Abraham stop praying when he did? He stopped because he still was lacking the level of intimacy in his relationship with God, which would enable him boldly to continue on with the Lord in prayer until his desire was granted. Whenever we stop short of our true desire in prayer and say, “Well, I don’t know, maybe this is not God’s will,” then we still have another level to go. It shows that we are not as intimately acquainted with God as Jesus was, and as Jesus would have us to be— “…that they may be one just as We are one…” (John 17:22). Think of the last thing you prayed about— were you devoted to your desire or to God? Was your determination to get some gift of the Spirit for yourself or to get to God? “For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him” (Matthew 6:8). The reason for asking is so you may get to know God better. “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). We should keep praying to get a perfect understanding of God Himself.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

Re-state to yourself what you believe, then do away with as much of it as possible, and get back to the bedrock of the Cross of Christ.  My Utmost for His Highest, November 25, 848 R

Bible in a Year: Joshua 4-6; Luke 1:1-20

Esther 6, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: THE PRICE IS TOO HIGH

In the days when I was a missionary in Brazil I once went to visit one of our church leaders. We hadn’t seen him for several Sundays. Friends told me he had inherited three hundred dollars, and he was constructing, by hand, a one-room house. When he gave me a tour of the project, it took about twenty seconds. I told him we’d missed him, that the church needed him back. He grew quiet and turned and looked at his house. His eyes were moist. “You’re right, Max,” he confessed. “I guess I got just too greedy.”

“Greedy?” I wanted to say, “You’re building a hut in a swamp and you call it greed?” But he was right. Greed is relative. Greed is not defined by what something costs; it is measured by what it costs you. If anything costs you your family, or your faith, the price is too high.

Esther 6

That night the king couldn’t sleep. He ordered the record book, the day-by-day journal of events, to be brought and read to him. They came across the story there about the time that Mordecai had exposed the plot of Bigthana and Teresh—the two royal eunuchs who guarded the entrance and who had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes.

3 The king asked, “What great honor was given to Mordecai for this?”

“Nothing,” replied the king’s servants who were in attendance. “Nothing has been done for him.”

4 The king said, “Is there anybody out in the court?”

Now Haman had just come into the outer court of the king’s palace to talk to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows he had built for him.

5 The king’s servants said, “Haman is out there, waiting in the court.”

“Bring him in,” said the king.

6-9 When Haman entered, the king said, “What would be appropriate for the man the king especially wants to honor?”

Haman thought to himself, “He must be talking about honoring me—who else?” So he answered the king, “For the man the king delights to honor, do this: Bring a royal robe that the king has worn and a horse the king has ridden, one with a royal crown on its head. Then give the robe and the horse to one of the king’s most noble princes. Have him robe the man whom the king especially wants to honor; have the prince lead him on horseback through the city square, proclaiming before him, ‘This is what is done for the man whom the king especially wants to honor!’”

10 “Go and do it,” the king said to Haman. “Don’t waste another minute. Take the robe and horse and do what you have proposed to Mordecai the Jew who sits at the King’s Gate. Don’t leave out a single detail of your plan.”

11 So Haman took the robe and horse; he robed Mordecai and led him through the city square, proclaiming before him, “This is what is done for the man whom the king especially wants to honor!”

12-13 Then Mordecai returned to the King’s Gate, but Haman fled to his house, thoroughly mortified, hiding his face. When Haman had finished telling his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him, his knowledgeable friends who were there and his wife Zeresh said, “If this Mordecai is in fact a Jew, your bad luck has only begun. You don’t stand a chance against him—you’re as good as ruined.”

14 While they were still talking, the king’s eunuchs arrived and hurried Haman off to the dinner that Esther had prepared.

* * *


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Friday, March 19, 2021
Read: Romans 15:23–33

Paul’s Plan to Visit Rome

But now that there is no more place for me to work in these regions, and since I have been longing for many years to visit you, 24 I plan to do so when I go to Spain. I hope to see you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while. 25 Now, however, I am on my way to Jerusalem in the service of the Lord’s people there. 26 For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the Lord’s people in Jerusalem. 27 They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews’ spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings. 28 So after I have completed this task and have made sure that they have received this contribution, I will go to Spain and visit you on the way. 29 I know that when I come to you, I will come in the full measure of the blessing of Christ.

30 I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. 31 Pray that I may be kept safe from the unbelievers in Judea and that the contribution I take to Jerusalem may be favorably received by the Lord’s people there, 32 so that I may come to you with joy, by God’s will, and in your company be refreshed. 33 The God of peace be with you all. Amen.

INSIGHT
The book of Acts tells us that Paul desired to go to Rome to minister (19:21). During his three-month stay in Corinth at the end of his third missionary journey (20:2–3), he wrote to the Roman believers in Jesus about his proposed visit and to solicit support for his future work in Spain (Romans 1:10–15; 15:23–24, 28–29). Giving a summary of his missionary work and his future plans (15:14–33), the apostle said he had proclaimed the gospel of Christ “from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum [modern-day Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, and Albania]” (v. 19). But not ready to retire just yet, Paul intended to push further west all the way to Spain, visiting Rome on the way (v. 28).

The Purple Shawl - By Xochitl Dixon
I urge you . . . to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. Romans 15:30

While serving as my mom’s live-in caregiver at a cancer center hundreds of miles away from my home, I asked people to pray for us. As the months passed, isolation and loneliness sapped my strength. How could I care for my mom if I gave in to my physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion?

One day, a friend sent me an unexpected care package. Jodi had crocheted a purple prayer shawl, a warm reminder that we had people praying for us daily. Whenever I wrapped the soft yarn around my shoulders, I felt God hugging me with the prayers of His people. Years later, He still uses that purple shawl to comfort me and strengthen my resolve.

The apostle Paul affirmed the importance and spirit-refreshing power of praying for others. Through his passionate request for prayerful support and encouragement during his travels, Paul demonstrated how those who pray for others become partners in ministry (Romans 15:30). Offering specific requests, the apostle not only showed his dependence on the support of fellow believers but his trust that God powerfully answers prayer (vv. 31–33).

We’ll all experience days when we feel alone. But Paul shows us how to ask for prayer as we pray for others. When we’re wrapped in the intercessory prayers of God’s people, we can experience God’s strength and comfort no matter where life takes us.

Who has God used to encourage you through intercessory prayer? Who can you pray for today?

Loving God, thank You for the gift of intercessory prayers and for assuring me that You hear me and care for me wherever I go.

Read Moving Mountains: The Practice of Persistent Prayer at DiscoverySeries.org/Q0740.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, March 19, 2021
Abraham’s Life of Faith

He went out, not knowing where he was going. —Hebrews 11:8

In the Old Testament, a person’s relationship with God was seen by the degree of separation in that person’s life. This separation is exhibited in the life of Abraham by his separation from his country and his family. When we think of separation today, we do not mean to be literally separated from those family members who do not have a personal relationship with God, but to be separated mentally and morally from their viewpoints. This is what Jesus Christ was referring to in Luke 14:26.

Living a life of faith means never knowing where you are being led. But it does mean loving and knowing the One who is leading. It is literally a life of faith, not of understanding and reason— a life of knowing Him who calls us to go. Faith is rooted in the knowledge of a Person, and one of the biggest traps we fall into is the belief that if we have faith, God will surely lead us to success in the world.

The final stage in the life of faith is the attainment of character, and we encounter many changes in the process. We feel the presence of God around us when we pray, yet we are only momentarily changed. We tend to keep going back to our everyday ways and the glory vanishes. A life of faith is not a life of one glorious mountaintop experience after another, like soaring on eagles’ wings, but is a life of day-in and day-out consistency; a life of walking without fainting (see Isaiah 40:31). It is not even a question of the holiness of sanctification, but of something which comes much farther down the road. It is a faith that has been tried and proved and has withstood the test. Abraham is not a type or an example of the holiness of sanctification, but a type of the life of faith— a faith, tested and true, built on the true God. “Abraham believed God…” (Romans 4:3).

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

Defenders of the faith are inclined to be bitter until they learn to walk in the light of the Lord. When you have learned to walk in the light of the Lord, bitterness and contention are impossible. Biblical Psychology, 199 R

Bible in a Year: Joshua 1-3; Mark 16

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, March 19, 2021

Setting the Temperature - #8920

It was so cold in the house when I woke up that bitter winter morning. The thermometer announced to me it was like 40-some degrees in the house! I mean, my kids had some good laughs and some rare comments when they saw me praying that morning in front of an open stove in the kitchen. Look, it was the only warm place in the house! Well, Mr. Furnace came over, and he checked things out and informed us that we needed a new thermostat. As soon as our thermostat was working, the thermometer had better news for us; the house was warming up again! It is amazing what a difference a functioning thermostat can make!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Setting the Temperature."

Now, in your family, or your church, where you work, with your friends you're either a thermostat or a thermometer. A thermometer simply reflects the temperature around them. A thermostat sets the temperature. Too often, we're thermometers, aren't we? If it's hot around us, we get hot. If people are cold, we're cold. If things are stressed, we're stressed. If things are dark, we're discouraged. If things are tough, we're defeated.

But with the God of the universe living inside you, you have the power; you have the responsibility to be the thermostat in your situation. God has given us a wonderful picture of what thermostatic living looks like in our word for today from the Word of God. It's in Genesis 39 beginning with verse 2. Joseph has been attacked by his jealous brothers and sold into slavery in Egypt. He becomes a slave in the home of one of Egypt's top military leaders, Potiphar.

The Bible says, "When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes ... Potiphar put him in charge of his household and he entrusted to his care everything he owned." Well, Joseph's got a great situation here, huh? But suddenly it turns ugly when Potiphar's wife tries to seduce him and he refuses her. She accuses him of the very thing he refused to do, and Potiphar has him thrown into prison. So the Bible says, "While Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him...and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison" - sound familiar here? - "and he was made responsible for all that was done there."

That's pretty amazing! You put Joseph in a great situation and he's the trusted person, the one who says yes to responsibility. Put him in a terrible situation, he's the same guy; making things better, changing his environment, setting a positive climate. That's a thermostat. And that's what the people around you need you to be. Grownup people, godly people, make-a-difference people respond to situations, not from the environment around them or the feelings inside them, but from the character inside them - the Lord who's inside them!

Why don't you try being yourself what you wish others would be? Don't wait for them to be that way. Set the temperature; treat the people around you as you want to be treated and as you'd like them to treat others. Keep your commitments, carry your load, spread

joy. Spread hope, gentleness, encouragement no matter what everyone else is spreading.

The Lord was with Joseph in the great place and in the awful place. Just like He is with you, which means you could be the stabilizer, the thermostat, the climate-setter, the difference maker wherever you are, and you will set the temperature where God wants it to be!