Psalm 17, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: YOUR HEART IS HIS TABERNACLE - October 6, 2022
During the wilderness wanderings there came a wonderful moment. God had instructed Moses to build a tabernacle in which he would dwell. Once the project was complete, the majestic cloud, which had hovered above them, descended from on high and entered the holy place. From that moment on every child of Israel could point to the tabernacle and say, “God is in there.”
Gesture to your heart and say, “God is in here.” On the day you decided to follow Jesus, an unseen miracle occurred. The Holy Spirit descended from the heavens, ever spinning until the moment the motion stopped directly over your body. He took up residence within you. He turned your heart into his tabernacle. “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” (1 Corinthians 3:16 NIV).

Psalm 17
Listen while I build my case, God,
    the most honest prayer you’ll ever hear.
Show the world I’m innocent—
    in your heart you know I am.
3 Go ahead, examine me from inside out,
    surprise me in the middle of the night—
You’ll find I’m just what I say I am.
    My words don’t run loose.
4-5 I’m not trying to get my way
    in the world’s way.
I’m trying to get your way,
    your Word’s way.
I’m staying on your trail;
    I’m putting one foot
In front of the other.
    I’m not giving up.
6-7 I call to you, God, because I’m sure of an answer.
    So—answer! bend your ear! listen sharp!
Paint grace-graffiti on the fences;
    take in your frightened children who
Are running from the neighborhood bullies
    straight to you.
8-9 Keep your eye on me;
    hide me under your cool wing feathers
From the wicked who are out to get me,
    from mortal enemies closing in.
10-14 Their hearts are hard as nails,
    their mouths blast hot air.
They are after me, nipping my heels,
    determined to bring me down,
Lions ready to rip me apart,
    young lions poised to pounce.
Up, God: beard them! break them!
    By your sword, free me from their clutches;
Barehanded, God, break these mortals,
    these flat-earth people who can’t think beyond today.
I’d like to see their bellies
    swollen with famine food,
The weeds they’ve sown
    harvested and baked into famine bread,
With second helpings for their children
    and crusts for their babies to chew on.
15 And me? I plan on looking
    you full in the face. When I get up,
I’ll see your full stature
    and live heaven on earth.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, October 06, 2022
Today's Scripture
Leviticus 25:35–3
“If one of your brothers becomes indigent and cannot support himself, help him, the same as you would a foreigner or a guest so that he can continue to live in your neighborhood. Don’t gouge him with interest charges; out of reverence for your God help your brother to continue to live with you in the neighborhood. Don’t take advantage of his plight by running up big interest charges on his loans, and don’t give him food for profit.
Insight
In the Old Testament, the Israelites were commanded to be generous to their fellow Israelites (Deuteronomy 14:27; 15:7–11) and to foreigners and strangers (Leviticus 23:22; Deuteronomy 26:12). In the New Testament, believers in Jesus were likewise to be generous. The apostle Paul gave a good example of generosity to fellow believers in 2 Corinthians 8–9. The Macedonian church, despite their extreme poverty and during a severe trial, joyfully gave as much as they could to help the needy believers in Jerusalem. And Paul urged the Corinthians to willingly do the same, reminding them: “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously” (9:6). Today, we’re to extend that same generosity inside and outside the church: “Do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased” (Hebrews 13:16).
By: Alyson Kieda

Envisioning a Different Future
Help them . . . so they can continue to live among you. Leviticus 25:35
The three hundred middle and high school students of the small town of Neodesha, Kansas, filed into a surprise school assembly. They then sat in disbelief upon hearing that a couple with ties to their town had decided to pay college tuition for every Neodesha student for the next twenty-five years. The students were stunned, overjoyed, and tearful.
Neodesha had been hard hit economically, which meant many families worried about how to cover college expenses. The gift was a generational game-changer, and the donors hoped it would immediately impact current families but also incentivize others to move to Neodesha. They envision their generosity igniting new jobs, new vitality—an entirely different future for the town.
God desired His people to be generous by not only tending to their own acute needs but also by envisioning a new future for their struggling neighbors. God’s directions were clear: “If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and are unable to support themselves among you, help them” (Leviticus 25:35). The generosity wasn’t only about meeting basic physical needs but also about considering what their future life together as a community would require. “Help them,” God said, “so they can continue to live among you” (v. 35).
The deepest forms of giving reimagine a different future. God’s immense, creative generosity encourages us toward that day when we’ll all live together in wholeness and plenty.
By:  Winn Collier
Reflect & Pray
How does generosity meet immediate needs? How can it encourage you to also look further?
Dear God, I struggle with being generous in the most basic ways. Help me to see and act.  

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, October 06, 2022
The Nature of Regeneration
When it pleased God…to reveal His Son in me… —Galatians 1:15-16
If Jesus Christ is going to regenerate me, what is the problem He faces? It is simply this— I have a heredity in which I had no say or decision; I am not holy, nor am I likely to be; and if all Jesus Christ can do is tell me that I must be holy, His teaching only causes me to despair. But if Jesus Christ is truly a regenerator, someone who can put His own heredity of holiness into me, then I can begin to see what He means when He says that I have to be holy. Redemption means that Jesus Christ can put into anyone the hereditary nature that was in Himself, and all the standards He gives us are based on that nature— His teaching is meant to be applied to the life which He puts within us. The proper action on my part is simply to agree with God’s verdict on sin as judged on the Cross of Christ.
The New Testament teaching about regeneration is that when a person is hit by his own sense of need, God will put the Holy Spirit into his spirit, and his personal spirit will be energized by the Spirit of the Son of God— “…until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). The moral miracle of redemption is that God can put a new nature into me through which I can live a totally new life. When I finally reach the edge of my need and know my own limitations, then Jesus says, “Blessed are you…” (Matthew 5:11). But I must get to that point. God cannot put into me, the responsible moral person that I am, the nature that was in Jesus Christ unless I am aware of my need for it.
Just as the nature of sin entered into the human race through one man, the Holy Spirit entered into the human race through another Man (see Romans 5:12-19). And redemption means that I can be delivered from the heredity of sin, and that through Jesus Christ I can receive a pure and spotless heredity, namely, the Holy Spirit.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The emphasis to-day is placed on the furtherance of an organization; the note is, “We must keep this thing going.” If we are in God’s order the thing will go; if we are not in His order, it won’t.  Conformed to His Image, 357 R
Bible in a Year: Isaiah 26-27; Philippians 2

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, October 06, 2022
RUNNING AFTER YOU'VE FALLEN - #9324
Now, you know something huge has happened when my Yankees are playing the Red Sox fans' favorite song - at Yankee Stadium! Well, that's what happened when bombs suddenly rained death and destruction on the Boston Marathon. The shock waves, of course, reached around the world. And it brought back an all-too-familiar wave of sadness to my heart and a lot of others.
As always, of course, the images were seared into our memories. You know, the blast, the victims and ultimately the capture. Oh, yeah, and then there was Bill; the 78-year-old runner in the orange tank-top. He was almost to the finish line when that bomb went off, and he was the one that was blown to the pavement by the blast. With the help of a race assistant, Bill was up in a moment crossing the finish line. He finished second in his division.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Running After You've Fallen."
The President of the United States talked about Bill when he spoke at the memorial service. He used him as an example of hope and resilience. Then he looked right into the camera and addressed those who were now fighting to recover what the bombs had stolen. Twice he said, "You will run again." I was pretty moved.
Since then, I've found myself mentally replaying Bill's fall and the President's words. Replaying Bill's race because of the race I run, and the times I've been knocked down. We've all had those sudden blasts that blew us over. Right? They threatened us reaching the finish line: the medical bombshell, the marital explosion, the layoffs, the accident, or the injury, the loved one you lost.
And then there are the painful outcomes of our own bad choices: failing to do what we knew was right, or letting down the people who were counting on us. But time and again, I've heard a voice saying, "Get up, Ron. You will run again." And I did. I am.
He's done the same for so many people I know. People hit with a blast that leveled them. People who might have stayed down or been carried off, but they rose again. Because He did, after He got the most savage blast anyone has ever endured.
All the weight of all the wrong of all the world on Jesus' shoulders. All the selfishness and the pain it's caused. All the hell of all the sinning humans have ever done - that I have done.
When millions of Americans watched the bloody portrayal of Jesus' death on a mini series called "The Bible," it literally lit up social media with viewers whose hearts were breaking over what they saw Him go through. But the reality is, it was awful beyond what Hollywood could ever show. As the Bible says, "It was our sorrows that weighed Him down...He was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten so that we might have peace. He was whipped so we could be healed..." The Lord laid on Him the guilt and the sins of us all" (Isaiah 53:4-6). Wow! Knocked down, nailed to a cross, and buried behind a boulder.
But He came back. And He's been running ever since. He guarantees that all who run with Him will cross the finish line with Him. And He picks up fallen runners, and tells them, "You will run again." Whatever you've lost. Whatever you've done. Whatever's been done to you. Our word for today from the Word of God, John 14:19 Jesus says, "Because I live, you will live also." He is the Hope the blast cannot touch. He's the death-beating Savior who says, "We will finish this race together."
However far you've fallen, however devastating the blow you've endured, this Jesus can forgive you, He can restore you, and He can carry you. I'd love to help you know Him personally. In fact, today you could just say "Jesus, I'm Yours. You died for me, You love me that much. You came back to life so You could come into my life. Come in and change me."
Go to our website. You'll find there a lot of hope, a lot of answers for how to know you belong to Jesus. It's ANewStory.com. And listen to Jesus as He tells you how you can run again, and run with Him from here all the way to His heaven.

John 9:1-23, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

 
Max Lucado Daily: WHOM WILL I HEAR? - October 5, 2022
Why do we, at times, fail to detect the Holy Spirit? How can we be led by him? Here is a direct answer: “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect” (Romans 12:2 NLT).
God’s voice must outrank the voices of society. God wants us to be different. Not odd. Not peculiar. Our aim is not to blend in but to look up. If you want to hear from God, the first question you need to ask is not “What should I do?” but “Whom will I hear?” Stop following a culture that doesn’t follow God and start listening for the Spirit, who speaks on behalf of God.

John 9:1-23
True Blindness
Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked, “Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?”
3-5 Jesus said, “You’re asking the wrong question. You’re looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do. We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun shines. When night falls, the workday is over. For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world’s Light.”
6-7 He said this and then spit in the dust, made a clay paste with the saliva, rubbed the paste on the blind man’s eyes, and said, “Go, wash at the Pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “Sent”). The man went and washed—and saw.
8 Soon the town was buzzing. His relatives and those who year after year had seen him as a blind man begging were saying, “Why, isn’t this the man we knew, who sat here and begged?”
9 Others said, “It’s him all right!”
But others objected, “It’s not the same man at all. It just looks like him.”
He said, “It’s me, the very one.”
10 They said, “How did your eyes get opened?”
11 “A man named Jesus made a paste and rubbed it on my eyes and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ I did what he said. When I washed, I saw.”
12 “So where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
13-15 They marched the man to the Pharisees. This day when Jesus made the paste and healed his blindness was the Sabbath. The Pharisees grilled him again on how he had come to see. He said, “He put a clay paste on my eyes, and I washed, and now I see.”
16 Some of the Pharisees said, “Obviously, this man can’t be from God. He doesn’t keep the Sabbath.”
Others countered, “How can a bad man do miraculous, God-revealing things like this?” There was a split in their ranks.
17 They came back at the blind man, “You’re the expert. He opened your eyes. What do you say about him?”
He said, “He is a prophet.”
18-19 The Jews didn’t believe it, didn’t believe the man was blind to begin with. So they called the parents of the man now bright-eyed with sight. They asked them, “Is this your son, the one you say was born blind? So how is it that he now sees?”
20-23 His parents said, “We know he is our son, and we know he was born blind. But we don’t know how he came to see—haven’t a clue about who opened his eyes. Why don’t you ask him? He’s a grown man and can speak for himself.” (His parents were talking like this because they were intimidated by the Jewish leaders, who had already decided that anyone who took a stand that this was the Messiah would be kicked out of the meeting place. That’s why his parents said, “Ask him. He’s a grown man.”)

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, October 05, 2022
Today's Scripture
Job 1:13–22
Sometime later, while Job’s children were having one of their parties at the home of the oldest son, a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys grazing in the field next to us when Sabeans attacked. They stole the animals and killed the field hands. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”
16  While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, “Bolts of lightning struck the sheep and the shepherds and fried them—burned them to a crisp. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”
17  While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, “Chaldeans coming from three directions raided the camels and massacred the camel drivers. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”
18–19  While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, “Your children were having a party at the home of the oldest brother when a tornado swept in off the desert and struck the house. It collapsed on the young people and they died. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”
20  Job got to his feet, ripped his robe, shaved his head, then fell to the ground and worshiped:
21  Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
naked I’ll return to the womb of the earth.
God gives, God takes.
God’s name be ever blessed.
22  Not once through all this did Job sin; not once did he blame God.
Insight
Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet, “When sorrowws come, they come not single spies but in battalions.” Job would certainly have understood. Perhaps any of those trials by themselves would have been devastating, but he experienced multiple trials at once as pictured in the phrase, “while he was still speaking, another messenger came and said” (vv. 16–18). Before even having time to process one tragedy, the next was upon him. The trials described in these events picture life in a broken world.
By: Bill Crowder
Grieving and Grateful
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.

Job 1:21
After my mom died, one of her fellow cancer patients approached me. “Your mom was so kind to me," she said, sobbing. “I’m sorry she died  . . . instead of me.”
“My mom loved you,” I said. “We prayed God would let you see your boys grow up.” Holding her hands, I wept with her and asked God to help her grieve peacefully. I also thanked Him for her remission that allowed her to continue loving her husband and two growing children.
The Bible reveals the complexity of grief when Job lost almost everything, including all his children. Job grieved and “fell to the ground in worship” (Job 1:20). With a heartbreaking and hopeful act of surrender and expression of gratitude, he declared, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised” (v. 21). While Job would struggle mightily later through his grieving and God’s rebuilding of his life, in this moment he accepted and even rejoiced in His authority over the good and bad situations.
God understands the many ways we process and struggle with emotions. He invites us to grieve with honesty and vulnerability. Even when sorrow seems endless and unbearable, God affirms that He hasn’t and won’t change. With this promise, He comforts us and empowers us to be grateful for His presence.
By:  Xochitl Dixon
Reflect & Pray
When have you experienced gratitude toward God while grieving a great loss? How has He revealed His presence when you felt alone or misunderstood in your grief?
Compassionate God, thank You for knowing me and carrying me through every step of my grieving process.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, October 05, 2022
The Nature of Degeneration
Just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned… —Romans 5:12
The Bible does not say that God punished the human race for one man’s sin, but that the nature of sin, namely, my claim to my right to myself, entered into the human race through one man. But it also says that another Man took upon Himself the sin of the human race and put it away— an infinitely more profound revelation (see Hebrews 9:26). The nature of sin is not immorality and wrongdoing, but the nature of self-realization which leads us to say, “I am my own god.” This nature may exhibit itself in proper morality or in improper immorality, but it always has a common basis— my claim to my right to myself. When our Lord faced either people with all the forces of evil in them, or people who were clean-living, moral, and upright, He paid no attention to the moral degradation of one, nor any attention to the moral attainment of the other. He looked at something we do not see, namely, the nature of man (see John 2:25).
Sin is something I am born with and cannot touch— only God touches sin through redemption. It is through the Cross of Christ that God redeemed the entire human race from the possibility of damnation through the heredity of sin. God nowhere holds a person responsible for having the heredity of sin, and does not condemn anyone because of it. Condemnation comes when I realize that Jesus Christ came to deliver me from this heredity of sin, and yet I refuse to let Him do so. From that moment I begin to get the seal of damnation. “This is the condemnation [and the critical moment], that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light…” (John 3:19).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Re-state to yourself what you believe, then do away with as much of it as possible, and get back to the bedrock of the Cross of Christ.  My Utmost for His Highest, November 25, 848 R
Bible in a Year: Isaiah 23-25; Philippians 1

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, October 05, 2022
THEY NEED TO HEAR YOUR STORY - #9323
It was shocking and it came on the day my Dad went to heaven. I flew in; I couldn't make it back in time before he took his last breath. But we had some great conversations before he died. And that was the day that my Mother made an announcement. She said, "You have a brother." Okay, here I am a grown man with children of my own. Now, I knew I'd had a baby brother who died when he was six months old, and that's how all of us came to know Jesus as a result of the tragedy that went into our family through that. But that was the day I learned about a brother I never knew about all those years. Now, there's some complicated circumstances that would explain why I didn't know. But the fact is, my Dad and Mom had never told me about this brother by another mother. Since then I've had a chance to meet that brother I never knew about, and wow, what a blessing. And it's so enriched both of our lives, along with our wives as well. But it was a story I'd never heard. It was a story I wish I had heard. It was a story that changed my life. But it was a story that I almost never heard.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "They Need to Hear Your Story."
You have a story! You have a story to tell that literally lives depend on; that can change lives forever. But you can't sit on it! Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 28. What an exciting chapter! It's the resurrection of Jesus. The angel has just appeared to these crest-fallen women who think the body of their Savior was stolen. He said, "He is not here; he has risen!" Now listen to these words, "Then go quickly and tell his disciples, 'He has risen from the dead…' So, the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples."
Now, what good is a story, especially if it's good news and you don't tell it? Well, this is the good news about a death-crushing, life-changing Savior who conquered death that morning. The greatest fear we all have. The story you've got to tell is the story you probably know so well if you've been around Christian things very long.
You know about Jesus dying on the cross to carry the wrath of God upon Him for all our sin, to set us free, to make it possible for us to be free and clean and forgiven and heaven-bound. And He's powerful enough to walk out of His grave under His own power. I mean, your Jesus is the greatest love a person can experience; a love that would die for you. The greatest power a person can experience; a power that can conquer death. Wow! Don't you want to tell that story to someone? You know it; they don't.
We're living in a post Christian world; people around us probably aren't going to go to a religious meeting to hear a religious speaker talk on a religious subject in a religious place. They may be surrounded by Christian resources, and TV and radio, and websites. But they don't know about all that. They have yet to find out what Jesus did on the cross for them. And the only way they're going to know is if you tell them the story you know so well.
They desperately need to hear about that. They desperately need to hear about a Jesus who is alive, who changes people, who does things that no one else can do and saves lives. It may be old hat to you about the sin and Christ dying for sin. But it's life-saving news for somebody you know. The words of the angel on that resurrection morning were, "You've come and seen. Now, go and tell." That's Jesus' command to you. "Go and tell!"
And you have a Hope Story. You are living proof that Jesus is alive, because He's done things in your life that no one else could have done. Right? He has fixed what no one else could fix. He's changing what no one else could change. He's providing hope where nothing else could. You have a Hope Story my brother or sister, and that story of what Jesus did on the cross and how He's changed you? Well, that could be the difference between life and death and heaven and hell for somebody in your world.
Would you tell them the story you know? Give them the good news! You have a life-changing story to tell. But what good is a story if you don't tell it?

Psalm 16, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

 Max Lucado Daily: A DIVINE GPS - October 4, 2022
In a furiously fast turn of events, Pharaoh set the Hebrew people free. Centuries of slavery in Egypt were behind them; a new future was ahead of them. The promised land beckoned. Yet on their own they stood no chance of survival. For that reason, “The Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire” (Exodus 13:21 NIV).
Can you imagine the blessing of this divine GPS? On any given day God told them where to go. We can thank Isaiah the prophet for telling us the name of the force within the cloud and fire. “Who is he who set his Holy Spirit among them…” (Isaiah 63:11 NIV). Who led the ex-slaves through the wilderness? The Holy Spirit. And who leads the children of God today? The Holy Spirit!

Psalm 16
Keep me safe, O God,
    I’ve run for dear life to you.
I say to God, “Be my Lord!”
    Without you, nothing makes sense.
3 And these God-chosen lives all around—
    what splendid friends they make!
4 Don’t just go shopping for a god.
    Gods are not for sale.
I swear I’ll never treat god-names
    like brand-names.
5-6 My choice is you, God, first and only.
    And now I find I’m your choice!
You set me up with a house and yard.
    And then you made me your heir!
7-8 The wise counsel God gives when I’m awake
    is confirmed by my sleeping heart.
Day and night I’ll stick with God;
    I’ve got a good thing going and I’m not letting go.
9-10 I’m happy from the inside out,
    and from the outside in, I’m firmly formed.
You canceled my ticket to hell—
    that’s not my destination!
11 Now you’ve got my feet on the life path,
    all radiant from the shining of your face.
Ever since you took my hand,
    I’m on the right way.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, October 04, 2022
Today's Scripture
Psalm 63
A psalm by David when he was in the wilderness of Judah. 
1  O God, you are my God. 
At dawn I search for you. 
My soul thirsts for you. 
My body longs for you 
in a dry, parched land where there is no water. 
2  So I look for you in the holy place 
to see your power and your glory. 
3  My lips will praise you 
because your mercy is better than life ?itself?. 
4  So I will thank you as long as I live. 
I will lift up my hands ?to pray? in your name. 
5  You satisfy my soul with the richest foods. 
My mouth will sing ?your? praise with joyful lips. 
6  As I lie on my bed, I remember you. 
Through the long hours of the night, I think about you. 
7  You have been my help. 
In the shadow of your wings, I sing joyfully. 
8  My soul clings to you. 
Your right hand supports me. 
9  But those who try to destroy my life 
will go into the depths of the earth. 
10  They will be cut down by swords. 
Their dead bodies will be left as food for jackals. 
11  But the king will find joy in God. 
Everyone who takes an oath by God will brag, 
but the mouths of liars will be shut. 
Insight
Though the superscription (information about authorship, occasion, and musical or liturgical instruction) of Psalm 63 includes the name of the songwriter, “David,” and the setting, “the Desert of Judah” (wilderness), we aren’t given the circumstances under which this psalm was written. The most likely situation was when David fled to the wilderness from his rebellious son Absalom (2 Samuel 15–18). “The whole countryside wept aloud as all the people passed by. The king also crossed the Kidron Valley, and all the people moved on toward the wilderness” (15:23; see vv. 27–29; 16:2; 17:16, 29). David was on the run from a son he loved dearly (13:37–39) and for whom, upon his death, he would weep bitterly and mourn deeply (18:31–19:4). Whatever the occasion, during a time of deep difficulty, David found strength to call upon and cling to God (Psalm 63:1, 8).
By: Arthur Jackson
Our Heart’s True Home
My whole being longs for you.

Psalm 63:1
“Bobbie the Wonder Dog” was a collie mix separated from his family while they were on a summer vacation together more than 2,200 miles from home. The family searched everywhere for their beloved pet but returned heartbroken without him.
Six months later, toward the end of winter, a scraggly but determined Bobbie showed up at their door in Silverton, Oregon. Bobbie somehow made the long and dangerous trek, crossing rivers, desert, and snow-covered mountains to find his way home to those he loved.
Bobbie’s quest inspired books, movies, and a mural in his hometown. His devotion strikes a chord within, perhaps because God has placed an even deeper longing in our hearts. Ancient theologian Augustine described it this way: “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” This same longing was desperately yet eloquently expressed by David in a prayer as he hid from his pursuers in Judah’s wilderness: “You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1).
David praised God because His “love is better than life” (v. 3). Nothing compares with knowing Him! Through Jesus, God has sought us out and made the way for us to come home to His perfect love—regardless of how distant we once were. As we turn to Him, we find our heart’s true home.
By:  James Banks
Reflect & Pray
What do you look forward to most about one day seeing Jesus? In what ways will you seek Him today?
Jesus, thank You for making the way for me to come to You through Your life, death on the cross, and resurrection. 

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, October 04, 2022
The Vision and The Reality
…to those who are…called to be saints… —1 Corinthians 1:2
Thank God for being able to see all that you have not yet been. You have had the vision, but you are not yet to the reality of it by any means. It is when we are in the valley, where we prove whether we will be the choice ones, that most of us turn back. We are not quite prepared for the bumps and bruises that must come if we are going to be turned into the shape of the vision. We have seen what we are not, and what God wants us to be, but are we willing to be battered into the shape of the vision to be used by God? The beatings will always come in the most common, everyday ways and through common, everyday people.
There are times when we do know what God’s purpose is; whether we will let the vision be turned into actual character depends on us, not on God. If we prefer to relax on the mountaintop and live in the memory of the vision, then we will be of no real use in the ordinary things of which human life is made. We have to learn to live in reliance upon what we saw in the vision, not simply live in ecstatic delight and conscious reflection upon God. This means living the realities of our lives in the light of the vision until the truth of the vision is actually realized in us. Every bit of our training is in that direction. Learn to thank God for making His demands known.
Our little “I am” always sulks and pouts when God says do. Let your little “I am” be shriveled up in God’s wrath and indignation— “I AM WHO I AM…has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14). He must dominate. Isn’t it piercing to realize that God not only knows where we live, but also knows the gutters into which we crawl! He will hunt us down as fast as a flash of lightning. No human being knows human beings as God does.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are all based on a conception of importance, either our own importance, or the importance of someone else; Jesus tells us to go and teach based on the revelation of His importance. “All power is given unto Me.… Go ye therefore ….”  So Send I You, 1325 R
Bible in a Year: Isaiah 20-22; Ephesians 6

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, October 04, 2022
WHO YOU ARE, WHO YOU COULD BE - #9322
I remember the time my daughter volunteered to clean the house, and it was a mess! No, it wasn't our house, it wasn't her house, it was the house that her college boyfriend and some other guys wanted to move into. Now when I use the word mess, that's charitable.
Well, after two years of those guys living there, you can imagine! Layers of dirt and trash everywhere, and holes in the walls. It was filthy! Well, I saw her at the end of a very hard-working day. She was beat, she was sweaty, but she was satisfied. I asked her, "What kept you going all those hours?" She said, "Well, Dad, it was really depressing to look at, but I kept seeing what it could be."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Who You Are, Who You Could Be."
Our word for today from the Word of God; it's in John 1:42. Andrew has just discovered who the Messiah is. He now knows it's Jesus Christ. So he decides to bring his big brother, Simon the fisherman, to Jesus. And it says, "He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, 'You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas' (which, when translated, is Peter)." Let me go just one step beyond that verse and tell you what Peter means when it is translated. It means "the rock."
Now, a lot of people I think may have looked at Simon and they just saw John's son. He's this sort of unstable, brazen, loud mouth, sometimes just like an impulsive guy. But Jesus looked at him and said, "He's going to be a rock." Some other people might have said, "Well, that's funny! I see a flake! He's Simon the flake not Simon the rock." But Jesus has becoming eyes. He looks at you and He sees what you can become. Others look at who you are; Jesus looks at what you could be.
Remember the Apostle John? He was called Son of Thunder. Sounds like something that would be on the back of a black, leather jacket on a motorcycle doesn't it? He tried to call down fire from heaven on the Samaritans that wouldn't let him come to their village, remember? That's a little over the top. He's an angry young man. But he becomes, when Jesus gets hold of him, the Apostle of Love of the New Testament church. He goes from Son of Thunder to Apostle of Love.
See, when Jesus looks at you, it's through His becoming eyes. Maybe you've lived most of your life not feeling highly valued by people. They've picked on your handicaps, they've emphasized your failures, and they've attacked your weaknesses. Maybe you think more about what you aren't than what you are.
I want to invite you today to look at yourself through Jesus' eyes. He's like my daughter walking into that dirty old house. She saw what could be. Maybe you're feeling like a nobody, but Jesus says, "You shall be a person who makes a difference in other people's lives." You say, "Well, I'm impatient." Jesus says, "You are, but I'm going to make you patient. I see a patient man that could be there." You say, "I'm pretty self-centered." Uh-huh. But Jesus said, "You shall be someone who puts other people first." You say, "Well, I've been a victim most of my life." He says, "Well, you're going to be a victor when I'm done with you."
See, the Bible makes this great promise in 2 Corinthians 5:17. It says, "If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old has gone; a new life has begun." This is what happens when you go to the cross where Jesus died to pay for the sin that warps and distorts what we were meant to be. And He forgives you, He cleans you up, He moves inside you and starts to make you what you were created to be.
I hope you've had that day when you've turned your life over to Him. One event, asking Christ in, changes everything. By the way, if you've never done that, let me invite you to join me at our website ANewStory.com. Let's get this taken care of today - ANewStory.com.
See, if you've pinned your hopes on Jesus, you're being re-built. You're being remodeled by the Master Carpenter. Maybe this catches you on a day when you're feeling discouraged, or defeated, or small. But Jesus is changing you. He isn't finished with you yet. He sees the mess, but He sees beyond it. Thank Him that He sees a rock. No matter what anyone else has seen, He's making something beautiful out of your life.

Psalm 15, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

 

Max Lucado Daily: DECISIONS - October 3, 2022
According to God’s plan, life is a series of decisions. Do I move or stay? Hold on or let go? Tie the knot or not? Small decisions, large decisions. Decisions everywhere! We make our choices, and they make us. Consequently, decision-making saps energy and creates anxiety. What if I make the wrong choice?
So what can we do? Given the weightiness of choices, how can we make good ones? You will be encouraged by the promise of Scripture: we can be led by the Holy Spirit. “He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake” (Psalm 23:3 ESV). God, our Good Shepherd, doesn’t just feed us; he leads us. He does more than correct us; he directs us. He keeps us on the right track. He has commissioned the Holy Spirit to guide us down the winding roads of life.
Psalm 15
God, who gets invited
    to dinner at your place?
How do we get on your guest list?
2 “Walk straight,
    act right,
        tell the truth.
3-4 “Don’t hurt your friend,
    don’t blame your neighbor;
        despise the despicable.
5 “Keep your word even when it costs you,
    make an honest living,
        never take a bribe.
“You’ll never get
blacklisted
if you live like this.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, October 03, 2022
Today's Scripture
James 1:22–27
Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.
25  But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.
26–27  Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.
Insight
James calls his readers to not just hear the words of the law—most likely referring to the laws given through Moses—but to put them into practice. In Matthew 7, Jesus reminds us that everyone who “hears [His]words . . . and puts them into practice” is like the man who builds on a solid foundation (vv. 24–27). In James 1:27, the writer describes how we put what we hear into action when we “look after orphans and widows.” James, like the prophets before him, is calling believers in Jesus to care for those who are vulnerable (see Isaiah 1:16–17). This is the practice of God Himself: “He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing” (Deuteronomy 10:18). James is calling us to be like God our Father in the same way that Jesus calls us to be perfect like our heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48).
By: J.R. Hudberg
Mirror Test
Whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it . . . will be blessed in what they do. James 1:25

“Who’s in the mirror?” the psychologists conducting the self-recognition test asked children. At eighteen months or younger, children don't usually associate themselves with the image in the mirror. But as kids grow, they can understand they’re looking at themselves. Self-recognition is an important mark of healthy growth and maturation.
It’s also important to the growth of believers in Jesus. James outlines a mirror recognition test. The mirror is “the word of truth” from God (James 1:18). When we read the Scriptures, what do we see? Do we recognize ourselves when they describe love and humility? Do we see our own actions when we read what God commands us to do? When we look into our hearts and test our actions, Scripture can help us recognize if our actions are in line with what God desires for us or if we need to seek repentance and make a change.
James cautions us not to just read Scripture and turn away “and so deceive [ourselves]” (v. 22), forgetting what we’ve taken in. The Bible provides us with the map to live wisely according to God’s plans. As we read it, meditate on it, and digest it, we can ask Him to give us the eyes to see into our heart and the strength to make necessary changes.
By:  Katara Patton
Reflect & Pray
What do you see when you look into the mirror of Scripture? What changes do you need to make?
Dear God, please help me use Scripture as a mirror into my life, my motives, and my actions. 
To better understand who you are, click here.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, October 03, 2022

The Place of Ministry
He said to them, "This kind [of unclean spirit] can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting." —Mark 9:29
“His disciples asked Him privately, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’ ” (Mark 9:28). The answer lies in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. “This kind can come out by nothing but” concentrating on Him, and then doubling and redoubling that concentration on Him. We can remain powerless forever, as the disciples were in this situation, by trying to do God’s work without concentrating on His power, and by following instead the ideas that we draw from our own nature. We actually slander and dishonor God by our very eagerness to serve Him without knowing Him.
When you are brought face to face with a difficult situation and nothing happens externally, you can still know that freedom and release will be given because of your continued concentration on Jesus Christ. Your duty in service and ministry is to see that there is nothing between Jesus and yourself. Is there anything between you and Jesus even now? If there is, you must get through it, not by ignoring it as an irritation, or by going up and over it, but by facing it and getting through it into the presence of Jesus Christ. Then that very problem itself, and all that you have been through in connection with it, will glorify Jesus Christ in a way that you will never know until you see Him face to face.
We must be able to “mount up with wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:31), but we must also know how to come down. The power of the saint lies in the coming down and in the living that is done in the valley. Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13) and what he was referring to were mostly humiliating things. And yet it is in our power to refuse to be humiliated and to say, “No, thank you, I much prefer to be on the mountaintop with God.” Can I face things as they actually are in the light of the reality of Jesus Christ, or do things as they really are destroy my faith in Him, and put me into a panic?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Defenders of the faith are inclined to be bitter until they learn to walk in the light of the Lord. When you have learned to walk in the light of the Lord, bitterness and contention are impossible.
Biblical Psychology
Bible in a Year: Isaiah 17-19; Ephesians 5:17-33

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, October 03, 2022
WHEN THE DEVIL PULLS YOUR STRING - #9321
When you have young grandchildren, hey, you're back in the toy business again. And sure enough, man, have we had a closet full of toys that, contrary to some vicious rumors, are not mine. They are there for the grandchildren. And they quickly learn to relocate those toys from the closet to our living room every time they would visit. One of them is this furry blue puppet with bulging eyes - good old Cookie Monster of Sesame Street fame. You know him. And he's got this string in his back. When you pull it, he starts chewing and moving his arms and uttering his trademark phrase: "Cookie. Me want cookie!" Pull the string again and he'll say the same thing again. No matter how many times you pull that string, he's going to do the "cookie" thing every time.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When the Devil Pulls Your String."
You pull that puppet's string, and he'll respond the same way every time. Now the sad thing is that's exactly what happens when Satan pulls our string - we act like this puppet. We respond in the same old sinful, destructive way almost every time…until you cut his string. We've got some insight into how to do that in 1 Samuel 17, beginning with verse 16, our word for today from the Word of God. You may recognize that as being the chapter about David and Goliath.
The Jewish army and the Philistine army are at a standoff, and their armies are each holding a hill on opposite sides of this valley. The Philistines send out their nine-foot giant every day to challenge the Jews to send out some champion to fight him - with the people of the loser serving the people of the winner from then on. Every day the giant tries to make them afraid; every day the Jewish soldiers run for cover. Goliath's tactics, well they actually mirror our enemy's tactics. We can discover here the ways that Satan gets you to do whatever he wants you to do every time he pulls those old strings.
Verse 16 says, "For 40 days the Philistine came forward…and took his stand." Tactic #1 to keep you in a pattern of defeat - persistent attacks. Satan just keeps hammering, pulling that string that has always worked before, stalking, tempting, twisting your feelings until you finally do again what you've always done. Here's a second way your enemy can get you to do what he wants - Goliath says in verse 9, "If I overcome him" - that's whoever the Jews send against him - "and kill him, you will become our subjects." Second enemy tactic - raise the stakes. The devil gets his way by saying, "Look at all you have to lose if you don't give in. The stakes are too high this time to do it God's way."
Well, young David finally steps up to the challenge, and he takes on the enemy. But his older brothers, who are part of that cowering army, accuse him of being "conceited" and "wicked" and coming there for the wrong reasons. Even the king says, "You are only a boy." Tactic #3: discouragement from your fellow soldiers. Ever had that happen; cowardice, criticism, negativity? They're contagious, and they're Satan's favorite tool to discourage a believer - another believer. Don't fall for it. One other string your enemy loves to pull: lies about who you are. As David challenged the giant, he mocked David's youth, his pitiful weapons, and he said "I'll give your flesh to the birds" (verse 44). Satan's gotten you to do what he wants over and over by getting you to believe lies about who you are.
You've responded to the enemy pulling the same old strings long enough haven't you? Do what David did - don't be compliant. Be defiant against your enemy! David said to him, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty" (verses 45, 47). God says, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). It's time you defied that enemy in the conquering name of your Jesus. It's time you say, "Go ahead, pull my string. But because I've got Jesus on my side, I am not going to do what I've always done before. I am not your puppet anymore!"

John 8:28-59, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: A Portable Prayer
Some people excel in prayer. They are the SEAL Team 6 of intercession. They would rather pray than sleep. Why is it I sleep when I pray? It's not that we don't pray at all. We all pray some. Surveys indicate one in five unbelievers prays daily. Just in case, perhaps?  When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, He gave them a prayer. Not a lecture on prayer. A quotable, repeatable, portable prayer. Could you use the same?
Father, You are good.
I need help. Heal me and forgive me.
They need help. Thank you.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Let this prayer punctuate your day!
Here's my challenge for you! Sign on at BeforeAmen com. Every day for 4 weeks, pray 4 minutes. Then get ready to connect with God like never before!

John 8:28-59
They still didn’t get it, didn’t realize that he was referring to the Father. So Jesus tried again. “When you raise up the Son of Man, then you will know who I am—that I’m not making this up, but speaking only what the Father taught me. The One who sent me stays with me. He doesn’t abandon me. He sees how much joy I take in pleasing him.”
30 When he put it in these terms, many people decided to believe.
If the Son Sets You Free
31-32 Then Jesus turned to the Jews who had claimed to believe in him. “If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you.”
33 Surprised, they said, “But we’re descendants of Abraham. We’ve never been slaves to anyone. How can you say, ‘The truth will free you’?”
34-38 Jesus said, “I tell you most solemnly that anyone who chooses a life of sin is trapped in a dead-end life and is, in fact, a slave. A slave can’t come and go at will. The Son, though, has an established position, the run of the house. So if the Son sets you free, you are free through and through. I know you are Abraham’s descendants. But I also know that you are trying to kill me because my message hasn’t yet penetrated your thick skulls. I’m talking about things I have seen while keeping company with the Father, and you just go on doing what you have heard from your father.”
39-41 They were indignant. “Our father is Abraham!”
Jesus said, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would have been doing the things Abraham did. And yet here you are trying to kill me, a man who has spoken to you the truth he got straight from God! Abraham never did that sort of thing. You persist in repeating the works of your father.”
They said, “We’re not bastards. We have a legitimate father: the one and only God.”
42-47 “If God were your father,” said Jesus, “you would love me, for I came from God and arrived here. I didn’t come on my own. He sent me. Why can’t you understand one word I say? Here’s why: You can’t handle it. You’re from your father, the Devil, and all you want to do is please him. He was a killer from the very start. He couldn’t stand the truth because there wasn’t a shred of truth in him. When the Liar speaks, he makes it up out of his lying nature and fills the world with lies. I arrive on the scene, tell you the plain truth, and you refuse to have a thing to do with me. Can any one of you convict me of a single misleading word, a single sinful act? But if I’m telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? Anyone on God’s side listens to God’s words. This is why you’re not listening—because you’re not on God’s side.”
I Am Who I Am
48 The Jews then said, “That settles it. We were right all along when we called you a Samaritan and said you were crazy—demon-possessed!”
49-51 Jesus said, “I’m not crazy. I simply honor my Father, while you dishonor me. I am not trying to get anything for myself. God intends something gloriously grand here and is making the decisions that will bring it about. I say this with absolute confidence. If you practice what I’m telling you, you’ll never have to look death in the face.”
52-53 At this point the Jews said, “Now we know you’re crazy. Abraham died. The prophets died. And you show up saying, ‘If you practice what I’m telling you, you’ll never have to face death, not even a taste.’ Are you greater than Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you think you are!”
54-56 Jesus said, “If I were striving to get all the attention, it wouldn’t amount to anything. But my Father, the same One you say is your Father, put me here at this time and place of splendor. You haven’t recognized him in this. But I have. If I, in false modesty, said I didn’t know what was going on, I would be as much of a liar as you are. But I do know, and I am doing what he says. Abraham—your ‘father’—with elated faith looked down the corridors of history and saw my day coming. He saw it and cheered.”
57 The Jews said, “You’re not even fifty years old—and Abraham saw you?”
58 “Believe me,” said Jesus, “I am who I am long before Abraham was anything.”
59 That did it—pushed them over the edge. They picked up rocks to throw at him. But Jesus slipped away, getting out of the Temple.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, October 02, 2022
Today's Scripture
Ephesians 4:2–15
And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.
4–6  You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly. You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.
7–13  But that doesn’t mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift. The text for this is,
He climbed the high mountain,
He captured the enemy and seized the booty,
He handed it all out in gifts to the people.
Is it not true that the One who climbed up also climbed down, down to the valley of earth? And the One who climbed down is the One who climbed back up, up to highest heaven. He handed out gifts above and below, filled heaven with his gifts, filled earth with his gifts. He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher to train Christ’s followers in skilled servant work, working within Christ’s body, the church, until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ.
14–16  No prolonged infancies among us, please. We’ll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do.
Insight
In Ephesians 1–3, Paul established who we are and what we have in Christ. Now in chapter 4, he switches to how this new life in Jesus ought to be lived out. Significantly, he leads with humility (v. 2)—a trait that runs counter to the values of the culture both then and now. Next, he emphasizes unity. The gentle humility he calls for is vital for this unity (v. 2). Interestingly, Paul was a prisoner at the time of this writing, bringing significance to his quotation in verse 8 of a psalm that twice mentions prisoners (Psalm 68:6, 18).
By: Tim Gustafson

God’s Gentle Grace
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Ephesians 4:2
“Tell all the truth but tell it slant,” the poet Emily Dickinson wrote, suggesting that, because God’s truth and glory is far “too bright” for vulnerable human beings to understand or receive all at once, it’s best for us to receive and share God’s grace and truth in “slant”—gentle, indirect—ways. For “the Truth must dazzle gradually / Or every man be blind.”
The apostle Paul made a similar argument in Ephesians 4 when he urged believers to be “completely humble and gentle” and to “be patient, bearing with one another in love” (v. 2). The foundation for believers’ gentleness and grace with each other, Paul explained, is Christ’s gracious ways with us. In His incarnation (vv. 9–10), Jesus revealed Himself in the quiet, gentle ways people needed in order to trust and receive Him.
And He continues to reveal Himself in such gentle, loving ways—gifting and empowering His people in just the ways they need to continue to grow and mature—“so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature” (vv. 12–13). As we grow, we become less vulnerable to looking elsewhere for hope (v. 14) and more confident in following Jesus’ example of gentle love (vv. 15–16).
By:  Monica La Rose
Reflect & Pray
How have you experienced God’s grace and truth in gentle, indirect ways? How can His gentle ways help you relate to others?
Dear God, thank You for the gentle ways You reveal Your goodness, grace, and truth to me. Help me to find patience and rest as I trust in Your loving care.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, October 02, 2022
The Place of Humiliation
If You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. —Mark 9:22
After every time of exaltation, we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they really are, where it is neither beautiful, poetic, nor thrilling. The height of the mountaintop is measured by the dismal drudgery of the valley, but it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God. We see His glory on the mountain, but we never live for His glory there. It is in the place of humiliation that we find our true worth to God— that is where our faithfulness is revealed. Most of us can do things if we are always at some heroic level of intensity, simply because of the natural selfishness of our own hearts. But God wants us to be at the drab everyday level, where we live in the valley according to our personal relationship with Him. Peter thought it would be a wonderful thing for them to remain on the mountain, but Jesus Christ took the disciples down from the mountain and into the valley, where the true meaning of the vision was explained (see Mark 9:5-6, Mark 9:14-23).
“If you can do anything….” It takes the valley of humiliation to remove the skepticism from us. Look back at your own experience and you will find that until you learned who Jesus really was, you were a skillful skeptic about His power. When you were on the mountaintop you could believe anything, but what about when you were faced with the facts of the valley? You may be able to give a testimony regarding your sanctification, but what about the thing that is a humiliation to you right now? The last time you were on the mountain with God, you saw that all the power in heaven and on earth belonged to Jesus— will you be skeptical now, simply because you are in the valley of humiliation?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The message of the prophets is that although they have forsaken God, it has not altered God. The Apostle Paul emphasizes the same truth, that God remains God even when we are unfaithful (see 2 Timothy 2:13). Never interpret God as changing with our changes. He never does; there is no variableness in Him.  Notes on Ezekiel, 1477 L
Bible in a Year: Isaiah 14-16; Ephesians 5:1-16

Psalm 14, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Before Amen Challenge
I'm a recovering prayer wimp. For years my prayers seemed to zig, then zag, then zig again. Maybe you can relate. Perhaps your prayer life could use a tune up, a reboot?
If that sounds overwhelming, I'm inviting you to a simpler plan. Four minutes, plus four weeks, equals forever change! Every day for four weeks, pray for four minutes, focusing on these core elements of prayer: "Father, You are good. I need help. They need help. Thank you."
It's that simple. Really!  Talking with God doesn't have to be complicated or complex. The power isn't in the words we pray-but in the One who hears them!
Sign on at BeforeAmen.com. Every day for 4 weeks, pray four minutes-then get ready to connect with God like never before!

Psalm 14
Bilious and bloated, they gas,
    “God is gone.”
Their words are poison gas,
    fouling the air; they poison
Rivers and skies;
    thistles are their cash crop.
2 God sticks his head out of heaven.
    He looks around.
He’s looking for someone not stupid—
    one man, even, God-expectant,
    just one God-ready woman.
3 He comes up empty. A string
    of zeros. Useless, unshepherded
Sheep, taking turns pretending
    to be Shepherd.
The ninety and nine
    follow their fellow.
4 Don’t they know anything,
    all these predators?
Don’t they know
    they can’t get away with this—
Treating people like a fast-food meal
    over which they’re too busy to pray?
5-6 Night is coming for them, and nightmares,
    for God takes the side of victims.
Do you think you can mess
    with the dreams of the poor?
You can’t, for God
    makes their dreams come true.
7 Is there anyone around to save Israel?
    Yes. God is around; God turns life around.
Turned-around Jacob skips rope,
    turned-around Israel sings laughter.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, October 01, 2022
Today's Scripture
Matthew 7:15–20
 “Be wary of false preachers who smile a lot, dripping with practiced sincerity. Chances are they are out to rip you off some way or other. Don’t be impressed with charisma; look for character. Who preachers are is the main thing, not what they say. A genuine leader will never exploit your emotions or your pocketbook. These diseased trees with their bad apples are going to be chopped down and burned.
Insight
The problem of false teachers that Jesus addressed in Matthew 7 troubled the early church, as evidenced throughout the New Testament. Peter reinforced Jesus’ words with his own comments in 2 Peter 2:1: “There were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.” The apostle Paul used strong words of condemnation for those who would misrepresent the gospel, saying, “If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!” (Galatians 1:9). Anyone who perverts the message of God’s good news is accursed, the Greek term anathema, which means “dedicated to destruction.” Additionally, the entire letter of Jude appears to have been written as an argument against false teachers.
By: Bill Crowder

Look at the Fruit
By their fruit you will recognize them. Matthew 7:16
“Will the real [person’s name] please stand up?” That’s the familiar line at the end of the game show To Tell the Truth. A panel of four celebrities asks questions of three individuals claiming to be the same person. Of course, two are impostors, but it’s up to the panel to discern the actual person. In one episode, the celebrities tried to guess “the real Johnny Marks,” who wrote the lyrics to “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” The celebrities found out how difficult it was to figure out who’s who, even when asking good questions. Impostors finagled the truth, which made for entertaining television.
Discerning who’s who when it comes to “false teachers” is a far cry from television game show antics, but it can be equally as challenging and is infinitely more important. The “ferocious wolves” often come to us in “sheep’s clothing,” and Jesus warns even the wise among us to “watch out” (Matthew 7:15). The best test is not so much good questions, but good eyes. Look at their fruit, for that’s how you’ll recognize them (vv. 16–20).
Scripture gives us assistance in seeing good and bad fruit. The good looks like “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23). We’ve got to pay close attention, for wolves play by deception. But as believers, who are filled with the Spirit, we serve the real Good Shepherd, “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
By:  John Blase
Reflect & Pray
When have you met a wolf in sheep’s clothing? Apply the “look for the fruit” test to that experience and now what do you see?
Great Shepherd, give me eyes and ears to look and listen for good fruit.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, October 01, 2022

The Place of Exaltation
…Jesus took…them up on a high mountain apart by themselves… —Mark 9:2
We have all experienced times of exaltation on the mountain, when we have seen things from God’s perspective and have wanted to stay there. But God will never allow us to stay there. The true test of our spiritual life is in exhibiting the power to descend from the mountain. If we only have the power to go up, something is wrong. It is a wonderful thing to be on the mountain with God, but a person only gets there so that he may later go down and lift up the demon-possessed people in the valley (see Mark 9:14-18). We are not made for the mountains, for sunrises, or for the other beautiful attractions in life— those are simply intended to be moments of inspiration. We are made for the valley and the ordinary things of life, and that is where we have to prove our stamina and strength. Yet our spiritual selfishness always wants repeated moments on the mountain. We feel that we could talk and live like perfect angels, if we could only stay on the mountaintop. Those times of exaltation are exceptional and they have their meaning in our life with God, but we must beware to prevent our spiritual selfishness from wanting to make them the only time.
We are inclined to think that everything that happens is to be turned into useful teaching. In actual fact, it is to be turned into something even better than teaching, namely, character. The mountaintop is not meant to teach us anything, it is meant to make us something. There is a terrible trap in always asking, “What’s the use of this experience?” We can never measure spiritual matters in that way. The moments on the mountaintop are rare moments, and they are meant for something in God’s purpose.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are not to preach the doing of good things; good deeds are not to be preached, they are to be performed. So Send I You, 1330 L
Bible in a Year: Isaiah 11-13; Ephesians 4

Psalm 13, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: TURNING CHAOS INTO CALM - September 27, 2022
Anxiety. The emotion is not a sign of weakness, immaturity, or demon possession. It is simply the result of living in a fast-changing, challenging world. Anxiety is not a sign of weakness, but anxiety does weaken us. Yet help is here. The Holy Spirit is the calming presence of God in the world today.
His first act in earthly history was to turn chaos into calm. “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2 NKJV). The inaugural activity of the Holy Spirit was to hover over a frenzied world. Before God created the world, the Spirit of God calmed the world.

Psalm 13
Long enough, God—
    you’ve ignored me long enough.
I’ve looked at the back of your head
    long enough. Long enough
I’ve carried this ton of trouble,
    lived with a stomach full of pain.
Long enough my arrogant enemies
    have looked down their noses at me.
3-4 Take a good look at me, God, my God;
    I want to look life in the eye,
So no enemy can get the best of me
    or laugh when I fall on my face.
5-6 I’ve thrown myself headlong into your arms—
    I’m celebrating your rescue.
I’m singing at the top of my lungs,
    I’m so full of answered prayers.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, September 27, 2022

Today's Scripture
Psalm 90:12–17
  Oh! Teach us to live well!
Teach us to live wisely and well!
Come back, God—how long do we have to wait?—
and treat your servants with kindness for a change.
Surprise us with love at daybreak;
then we’ll skip and dance all the day long.
Make up for the bad times with some good times;
we’ve seen enough evil to last a lifetime.
Let your servants see what you’re best at—
the ways you rule and bless your children.
And let the loveliness of our Lord, our God, rest on us,
confirming the work that we do.
Oh, yes. Affirm the work that we do!
Insight
The superscription of Psalm 90 says that it’s “A prayer of Moses the man of God.” The description “man of God” is a term used some seventy-five times in the Old Testament to refer to one who’s a spokesman for God. Therefore, the term is used for the many prophets who ministered to the Israelites (see Judges 13:6; 1 Samuel 2:27; 1 Kings 12:22; 13:1), including Elijah and Elisha (2 Kings 1:9; 4:16). As a title of honor, it’s applied often to Moses (Deuteronomy 33:1; Joshua 14:6; 1 Chronicles 23:14; 2 Chronicles 30:16; Ezra 3:2) and David (2 Chronicles 8:14; Nehemiah 12:24, 36). That Psalm 90 is a song written by Moses (around 1526–1406 bc) makes it the oldest of the 150 psalms. Besides this song, Moses also wrote “The Song at the Sea” (Exodus 15:1–18) and “The Song of Moses” (Deuteronomy 31:19; 32:1–43).
By: K. T. Sim
God’s Help for Our Future
Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
Psalm 90:14
According to psychologist Meg Jay, our minds tend to think about our future selves similarly to how we think about complete strangers. Why? It’s probably due to what’s sometimes called the “empathy gap.” It can be hard to empathize and care for people we don’t know personally—even future versions of ourselves. So in her work, Jay tries to help young people imagine their future selves and take steps to care for them. This includes working out actionable plans for who they will one day be—paving the way for them to pursue their dreams and to continue to thrive.
In Psalm 90, we’re invited to see our lives not just in the present, but as a whole—to ask God to help us “number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (v. 12). Remembering that our time on earth is limited can remind us of our desperate need to rely on God. We need His help to learn how to find satisfaction and joy—not just now, but “all our days” (v. 14). We need His help to learn to think not just of ourselves, but of future generations (v. 16). And we need His help to serve Him with the time we’ve been given—as He establishes the work of our hands and hearts (v. 17).
By:  Monica La Rose
Reflect & Pray
How might you grow in taking care of your future self? How does keeping the bigger picture of your life in view help you to better serve others?
Dear God, thank You for the gift of life. Help me to cherish it with the time I’ve been given. Thank You that when my walk with You on earth is over, I can look forward to an eternity of fellowship with You.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, September 27, 2022
The “Go” of Renunciation
…someone said to Him, "Lord, I will follow You wherever You go." —Luke 9:57 
Our Lord’s attitude toward this man was one of severe discouragement, “for He knew what was in man” (John 2:25). We would have said, “I can’t imagine why He lost the opportunity of winning that man! Imagine being so cold to him and turning him away so discouraged!” Never apologize for your Lord. The words of the Lord hurt and offend until there is nothing left to be hurt or offended. Jesus Christ had no tenderness whatsoever toward anything that was ultimately going to ruin a person in his service to God. Our Lord’s answers were not based on some whim or impulsive thought, but on the knowledge of “what was in man.” If the Spirit of God brings to your mind a word of the Lord that hurts you, you can be sure that there is something in you that He wants to hurt to the point of its death.
Luke 9:58. These words destroy the argument of serving Jesus Christ because it is a pleasant thing to do. And the strictness of the rejection that He demands of me allows for nothing to remain in my life but my Lord, myself, and a sense of desperate hope. He says that I must let everyone else come or go, and that I must be guided solely by my relationship to Him. And He says, “…the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Luke 9:59. This man did not want to disappoint Jesus, nor did he want to show a lack of respect for his father. We put our sense of loyalty to our relatives ahead of our loyalty to Jesus Christ, forcing Him to take last place. When your loyalties conflict, always obey Jesus Christ whatever the cost.
Luke 9:61. The person who says, “Lord, I will follow You, but…,” is the person who is intensely ready to go, but never goes. This man had reservations about going. The exacting call of Jesus has no room for good-byes; good-byes, as we often use them, are pagan, not Christian, because they divert us from the call. Once the call of God comes to you, start going and never stop.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
God engineers circumstances to see what we will do. Will we be the children of our Father in heaven, or will we go back again to the meaner, common-sense attitude? Will we stake all and stand true to Him? “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” The crown of life means I shall see that my Lord has got the victory after all, even in me.  The Highest Good—The Pilgrim’s Song Book, 530 L
Bible in a Year: Isaiah 3-4; Galatians 6

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, September 27, 2022
GOD'S MAGNIFICENT MAGNET - #9317
When we were living in New Jersey, boy, Giants Stadium - it was a mecca in northern New Jersey. At that time, 70,000 people. before the new stadium was built, were... I mean it's bigger now. But, boy, that's a lot of people descending on the Giants football game; cars clogging every artery anywhere near the stadium. And I was one of those crazy people sometimes! All across the New York area, countless others did nothing that afternoon but watch television to see what was going on there at the Meadowlands. It was like that stadium had a giant magnet inside it, with the power to pull multitudes of people to focus on one place and one event.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "God's Magnificent Magnet."
For 2,000 years, there's been a magnet that has captured the hearts of millions of people, pulling people from every generation, every background, every corner of the world to one man. That man is Jesus Christ, and that magnet is an old rugged cross on a hill called Skull Hill, just outside the gates of Jerusalem. Even in our day, one of Hollywood's great blockbuster movies was "The Passion of the Christ," a vivid portrayal of the death of Jesus; the power of that cross to still move millions of people.
That should come as no surprise really. Jesus said it would happen before He ever died. In John 12:32-33, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus said, "When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to Myself." Then the Bible goes on to explain His meaning: "He said this to show the kind of death He was going to die." So, Jesus said, "If I am lifted up on a cross, I'll draw people to Myself."
And, sure enough, for twenty centuries, His love poured out on that tree, has melted the hardest hearts and brought hope to the most hopeless hearts. If many people aren't being drawn to Him, maybe it's because those of us who know Him have been lifting up something other than Jesus and His cross; like our church, our politics, our causes.
Since that brutal day on Skull Hill, a lot has happened. Churches have been built in Jesus' name, a religion bearing His name has spread across the world, rituals and creeds and ceremonies have grown up around His teachings. A lot of good, and too much that wasn't good, has been done in His name. But a trip back to that blood-stained cross strips away all the Christianity that has grown up around Christ over the centuries, and it takes us back to what the central issue is for you and me.
It's you; it's me standing at the foot of that cross, looking into the face of the Son of God. It's you or me watching the blood trickle down from a crown of thorns jammed into His forehead; the spikes in His hands and feet. Beyond all the religious things you've done in His name, beyond those Christians who may have hurt you or confused you, beyond all the facts about Jesus that you have in your head - there's that man dying on that cross. And there's you, one of the people He's dying for, to pay for every wrong thing you've ever done. Your eternity will not be decided by what you do with Christianity. It will be decided by what you do with Christ.
This very day, I invite you to walk with me up Skull Hill, to stand there and say the two words that are the difference between heaven and hell, "for me." Maybe you've missed that decisive step of actually giving yourself to the Man who died for you, of abandoning your trust in anything else to make it with God and you put all your trust in Jesus. Tell Him today, "Jesus, you died for me. I can trust you. I'm Yours." And you won't just be believing in Jesus. You'll finally belong to Him.
If that's what you want, I invite you to visit our website. I've got a very simple explanation there of how to get started with Jesus. It's ANewStory.com. That's the web address.
On the day you stand before God, there's only one thing He's going to ask you. "What did you do with My Son and His death for you on that cross?" Please, get that settled today.

Psalm 12, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: POWER IN ASSURANCE - September 26, 2022
Why do you need to know that you are adopted by the Father and sealed by the Spirit? Simple. There is power in assurance. A young college graduate requested that I pray for her to be accepted into law school. Each time we talked, she seemed increasingly anxious. The unknown future unsettled her. But then came the acceptance letter. She called me with the great news. Her thoughts were positive. Her future was secure.
The Holy Spirit provides a far more significant assurance. From him we receive an acceptance letter to heaven. “So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world” (1 John 4:17 NLT). The Holy Spirit will keep his promise. We’ve been sealed. He will get us home.

Psalm 12
Quick, God, I need your helping hand!
The last decent person just went down,
All the friends I depended on gone.
Everyone talks in lie language;
Lies slide off their oily lips.
They doubletalk with forked tongues.
3-4 Slice their lips off their faces! Pull
The braggart tongues from their mouths!
I’m tired of hearing, “We can talk anyone into anything!
Our lips manage the world.”
5 Into the hovels of the poor,
Into the dark streets where the homeless groan, God speaks:
“I’ve had enough; I’m on my way
To heal the ache in the heart of the wretched.”
6-8 God’s words are pure words,
Pure silver words refined seven times
In the fires of his word-kiln,
Pure on earth as well as in heaven.
God, keep us safe from their lies,
From the wicked who stalk us with lies,
From the wicked who collect honors
For their wonderful lies.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, September 26, 2022
Today's Scripture
John 11:38–44
Then Jesus, the anger again welling up within him, arrived at the tomb. It was a simple cave in the hillside with a slab of stone laid against it. Jesus said, “Remove the stone.”
The sister of the dead man, Martha, said, “Master, by this time there’s a stench. He’s been dead four days!”
40  Jesus looked her in the eye. “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”
41–42  Then, to the others, “Go ahead, take away the stone.”
They removed the stone. Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and prayed, “Father, I’m grateful that you have listened to me. I know you always do listen, but on account of this crowd standing here I’ve spoken so that they might believe that you sent me.”
43–44  Then he shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” And he came out, a cadaver, wrapped from head to toe, and with a kerchief over his face.
Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him loose.”
Insight
After Jesus learned Lazarus was gravely ill, He waited two days to go to the home of his sisters, Mary and Martha (John 11:1–6). When Jesus and His disciples arrived, Lazarus had been in the tomb four days (v. 17). This allowed a day for the news to reach Jesus and a day for Him to reach Bethany. So, Lazarus may have already been dead when the news reached Jesus that he was ill. That it had been four days was significant because in that warm climate, Lazarus’ body would have been severely decomposed (v. 39). If Jesus had left immediately and resurrected Lazarus, naysayers could’ve easily denied his resurrection, suggesting he’d only been in a deep sleep or coma. It was also significant because in that day some Jews believed the soul hovered over the body for three days, hoping to reenter. But by four days, even that hope would have expired.
By: Alyson Kieda
The Miracle of Salvation
Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God? John 11:40
Blogger Kevin Lynn’s life seemed to be falling apart. In a recent article he recounted, “I actually put a gun to my head . . . . It took for God to supernaturally step into my room and my life. And at that moment, I really found what I know is God now.” God intervened and prevented Lynn from taking his life. He filled him with conviction and gave him an overwhelming reminder of His loving presence. Instead of hiding this powerful encounter, Lynn shared his experience with the world, creating a YouTube ministry where he shares his own transformation story as well as the stories of others.
When Jesus’ follower and friend Lazarus died, many assumed that Jesus was too late (John 11:32). Lazarus had been in his tomb for four days before Christ arrived, but He turned this moment of anguish into a miracle when He raised him from the dead (v. 38). “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” (v. 40).
Just as Jesus raised Lazarus from death to life, He offers us new life through Him. By sacrificing His life on the cross, Christ paid the penalty for our sins and offers us forgiveness when we accept His gift of grace. We’re freed from the bondage of our sins, renewed by His everlasting love, and given the opportunity to change the course of our lives.
By:  Kimya Loder
Reflect & Pray
What are some of the miraculous ways that God has turned your life around? How might you use your testimony to bring others closer to Him?
Heavenly Father, sometimes I take for granted how You’ve transformed my life. Thank You for never giving up on me.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, September 26, 2022
The “Go” of Reconciliation
If you…remember that your brother has something against you… —Matthew 5:23
This verse says, “If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you….” It is not saying, “If you search and find something because of your unbalanced sensitivity,” but, “If you…remember….” In other words, if something is brought to your conscious mind by the Spirit of God— “First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift” (Matthew 5:24). Never object to the intense sensitivity of the Spirit of God in you when He is instructing you down to the smallest detail.
“First be reconciled to your brother….” Our Lord’s directive is simple— “First be reconciled….” He says, in effect, “Go back the way you came— the way indicated to you by the conviction given to you at the altar; have an attitude in your mind and soul toward the person who has something against you that makes reconciliation as natural as breathing.” Jesus does not mention the other person— He says for you to go. It is not a matter of your rights. The true mark of the saint is that he can waive his own rights and obey the Lord Jesus.
“…and then come and offer your gift.” The process of reconciliation is clearly marked. First we have the heroic spirit of self-sacrifice, then the sudden restraint by the sensitivity of the Holy Spirit, and then we are stopped at the point of our conviction. This is followed by obedience to the Word of God, which builds an attitude or state of mind that places no blame on the one with whom you have been in the wrong. And finally there is the glad, simple, unhindered offering of your gift to God.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Jesus Christ can afford to be misunderstood; we cannot. Our weakness lies in always wanting to vindicate ourselves.  The Place of Help, 1051 L
Bible in a Year: Isaiah 1-2; Galatians 5

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, September 26, 2022
THE POWER OF TOGETHER - #9316
They advertised a special on "flying sharks." And the TV channel didn't disappoint the people who tuned in. They showed an island off the coast of South Africa where great white sharks jump as much as 15 feet in the air with their prey, and the seals are their meal du jour. The area around this island is called the "Ring of Death"...and a whole lot of seals would agree. No one knows exactly why the sharks there get airborne as they do. It's apparently the only place on earth where they behave like this. But the TV special showed real footage of a shark suddenly coming up underneath an unsuspecting seal, grabbing it in his jaws, and soaring into the air with his catch. Now the seals have learned something about these jumping jaws. The sharks seldom attack when they're traveling together. So they tend to stay in groups of seven or eight. Smart! But occasionally a stubborn seal will just go off on his own. And the scientists say when a seal goes off by itself, he is just asking to be shark lunch.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Power of Together."
There's a powerful lesson to be learned from those seals who live in the "Ring of Death." You want to avoid being your enemy's prey, stay with the pack!
We know from 1 Peter 5:8 that you and I have an enemy, the devil, who is "looking for someone to devour." And I'm convinced that he operates much like those sharks - he looks for someone who's off on their own and pounces on them. You're a lot less vulnerable as long as you're sticking close to your spiritual brothers and sisters, and to your family. The problem is that right now maybe you're allowing yourself to be isolated, distant, and even cut off from people who love you and people you love. The shark from hell loves that.
The first followers of Christ were living in a "ring of death" in Jerusalem after Jesus' death, resurrection, and return to heaven. But they knew one of the great secrets of safety and strength. In our word for today from the Word of God, Acts 2, beginning with verse 42, the Bible says, "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts." Did you notice the key word here? Together. Right! They stayed together, and it was very difficult for any predator to get them.
So, here's the question. Have you allowed some walls, some distance, some resistance to develop between you and the people you've been close to? Maybe you've been wounded, maybe there's been misunderstanding, poor communication, some careless words spoken, a lot of frustration, maybe you didn't get your way. Or maybe you're just hurting or struggling and you don't want people to see you like this.
For whatever reason, you're like one of those seals. You're away from the protection of your brothers and sisters. Remember, God said way back in the Garden of Eden, "It is not good for man to be alone." That's still true. And you're allowing yourself to be way too alone. Shark bait! Out there by yourself. And that's where Satan can get you to believe all kinds of lies, get you to fall for all kinds of temptations, and get you to do all kinds of things you never thought you'd do.
Please, whatever your reasons for isolating yourself, get back to your family, get back to God's fellowship, get back to the church, get back to those you were serving the Lord with. You just can't afford to be swimming out there all by yourself. The sharks of hell love it when they can get you alone. So don't give them that opportunity to strike.

John 8:1-27, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Every Spiritual Blessing
You possess (get this!) every spiritual blessing possible. Ephesians 1:3 promises that "in Christ, God has given us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms." This is the gift offered to the lowliest sinner on earth. Who could make such an offer but God? John 1:16 says, "From him we all received one gift after another."
Romans 11:33 asks, have you ever come upon anything quite like this extravagant love of God, this deep, deep, wisdom? It's way over our heads. We'll never figure it out. Is there anyone around who can explain God? Anyone smart enough to tell him what to do? Anyone who's done him such a huge favor that God has to ask his advice? Everything comes from him. Everything comes through him. Everything ends up in him. Always glory! Always praise! Yes, yes, and yes!
From In the Grip of Grace

John 8:1-27
To Throw the Stone
Jesus went across to Mount Olives, but he was soon back in the Temple again. Swarms of people came to him. He sat down and taught them.
3-6 The religion scholars and Pharisees led in a woman who had been caught in an act of adultery. They stood her in plain sight of everyone and said, “Teacher, this woman was caught red-handed in the act of adultery. Moses, in the Law, gives orders to stone such persons. What do you say?” They were trying to trap him into saying something incriminating so they could bring charges against him.
6-8 Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger in the dirt. They kept at him, badgering him. He straightened up and said, “The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone.” Bending down again, he wrote some more in the dirt.
9-10 Hearing that, they walked away, one after another, beginning with the oldest. The woman was left alone. Jesus stood up and spoke to her. “Woman, where are they? Does no one condemn you?”
11 “No one, Master.”
“Neither do I,” said Jesus. “Go on your way. From now on, don’t sin.”]
Note: John 7:53–8:11 [the portion in brackets] is not found in the earliest handwritten copies.
You’re Missing God in All This
12 Jesus once again addressed them: “I am the world’s Light. No one who follows me stumbles around in the darkness. I provide plenty of light to live in.”
13 The Pharisees objected, “All we have is your word on this. We need more than this to go on.”
14-18 Jesus replied, “You’re right that you only have my word. But you can depend on it being true. I know where I’ve come from and where I go next. You don’t know where I’m from or where I’m headed. You decide according to what you can see and touch. I don’t make judgments like that. But even if I did, my judgment would be true because I wouldn’t make it out of the narrowness of my experience but in the largeness of the One who sent me, the Father. That fulfills the conditions set down in God’s Law: that you can count on the testimony of two witnesses. And that is what you have: You have my word and you have the word of the Father who sent me.”
19 They said, “Where is this so-called Father of yours?”
Jesus said, “You’re looking right at me and you don’t see me. How do you expect to see the Father? If you knew me, you would at the same time know the Father.”
20 He gave this speech in the Treasury while teaching in the Temple. No one arrested him because his time wasn’t yet up.
21 Then he went over the same ground again. “I’m leaving and you are going to look for me, but you’re missing God in this and are headed for a dead end. There is no way you can come with me.”
22 The Jews said, “So, is he going to kill himself? Is that what he means by ‘You can’t come with me’?”
23-24 Jesus said, “You’re tied down to the mundane; I’m in touch with what is beyond your horizons. You live in terms of what you see and touch. I’m living on other terms. I told you that you were missing God in all this. You’re at a dead end. If you won’t believe I am who I say I am, you’re at the dead end of sins. You’re missing God in your lives.”
25-26 They said to him, “Just who are you anyway?”
Jesus said, “What I’ve said from the start. I have so many things to say that concern you, judgments to make that affect you, but if you don’t accept the trustworthiness of the One who commanded my words and acts, none of it matters. That is who you are questioning—not me but the One who sent me.”
27-29 They still didn’t get it, didn’t realize that he was referring to the Father. So Jesus tried again. “When you raise up the Son of Man, then you will know who I am—that I’m not making this up, but speaking only what the Father taught me. The One who sent me stays with me. He doesn’t abandon me. He sees how much joy I take in pleasing him.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, September 25, 2022
Today's Scripture
Mark 8:34–38
Calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for?
38  “If any of you are embarrassed over me and the way I’m leading you when you get around your fickle and unfocused friends, know that you’ll be an even greater embarrassment to the Son of Man when he arrives in all the splendor of God, his Father, with an army of the holy angels.”
Insight
Jesus’ words in Mark 8 come in the context of a situation in which He first praised Peter and then rebuked him. In Mark, we read how Peter recognized Jesus as “the Messiah” (8:29). Matthew’s gospel includes more details: Christ praised Peter for this confession (Matthew 16:17–19). Mark then tells us how Jesus explained that the Messiah would be killed (Mark 8:31). For this, “Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him” (v. 32). Christ’s response was strong: “Get behind me, Satan! . . . You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns” (v. 33). This is the context in which Jesus makes His well-known statement: “Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it” (v. 35). Jesus led by example, giving up His life for our benefit and His Father’s glory.
By: Tim Gustafson
Choose Wisely
What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Mark 8:36
Astronaut Chris Ferguson made a difficult decision as the commander of the flight crew scheduled for a journey to the International Space Station. But that decision didn’t have anything to do with the mechanics of flight or the safety of his fellow astronauts. Instead, it pertained to what he considers his most important work: his family. Ferguson opted to keep his feet planted firmly on Earth so he could be present for his daughter’s wedding.
We all face difficult decisions at times—decisions that cause us to evaluate what matters most to us in life, because one option comes at the expense of the other. Jesus aimed to communicate this truth to His disciples and a crowd of onlookers regarding life’s most important decision—to follow Him. To be a disciple, He said, would require them to “deny themselves” in order to walk with Him (Mark 8:34). They might have been tempted to spare themselves the sacrifices required of following Christ and instead seek their own desires, but He reminded them it would come at the price of that which matters much more. 
We’re often tempted to pursue things that seem of great value, yet they distract us from following Jesus. Let’s ask God to guide us in the choices we face each day so we’ll choose wisely and honor Him.
By:  Kirsten Holmberg
Reflect & Pray
What choices have you made that drew you away from Jesus? What choices have drawn you nearer?
Jesus, I want to walk with You. Please help me to recognize and choose the paths that will foster a deeper connection to You.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, September 25, 2022
The “Go” of Relationship
Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. —Matthew 5:41 
Our Lord’s teaching can be summed up in this: the relationship that He demands for us is an impossible one unless He has done a supernatural work in us. Jesus Christ demands that His disciple does not allow even the slightest trace of resentment in his heart when faced with tyranny and injustice. No amount of enthusiasm will ever stand up to the strain that Jesus Christ will put upon His servant. Only one thing will bear the strain, and that is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ Himself— a relationship that has been examined, purified, and tested until only one purpose remains and I can truly say, “I am here for God to send me where He will.” Everything else may become blurred, but this relationship with Jesus Christ must never be.
The Sermon on the Mount is not some unattainable goal; it is a statement of what will happen in me when Jesus Christ has changed my nature by putting His own nature in me. Jesus Christ is the only One who can fulfill the Sermon on the Mount.
If we are to be disciples of Jesus, we must be made disciples supernaturally. And as long as we consciously maintain the determined purpose to be His disciples, we can be sure that we are not disciples. Jesus says, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you…” (John 15:16). That is the way the grace of God begins. It is a constraint we can never escape; we can disobey it, but we can never start it or produce it ourselves. We are drawn to God by a work of His supernatural grace, and we can never trace back to find where the work began. Our Lord’s making of a disciple is supernatural. He does not build on any natural capacity of ours at all. God does not ask us to do the things that are naturally easy for us— He only asks us to do the things that we are perfectly fit to do through His grace, and that is where the cross we must bear will always come.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The vital relationship which the Christian has to the Bible is not that he worships the letter, but that the Holy Spirit makes the words of the Bible spirit and life to him.  The Psychology of Redemption, 1066 L
Bible in a Year: Song of Solomon 6-8; Galatians 4