Jeremiah 40, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: A POSTURE OF GRATITUDE - May 22, 2024

God provides so many ways for us to grow in gratitude. Unfortunately, our attempts often follow this pattern: Find something negative in everything you see. Make a list of all the critical and unhappy thoughts that come into your mind. Notice how you feel when you are finished, and write those feelings down. Not much fun. A steady diet of critical, negative, ungrateful thoughts leaves us critical, negative, and ungrateful.

Now try the opposite approach: Find something positive in everything you see. Make a list of all the kind, generous, and grateful thoughts that come into your mind. And notice the difference.

What if this exercise became a way of life? Nobody other than you has the power to make you miserable and unhappy. This simple exercise will place your mind in a healthy posture of gratitude.

Jeremiah 40

Go and Live Wherever You Wish

1  40 God’s Message to Jeremiah after Nebuzaradan captain of the bodyguard set him free at Ramah. When Nebuzaradan came upon him, he was in chains, along with all the other captives from Jerusalem and Judah who were being herded off to exile in Babylon.

2–3  The captain of the bodyguard singled out Jeremiah and said to him, “Your God pronounced doom on this place. God came and did what he had warned he’d do because you all sinned against God and wouldn’t do what he told you. So now you’re all suffering the consequences.

4–5  “But today, Jeremiah, I’m setting you free, taking the chains off your hands. If you’d like to come to Babylon with me, come along. I’ll take good care of you. But if you don’t want to come to Babylon with me, that’s just fine, too. Look, the whole land stretches out before you. Do what you like. Go and live wherever you wish. If you want to stay home, go back to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan. The king of Babylon made him governor of the cities of Judah. Stay with him and your people. Or go wherever you’d like. It’s up to you.”

The captain of the bodyguard gave him food for the journey and a parting gift, and sent him off.

6  Jeremiah went to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah and made his home with him and the people who were left behind in the land.

Take Care of the Land

7–8  When the army leaders and their men, who had been hiding out in the fields, heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam as governor of the land, putting him in charge of the men, women, and children of the poorest of the poor who hadn’t been taken off to exile in Babylon, they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah: Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth, the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah son of the Maacathite, accompanied by their men.

9  Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, promised them and their men, “You have nothing to fear from the Chaldean officials. Stay here on the land. Be subject to the king of Babylon. You’ll get along just fine.

10  “My job is to stay here in Mizpah and be your advocate before the Chaldeans when they show up. Your job is to take care of the land: Make wine, harvest the summer fruits, press olive oil. Store it all in pottery jugs and settle into the towns that you have taken over.”

11–12  The Judeans who had escaped to Moab, Ammon, Edom, and other countries heard that the king of Babylon had left a few survivors in Judah and made Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, governor over them. They all started coming back to Judah from all the places where they’d been scattered. They came to Judah and to Gedaliah at Mizpah and went to work gathering in a huge supply of wine and summer fruits.

13–14  One day Johanan son of Kareah and all the officers of the army who had been hiding out in the backcountry came to Gedaliah at Mizpah and told him, “You know, don’t you, that Baaliss king of Ammon has sent Ishmael son of Nethaniah to kill you?” But Gedaliah son of Ahikam didn’t believe them.

15  Then Johanan son of Kareah took Gedaliah aside privately in Mizpah: “Let me go and kill Ishmael son of Nethaniah. No one needs to know about it. Why should we let him kill you and plunge the land into anarchy? Why let everyone you’ve taken care of be scattered and what’s left of Judah destroyed?”

16  But Gedaliah son of Ahikam told Johanan son of Kareah, “Don’t do it. I forbid it. You’re spreading a false rumor about Ishmael.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Wednesday, May 22, 2024

Today's Scripture

2 Chronicles 16:1-9

 But in the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, Baasha king of Israel attacked. He started it by building a fort at Ramah and closing the border between Israel and Judah to keep Asa king of Judah from leaving or entering.

2–3  Asa took silver and gold from the treasuries of The Temple of God and the royal palace and sent it to Ben-Hadad, king of Aram who lived in Damascus, with this message: “Let’s make a treaty like the one between our fathers. I’m showing my good faith with this gift of silver and gold. Break your deal with Baasha king of Israel so he’ll quit fighting against me.”

4–5  Ben-Hadad went along with King Asa and sent his troops against the towns of Israel. They sacked Ijon, Dan, Abel Maim, and all the store-cities of Naphtali. When Baasha got the report, he quit fortifying Ramah.

6  Then King Asa issued orders to his people in Judah to haul away the logs and stones Baasha had used in the fortification of Ramah and used them himself to fortify Geba and Mizpah.

7–9  Just after that, Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said, “Because you went for help to the king of Aram and didn’t ask God for help, you’ve lost a victory over the army of the king of Aram. Didn’t the Ethiopians and Libyans come against you with superior forces, completely outclassing you with their chariots and cavalry? But you asked God for help and he gave you the victory. God is always on the alert, constantly on the lookout for people who are totally committed to him. You were foolish to go for human help when you could have had God’s help. Now you’re in trouble—one round of war after another.”

Insight

Before Israel entered the promised land, God gave specific instructions for their kings. In Deuteronomy 17:14-17, Yahweh prohibited Israel’s rulers from gathering horses from Egypt, marrying many wives, and accruing much gold. It’s an odd list of prohibitions, but they were methods foreign kings used to protect their land. Horses for war, foreign wives to form treaties, and gold to buy off enemies.

But Asa went further. He didn’t just buy off Ben-Hadad with his own gold; he emptied the temple storehouse of silver and gold (2 Chronicles 16:2-3). He’d stopped trusting that God—not gold—would protect his people. By: Jed Ostoich

Keeping Our Spiritual Edge

The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. 2 Chronicles 16:9

The Rocky movies tell the story of a raw boxer, fueled by never-say-die determination, who overcomes improbable odds to become heavyweight champion. In Rocky III, a now successful Rocky becomes impressed with his own achievements. Television commercials disrupt his time in the gym. The champ grows soft, and he’s knocked out by a challenger. The rest of the movie is Rocky’s attempt to regain his fighting edge.

In a spiritual sense, King Asa of Judah lost his fighting edge. Early in his reign, he relied on God in the face of daunting odds. As the mighty Cushites prepared to attack, Asa prayed, “Help us, Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army” (2 Chronicles 14:11). God answered his prayer, and Judah struck down and scattered their enemies (vv. 12-15).

Years later, Judah was threatened again. This time a complacent Asa ignored God and instead asked the king of Aram for help (16:2-3). It seemed to work. But God wasn’t pleased. The prophet Hanani told Asa that he’d stopped trusting God (vv. 7-8). Why hadn’t he relied on God now as he had then?

Our God is unfailingly reliable. His eyes “range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him” (v. 9). When we keep our spiritual edge—fully depending on God—we’ll experience His power. By:  Mike Wittmer

Reflect & Pray

As you age, is it easier or harder to trust your heavenly Father? Why do you think that is? How might God strengthen your faith?

Dear Jesus, may I rest in You more each day.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Wednesday, May 22, 2024

. . . that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us.— John 17:21

If you are walking a lonely path just now, read John 17. It explains exactly why you are where you are: Jesus has prayed that you may be one with him, as he is one with the Father. Jesus isn’t leaving you all alone; he is getting you alone with him, so that his prayer for oneness might be answered. Are you helping God to answer Jesus’s prayer? Or do you have some other goal for your life? Since you became a disciple, you cannot be as independent as you used to be.

Some of us think God’s entire purpose is to answer our prayers. But there is only one prayer that God must answer, and that is the prayer of Jesus: “. . . that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.” Are you this intimate with Jesus?

God isn’t concerned about our plans. He doesn’t say, “Do you want to go through this trial? Do you want to suffer this loss?” He allows things to happen to us for his own purposes. Either the things we go through make us sweeter, better, and nobler, or they make us more critical and fault-finding, more insistent on having our own way. Either trials and difficulties make us fiends, or they make us saints; it depends entirely on our relationship with God. If our relationship to him is one in which we always say, “Your will be done,” then we will have the consolation of John 17. We will know that our Father is working according to his wisdom and toward his ends, and this will prevent us from becoming mean and cynical.

Jesus has prayed for nothing less than absolute oneness with him. Some of us are far from this state of oneness, but we can be sure that, because Jesus has prayed that it may be so, God won’t leave us alone until it is.

1 Chronicles 16-18; John 7:28-53

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

To those who have had no agony Jesus says, “I have nothing for you; stand on your own feet, square your own shoulders. I have come for the man who knows he has a bigger handful than he can cope with, who knows there are forces he cannot touch; I will do everything for him if he will let Me. Only let a man grant he needs it, and I will do it for him.”

The Shadow of an Agony, 1166 R

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Wednesday, May 22, 2024

A Shoulder to Cry On - #9748

When a little child gets home later than they're supposed to, you know there's going to be something on the other end. There's going to be a worried and not very happy parent waiting for them. I heard recently about a little girl who got home unusually late from school only to find a daddy who was, of course, not happy at all. He asked the little girl why she was late. She said, "Because my friend broke her dolly." Her dad said, "Oh, okay, so you stayed with her to fix it?" He didn't expect her gentle little reply, "No, Daddy. I stayed with her to help her cry."

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Shoulder to Cry On."

You may know someone right now who needs a friend like that; someone to help them cry. It's part of being a follower of Jesus actually to be that kind of friend, that kind of coworker, that kind of person in your family.

Paul talks about this caring, sensitive, unselfish lifestyle in our word for today from the Word of God in Romans 12:15. Here's what He says, "Rejoice with those who rejoice: mourn with those who mourn." When you're rejoicing, you need someone to share your joy. When you're hurting, you need someone to share your burden. If you're a Jesus-follower, that's supposed to be you for the people you know. Because that's how your Master lived His life. He was actually attracted to people who were hurting. He followed the need.

We don't always do this too well, do we? Look, you're probably like me. You've got a really busy life, you've got a full schedule. Someone who needs comfort and encouragement and who needs time...well, let's be honest. They can feel like an interruption, an intrusion, maybe even a nuisance. Those feelings in themselves are not a problem unless you allow those feelings to give you a hard heart and to make you unresponsive to a need that God has dropped into your life. Yeah, God has dropped into your life. And that's what it is: God is hearing someone's cry, God is feeling someone's pain, and God is sending to them one of His children to show them His love; one of His children like you.

Which means that we can't be all rigid about our sacred schedules and plans and our "to-do" lists. We need this Spirit-led flexibility to stop for someone who needs a friend to "help them cry." People are a lot more important than tasks.

One reason we don't move in next to someone who's hurting honestly is because sometimes we don't know what to say. You know, that really doesn't matter. Your job is to let them talk, to let them cry, to listen in a way that you can identify what that person needs right now, and then to see if you or someone you know can help with some of those needs. I've heard of a tribe in Africa where they have a wonderful custom. When someone dies, one of the elders of the village comes to the grieving family's hut and just sits there quietly for a couple of days. He doesn't say anything; he doesn't do anything, unless he is asked to. He's just there, and his presence alone is comfort. That's not a bad model.

And strangely, what often qualifies you to be a comforter turns out to be the hardest things you ever faced in your life. Because you've been the one who cried, you can help someone else who's crying. You are God's wounded healer. Or as Paul says, "God comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God" (2 Corinthians 1:4).

So would you like to be like your Savior, Jesus? Well, one way you can do that is to stop for people who need you, and be there to help them cry.

Jeremiah 52, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS - May 21, 2024

My friend Jerry has taught me the value of gratitude. His dear wife, Ginger, battles Parkinson’s disease. What should have been a wonderful season of retirement has been marred by multiple hospital stays, medication, and struggles. Yet Jerry never complains. I asked Jerry his secret. He said, “Every morning Ginger and I sit together and sing a hymn. I ask her what she wants to sing. She always says, ‘Count Your Many Blessings.’ So we sing it.”

Look at your blessings. Do you see any? Do you see any friends? Family? Grace from God? The love of God? Any abilities or talents? As you look at your blessings, take note of what happens. Anxiety grabs his bags and slips out the door.  Worry refuses to share the heart with gratitude. Focus more on what you do have and less on what you don’t.

 Jeremiah 52

The Destruction of Jerusalem and Exile of Judah

1  52 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he started out as king. He was king in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah. Her hometown was Libnah.

2  As far as God was concerned, Zedekiah was just one more evil king, a carbon copy of Jehoiakim.

3–5  The source of all this doom to Jerusalem and Judah was God’s anger. God turned his back on them as an act of judgment.

Zedekiah revolted against the king of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar set out for Jerusalem with a full army. He set up camp and sealed off the city by building siege mounds around it. He arrived on the ninth year and tenth month of Zedekiah’s reign. The city was under siege for nineteen months (until the eleventh year of Zedekiah).

6–8  By the fourth month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year, on the ninth day of the month, the famine was so bad that there wasn’t so much as a crumb of bread for anyone. Then the Babylonians broke through the city walls. Under cover of the night darkness, the entire Judean army fled through an opening in the wall (it was the gate between the two walls above the King’s Garden). They slipped through the lines of the Babylonians who surrounded the city and headed for the Jordan into the Arabah Valley, but the Babylonians were in full pursuit. They caught up with them in the Plains of Jericho. But by then Zedekiah’s army had deserted and was scattered.

9–11  The Babylonians captured Zedekiah and marched him off to the king of Babylon at Riblah in Hamath, who tried and sentenced him on the spot. The king of Babylon then killed Zedekiah’s sons right before his eyes. The summary murder of his sons was the last thing Zedekiah saw, for they then blinded him. The king of Babylon followed that up by killing all the officials of Judah. Securely handcuffed, Zedekiah was hauled off to Babylon. The king of Babylon threw him in prison, where he stayed until the day he died.

12–16  In the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon on the seventh day of the fifth month, Nebuzaradan, the king of Babylon’s chief deputy, arrived in Jerusalem. He burned the Temple of God to the ground, went on to the royal palace, and then finished off the city. He burned the whole place down. He put the Babylonian troops he had with him to work knocking down the city walls. Finally, he rounded up everyone left in the city, including those who had earlier deserted to the king of Babylon, and took them off into exile. He left a few poor dirt farmers behind to tend the vineyards and what was left of the fields.

17–19  The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars, the bronze washstands, and the huge bronze basin (the Sea) that were in the Temple of God, and hauled the bronze off to Babylon. They also took the various bronze-crafted liturgical accessories, as well as the gold and silver censers and sprinkling bowls, used in the services of Temple worship. The king’s deputy didn’t miss a thing. He took every scrap of precious metal he could find.

20–23  The amount of bronze they got from the two pillars, the Sea, the twelve bronze bulls that supported the Sea, and the ten washstands that Solomon had made for the Temple of God was enormous. They couldn’t weigh it all! Each pillar stood twenty-seven feet high with a circumference of eighteen feet. The pillars were hollow, the bronze a little less than an inch thick. Each pillar was topped with an ornate capital of bronze pomegranates and filigree, which added another seven and a half feet to its height. There were ninety-six pomegranates evenly spaced—in all, a hundred pomegranates worked into the filigree.

24–27  The king’s deputy took a number of special prisoners: Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the associate priest, three wardens, the chief remaining army officer, seven of the king’s counselors who happened to be in the city, the chief recruiting officer for the army, and sixty men of standing from among the people who were still there. Nebuzaradan the king’s deputy marched them all off to the king of Babylon at Riblah. And there at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king of Babylon killed the lot of them in cold blood.

Judah went into exile, orphaned from her land.

28  3,023 men of Judah were taken into exile by Nebuchadnezzar in the seventh year of his reign.

29  832 from Jerusalem were taken in the eighteenth year of his reign.

30  745 men from Judah were taken off by Nebuzaradan, the king’s chief deputy, in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year.

The total number of exiles was 4,600.

31–34  When Jehoiachin king of Judah had been in exile for thirty-seven years, Evil-Merodach became king in Babylon and let Jehoiachin out of prison. This release took place on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month. The king treated him most courteously and gave him preferential treatment beyond anything experienced by the political prisoners held in Babylon. Jehoiachin took off his prison garb and from then on ate his meals in company with the king. The king provided everything he needed to live comfortably for the rest of his life.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Tuesday, May 21, 2024

Today's Scripture

Genesis 33:1-11

Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming with his four hundred men. He divided the children between Leah and Rachel and the two maidservants. He put the maidservants out in front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last. He led the way and, as he approached his brother, bowed seven times, honoring his brother. But Esau ran up and embraced him, held him tight and kissed him. And they both wept.

5  Then Esau looked around and saw the women and children: “And who are these with you?”

Jacob said, “The children that God saw fit to bless me with.”

6–7  Then the maidservants came up with their children and bowed; then Leah and her children, also bowing; and finally, Joseph and Rachel came up and bowed to Esau.

8  Esau then asked, “And what was the meaning of all those herds that I met?”

“I was hoping that they would pave the way for my master to welcome me.”

9  Esau said, “Oh, brother. I have plenty of everything—keep what is yours for yourself.”

10–11  Jacob said, “Please. If you can find it in your heart to welcome me, accept these gifts. When I saw your face, it was as the face of God smiling on me. Accept the gifts I have brought for you. God has been good to me and I have more than enough.” Jacob urged the gifts on him and Esau accepted.

Insight

Jacob was one of the twin sons of Isaac, along with his brother Esau. The name Jacob means “heel grabber” and describes someone who trips others up, presumably for his own benefit. We see this as Jacob tripped up Esau to take his birthright (Genesis 25), then tripped up their father, Isaac, to take Esau’s blessing (ch. 27). The result of Jacob’s scheming was that he ended up in exile for decades. By: Bill Crowder

Extending Christ’s Kindness

Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. And they wept. Genesis 33:4

Kindness or revenge? Isaiah had just been hit in the head by a wild pitch during a Little League regional championship baseball game. He dropped to the ground holding his head. Thankfully, his helmet protected him from serious injury. As play resumed, Isaiah noticed the pitcher was visibly shaken by his unintentional error. In that moment, Isaiah did something so extraordinary that the video of his response went viral. He walked over to the pitcher, gave him a comforting hug, and made sure the pitcher knew he was all right. In a situation that could have resulted in a brawl, Isaiah chose kindness.

In the Old Testament, we see Esau make a similar, though far more difficult, choice to abandon any long-harbored plans for revenge against his deceiving twin brother Jacob. As Jacob returned home after twenty years in exile, Esau chose kindness and forgiveness instead of vengeance for the ways Jacob had wronged him. When Esau saw Jacob, he “ran to meet [him] and embraced him” (Genesis 33:4). Esau accepted Jacob’s apology and let him know he was all right (vv. 9-11).

When someone demonstrates remorse for wrongs committed against us, we have a choice: kindness or revenge. Choosing to embrace them in kindness follows Jesus’ example (Romans 5:8) and is a pathway toward reconciliation. By:  Lisa M. Samra

Reflect & Pray

When have you been met by kindness after acknowledging a wrong? How might you show kindness to someone else?

Dear Jesus, please help me to follow Your example and extend kindness when I’ve been wronged.

Find out how forgiveness can save your relationships.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Tuesday, May 21, 2024

Divine Reasonings of Faith

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.— Matthew 6:33

The words Jesus speaks here are the most revolutionary words human ears ever heard: “Seek first his kingdom.” Even the most spiritually-minded of us argue that we must do other things first. “But I must make money. I must be clothed. I must be fed,” we say. When we reason like this, we make it clear that the great concern of our lives isn’t the kingdom of God; it’s how we’re going to get by financially. Jesus reverses the order, telling us to get rightly related to God first. He asks us to maintain our relationship with our heavenly Father as the main focus of our lives, and to take the focus off all other concerns.

“Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear” (Matthew 6:25). Our Lord points out the unreasonableness of being anxious about how we’ll live. Jesus isn’t saying that the person who thinks of nothing is blessed—that person is a fool (Proverbs 19:2). Jesus is telling us to place our relationship to God at the center of our lives, and to be carefully careless about everything else in comparison. He’s saying, “Don’t make the main concern of your life what you will eat and what you will drink. Be focused on God.”

Some people are careless about what they eat and drink, and they suffer for it. Some are careless about what they wear, and they look as they have no business looking. Some are careless about their earthly affairs, and God holds them responsible. What Jesus is saying in these verses is that the great care of our life should be to put our relationship to God first, and everything else second. One of the harshest disciplines of the Christian life is allowing the Holy Spirit to bring us into harmony with this teaching of Jesus.

1 Chronicles 13-15; John 7:1-27

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

There is nothing, naturally speaking, that makes us lose heart quicker than decay—the decay of bodily beauty, of natural life, of friendship, of associations, all these things make a man lose heart; but Paul says when we are trusting in Jesus Christ these things do not find us discouraged, light comes through them. 

The Place of Help, 1032 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Tuesday, May 21, 2024

The Tebow in All of Us - #9747

I really like football. I just don't have a lot of time to watch it. But you know, I watched a whole game that wasn't even my team! It was the Denver Broncos when they won that astonishing victory over the heavily favored Pittsburgh Steelers in a wild-card playoff game. But I was watching more than a football game; I was watching Tim Tebow and the drama that unfolded every time he took the field. That game was no exception.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Tim Tebow in All of Us."

Now, Tim Tebow went from being America's top college football player to a much-critiqued rookie quarterback for the Broncos. When he replaced Denver's starter after a string of Denver losses, he led his team to seven wins, including six in a row. Several of those wins were "come from behind," last-second (well, they said) "miracle" victories, and then three consecutive losses in which Tebow performed pretty poorly.

And then that playoff game where the Broncos were basically written off as having no chance. Somebody forgot to tell Tim Tebow. He exploded for 316 yards passing, 50 yards on the ground; he led his team to a stunning overtime victory.

But the drama swirls around this unconventionally impressive quarterback has less to do with football than with faith. He's often in the news for his unashamed praise of Jesus Christ; especially his trademark response to good things that happen on the field. He knelt on one knee, his head bowed, a hand to his forehead. And after completing a game-winning 80-plus yard pass on the first play of that playoff game, he (well, you guessed it) took a knee.

His God-praising, bent-knee posture had become part of our national vocabulary, "Tebowing." There's even a website dedicated to showing pictures of people "tebowing" all over the world; an expression of respect from most and mockery from others.

In a sports world known for scandalous headlines about its heroes, it seemed no one quite knew what to do with a strong, consistent Jesus-guy like Tim Tebow. Until he got married, he was still a virgin. He was known for constantly encouraging and building up his teammates. He served the poor and the lost on missions trips and still does. He genuinely cared about others. And yet, he's a fierce competitor, a physical powerhouse and a passionate player.

Is there any example here we should be following? You bet there is. Because this indomitable quarterback was, in many ways, a living, breathing model of what it means to be "Christ's ambassador" no matter what field we play on. Now we're ready for our word for today from the Word of God, 2 Corinthians 5:20, "We are Christ's ambassadors."

First, Tim Tebow understood that the responsibility we have is divine positioning. We work where we work, we live where we live, we go to school where we go to school, we recreate where we recreate for a life-saving purpose, to, as the Bible says, "shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life" (Philippians 2:15-16).

This "star" in the football universe says, "I'm going to take the platform that football has given me and try to give back with it and make a difference." Every person who belongs to Jesus has been given a "platform" to point people to their Jesus; your job, your medical or financial battles, your successes, your losses. Your situation is your assignment; your divinely conceived position to show the difference that Jesus makes.

And Tim Tebow also modeled for us what it meant to have a radar for open doors. His eyes were wide open for circumstances that opened a door to talk about his Jesus.

Our gridiron brother also shows us the power of show and tell. His life backs it up; he's known for his encouragement. He's known for his purity. This is a Jesus-follower who understands that you win the right to be heard by showing the difference Jesus makes.

It's a brand of faith that shows, more than anything, the magnet of having an identity that is anchored to Jesus Christ. You live in such a way that even those who despise what you believe, cannot despise the way you live. Because you make them think of Jesus.

Jeremiah 39, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: A DELIGHTFUL DOLLOP OF GRATITUDE - May 20, 2024

Declare with David: “[I will] daily add praise to praise. I’ll write the book on your righteousness, talk up your salvation the livelong day, never run out of good things to write or say” (Psalm 71:14-15 MSG).

Gratitude is a mindful awareness of the benefits of life. Studies have linked the emotion with a variety of positive effects. Grateful people tend to be more empathetic and forgiving of others. People who keep a gratitude journal are more likely to have a positive outlook on life. Gratitude improves self-esteem and enhances relationships, quality of sleep, and longevity. If it came in a pill form, gratitude would be deemed “the miracle cure.” It’s no wonder, then, that God’s anxiety therapy includes a large, delightful dollop of gratitude.

Jeremiah 39

Bad News, Not Good News

1–2  39 In the ninth year and tenth month of Zedekiah king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with his entire army and laid siege to Jerusalem. In the eleventh year and fourth month, on the ninth day of Zedekiah’s reign, they broke through into the city.

3  All the officers of the king of Babylon came and set themselves up as a ruling council from the Middle Gate: Nergal-sharezer of Simmagar, Nebushazban the Rabsaris, Nergal-sharezer the Rabmag, along with all the other officials of the king of Babylon.

4–7  When Zedekiah king of Judah and his remaining soldiers saw this, they ran for their lives. They slipped out at night on a path in the king’s garden through the gate between two walls and headed for the wilderness, toward the Jordan Valley. The Babylonian army chased them and caught Zedekiah in the wilderness of Jericho. They seized him and took him to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah in the country of Hamath. Nebuchadnezzar decided his fate. The king of Babylon killed all the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah right before his eyes and then killed all the nobles of Judah. After Zedekiah had seen the slaughter, Nebuchadnezzar blinded him, chained him up, and then took him off to Babylon.

8–10  Meanwhile, the Babylonians burned down the royal palace, the Temple, and all the homes of the people. They leveled the walls of Jerusalem. Nebuzaradan, commander of the king’s bodyguard, rounded up everyone left in the city, along with those who had surrendered to him, and herded them off to exile in Babylon. He didn’t bother taking the few poor people who had nothing. He left them in the land of Judah to eke out a living as best they could in the vineyards and fields.

11–12  Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon gave Nebuzaradan captain of the king’s bodyguard special orders regarding Jeremiah: “Look out for him. Make sure nothing bad happens to him. Give him anything he wants.”

13–14  So Nebuzaradan, chief of the king’s bodyguard, along with Nebushazban the Rabsaris, Nergal-sharezer the Rabmag, and all the chief officers of the king of Babylon, sent for Jeremiah, taking him from the courtyard of the royal guards and putting him under the care of Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, to be taken home. And so he was able to live with the people.

15–18  Earlier, while Jeremiah was still in custody in the courtyard of the royal guards, God’s Message came to him: “Go and speak with Ebed-melek the Ethiopian. Tell him, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel, says, Listen carefully: I will do exactly what I said I would do to this city—bad news, not good news. When it happens, you will be there to see it. But I’ll deliver you on that doomsday. You won’t be handed over to those men whom you have good reason to fear. Yes, I’ll most certainly save you. You won’t be killed. You’ll walk out of there safe and sound because you trusted me.’ ” God’s Decree.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Monday, May 20, 2024

Today's Scripture

Jeremiah 29:8-14

Yes. Believe it or not, this is the Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel’s God: “Don’t let all those so-called preachers and know-it-alls who are all over the place there take you in with their lies. Don’t pay any attention to the fantasies they keep coming up with to please you. They’re a bunch of liars preaching lies—and claiming I sent them! I never sent them, believe me.” God’s Decree!

10–11  This is God’s Word on the subject: “As soon as Babylon’s seventy years are up and not a day before, I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.

12  “When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen.

13–14  “When you come looking for me, you’ll find me.

“Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” God’s Decree.

“I’ll turn things around for you. I’ll bring you back from all the countries into which I drove you”—God’s Decree—“bring you home to the place from which I sent you off into exile. You can count on it.

Insight

The prophet Jeremiah ministered during the reign of Judah’s last five kings: Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoichin, and Zedekiah (about 640–586 bc). This was a time when false prophets abounded. Jeremiah foretold doom to the unrepentant nation, while his contemporaries assured the people of peace. These false prophets prophesied lies in God’s name. Yet God had “not sent them or appointed them” (Jeremiah 14:14). They spoke “visions from their own minds” (23:16), saying what the people longed to hear (see 2 Timothy 4:3). Jeremiah passionately delivered God’s message despite suffering greatly for it. He was thrown into prison (ch. 37) and a cistern or well (ch. 38). He was rejected by his family, friends, neighbors, false priests and prophets, and kings. Because the people didn’t listen to God’s words to turn back to Him, spoken through Jeremiah, they were captured by the Babylonians in 586 bc and were exiled for seventy years. By: Alyson Kieda

God in the Past and Present

I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. Jeremiah 29:10

It had been years since we left the Oregon town where we raised our family. We’d made great memories there, and the recent visit reminded me of moments I’d forgotten: our girls’ soccer games, our old home, church gatherings, and our friends’ Mexican restaurant. The town had changed, but there was enough of the familiar to spark my desire to return for a visit. 

When the Israelites went into exile in Babylon, they missed the familiarity of people, landmarks, and culture. They forgot they’d been exiled for rebelling against God. When false prophets told the exiles they’d return home within two years (Jeremiah 28:2-4; 29:8-9), they found a receptive audience. It was easy to listen to the slick words of false prophets who promised a return home soon.

God didn’t take kindly to these peddlers of the past and their false promises. “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you,” He said (29:8). He had plans for His people, “plans to give [them] hope and a future” (v. 11). The situation was challenging, difficult, and new, but God was with them. “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart,” He told them (v. 13). God would bring them “back to the place from which I carried you into exile” (v. 14), but in His timing.

Nostalgia plays tricks on the mind, making it easy to long for what once was. Don’t miss what God is doing right now. He will fulfill His promises.  By:  Matt Lucas

Reflect & Pray

What difficulty are you facing today? How is God showing Himself faithful?

Father, may I continue to look for You in the present and not long for the past.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Monday, May 20, 2024

Standing Firm Before the Lord

Stand firm, and you will win life.— Luke 21:19

For some time after we are born again, we aren’t as quick in our thinking and reasoning as we were before. We have to learn how to express our new life by forming the mind of Christ, and this takes time, effort, and patience.

“In your patience possess ye your souls” (Luke 21:19 KJV). Many of us prefer to stay at the threshold of the Christian life. We refuse to move on to the arduous work of constructing a soul—a soul that reflects the new life God has put inside us. We fail at this because we are ignorant of the way we are made. We blame our shortcomings on the devil, instead of on our own undisciplined natures.

We try to pray our weaknesses away, not understanding that there are certain things we must not pray about—moods, for example. Moods go by kicking, not by praying. When we are tired or hungry or in pain, it is a tremendous effort not to listen to our mood. But we must not listen, not even for a second. We have to pick ourselves up and shake off our mood. Once we do, we realize that we can do the things we’d thought impossible. The trouble with most of us is that we won’t. We refuse to stand up to our moods, and they end up sapping our energy and motivation.

Think what we can be when we are motivated! If we will stand firm in obedience to the Lord, if we will obey him instead of our own natures, he will guide us in building a soul that harmonizes perfectly with the Spirit inside. The Christian life is a life of incarnate spiritual pluck: “Stand firm, and you will win life.”

1 Chronicles 10-12; John 6:45-71

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

It is an easy thing to argue from precedent because it makes everything simple, but it is a risky thing to do. Give God “elbow room”; let Him come into His universe as He pleases. If we confine God in His working to religious people or to certain ways, we place ourselves on an equality with God. 

Baffled to Fight Better, 51 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Monday, May 20, 2024

Turning Your Hurt Into Hope - #9746

"Frozen"! Yeah, that's a blockbuster Disney movie, but it was something else too. It was the headline for the record-busting winter of 2015 in a whole lot of the United States. Any time I heard myself starting to whimper over the long freeze, I just made myself think one thing - "Boston." We're talking a little over 100 inches of snow in just a few weeks!

But out of those snowdrifts comes a really cool story with a big shot of hope to anybody who's listening who's gotten slammed in their life. Crystal Evans lives near what was snow-buried Boston, and a winter like the one that she was enduring could really have put her life on hold. But she didn't get that memo.

She needs her wheelchair to get around because of the neuro-muscular disease that she has. And she needed to get to the post office. Wheelchair. Lots of snow. Ain't gonna happen. Really? Crystal put a snow shovel between her footrest, rolled her chair and cleared a path as she went! Then she looked back and realized what she, her wheelchair and her shovel had just accomplished. And then she said, "Well, I could clear sidewalks for everybody!" And she did - for over 100 hours! One place where her work was evident was at a bus stop that was treacherous for moms carrying small children and for elderly people. She cleared it so folks could get to a grocery store and a pharmacy. She wasn't the only snow angel in her town though. Her efforts actually inspired others to join her - some who came with their snowblowers.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Turning Your Hurt Into Hope."

Crystal Evans did not let a paralyzing winter stop her. She didn't let a "disability" stop her. Instead, she found a way for her limitations to be used to bless other lives. Her wheelchair - with a little help from her shovel - became a snowplow, making a way for others. I believe that she has modeled hope for anyone who feels "disabled" by what's happened to them: disabled by a medical condition, by grief, by financial disaster.

Turn your hurt into hope for other people. The Bible says that something transforming happens when we open up our pain to God's healing touch. He'll give us, in the words of Isaiah 61, "a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair" (Isaiah 61:3).

And the "crud" of our lives becomes "crudentials" to bring hope to other hurting people. Which leads us to our word for today from the Word of God, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, "God is the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us."

Pity party canceled. No more "all about me." From now on, it's about how I can use the compassion that's come from my battles to lighten someone else's load. Walking the path Jesus did. The One the Bible calls "the Savior of the world" left this earth with something He did not come with: scars and nail prints in His hands and feet.

He is not a distant God, watching us bleed. He bled. For us. For me. I can trust this suffering Savior. I can take all the hurt, all the sadness, all the sin of a lifetime and place it in those nail-scarred hands.

If you've never had that transaction with Jesus where you give Him the life that He paid for on the cross, let this be the day that you let Him into all the sin and all the hurt. And let Him make you what the Bible calls "a new creation in Christ" - a new beginning this very day.

You say, "How do I do that?" Would you go to our website and let me help you get that settled? It's ANewStory.com. And then hanging onto Jesus, we can start using our hurts to help clear a way for someone else. Then, as God says, I become "more than a conqueror" (Romans 8:37)!

Hebrews 10:1-18, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Who Did the Work?

Humility is such an elusive virtue. Once you think you have it, you don't, or you wouldn't think you did. You've heard the story of the boy who received the "Most Humble Badge" and had it taken away because he wore it?

God hates arrogance-because we haven't done anything to be arrogant about. Can you imagine a scalpel growing smug after a successful heart transplant?  Of course not. It's only a tool, it gets no credit for the accomplishment.

The message of the 23rd Psalm is that we have nothing to be proud about either. We have rest, salvation, blessings,, and a home in heaven-and we did nothing to earn any of it! Who did?  Who did the work? The Psalmist says the Lord, our Shepherd, leads His sheep-not for our names' sake but-for His name's sake!

This is all done for God's glory!

From Traveling Light

Hebrews 10:1-18

The Sacrifice of Jesus

1–10  10 The old plan was only a hint of the good things in the new plan. Since that old “law plan” wasn’t complete in itself, it couldn’t complete those who followed it. No matter how many sacrifices were offered year after year, they never added up to a complete solution. If they had, the worshipers would have gone merrily on their way, no longer dragged down by their sins. But instead of removing awareness of sin, when those animal sacrifices were repeated over and over they actually heightened awareness and guilt. The plain fact is that bull and goat blood can’t get rid of sin. That is what is meant by this prophecy, put in the mouth of Christ:

You don’t want sacrifices and offerings year after year;

you’ve prepared a body for me for a sacrifice.

It’s not fragrance and smoke from the altar

that whet your appetite.

So I said, “I’m here to do it your way, O God,

the way it’s described in your Book.”

When he said, “You don’t want sacrifices and offerings,” he was referring to practices according to the old plan. When he added, “I’m here to do it your way,” he set aside the first in order to enact the new plan—God’s way—by which we are made fit for God by the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus.

11–18  Every priest goes to work at the altar each day, offers the same old sacrifices year in, year out, and never makes a dent in the sin problem. As a priest, Christ made a single sacrifice for sins, and that was it! Then he sat down right beside God and waited for his enemies to cave in. It was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people. By that single offering, he did everything that needed to be done for everyone who takes part in the purifying process. The Holy Spirit confirms this:

This new plan I’m making with Israel

isn’t going to be written on paper,

isn’t going to be chiseled in stone;

This time “I’m writing out the plan in them,

carving it on the lining of their hearts.”

He concludes,

I’ll forever wipe the slate clean of their sins.

Once sins are taken care of for good, there’s no longer any need to offer sacrifices for them.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Sunday, May 19, 2024

Today's Scripture

Revelation 7:9-12

I looked again. I saw a huge crowd, too huge to count. Everyone was there—all nations and tribes, all races and languages. And they were standing, dressed in white robes and waving palm branches, standing before the Throne and the Lamb and heartily singing:

Salvation to our God on his Throne!

Salvation to the Lamb!

All who were standing around the Throne—Angels, Elders, Animals—fell on their faces before the Throne and worshiped God, singing:

Oh, Yes!

The blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving,

The honor and power and strength,

To our God forever and ever and ever!

Oh, Yes!

Insight

The book of Revelation (in Greek apokalypsis) is considered apocalyptic literature—a term which today is often used to describe literature that portrays the end of the world. This is due to the graphic imagery of the prophecies contained in Revelation. However, apokalypsis means “to reveal, to unveil something that has been hidden.” Primarily, the book of Revelation isn’t about the end of the world; it’s about Jesus, who’s referred to as “the Lamb” (see 5:6-13; 7:9-17). This description also appears in John’s gospel: “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (1:29); “Look, the Lamb of God!” (v. 36). By: Bill Crowder

Making God Known

Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb. Revelation 7:10

A love for God and for people undergirds Kathryn’s Bible translating work. She rejoices when women in India come to a deeper understanding of Scripture, reading it in their mother tongue. She remarks that when they do, “They often start cheering or clapping. They read about Jesus, and they say, ‘Oh, wonderful!’ ”

Kathryn longs for more people to read the Scriptures in their own language. In this desire, she holds close to her heart the vision of the aging disciple John on the island of Patmos. Through the Spirit, God ushered him into the throne room of heaven, where he saw “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9). All together they worshiped God, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God” (v. 10).

God continues to add to the great number of people praising Him. He uses not only the work of Bible translators and those praying for them, but also those who reach out to their neighbors in love with the good news of Jesus. We can rejoice in this joyful mission, marveling at how God will spark more people to join with the angels in saying, “Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever” (v. 12). By:  Amy Boucher Pye

Reflect & Pray

How do you see God spurring on people to praise and honor Him? How might He invite you to join in His mission of spreading the good news of Jesus?

Saving God, thank You for the gift of Jesus. Please help me to share Your wonderful love with others.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Sunday, May 19, 2024

Out of the Wreck I Rise

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?— Romans 8:35

God doesn’t promise to make us immune to trouble; God promises to be with us in trouble. It doesn’t matter what kind of trouble; even the most extreme hardship can never separate us from God.

“In all these things we are more than conquerors” (Romans 8:37). The “things” Paul is talking about in this verse aren’t imaginary; they are desperately real. And yet, Paul says, in the middle of all our hardships, we are super-victors—not because of our intelligence or our courage, but because nothing can affect our relationship to God in Jesus Christ. Whether we like it or not, we are where we are, exactly in the condition we’re in. I am sorry for Christians who have nothing difficult in their circumstances.

“Shall trouble . . . ?” Trouble is never a noble thing, but neither is it all-powerful. No trouble, says Paul, “will be able to separate us from the love of God” (v. 39). Let trouble be what it is. Let it be exhausting and irritating. But never let it separate you from the reality that God loves you.

“Shall . . . hardship . . . ?” Can God’s love hold when everything around us seems to be saying that his love is a lie, and that there is no such thing as justice?

“Shall . . . famine . . . ?” Can we not only believe in God’s love but be more than conquerors even when we are being starved? Either Jesus Christ is a deceiver and Paul is deluded, or something extraordinary happens to the soul who holds on to God’s love when the facts are against God’s character.

“More than conquerors . . .” Logic is silenced in the face of Paul’s claim. Only one thing can account for what he says: the love of God in Christ Jesus. “Out of the wreck I rise,” every time.

1 Chronicles 7-9; John 6:22-44

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

We are all based on a conception of importance, either our own importance, or the importance of someone else; Jesus tells us to go and teach based on the revelation of His importance. “All power is given unto Me.… Go ye therefore ….” 

So Send I You, 1325 R

Jeremiah 38 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Making the Impossible Possible

“If you have faith, it will happen.” Matthew 21:21

God always rejoices when we dare to dream. In fact, we are much like God when we dream . . . He wrote the book on making the impossible possible . . .

Eighty-year-old shepherds don’t usually play chicken with Pharaohs . . . but don’t tell that to Moses.

Teenage shepherds don’t normally have showdowns with giants . . . but don’t tell that to David . . . And for sure don’t tell that to God

 Jeremiah 38

From the Dungeon to the Palace

1  38 Shaphatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashur, Jehucal son of Shelemiah, and Pashur son of Malkijah heard what Jeremiah was telling the people, namely:

2  “This is God’s Message: ‘Whoever stays in this town will die—will be killed or starve to death or get sick and die. But those who go over to the Babylonians will save their necks and live.’

3  “And, God’s sure Word: ‘This city is destined to fall to the army of the king of Babylon. He’s going to take it over.’ ”

4  These officials told the king, “Please, kill this man. He’s got to go! He’s ruining the resolve of the soldiers who are still left in the city, as well as the people themselves, by spreading these words. This man isn’t looking after the good of this people. He’s trying to ruin us!”

5  King Zedekiah caved in: “If you say so. Go ahead, handle it your way. You’re too much for me.”

6  So they took Jeremiah and threw him into the cistern of Malkijah the king’s son that was in the courtyard of the palace guard. They lowered him down with ropes. There wasn’t any water in the cistern, only mud. Jeremiah sank into the mud.

7–9  Ebed-melek the Ethiopian, a court official assigned to the royal palace, heard that they had thrown Jeremiah into the cistern. While the king was holding court in the Ben-jamin Gate, Ebed-melek went immediately from the palace to the king and said, “My master, O king—these men are committing a great crime in what they’re doing, throwing Jeremiah the prophet into the cistern and leaving him there to starve. He’s as good as dead. There isn’t a scrap of bread left in the city.”

10  So the king ordered Ebed-melek the Ethiopian, “Get three men and pull Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies.”

11–12  Ebed-melek got three men and went to the palace wardrobe and got some scraps of old clothing, which they tied together and lowered down with ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern. Ebed-melek the Ethiopian called down to Jeremiah, “Put these scraps of old clothing under your armpits and around the ropes.”

Jeremiah did what he said.

13  And so they pulled Jeremiah up out of the cistern by the ropes. But he was still confined in the courtyard of the palace guard.

14  Later, King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and had him brought to the third entrance of the Temple of God. The king said to Jeremiah, “I’m going to ask you something. Don’t hold anything back from me.”

15  Jeremiah said, “If I told you the whole truth, you’d kill me. And no matter what I said, you wouldn’t pay any attention anyway.”

16  Zedekiah swore to Jeremiah right there, but in secret, “As sure as God lives, who gives us life, I won’t kill you, nor will I turn you over to the men who are trying to kill you.”

17–18  So Jeremiah told Zedekiah, “This is the Message from God, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel: ‘If you will turn yourself over to the generals of the king of Babylon, you will live, this city won’t be burned down, and your family will live. But if you don’t turn yourself over to the generals of the king of Babylon, this city will go into the hands of the Chaldeans and they’ll burn it down. And don’t for a minute think there’s any escape for you.’ ”

19  King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “But I’m afraid of the Judeans who have already deserted to the Chaldeans. If they get hold of me, they’ll rough me up good.”

20–22  Jeremiah assured him, “They won’t get hold of you. Listen, please. Listen to God’s voice. I’m telling you this for your own good so that you’ll live. But if you refuse to turn yourself over, this is what God has shown me will happen: Picture this in your mind—all the women still left in the palace of the king of Judah, led out to the officers of the king of Babylon, and as they’re led out they are saying:

“ ‘They lied to you and did you in,

those so-called friends of yours;

And now you’re stuck, about knee-deep in mud,

and your “friends,” where are they now?’

23  “They’ll take all your wives and children and give them to the Chaldeans. And you, don’t think you’ll get out of this—the king of Babylon will seize you and then burn this city to the ground.”

24–26  Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Don’t let anyone know of this conversation, if you know what’s good for you. If the government officials get wind that I’ve been talking with you, they may come and say, ‘Tell us what went on between you and the king, what you said and what he said. Hold nothing back and we won’t kill you.’ If this happens, tell them, ‘I presented my case to the king so that he wouldn’t send me back to the dungeon of Jonathan to die there.’ ”

27  And sure enough, all the officials came to Jeremiah and asked him. He responded as the king had instructed. So they quit asking. No one had overheard the conversation.

28  Jeremiah lived in the courtyard of the palace guards until the day that Jerusalem was captured.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Saturday, May 18, 2024

Today's Scripture

Exodus 31:1-11

Bezalel and Oholiab

1–5  31 God spoke to Moses: “See what I’ve done; I’ve personally chosen Bezalel son of Uri, son of Hur of the tribe of Judah. I’ve filled him with the Spirit of God, giving him skill and know-how and expertise in every kind of craft to create designs and work in gold, silver, and bronze; to cut and set gemstones; to carve wood—he’s an all-around craftsman.

6–11  “Not only that, but I’ve given him Oholiab, son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan, to work with him. And to all who have an aptitude for crafts I’ve given the skills to make all the things I’ve commanded you: the Tent of Meeting, the Chest of The Testimony and its Atonement-Cover, all the implements for the Tent, the Table and its implements, the pure Lampstand and all its implements, the Altar of Incense, the Altar of Whole-Burnt-Offering and all its implements, the Washbasin and its base, the official vestments, the holy vestments for Aaron the priest and his sons in their priestly duties, the anointing oil, and the aromatic incense for the Holy Place—they’ll make everything just the way I’ve commanded you.”

Insight

Exodus 35–38 gives specific instructions for the construction of the tabernacle and all its furnishings. In today’s passage (31:1-11), we read that God equipped specific people to carry out this important and detailed work. God filled Bezalel with “the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills” (v. 3). He also equipped Oholiab to assist him (v. 6). In addition to being given technical skills, Bezalel and Oholiab were to teach others how to do the work (35:30-35). God equipped all with what was needed to accomplish the task (36:1). By: J.R. Hudberg

Called and Equipped by God

I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom . . . and with all kinds of skills. Exodus 31:3

“Your job for the international book expo,” my boss informed me, “is to organize an onsite radio broadcast.” I felt fear because this was new territory for me. God, I’ve never done anything like this, I prayed. Please help me.

God provided resources and people to guide me: experienced technicians and broadcasters, plus reminders during the expo of details I’d overlooked. In retrospect, I know that the broadcast went well because He knew what was needed and prompted me to use the skills He’d already given me.

When God calls us to a task, He also equips us for it. When He assigned Bezalel to work on the tabernacle, Bezalel was already a skilled craftsman. God further equipped him by filling him with His Spirit and with wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and all kinds of skills (Exodus 31:3). God also gave him an assistant in Oholiab, as well as a skilled workforce (v. 6). With His enablement, the team designed and made the tent, its furnishings, and the priests’ garments. These were instrumental in the Israelites’ proper worship of God (vv. 7-11).

Bezalel means “in the shadow [protection] of God.” The craftsman worked on the project of a lifetime under God’s protection, power, and provision. Let’s courageously obey His prompting as we carry out a task to completion. He knows what we need, and how and when to give it. By:  Karen Huang

Reflect & Pray

What task is God calling you to carry out? In what areas can you pray for His guidance?

Father, thank You for equipping me with all that I need.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Saturday, May 18, 2024

Unconsciously Useful

Look at the birds of the air. . . . See how the flowers of the field grow.— Matthew 6:26, 28

Consider the flowers of the field, how they grow. Think of the sea, the air, the sun, the stars, and the moon. All these simply are—yet what a powerful sense of God they convey! Now think of yourself. God has designed you to convey his influence. Are you letting him? So often we get in God’s way by making a self-conscious effort to be useful and consistent.

Jesus taught that there is only one way to develop spiritually, and that is by concentrating on God. “Whoever believes in me, . . . rivers of living water will flow from within them” (John 7:38). Jesus is saying that growth in spiritual life doesn’t depend on how much attention we pay to our own progress; spiritual growth depends on how much attention we pay to our Father in heaven. Our heavenly Father knows everything about our individual circumstances. If we keep our concentration on him, we will grow as the flowers of the field grow, without self-consciousness getting in the way.

The people who influence us most aren’t those who corner us and preach at us. It’s those who live like the flowers in the field and the stars in the sky—perfectly, simply, and naturally. Theirs are the lives that shape us. If you want to be useful to God, get rightly related to Jesus Christ, and he will make you unconsciously useful every minute you live.

1 Chronicles 4-6; John 6:1-21

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

The main characteristic which is the proof of the indwelling Spirit is an amazing tenderness in personal dealing, and a blazing truthfulness with regard to God’s Word.

Disciples Indeed, 386 R

Jeremiah 37, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: JESUS IS THE DOOR - May 17, 2024

Jesus is a doorman. He opens and shuts doors all the time, and no one can close what he has opened, and no one can open what he has closed. But better than being a doorman, Jesus is the door! In John 10:9 (NCV), he said, “I am the door, and the person who enters through me will be saved…” He controls all gateways and passages from one place to another.

Jesus doesn’t leave us standing in the hallway or outside in the cold. He has something for us—new opportunities, new destinations, new chances to show our faith in him. Right now Jesus is sorting through that vast key ring, looking for the right door for you. He may have to lock and unlock a few other doors first, but one is sure to open soon. Trust him.

 Jeremiah 37

Zedekiah Calls for Jeremiah

Zedekiah son of Josiah succeeded Jehoiachin* son of Jehoiakim as the king of Judah. He was appointed by King Nebuchadnezzar* of Babylon. 2 But neither King Zedekiah nor his attendants nor the people who were left in the land listened to what the Lord said through Jeremiah.

3 Nevertheless, King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah the priest, son of Maaseiah, to ask Jeremiah, “Please pray to the Lord our God for us.” 4 Jeremiah had not yet been imprisoned, so he could come and go among the people as he pleased.

5 At this time the army of Pharaoh Hophra* of Egypt appeared at the southern border of Judah. When the Babylonian* army heard about it, they withdrew from their siege of Jerusalem.

6 Then the Lord gave this message to Jeremiah: 7 “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: The king of Judah sent you to ask me what is going to happen. Tell him, ‘Pharaoh’s army is about to return to Egypt, though he came here to help you. 8 Then the Babylonians* will come back and capture this city and burn it to the ground.’

9 “This is what the Lord says: Do not fool yourselves into thinking that the Babylonians are gone for good. They aren’t! 10 Even if you were to destroy the entire Babylonian army, leaving only a handful of wounded survivors, they would still stagger from their tents and burn this city to the ground!”

Jeremiah Is Imprisoned

11 When the Babylonian army left Jerusalem because of Pharaoh’s approaching army, 12 Jeremiah started to leave the city on his way to the territory of Benjamin, to claim his share of the property among his relatives there.* 13 But as he was walking through the Benjamin Gate, a sentry arrested him and said, “You are defecting to the Babylonians!” The sentry making the arrest was Irijah son of Shelemiah, grandson of Hananiah.

14 “That’s not true!” Jeremiah protested. “I had no intention of doing any such thing.” But Irijah wouldn’t listen, and he took Jeremiah before the officials. 15 They were furious with Jeremiah and had him flogged and imprisoned in the house of Jonathan the secretary. Jonathan’s house had been converted into a prison. 16 Jeremiah was put into a dungeon cell, where he remained for many days.

17 Later King Zedekiah secretly requested that Jeremiah come to the palace, where the king asked him, “Do you have any messages from the Lord?”

“Yes, I do!” said Jeremiah. “You will be defeated by the king of Babylon.”

18 Then Jeremiah asked the king, “What crime have I committed? What have I done against you, your attendants, or the people that I should be imprisoned like this? 19 Where are your prophets now who told you the king of Babylon would not attack you or this land? 20 Listen, my lord the king, I beg you. Don’t send me back to the dungeon in the house of Jonathan the secretary, for I will die there.”

21 So King Zedekiah commanded that Jeremiah not be returned to the dungeon. Instead, he was imprisoned in the courtyard of the guard in the royal palace. The king also commanded that Jeremiah be given a loaf of fresh bread every day as long as there was any left in the city. So Jeremiah was put in the palace prison.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Friday, May 17, 2024

Today's Scripture

2 Corinthians 5:1-10

 For instance, we know that when these bodies of ours are taken down like tents and folded away, they will be replaced by resurrection bodies in heaven—God-made, not hand-made—and we’ll never have to relocate our “tents” again. Sometimes we can hardly wait to move—and so we cry out in frustration. Compared to what’s coming, living conditions around here seem like a stopover in an unfurnished shack, and we’re tired of it! We’ve been given a glimpse of the real thing, our true home, our resurrection bodies! The Spirit of God whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what’s ahead. He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we’ll never settle for less.

6–8  That’s why we live with such good cheer. You won’t see us drooping our heads or dragging our feet! Cramped conditions here don’t get us down. They only remind us of the spacious living conditions ahead. It’s what we trust in but don’t yet see that keeps us going. Do you suppose a few ruts in the road or rocks in the path are going to stop us? When the time comes, we’ll be plenty ready to exchange exile for homecoming.

9–10  But neither exile nor homecoming is the main thing. Cheerfully pleasing God is the main thing, and that’s what we aim to do, regardless of our conditions. Sooner or later we’ll all have to face God, regardless of our conditions. We will appear before Christ and take what’s coming to us as a result of our actions, either good or bad.

Insight

Heaven (2 Corinthians 5:1) is the destination of “those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation 21:27), those who by faith have received Jesus as their Savior. In that wonderful place, there will be no more tears, death, mourning, crying, or pain (v. 4). Heaven is where God dwells (1 Kings 8:39, 43, 49; Psalm 33:13-14). When He was on earth, Jesus confirmed this to be true. He stated He came from heaven (John 3:13; 6:33, 51) and would return there (14:2), where He would be seated at the right hand of God (Luke 22:69; Hebrews 12:2). After He ascended, two angels reminded His disciples that Christ would one day return to earth from heaven (Acts 1:6-11). When believers die, they’re eternally in the presence of God! By: Alyson Kieda

A Change of Venue

We . . .  would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 2 Corinthians 5:8

My friend Joann passed away from a stroke just as the coronavirus began to spread in 2020. At first her family published that her memorial service would be at her church, but then it was determined it was best to hold it at a funeral home to control the size of the group attending. The new notice online read: Joann Warners—Changed Venue.

Yes, her venue had changed! She’d gone from the venue of earth to the venue of heaven. God changed her life years before, and she lovingly served Him for nearly fifty years. Even while she lay near death in the hospital, she asked about others she loved who were struggling. Now she’s present with Him; she has changed venues.

The apostle Paul had the desire to be with Christ in another venue (2 Corinthians 5:8), but he also felt it would be better for the people he served for him to remain on earth. He wrote to the Philippians, “It is more necessary for you that I remain in the body” (Philippians 1:24). When we grieve for someone like Joann, we may cry out to God something similar: They’re needed here by me and many others they loved and served. But God knows the best timing for their change of venue and our own.

In the Spirit’s strength, we now “make it our goal to please [God]” (2 Corinthians 5:9) until we see Him face-to-face—which will be far better. By:  Anne Cetas

Reflect & Pray

In what ways are you revealing your love for God and others where you are right now? How might you serve Him today?

I give myself anew to You, God. Please fill me with Your Spirit of love and make my life count for You.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Friday, May 17, 2024

His Ascension and Our Union

While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven.— Luke 24:51

We cannot relate to the events in our Lord’s life after the transfiguration. Until that moment, Jesus led a life we can recognize: the normal, if perfect, life of a man. From the transfiguration onward— Gethsemane, the cross, the resurrection, and the ascension—everything in our Lord’s life is unfamiliar to us. The cross is the doorway through which every member of humanity can enter into the life of God. Through the resurrection, our Lord has the right to give eternal life to all. By the ascension, our Lord enters heaven and keeps the door open for humanity.

“After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John . . . and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them” (Matthew 17:1–2). After the transfiguration, Jesus remained on earth. If he’d gone to heaven immediately, he would have gone alone as a glorious figure, but not as a savior. Instead, he turned his back on glory and came down from the mountain to identify himself with fallen humanity.

“He left them and was taken up into heaven” (Luke 24:51). The ascension completed the transfiguration. Our Lord returned to his original place of glory, but he didn’t return simply as the Son of God. He returned also as the Son of Man. Because he did, all of humanity now has free access to the throne of God. As Son of Man, Jesus Christ deliberately limited his divine omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. Now, in his glory, they are his in absolute power. Sitting at the throne of God, Jesus Christ, as Son of Man, has all power. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords from the day of his ascension until now.

1 Chronicles 1-3; John 5:25-47

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Jesus Christ can afford to be misunderstood; we cannot. Our weakness lies in always wanting to vindicate ourselves. 

The Place of Help, 1051 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Friday, May 17, 2024

If You Rush It, You Ruin It - #9745

Each of our kids has gone through a baking stage as they were growing up, and my wife and I got to sample some very interesting cookies, and cakes, or whatever they were. You know, new cooks have a hard time waiting for their first masterpiece to get done. They keep peeking, opening the door, checking on it, and even taking it out too soon. That just fouls up the temperature in the oven and you get results like a cake that's burned on the edges but gooey in the center. Or like our daughter baked...a cake that's flat. The young cook, at least one without a microwave, soon learns that impatience can ruin the final result.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "If You Rush It, You Ruin It."

Our word for today from the Word of God, Genesis 16:1-2. And here we're going to find out the greatest obstacle to you getting God's best in your life. "Now, Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar." Now, time out here long enough for me to remind you that God had promised them a son that would come miraculously in their old age. Well, he hadn't come yet. So she said to Abram, "The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant.'" What? "Perhaps I can build a family through her. And Abram agreed to what Sarai said."

You know what happened here? God's will was taking too long, like that cake or those cookies taking too long. So Sarai and Abram rushed it and they ruined it, and there has been lasting fallout that has lasted to today's newspaper. For the son of Hagar is Ishmael, the father of the Arabic people today. The son of Sarah, God's promised one is Isaac, the father of the Jews. And the war continues. See, they could have had God's best, but they tripped over the greatest obstacle to God's best - impatience, you just can't wait.

See, God's plans are not microwavable. You might be waiting out God's will right now for someone to marry, for some breakthrough, for a prodigal or unsaved family member, for the money to come through, for a promotion, a raise, a job. And you're tempted to give God a hand right now. Remember, if you rush it, you may ruin it, because God is weaving a tapestry right now. He's working all things together for good. Ephesians says that "He will work out everything in accordance with His will." He is carefully, deliberately, skillfully putting your future together so you will be just the right person, at just the right place, at just the right time. But guess what? Just like Abraham and Sarah, you can blow the whole thing if impatience causes you to meddle in it.

Make it a goal to not find any of your own fingerprints on your future. Only one set of prints - God's. See, your involvement could well become interference. Would you let God finish His masterpiece in His time? For He promises in Ecclesiastes, "He makes everything beautiful in its time." Impatience can, as young cooks often learn, ruin the final result.

Oh, you'll love what God is cooking up. But please, don't try to rush it.

Jeremiah 34, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON - May 16, 2024

In the days leading up to the war with Germany, the British government commissioned a series of encouraging posters. The first poster was distributed in September of 1939: Your courage, your cheerfulness, your resolution will bring us victory.

Soon a second poster was produced: Freedom is in peril. Defend it with all your might.

A third poster was never released to the public, but was held in reserve for an extreme crisis, such as an invasion by Germany. It was never seen until nearly sixty years later. It read: Keep calm and carry on.

God’s sovereignty doesn’t negate our responsibility. It empowers it. Trust God to do what you can’t. Obey God, and do what you can. Just…keep calm and carry on.

Jeremiah 34

Freedom to the Slaves

1  34 God’s Message to Jeremiah at the time King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon mounted an all-out attack on Jerusalem and all the towns around it with his armies and allies and everyone he could muster:

2–3  “I, God, the God of Israel, direct you to go and tell Zedekiah king of Judah: ‘This is God’s Message. Listen to me. I am going to hand this city over to the king of Babylon, and he is going to burn it to the ground. And don’t think you’ll get away. You’ll be captured and be his prisoner. You will have a personal confrontation with the king of Babylon and be taken off with him, captive, to Babylon.

4–5  “ ‘But listen, O Zedekiah king of Judah, to the rest of the Message of God. You won’t be killed. You’ll die a peaceful death. They will honor you with funeral rites as they honored your ancestors, the kings who preceded you. They will properly mourn your death, weeping, “Master, master!” This is a solemn promise. God’s Decree.’ ”

6–7  The prophet Jeremiah gave this Message to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem, gave it to him word for word. It was at the very time that the king of Babylon was mounting his all-out attack on Jerusalem and whatever cities in Judah that were still standing—only Lachish and Azekah, as it turned out (they were the only fortified cities left in Judah).

8–10  God delivered a Message to Jeremiah after King Zedekiah made a covenant with the people of Jerusalem to decree freedom to the slaves who were Hebrews, both men and women. The covenant stipulated that no one in Judah would own a fellow Jew as a slave. All the leaders and people who had signed the covenant set free the slaves, men and women alike.

11  But a little while later, they reneged on the covenant, broke their promise and forced their former slaves to become slaves again.

12–14  Then Jeremiah received this Message from God: “God, the God of Israel, says, ‘I made a covenant with your ancestors when I delivered them out of their slavery in Egypt. At the time I made it clear: “At the end of seven years, each of you must free any fellow Hebrew who has had to sell himself to you. After he has served six years, set him free.” But your ancestors totally ignored me.

15–16  “ ‘And now, you—what have you done? First you turned back to the right way and did the right thing, decreeing freedom for your brothers and sisters—and you made it official in a solemn covenant in my Temple. And then you turned right around and broke your word, making a mockery of both me and the covenant, and made them all slaves again, these men and women you’d just set free. You forced them back into slavery.

17–20  “ ‘So here is what I, God, have to say: You have not obeyed me and set your brothers and sisters free. Here is what I’m going to do: I’m going to set you free—God’s Decree—free to get killed in war or by disease or by starvation. I’ll make you a spectacle of horror. People all over the world will take one look at you and shudder. Everyone who violated my covenant, who didn’t do what was solemnly promised in the covenant ceremony when they split the young bull into two halves and walked between them, all those people that day who walked between the two halves of the bull—leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, palace officials, priests, and all the rest of the people—I’m handing the lot of them over to their enemies who are out to kill them. Their dead bodies will be carrion food for vultures and stray dogs.

21–22  “ ‘As for Zedekiah king of Judah and his palace staff, I’ll also hand them over to their enemies, who are out to kill them. The army of the king of Babylon has pulled back for a time, but not for long, for I’m going to issue orders that will bring them back to this city. They’ll attack and take it and burn it to the ground. The surrounding cities of Judah will fare no better. I’ll turn them into ghost towns, unlivable and unlived in.’ ” God’s Decree.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Thursday, May 16, 2024

Today's Scripture

Psalm 8

For the choir director: A psalm of David, to be accompanied by a stringed instrument.*

1 O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!

Your glory is higher than the heavens.

2 You have taught children and infants

to tell of your strength,*

silencing your enemies

and all who oppose you.

3 When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—

the moon and the stars you set in place—

4 what are mere mortals that you should think about them,

human beings that you should care for them?*

5 Yet you made them only a little lower than God*

and crowned them* with glory and honor.

6 You gave them charge of everything you made,

putting all things under their authority—

7 the flocks and the herds

and all the wild animals,

8 the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea,

and everything that swims the ocean currents.

9 O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!

Insight

The superscription of Psalm 8 tells us that David wrote this hymn to be sung in temple worship (“For the director of music” and “According to gittith.”) The gittith (see also Psalms 81 and 84) is most likely a kind of stringed instrument (like the guitar) or a musical arrangement. Scholars suggest that as a shepherd boy tending sheep in the open fields, David was inspired by the stars in the night sky to write this praise song. That would explain why there’s no mention of the sun or clouds. Psalm 8 celebrates the majesty and glory of God as Creator (vv. 2-4) and the dignity and significance of human beings as the crown of God’s creation (vv. 5-8).  By: K. T. Sim

God’s Handiwork

How majestic is your name in all the earth. Psalm 8:1

On July 12, 2022, scientists awaited the first images of deepest space from the new James Webb Space Telescope. The state-of-the-art telescope can look farther into the universe than mankind has ever looked before. Suddenly a breathtaking image emerges: a color space-scape of the Carina Nebula, never before seen like this. One NASA astronomer quoted Carl Sagan, a noted atheist: “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting.”

Sometimes people can look God in the eye and not see Him. But the psalmist David looked into the sky and knew exactly what he was seeing: “You have set your glory in the heavens” (Psalm 8:1). Sagan was right in saying that “something incredible is waiting,” but he failed to acknowledge what David clearly perceived: “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them” (vv. 3-4).

When we see images of deepest space, we’re amazed, not so much because of technology, but because we’re witnessing the handiwork of God. We marvel because in the vastness of creation, God has made us “rulers over the works of [his] hands” (v. 6).  Indeed, “something incredible is waiting”—God, waiting to bring believers in Jesus to Him when He returns. That’s the most breathtaking image of all. By:  Kenneth Petersen

Reflect & Pray

What thoughts do you have as you look at images of deep space? How do you experience God in them?

Creator God, I’m amazed at the glory of the heavens and the beauty of Your handiwork. Thank You for caring for me in the midst of Your wondrous creation!

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Thursday, May 16, 2024

The Habit of Wealth

He has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature.— 2 Peter 1:4

Through God’s promises, we participate in the divine nature. But if we want to express the divine nature in our human nature, we must form habits—and the very first habit we must form is the habit of recognizing God’s provision.

Do you often find yourself saying, “I can’t afford it”? One of the worst lies is tucked up in this statement. It’s considered bad taste to talk about money—how much you have or don’t have—and the same is true of spiritual riches. We talk as though our heavenly Father has cut us off without a cent. We think it’s a sign of modesty to say, “It was a real struggle, but I got by.” Meanwhile, all of God Almighty is ours through the Lord Jesus Christ.

If we obey God, he will tax the last grain of sand and the remotest star to bless us. What does it matter if our external circumstances are difficult? Why shouldn’t they be? If we indulge in the luxury of misery and give way to self-pity, we banish God’s riches from our lives. No sin is worse than self-pity, because it erases God and puts self-interest on the throne. It opens our mouths to spit out streams of complaint, and our lives become constantly craving spiritual sponges, with nothing lovely or generous about them.

When God is beginning to be satisfied with us, he will impoverish every source of phony wealth in our lives, until we learn that true wealth lies only in him. If we aren’t consciously aware of the fact that his majesty and grace and power are being manifested in us, God holds us responsible.

“God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8). Learn to lavish the blessings of God on others, and his blessings will come through you all the time.

2 Kings 24-25; John 5:1-24

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

The root of faith is the knowledge of a Person, and one of the biggest snares is the idea that God is sure to lead us to success.

My Utmost for His Highest, March 19, 761 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Thursday, May 16, 2024

Looking Up When The World's On Fire - #9744

It was like 11 o'clock at night when I suddenly got this cryptic text from my son - "Please turn off your porch lights." Excuse me?

Next weird thing - there are a dozen people in my front yard, all looking up at the sky. I can't really see them. I'm out in the country where dark is dark. But I can hear them.

Then I get it. They've come from town to see the show in the sky. The northern lights. The aurora borealis. That spectacular display of colored lights, that's seldom seen in the lower 48.

So I joined the party. Just like I did when we were all looking at that total solar eclipse. Remember?

So I'm watching the news last night, which concluded with amazing northern lights photos from all over the world.

But it was the anchorman's signoff that has had me thinking ever since, he said:

"We've had a lot of reasons to be looking up recently."

Whoa. And not just at the sky.

"The world's on fire." You know I've heard that phrase again today on the morning news. I've been hearing it a lot. Gaza, Ukraine, Israel, Ivy League schools, tinder box politics, almost nuclear Iran, China, Russia on the move, doomsday warnings. World on fire. And it seems like our fire extinguishers are spraying kerosene.

Is it any wonder that depression, anxiety, mental health issues, and even suicide are soaring? Conflict is dividing families... churches... communities.

There's not much peace to be found just looking around. With so much chaos and loneliness and fear, it seems like we do have "a lot of reasons to be looking up."

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Eclipse, Colored Lights and Looking Up."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Psalm 11:3-4, where it asks this: "When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?" Listen to God's answer:

"The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord is on His heavenly throne."

Well I'll tell ya, one thing is not shaking - nor can it be shaken. God is still in charge. He always has been, He always will be.

Oh, yea I know we like to think we're in charge. Until things start spinning out of our control. One doctor's visit. One test result. One funeral. One financial hit. One storm. One child in trouble.

One of those moments when all our "go-to's" just aren't there or just aren't enough.

Like this week eight years ago for me. Sunday night, our oldest grandchild's honor student graduation from high school. Monday afternoon, my Karen, the love of my life was suddenly gone. I only knew life with her. I had no map for life without her.

The waves of grief, I'll tell ya, they were overwhelming. Oh I had a family who loved me - but they were grieving, too.

I had wonderful friends reaching out to me but, none of them could go to the places in my heart that were bullet-riddled and ripped wide open.

But "the Lord was still on His heavenly throne." Far away? Oh no. Closer than anyone on earth could possibly be. For His Book told me: "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted, He saves those who are crushed in spirit" (Psalm 34:18).

I looked up, and He moved close. My Jesus. Who promised, "I will never leave you. I will never forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5).

When fear is winning, He is there with His unexplainable peace. When loneliness comes knocking, His love answers the door. When everything's crashing, He is my one safe place.

I met Him at a cross where He loved me enough to die for my sin. I invited Him in and He came - because He's alive. His cross was followed by His empty tomb. And the Bible says of Him, "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure" (Hebrews 6:19).

If you don't have that anchor, if you've never begun a relationship with Him, would you go to our website and we'll show you how to begin with Him today. It's ANewStory.com.

You know, we do have a lot of reasons to look up recently don't we?

Because "up" that's where hope is.