Jeremiah 18 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: BREAD OF LIFE - April 10, 2024

Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again” (John 6:35 NLT).

You know, the grain-to-bread process is a demanding one. Bread is the end result of planting, harvesting, and heating. Jesus endured an identical process. He was born into this world. And then he was cut down, bruised, and beaten on the threshing floor of Calvary. He passed through the fire of God’s wrath, for our sake. Jesus “suffered because of others’ sins…He went through it all—was put to death and then made alive—to bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18 MSG).

Bread of Life? Jesus lived up to the title. But you know, an unopened loaf does a person no good. Have you received the bread? Have you received God’s forgiveness?

Jeremiah 18

To Worship the Big Lie

1–2  18 God told Jeremiah, “Up on your feet! Go to the potter’s house. When you get there, I’ll tell you what I have to say.”

3–4  So I went to the potter’s house, and sure enough, the potter was there, working away at his wheel. Whenever the pot the potter was working on turned out badly, as sometimes happens when you are working with clay, the potter would simply start over and use the same clay to make another pot.

5–10  Then God’s Message came to me: “Can’t I do just as this potter does, people of Israel?” God’s Decree! “Watch this potter. In the same way that this potter works his clay, I work on you, people of Israel. At any moment I may decide to pull up a people or a country by the roots and get rid of them. But if they repent of their wicked lives, I will think twice and start over with them. At another time I might decide to plant a people or country, but if they don’t cooperate and won’t listen to me, I will think again and give up on the plans I had for them.

11  “So, tell the people of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem my Message: ‘Danger! I’m shaping doom against you, laying plans against you. Turn back from your doomed way of life. Straighten out your lives.’

12  “But they’ll just say, ‘Why should we? What’s the point? We’ll live just the way we’ve always lived, doom or no doom.’ ”

13–17  God’s Message:

“Ask around.

Survey the godless nations.

Has anyone heard the likes of this?

Virgin Israel has become a slut!

Does snow disappear from the Lebanon peaks?

Do alpine streams run dry?

But my people have left me

to worship the Big Lie.

They’ve gotten off the track,

the old, well-worn trail,

And now bushwhack through underbrush

in a tangle of roots and vines.

Their land’s going to end up a mess—

a fool’s memorial to be spit on.

Travelers passing through

will shake their heads in disbelief.

I’ll scatter my people before their enemies,

like autumn leaves in a high wind.

On their day of doom, they’ll stare at my back as I walk away,

catching not so much as a glimpse of my face.”

18  Some of the people said, “Come on, let’s cook up a plot against Jeremiah. We’ll still have the priests to teach us the law, wise counselors to give us advice, and prophets to tell us what God has to say. Come on, let’s discredit him so we don’t have to put up with him any longer.”

19–23  And I said to God:

“God, listen to me!

Just listen to what my enemies are saying.

Should I get paid evil for good?

That’s what they’re doing. They’ve made plans to kill me!

Remember all the times I stood up for them before you,

speaking up for them,

trying to soften your anger?

But enough! Let their children starve!

Let them be massacred in battle!

Let their wives be childless and widowed,

their friends die and their proud young men be killed.

Let cries of panic sound from their homes

as you surprise them with war parties!

They’re all set to lynch me.

The noose is practically around my neck!

But you know all this, God.

You know they’re determined to kill me.

Don’t whitewash their crimes,

don’t overlook a single sin!

Round the bunch of them up before you.

Strike while the iron of your anger is hot!”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Wednesday, April 10, 2024

Today's Scripture

Isaiah 42:5-9

The God Who Makes Us Alive with His Own Life

5–9  God’s Message,

the God who created the cosmos, stretched out the skies,

laid out the earth and all that grows from it,

Who breathes life into earth’s people,

makes them alive with his own life:

“I am God. I have called you to live right and well.

I have taken responsibility for you, kept you safe.

I have set you among my people to bind them to me,

and provided you as a lighthouse to the nations,

To make a start at bringing people into the open, into light:

opening blind eyes,

releasing prisoners from dungeons,

emptying the dark prisons.

I am God. That’s my name.

I don’t franchise my glory,

don’t endorse the no-god idols.

Take note: The earlier predictions of judgment have been fulfilled.

I’m announcing the new salvation work.

Before it bursts on the scene,

I’m telling you all about it.”

Insight

Isaiah 42:1-4 is the first of four “Servant Songs” in Isaiah (see also 49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:13–53:12). Various passages in Isaiah point to Israel, God’s chosen people, as the servant (41:8; 44:21; 45:4; 48:20). While many of those prophetic songs do deal with Israel in the nation’s circumstances at that time, New Testament scholars believe other passages find their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus the Messiah (42:1; see 11:2; 49:3, 5-7; 50:10; 52:13; 53:11), the one who came in the very form and essence of a servant (Philippians 2:5-8)—obeying to the point of death on the cross. This servant’s heart was also displayed in Christ the night before the cross when He took the place of the lowest slave and washed His disciples’ feet in the upper room (John 13:1-17). This striking example of the heart of the divine Servant was an example to teach us how to serve both God and one another. By: Bill Crowder

Eyes to See

I . . . will make you to be a covenant for the people and . . . to open eyes that are blind. Isaiah 42:6-7

Genevieve had to be the “eyes” for her three children, each born with congenital cataracts. Whenever she took them into their village in the Republic of Benin of western Africa, she strapped the baby onto her back and held on to the arm and hand of her older two, always looking for danger. In a culture where blindness was thought to be caused by witchcraft, Genevieve despaired and cried out to God for help.

Then a man from her village told her about Mercy Ships, a ministry that provides vital surgeries to honor Jesus’ model of bringing hope and healing to the poor. Uncertain if they could help, she approached them. When the children woke up after their surgeries, they could see!

God’s story has always been about coming alongside those shrouded in darkness and bringing His light. The prophet Isaiah declared that God would be “a light for the Gentiles” (Isaiah 42:6). He would “open eyes that are blind” (v. 7), restoring not only physical sight but spiritual vision as well. And He promised to “take hold” of His people’s hand (v. 6). He restored sight to the blind and brought light to those living in the darkness.

If you feel overcome by darkness, cling to hope as you embrace the promises of our loving Father while asking for His light to bring illumination.

By:  Amy Boucher Pye

Reflect & Pray

How has God opened your eyes, physically or spiritually? How can He remove the blinders you may have?

Heavenly Father, You desire that no one would live in darkness. Release Your love on those who are blinded in any way, that they might see.

Learn more about having a personal relationship with God.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Wednesday, April 10, 2024

Moral Decision about Sin

For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. — Romans 6:6

Have I decided that sin will be killed in me? It takes a long time to come to a moral decision about sin, but when I do it is the great moment of my life. In this moment, I decide that just as Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world, so sin will be put to death in me. Sin won’t simply be curbed or suppressed or counteracted in me; it will be outright crucified.

No one can bring anyone else to this decision. We may think that getting rid of sin is a good idea. We may agree that it’s what our religion asks of us. But what we must do is come to the decision Paul forces us to in Romans 6. Paul doesn’t describe something he hopes God will bring about in the future; he recounts a radical and definite experience: “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:1–2).

Am I prepared to let the Spirit of God search me until I see what it means to have a sinful disposition—to have something inside me that wars against the Spirit of God? Will I agree with God’s verdict on that disposition, that it must be identified with the death of Jesus? Have I entered into the glorious privilege of being crucified with Christ, until the only life remaining in my body is the life of Christ? “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).

If you haven’t done it already, make the moral decision about sin. Take time alone with God and tell him what you want. Say to him, “Lord, identify me with your death until sin is dead in me.” Only when we’ve been through this radical moment of decision can we consider ourselves dead to sin.

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Wednesday, April 10, 2024

Flowers But No Fruit - #9718

In much of America, spring announces its arrival with an explosion of color. Those yellow forsythia flowers start popping out on bushes, the daffodils start to poke their heads through the ground, and the trees around our headquarters suddenly color the landscape with those delicate white flowers. Now, my wife, who I think was a certified plantologist, told me that those are ornamental pear trees. When I asked her about the "ornamental" part, she pointed out to me that they produce beautiful flowers, but these pear trees don't produce any pears. I guess that's why they're ornamental.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Flowers But No Fruit."

You know, God has people in His family who are like those pear trees. They look good, but they don't produce fruit. And fruit is what Jesus is interested in, not just spiritual decorations on the outside.

That's pretty obvious in our word for today from the Word of God in Luke 13, beginning with verse 6. "And Jesus told this parable: 'A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?' 'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.'"

Now, Jesus is the owner who comes looking for fruit. He is not interested in all our spiritual flowers that impress other people. Oh, it's nice that we can sing His songs, go to His meetings, give to His causes, do some things in His service, and put Him in our busy schedule. But that's obviously not what really matters to Him. He's looking for a life that's producing lasting fruit, not just parading impressive "flowers."

So, when Jesus looks at you, does He see a follower who is fruitful or mostly decorative? When Jesus looks at your ministry, your church, does He see the fruit of changed lives or just the flowers of a busy program and some smoothly running religious machine?

Jesus wants to know what lives you're touching for Him, what lost people you're introducing to Him, how you're investing the talents He gave you in the work He wants done, whether you're living to make an impression or to make money, or whether you're living to make a difference. Including the ultimate difference you can make in anybody's life - pouring yourself into the lives of lost people around you so you can help some of them be in heaven with you.

What if Jesus came to you like it says here in the parable and He said, "I've been coming to look for fruit here for a long time and I haven't found any." I wonder if He would say to you, "One more year. Let's see what you do with these next few months ahead. I'll be back then to see what kind of fruit you have to show for all that I have poured into your life."

You can't have any of the fruitless years back. They're gone - they're over. But you can decide today that you're going to make a far greater difference with the rest of your life than you have ever made before!

Colossians 2, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: THE WORD WAS OUT - April 9, 2024

Reading from Acts chapter 2 (NIV): “Suddenly, a sound like the blowing of a violent wind, came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” What a moment on the Day of Pentecost!

Whatever could this mean? Peter responded to that question with a trio of God-given endorsements of Christ. He talked about when Jesus healed bodies and called life out of Lazarus’s dead body. Then he deemed Christ worthy to serve as a sacrifice for humankind. Then the resurrection, to be the beginning of life and the end of the grave. The word was out that the Word was out.

Colossians 2

 I want you to realize that I continue to work as hard as I know how for you, and also for the Christians over at Laodicea. Not many of you have met me face-to-face, but that doesn’t make any difference. Know that I’m on your side, right alongside you. You’re not in this alone.

2–4  I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God. Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God’s great mystery. All the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge are embedded in that mystery and nowhere else. And we’ve been shown the mystery! I’m telling you this because I don’t want anyone leading you off on some wild-goose chase, after other so-called mysteries, or “the Secret.”

5  I’m a long way off, true, and you may never lay eyes on me, but believe me, I’m on your side, right beside you. I am delighted to hear of the careful and orderly ways you conduct your affairs, and impressed with the solid substance of your faith in Christ.

From the Shadows to the Substance

6–7  My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you’ve been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You’re deeply rooted in him. You’re well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve been taught. School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.

8–10  Watch out for people who try to dazzle you with big words and intellectual double-talk. They want to drag you off into endless arguments that never amount to anything. They spread their ideas through the empty traditions of human beings and the empty superstitions of spirit beings. But that’s not the way of Christ. Everything of God gets expressed in him, so you can see and hear him clearly. You don’t need a telescope, a microscope, or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ, and the emptiness of the universe without him. When you come to him, that fullness comes together for you, too. His power extends over everything.

11–15  Entering into this fullness is not something you figure out or achieve. It’s not a matter of being circumcised or keeping a long list of laws. No, you’re already in—insiders—not through some secretive initiation rite but rather through what Christ has already gone through for you, destroying the power of sin. If it’s an initiation ritual you’re after, you’ve already been through it by submitting to baptism. Going under the water was a burial of your old life; coming up out of it was a resurrection, God raising you from the dead as he did Christ. When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive—right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ’s cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.

16–17  So don’t put up with anyone pressuring you in details of diet, worship services, or holy days. All those things are mere shadows cast before what was to come; the substance is Christ.

18–19  Don’t tolerate people who try to run your life, ordering you to bow and scrape, insisting that you join their obsession with angels and that you seek out visions. They’re a lot of hot air, that’s all they are. They’re completely out of touch with the source of life, Christ, who puts us together in one piece, whose very breath and blood flow through us. He is the Head and we are the body. We can grow up healthy in God only as he nourishes us.

20–23  So, then, if with Christ you’ve put all that pretentious and infantile religion behind you, why do you let yourselves be bullied by it? “Don’t touch this! Don’t taste that! Don’t go near this!” Do you think things that are here today and gone tomorrow are worth that kind of attention? Such things sound impressive if said in a deep enough voice. They even give the illusion of being pious and humble and ascetic. But they’re just another way of showing off, making yourselves look important.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Tuesday, April 09, 2024

Today's Scripture

Romans 13:11-14

But make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can’t afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don’t loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!

Insight

At the end of Romans 13, Paul contrasts darkness and light. The interplay between the two is symbolic for the life that people lived before believing in Christ and the life they now live in Him. This contrast is seen in several of the apostle’s letters. Before coming to Jesus, we “were once darkness” (Ephesians 5:8), performed “deeds of darkness” (v. 11), and belonged to “the dominion of darkness” (Colossians 1:13) and “to the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:5).

After coming to Christ, however, we’re not to have fellowship with darkness (2 Corinthians 6:14), should “live as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8), and have nothing to do with the “fruitless deeds of darkness” (v. 11). We’ve been rescued “from the dominion of darkness” (Colossians 1:13) and are “children of the light and children of the day” (1 Thessalonians 5:5). By: J.R. Hudberg

Clothed in Christ

Let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Romans 13:12

I was so excited to put on my new glasses for the first time, but after just a few hours I wanted to throw them away. My eyes ached and head throbbed from adjusting to the new prescription. My ears were sore from the unfamiliar frames. The next day I groaned when I remembered I had to wear them. I had to repeatedly choose to use my glasses each day in order for my body to adjust. It took several weeks, but after that, I hardly noticed I was wearing them.

Putting on something new requires an adjustment, but over time we grow into it, and it suits us better. We may even see things we didn’t see before. In Romans 13, the apostle Paul instructed Christ followers to “put on the armor of light” (v. 12) and practice right living. They had already believed in Jesus, but it seems they had fallen into “slumber” and become more complacent; they needed to “wake up” and take action, behave decently and let go of all sin (vv. 11-13). Paul encouraged them to be clothed with Jesus and become more like Him in their thoughts and deeds (v. 14).

We don’t begin to reflect the loving, gentle, kind, grace-filled, and faithful ways of Jesus overnight. It’s a long process of choosing to “put on the armor of light” every day, even when we don’t want to because it’s uncomfortable. Over time, He changes us for the better. By:  Karen Pimpo

Reflect & Pray

What does it look like to “put on” Jesus today? How does practicing Christlikeness become more comfortable over time?

Dear Jesus, thank You that You’re transforming me day by day.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Tuesday, April 09, 2024

Have You Seen Jesus?

After that, He appeared in another form to two of them… —Mark 16:12

Being saved and seeing Jesus are not the same thing. Many people who have never seen Jesus have received and share in God’s grace. But once you have seen Him, you can never be the same. Other things will not have the appeal they did before.

You should always recognize the difference between what you see Jesus to be and what He has done for you. If you see only what He has done for you, your God is not big enough. But if you have had a vision, seeing Jesus as He really is, experiences can come and go, yet you will endure “as seeing Him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27). The man who was blind from birth did not know who Jesus was until Christ appeared and revealed Himself to him (see John 9). Jesus appears to those for whom He has done something, but we cannot order or predict when He will come. He may appear suddenly, at any turn. Then you can exclaim, “Now I see Him!” (see John 9:25).

Jesus must appear to you and to your friend individually; no one can see Jesus with your eyes. And division takes place when one has seen Him and the other has not. You cannot bring your friend to the point of seeing; God must do it. Have you seen Jesus? If so, you will want others to see Him too. “And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either” (Mark 16:13). When you see Him, you must tell, even if they don’t believe.

O could I tell, you surely would believe it!

O could I only say what I have seen!

How should I tell or how can you receive it,

How, till He bringeth you where I have been?

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

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

Bible in a Year: 1 Samuel 13-14; Luke 10:1-24

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Tuesday, April 09, 2024

The Bible - So Much More than Checking the Box - #9717

There's at least one important principle of advertising we need to consider today, and that is you have to demonstrate the need for your product in order to sell it. I'll tell you someone who was good at it some years ago in one of the classic commercials. It was Alka-Seltzer, one of those old commercials I still remember. They would show some irresponsible eater who consumed some nightmare menu, and then the camera just made him look all distorted, like one of those trick mirrors.

I still remember the one with that poor guy holding his stomach and he's going in and out of focus, and he says, "I ate too much. I ate too fast. I ate too much. I ate too fast." Actually a lot of us don't really eat our food, we inhale it, we gobble it, we basically gulp it. And sometimes we lose it because of the way we ate it. Just because you ate it doesn't mean it's going to do you any good.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Bible - So Much More than Checking the Box."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Joshua 1:8. Joshua is facing the great challenge of his life. He's preparing to enter the Promised Land - this great leadership challenge of taking God's people in. Here's God's word to him, "Do not let this Book of the Law" - the Bible, that is - "depart from your mouth. Meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful."

Now, if you dig into this verse, you find that there's an implied eating image here. We started out talking about how we eat, and this verse is about that. In fact, the Hebrew word for meditate is literally the word that's used to describe a cow chewing its cud. Now, I don't know what all cows are good at, but I know that they are the world's best chewers. Man, you've got to hand that to them. They just keep on chewing it!

Well, God says, "I want you to keep chewing on what you get out of My Book." He wants us to do that with our daily intake from the Bible. Frankly, most of us don't. We just sort of stuff in some verses - "I ate too fast." And we never think about them again. That has two results. Even though we're reading the Bible, there's no real growth. We stay spiritually undernourished with a superficial faith. Secondly, if you keep stuffing in the Bible without chewing it properly, you get indigestion. The Bible starts to be dull and boring, and you say, "I'm not getting anything out of it."

Well, of course not! You're not chewing it. That's how you get the good out of spiritual food. How do you chew spiritual food? Let me quickly give you seven steps in chewing your spiritual food. Compare it with what you're doing now.

Number one, take in only a few verses - bite-size chunks.

Two, go over them a few times.

Three, look for a connection to something that you're going to face today. How does what God's saying connect with something in your life?

Fourthly, pray back to God that connection that you found. Ask for Him to help you make that verse literally a part of that situation that day.

And then fifth, write down what you digested. As you write it, it will deepen your understanding and it will deepen your commitment to Him.

And then six, consciously refer back to it throughout the day; keep going back to that sentence, that phrase out of the Bible.

And finally, go to sleep that night reviewing your word for today from the Word of God and how well you activated it.

This command is followed by a great promise. If you do it you'll be prosperous and successful. In-gesting the Bible, it isn't enough; you only get its value if you di-gest it. So, when it comes to your daily Bible breakfast, chew your food properly.

Jeremiah 17, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: GET OUT OF YOUR SHELL - April 8, 2024

God loves all people groups and equips us to be his voice. He teaches us the vocabulary of distant lands, the dialect of the discouraged neighbor, the vernacular of the lonely heart, and the idiom of the young student. God outfits his followers to cross cultures and touch hearts.

Pentecost makes this promise: if you are in Christ, God’s Spirit will speak through you. Let God unshell you. Galatians 6:4 (MSG) says, “Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that.”

Discover your language. With whom do you feel most fluent? For whom do you feel most compassion? Amazing what happens when we get out of our shells.

Jeremiah 17

The Heart Is Hopelessly Dark and Deceitful

1–2  17 “Judah’s sin is engraved

with a steel chisel,

A steel chisel with a diamond point—

engraved on their granite hearts,

engraved on the stone corners of their altars.

The evidence against them is plain to see:

sex-and-religion altars and sacred sex shrines

Anywhere there’s a grove of trees,

anywhere there’s an available hill.

3–4  “I’ll use your mountains as roadside stands

for giving away everything you have.

All your ‘things’ will serve as reparations

for your sins all over the country.

You’ll lose your gift of land,

The inheritance I gave you.

I’ll make you slaves of your enemies

in a far-off and strange land.

My anger is hot and blazing and fierce,

and no one will put it out.”

5–6  God’s Message:

“Cursed is the strong one

who depends on mere humans,

Who thinks he can make it on muscle alone

and sets God aside as dead weight.

He’s like a tumbleweed on the prairie,

out of touch with the good earth.

He lives rootless and aimless

in a land where nothing grows.

7–8  “But blessed is the man who trusts me, God,

the woman who sticks with God.

They’re like trees replanted in Eden,

putting down roots near the rivers—

Never a worry through the hottest of summers,

never dropping a leaf,

Serene and calm through droughts,

bearing fresh fruit every season.

9–10  “The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful,

a puzzle that no one can figure out.

But I, God, search the heart

and examine the mind.

I get to the heart of the human.

I get to the root of things.

I treat them as they really are,

not as they pretend to be.”

11  Like a cowbird that cheats by laying its eggs

in another bird’s nest

Is the person who gets rich by cheating.

When the eggs hatch, the deceit is exposed.

What a fool he’ll look like then!

12–13  From early on your Sanctuary was set high,

a throne of glory, exalted!

O God, you’re the hope of Israel.

All who leave you end up as fools,

Deserters with nothing to show for their lives,

who walk off from God, fountain of living waters—

and wind up dead!

14–18  God, pick up the pieces.

Put me back together again.

You are my praise!

Listen to how they talk about me:

“So where’s this ‘Word of God’?

We’d like to see something happen!”

But it wasn’t my idea to call for Doomsday.

I never wanted trouble.

You know what I’ve said.

It’s all out in the open before you.

Don’t add to my troubles.

Give me some relief!

Let those who harass me be harassed, not me.

Let them be disgraced, not me.

Bring down upon them the day of doom.

Lower the boom. Boom!

Keep the Sabbath Day Holy

19–20  God’s Message to me: “Go stand in the People’s Gate, the one used by Judah’s kings as they come and go, and then proceed in turn to all the gates of Jerusalem. Tell them, ‘Listen, you kings of Judah, listen to God’s Message—and all you people who go in and out of these gates, you listen!

21–23  “ ‘This is God’s Message. Be careful, if you care about your lives, not to desecrate the Sabbath by turning it into just another workday, lugging stuff here and there. Don’t use the Sabbath to do business as usual. Keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your ancestors. They never did it, as you know. They paid no attention to what I said and went about their own business, refusing to be guided or instructed by me.

24–26  “ ‘But now, take seriously what I tell you. Quit desecrating the Sabbath by busily going about your own work, and keep the Sabbath day holy by not doing business as usual. Then kings from the time of David and their officials will continue to ride through these gates on horses or in chariots. The people of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem will continue to pass through them, too. Jerusalem will always be filled with people. People will stream in from all over Judah, from the province of Ben-jamin, from the Jerusalem suburbs, from foothills and mountains and deserts. They’ll come to worship, bringing all kinds of offerings—animals, grains, incense, expressions of thanks—into the Sanctuary of God.

27  “ ‘But if you won’t listen to me, won’t keep the Sabbath holy, won’t quit using the Sabbath for doing your own work, busily going in and out of the city gates on your self-important business, then I’ll burn the gates down. In fact, I’ll burn the whole city down, palaces and all, with a fire nobody will be able to put out!’ ”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Monday, April 08, 2024

Today's Scripture

Proverbs 11:1-11

Without Good Direction, People Lose Their Way

1  11 God hates cheating in the marketplace;

he loves it when business is aboveboard.

2  The stuck-up fall flat on their faces,

but down-to-earth people stand firm.

3  The integrity of the honest keeps them on track;

the deviousness of crooks brings them to ruin.

4  A thick bankroll is no help when life falls apart,

but a principled life can stand up to the worst.

5  Moral character makes for smooth traveling;

an evil life is a hard life.

6  Good character is the best insurance;

crooks get trapped in their sinful lust.

7  When the wicked die, that’s it—

the story’s over, end of hope.

8  A good person is saved from much trouble;

a bad person runs straight into it.

9  The loose tongue of the godless spreads destruction;

the common sense of the godly preserves them.

10  When it goes well for good people, the whole town cheers;

when it goes badly for bad people, the town celebrates.

11  When right-living people bless the city, it flourishes;

evil talk turns it into a ghost town in no time.

Insight

The book of Proverbs belongs to the Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament. It can be divided into two sections. In chapters 1-9, Solomon offers wisdom to his son on a variety of topics, ranging from money to choosing good companions to sexual purity. Chapters 10-31, however, are a seemingly random collection of wise sayings. A number are presented in statements of contrast called antithetical parallelism, where the righteous are contrasted with the wicked. Many are written by Solomon (10:1–22:16). Chapters 25-27 are Solomon’s proverbs collected by the men of King Hezekiah. Others come from a group of anonymous wise men (22:17–24:34), Agur (ch. 30), and King Lemuel (ch. 31).

The proverbs contain a treasure chest of wisdom on perennial subjects such as managing relationships, work, integrity, and parenting. Some are also quoted in the New Testament; for example, Romans 12:20, James 4:6, and 1 Peter 5:5.

Open the treasure chest of wisdom in Proverbs here. By: Bill Crowder

Joy in the City

When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices. Proverbs 11:10

When France and Argentina met in the 2022 World Cup final, it was an incredible contest that many dubbed the “greatest World Cup match in history.” As the final seconds ticked off in extra time, the score was tied 3-3, sending the soccer teams to penalty kicks. After Argentina made the winning goal, the nation erupted in celebration. More than a million Argentineans overwhelmed downtown Buenos Aires. Drone footage spread across social media showing this raucous, happy scene. One BBC report described how the city quaked with “an explosion of joy.”

Joy is always a wonderful gift. Proverbs, though, describes how a city, a people, can experience joy that goes even deeper and lasts far longer. “When the righteous prosper,” Proverbs says, “the city rejoices” (11:10). When those who truly live by God’s designs for humanity begin to influence a community, then this signals good news because it means God’s justice is taking hold. Greed diminishes. The poor find support. The oppressed are protected. Whenever God’s right way of living flourishes, then there’s joy and “blessing” in the city (v. 11).

If we’re genuinely living out God’s ways, then the result will be good news for everyone. The way we live will make the community around us better and more whole. God invites us to be part of His work to heal the world. He invites us to bring joy to the city. By:  Winn Collier

Reflect & Pray

Where do you see the need for joy in your city? How can you bring God’s joy there?

Dear God, please help me to join You in bringing joy to others.  

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Monday, April 08, 2024

His Resurrection Destiny

Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory? —Luke 24:26

Our Lord’s Cross is the gateway into His life. His resurrection means that He has the power to convey His life to me. When I was born again, I received the very life of the risen Lord from Jesus Himself.

Christ’s resurrection destiny— His foreordained purpose— was to bring “many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2:10). The fulfilling of His destiny gives Him the right to make us sons and daughters of God. We never have exactly the same relationship to God that the Son of God has, but we are brought by the Son into the relation of sonship. When our Lord rose from the dead, He rose to an absolutely new life— a life He had never lived before He was God Incarnate. He rose to a life that had never been before. And what His resurrection means for us is that we are raised to His risen life, not to our old life. One day we will have a body like His glorious body, but we can know here and now the power and effectiveness of His resurrection and can “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). Paul’s determined purpose was to “know Him and the power of His resurrection” (Philippians 3:10).

Jesus prayed, “…as You have given Him authority over all flesh that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him” (John 17:2). The term Holy Spirit is actually another name for the experience of eternal life working in human beings here and now. The Holy Spirit is the deity of God who continues to apply the power of the atonement by the Cross of Christ to our lives. Thank God for the glorious and majestic truth that His Spirit can work the very nature of Jesus into us, if we will only obey Him.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

Both nations and individuals have tried Christianity and abandoned it, because it has been found too difficult; but no man has ever gone through the crisis of deliberately making Jesus Lord and found Him to be a failure. The Love of God—The Making of a Christian, 680 R

Bible in a Year: 1 Samuel 10-12; Luke 9:37-62

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Monday, April 08, 2024

Peace Within Your Reach - #9716

Sister is a dog. No, I didn't say my sister was a dog. My friend, Curtis, has a dog named Sister, which leads to some very amusing sentences. When Curtis' Sister first arrived in our area, Sister lived in this big, fenced-in area around the house. But Curtis got a nice dog house for Sister, the dog that is, and went to work making it a nice winter home for her. He installed two inches of insulation, put in a new floor, and even put a waterbed heater under the floor and some zip lock bags of water for the heater to heat. Sister basically had her own home with her own waterbed.

But for the first couple of weeks after her home was completed, she wouldn't go in it. Curtis was away for the weekend. He asked a friend to check on Sister. It was one of those days when a powerful Nor'easter storm hit our area with drenching rain. And when Curtis' friend visited Sister, there was that dog running around outside the dog house in the wind and the pouring rain, still refusing to go in that home that had been so wonderfully provided for her.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Peace Within Your Reach."

Curtis said he was frustrated. He said, "Here I lovingly prepared a warm, safe place, and she insists on staying outside in the cold and the rain." That frustration is one that Jesus knows very well.

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Luke 19:41. "As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it. He said, 'If you only would have known on this day what would bring you peace, but now it is hidden from your eyes. You did not recognize the time of God's coming to you.'" This kind of grieving in the heart of Jesus isn't limited to that one time and that one place. It happens every time another person keeps running in the rain when they could be living in the safety and warmth that He has prepared for them.

Jesus makes very clear what He wants to give us; what the result will be if we respond to Him. He talks about what would "bring you peace." And peace is what's at stake in what you do with Jesus - personal peace, peace with God, peace for all eternity. Jesus may actually have shed some tears for you. So many times He's given you the opportunity to come into that wonderful peace of a personal relationship with Him, but you have refused to enter.

The results: you're alone out in the storm, feeling unnecessary loneliness because you're living outside His never-leaving love. Unnecessary stress because you're trying to handle life without His peace. You're feeling unnecessary pain because you're trying to carry the load without His great strength, and maybe unnecessary emptiness because you're trying to make life make sense without the One who gave you your life. And Jesus is saying, "If you only knew what I can do for you if you'll just come inside."

The spiritual shelter Jesus invites you to has been very lovingly prepared for you, very expensively prepared for you. There was no way into a God relationship as long as the death penalty for our sins stood between us and God. We're spiritual orphans in this world. We're separated from our Father because of our sins. But the Bible says, speaking of the suffering and crucifixion of God's Son, "He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities." All that because of how much Jesus loves you.

And the result of this incredible love? Here's what it says, "The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him." The peace that has eluded you for your whole life can finally be yours today if you'll give yourself to the One who gave His life for you on a cross.

He's knocking on the door of your heart. Would you open up? Let Him in and let Him take the wheel of your life from this day on. If you're tired of being in the storm without the peace that He wants to give you, that He died to give you, would you say to Him today, "Jesus, I'm Yours."

I'd love to help you with that. Go to our website as soon as you can - ANewStory.com. You don't need to run alone in the rain any more. You know which way is home and Jesus is there.

Jeremiah 16, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: He Canceled the Record

How would you feel if a list of your weaknesses were posted so that everyone, including Christ Himself, could see?  Yes, Christ has chronicled your shortcomings. And, yes, that list has been made public. But you've never seen it. Neither have I.

Come with me to the hill of Calvary.  Watch as the soldiers shove the Carpenter to the ground and stretch His arms against the beams. One presses a knee against a forearm and a spike against a hand.  Jesus turns His face toward the nail just as the soldier lifts the hammer to strike it. Couldn't Jesus have stopped Him?

Through the eyes of Scripture we see what others missed but what Jesus saw.  Colossians 2:14 says, "He canceled the record that contained the charges against us.  He took it and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ's cross!"

From He Chose the Nails

Jeremiah 16

Can Mortals Manufacture Gods?

1  16 God’s Message to me:

2–4  “Jeremiah, don’t get married. Don’t raise a family here. I have signed the death warrant on all the children born in this country, the mothers who bear them and the fathers who beget them—an epidemic of death. Death unlamented, the dead unburied, dead bodies decomposing and stinking like dung, all the killed and starved corpses served up as meals for carrion crows and mongrel dogs!”

5–7  God continued: “Don’t enter a house where there’s mourning. Don’t go to the funeral. Don’t sympathize. I’ve quit caring about what happens to this people.” God’s Decree. “No more loyal love on my part, no more compassion. The famous and obscure will die alike here, unlamented and unburied. No funerals will be conducted, no one will give them a second thought, no one will care, no one will say, ‘I’m sorry,’ no one will so much as offer a cup of tea, not even for the mother or father.

8  “And if there happens to be a feast celebrated, don’t go there either to enjoy the festivities.”

9  God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel, says, “Watch this! I’m about to banish smiles and laughter from this place. No more brides and bridegrooms celebrating. And I’m doing it in your lifetime, before your very eyes.

10–13  “When you tell this to the people and they ask, ‘Why is God talking this way, threatening us with all these calamities? We’re not criminals, after all. What have we done to our God to be treated like this?’ tell them this: ‘It’s because your ancestors left me, walked off and never looked back. They took up with the no-gods, worshiped and doted on them, and ignored me and wouldn’t do a thing I told them. And you’re even worse! Take a good look in the mirror—each of you doing whatever you want, whenever you want, refusing to pay attention to me. And for this I’m getting rid of you, throwing you out in the cold, into a far and strange country. You can worship your precious no-gods there to your heart’s content. Rest assured, I won’t bother you anymore.’

14–15  “On the other hand, don’t miss this: The time is coming when no one will say any longer, ‘As sure as God lives, the God who delivered Israel from Egypt.’ What they’ll say is, ‘As sure as God lives, the God who brought Israel back from the land of the north, brought them back from all the places where he’d scattered them.’ That’s right, I’m going to bring them back to the land I first gave to their ancestors.

16–17  “Now, watch for what comes next: I’m going to assemble a bunch of fishermen.” God’s Decree! “They’ll go fishing for my people and pull them in for judgment. Then I’ll send out a party of hunters, and they’ll hunt them out in all the mountains, hills, and caves. I’m watching their every move. I haven’t lost track of a single one of them, neither them nor their sins.

18  “They won’t get by with a thing. They’ll pay double for everything they did wrong. They’ve made a complete mess of things, littering their lives with their obscene no-gods, leaving piles of stinking god-junk all over the place.”

19–20  God, my strength, my stronghold,

my safe retreat when trouble descends:

The godless nations will come

from earth’s four corners, saying,

“Our ancestors lived on lies,

useless illusions, all smoke.”

Can mortals manufacture gods?

Their factories turn out no-gods!

21  “Watch closely now. I’m going to teach these wrongheaded people.

Starting right now, I’m going to teach them

Who I am and what I do,

teach them the meaning of my name, God—‘I Am.’ ”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Sunday, April 07, 2024

Today's Scripture

Psalm 107:1-9

Oh, thank God—he’s so good!

His love never runs out.

All of you set free by God, tell the world!

Tell how he freed you from oppression,

Then rounded you up from all over the place,

from the four winds, from the seven seas.

4–9  Some of you wandered for years in the desert,

looking but not finding a good place to live,

Half-starved and parched with thirst,

staggering and stumbling, on the brink of exhaustion.

Then, in your desperate condition, you called out to God.

He got you out in the nick of time;

He put your feet on a wonderful road

that took you straight to a good place to live.

So thank God for his marvelous love,

for his miracle mercy to the children he loves.

He poured great draughts of water down parched throats;

the starved and hungry got plenty to eat.

Insight

Psalm 107 is a carefully constructed poetic display of the might and mercy of God in the lives of those menaced by various life challenges. It begins with a call to worship God (v. 1), for He’s redeemed us: “Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—those he redeemed from the hand of the foe” (v. 2). The word redeemed translates the Hebrew ga’al. This rich word means “to redeem,” “to act as kinsman-redeemer” (to do the part of a kinsman). The word is first used in Genesis 48:16 where Jacob, at the end of his adventurous, complicated life, referred to God as “the Angel who has delivered [redeemed] me from all harm.” Biblically and historically, God is our redeemer. All those who place their trust in Jesus, God’s Son, for forgiveness of sins are redeemed and rescued from God’s wrath. By: Arthur Jackson

Five Good Things

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Psalm 107:1

According to research, people who are intentionally grateful for what they have report better sleep, fewer symptoms of illness, and more happiness. Those are impressive benefits. Psychologists even suggest keeping a “gratitude journal” to improve our well-being, writing down five things we’re grateful for each week.

Scripture has long promoted the practice of gratitude. From meals and marriage (1 Timothy 4:3-5) to the beauties of creation (Psalm 104), the Bible has called us to see such things as gifts and to thank the Giver for them. Psalm 107 lists five things Israel could be especially grateful for: their rescue from the desert (vv. 4-9), their release from captivity (vv. 10-16), healing from disease (vv. 18-22), safety at sea (vv. 23-32), and their flourishing in a barren land (vv. 33-42). “Give thanks to the Lord,” the psalm repeats, for these are all signs of God’s “unfailing love” (vv. 8, 15, 21, 31).

Do you have a notepad handy? Why not write down five good things you’re grateful for now? It might be the meal you just enjoyed, your marriage or, like Israel, God’s rescue points in your life to date. Give thanks for the birds singing outside, the smells from your kitchen, the comfort of your chair, the murmurs of loved ones. Each is a gift and a sign of God’s unfailing love. By:  Sheridan Voysey

Reflect & Pray

Why do you think Scripture so often calls us to be thankful? What five good things are you grateful for today?

Father God, I’m grateful for every good thing You’ve brought into my life. And most of all, I’m grateful for You.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Sunday, April 07, 2024

Why We Lack Understanding

He commanded them that they should tell no one the things they had seen, till the Son of Man had risen from the dead. —Mark 9:9

As the disciples were commanded, you should also say nothing until the Son of Man has risen in you— until the life of the risen Christ so dominates you that you truly understand what He taught while here on earth. When you grow and develop the right condition inwardly, the words Jesus spoke become so clear that you are amazed you did not grasp them before. In fact, you were not able to understand them before because you had not yet developed the proper spiritual condition to deal with them.

Our Lord doesn’t hide these things from us, but we are not prepared to receive them until we are in the right condition in our spiritual life. Jesus said, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now” (John 16:12). We must have a oneness with His risen life before we are prepared to bear any particular truth from Him. Do we really know anything about the indwelling of the risen life of Jesus? The evidence that we do is that His Word is becoming understandable to us. God cannot reveal anything to us if we don’t have His Spirit. And our own unyielding and headstrong opinions will effectively prevent God from revealing anything to us. But our insensible thinking will end immediately once His resurrection life has its way with us.

“…tell no one….” But so many people do tell what they saw on the Mount of Transfiguration— their mountaintop experience. They have seen a vision and they testify to it, but there is no connection between what they say and how they live. Their lives don’t add up because the Son of Man has not yet risen in them. How long will it be before His resurrection life is formed and evident in you and in me?

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

An intellectual conception of God may be found in a bad vicious character. The knowledge and vision of God is dependent entirely on a pure heart. Character determines the revelation of God to the individual. The pure in heart see God. Biblical Ethics, 125 R

Bible in a Year: 1 Samuel 7-9; Luke 9:18-36

Jeremiah 15, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Six Hours, One Friday

“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21”

Six hours, one Friday. Mundane to the casual observer. A shepherd with his sheep, a housewife with her thoughts, a doctor with his patients. But to a handful of awestruck witnesses, the most maddening of miracles is occurring.

God is on a cross. The creator of the universe is being executed. It is no normal six hours. It is no normal Friday. Far worse than the breaking of his body is the shredding of his heart. And now his own father is beginning to turn his back on him, leaving him alone.

What do you do with that day in history? What do you do with its claims? They were the most critical hours in history. Nails didn’t hold God to a cross. Love did.

The sinless One took on the face of a sinner so that we sinners could take on the face of a saint!

Jeremiah 15

Then God said to me: “Jeremiah, even if Moses and Samuel stood here and made their case, I wouldn’t feel a thing for this people. Get them out of here. Tell them to get lost! And if they ask you, ‘So where do we go?’ tell them God says,

“ ‘If you’re assigned to die, go and die;

if assigned to war, go and get killed;

If assigned to starve, go starve;

if assigned to exile, off to exile you go!’

3–4  “I’ve arranged for four kinds of punishment: death in battle, the corpses dropped off by killer dogs, the rest picked clean by vultures, the bones gnawed by hyenas. They’ll be a sight to see, a sight to shock the whole world—and all because of Manasseh son of Hezekiah and all he did in Jerusalem.

5  “Who do you think will feel sorry for you, Jerusalem?

Who do you think will waste tears on you?

Who will bother to take the time to ask,

‘So, how are things going?’

6–9  “You left me, remember?” God’s Decree.

“You turned your back and walked out.

So I will grab you and hit you hard.

I’m tired of letting you off the hook.

I threw you to the four winds

and let the winds scatter you like leaves.

I made sure you’ll lose everything,

since nothing makes you change.

I created more widows among you

than grains of sand on the ocean beaches.

At noon mothers will get the news

of their sons killed in action.

Sudden anguish for the mothers—

all those terrible deaths.

A mother of seven falls to the ground,

gasping for breath,

Robbed of her children in their prime.

Her sun sets at high noon!

Then I’ll round up any of you that are left alive

and see that you’re killed by your enemies.”

God’s Decree.

Giving Everything Away for Nothing

10–11  Unlucky mother—that you had me as a son,

given the unhappy job of indicting the whole country!

I’ve never hurt or harmed a soul,

and yet everyone is out to get me.

But, God knows, I’ve done everything I could to help them,

prayed for them and against their enemies.

I’ve always been on their side, trying to stave off disaster.

God knows how I’ve tried!

12–14  “O Israel, O Judah, what are your chances

against the iron juggernaut from the north?

In punishment for your sins, I’m giving away

everything you’ve got, giving it away for nothing.

I’ll make you slaves to your enemies

in a strange and far-off land.

My anger is blazing and fierce,

burning in hot judgment against you.”

15–18  You know where I am, God! Remember what I’m doing here!

Take my side against my detractors.

Don’t stand back while they ruin me.

Just look at the abuse I’m taking!

When your words showed up, I ate them—

swallowed them whole. What a feast!

What delight I took in being yours,

O God, God-of-the-Angel-Armies!

I never joined the party crowd

in their laughter and their fun.

Led by you, I went off by myself.

You’d filled me with indignation. Their sin had me seething.

But why, why this chronic pain,

this ever worsening wound and no healing in sight?

You’re nothing, God, but a mirage,

a lovely oasis in the distance—and then nothing!

19–21  This is how God answered me:

“Take back those words, and I’ll take you back.

Then you’ll stand tall before me.

Use words truly and well. Don’t stoop to cheap whining.

Then, but only then, you’ll speak for me.

Let your words change them.

Don’t change your words to suit them.

I’ll turn you into a steel wall,

a thick steel wall, impregnable.

They’ll attack you but won’t put a dent in you

because I’m at your side, defending and delivering.”

God’s Decree.

“I’ll deliver you from the grip of the wicked.

I’ll get you out of the clutch of the ruthless.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Saturday, April 06, 2024

Today's Scripture

Ephesians 4:17-28

The Old Way Has to Go

17–19  And so I insist—and God backs me up on this—that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd. They’ve refused for so long to deal with God that they’ve lost touch not only with God but with reality itself. They can’t think straight anymore. Feeling no pain, they let themselves go in sexual obsession, addicted to every sort of perversion.

20–24  But that’s no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.

25  What this adds up to, then, is this: no more lies, no more pretense. Tell your neighbor the truth. In Christ’s body we’re all connected to each other, after all. When you lie to others, you end up lying to yourself.

26–27  Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry—but don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don’t stay angry. Don’t go to bed angry. Don’t give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life.

28  Did you use to make ends meet by stealing? Well, no more! Get an honest job so that you can help others who can’t work.

Insight

As Paul reviews the characteristics of our new nature in Christ, he recognizes there’s a place for anger. He said, “In your anger do not sin” (Ephesians 4:26). Jesus felt anger when He cleared the temple of merchants (Mark 11:15-17; John 2:13-17). Another example occurs in Mark 3:5: “He looked around at [the religious leaders] in anger” because they were concerned that He was about to heal a man on the Sabbath. But Christ didn’t permit His anger to lead to a vengeful reaction. We do well to emulate this kind of anger—anger without sin. By: Tim Gustafson

Our New Nature in Christ

Put on your new nature, created to be like God. Ephesians 4:24 nlt

Our blue spruce was dropping pinecones and needles. The tree doctor took one look at it and explained the problem. “It’s just being a spruce,” he said. I’d hoped for a better explanation. Or a remedy. But the tree man shrugged, saying again, “It’s just being a spruce.” By nature, the tree sheds needles. It can’t change.

Thankfully, our spiritual lives aren’t limited by unchangeable actions or attitudes. Paul stressed this liberating truth to the new believers at Ephesus. The gentiles were “darkened in their understanding,” he said, their minds closed to God. They possessed hardened hearts containing “every kind of impurity,” and sought only after pleasures and greed (Ephesians 4:18-19).

But “since you have heard about Jesus” and His truth, the apostle wrote, “throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life” (v. 22 nlt). Paul noted how our old nature “is corrupted by lust and deception.” He said, “Let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy” (vv. 22-24 nlt).

Then he listed new ways to live. Stop lying. Resist anger. Stop cursing. Quit stealing. “Instead, use your hands for good hard work, and then give generously to others in need” (v. 28 nlt). Our new self in Christ allows us to live a life worthy of our calling, yielded to our Savior’s way. By:  Patricia Raybon

Reflect & Pray

What does it mean to put on your “new self”? How can you seek to walk the Savior’s way?

Renew my nature today, dear Jesus, as I yield to become more like You.

Learn more about developing your new nature in Christ.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Saturday, April 06, 2024

The Collision of God and Sin

…who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree… —1 Peter 2:24

The Cross of Christ is the revealed truth of God’s judgment on sin. Never associate the idea of martyrdom with the Cross of Christ. It was the supreme triumph, and it shook the very foundations of hell. There is nothing in time or eternity more absolutely certain and irrefutable than what Jesus Christ accomplished on the Cross— He made it possible for the entire human race to be brought back into a right-standing relationship with God. He made redemption the foundation of human life; that is, He made a way for every person to have fellowship with God.

The Cross was not something that happened to Jesus— He came to die; the Cross was His purpose in coming. He is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). The incarnation of Christ would have no meaning without the Cross. Beware of separating “God was manifested in the flesh…” from “…He made Him…to be sin for us…” (1 Timothy 3:16 ; 2 Corinthians 5:21). The purpose of the incarnation was redemption. God came in the flesh to take sin away, not to accomplish something for Himself. The Cross is the central event in time and eternity, and the answer to all the problems of both.

The Cross is not the cross of a man, but the Cross of God, and it can never be fully comprehended through human experience. The Cross is God exhibiting His nature. It is the gate through which any and every individual can enter into oneness with God. But it is not a gate we pass right through; it is one where we abide in the life that is found there.

The heart of salvation is the Cross of Christ. The reason salvation is so easy to obtain is that it cost God so much. The Cross was the place where God and sinful man merged with a tremendous collision and where the way to life was opened. But all the cost and pain of the collision was absorbed by the heart of God.

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: 1 Samuel 4-6; Luke 9:1-17

Colossians 1, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: GOD’S LOVE FOR THE NATIONS - April 5, 2024

Pentecost was the busiest day of the year in Jerusalem, and Jesus’ followers were gathered in prayer.  Not separated from society, but smack-dab in the center of it. Once God had them where he needed them, the Holy Spirit came upon them suddenly. First as wind, then as individual tongues of fire. Individual flames hovering over each person. “And they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4 NKJV). People from all over the world heard the wonderful works of God.

Whatever could this miracle mean? God loves the nations. He has a red-hot passion, to reach every people group on the planet. He loves everybody. And that includes you my friend.

Colossians 1

I, Paul, have been sent on special assignment by Christ as part of God’s master plan. Together with my friend Timothy, I greet the Christians and stalwart followers of Christ who live in Colosse. May everything good from God our Father be yours!

Working in His Orchard

3–5  Our prayers for you are always spilling over into thanksgivings. We can’t quit thanking God our Father and Jesus our Messiah for you! We keep getting reports on your steady faith in Christ, our Jesus, and the love you continuously extend to all Christians. The lines of purpose in your lives never grow slack, tightly tied as they are to your future in heaven, kept taut by hope.

5–8  The Message is as true among you today as when you first heard it. It doesn’t diminish or weaken over time. It’s the same all over the world. The Message bears fruit and gets larger and stronger, just as it has in you. From the very first day you heard and recognized the truth of what God is doing, you’ve been hungry for more. It’s as vigorous in you now as when you learned it from our friend and close associate Epaphras. He is one reliable worker for Christ! I could always depend on him. He’s the one who told us how thoroughly love had been worked into your lives by the Spirit.

9–12  Be assured that from the first day we heard of you, we haven’t stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attuned to his will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works. We pray that you’ll live well for the Master, making him proud of you as you work hard in his orchard. As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work. We pray that you’ll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us.

13–14  God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He’s set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating.

Christ Holds It All Together

15–18  We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.

18–20  He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.

21–23  You yourselves are a case study of what he does. At one time you all had your backs turned to God, thinking rebellious thoughts of him, giving him trouble every chance you got. But now, by giving himself completely at the Cross, actually dying for you, Christ brought you over to God’s side and put your lives together, whole and holy in his presence. You don’t walk away from a gift like that! You stay grounded and steady in that bond of trust, constantly tuned in to the Message, careful not to be distracted or diverted. There is no other Message—just this one. Every creature under heaven gets this same Message. I, Paul, am a messenger of this Message.

24–25  I want you to know how glad I am that it’s me sitting here in this jail and not you. There’s a lot of suffering to be entered into in this world—the kind of suffering Christ takes on. I welcome the chance to take my share in the church’s part of that suffering. When I became a servant in this church, I experienced this suffering as a sheer gift, God’s way of helping me serve you, laying out the whole truth.

26–29  This mystery has been kept in the dark for a long time, but now it’s out in the open. God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, so therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple. That is the substance of our Message. We preach Christ, warning people not to add to the Message. We teach in a spirit of profound common sense so that we can bring each person to maturity. To be mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no less. That’s what I’m working so hard at day after day, year after year, doing my best with the energy God so generously gives me.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Friday, April 05, 2024

Today's Scripture

Ecclesiastes 3:1-11

There’s a Right Time for Everything

1  3 There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:

2–8  A right time for birth and another for death,

A right time to plant and another to reap,

A right time to kill and another to heal,

A right time to destroy and another to construct,

A right time to cry and another to laugh,

A right time to lament and another to cheer,

A right time to make love and another to abstain,

A right time to embrace and another to part,

A right time to search and another to count your losses,

A right time to hold on and another to let go,

A right time to rip out and another to mend,

A right time to shut up and another to speak up,

A right time to love and another to hate,

A right time to wage war and another to make peace.

9–13  But in the end, does it really make a difference what anyone does? I’ve had a good look at what God has given us to do—busywork, mostly. True, God made everything beautiful in itself and in its time—but he’s left us in the dark, so we can never know what God is up to, whether he’s coming or going.

Insight

Ecclesiastes is different from other Wisdom Literature books of the Old Testament. It’s filled with skepticism, as life is described in terms that are often dark and cynical. Ecclesiastes contains several key ideas. The word meaningless (1:2) is used repeatedly and means “empty” or “futile.” Another term is under the sun (v. 3). It means “according to this world’s system or values.” Another repeated expression is “chasing after the wind” (v. 14). This phrase is a word picture describing “effort expended with no results gained since no one can catch the wind” (The Bible Knowledge Commentary). By: Bill Crowder

God’s Presence

[God] has . . . set eternity in the human heart. Ecclesiastes 3:11

Monique was struggling. She had friends who were believers in Jesus, and she respected how they handled life’s struggles. She was even a bit jealous of them. But Monique didn’t think she could live the way they did; she thought having faith in Christ was about following rules. Finally, a fellow college student helped her see that God wasn’t out to spoil her life; instead, He wanted the best for her amidst her ups and downs. Once she understood this, Monique was ready to trust Jesus as her Savior and embrace the magnificent truth about God’s love for her.

King Solomon could have given Monique similar advice. He acknowledged that this world does have its sorrows. Indeed, there’s a “time for everything” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)—“a time to mourn and a time to dance” (v. 4). But there’s more. God “has also set eternity in the human heart” (v. 11). An eternity meant to be lived in His presence.

Monique gained life “to the full,” as Jesus said (John 10:10), when she trusted Him. But she gained so much more! Through faith, the “eternity in [her] heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11) became the promise of a future when life’s struggles will be forgotten (Isaiah 65:17) and God’s glorious presence will be an eternal reality. By:  Dave Branon

Reflect & Pray

How have you experienced the fulfilling life Jesus offers? What are some things about your life in Him that you’re thankful for?

Dear Jesus, Solomon was right. Life is a rollercoaster. Thank You for making this life valuable and worth the effort. And thank You for the eternal joys that await.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Friday, April 05, 2024

His Agony and Our Access

Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples…."Stay here and watch with Me." —Matthew 26:36, 38

We can never fully comprehend Christ’s agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, but at least we don’t have to misunderstand it. It is the agony of God and man in one Person, coming face to face with sin. We cannot learn about Gethsemane through personal experience. Gethsemane and Calvary represent something totally unique— they are the gateway into life for us.

It was not death on the cross that Jesus agonized over in Gethsemane. In fact, He stated very emphatically that He came with the purpose of dying. His concern here was that He might not get through this struggle as the Son of Man. He was confident of getting through it as the Son of God— Satan could not touch Him there. But Satan’s assault was that our Lord would come through for us on His own solely as the Son of Man. If Jesus had done that, He could not have been our Savior (see Hebrews 9:11-15). Read the record of His agony in Gethsemane in light of His earlier wilderness temptation— “…the devil…departed from Him until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13). In Gethsemane, Satan came back and was overthrown again. Satan’s final assault against our Lord as the Son of Man was in Gethsemane.

The agony in Gethsemane was the agony of the Son of God in fulfilling His destiny as the Savior of the world. The veil is pulled back here to reveal all that it cost Him to make it possible for us to become sons of God. His agony was the basis for the simplicity of our salvation. The Cross of Christ was a triumph for the Son of Man. It was not only a sign that our Lord had triumphed, but that He had triumphed to save the human race. Because of what the Son of Man went through, every human being has been provided with a way of access into the very presence of God.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

When we no longer seek God for His blessings, we have time to seek Him for Himself.  The Moral Foundations of Life, 728 L

Bible in a Year: 1 Samuel 1-3; Luke 8:26-56

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Friday, April 05, 2024

Stuck in the Eclipse - #9715

It's the Super Bowl of the Skies! No ticket required.

In a world of people addicted to screens, countless millions of us are stopping everything to see a spectacle in the skies. When a celestial switch is flipped and the lights go out.

The solar eclipse of 2024.

Millions are traveling to be in the path of the total blackout known as totality. Towns in the path of full eclipse are getting rich quick. Hotel rooms, usually $150, are going for $600 and $700 a night.

If we didn't know better, a lot of us would likely freak out as the sun disappeared. The ancient Mayans did. They thought the sun had been eaten - and they had some pretty elaborate rituals to stay safe.

Now our rituals will be simpler. Weird glasses and everyone looking reverently at the sky.

Now from our side of things the eclipse is a not-to-be-missed big event, but its galactic explanation is remarkably simple. Something comes between Earth and the Sun, its source of light. The moon is that "something." In totality, it gets totally dark.

Now while solar eclipses are relatively rare, we experience eclipse personally a lot more frequently than we realize. Not in the sky. But in ourselves.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Stuck in the Eclipse."

We all know those times when life turns dark. When our heart is broken. A relationship is broken. Our dream is broken.

Sometimes it's hard to pinpoint the reason for the darkness we feel in our soul. But there is this unrelenting loneliness... this unexplainable sadness... this uneasy fear... this unsettling despair. And it turns dark.

It's easy to get lost in the dark. To make choices that only deepen the darkness. To let our thoughts go to dangerous places. To believe lies about our worth... our life... our future.

There are a lot of factors can contribute to our emotional darkness, but I think much, if not most, of our darkness has a source beyond our circumstances.

Something has come between us and our Source of light.

And that source is revealed in the Bible in these words. Speaking of our Creator, the orbit we were made for, it says, "All things were created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16). In just six words, God gives us the answer to life's big question - "Why am I here?" Answer: I'm created by God and for God. Not a religion about God, but for a relationship with God.

Then why the spiritual eclipse we live in so much of the time? It must be that something has come between us and Him. But He loves us enough to tell us what it is. Because He's the source of all the light in our life - lasting love... purpose... security... a peace stronger than our storms... a strength greater than our fears.

Here's God says has come between us. "Your sins have separated you from your God" (Isaiah 59:2). Sin - that's me doing my life my way instead of His way. Me saying, "God, you run the universe - I'll do me."

And the Sun stops shining. When it goes dark in my soul, I've let some sin come between me and my God. I can try everything to dispel the darkness, but nothing can bring back the Sun until the spiritual obstruction between us is forgiven and forsaken.

Listen to the hope Jesus talks about our word for today from the Word of God in John 8:12 - "I am the light of the world. He that follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

On Good Friday, I was thinking eclipse as I read again the account of Jesus' death on the cross. It says, "From noon until three in the afternoon, darkness came over all the land." Just as He was saying, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:45-46).

At that moment Jesus was carrying all our sins in His soul (1 Peter 2:24). All the garbage of my life and yours. Paying my spiritual death penalty.

And all the darkness of all our sin came between God the Father and God the Son. God was turning His back on His Son so He would never have to turn His back on us.

And why? The Bible says, "He loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).

Without Him, the eclipse will last forever. With Him, the Light floods my soul. Sin is forgiven. Guilt is gone. Death has no fear. I am safe. I am never alone again.

The Sun has risen. Never to set again.

Jeremiah 14, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: AN ORDINARY LIFE - April 4, 2024

“God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise” (1 Corinthians 1:27 NLT).

I invite you to pray this prayer with me:

Loving Father, you made me, so you know very well that I am but dust.  Yet you have called me into your kingdom to serve you at this specific place, at this specific time, for a very specific purpose.

Despite my ordinariness, I belong to you—and you are anything but ordinary! Help me pour out your grace and compassion upon others that they, too, may experience the richness of your love. Through me, my Father, show others how you can use an ordinary life to bring extraordinary blessing into the world. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Jeremiah 14

Time and Again We’ve Betrayed God

1–6  14 God’s Message that came to Jeremiah regarding the drought:

“Judah weeps,

her cities mourn.

The people fall to the ground, moaning,

while sounds of Jerusalem’s sobs rise up, up.

The rich people sent their servants for water.

They went to the cisterns, but the cisterns were dry.

They came back with empty buckets,

wringing their hands, shaking their heads.

All the farm work has stopped.

Not a drop of rain has fallen.

The farmers don’t know what to do.

They wring their hands, they shake their heads.

Even the doe abandons her fawn in the field

because there is no grass—

Eyes glazed over, on her last legs,

nothing but skin and bones.”

7–9  We know we’re guilty. We’ve lived bad lives—

but do something, God. Do it for your sake!

Time and time again we’ve betrayed you.

No doubt about it—we’ve sinned against you.

Hope of Israel! Our only hope!

Israel’s last chance in this trouble!

Why are you acting like a tourist,

taking in the sights, here today and gone tomorrow?

Why do you just stand there and stare,

like someone who doesn’t know what to do in a crisis?

But God, you are, in fact, here, here with us!

You know who we are—you named us!

Don’t leave us in the lurch.

10  Then God said of these people:

“Since they loved to wander this way and that,

never giving a thought to where they were going,

I will now have nothing more to do with them—

except to note their guilt and punish their sins.”

The Killing Fields

11–12  God said to me, “Don’t pray that everything will turn out all right for this people. When they skip their meals in order to pray, I won’t listen to a thing they say. When they redouble their prayers, bringing all kinds of offerings from their herds and crops, I’ll not accept them. I’m finishing them off with war and famine and disease.”

13  I said, “But Master, God! Their preachers have been telling them that everything is going to be all right—no war and no famine—that there’s nothing to worry about.”

14  Then God said, “These preachers are liars, and they use my name to cover their lies. I never sent them, I never commanded them, and I don’t talk with them. The sermons they’ve been handing out are sheer illusion, tissues of lies, whistlings in the dark.

15–16  “So this is my verdict on them: All the preachers who preach using my name as their text, preachers I never sent in the first place, preachers who say, ‘War and famine will never come here’—these preachers will die in war and by starvation. And the people to whom they’ve been preaching will end up as corpses, victims of war and starvation, thrown out in the streets of Jerusalem unburied—no funerals for them or their wives or their children! I’ll make sure they get the full brunt of all their evil.

17–18  “And you, Jeremiah, will say this to them:

“ ‘My eyes pour out tears.

Day and night, the tears never quit.

My dear, dear people are battered and bruised,

hopelessly and cruelly wounded.

I walk out into the fields,

shocked by the killing fields strewn with corpses.

I walk into the city,

shocked by the sight of starving bodies.

And I watch the preachers and priests

going about their business as if nothing’s happened!’ ”

19–22  God, have you said your final No to Judah?

Can you simply not stand Zion any longer?

If not, why have you treated us like this,

beaten us nearly to death?

We hoped for peace—

nothing good came from it;

We looked for healing—

and got kicked in the stomach.

We admit, O God, how badly we’ve lived,

and our ancestors, how bad they were.

We’ve sinned, they’ve sinned,

we’ve all sinned against you!

Your reputation is at stake! Don’t quit on us!

Don’t walk out and abandon your glorious Temple!

Remember your covenant.

Don’t break faith with us!

Can the no-gods of the godless nations cause rain?

Can the sky water the earth by itself?

You’re the one, O God, who does this.

So you’re the one for whom we wait.

You made it all,

you do it all.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Thursday, April 04, 2024

Today's Scripture

Psalm 91:1-2, 14-16

1 You who sit down in the High God’s presence,

spend the night in Shaddai’s shadow,

Say this: “God, you’re my refuge.

I trust in you and I’m safe!”

 “Because heb loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;

I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

15 He will call on me, and I will answer him;

I will be with him in trouble,

I will deliver him and honor him.n

16 With long lifeo I will satisfy him

and show him my salvation.p”

Insight

Psalm 91 includes three names for God in the first two verses: Elyon—“Most High” (v. 1), Shaddai—“Almighty” (v. 1), and Yahweh—“Lord” (v. 2). These names reveal who God is. After rescuing his nephew Lot, Abraham is blessed by the “God Most High” (Elyon, Genesis 14:19). Later, when God establishes His covenant with Abraham (17:1-5), God claims the name Shaddai, “God Almighty” (v. 1).

It’s when God meets Moses on Horeb, “the mountain of God” (Exodus 3:1), that He names Himself Yahweh, containing the verb “I am” (v. 14), rendered in English as “the Lord” (6:3). He used other names with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but not Yahweh. This new name marks the beginning of God’s deliverance of the Israelites from slavery.

Psalm 91 moves the reader through these names—“Most High,” “Almighty,” and then "I am,” reminding us of God’s protection, provision, and deliverance long ago and calling us to trust that same God today. By: Jed Ostoich

In God’s Arms

I will be with him in trouble. Psalm 91:15

The sound of the drill terrified five-year-old Sarah. She leaped out of the dentist’s chair and refused to get back in. Nodding understandingly, the dentist told her father, “Daddy, get into the chair.” Jason thought he was meant to show his daughter how easy it was. But then the dentist turned to the little girl and said, “Now, climb up and sit in Daddy’s lap.” With her father now cradling her in his reassuring arms, Sarah relaxed completely, and the dentist was able to continue.

That day, Jason learned a great lesson about the comfort of the presence of his heavenly Father. “Sometimes, God [chooses not to] take over what we have to go through,” he said. “But God was showing me, ‘I will be there with you.’ ”

Psalm 91 speaks of the comforting presence and power of God that gives us the strength to face our trials. Knowing that we can rest in His powerful arms gives us great assurance, as does His promise to those who love Him: “He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble” (v. 15).

There are many unavoidable challenges and trials in life, and we will inevitably have to go through pain and suffering. But with God’s reassuring arms wrapped around us, we’ll be able to bear our crises and circumstances, and let Him strengthen our faith as we grow through them. By:  Leslie Koh

Reflect & Pray

What trials are you going through now? How can you remind yourself that God is always with you?

Gracious Father, thank You for Your reassuring presence in my circumstances. Please help me through them, knowing that You’re always with me.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Thursday, April 04, 2024

The Way to Permanent Faith

Indeed the hour is coming…that you will be scattered… —John 16:32

Jesus was not rebuking the disciples in this passage. Their faith was real, but it was disordered and unfocused, and was not at work in the important realities of life. The disciples were scattered to their own concerns and they had interests apart from Jesus Christ. After we have the perfect relationship with God, through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, our faith must be exercised in the realities of everyday life. We will be scattered, not into service but into the emptiness of our lives where we will see ruin and barrenness, to know what internal death to God’s blessings means. Are we prepared for this? It is certainly not of our own choosing, but God engineers our circumstances to take us there. Until we have been through that experience, our faith is sustained only by feelings and by blessings. But once we get there, no matter where God may place us or what inner emptiness we experience, we can praise God that all is well. That is what is meant by faith being exercised in the realities of life.

“…you…will leave Me alone.” Have we been scattered and have we left Jesus alone by not seeing His providential care for us? Do we not see God at work in our circumstances? Dark times are allowed and come to us through the sovereignty of God. Are we prepared to let God do what He wants with us? Are we prepared to be separated from the outward, evident blessings of God? Until Jesus Christ is truly our Lord, we each have goals of our own which we serve. Our faith is real, but it is not yet permanent. And God is never in a hurry. If we are willing to wait, we will see God pointing out that we have been interested only in His blessings, instead of in God Himself. The sense of God’s blessings is fundamental.

“…be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Unyielding spiritual fortitude is what we need.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

A fanatic is one who entrenches himself in invincible ignorance. Baffled to Fight Better, 59 R

Bible in a Year: Ruth 1-4; Luke 8:1-25

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Thursday, April 04, 2024

The Sign on the Door of Your Heart - #9714

My wife and I got a late start for our drive to North Carolina this one particular trip, and we had a 12-hour drive from New Jersey to cover. So we thought we'd make a motel reservation somewhere in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. We got there pretty late and saw this disgruntled looking man leaving the lobby, heading for his car. And it was not the look of a man who had just received good news. When I walked up to the check-in desk - nobody home, just a sign that read, "Back in a few minutes."

Well, while I was waiting, several more weary travelers rolled in, and they started forming a line behind me. The clerk, of course, finally reappeared, only to be greeted by a line of Interstate zombies in urgent need of a room. I had a guaranteed reservation so it was okay. But when she asked and found out that no one else did, she uttered those dreaded words, "I'm sorry, no vacancy."

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Sign on the Door of Your Heart."

Those two words are tough words to be welcomed with. Just ask Jesus. Our word for today from the Word of God comes from John 1:12. It says, "Jesus came to His own but His own did not receive Him." Jesus comes to people He created and they have no room for Him in their lives. That started the night He was born. His earthly Father and His about-to-deliver Mother were desperate for a room. But remember the innkeeper put out that sign that said No Vacancy. That sign has greeted Jesus many times when He's knocked on the door of a human heart - maybe yours.

This verse says, "His own did not receive Him." He has a double claim to our hearts. First, because He made us, He's got the right of creation. But secondly, He paid for us. The Bible says there is an eternal death penalty hanging over each of our heads. The Bible says, "The soul that sins, it will die." We're all that soul that sins. We've all taken charge of a life that God gave us and that He was supposed to run. We've earned the death penalty for that sin.

And God could have left it that way. But instead, in the incredible act of total love for you and me, in the Bible's words, "God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him will not die but have eternal life." And now the One who died for you knocks on the door of your heart again, but not forever.

One day you will, in a sense, be knocking on the door of heaven. And if you have never opened your heart for Jesus to become your own Savior from your own sin, there'll be no vacancy there for those who had no vacancy for Him here.

I pray the rest of this verse in John 1:12 will be about you today. It says, "Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God." Look, if you've left Jesus outside, and you don't want to risk turning Him away one more time, please this very day realize that the knocking at the door is from Jesus himself. The Bible says of Him, "I am standing at the door and knocking. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in." But the handle on the door of your heart is on the inside. You open up to Jesus and He will bring into your life all the love, all the forgiveness, all the heaven, all the meaning you've never had before.

Our website is to help you be sure you know this Jesus, that you belong to Him. To make this your Jesus day. Would you tell Him, "Jesus, this is the day you are welcomed into my heart, the one you died to save. I'm Yours." And then go to our website ANewStory.com.

The Son of God has waited in line for a long time. Maybe He has knocked many times, but every time He's knocked you've been busy, you've been distracted. He's been greeted with "Sorry, no vacancy." Don't risk that one more day. Today open your heart to Jesus and say, "Lord, you died for me. Come in."