Genesis 15 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: BUILD EACH OTHER UP - May 11, 2021

My big brother used to pick on me. For Dee, no day was complete unless he had made mine miserable. He stole my allowance, he called me a sissy. But all his cruel antics were offset by one great act of grace on a summer day in the park. He picked me to play on his baseball team.

Everyone else was a middle-schooler. I was a third-grader. I went from the back of the pack to the front of line, all because he picked me. Dee didn’t pick me because I was good. He called my name for one reason only: he was my big brother. And on that day he decided to be a good big brother.

The New Testament has a word for such activity: encouragement. “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up” (1 Thessalonians 5:11). This is how happiness happens.


Genesis 15

After all these things, this word of God came to Abram in a vision: “Don’t be afraid, Abram. I’m your shield. Your reward will be grand!”

2-3 Abram said, “God, Master, what use are your gifts as long as I’m childless and Eliezer of Damascus is going to inherit everything?” Abram continued, “See, you’ve given me no children, and now a mere house servant is going to get it all.”

4 Then God’s Message came: “Don’t worry, he won’t be your heir; a son from your body will be your heir.”

5 Then he took him outside and said, “Look at the sky. Count the stars. Can you do it? Count your descendants! You’re going to have a big family, Abram!”

6 And he believed! Believed God! God declared him “Set-Right-with-God.”

7 God continued, “I’m the same God who brought you from Ur of the Chaldees and gave you this land to own.”

8 Abram said, “Master God, how am I to know this, that it will all be mine?”

9 God said, “Bring me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, and a dove and a young pigeon.”

10-12 He brought all these animals to him, split them down the middle, and laid the halves opposite each other. But he didn’t split the birds. Vultures swooped down on the carcasses, but Abram scared them off. As the sun went down a deep sleep overcame Abram and then a sense of dread, dark and heavy.

13-16 God said to Abram, “Know this: your descendants will live as outsiders in a land not theirs; they’ll be enslaved and beaten down for 400 years. Then I’ll punish their slave masters; your offspring will march out of there loaded with plunder. But not you; you’ll have a long and full life and die a good and peaceful death. Not until the fourth generation will your descendants return here; sin is still a thriving business among the Amorites.”

17-21 When the sun was down and it was dark, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch moved between the split carcasses. That’s when God made a covenant with Abram: “I’m giving this land to your children, from the Nile River in Egypt to the River Euphrates in Assyria—the country of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaim, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”

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Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Tuesday, May 11, 2021

Read: Proverbs 12:2–15

Good people obtain favor from the Lord,
    but he condemns those who devise wicked schemes.

3 No one can be established through wickedness,
    but the righteous cannot be uprooted.

4 A wife of noble character is her husband’s crown,
    but a disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones.

5 The plans of the righteous are just,
    but the advice of the wicked is deceitful.

6 The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood,
    but the speech of the upright rescues them.

7 The wicked are overthrown and are no more,
    but the house of the righteous stands firm.

8 A person is praised according to their prudence,
    and one with a warped mind is despised.

9 Better to be a nobody and yet have a servant
    than pretend to be somebody and have no food.

10 The righteous care for the needs of their animals,
    but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel.

11 Those who work their land will have abundant food,
    but those who chase fantasies have no sense.

12 The wicked desire the stronghold of evildoers,
    but the root of the righteous endures.

13 Evildoers are trapped by their sinful talk,
    and so the innocent escape trouble.

14 From the fruit of their lips people are filled with good things,
    and the work of their hands brings them reward.

15 The way of fools seems right to them,
    but the wise listen to advice.

INSIGHT
The book of Proverbs is unique among the various books of the Bible because of the way it presents its content. While most of the biblical books contain ongoing narrative stories, collected songs, continuous teaching, or connected prophetic messages, Proverbs is much more random. Though there’s continuous teaching in chapters 1–9 and 31, most of what falls in between is comprised of a collection of wise sayings. For the most part, they don’t seem to be collected thematically or presented in any kind of discernible pattern. Nevertheless, within those collected sayings are insights that present what James would later call “wisdom that comes from heaven” (James 3:17), offering guidance for living out our faith in a difficult and often dark world.

By Con Campbell
Listening to Wise Advice

The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice. Proverbs 12:15

During the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln once found himself wanting to please a politician, so he issued a command to transfer certain Union Army regiments. When the secretary of war, Edwin Stanton, received the order, he refused to carry it out. He said that the president was a fool. Lincoln was told what Stanton had said, and he replied: “If Stanton said I’m a fool, then I must be, for he is nearly always right. I’ll see for myself.” As the two men talked, the president quickly realized that his decision was a serious mistake, and without hesitation he withdrew it. Though Stanton had called Lincoln a fool, the president proved wise by not digging in his heels when Stanton disagreed with him. Instead, Lincoln listened to advice, considered it, and changed his mind.

Have you ever encountered someone who simply wouldn’t listen to wise advice? (See 1 Kings 12:1–11.) It can be infuriating, can’t it? Or, even more personal, have you ever refused to listen to advice? As Proverbs 12:15 says, “The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.” People may not always be right, but the same goes for us! Knowing that everyone makes mistakes, only fools assume they’re the exception. Instead, let’s exercise godly wisdom and listen to the wise advice of others—even if we initially disagree. Sometimes that’s exactly how God works for our good (v. 2).

Why are you sometimes reluctant to listen to the wise advice of others? How can you be sure the advice you receive reflects true wisdom?

God of wisdom, teach me Your ways and help me to avoid folly. Thank You for putting others in my life who are in a position to offer helpful advice when I need it.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, May 11, 2021
“Love One Another”

…add to your…brotherly kindness love. —2 Peter 1:5, 7

Love is an indefinite thing to most of us; we don’t know what we mean when we talk about love. Love is the loftiest preference of one person for another, and spiritually Jesus demands that this sovereign preference be for Himself (see Luke 14:26). Initially, when “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5), it is easy to put Jesus first. But then we must practice the things mentioned in 2 Peter 1 to see them worked out in our lives.

The first thing God does is forcibly remove any insincerity, pride, and vanity from my life. And the Holy Spirit reveals to me that God loved me not because I was lovable, but because it was His nature to do so. Now He commands me to show the same love to others by saying, “…love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). He is saying, “I will bring a number of people around you whom you cannot respect, but you must exhibit My love to them, just as I have exhibited it to you.” This kind of love is not a patronizing love for the unlovable— it is His love, and it will not be evidenced in us overnight. Some of us may have tried to force it, but we were soon tired and frustrated.

“The Lord…is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish…” (2 Peter 3:9). I should look within and remember how wonderfully He has dealt with me. The knowledge that God has loved me beyond all limits will compel me to go into the world to love others in the same way. I may get irritated because I have to live with an unusually difficult person. But just think how disagreeable I have been with God! Am I prepared to be identified so closely with the Lord Jesus that His life and His sweetness will be continually poured out through Me? Neither natural love nor God’s divine love will remain and grow in me unless it is nurtured. Love is spontaneous, but it has to be maintained through discipline.

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: 2 Kings 13-14; John 2

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, May 11, 2021

How to Go From the Basement to the Penthouse - #8957

There's just enough of a kid in me, I really like those glass elevators they have in some hotels. You know, you get in on the main floor and then you ascend to the top floor, all the time you're watching the big things in the lobby become small things in the lobby. And the limited view you had down there, oh, suddenly turns panoramic. Or if you've been in one of the world's great skyscrapers, you may have tried some of those elevators. We're talking lobby to observation deck in like seconds; rising scores of floors in less time than it takes to place some phone calls. So, at 10:02, you're down in the lobby or even the basement and at 10:03 you're looking out over the entire city - all because of an elevator.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Go From the Basement to the Penthouse."

Let's face it, we all have some days when we feel like we're stuck in the basement, right? The view isn't very inspiring and neither is the situation we're in. Well, the good news is there is no basement so deep or so gloomy that you have to stay there because there's an elevator.

It's the spiritual elevator many of God's leaders in the Bible knew about - like Daniel, for example. He's a top advisor to the most powerful man in the world, King Nebuchadnezzar. All of the king's pagan advisors have been unable to meet his demand, and they tell him they don't know what his disturbing dream meant. Of course, he'd also asked them to tell him what the dream was. Nobody could do that. So he sentences them to death - a sentence that applies even to Daniel, even though he wasn't there. So Daniel is literally staring at being executed. That's a dark basement!

Wisely, he recruits his spiritual brothers to "plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery" (Daniel 2:17). Then he steps into the spiritual elevator that takes him from the basement of his circumstances to the penthouse of his awesome God. That elevator is called "praising God."

In Daniel 2, beginning with verse 19, our word for today from the Word of God (Daniel's words): "Daniel praised the God of heaven and said: "Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are His. He changes the times and seasons and sets up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise...He reveals deep and hidden things...and light dwells with Him..." See, Daniel is rising from the basement of his dangerous, impossible situation to the penthouse view from the Throne Room of the Most High God. And everything looks different from there!

Now, one of the secrets of peace in the midst of great stress, of poise when everything is up for grabs, one of the secrets of perspective when you could be freaking out, the secret is to start celebrating the kind of God you have. Remember, you enter His gates with thanksgiving, the Bible says, and His courts with praise, not just with prayer requests.

The great prayers of the Bible are like two-thirds about the greatness of God and maybe one-third about the need. When you start telling God the things about Him that you love, the things He's done that you're grateful for, that anxiety in your heart starts to ebb and the peace in your heart starts to grow. You realize that the size of the situation and the size of the need don't change the size of your God at all.

Everyone in your situation, everything in your situation looks different from God's penthouse. You'll see the people differently. You'll see possibilities you haven't seen before. You'll have ideas you didn't have before. You'll have the peace that you couldn't have otherwise.

That's the power of praise - the elevator that takes you from the "basement" of earth-stuff to the "penthouse" of your awesome God!

Genesis 14, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: BE AN AGENT OF HAPPINESS - May 10, 2021

Jesus wants to bring joy to the people of this generation, and he has enlisted some special agents of happiness to do the job: you and me.

Not an easy task. The people in our world can be moody, fickle, and stubborn. And that just describes my wife’s husband. Nah, if we are going to find the joy that comes through giving joy away, we need instruction. No wonder the Bible has so much to say about finding joy in the act of sharing it. The New Testament contains more than fifty “one another” statements.

You and I indwell a lonely planet. We cannot solve every problem in society, but we can bring smiles to a few faces. And who knows? If you brighten your corner of the world and I do the same in mine, a quiet revolution of joy might break out. It can be how happiness happens.

Genesis 14

Then this: Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim went off to war to fight Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, that is, Zoar.

3-4 This second group of kings, the attacked, came together at the Valley of Siddim, that is, the Salt Sea. They had been under the thumb of Kedorlaomer for twelve years. In the thirteenth year, they revolted.

5-7 In the fourteenth year, Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him set out and defeated the Rephaim in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shaveh Kiriathaim, and the Horites in their hill country of Seir as far as El Paran on the far edge of the desert. On their way back they stopped at En Mishpat, that is, Kadesh, and conquered the whole region of the Amalekites as well as that of the Amorites who lived in Hazazon Tamar.

8-9 That’s when the king of Sodom marched out with the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, that is, Zoar. They drew up in battle formation against their enemies in the Valley of Siddim—against Kedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goiim, Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar, four kings against five.

10-12 The Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits. When the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, they fell into the tar pits, but the rest escaped into the mountains. The four kings captured all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah, all their food and equipment, and went on their way. They captured Lot, Abram’s nephew who was living in Sodom at the time, taking everything he owned with them.

13-16 A fugitive came and reported to Abram the Hebrew. Abram was living at the Oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and Aner. They were allies of Abram. When Abram heard that his nephew had been taken prisoner, he lined up his servants, all of them born in his household—there were 318 of them—and chased after the captors all the way to Dan. Abram and his men split into small groups and attacked by night. They chased them as far as Hobah, just north of Damascus. They recovered all the plunder along with nephew Lot and his possessions, including the women and the people.

17-20 After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and his allied kings, the king of Sodom came out to greet him in the Valley of Shaveh, the King’s Valley. Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine—he was priest of The High God—and blessed him:

Blessed be Abram by The High God,
    Creator of Heaven and Earth.
And blessed be The High God,
    who handed your enemies over to you.

Abram gave him a tenth of all the recovered plunder.

21 The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me back the people but keep all the plunder for yourself.”

22-24 But Abram told the king of Sodom, “I swear to God, The High God, Creator of Heaven and Earth, this solemn oath, that I’ll take nothing from you, not so much as a thread or a shoestring. I’m not going to have you go around saying, ‘I made Abram rich.’ Nothing for me other than what the young men ate and the share of the men who went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; they’re to get their share of the plunder.”


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Monday, May 10, 2021

Read: Zephaniah 3:14–17

Sing, Daughter Zion;
    shout aloud, Israel!
Be glad and rejoice with all your heart,
    Daughter Jerusalem!
15 The Lord has taken away your punishment,
    he has turned back your enemy.
The Lord, the King of Israel, is with you;
    never again will you fear any harm.
16 On that day
    they will say to Jerusalem,
“Do not fear, Zion;
    do not let your hands hang limp.
17 The Lord your God is with you,
    the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
    in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
    but will rejoice over you with singing.”

INSIGHT
Zephaniah 3:14–17 is written like a psalm of salvation (such as Psalm 98). The prophet commands praise (Zephaniah 3:14), not only for what God has done in the past and will do in the future, but for the very presence of Yahweh in the midst of Israel as the loving king who inspires confidence (vv. 15–17). As such, this “psalm” expresses the motif of God’s continued presence in Zion, the city of David (Jerusalem), as promised in the covenant in 2 Samuel 7 and echoed in Isaiah and in psalms such as Psalms 2 and 89. The Lord is Israel’s king (Zephaniah 3:15) and her mighty warrior of salvation (v. 17). But He also responds to Israel like an abandoned parent or jilted lover to whom his beloved has returned. He rejoices with vocal jubilation as well as stillness and quiet (v. 17).

By Kirsten Holmberg
Singing Over Us

[He] will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17

A young father held his baby boy in his arms, singing to him and rocking him in soothing rhythm. The baby was hearing-impaired, unable to hear the melody or the words. Yet the father sang anyway, in a beautiful, tender act of love toward his son. And his efforts were rewarded with a delightful smile from his little boy.

The imagery of the father-son exchange bears a striking resemblance to the words of Zephaniah. The Old Testament prophet says that God will joyfully sing over His daughter, the people of Jerusalem (Zephaniah 3:17). God enjoys doing good things for His beloved people, such as taking away their punishment and turning back their enemies (v. 15). Zephaniah says they no longer have any reason for fear and instead have cause for rejoicing.

We, as God’s children redeemed by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, sometimes are hard of hearing—unable, or perhaps unwilling, to tune our ears to the exuberant love God sings over us. His adoration of us is like that of the young father, who lovingly sang to his son despite his inability to hear. He has taken away our punishment too, giving us further reason to rejoice. Perhaps we might try to listen more closely to hear the joy ringing loudly in His voice. Father, help us to hear Your loving melody and savor being held safely in Your arms.

What keeps you from hearing God? How can you tune your ears to hear His delight in you?

Thank You, God, for taking great delight in me. May I always listen to your voice as You joyfully sing over me.

To learn more about Zephaniah, visit ChristianUniversity.org/OT226.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, May 10, 2021
Take the Initiative

…add to your faith virtue… —2 Peter 1:5

Add means that we have to do something. We are in danger of forgetting that we cannot do what God does, and that God will not do what we can do. We cannot save nor sanctify ourselves— God does that. But God will not give us good habits or character, and He will not force us to walk correctly before Him. We have to do all that ourselves. We must “work out” our “own salvation” which God has worked in us (Philippians 2:12). Add means that we must get into the habit of doing things, and in the initial stages that is difficult. To take the initiative is to make a beginning— to instruct yourself in the way you must go.

Beware of the tendency to ask the way when you know it perfectly well. Take the initiative— stop hesitating— take the first step. Be determined to act immediately in faith on what God says to you when He speaks, and never reconsider or change your initial decisions. If you hesitate when God tells you to do something, you are being careless, spurning the grace in which you stand. Take the initiative yourself, make a decision of your will right now, and make it impossible to go back. Burn your bridges behind you, saying, “I will write that letter,” or “I will pay that debt”; and then do it! Make it irrevocable.

We have to get into the habit of carefully listening to God about everything, forming the habit of finding out what He says and heeding it. If, when a crisis comes, we instinctively turn to God, we will know that the habit has been formed in us. We have to take the initiative where we are, not where we have not yet been.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

We all have the trick of saying—If only I were not where I am!—If only I had not got the kind of people I have to live with! If our faith or our religion does not help us in the conditions we are in, we have either a further struggle to go through, or we had better abandon that faith and religion.  The Shadow of an Agony, 1178 L

Bible in a Year: 2 Kings 10-12; John 1:29-51

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, May 10, 2021

Long Wait for a New Heart - #8956

The folks at the hospital asked my father-in-law if he'd like to donate his organs. He smiled and said, "Depends on how soon you want them." That's a great answer.

Someone somewhere decided to donate their heart if something happened to them. And that heart ultimately was beating in the former Vice President of the United States. Some years ago, Dick Cheney had a major heart issue, and doctors had done everything else science could do to save and extend his life. Since his first heart attack at the age of 37, they'd had the stents, and the bypasses, an implanted defibrillator. And now, at age 71, his life probably depended on the ultimate solution. Not a heart repair. He needed a totally new heart.

Right now, there are thousands of Americans whose lives depend on getting a new heart. Their average wait for one was somewhere between six months and a year. Dick Cheney had to wait 20 months for his.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about a "Long Wait for a New Heart."

Every day - somewhere in the world - people are getting a new heart. Made possible by a donor who died and the miracle-working skill of a master heart surgeon. I know Him. He performed that miracle on me and on a lot of the people I love.

The Surgeon is God Himself. The donor? That would be Jesus. It took His dying for me to have the spiritual heart transplant that changed everything.

In our word for today from the Word of God, Ezekiel 36 beginning in verse 25, God made a promise to all of us who know all too well the darkness that lives in our heart. He said, "I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols." That's all those things that push God to the edge. "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh...you will be My people, and I will be your God."

A while back, a lady told me how her heart toward her husband had turned hard over the years of a difficult marriage. But then her face just lit up as she told me how Jesus had given her a "heart transplant" with a new love for her man and a new marriage. Only the Master Heart Surgeon can do that.

One of God's prophets provided a revealing "spiritual EKG" of the heart behind all of our actions. He said "The heart is the most deceitful of all things and desperately wicked" (Jeremiah 17:9 NLT). Out of our spiritually diseased hearts come words that scar people for life, betrayal of the person we committed our life to, unthinking selfishness, cancerous anger, bitterness and all kinds of darkness that poisons our relationships, our reputation and our future.

Oh, we try a lot of things to get better, just like they did with Dick Cheney's heart. But all of our resolutions and religion are temporary and unsuccessful fixes. Because we need Dr. Jesus. But He had to die to make possible the new heart that's our only hope of living right and dying right. God tells us that "the blood of Jesus His Son purifies us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). And that happens, not through being reformed, but by being transformed from the inside out.

That's the miracle that takes place when you recognize that Jesus - the Man who died for your sin and then birthed eternal life by walking out of His grave - is your o

nly hope. And you tell Him that. When you put yourself in the hands of Dr. Jesus, He in essence, implants a new spiritual heart. With a love you never had before. A power to be the kind of person you've always wanted to be and those you love need you to be. You give them the ability to forgive, to break bondages that heal broken relationships. All this waits for you, including changing your destiny from hell to heaven.

Right now, this is your day to say, "Jesus, come into my life. I put all my hopes in You now because of what you did for me on that cross." Our website will help you make that commitment. It will help you get the rest of the way. It's ANewStory.com. It could be the beginning of your new story.

Let the new heart miracle begin for you today.

Genesis 13, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Every Reason to be Content

You have every reason to be content! A man once went to a minister for counseling. He was in the midst of financial collapse.
"I've lost everything," he bemoaned.
"Oh, I'm so sorry to hear you've lost your faith."
"No," the man corrected him, "I haven't lost my faith."
"Well then, I'm sad to hear you've lost your character."
"I didn't say that," he corrected. "I still have my character."
"I'm so sorry to hear that you've lost your salvation."
"That's not what I said," the man objected.
"I haven't lost my salvation."
"You have your faith, your character, your salvation. Seems to me," the minister observed, "that you've lost none of the things that really matter."
We haven't either! You and I could pray like the Puritan.  He sat down to a meal of bread and water.  He bowed his head and declared, "All this and Jesus too?"
From Traveling Light

 So Abram left Egypt and went back to the Negev, he and his wife and everything he owned, and Lot still with him. By now Abram was very rich, loaded with cattle and silver and gold.

3-4 He moved on from the Negev, camping along the way, to Bethel, the place he had first set up his tent between Bethel and Ai and built his first altar. Abram prayed there to God.

5-7 Lot, who was traveling with Abram, was also rich in sheep and cattle and tents. But the land couldn’t support both of them; they had too many possessions. They couldn’t both live there—quarrels broke out between Abram’s shepherds and Lot’s shepherds. The Canaanites and Perizzites were also living on the land at the time.

8-9 Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not have fighting between us, between your shepherds and my shepherds. After all, we’re family. Look around. Isn’t there plenty of land out there? Let’s separate. If you go left, I’ll go right; if you go right, I’ll go left.”

10-11 Lot looked. He saw the whole plain of the Jordan spread out, well watered (this was before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah), like God’s garden, like Egypt, and stretching all the way to Zoar. Lot took the whole plain of the Jordan. Lot set out to the east.

11-12 That’s how they came to part company, uncle and nephew. Abram settled in Canaan; Lot settled in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent near Sodom.

13 The people of Sodom were evil—flagrant sinners against God.

14-17 After Lot separated from him, God said to Abram, “Open your eyes, look around. Look north, south, east, and west. Everything you see, the whole land spread out before you, I will give to you and your children forever. I’ll make your descendants like dust—counting your descendants will be as impossible as counting the dust of the Earth. So—on your feet, get moving! Walk through the country, its length and breadth; I’m giving it all to you.”

18 Abram moved his tent. He went and settled by the Oaks of Mamre in Hebron. There he built an altar to God.

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Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Sunday, May 09, 2021
Read: Matthew 6:25–34

Do Not Worry
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

INSIGHT
As we read Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:25–34, we can see how nature teaches us about God’s care for us. When we consider the birds, we see God’s provision (v. 26). Worms don’t just appear; the birds have to go find them, but God makes the food available. In a similar way, this is how He provided for the Israelites in the wilderness. When they needed food, God provided manna (bread from heaven) that appeared on the ground. However, the Israelites had to gather exactly what they needed for that day (see Exodus 16).

By Sheridan Voysey
Noticing Nature

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Matthew 6:26

A friend and I recently visited a favorite walking spot of mine. Climbing a windswept hill, we crossed a field of wildflowers into a forest of towering pines, then descended into a valley where we paused a moment. Clouds floated softly above us. A stream trickled nearby. The only sounds were birdsongs. Jason and I stood there silently for fifteen minutes, taking it all in.

As it turns out, our actions that day were deeply therapeutic. According to research from the University of Derby, people who stop to contemplate nature experience higher levels of happiness, lower levels of anxiety, and a greater desire to care for the earth. Walking through the forest isn’t enough, though. You have to watch the clouds, listen to the birds. The key isn’t being in nature, but noticing it.

Could there be a spiritual reason for nature’s benefits? Paul said that creation reveals God’s power and nature (Romans 1:20). God told Job to look at the sea, sky, and stars for evidence of His presence (Job 38–39). Jesus said that contemplating the “birds of the air” and “flowers of the field” could reveal God’s care and reduce anxiety (Matthew 6:25–30). In Scripture, noticing nature is a spiritual practice.

Scientists wonder why nature affects us so positively. Maybe one reason is that by noticing nature we catch a glimpse of the God who created it and who notices us.

Since nature isn’t God, and vice versa, how do you think He can be seen through it? How can you take a few minutes today to notice His care through His creation?

God of heaven, earth, streams, and birdsongs, I worship You today.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, May 09, 2021
Reaching Beyond Our Grasp

Where there is no revelation [or prophetic vision], the people cast off restraint… —Proverbs 29:18

There is a difference between holding on to a principle and having a vision. A principle does not come from moral inspiration, but a vision does. People who are totally consumed with idealistic principles rarely do anything. A person’s own idea of God and His attributes may actually be used to justify and rationalize his deliberate neglect of his duty. Jonah tried to excuse his disobedience by saying to God, “…I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm” (Jonah 4:2). I too may have the right idea of God and His attributes, but that may be the very reason why I do not do my duty. But wherever there is vision, there is also a life of honesty and integrity, because the vision gives me the moral incentive.

Our own idealistic principles may actually lull us into ruin. Examine yourself spiritually to see if you have vision, or only principles.

Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what’s a heaven for?

“Where there is no revelation [or prophetic vision]….” Once we lose sight of God, we begin to be reckless. We cast off certain restraints from activities we know are wrong. We set prayer aside as well and cease having God’s vision in the little things of life. We simply begin to act on our own initiative. If we are eating only out of our own hand, and doing things solely on our own initiative without expecting God to come in, we are on a downward path. We have lost the vision. Is our attitude today an attitude that flows from our vision of God? Are we expecting God to do greater things than He has ever done before? Is there a freshness and a vitality in our spiritual outlook?

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

The great thing about faith in God is that it keeps a man undisturbed in the midst of disturbance. Notes on Isaiah, 1376 R

Bible in a Year: 2 Kings 7-9; John 1:1-28

Matthew 4 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

 
Max Lucado Daily: Heaven Knows Your Heart

All that stuff you have? It's not yours. And you know what else about all that stuff? It's not you! In Luke 12:15 Jesus said, "Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot."
Heaven doesn't know you as the fellow with the nice suit or the woman with the big house. Heaven knows your heart. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Bible says the Lord looks at the heart. When God thinks of you, He may see your compassion, your devotion, your tenderness or quick mind, but He doesn't think of your things.
Define yourself by your stuff, and you'll feel good when you have a lot and bad when you don't. Contentment comes when we can honestly say with Paul who said, "I know how to live when I am poor, and I know how to live when I have plenty" (Philippians 4:12).
From Traveling Light

Matthew 4

The Test
4 1-3 Next Jesus was taken into the wild by the Spirit for the Test. The Devil was ready to give it. Jesus prepared for the Test by fasting forty days and forty nights. That left him, of course, in a state of extreme hunger, which the Devil took advantage of in the first test: “Since you are God’s Son, speak the word that will turn these stones into loaves of bread.”

4 Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: “It takes more than bread to stay alive. It takes a steady stream of words from God’s mouth.”

5-6 For the second test the Devil took him to the Holy City. He sat him on top of the Temple and said, “Since you are God’s Son, jump.” The Devil goaded him by quoting Psalm 91: “He has placed you in the care of angels. They will catch you so that you won’t so much as stub your toe on a stone.”

7 Jesus countered with another citation from Deuteronomy: “Don’t you dare test the Lord your God.”

8-9 For the third test, the Devil took him to the peak of a huge mountain. He gestured expansively, pointing out all the earth’s kingdoms, how glorious they all were. Then he said, “They’re yours—lock, stock, and barrel. Just go down on your knees and worship me, and they’re yours.”

10 Jesus’ refusal was curt: “Beat it, Satan!” He backed his rebuke with a third quotation from Deuteronomy: “Worship the Lord your God, and only him. Serve him with absolute single-heartedness.”

11 The Test was over. The Devil left. And in his place, angels! Angels came and took care of Jesus’ needs.

Teaching and Healing
12-17 When Jesus got word that John had been arrested, he returned to Galilee. He moved from his hometown, Nazareth, to the lakeside village Capernaum, nestled at the base of the Zebulun and Naphtali hills. This move completed Isaiah’s revelation:

Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,
    road to the sea, over Jordan,
    Galilee, crossroads for the nations.
People sitting out their lives in the dark
    saw a huge light;
Sitting in that dark, dark country of death,
    they watched the sun come up.

This Isaiah-prophesied revelation came to life in Galilee the moment Jesus started preaching. He picked up where John left off: “Change your life. God’s kingdom is here.”

18-20 Walking along the beach of Lake Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers: Simon (later called Peter) and Andrew. They were fishing, throwing their nets into the lake. It was their regular work. Jesus said to them, “Come with me. I’ll make a new kind of fisherman out of you. I’ll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass.” They didn’t ask questions, but simply dropped their nets and followed.

21-22 A short distance down the beach they came upon another pair of brothers, James and John, Zebedee’s sons. These two were sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, mending their fishnets. Jesus made the same offer to them, and they were just as quick to follow, abandoning boat and father.

23-25 From there he went all over Galilee. He used synagogues for meeting places and taught people the truth of God. God’s kingdom was his theme—that beginning right now they were under God’s government, a good government! He also healed people of their diseases and of the bad effects of their bad lives. Word got around the entire Roman province of Syria. People brought anybody with a sickness, whether mental, emotional, or physical. Jesus healed them, one and all. More and more people came, the momentum gathering. Besides those from Galilee, crowds came from the “Ten Towns” across the lake, others up from Jerusalem and Judea, still others from across the Jordan.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Saturday, May 08, 2021
Read: Romans 8:1–2, 10–17

Life Through the Spirit
8 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you[a] free from the law of sin and death.

10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life[a] because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of[b] his Spirit who lives in you.

12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.[c] And by him we cry, “Abba,[d] Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

INSIGHT
Some scholars believe Romans 8 provides the most concentrated teaching on the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit found in the Bible. We often focus on these key verses: verse 1, where we’re reminded that we’re no longer under condemnation; verse 28, which reminds us of God’s good purposes; and verses 31–39, which teach of God’s love and care for us. But woven throughout the chapter is the ministry of the Spirit (vv. 4–6, 9–11, 12–16, 23, 26–27). In fact, it could be argued that the blessings of verses 1, 28, and 31–39 are available to us by and through the ministry of the Spirit.

By Amy Boucher Pye
Legally His

The Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. Romans 8:15

Liz cried for joy when she and her husband received the birth certificate and passport for their child, making the adoption legally binding. Now Milena would always be their daughter, forever part of their family. As Liz pondered the legal process, she also thought of the “true exchange” that happens when we become part of Jesus’ family: “No longer are we held down by our birthright of sin and brokenness.” Rather, she continued, we enter into the fullness of God’s kingdom legally when we’re adopted as His children.

In the apostle Paul’s day, if a Roman family adopted a son, his legal status would change completely. Any debts from his old life would be canceled and he would gain all of the rights and privileges of his new family. Paul wanted the Roman believers in Jesus to understand that this new status applied to them too. No longer were they bound to sin and condemnation but now they lived “according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:4). And those the Spirit leads are adopted as God’s children (vv. 14–15). Their legal status changed when they became citizens of heaven.

If we have received the gift of salvation, we too are God’s children, heirs of His kingdom and united with Christ. Our debts have been canceled by the gift of Jesus’ sacrifice. We no longer need to live in fear or condemnation.

How does your status as a child of God affect how you live? What could you do to embrace this central part of your identity?

Father God, You created me in my mother’s womb, and You know and love me. May I never doubt how much You care for me.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, May 08, 2021
The Faith to Persevere

Because you have kept My command to persevere… —Revelation 3:10

Perseverance means more than endurance— more than simply holding on until the end. A saint’s life is in the hands of God like a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God is aiming at something the saint cannot see, but our Lord continues to stretch and strain, and every once in a while the saint says, “I can’t take any more.” Yet God pays no attention; He goes on stretching until His purpose is in sight, and then He lets the arrow fly. Entrust yourself to God’s hands. Is there something in your life for which you need perseverance right now? Maintain your intimate relationship with Jesus Christ through the perseverance of faith. Proclaim as Job did, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15).

Faith is not some weak and pitiful emotion, but is strong and vigorous confidence built on the fact that God is holy love. And even though you cannot see Him right now and cannot understand what He is doing, you know Him. Disaster occurs in your life when you lack the mental composure that comes from establishing yourself on the eternal truth that God is holy love. Faith is the supreme effort of your life— throwing yourself with abandon and total confidence upon God.

God ventured His all in Jesus Christ to save us, and now He wants us to venture our all with total abandoned confidence in Him. There are areas in our lives where that faith has not worked in us as yet— places still untouched by the life of God. There were none of those places in Jesus Christ’s life, and there are to be none in ours. Jesus prayed, “This is eternal life, that they may know You…” (John 17:3). The real meaning of eternal life is a life that can face anything it has to face without wavering. If we will take this view, life will become one great romance— a glorious opportunity of seeing wonderful things all the time. God is disciplining us to get us into this central place of power.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

There is no condition of life in which we cannot abide in Jesus. We have to learn to abide in Him wherever we are placed. Our Brilliant Heritage

Bible in a Year: 2 Kings 4-6; Luke 24:36-53

Genesis 12 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

 
Max Lucado Daily: JESUS SPREAD HAPPINESS - May 7, 2021

Jesus was accused of much, but he was never described as a grump or sourpuss or self-centered jerk. People didn’t groan when he appeared. He called them by name. He listened to their stories. He answered their questions. He visited their sick relatives, and he helped their sick friends. He fished with fishermen, he ate lunch with the little guy, and he spoke words of resounding affirmation.

He went to weddings. He went to so many parties that he was criticized for hanging out with questionable people. Thousands came to hear him. Hundreds chose to follow him. They walked away from careers to be with him. His purpose statement read “I came to give life with joy and abundance” (John 10:10 The Voice). Jesus was happy and wants us to be the same.

Genesis 12

Abram and Sarai

 God told Abram: “Leave your country, your family, and your father’s home for a land that I will show you.

2-3 I’ll make you a great nation
    and bless you.
I’ll make you famous;
    you’ll be a blessing.
I’ll bless those who bless you;
    those who curse you I’ll curse.
All the families of the Earth
    will be blessed through you.”

4-6 So Abram left just as God said, and Lot left with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot with him, along with all the possessions and people they had gotten in Haran, and set out for the land of Canaan and arrived safe and sound.

Abram passed through the country as far as Shechem and the Oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites occupied the land.

7 God appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your children.” Abram built an altar at the place God had appeared to him.

8 He moved on from there to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent between Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. He built an altar there and prayed to God.

9 Abram kept moving, steadily making his way south, to the Negev.

10-13 Then a famine came to the land. Abram went down to Egypt to live; it was a hard famine. As he drew near to Egypt, he said to his wife, Sarai, “Look. We both know that you’re a beautiful woman. When the Egyptians see you they’re going to say, ‘Aha! That’s his wife!’ and kill me. But they’ll let you live. Do me a favor: tell them you’re my sister. Because of you, they’ll welcome me and let me live.”

14-15 When Abram arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians took one look and saw that his wife was stunningly beautiful. Pharaoh’s princes raved over her to Pharaoh. She was taken to live with Pharaoh.

16-17 Because of her, Abram got along very well: he accumulated sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, men and women servants, and camels. But God hit Pharaoh hard because of Abram’s wife Sarai; everybody in the palace got seriously sick.

18-19 Pharaoh called for Abram, “What’s this that you’ve done to me? Why didn’t you tell me that she’s your wife? Why did you say, ‘She’s my sister’ so that I’d take her as my wife? Here’s your wife back—take her and get out!”

20 Pharaoh ordered his men to get Abram out of the country. They sent him and his wife and everything he owned on their way.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Friday, May 07, 2021

Read: Ephesians 6:10–20

The Armor of God
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. 19 Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

INSIGHT
Writing from prison, Paul ignored his physical hardships and instead warned of the spiritual nature of the battle we wage: “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against . . . the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12). The weapons for this battle are defensive (vv. 14–17), with one exception—“the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (v. 17). Our real battle is spiritual, and God’s Holy Spirit is absolutely essential for this struggle. Therefore, we’re to “pray in the Spirit on all occasions” (v. 18).

By Monica La Rose
The Right Words

Pray for me, too. Ask God to give me the right words so I can boldly explain God’s mysterious plan. Ephesians 6:19 nlt

In the past year or so, a number of authors have urged believers to take a fresh look at the “vocabulary” of our faith. One writer, for example, emphasized that even theologically rich words of faith can lose their impact when, through overfamiliarity and overuse, we lose touch with the depths of the gospel and our need for God. When that happens, he suggested, we may need to relearn the language of faith “from scratch,” letting go of our assumptions until we can see the good news for the first time.

The invitation to learn to “speak God from scratch” reminds me of Paul, who devoted his life to “[becoming] all things to all people . . . for the sake of the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:22–23). He never assumed he knew best how to communicate what Jesus had done. Instead, he relied on constant prayer and pleaded for fellow believers to pray for him as well—to help him find “the right words” (Ephesians 6:19 nlt) to share the good news.

The apostle also knew the need for each believer in Christ to remain humble and receptive each day to their need for deeper roots in His love (3:16–17). It’s only as we deepen our roots in God’s love, each day becoming more aware of our dependence on His grace, that we can begin to find the right words to share the incredible news of what He’s done for us.

When have you had an experience of seeing the gospel in a new way for the first time? How can prayer keep your heart receptive to your constant need for God’s grace?

Loving God, forgive me for, far too often, taking Your grace and goodness for granted. Help me to daily grasp in new ways the depths of Your grace and love. And help me find the right words to share what You’ve done.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, May 07, 2021

Building For Eternity

Which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it… —Luke 14:28

Our Lord was not referring here to a cost which we have to count, but to a cost which He has already counted. The cost was those thirty years in Nazareth, those three years of popularity, scandal, and hatred, the unfathomable agony He experienced in Gethsemane, and the assault upon Him at Calvary— the central point upon which all of time and eternity turn. Jesus Christ has counted the cost. In the final analysis, people are not going to laugh at Him and say, “This man began to build and was not able to finish” (Luke 14:30).

The conditions of discipleship given to us by our Lord in verses 26, 27, and 33 mean that the men and women He is going to use in His mighty building enterprises are those in whom He has done everything. “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple ” (Luke 14:26). This verse teaches us that the only men and women our Lord will use in His building enterprises are those who love Him personally, passionately, and with great devotion— those who have a love for Him that goes far beyond any of the closest relationships on earth. The conditions are strict, but they are glorious.

All that we build is going to be inspected by God. When God inspects us with His searching and refining fire, will He detect that we have built enterprises of our own on the foundation of Jesus? (see 1 Corinthians 3:10-15). We are living in a time of tremendous enterprises, a time when we are trying to work for God, and that is where the trap is. Profoundly speaking, we can never work for God. Jesus, as the Master Builder, takes us over so that He may direct and control us completely for His enterprises and His building plans; and no one has any right to demand where he will be put to work.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

Seeing is never believing: we interpret what we see in the light of what we believe. Faith is confidence in God before you see God emerging; therefore the nature of faith is that it must be tried.  He Shall Glorify Me, 494 R

Bible in a Year: 2 Kings 1-3; Luke 24:1-35

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, May 07, 2021
A Parent You Can Be Proud Of - #8955

I guess parental pride comes with your baby's birth certificate. I mean, you brag about their first word, their first steps. We show off pictures of our babies, and then if they're ever selected for a solo or a starting position later in life, or they get a part in something or an award, we will be there to take pictures, get video, whatever. A parent has a special glow when his son or daughter makes him proud. Of course, it's supposed to work the other way, too.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Parent You Can Be Proud Of."

Our word for today from the Word of God: we're in Proverbs 17:6. Listen to this: "Children's children are a crown to the aged...and parents are the pride of their children." Now, it doesn't talk about children being the pride of their parents here. This is the other way around. Parents are supposed to make their kids proud according to God's Word.

Not so much that the kids are running around showing off pictures of Mom or Dad, or taking lots of photos at some public event where Mom and Dad are on the platform. No, see, parents tend to be proud of their children's achievements; kids tend to be proud of their parent's character. It's not so much what Mom or Dad do that makes a young person proud, it's what they are.

See, our kids know the realities behind the image that everybody else sees, and they're proud of us if the reality - I mean the real person that they know on a day-to-day basis when nobody's looking - if that person is a person of quality, consistency, compassion, selflessness and character. Now, what kind of a parent fulfills this Proverbs profile and makes their son or daughter proud?

First of all, I think it's one who treats their friends with respect. You may or may not like all the choices of friends that your child makes, but you make them proud when as their friends come and go, their friends are treated specially, they're given good treatment; they're given royal treatment. They get a sense of how valuable they are to God. By the way, if you want to have influence over your child's friends, you win the right to comment on their friends as you treat them special when those friends are with you.

I think another way to be a parent they can be proud of is to treat them with respect in public. Discipline them, correct them in private; praise, brag about them, build them up when you're in public. Thirdly, I think you can be a parent to be proud of when you treat their views with respect. Hear them out; don't respond like you know what they're going to say or that you don't care what they're going to say. Hear the whole paragraph, the whole page, not just a sentence. The Bible says, "He who answers before listening, that is his folly. That is his shame." Respect their privacy. I think a parent to be proud of has a positive attitude, you're not a complainer, you're not a whiner, you're not a critic. And you respect other views, but you take a stand for your own.

When my daughter was in college, she was homesick one time, and somebody said, "Wh

y?" She said, "Because I miss talking to my best friend." They said, "Oh yeah, who's that?" She said, "Oh, that's my Mom." See, it may not be cool to advertise that your best friend is your Mother. But our daughter has in her Mother a parent to be proud of. I can only hope the same is true for my sons with their Father.

God intends that your character, your attitude of respect and love, that that will be a source of pride to your son and daughter. So, I'm just hoping that your child has a parent to be proud of.

Genesis 11, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: THE DOOR TO JOY - May 6, 2021

Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). The words of Jesus are spot-on. When you give, it has a boomerang effect. Happiness happens when we give it away. That’s such great news.

You can’t control your genetics, the weather, the traffic, or the occupant of the White House. But you can always increase the number of smiles on our planet. You—yes, you—can help people to sleep better, laugh more, hum instead of grumble, walk instead of stumble. You can lighten the load and brighten the day of other human beings.

And don’t be surprised when you begin to sense a newfound joy yourself. This is the unexpected door to joy. And standing at the entryway to welcome you is Jesus of Nazareth. It’s how happiness happens.

Genesis 11

“God Turned Their Language into ‘Babble’”
11 1-2 At one time, the whole Earth spoke the same language. It so happened that as they moved out of the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled down.

3 They said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks and fire them well.” They used brick for stone and tar for mortar.

4 Then they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower that reaches Heaven. Let’s make ourselves famous so we won’t be scattered here and there across the Earth.”

5 God came down to look over the city and the tower those people had built.

6-9 God took one look and said, “One people, one language; why, this is only a first step. No telling what they’ll come up with next—they’ll stop at nothing! Come, we’ll go down and garble their speech so they won’t understand each other.” Then God scattered them from there all over the world. And they had to quit building the city. That’s how it came to be called Babel, because there God turned their language into “babble.” From there God scattered them all over the world.

* * *

10-11 This is the story of Shem. When Shem was 100 years old, he had Arphaxad. It was two years after the flood. After he had Arphaxad, he lived 500 more years and had other sons and daughters.

12-13 When Arphaxad was thirty-five years old, he had Shelah. After Arphaxad had Shelah, he lived 403 more years and had other sons and daughters.

14-15 When Shelah was thirty years old, he had Eber. After Shelah had Eber, he lived 403 more years and had other sons and daughters.

16-17 When Eber was thirty-four years old, he had Peleg. After Eber had Peleg, he lived 430 more years and had other sons and daughters.

18-19 When Peleg was thirty years old, he had Reu. After he had Reu, he lived 209 more years and had other sons and daughters.

20-21 When Reu was thirty-two years old, he had Serug. After Reu had Serug, he lived 207 more years and had other sons and daughters.

22-23 When Serug was thirty years old, he had Nahor. After Serug had Nahor, he lived 200 more years and had other sons and daughters.

24-25 When Nahor was twenty-nine years old, he had Terah. After Nahor had Terah, he lived 119 more years and had other sons and daughters.

26 When Terah was seventy years old, he had Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

The Family Tree of Terah
27-28 This is the story of Terah. Terah had Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Haran had Lot. Haran died before his father, Terah, in the country of his family, Ur of the Chaldees.

29 Abram and Nahor each got married. Abram’s wife was Sarai; Nahor’s wife was Milcah, the daughter of his brother Haran. Haran had two daughters, Milcah and Iscah.

30 Sarai was barren; she had no children.

31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (Haran’s son), and Sarai his daughter-in-law (his son Abram’s wife) and set out with them from Ur of the Chaldees for the land of Canaan. But when they got as far as Haran, they settled down there.

32 Terah lived 205 years. He died in Haran.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Thursday, May 06, 2021

Read: Psalm 88:1–13

A song. A psalm of the Sons of Korah. For the director of music. According to mahalath leannoth.[b] A maskil[c] of Heman the Ezrahite.
1 Lord, you are the God who saves me;
    day and night I cry out to you.
2 May my prayer come before you;
    turn your ear to my cry.

3 I am overwhelmed with troubles
    and my life draws near to death.
4 I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
    I am like one without strength.
5 I am set apart with the dead,
    like the slain who lie in the grave,
whom you remember no more,
    who are cut off from your care.

6 You have put me in the lowest pit,
    in the darkest depths.
7 Your wrath lies heavily on me;
    you have overwhelmed me with all your waves.[d]
8 You have taken from me my closest friends
    and have made me repulsive to them.
I am confined and cannot escape;
9     my eyes are dim with grief.

I call to you, Lord, every day;
    I spread out my hands to you.
10 Do you show your wonders to the dead?
    Do their spirits rise up and praise you?
11 Is your love declared in the grave,
    your faithfulness in Destruction[e]?
12 Are your wonders known in the place of darkness,
    or your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?

13 But I cry to you for help, Lord;
    in the morning my prayer comes before you.

Footnotes
Psalm 88:1 In Hebrew texts 88:1-18 is numbered 88:2-19.
Psalm 88:1 Title: Possibly a tune, “The Suffering of Affliction”
Psalm 88:1 Title: Probably a literary or musical term
Psalm 88:7 The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here and at the end of verse 10.
Psalm 88:11 Hebrew Abaddon

INSIGHT
The book of Psalms is the hymnbook of ancient Israel. The amazing collection of 150 psalms includes songs of lament where the writers—who are faced with difficult, painful, and confusing circumstances—pour out their hearts lyrically to God. Some believe that nearly one-third of the psalms are laments (personal or national). Songs of lament include these features, as seen in Psalm 88: a description of the dilemma (vv. 3–9); the asking of questions (vv. 10–12; see Psalm 13:1–2); calling or crying out to God in the midst of unpleasant circumstances (vv. 1–2, 9, 13); and, more often than not, hope in and praise to God.

By Arthur Jackson
Heavy but Hopeful

Lord, you are the God who saves me. Psalm 88:1

In a Peanuts comic strip, the very enterprising character Lucy advertised “psychiatric help” for five cents. Linus found his way to her office and acknowledged his “deep feelings of depression.” When he asked her what he could do about his condition, Lucy’s quick reply was, “Snap out of it! Five cents, please.”

While such lighthearted entertainment brings a momentary smile, the sadness and gloom that can grip us when real life happens is not that easily dismissed. Feelings of hopelessness and despair are real, and sometimes professional attention is needed.

Lucy’s advice wasn’t helpful in addressing real anguish. However, the writer of Psalm 88 does offer something instructive and hopeful. A truckload of trouble had arrived at his doorstep. And so, with raw honesty, he poured out his heart to God. “I am overwhelmed with troubles and my life draws near to death” (v. 3). “You have put me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths” (v. 6). “Darkness is my closest friend” (v. 18). We hear, feel, and perhaps identify with the psalmist’s pain. Yet, that’s not all. His lament is laced with hope. “Lord, you are the God who saves me; day and night I cry out to you. May my prayer come before you; turn your ear to my cry” (vv. 1–2; see vv. 9, 13). Heavy things do come and practical steps such as counsel and medical care may be needed. But never abandon hope in God.

When have you turned to God in the midst of your despair? What’s keeping you from crying out to Him now?

Father, help me to see Your open, welcome arms regardless of my situation.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, May 06, 2021
Liberty and the Standards of Jesus

Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free… —Galatians 5:1

A spiritually-minded person will never come to you with the demand— “Believe this and that”; a spiritually-minded person will demand that you align your life with the standards of Jesus. We are not asked to believe the Bible, but to believe the One whom the Bible reveals (see John 5:39-40). We are called to present liberty for the conscience of others, not to bring them liberty for their thoughts and opinions. And if we ourselves are free with the liberty of Christ, others will be brought into that same liberty— the liberty that comes from realizing the absolute control and authority of Jesus Christ.

Always measure your life solely by the standards of Jesus. Submit yourself to His yoke, and His alone; and always be careful never to place a yoke on others that is not of Jesus Christ. It takes God a long time to get us to stop thinking that unless everyone sees things exactly as we do, they must be wrong. That is never God’s view. There is only one true liberty— the liberty of Jesus at work in our conscience enabling us to do what is right.

Don’t get impatient with others. Remember how God dealt with you— with patience and with gentleness. But never water down the truth of God. Let it have its way and never apologize for it. Jesus said, “Go…and make disciples…” (Matthew 28:19), not, “Make converts to your own thoughts and opinions.”

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

Wherever the providence of God may dump us down, in a slum, in a shop, in the desert, we have to labour along the line of His direction. Never allow this thought—“I am of no use where I am,” because you certainly can be of no use where you are not! Wherever He has engineered your circumstances, pray. So Send I You, 1325 L

Bible in a Year: 1 Kings 21-22; Luke 23:26-56

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, May 06, 2021

In the Path of the Storm - #8954

Well, I went to get an additional weather alert radio for our home. They were out. I probably shouldn't have been surprised. Not in light of the tornadoes we've been having, what they've done to lives and property across eleven states. And we weren't far from one of those ourselves.

I think it's heart-wrenching to watch every spring. With all the shock and loss, everybody was saying, "It could have been so much worse." USA Today had an article, and it talked about "killer tornadoes aftermath" and the article declared, "Amid tragedy, 'thank God.'"

One man in Indiana lost his house and his horses, but he was thanking God his family was okay, and they were quoting him. His comment was that "he had enough warning of the storms' approach to leave for safer ground." And so he said, "Thank God."

You know, that seemed to be the common denominator of every survival story I've seen. They had a warning. They heeded the warning; responding to the warning and taking shelter where it's safe. That's literally the difference between life and death for now and forever.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "In the Path of the Storm."

Years ago, I heard God's warning about the storm that's coming, and His invitation to go to the one place where I could be safe, and it changed everything.

In our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus issues a sobering eternity warning in John 8:24. He said, "If you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins." See, to die unforgiven is to stand in the path of the storm, because sin, which is the aborting of the Creator's plan for me, rejecting Him being God so I could be god of my life, well, that carries with it intrinsic judgment.

A sinless God can't allow me and my sin in His presence. So, as the Bible says, "Your sins have separated you from your God" (Isaiah 59:2). Living without Him is hard. Dying without Him is hell. With God's warning also comes God's way to escape the storm. See, the same God I've turned my back on - whose judgment for my sin comes closer every day - acted with this radical, incalculable love to provide a safe place for my soul and yours. Again, the Bible, "God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us" (Romans 5:8). That's God's Son dying an excruciating death on a cross for us, in our place, absorbing the storm of God's judgment on my sin so I would never have to. To this day, that love that held nothing back overwhelms me beyond words.

I remember hearing how Native Americans saved their villages from raging prairie fires years ago. They actually set a fire to stop a fire. They burned the ground around the village to deprive the fire of the fuel it needed. And they said, "The fire cannot come where the fire has already been."

Well, that's what happened at Jesus' cross. The fire of God's judgment on our sin fell on God's Son instead. So, as the Bible says, "whoever believes in Him is not condemned" (John 3:18). When I embrace Jesus and His sacrifice as the payment for my sin, the forgiveness He purchased on the cross becomes mine, and every sin is erased from God's book forever.

When a storm warning is issued, you can stand totally exposed to the killer storm. Or you can go where you're safe from the storm. That's the choice God gives us about the Son He sent to save us. "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life" (John 3:36).

The warning's been sounded. We're all in the path of the storm, but there is one safe place. The cross where Jesus died for you. And then that empty tomb where He walked out of His grave so He could walk into your life today and erase your sin.

I want you to go to our website. Because there is all the information you'll need to get this settled. It's ANewStory.com. Because God's question when we enter eternity is going to be this: "What did you do with My Son?" Because of what His Son did for you.

Genesis 10 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: SEEKING JOY? - May 5, 2021

Doing good does good for the doer. Research bears this out. When volunteers were put in a functional MRI scanner and told they would be giving some of their money to charity, the areas of their brains associated with pleasure—like food and sex— lit up like Christmas trees. Giving to help others triggers dopamine. Perhaps that could be a new fund-raising slogan?

In another study a team of social psychologists distilled happiness factors into eight common denominators. Two of the first three involve helping others. Happy, contented people “devote a great amount of time to their family and friends, nurturing and enjoying those relationships.” And “they are often the first to offer a helping hand to co-workers and passers-by.” Seeking joy? Do good for someone else. This is how happiness happens.

Genesis 10

The Family Tree of Noah’s Sons
10 This is the family tree of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. After the flood, they themselves had sons.

2 The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, Tiras.

3 The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, Togarmah.

4-5 The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, Rodanim. The seafaring peoples developed from these, each in its own place by family, each with its own language.

6 The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, Canaan.

7 The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, Sabteca.

The sons of Raamah: Sheba, Dedan.

8-12 Cush also had Nimrod. He was the first great warrior on Earth. He was a great hunter before God. There was a saying, “Like Nimrod, a great hunter before God.” His kingdom got its start with Babel; then Erech, Akkad, and Calneh in the country of Shinar. From there he went up to Asshur and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and the great city Calah.

13-14 Egypt was ancestor to the Ludim, the Anamim, the Lehabim, the Naphtuhim, the Pathrusim, the Casluhim (the origin of the Philistines), and the Kaphtorim.

15-19 Canaan had Sidon his firstborn, Heth, the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Later the Canaanites spread out, going from Sidon toward Gerar, as far south as Gaza, and then east all the way over to Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and on to Lasha.

20 These are the descendants of Ham by family, language, country, and nation.

21 Shem, the older brother of Japheth, also had sons. Shem was ancestor to all the children of Eber.

22 The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram.

23 The sons of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether, Meshech.

24-25 Arphaxad had Shelah and Shelah had Eber. Eber had two sons, Peleg (so named because in his days the human race divided) and Joktan.

26-30 Joktan had Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab—all sons of Joktan. Their land goes from Mesha toward Sephar as far as the mountain ranges in the east.

31 These are the descendants of Shem by family, language, country, and nation.

32 This is the family tree of the sons of Noah as they developed into nations. From them nations developed all across the Earth after the flood.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Wednesday, May 05, 2021

Read: Philippians 3:7–11

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in[a] Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

Footnotes
Philippians 3:9 Or through the faithfulness of

NSIGHT
In Paul’s letter to believers in Christ in Philippi, he uses his own story to show the difference between two ways of thinking about spiritual righteousness—rightness in one’s own eyes and rightness in the eyes of God. Paul had advanced in a religious culture of proud ritual compliance. Only after meeting the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus did he learn about rightness of the heart. Only in the blessedness of brokenness did he see his need for mercy. Religious self-righteousness had fueled the violence he inflicted on believers in Jesus whom he believed posed a danger to the faith and peace of Israel. Only after hearing Christ say, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4) did he discover a rightness of heart that led him to suffer for others as Jesus had suffered for him.

By Dave Branon
It’s Who You Know

I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Philippians 3:8

In early 2019, Charlie VanderMeer died at the age of eighty-four. For many decades, he was known to thousands and thousands of people as Uncle Charlie, the host of the national radio broadcast Children’s Bible Hour. The day before Uncle Charlie slipped into eternity, he told a good friend, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Of course, I’m talking about Jesus Christ.”

Even as he faced the end of his life, Uncle Charlie couldn’t help but talk about Jesus and the necessity for people to receive Him as their Savior.

The apostle Paul considered knowing Jesus his most important task: “I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him” (Philippians 3:8–9). And how do we know Jesus? “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).

We may know facts about Jesus, we may know all about the church, and we may even be familiar with the Bible. But the only way to know Jesus as Savior is to accept His free gift of salvation. He’s the Who we need to know.

In your relationship with Jesus, how have you experienced that it’s Who you know, not what? What has Christ’s forgiveness meant to you?

Father God, I pray for all who’ve yet to come to know Jesus by believing in Him and accepting His sacrifice on their behalf. And if I’m one who hasn’t received Jesus as my Savior, may I confess with my mouth “Jesus is Lord” today.

To learn more about who Jesus is, visit ChristianUniversity.org/NT109-03.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, May 05, 2021
Judgment and the Love of God

The time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God… —1 Peter 4:17

The Christian servant must never forget that salvation is God’s idea, not man’s; therefore, it has an unfathomable depth. Salvation is the great thought of God, not an experience. Experience is simply the door through which salvation comes into the conscious level of our life so that we are aware of what has taken place on a much deeper level. Never preach the experience— preach the great thought of God behind the experience. When we preach, we are not simply proclaiming how people can be saved from hell and be made moral and pure; we are conveying good news about God.

In the teachings of Jesus Christ the element of judgment is always brought out— it is the sign of the love of God. Never sympathize with someone who finds it difficult to get to God; God is not to blame. It is not for us to figure out the reason for the difficulty, but only to present the truth of God so that the Spirit of God will reveal what is wrong. The greatest test of the quality of our preaching is whether or not it brings everyone to judgment. When the truth is preached, the Spirit of God brings each person face to face with God Himself.

If Jesus ever commanded us to do something that He was unable to equip us to accomplish, He would be a liar. And if we make our own inability a stumbling block or an excuse not to be obedient, it means that we are telling God that there is something which He has not yet taken into account. Every element of our own self-reliance must be put to death by the power of God. The moment we recognize our complete weakness and our dependence upon Him will be the very moment that the Spirit of God will exhibit His power.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

We never enter into the Kingdom of God by having our head questions answered, but only by commitment.
The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption

Bible in a Year: 1 Kings 19-20; Luke 23:1-25


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, May 05, 2021

Your Surprising Platform - #8953

Do you want me to speak from the floor or up on a platform? See, sometimes I'm asked to make that choice before I speak somewhere. Now, I would rather be on the floor, given that choice, because I just like to be closer to the people I'm speaking to. The problem is, if I do that, I will disappear. I know on the radio you think I'm like six foot six. Well, in person I can only seem to muster, you know, about five feet six inches or something like that. But if I'm standing down on the floor kind of on everybody else's level, then you might as well be listening to a recording, because you can't see the expression on my face. So I need to be above the crowd at least a little in order to best communicate my message. See, I need a platform. So do you.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Surprising Platform."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Philippians 1. I'm going to begin reading at verse 12. Paul is in one of the most confining and probably most discouraging situations of his life. But listen to what he says as he writes from prison, "Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly."

Paul is telling us here that the gospel that he wanted to carry to Rome is now penetrating Caesar's household through the Praetorian Guard, because those guards have been chained to him in prison and they've heard the gospel. And it says that many other people have gone out to preach the gospel because Paul is out of commission. His mission is being accomplished because of his imprisonment. In other words he's saying that the worst thing that ever happened to me, this imprisonment, has given me the best platform for my message.

Maybe there's someone's life that you've been wanting to get into with the gospel so they could be in heaven with you someday. You have no platform from which they would listen to you. And then comes maybe one of the worst things that can ever happen to you in your lifetime; one of those really bad things in life. For example, I think about the worst thing that ever happened to one young man I know, at least up to that point in his life. He blew out his knee playing high school football. At least up to that point that certainly was the worst thing. His greatest dream; the most important thing in his life was to play football. Boom! His knee changed everything.

He'd been praying for a fellow player and for his family; a young man who had been really hooked on drug addiction. The young man told me that he had a chance to share Christ for 35 minutes with this addicted player's mom. I said, "How in the world did that happen, she's listening to a teenage guy share Christ for 35 minutes?" He said, "Well, she wanted to know how I could handle this disappointment." I thought, "Man, what an opening!" And he told her it was because of Christ. He said the worst thing that ever happened to him became the best platform he ever had to deliver that message.

That could be you, too. Any time's a good time to share what Christ can do. Our life isn't always filled with good times. That's the difference Christ makes when you lose someone you love, when you're betrayed, when you're a victim of injustice, or when your whole world caves in. Sometimes it is those ugly, painful events that give you the right, that give you the credentials to speak about your Lord.

Joni Erickson Tada - she said the worst thing that ever happened in her life was the day she dove into a bay and as a teenage girl was paralyzed from that day on. And yet, that has given her a worldwide platform to share her Christ. And people listen because of that wheelchair.

What you think is disaster today might be making you a place from which you can share Jesus with someone, and they'll listen because of what you've been through. That could be your surprising platform to change someone else's eternal address.

Matthew 3, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: CHANGE DOORS - May 4, 2021

As one Harvard professor said, “We think money will bring lots of happiness for a long time; actually it brings a little happiness for a short time.” We’ve all seen happy peasants and miserable millionaires, right? There is another option. It requires no credit card, monthly mortgage, or stroke of fortune. It demands no airline tickets or hotel reservations. Age and ethnicity and gender are not factors. You don’t have to change jobs, change cities, change looks, or change neighborhoods.

But you might need to change doors. The motto on the front door says “Happiness happens when you get.” The sign on the lesser-used back door counters “Happiness happens when you give.” Doing good does good for the doer. This is how happiness happens.

Matthew 3

Thunder in the Desert!

While Jesus was living in the Galilean hills, John, called “the Baptizer,” was preaching in the desert country of Judea. His message was simple and austere, like his desert surroundings: “Change your life. God’s kingdom is here.”

3 John and his message were authorized by Isaiah’s prophecy:

Thunder in the desert!
Prepare for God’s arrival!
Make the road smooth and straight!

4-6 John dressed in a camel-hair habit tied at the waist by a leather strap. He lived on a diet of locusts and wild field honey. People poured out of Jerusalem, Judea, and the Jordanian countryside to hear and see him in action. There at the Jordan River those who came to confess their sins were baptized into a changed life.

7-10 When John realized that a lot of Pharisees and Sadducees were showing up for a baptismal experience because it was becoming the popular thing to do, he exploded: “Brood of snakes! What do you think you’re doing slithering down here to the river? Do you think a little water on your snakeskins is going to make any difference? It’s your life that must change, not your skin! And don’t think you can pull rank by claiming Abraham as father. Being a descendant of Abraham is neither here nor there. Descendants of Abraham are a dime a dozen. What counts is your life. Is it green and flourishing? Because if it’s deadwood, it goes on the fire.

11-12 “I’m baptizing you here in the river, turning your old life in for a kingdom life. The real action comes next: The main character in this drama—compared to him I’m a mere stagehand—will ignite the kingdom life within you, a fire within you, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He’s going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He’ll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he’ll put out with the trash to be burned.”

* * *

13-14 Jesus then appeared, arriving at the Jordan River from Galilee. He wanted John to baptize him. John objected, “I’m the one who needs to be baptized, not you!”

15 But Jesus insisted. “Do it. God’s work, putting things right all these centuries, is coming together right now in this baptism.” So John did it.

16-17 The moment Jesus came up out of the baptismal waters, the skies opened up and he saw God’s Spirit—it looked like a dove—descending and landing on him. And along with the Spirit, a voice: “This is my Son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Tuesday, May 04, 2021

Read: Daniel 3:13–18, 25–27

Furious with rage, Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. So these men were brought before the king, 14 and Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up? 15 Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?”

16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us[a] from Your Majesty’s hand. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

Footnotes
Daniel 3:17 Or If the God we serve is able to deliver us, then he will deliver us from the blazing furnace and

He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”

26 Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!”

So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire, 27 and the satraps, prefects, governors and royal advisers crowded around them. They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them.

INSIGHT
Whether the image Nebuchadnezzar set up (Daniel 3:14) was of the king himself or a representative of a deity, anyone who dared to disobey his order would be punished. His pride was clear from his arrogant claim: “If you do not worship [the image], you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?” (v. 15). However, he didn’t take into consideration that the God of gods would fight on behalf of His people (see also 2 Kings 18:32–33).

By Alyson Kieda
Fueled by Fire

If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us . . . . But even if he does not . . . we will not serve your gods. Daniel 3:17–18

When two firefighters, weary and sooty, stopped at a restaurant for breakfast, the waitress recognized the men from the news and realized they’d spent the night battling a warehouse fire. To show her appreciation, she wrote a note on their bill, “Your breakfast is on me today. Thank you . . . for serving others and for running into the places everyone else runs away from. . . . Fueled by fire and driven by courage, what an example you are.”

In the Old Testament, we see an example of courage in the actions of three young men: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Daniel 3). Instead of obeying the mandate to bow down to a statue of the Babylonian king, these young men courageously showed their love for God through their refusal. Their penalty was to be thrown into a blazing furnace. Yet the men didn’t back down: “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not . . . we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold” (vv. 17–18).

God did rescue them and even walked with them in the fire (vv. 25–27). In our fiery trials and troubles today, we too have the assurance that God is with us. He is able.

When have you felt God’s presence during a difficult trial? What gives you confidence to press on when challenges come?

Almighty God, thank You for being with me in the fire and for comforting me with Your presence.

INSIGH

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, May 04, 2021

Vicarious Intercession

…having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus… —Hebrews 10:19

Beware of thinking that intercession means bringing our own personal sympathies and concerns into the presence of God, and then demanding that He do whatever we ask. Our ability to approach God is due entirely to the vicarious, or substitutionary, identification of our Lord with sin. We have “boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus.”

Spiritual stubbornness is the most effective hindrance to intercession, because it is based on a sympathetic “understanding” of things we see in ourselves and others that we think needs no atonement. We have the idea that there are certain good and virtuous things in each of us that do not need to be based on the atonement by the Cross of Christ. Just the sluggishness and lack of interest produced by this kind of thinking makes us unable to intercede. We do not identify ourselves with God’s interests and concerns for others, and we get irritated with Him. Yet we are always ready with our own ideas, and our intercession becomes only the glorification of our own natural sympathies. We have to realize that the identification of Jesus with sin means a radical change of all of our sympathies and interests. Vicarious intercession means that we deliberately substitute God’s interests in others for our natural sympathy with them.

Am I stubborn or substituted? Am I spoiled or complete in my relationship to God? Am I irritable or spiritual? Am I determined to have my own way or determined to be identified with Him?

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

“When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” We all have faith in good principles, in good management, in good common sense, but who amongst us has faith in Jesus Christ? Physical courage is grand, moral courage is grander, but the man who trusts Jesus Christ in the face of the terrific problems of life is worth a whole crowd of heroes.  The Highest Good, 544 R

Bible in a Year: 1 Kings 16-18; Luke 22:47-71

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, May 04, 2021

Every Scar Has a Story - #8952

I've got to tell you, I was really moved by Lincoln's story. He actually is a respected African-American pastor that I've had the privilege to get to know. One day he told me a little of his personal history, and it's like the histories of so many African-Americans. His father was a sharecropper, his grandfather was a slave.

And at the age of 11, Lincoln's grandfather had been taken from his mother and sold on the auction block, never to see his mother again. Amazingly, his grandfather seemed to carry no bitterness, no anger as he told his grandson about his childhood as a slave. But he did show his grandson his scars; the ones inflicted on him by his slave master. And my friend has never forgotten what Grandpa told him about those scars, "Every scar," he said, "has a story." I'm sure it did.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Every Scar Has a Story."

When God's Son left heaven and came here to earth, He was beaten, too. He had scars from his beatings, and every scar tells a story, and you and I are that story. It's about how very, very much He loves you.

God talks about it actually in our word for today from the Word of God in Isaiah 53:3. It's a description of what Jesus Christ went through for you and me. It says, "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering...He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him." Now, listen, remember who this is. This is the sinless Son of Almighty God, the one the Bible calls the "Prince of glory" (1 Corinthians 2:8). And He's pierced, punished, and crushed. Not for anything He did, but for all for things you and I did. Because He had come to absorb the punishment for every wrong thing we've ever done.

There's only one thing Jesus took back to heaven from earth - the scars. The nail prints in His hands and feet; the ones that are there because of how very much He loves me and you. Every scar has a story. The wounds of Jesus tell us, "Your sins require an awful death penalty, and I've paid that price so you can be forgiven. I don't want to lose you."

I guess you can see why God will never forget what you do with His Son, and why it is fatal to depend on anything other than Jesus to get right with God, to go to heaven. Maybe you've been counting on your Christian knowledge, or your Christian background, or your Christian connections, or your Christian religion, or some Christian ritual. Maybe you're hoping to make it because of how religious you are or how good you've been.

But if any of those things could have gotten you to heaven, there is no way Jesus would have gone through what He did for you on the cross. His death is your only hope of heaven, your only hope of being forgiven.

And He's been waiting for you to respond to His love for a long time, by giving yourself to the One who gave Himself completely for you. You know you could do that right where you are today. Just tell Him, "Jesus, thank You for what You went through to pay for all the wrong things that I've ever done. I'm turning the wheel of my life over to You. You're my only hope, and beginning right now, Jesus, I'm Yours."

Finally, you can belong to Jesus, not just believe things about Him. If you want to make sure that you have begun a personal relationship with Him, let me invite you to go to our website and check it out. That's why it's there. Right there simply you can see briefly how you can be sure you have that relationship with Jesus. It's ANewStory.com.

See, the scars of Jesus tell the story of how very much He loves you. There's an old hymn that says it pretty well, "I shall know Him, as redeemed by His side I shall stand. I shall know my Redeemer when I reach the other side by the print of the nails in His hands."