Ezekiel 13, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: DON’T NEGLECT THE HOLY SPIRIT - August 5, 2024

Some time ago I realized my car’s gas tank was nearly empty. I spotted a convenience store and parked next to a pump. I placed the nozzle in my tank, and swiped my card, and began filling up my car. I then went into the store and bought a soda. I chatted with the store clerk. I went back to my car and washed the windshield. I was barely back on the road when I happened to look at my gas gauge. It was on empty! Knowing my attention span, I probably forgot to squeeze the lever.

I did everything except the one thing I needed to do. Have you done the same? Have you neglected the Holy Spirit? The Spirit of God longs to give you his great power. Challenges come with life, but they need not define your life. Help is here.

Ezekiel 13

People Who Love Listening to Lies

1–2  13 God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, preach against the prophets of Israel who are making things up out of their own heads and calling it ‘prophesying.’

2–6  “Preach to them the real thing. Tell them, ‘Listen to God’s Message!’ God, the Master, pronounces doom on the empty-headed prophets who do their own thing and know nothing of what’s going on! Your prophets, Israel, are like jackals scavenging through the ruins. They haven’t lifted a finger to repair the defenses of the city and have risked nothing to help Israel stand on God’s Day of Judgment. All they do is fantasize comforting illusions and preach lying sermons. They say ‘God says …’ when God hasn’t so much as breathed in their direction. And yet they stand around thinking that something they said is going to happen.

7–9  “Haven’t you fantasized sheer nonsense? Aren’t your sermons tissues of lies, saying ‘God says …’ when I’ve done nothing of the kind? Therefore—and this is the Message of God, the Master, remember—I’m dead set against prophets who substitute illusions for visions and use sermons to tell lies. I’m going to ban them from the council of my people, remove them from membership in Israel, and outlaw them from the land of Israel. Then you’ll realize that I am God, the Master.

10–12  “The fact is that they’ve lied to my people. They’ve said, ‘No problem; everything’s just fine,’ when things are not at all fine. When people build a wall, they’re right behind them slapping on whitewash. Tell those who are slapping on the whitewash, ‘When a torrent of rain comes and the hailstones crash down and the hurricane sweeps in and the wall collapses, what’s the good of the whitewash that you slapped on so liberally, making it look so good?’

13–14  “And that’s exactly what will happen. I, God, the Master, say so: ‘I’ll let the hurricane of my wrath loose, a torrent of my hailstone-anger. I’ll make that wall you’ve slapped with whitewash collapse. I’ll level it to the ground so that only the foundation stones will be left. And in the ruin you’ll all die. You’ll realize then that I am God.

15–16  “ ‘I’ll dump my wrath on that wall, all of it, and on those who plastered it with whitewash. I will say to them, There is no wall, and those who did such a good job of whitewashing it wasted their time, those prophets of Israel who preached to Jerusalem and announced all their visions telling us things were just fine when they weren’t at all fine. Decree of God, the Master.’

17–19  “And the women prophets—son of man, take your stand against the women prophets who make up stuff out of their own minds. Oppose them. Say ‘Doom’ to the women who sew magic bracelets and head scarves to suit every taste, devices to trap souls. Say, ‘Will you kill the souls of my people, use living souls to make yourselves rich and popular? You have profaned me among my people just to get ahead yourselves, used me to make yourselves look good—killing souls who should never have died and coddling souls who shouldn’t live. You’ve lied to people who love listening to lies.’

20–21  “Therefore God says, ‘I am against all the devices and techniques you use to hunt down souls. I’ll rip them out of your hands. I’ll free the souls you’re trying to catch. I’ll rip your magic bracelets and scarves to shreds and deliver my people from your influence so they’ll no longer be victimized by you. That’s how you’ll come to realize that I am God.

22–23  “ ‘Because you’ve confounded and confused good people, unsuspecting and innocent people, with your lies, and because you’ve made it easy for others to persist in evil so that it wouldn’t even dawn on them to turn to me so I could save them, as of now you’re finished. No more delusion-mongering from you, no more sermonic lies. I’m going to rescue my people from your clutches. And you’ll realize that I am God.’ ”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Monday, August 05, 2024

Today's Scripture

Romans 12:9-18

Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.

11–13  Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.

14–16  Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down. Get along with each other; don’t be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody.

17–19  Don’t hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody.

Insight

As a rule, Paul’s letters to churches (Romans, 1-2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1-2 Thessalonians) are written in two major sections. The first section is more doctrinal, teaching his readers about the faith we have in Jesus. The second section is practical, revealing wise guidance for how we live out that faith. One teacher put it this way: the first section is about what we believe, and the second section is about how we behave. In Romans, arguably Paul’s most heavily theological letter, we find this pattern exemplified. In Romans 1-11, we’re taught what it means that salvation is by the grace of God through faith in Jesus. In chapters 12-16, he explains how those beliefs impact our conduct, with some attention to how our faith impacts our relationships. As you read Paul’s New Testament church letters, look for this pattern and see how the apostle crafted his message under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Learn more about Paul’s letters to churches.

By: Bill Crowder

Reflecting Christ’s Character

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Romans 12:18

Two faces at the table stood out—one contorted by bitter anger, the other twisted in emotional pain. A reunion of old friends had just erupted into shouting, with one woman berating another for her beliefs. The contention continued until the first woman stomped out of the restaurant, leaving the other shaken and humiliated.

Are we really living in a time when a difference of opinion can’t be tolerated? Just because two people can’t agree doesn’t mean that either is evil. Speech that’s harsh or unyielding is never persuasive, and strong views shouldn’t overcome decency or compassion.

Romans 12 is a great guide for how to “honor one another,” and “live in harmony” with other people (vv. 10, 16). Jesus indicated that an identifying characteristic for believers in Him is the love we have for each other (John 13:35). While pride and anger can easily derail us, they’re in direct contrast to the love God wants us to show to others.

It’s a challenge not to blame others when we lose control of our emotions, but the words “as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” show us that the responsibility for living a life that reflects Christ’s character can’t be shifted to anyone else (Romans 12:18). It lies with each one of us who bears His name. By:  Cindy Hess Kasper

Reflect & Pray

What words of other people trigger anger or resentment in you? How can you turn a bad situation into a peaceful one?

Loving God, please help me to show Your love through what I say and do and whenever possible to live at peace with others.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Monday, August 05, 2024

The Baffling Call of God

Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled.” . . . The disciples did not understand. — Luke 18:31,34

God called Jesus Christ to what seemed like unmitigated disaster. Jesus Christ called his disciples to see him put to death; he led them to the place where their hearts were broken and baffled. Jesus Christ’s life was an absolute failure from every viewpoint but God’s. But what seemed like failure to the world was a tremendous triumph to God, because God’s purpose is never humanity’s.

The baffling call of God comes in our lives, too. The call of God can never be stated outright. It is like the call of the sea. No one hears the call of the sea but those who have the nature of the sea within them. Similarly, no one hears the call of God but those who have God dwelling within them by the power of his Holy Spirit.

It cannot be stated definitely what the call of God is to; he calls us to enter into a relationship with him for his own purpose. The test is to believe that, though we cannot understand him, God knows what he is doing. Nothing happens by chance, only by his decree.

When we are in communion with God and recognize that he is taking us up into his purpose, we will stop trying to find out what his purpose is. This gets simpler as we go on in Christian life, because we begin to see that behind everything lies the great compelling of God.

“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends.” A Christian is one who trusts the wits and wisdom of God. If instead we trust our own wits and wisdom, if we go off pursuing our own ends, we will destroy the simplicity and the leisureliness which ought to characterize our lives as children of God.

Psalms 68-69; Romans 8:1-21

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

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

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Monday, August 05, 2024

When Your Life is Too Small - #9801

There's nothing in nature I love to see more than an eagle soaring majestically through the sky. That's why I enjoy the story of the farmer who once found a little eaglet all alone in the woods. And since the little bird was struggling to survive, the farmer decided to take the eaglet back to his farm to raise him. The problem was the only birds he had on his farm were chickens, and that's who the eaglet was raised with. So, as the chickens walked around looking down and pecking on the ground for chicken feed, the eaglet learned to live the same way. Now poking around for chicken feed looks okay on a chicken – no way for an eagle to live.

So when the farmer felt the eagle was big and strong enough to survive on his own, he took him out to the back forty to help him learn to fly. Twice he tried to launch that great bird by throwing him skyward, and twice the eagle flopped to the ground and, you guessed it, started poking around for more chicken feed. The farmer had one last idea. He set the eagle on the highest fence post he had. And that's when it happened. The eagle looked up for the first time and he saw the sky. He saw the sun. And suddenly, this great cry came from his mouth, he spread those broad wings, and he took off from that fence post. At first, he just flew in small circles over the farmer's head, but then he took off for the sky, soaring toward the sun. He's an eagle! He's not born to poke around in the chicken feed. He's born to fly. So are you.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "When Your Life is Too Small."

Maybe these words would basically describe how you would size up your life these days: "It's not bad; it's just not enough." Things are going okay. Nothing's melting down. But you're inexplicably, incurably restless. There's never enough love. There's never enough fulfillment, never enough peace. Something's missing.

It could be that you're surviving, but not really living like you were designed to live. You might say you're poking around in the chicken feed like everyone else around you. But you were created for something much bigger, much higher, and your soul knows that. It's like this voice inside of you that goes, "You're made for more." And you'll never be complete; you'll never have peace until you live where you were created to live.

Your real worth, your real identity is spelled out in our word for today from the Word of God in Ephesians 2:10 where it says, "We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." God says you were made by Him, you were made for Him and for a purpose and plan that is bigger than anything you could ever find with you running your life.

And that's why our lives are too small to satisfy us. Because we are running our own lives. The Bible calls that sin. The Bible also says, "God has placed eternity in the hearts of men." You were born to fly, but without Jesus in your heart, you're looking down, living on chicken feed. Sin has grounded us.

And that's why you need to be, as the Bible says, "in Christ Jesus." God's Son went all the way to a cross to die for the sinning that you and I have done. He wanted you to be forgiven. He wanted you to be in the arms of the God who made you, so you don't have to waste one more day outside the awesome plan you were made for. God's wanting to enlarge your life beyond anything you could have ever dreamed.

But maybe you've never really asked this Jesus, who loves you more than anyone, to come in and begin, in your life, this life-changing relationship. Let this be the day you turn it around. You want to begin this relationship? Tell Jesus you're putting your total trust in Him right now to remove the sin that's keeping you from Him.

Our website's all about beginning that relationship, this would be a great time for you to check it out - ANewStory.com.

You're destined for the sky; you're meant for heaven, for bigger things. It's time to look toward the Son - S-O-N - the Son of God who loved you enough to die for you.

Ezekiel 12, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Jesus Understands You

When Jesus saw people, He saw an opportunity to love and affirm value. When we see people, we often only see thousands of problems. What did Jesus know that enabled Him to do what He did? He knew how people felt, and He knew that they were special. I hope you never forget that.

Are you under the gun at work?  Jesus knows how you feel. Do people take more from you than they give? Jesus understands. He knows what that’s like. Your teenagers won’t listen? Believe me, Jesus knows how you feel. You’re precious to Him. So precious that He became like you so that you would come to Him. When you struggle, He listens. When you yearn, He responds. When you question, He hears. He loves you. He understands you. And He paid a great price to take you home.

From In the Eye of the Storm

Ezekiel 12

Put the Bundle on Your Shoulder and Walk into the Night

1–6  12 God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, you’re living with a bunch of rebellious people. They have eyes but don’t see a thing, they have ears but don’t hear a thing. They’re rebels all. So, son of man, pack up your exile duffel bags. Leave in broad daylight with everyone watching and go off, as if into exile. Maybe then they’ll understand what’s going on, rebels though they are. You’ll take up your baggage while they watch, a bundle of the bare necessities of someone going into exile, and toward evening leave, just like a person going off into exile. As they watch, dig through the wall of the house and carry your bundle through it. In full sight of the people, put the bundle on your shoulder and walk out into the night. Cover your face so you won’t have to look at what you’ll never see again. I’m using you as a sign for the family of Israel.”

7  I did exactly as he commanded me. I got my stuff together and brought it out in the street where everyone could see me, bundled it up the way someone being taken off into exile would, and then, as the sun went down, made a hole in the wall of the house with my hands. As it grew dark and as they watched, I left, throwing my bundle across my shoulders.

8–10  The next morning God spoke to me: “Son of man, when anyone in Israel, that bunch of rebels, asks you, ‘What are you doing?’ Tell them, ‘God, the Master, says that this Message especially concerns the prince in Jerusalem—Zedekiah—but includes all the people of Israel.’

11  “Also tell them, ‘I am drawing a picture for you. As I am now doing, it will be done to all the people of Israel. They will go into exile as captives.’

12–15  “The prince will put his bundle on his shoulders in the dark and leave. He’ll dig through the wall of the house, covering his face so he won’t have to look at the land he’ll never see again. But I’ll make sure he gets caught and is taken to Babylon. Blinded, he’ll never see that land in which he’ll die. I’ll scatter to the four winds those who helped him escape, along with his troops, and many will die in battle. They’ll realize that I am God when I scatter them among foreign countries.

16  “I’ll permit a few of them to escape the killing, starvation, and deadly sickness so that they can confess among the foreign countries all the disgusting obscenities they’ve been involved in. They will realize that I am God.”

17–20  God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, eat your meals shaking in your boots, drink your water trembling with fear. Tell the people of this land, everyone living in Jerusalem and Israel, God’s Message: ‘You’ll eat your meals shaking in your boots and drink your water in terror because your land is going to be stripped bare as punishment for the brutality rampant in it. All the cities and villages will be emptied out and the fields destroyed. Then you’ll realize that I am God.’ ”

21–22  God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, what’s this proverb making the rounds in the land of Israel that says, ‘Everything goes on the same as ever; all the prophetic warnings are false alarms’?

23–25  “Tell them, ‘God, the Master, says, This proverb’s going to have a short life!’

“Tell them, ‘Time’s about up. Every warning is about to come true. False alarms and easygoing preaching are a thing of the past in the life of Israel. I, God, am doing the speaking. What I say happens. None of what I say is on hold. What I say, I’ll do—and soon, you rebels!’ Decree of God the Master.”

26–28  God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, do you hear what Israel is saying: that the alarm the prophet raises is for a long time off, that he’s preaching about the far-off future? Well, tell them, ‘God, the Master, says, “Nothing of what I say is on hold. What I say happens.” ’ Decree of God, the Master.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Sunday, August 04, 2024

Today's Scripture

Matthew 8:5-13

As Jesus entered the village of Capernaum, a Roman captain came up in a panic and said, “Master, my servant is sick. He can’t walk. He’s in terrible pain.”

7  Jesus said, “I’ll come and heal him.”

8–9  “Oh, no,” said the captain. “I don’t want to put you to all that trouble. Just give the order and my servant will be fine. I’m a man who takes orders and gives orders. I tell one soldier, ‘Go,’ and he goes; to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

10–12  Taken aback, Jesus said, “I’ve yet to come across this kind of simple trust in Israel, the very people who are supposed to know all about God and how he works. This man is the vanguard of many outsiders who will soon be coming from all directions—streaming in from the east, pouring in from the west, sitting down at God’s kingdom banquet alongside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then those who grew up ‘in the faith’ but had no faith will find themselves out in the cold, outsiders to grace and wondering what happened.”

13  Then Jesus turned to the captain and said, “Go. What you believed could happen has happened.” At that moment his servant became well.

Insight

After challenging the Pharisees’ teaching and the people’s understanding of the law by repeatedly saying, “You have heard that it was said . . . but I tell you . . .” (Matthew 5:21-48), Jesus demonstrated the true nature of God’s kingdom. He healed a man with leprosy, thereby touching someone who was unclean (8:1-4). Then He healed a centurion’s servant (vv. 5-13). The centurion would’ve been considered unclean because of his nationality (Roman) and was also despised as a representative of the occupying force of the Roman Empire. Yet it’s in this despised foreigner that Jesus finds a greater faith than anyone in Israel. Matthew says that He turned to “those following him” (v. 10)—the verb used to describe discipleship—and praised the centurion’s faith. The irony is that the man who was hated by the Jews was demonstrating to Christ’s own followers what it truly meant to have faith. By: J.R. Hudberg

I’m Just the Driver

I myself am a man under authority. Matthew 8:9

“Dad, can I spend the night with my friend?” my daughter asked, getting into the car after practice. “Honey, you know the answer,” I said. “I’m just the driver. I don’t know what’s happening. Let’s talk with Mom.”  

“I’m just the driver” has become a joke in our home. Daily, I ask my organized wife where I need to be, when, and whom I’m taking where. With three teens, my “moonlighting” as a “taxi driver” sometimes feels like a second job. Often, I don’t know what I don’t know. So, I have to check in with the master calendar keeper.

In Matthew 8, Jesus encountered a man who also knew something about taking and giving instruction. A Roman centurion, this man understood that Jesus had the authority to heal, just as the centurion had authority to issue commands to those under him. “Just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me” (vv. 8-9). Christ commended the man’s faith (vv. 10, 13), amazed that he understood what His authority looked like in action.

So what about us? What does it look like to trust Jesus with our daily assignments from Him? Because even if we think we’re “just the driver,” each assignment has kingdom meaning and purpose.

By:  Adam Holz

Reflect & Pray

What helps you to discern where and how God is leading you daily? What barriers sometimes get in the way of hearing and obeying Him?

Father, thank You that You lead me and guide my steps. Please help me to walk daily in dependence on You as You direct me according to Your plan and purpose.

For further study, read Making Decisions God’s Way.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Sunday, August 04, 2024

The Brave Comradeship of God

Jesus took the Twelve aside. — Luke 18:31

How brave is God in trusting us! You say, “God has been unwise to choose me. There’s nothing of value in me.” That is exactly why he chose you! As long as you believe that there’s something of value in you, God cannot choose you, because you have goals of your own to pursue. Only those who let God bring them to the end of their self-sufficiency are able to be chosen. These are the ones God will select to go with him to Jerusalem to fulfill his purpose.

“Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth” (1 Corinthians 1:26). We tend to believe that people with natural abilities will make good Christians. But it isn’t a question of our abilities; it’s a question of our poverty. The question isn’t what we bring with us; it’s what God puts into us. Our natural virtues, knowledge, experience, and strength of character are of no importance. The only thing that matters is that we are taken up into the compelling purpose of God.

When we are taken up by God, we become his comrades. The comradeship of God is made up of people who know their own poverty. He can do nothing with those who think themselves useful. As Christians, we are to have no cause of our own to serve. We are dedicated to serving God’s cause, which can never be our cause. We don’t know what God’s cause is; we only know that, no matter what, we have to maintain our relationship with him. We must never allow anything to injure this relationship. If it does get injured, we must take time to put it right. The main thing about Christianity isn’t the work we do but the relationship we maintain. That is all God asks us to look after, and it’s the one thing that is constantly under threat.

Psalms 66-67; Romans 7

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

We must keep ourselves in touch, not with theories, but with people, and never get out of touch with human beings, if we are going to use the word of God skilfully amongst them. 

Workmen of God, 1341 L

Ezekiel 11, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Giant-Slayer

God called David a “man after His own heart!”  One might read his story and wonder what God saw in him.  He fell as often as he stood. He stared down Goliath, yet ogled at Bathsheba.  He could lead armies but couldn’t manage a family.  Raging David.  Weeping David.  Bloodthirsty.  God-hungry.  Eight wives.  One God.  A man after God’s own heart?

That God saw him as such gives hope to us all.  David’s life has little to offer the unstained saint.  Straight-A souls find David’s story disappointing.  But we need David’s story…most of us do.  Giants lurk in our neighborhoods.  Giants of rejection, failure, and revenge.  We must face them.  Yet we need not face them alone.

Focus on God.  The times David did, giants fell. The days he did not, David fell.  Lift your eyes, giant-slayer!  The God who made a miracle out of David stands ready to make one out of you!

From Facing Your Giants

Ezekiel 11

A New Heart and a New Spirit

1  11 Then the Spirit picked me up and took me to the gate of the Temple that faces east. There were twenty-five men standing at the gate. I recognized the leaders, Jaazaniah son of Azzur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah.

2–3  God said, “Son of man, these are the men who draw up blueprints for sin, who think up new programs for evil in this city. They say, ‘We can make anything happen here. We’re the best. We’re the choice pieces of meat in the soup pot.’

4  “Oppose them, son of man. Preach against them.”

5–6  Then the Spirit of God came upon me and told me what to say: “This is what God says: ‘That’s a fine public speech, Israel, but I know what you are thinking. You’ve murdered a lot of people in this city. The streets are piled high with corpses.’

7–12  “Therefore this is what God, the Master, says: ‘The corpses that you’ve piled in the streets are the meat and this city is the soup pot, and you’re not even in the pot! I’m throwing you out! You fear war, but war is what you’re going to get. I’m bringing war against you. I’m throwing you out of this city, giving you over to foreigners, and punishing you good. You’ll be killed in battle. I’ll carry out judgment on you at the borders of Israel. Then you’ll realize that I am God. This city will not be your soup pot and you won’t be the choice pieces of meat in it either. Hardly. I will carry out judgment on you at the borders of Israel and you’ll realize that I am God, for you haven’t followed my statutes and ordinances. Instead of following my ways, you’ve sunk to the level of the laws of the nations around you.’ ”

13  Even while I was preaching, Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. I fell down, face to the ground, and prayed loudly, “O Master, God! Will you completely wipe out what’s left of Israel?”

14–15  The answer from God came back: “Son of man, your brothers—I mean the whole people of Israel who are in exile with you—are the people of whom the citizens of Jerusalem are saying, ‘They’re in the far country, far from God. This land has been given to us to own.’

16–20  “Well, tell them this, ‘This is your Message from God, the Master. True, I sent you to the far country and scattered you through other lands. All the same, I’ve provided you a temporary sanctuary in the countries where you’ve gone. I will gather you back from those countries and lands where you’ve been scattered and give you back the land of Israel. You’ll come back and clean house, throw out all the rotten images and obscene idols. I’ll give you a new heart. I’ll put a new spirit in you. I’ll cut out your stone heart and replace it with a red-blooded, firm-muscled heart. Then you’ll obey my statutes and be careful to obey my commands. You’ll be my people! I’ll be your God!

21  “ ‘But not those who are self-willed and addicted to their rotten images and obscene idols! I’ll see that they’re paid in full for what they’ve done.’ Decree of God, the Master.”

22–23  Then the cherubim spread their wings, with the wheels beside them and the Glory of the God of Israel hovering over them. The Glory of God ascended from within the city and rested on the mountain to the east of the city.

24–25  Then, still in the vision given me by the Spirit of God, the Spirit took me and carried me back to the exiles in Babylon. And then the vision left me. I told the exiles everything that God had shown me.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Saturday, August 03, 2024

Today's Scripture

1 Kings 19:14-21

Elijah said it again, “I’ve been working my heart out for God, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies, because the people of Israel have abandoned your covenant, destroyed your places of worship, and murdered your prophets. I’m the only one left, and now they’re trying to kill me.”

15–18  God said, “Go back the way you came through the desert to Damascus. When you get there anoint Hazael; make him king over Aram. Then anoint Jehu son of Nimshi; make him king over Israel. Finally, anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. Anyone who escapes death by Hazael will be killed by Jehu; and anyone who escapes death by Jehu will be killed by Elisha. Meanwhile, I’m preserving for myself seven thousand souls: the knees that haven’t bowed to the god Baal, the mouths that haven’t kissed his image.”

19  Elijah went straight out and found Elisha son of Shaphat in a field where there were twelve pairs of yoked oxen at work plowing; Elisha was in charge of the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak over him.

20  Elisha deserted the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, “Please! Let me kiss my father and mother good-bye—then I’ll follow you.”

“Go ahead,” said Elijah, “but, mind you, don’t forget what I’ve just done to you.”

21  So Elisha left; he took his yoke of oxen and butchered them. He made a fire with the plow and tackle and then boiled the meat—a true farewell meal for the family. Then he left and followed Elijah, becoming his right-hand man.

Insight

In response to Elijah’s discouragement (1 Kings 19:10), he’s promised a divine revelation of God (v. 11). He experiences wind, earthquake, and fire (vv. 11-12), which we might have expected given other appearances of God in Scripture (Judges 5:4-5; Psalm 18:7-15). But this time, Elijah senses God’s presence only in “a gentle whisper” (1 Kings 19:12). This may have encouraged him that God doesn’t just reveal Himself through magnificent wonders but through the faithfulness of those who quietly listen to and share His words. This revelation encourages Elijah to continue his work as well as appoint his successor, Elisha.  By: Monica La Rose

Being Finishers in Christ

You are a chosen people . . . that you may declare [his] praises. 1 Peter 2:9

Barbara passed away before she could finish a sweater she was knitting for her great-grandson, Ethan. The sweater was entrusted to the hands of another avid knitter to be completed thanks to an organization that connects volunteer crafters—“finishers”—with those whose loved ones have departed this life before finishing their projects. The “finishers” lovingly invest their time and skill to bring closure to a task that provides comfort to those who are grieving.

God appointed a “finisher” for Elijah’s work too. The prophet was lonely and discouraged at how the Israelites were rejecting God’s covenant and killing prophets. In response, God instructed Elijah to “anoint Elisha . . . to succeed [him] as prophet” (1 Kings 19:16). This ensured that the labor of proclaiming God’s truth would continue long past Elijah’s death.

To show Elisha that God had called him to succeed Elijah as God’s prophet, Elijah “threw his cloak around [Elisha]” (v. 19). Since a prophet’s cloak was used to indicate one’s authority as God’s chosen spokesman (see 2 Kings 2:8), this act made Elisha’s prophetic call clear.

As believers in Jesus, we’ve been called to share God’s love with others and “declare [his] praises” (1 Peter 2:9). Though the task may outlive us too, we can be assured that He’ll sustain the work and will continue to call other “finishers” to the sacred work of making Him known. By:  Kirsten Holmberg

Reflect & Pray

Who proclaimed God’s truth to you? How can you be part of making Him known to the world?

Father, please use me to accomplish Your work in the world.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Saturday, August 03, 2024

The Compelling Purpose of God

We are going up to Jerusalem. — Luke 18:31

In the life of our Lord, Jerusalem stands as the place where he reached the climax of his Father’s will. “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me” (John 6:38). Doing his Father’s will was our Lord’s compelling purpose throughout his life. Nothing he met with along the way—neither joy nor sorrow, success nor failure—deterred him: “Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51).

The big thing to remember is that we go to Jerusalem to fulfill God’s purpose, not our own. In our worldly life, our ambitions are our own. In our Christian life, we have no aims of our own. It’s common to hear people talking about their decision to follow Jesus Christ, their determination to be Christian. In the New Testament, the emphasis is on God’s decision: “You did not choose me, but I chose you” (John 15:16). We don’t have any conscious awareness of God’s decision; we are taken up into his purpose without any awareness at all. Nor do we have any conception of what he is aiming at. As we go on in our life with him, our understanding of his goal only gets more and more vague.

God’s aim looks like it’s missing the mark because we are too short-sighted to see his target. At the beginning of our life as Christians, we have our own ideas of God’s purpose. We think, “God has called me to do a special work,” and we go and do the work. Yet the work doesn’t satisfy the feeling of being compelled by his larger purpose.

“Jesus took the Twelve aside” (Luke 18:31). He is taking us aside for his purpose all the time. There’s more to his plan than we have yet understood.

Psalms 63-65; Romans 6

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

The vital relationship which the Christian has to the Bible is not that he worships the letter, but that the Holy Spirit makes the words of the Bible spirit and life to him. 

The Psychology of Redemption, 1066 L

1 Timothy 5, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: THE HOLY SPIRIT COMES WITH POWER - August 2, 2024

Jesus would not let his followers begin their ministries unless they knew the Holy Spirit. By this point the disciples had spent three years in training. They had seen the empty tomb, they had touched his resurrected body, they had spent forty days listening to the resurrected Christ teach about the kingdom. But they needed more. Jesus told them, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8 NKJV).

The Holy Spirit comes with power. Power to make good choices, to keep promises, to silence the inner voices of fear and failure. Power to get busy about the right things in the right way. Power. This is what Jesus promised then, and this is what Jesus promises still.

.

1 Timothy 5

The Family of Faith

1–2  5 Don’t be harsh or impatient with an older man. Talk to him as you would your own father, and to the younger men as your brothers. Reverently honor an older woman as you would your mother, and the younger women as sisters.

3–8  Take care of widows who are destitute. If a widow has family members to take care of her, let them learn that religion begins at their own doorstep and that they should pay back with gratitude some of what they have received. This pleases God immensely. You can tell a legitimate widow by the way she has put all her hope in God, praying to him constantly for the needs of others as well as her own. But a widow who exploits people’s emotions and pocketbooks—well, there’s nothing to her. Tell these things to the people so that they will do the right thing in their extended family. Anyone who neglects to care for family members in need repudiates the faith. That’s worse than refusing to believe in the first place.

9–10  Sign some widows up for the special ministry of offering assistance. They will in turn receive support from the church. They must be over sixty, married only once, and have a reputation for helping out with children, strangers, tired Christians, the hurt and troubled.

11–15  Don’t put young widows on this list. No sooner will they get on than they’ll want to get off, obsessed with wanting to get a husband rather than serving Christ in this way. By breaking their word, they’re liable to go from bad to worse, frittering away their days on empty talk, gossip, and trivialities. No, I’d rather the young widows go ahead and get married in the first place, have children, manage their homes, and not give critics any foothold for finding fault. Some of them have already left and gone after Satan.

16  Any Christian woman who has widows in her family is responsible for them. They shouldn’t be dumped on the church. The church has its hands full already with widows who need help.

17–18  Give a bonus to leaders who do a good job, especially the ones who work hard at preaching and teaching. Scripture tells us, “Don’t muzzle a working ox” and “A worker deserves his pay.”

19  Don’t listen to a complaint against a leader that isn’t backed up by two or three responsible witnesses.

20  If anyone falls into sin, call that person on the carpet. Those who are inclined that way will know right off they can’t get by with it.

21–23  God and Jesus and angels all back me up in these instructions. Carry them out without favoritism, without taking sides. Don’t appoint people to church leadership positions too hastily. If a person is involved in some serious sins, you don’t want to become an unwitting accomplice. In any event, keep a close check on yourself. And don’t worry too much about what the critics will say. Go ahead and drink a little wine, for instance; it’s good for your digestion, good medicine for what ails you.

24–25  The sins of some people are blatant and march them right into court. The sins of others don’t show up until much later. The same with good deeds. Some you see right off, but none are hidden forever.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Friday, August 02, 2024

Today's Scripture

Luke 18:15-17

People brought babies to Jesus, hoping he might touch them. When the disciples saw it, they shooed them off. Jesus called them back. “Let these children alone. Don’t get between them and me. These children are the kingdom’s pride and joy. Mark this: Unless you accept God’s kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you’ll never get in.”

Insight

Although not specifically stated, Luke is believed to be the author of both the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts. Both books are dedicated to Theophilus (Luke 1:3; Acts 1:1) and are considered companion volumes. Luke’s gospel tells the story of Jesus, and Acts presents the story of the early church. Luke was most likely a gentile by birth, well-educated in Greek culture, and trained as a physician. Paul refers to him as his “dear friend Luke, the doctor” (Colossians 4:14). Luke wasn’t an eyewitness to Christ but “carefully investigated everything from the beginning” (Luke 1:3).

Today’s reading (Luke 18:15-17) follows immediately after the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, which underscores the necessity of humility (18:9-14; see Matthew 19:13-14). Little children picture the humility, dependence, trust, openness, and sincerity necessary to see our need for Christ (Luke 18:16-17). By: Alyson Kieda

A Child’s Hope

Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them. Luke 18:16

When my granddaughter Eliana was just seven, she saw a video at her school about an orphanage in Guatemala. She told her mom, “We have to go there to help them.” Her mom replied that they would think about it when she was older.

Eliana never forgot, and, sure enough, when she was ten, her family went to help in the orphanage. Two years later, they went back, this time taking along a couple of other families from Eliana’s school. When Eliana was fifteen, she and her dad went again to Guatemala to serve.

We sometimes think the wishes and dreams of little children don’t carry the weight of adult hopes. But Scripture seems to make no such distinction. God calls children, as in the case of Samuel (1 Samuel 3:4). Jesus honors the faith of little ones (Luke 18:16-17). And Paul said younger believers shouldn’t let people discount them just because they “are young” (1 Timothy 4:12). So, we’re called to guide our children (Deuteronomy 6:6-7; Proverbs 22:6), recognizing that their faith is a model for us all (Matthew 18:3) and understanding that hindering them is something Christ warned against (Luke 18:15).

When we see a spark of hope in children, our job as adults is to help ignite it. And as God leads us, encourage them toward a life dedicated to trust in Jesus and service for Him. By:  Dave Branon

Reflect & Pray

How can you encourage children to believe in Jesus? How can you help them grow in faith?

Dear heavenly Father, the children in our world need Christ. Please help me to encourage them to believe in You.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Friday, August 02, 2024

The Discipline of Difficulty

In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. — John 16:33

An average view of the Christian life is that it means deliverance from trouble. It is deliverance in trouble, which is very different. If you are a child of God, there certainly will be troubles to face. Jesus says not to be surprised when they come: “In this world you will have trouble.” But he also says that troubles are no match for him: “Take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Sometimes people who never wanted to complain or go on about their troubles before they were saved become frail in the face of trouble afterward. This happens because they had the wrong idea of what salvation meant. They thought it meant that God would allow them to triumph easily over all adversity. But God does not give us overcoming life; he gives us life as we overcome.

Are you asking God to give you life and liberty and joy? He cannot—not unless you also accept the strain. The strain is the strength. Where there is no strain, there is no strength.

Overcome your timidity. Take the step God is telling you to take, and he will nourish you: “To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life” (Revelation 2:7). If you push yourself to your physical limits, you will become exhausted, but if you push yourself spiritually, you will get more strength. God never gives strength for tomorrow or for the next hour, only for the strain of the minute.

Face your troubles with courage and gladness, remembering that you have nothing to fear. The saint is filled with hilarity when crushed by difficulties, because the situation is so ludicrously impossible to anyone but God. “If you say, ‘The Lord is my refuge,’ and you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you” (Psalm 91:9–10). No plague can come near the place where you are at one with God.

Psalms 60-62; Romans 5

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

The great thing about faith in God is that it keeps a man undisturbed in the midst of disturbance.

Notes on Isaiah, 1376 R

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Friday, August 02, 2024

A Man and His Marriage - #9800

I've ridden with a lot of people on a lot of elevators, but none quite as unusual as the young man that I met on an elevator a while back. Actually, he wasn't unusual; but what he carried was. He had his arms full of a wadded up tuxedo and a wadded up wedding gown. So here's this fellow, marching down the hall with a wedding gown and a tuxedo in his arms.

Now, you can put two and two together. He must have noticed the bemused look on my face though, because as the elevator door closed in front of us he smiled at me and said, "Last night was a life-changing experience!" That's a pretty perceptive insight from a newly married man. And then he added, "Probably more than I know." Oh, he's got that right.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Man and His Marriage."

Well, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Ephesians 5, and we'll begin reading at verse 25. It's about husbands and wives. It says, "Husbands love your wives..." I wish it stopped there; that would make it easier. But listen, it doesn't stop there. "...just as Christ loved the church (Ah!) and gave Himself up for her." Okay, it's getting tougher! It says, "...to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word and to present her to Himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish; but holy and blameless."

Now, when a man says, "I do" to a woman, here's what God hears him say, "I will on a daily basis lay down my life for this woman as Christ laid down His life for us." Whew! Man, that's radical! As the newlywed carrying yesterday's tuxedo and bridal gown said, "Yeah, it's a life-changing experience."

From the time we're born, we're like "me" people: change me, feed me, take care of me, hold me. We grow up and we get more sophisticated, but we're still expecting to be the sun and for everyone else to be the planets who revolve around us. Marriage radically changes that me-ness. Jesus said marriage is the moving of someone else to the center position - my wife. So I will revolve around her needs, not her around mine.

This isn't just radical, it's practical. Like listening to your wife's heart poured out even when you're dead tired, or ready to watch your favorite sporting event. That's how you lay down your life. It's putting her fulfillment ahead of yours in sexual love; that's laying down your life for her. It means unloading your day's burdens that you want to carry around with you and you want everybody to cater to you because of those. But you unload those on the way home so you can focus on her and her burdens when you get there.

So, laying down your life? It can mean changing diapers, or taking out garbage, or doing the dishes, or caring about the sacrifice of time; the sacrifice that involves listening when you don't feel like it or you don't want to listen that long. She needs your attention; you promised it to her. You promised she would be first. When you do this you get a wife that's radiant like the church that Christ loves. You know, you can tell the women who have been loved like this. They're radiant; they kind of glow! Beautiful women grow in the garden of a man's selfless love.

It's a life-changing experience for both of you; that's the radical side of "I do."

Ezekiel 10, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: THE HOLY WHO? - August 1, 2024

In Luke 24:49 (TLB) Jesus said, “And now I will send the Holy Spirit upon you, just as my Father promised.” Who is the Holy Spirit? God as Father? We comprehend that image. God as Jesus, the Son? That idea is manageable as well. But God as Spirit? The word itself is mystical.

One day, I read the words Jesus used to describe the Holy Spirit: comforter and friend. “I know that Person.” That was over three decades ago. I no longer think of the Holy Spirit as the Holy Who? I now call him our Heaven-Sent Helper. He is our champion, our advocate, our guide. He comforts and directs us. He indwells, transforms, sustains, and will someday deliver us into our heavenly home.

Ezekiel 10

The Temple, Filled with the Presence of God

1  10 When I next looked, oh! Above the dome over the heads of the cherubim-angels was what looked like a throne, sky-blue, like a sapphire!

2–5  God said to the man dressed in linen, “Enter the place of the wheels under the cherubim-angels. Fill your hands with burning coals from beneath the cherubim and scatter them over the city.”

I watched as he entered. The cherubim were standing on the south side of the Temple when the man entered. A cloud filled the inside courtyard. Then the Glory of God ascended from the cherubim and moved to the threshold of the Temple. The cloud filled the Temple. Court and Temple were both filled with the blazing presence of the Glory of God. And the sound! The wings of the cherubim were audible all the way to the outer court—the sound of the voice was like The Strong God in thunder.

6–8  When God commanded the man dressed in linen, “Take fire from among the wheels, from between the cherubim,” he went in and stood beside a wheel. One of the cherubim reached into the fire, took some coals, and put them in the hands of the man dressed in linen. He took them and went out. Something that looked like a human hand could be seen under the wings of the cherubim.

9–13  And then I saw four wheels beside the cherubim, one beside each cherub. The wheels radiating were sparkling like diamonds in the sun. All four wheels looked alike, each like a wheel within a wheel. When they moved, they went in any of the four directions but in a perfectly straight line. Where the cherubim went, the wheels went straight ahead. The cherubim were full of eyes in their backs, hands, and wings. The wheels likewise were full of eyes. I heard the wheels called “wheels within wheels.”

14  Each of the cherubim had four faces: the first, of an angel; the second, a human; the third, a lion; the fourth, an eagle.

15–17  Then the cherubim ascended. They were the same living creatures I had seen at the Kebar River. When the cherubim moved, the wheels beside them moved. When the cherubim spread their wings to take off from the ground, the wheels stayed right with them. When the cherubim stopped, the wheels stopped. When the cherubim rose, the wheels rose, because the spirit of the living creatures was also in the wheels.

18–19  Then the Glory of God left the Temple entrance and hovered over the cherubim. I watched as the cherubim spread their wings and left the ground, the wheels right with them. They stopped at the entrance of the east gate of the Temple. The Glory of the God of Israel was above them.

20–22  These were the same living creatures I had seen previously beneath the God of Israel at the Kebar River. I recognized them as cherubim. Each had four faces and four wings. Under their wings were what looked like human hands. Their faces looked exactly like those I had seen at the Kebar River. Each went straight ahead.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Thursday, August 01, 2024

Today's Scripture

Daniel 6:1-10

Daniel in the Lions’ Den

1–3  6 Darius reorganized his kingdom. He appointed one hundred twenty governors to administer all the parts of his realm. Over them were three vice-regents, one of whom was Daniel. The governors reported to the vice-regents, who made sure that everything was in order for the king. But Daniel, brimming with spirit and intelligence, so completely outclassed the other vice-regents and governors that the king decided to put him in charge of the whole kingdom.

4–5  The vice-regents and governors got together to find some old scandal or skeleton in Daniel’s life that they could use against him, but they couldn’t dig up anything. He was totally exemplary and trustworthy. They could find no evidence of negligence or misconduct. So they finally gave up and said, “We’re never going to find anything against this Daniel unless we can cook up something religious.”

6–7  The vice-regents and governors conspired together and then went to the king and said, “King Darius, live forever! We’ve convened your vice-regents, governors, and all your leading officials, and have agreed that the king should issue the following decree:

For the next thirty days no one is to pray to any god or mortal except you, O king. Anyone who disobeys will be thrown into the lions’ den.

8  “Issue this decree, O king, and make it unconditional, as if written in stone like all the laws of the Medes and the Persians.”

9  King Darius signed the decree.

10  When Daniel learned that the decree had been signed and posted, he continued to pray just as he had always done. His house had windows in the upstairs that opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he knelt there in prayer, thanking and praising his God.

Insight

It’s stunning to think that Daniel’s character was so upstanding that the only way his enemies could attack him was through his faith. They knew that he’d never compromise his relationship with God or the priority of prayer. The apostle Paul, likewise, made prayer a high priority, often telling those to whom he wrote that he was praying for them: “I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers” (Ephesians 1:16). And most all, Jesus Himself consistently communicated by prayer with His Father (Luke 5:16).  By: Bill Crowder

Visible Traces of Jesus

They could find no corruption in [Daniel], because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. Daniel 6:4

Scientists from a California university ran experimental molecular swab tests to identify the traits and lifestyle habits of individual cell phone users. They discovered, among other things, the soaps, lotions, shampoos, and make-up that cell phone users used; the type of foods, drinks, and medications they consumed; and the type of clothing they wore. The study allowed the researchers to create a profile of each person’s lifestyle.

The administrators in Babylon, figuratively “swabbed” the prophet Daniel’s life to try and find any negative traits or lifestyle habits. But he’d served the empire faithfully for nearly seventy years—known to be “trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent” (Daniel 6:4). In fact, the prophet was promoted by King Darius as one of “three administrators over” his many governors (vv. 1-2). Perhaps out of jealousy, the other officials were looking for traces of corruption in Daniel so they might be able to get rid of him. He kept his integrity intact, however, and continued to serve and pray to God “as he had done before” (v. 10). In the end, the prophet prospered in his role (v. 28).

Our lives leave visible traces that point to who we are and whom we represent. Although we struggle and aren’t perfect, when people around us “swab” our lives, may they find visible traces of integrity and devotion to Jesus as He guides us.  By:  Marvin Williams

Reflect & Pray

How does your life reflect God’s ways to others? What do you need to change to represent Him better?

Heavenly Father, please help me represent You well in what I say and do.

For further study, read Taking Sin Seriously.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Thursday, August 01, 2024

Something More about His Ways

When Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities. — Matthew 11:1 kjv

He comes where he commands us to leave. If when God says, “Go,” you stay because you’re concerned about your people at home, you rob your loved ones of the teaching of Jesus himself. When you obey and go, trusting God with the consequences, the Lord himself ministers to those you leave behind, just as he came to “teach and preach” in the disciples’ cities after they’d set out in his service. As long as you refuse to obey, you’re in his way.

Watch out if your idea of duty begins to compete with your Lord’s commands. If you find yourself saying, “I know God told me to go, but my duty is at home,” it’s an indication that you don’t believe Jesus means what he says.

He teaches where he tells us not to. Are you teaching where God has told you not to, playing the amateur providence in other people’s lives? Are you so noisy in instructing others that God can’t get anywhere near them? We have to keep our mouths shut and our spirits alert. God wants to instruct his children in the ways of his Son. He wants to turn our times of prayer into mounts of transfiguration. We won’t let him, because we think we know what he’ll do. When we’re certain of the way God is going to work, he will never work in that way anymore.

He works where he sends us to wait. “I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). Wait on God, and he will work. But don’t wait sulkily just because you can’t see an inch in front of you! Are you detached enough from your inner hysterics to wait patiently on God? Waiting on him doesn’t mean sitting on the sidelines with your hands folded. It means doing what you are told, in joyful obedience to him.

These are phases of God’s ways we rarely recognize.

Psalms 57-59; Romans 4

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

We never enter into the Kingdom of God by having our head questions answered, but only by commitment.

The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Thursday, August 01, 2024

One Safe Place - #9799

Our former office was, literally, for the birds! I mean it was like they lived in the attic above our top floor offices. And you know what, they would sometimes show up flying down the hall. Every once in a while we could hear them when we were recording radio programs, it was a little "chirp" in with their singing.

But there was a problem with this apparently safe place, they thought. The birds began wandering around up there in that large dark attic, especially at night. And evidently, they lost their way and they became disorientated. In the morning – you've got to take my word for this, I was an ear witness to it – I heard their little footsteps walking back and forth and their unhappy chirps. There was no food or water in that attic. When birds get in tiny little spaces like that, it's difficult to rescue them, and they often die. That attic that looked so inviting, so comfortable, so secure. It turned out to be a dangerously hostile place!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "One Safe Place."

Our word for today from the Word of God is in Psalm 84. And by the way, birds aren't the only creatures looking for a place to feel safe and secure. We all have a need to find a person, or a place, or a position, where we're safe, where we can have a comfortable nest. The only problem is, as many of us have found out, some of what looks like a place where you can find security turns out to be a place where you get lost, you get starved, you get hurt!

Psalm 84: "'How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord,' my heart and my flesh cry out for the Living God. Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young, "A place near your altar O Lord Almighty, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your presence, they are ever praising you."

Here's a picture of a vulnerable little sparrow who finds a truly safe home. She nests right at the place where you meet God, the altar. The Psalmist says that that's where he has finally found security as well, in the Presence of the Living God. But so many people have nested in the wrong place. See, we can't see Jesus, so instead we settle down where there is comfort and safety we can see. In doing so we often end up in a place that ends up hurting us.

Maybe you're there right now? A wrong relationship that looks like a secure place to land, but it costs too much. Maybe you ran to a wrong job, a wrong career, maybe you ignored or abandoned what the Lord was telling you to do for something a little more secure. The nesting place has let you down, hasn't it – pulled you down? Or maybe you're tempted right now to make a choice based on security largely. "I'll do what looks comfortable and safe." That's how I'll decide. Well, that could turn out to be a bird brain choice. Choices based on security are very often God's will mistakes, and comfort becomes a trap.

Can I invite you to the altar of God? In fact, in your heart you may need to come to an altar and surrender your life anew to the Savior who died for you. He's the only One who can anchor your needs and you'll know that you'll never end up lost or wounded – not in His care. You've tried other nests that advertise security. They've been disappointing substitutes for the real thing, which is the love and the leadership of Jesus Christ.

Anyone who loved you enough to die for you will never do you wrong. He's your safe place. You can know that because He loved you enough to die on the cross for you.

You want to reach out to Him today; make Him the leader of your life? Maybe you've never done that. I'd love to help you do that and that's why our website is there - ANewStory.com. And believe me, when you give your heart to Him it will be the beginning of a new story.

The search for security led those birds above my head to some fatal choices. Don't make the same mistake. Run to the strong arms of Jesus, for as the Bible says, "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty" (Psalm 91:1).

Ezekiel 9, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: CHOOSE TO PRAISE - July 31, 2024

“Along about midnight, Paul and Silas were at prayer and singing a robust hymn to God…Then, without warning, a huge earthquake! The jailhouse tottered, every door flew open, all the prisoners were loose” (Acts 16:25-26 MSG).

Authorities beat Paul and Silas with rods. Soldiers then imprisoned them in the deepest part of the prison where it was damp and cold and rat-infested. Their feet were put in stocks. There they lay all afternoon and into the night, with no local advocates, their backs open to infection, surrounded by darkness, and shivering from the cold. Oh, to have heard that midnight song.

Paul and Silas were not sure of their deliverance, but they were sure of their Deliverer. You can be too. Rather than panic, you can choose to praise.

Ezekiel 9

A Mark on the Forehead

1  9 Then I heard him call out loudly, “Executioners, come! And bring your deadly weapons with you.”

2  Six men came down the road from the upper gate that faces north, each carrying his lethal weapon. With them was a man dressed in linen with a writing case slung from his shoulder. They entered and stood by the bronze altar.

3–4  The Glory of the God of Israel ascended from his usual place above the cherubim-angels, moved to the threshold of the Temple, and called to the man with the writing case who was dressed in linen: “Go through the streets of Jerusalem and put a mark on the forehead of everyone who is in anguish over the outrageous obscenities being done in the city.”

5–6  I listened as he went on to address the executioners: “Follow him through the city and kill. Feel sorry for no one. Show no compassion. Kill old men and women, young men and women, mothers and children. But don’t lay a hand on anyone with the mark. Start at my Temple.”

They started with the leaders in front of the Temple.

7–8  He told the executioners, “Desecrate the Temple. Fill it with corpses. Then go out and continue the killing.” So they went out and struck the city.

While the massacre went forward, I was left alone. I fell on my face in prayer: “Oh, oh, God, my Master! Are you going to kill everyone left in Israel in this pouring out of your anger on Jerusalem?”

9–10  He said, “The guilt of Israel and Judah is enormous. The land is swollen with murder. The city is bloated with injustice. They all say, ‘God has forsaken the country. He doesn’t see anything we do.’ Well, I do see, and I’m not feeling sorry for any of them. They’re going to pay for what they’ve done.”

11  Just then, the man dressed in linen and carrying the writing case came back and reported, “I’ve done what you told me.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Wednesday, July 31, 2024

Today's Scripture

Isaiah 53:1-6

Who believes what we’ve heard and seen?

Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?

2–6  The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,

a scrubby plant in a parched field.

There was nothing attractive about him,

nothing to cause us to take a second look.

He was looked down on and passed over,

a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.

One look at him and people turned away.

We looked down on him, thought he was scum.

But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—

our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.

We thought he brought it on himself,

that God was punishing him for his own failures.

But it was our sins that did that to him,

that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!

He took the punishment, and that made us whole.

Through his bruises we get healed.

We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.

We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.

And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong,

on him, on him.

Insight

Isaiah 53 gives us a clear description of the sacrifice of Christ in the Old Testament, describing His rejection (vv. 1-3), His suffering in our place (vv. 4-6), His sacrificial death and burial (vv. 7-9), and His reconciling atonement and resurrection (vv. 10-12). The chapter is the last of four messianic prophecies in the book of Isaiah (42:1-9; 49:1-13; 50:4-11; 52:13-53:12) known as the “Servant Songs” because they prophetically refer to Jesus the Messiah as Servant (42:1; 49:3; 50:10; 52:13), although Jewish scholars tend to identify the Servant as Israel itself.

In the New Testament, Isaiah is quoted or alluded to numerous times. New Testament writers unequivocally apply quotes from Isaiah 53 to Christ (Matthew 8:17; Mark 15:28; Luke 22:37; John 12:38-41; Acts 8:32-35; Romans 10:16; 1 Peter 2:24). By: K. T. Sim

The Beautiful One

He had no beauty or majesty . . . . By his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:2, 5

For more than 130 years, the Eiffel Tower has stood majestically over the city of Paris, a symbol of architectural brilliance and beauty. The city proudly promotes the tower as a key element of its magnificence.

As it was being built, however, many people thought little of it. Famous French writer Guy de Maupassant, for example, said it had “a ridiculous thin shape like a factory chimney.” He couldn’t see its beauty.

Those of us who love Jesus and have entrusted our hearts to Him as our Savior count Him as beautiful for who He is and what He’s done for us. Yet the prophet Isaiah penned these words: “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him” (53:2).

But the towering majesty of what He did for us is the truest, purest form of beauty that humans will ever know and experience. He “took up our pain and bore our suffering” (v. 4). He was “pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed” (v. 5).

We’ll never know anyone as beautiful—as majestic—as the one who suffered for us on the cross, taking the unspeakable punishment of our sins upon Himself.

That’s Jesus. The Beautiful One. Let’s look to Him and live. By:  Dave Branon

Reflect & Pray

How has Jesus revealed His beauty to you? What does it mean for you to find your only hope in Him?

Dear Beautiful One, thank You for Your selfless sacrifice for me.

Learn more here: ODB.org/personal-relationship-with-god.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Wednesday, July 31, 2024

Till You Are Entirely His

Let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. —James 1:4

Many of us are all right for the most part, but we’re still lazy about certain things. It isn’t sin that makes us this way; it’s the remnants of our old carnal life, the life we led before we were born again in the Spirit. Carelessness and laziness are an insult to the Holy Spirit. There should be nothing careless about us, whether it’s in the way we eat and drink or the way we worship God.

Not only must our relationship to God be right; the way we express that relationship must be right, too. Ultimately God will let nothing about us escape his attention. He keeps every detail of our lives under his scrutiny. In numberless ways, God will bring us back to the same issue over and over again until we learn our lesson. The issue may be our impulsiveness or our independent individuality or our tendency to let our thoughts run away with us. No matter what it is, God will bring us back to it again and again until he has made us fully aware of the thing that isn’t right. He’ll never tire, and he won’t stop—not until he has achieved the finished work.

Thanks to God’s wonderful work in you, you know that you are all right in what matters most: your relationship to him. Now “let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Watch out when you start letting things slide, or when you hear yourself saying, “Oh, that will have to do for now.” Whatever the issue, God will point it out with persistent patience until you are entirely his. Psalms 54-56; Romans 3

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

God created man to be master of the life in the earth and sea and sky, and the reason he is not is because he took the law into his own hands, and became master of himself, but of nothing else. 

The Shadow of an Agony, 1163 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Wednesday, July 31, 2024

Leadership - Setting the Temperature - #9798

I was in a meeting in a hotel. It was in the 90s outside, but I was ready to put gloves on so I could write my notes without shaking. Maybe you've been in those rooms. It was hot outside but the air conditioner was on one notch past high - I think the setting was like on "arctic'? And all of us in the room became concerned about that setting, and one by one we wandered over to the box on the wall. You know we're all "fix it" guys - we'll make it better.

Well, when we got over to the box we discovered that the controls were all locked up; we couldn't get to them. So we called the front desk, and finally the maintenance man came and turned down the ice machine. No longer a meat locker. Summer or winter that guy's the person; he's the one who decides what the temperature is. By the way, so are you.

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

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from the book of Nehemiah. Now, here's one of the greatest models of leadership in all the Bible; that's this man named Nehemiah. You may remember he led a monumental effort to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem in 52 days. Not bad for a couple of month's work, huh? Well, now as we reach this point in the book of Nehemiah, he is the Governor of the province. The wall is done, but these people are a poor group of people trying to establish life in their re-built city.

What is needed in order to establish a community there is a climate of unselfishness, sharing, and cooperation. Well, listen to what the leader does. Nehemiah says, "For twelve years neither I nor my brothers ate the food that was allotted to the governor. Now the earlier governors - those preceding me - placed a heavy burden on the people and took forty shekels of silver from them in addition to the food and wine. Their assistants also lorded it over the people."

But out of reverence for God, I did not act like that. Instead, I devoted myself to work on this wall. All my men were assembled there for the work. We did not acquire any land."

Later he says, "I never demanded the food allotted to the governor because the demands were heavy on these people."

Friends, this is leadership! Nehemiah was the man who set the pace; he led the way. He set a temperature in Jerusalem. A temperature of sharing and giving, putting other people first, and the people followed. See, the greatest responsibility of a leader is never written in their job description. It's establishing a climate. Parents do it in their home, teachers do it in a classroom, leaders do it in a church, and supervisors do it in an office or a factory. In a sense, we are all leaders to the extent that we are setting a climate wherever we are.

Now, if you are in a position of influencing others, have you considered how the temperature feels where you are? What kind of climate is there around you? It's not even something you're doing consciously - it's your persona, your style, your values, your priorities, your pace. Those are the things that do it. You establish it not so much by what you say, but with how you live. Is it tense around you? Is that the temperature you set? Or are people around you seeing a model of caring, unselfishness, or like Nehemiah - pitching in on the job that needs to be done instead of just giving orders?

I wonder if in your world you set a climate of respect for other people by the way you talk about them and the way you talk to them? Or do they know there's a climate of prayer around you and they catch that? Is there a climate of worry, or is there a climate of trusting God?

You're a leader. You control the climate whether you realize it or not. So, make your room, so to speak, feel like it would if Jesus were there, because if you're a Christian, He is - in you.

Ezekiel 8, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: CLEANSING ELEMENT OF PRAISE - July 30, 2024

Our stress-laden society has developed many skills for dealing with anxiety. We have breathing exercises and mediation techniques. But the person in whom the Spirit dwells has the greatest of resources. The apostle Paul said, “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18-19 NIV).

The apostle contrasts two strategies for facing inner chaos: inebriation and celebration. Many people numb themselves, if not with liquor, with bouts of shopping or hours of playing. The better option: celebration. Constant worship clears the debris from our hearts. Praise is the cleansing element that flushes the trash of worry and anxiety.

Ezekiel 8

The Spirit Carried Me in Visions

1–4  8 In the sixth year, in the sixth month and the fifth day, while I was sitting at home meeting with the leaders of Judah, it happened that the hand of my Master, God, gripped me. When I looked, I was astonished. What I saw looked like a man—from the waist down like fire and from the waist up like highly burnished bronze. He reached out what looked like a hand and grabbed me by the hair. The Spirit swept me high in the air and carried me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the Temple’s inside court where the image of the sex goddess that makes God so angry had been set up. Right before me was the Glory of the God of Israel, exactly like the vision I had seen out on the plain.

5  He said to me, “Son of man, look north.” I looked north and saw it: Just north of the entrance loomed the altar of the sex goddess, Asherah, that makes God so angry.

6  Then he said, “Son of man, do you see what they’re doing? Outrageous obscenities! And doing them right here! It’s enough to drive me right out of my own Temple. But you’re going to see worse yet.”

7  He brought me to the door of the Temple court. I looked and saw a gaping hole in the wall.

8  He said, “Son of man, dig through the wall.”

I dug through the wall and came upon a door.

9  He said, “Now walk through the door and take a look at the obscenities they’re engaging in.”

10–11  I entered and looked. I couldn’t believe my eyes: Painted all over the walls were pictures of reptiles and animals and monsters—the whole pantheon of Egyptian gods and goddesses—being worshiped by Israel. In the middle of the room were seventy of the leaders of Israel, with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing in the middle. Each held his censer with the incense rising in a fragrant cloud.

12  He said, “Son of man, do you see what the elders are doing here in the dark, each one before his favorite god-picture? They tell themselves, ‘God doesn’t see us. God has forsaken the country.’ ”

13  Then he said, “You’re going to see worse yet.”

14–15  He took me to the entrance at the north gate of the Temple of God. I saw women sitting there, weeping for Tammuz, the Babylonian fertility god. He said, “Have you gotten an eyeful, son of man? You’re going to see worse yet.”

16  Finally, he took me to the inside court of the Temple of God. There between the porch and the altar were about twenty-five men. Their backs were to God’s Temple. They were facing east, bowing in worship to the sun.

17–18  He said, “Have you seen enough, son of man? Isn’t it bad enough that Judah engages in these outrageous obscenities? They fill the country with violence and now provoke me even further with their obscene gestures. That’s it. They have an angry God on their hands! From now on, no mercy. They can shout all they want, but I’m not listening.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Tuesday, July 30, 2024

Today's Scripture Colossians 1:3-12

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.

Insight

Twin themes of gratitude and love run throughout Paul’s introduction to his letter to the church in Colossae. “We always thank God,” he writes, “because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people” (Colossians 1:3-4). This love for our Father binds all believers together in love. Paul also noted how we “share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light” (v. 12). Our faith in Christ brings with it a sense of community and a love for each other. By: Tim Gustafson

A Meaningful Hyphen

Live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way. Colossians 1:10

As I prepared for my mom’s celebration of life service, I prayed for the right words to describe her “hyphen years”—the years between her birth and death. I reflected on the good and not-so-good times in our relationship. I praised God for the day my mom accepted Jesus as her Savior after she saw Him “changing” me. I thanked Him for helping us grow in faith together and for the people who shared how my mom encouraged and prayed for them while showering them with kindness. My imperfect mom enjoyed a meaningful hyphen—a life well-lived for Jesus.

Not one believer in Jesus is perfect. However, the Holy Spirit can enable us to “live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way” (Colossians 1:10). According to the apostle Paul, the church of Colossae was known for their faith and love (vv. 3-6). The Holy Spirit gave them “wisdom and understanding” and empowered them to “[bear] fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God” (vv. 9-10). As Paul prayed for and praised those believers, he proclaimed the name of Jesus, the one “in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (v. 14).

When we surrender to the Holy Spirit, we too can grow in our knowledge of God, love Him and people, spread the gospel, and enjoy a meaningful hyphen—a life well-lived for Jesus. By:  Xochitl Dixon

Reflect & Pray

What qualities characterized a person you know who lived a meaningful life? How can you enjoy living such a life this week?

Holy Spirit, please give me more opportunities to share Jesus with others as I enjoy a meaningful life.

For further study, read A Resilient Life: Strength for Today from the Sermon on the Mount.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Tuesday, July 30, 2024

The Discipline of Disillusionment

Jesus would not entrust himself to them . . . for he knew what was in each person. —John 2:24-25

Disillusionment means that all our false and flattering ideas have been stripped away. Unless our human relationships are based in God, they will end in a disillusionment that makes us cynical, severe, and unkind in our judgments of others. But the disillusionment that comes from God brings us to the place where we see men and women as they are, and yet there is no cynicism in our hearts, nothing bitter or biting on our tongues.

Many of the cruel things in life spring from our illusions. We aren’t true to the facts of one another, only our ideas of one another. People are either completely delightful or completely terrible, depending on our idea of them. The refusal to have our illusions taken away is the cause of much of the suffering in human life. If we love another person and we don’t love God, we demand every perfection from that person, then become cruel and vindictive when we don’t get it. We are demanding from a human being what no human being can give.

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters . . .” (Luke 14:26). What our Lord says here about human relationships may sound severe. He says it because he knows that every relationship not based on loyalty to him will end in disaster. Our Lord trusted no human being, yet he was never suspicious, never bitter. His confidence in God and in what God’s grace could do was so perfect that he never despaired of anyone. If our trust is placed in human beings, we will end up despairing of everyone. There is only one being who can satisfy the deepest aching abyss of the human heart, and that is our Lord Jesus Christ.

Psalms 51-53; Romans 2

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

There is no condition of life in which we cannot abide in Jesus.

We have to learn to abide in Him wherever we are placed.

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Tuesday, July 30, 2024

When Every Day's the Same - #9797

Now I don't see a lot of movies but that old groundhog one with Bill Murray, I can tell you, it's really funny. You probably know the plot if you've seen it. He's this not very nice TV weatherman who goes to Punxsutawney, PA to broadcast that American tradition that comes from there. We're supposed to be able to predict whether or not there will be six more weeks of winter weather based on whether or not the groundhog sees his shadow on February 2nd.

Anyway, the weatherman, who has a serious attitude problem, wakes up at 6:00 a.m. the next day, only to experience exactly the same events he did the day before. And every new morning, the clock radio goes off at 6:00 a.m. and awakens him to the same old song, "I Got You, Babe" by Sonny and Cher. And day after day, he sees the same people; he experiences the same relationships, the same places, the same rhythm - even down to the guy in the diner dropping a plate the same time each day. It becomes very frustrating - experiencing the same day over and over again.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "When Every Day's the Same."

The plot of the movie obviously is fantasy. The plight of having the same day over and over again is reality for a lot of people. In some ways, it might describe how your life feels right now. Life has taken on this monotonous sameness - a predictability. It seems like no matter what happens, or who happens, you have the feeling of "been there, done that." Maybe your life seems to be suffering from a meaning deficit.

Actually, life was never meant to be monotonous. After all, your life was given to you by a God who creates blazing sunsets and fall colors, people with fingerprints that are like no one else who has ever been born, galaxies, comets and supernovas. Now would a Creator with that kind of creativity create us to have days that all seem the same? The only reason life would be like that is if we are, in reality, trying to live without our Creator.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, steps into our hunger for something more meaningful and more colorful when He gives us our word for today from the Word of God in John 10:10. Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." Now obviously, Jesus isn't talking about life in the sense of eating, breathing, and existing. We already have that kind of life. He's talking about life that's fulfilling, challenging, and satisfying - life to the full.

We don't have life like that because we don't have the Life-Giver. According to God's Book, the Bible, you and I have, in fact, taken our life out of our Creator's hands and put it in our own. In the Bible that's called sin. In God's words we are, "without hope and without God" (Ephesians 2:12).

It all seems so empty. Everyone seems as trapped in meaninglessness as you do. There seems to be no hope. Until you let Jesus Christ reconnect you to the God you have sinned against. Jesus died on that cross to pay for the sin that separates you from God. And when you put your trust in Him to take down the wall between you and God, He starts to infuse your days with a sense of meaning and destiny which you were created for. Each day you're discovering a little more of who you were born to be.

While your environment may be pretty much the same every day, your INvironment - what's in you - is experiencing ever new experiences of God's love, God's joy, God making a difference in your life, God making a difference through your life.

Maybe you've never begun this relationship that is what you were made for. In the Bible's words, you were "created by Him and for Him" but you've not really had Him in the leadership of your life. He loved you enough to die for you. You can trust Him. He'll change things you can't change because He was powerful enough to walk out of His grave and He's ready to walk into your life on your invitation. You say, 'Jesus, beginning today I am Yours. I trade the life I've been running for the life You died to give me right now."

If you want to do that, we would love to be there for you. If you go to our website I can help you know you belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com.

Your life was never meant to be this small. There is something so much bigger - days where you are finally experiencing the One you were created by, and the One you were created for.

1 Timothy 4, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: RISE UP AND STEP OUT - July 29, 2024

Peter discovered the wonder of God’s second chance. One day Jesus preached from Peter’s boat. Then he told Peter to take him fishing. The apostle-to-be had no interest. He was tired; he had fished all night. He was discouraged; he had caught nothing. He was dubious; what did Jesus know about catching fish? But Jesus insisted. And Peter relented. “At Your word I will let down the net” (Luke 5:5 NKJV).

This was a moment of truth for Peter. He was saying, “I will begin again, your way.” When he did, the catch of fish was so great the boat nearly sank. Sometimes we just need to begin again with Christ in the boat. Don’t miss your opportunity by inaction. It’s time to rise up and step out. God has not forgotten you. Keep your head up! You never know what good awaits you.

1 Timothy 4

Teach with Your Life

1–5  4 The Spirit makes it clear that as time goes on, some are going to give up on the faith and chase after demonic illusions put forth by professional liars. These liars have lied so well and for so long that they’ve lost their capacity for truth. They will tell you not to get married. They’ll tell you not to eat this or that food—perfectly good food God created to be eaten heartily and with thanksgiving by believers who know better! Everything God created is good, and to be received with thanks. Nothing is to be sneered at and thrown out. God’s Word and our prayers make every item in creation holy.

6–10  You’ve been raised on the Message of the faith and have followed sound teaching. Now pass on this counsel to the followers of Jesus there, and you’ll be a good servant of Jesus. Stay clear of silly stories that get dressed up as religion. Exercise daily in God—no spiritual flabbiness, please! Workouts in the gymnasium are useful, but a disciplined life in God is far more so, making you fit both today and forever. You can count on this. Take it to heart. This is why we’ve thrown ourselves into this venture so totally. We’re banking on the living God, Savior of all men and women, especially believers.

11–14  Get the word out. Teach all these things. And don’t let anyone put you down because you’re young. Teach believers with your life: by word, by demeanor, by love, by faith, by integrity. Stay at your post reading Scripture, giving counsel, teaching. And that special gift of ministry you were given when the leaders of the church laid hands on you and prayed—keep that dusted off and in use.

15–16  Cultivate these things. Immerse yourself in them. The people will all see you mature right before their eyes! Keep a firm grasp on both your character and your teaching. Don’t be diverted. Just keep at it. Both you and those who hear you will experience salvation.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Monday, July 29, 2024

Today's Scripture

Daniel 10:10-19

A hand touched me and pulled me to my hands and knees.

11  “ ‘Daniel,’ he said, ‘man of quality, listen carefully to my message. And get up on your feet. Stand at attention. I’ve been sent to bring you news.’

“When he had said this, I stood up, but I was still shaking.

12–14  “ ‘Relax, Daniel,’ he continued, ‘don’t be afraid. From the moment you decided to humble yourself to receive understanding, your prayer was heard, and I set out to come to you. But I was waylaid by the angel-prince of the kingdom of Persia and was delayed for a good three weeks. But then Michael, one of the chief angel-princes, intervened to help me. I left him there with the prince of the kingdom of Persia. And now I’m here to help you understand what will eventually happen to your people. The vision has to do with what’s ahead.’

15–17  “While he was saying all this, I looked at the ground and said nothing. Then I was surprised by something like a human hand that touched my lips. I opened my mouth and started talking to the messenger: ‘When I saw you, master, I was terror-stricken. My knees turned to water. I couldn’t move. How can I, a lowly servant, speak to you, my master? I’m paralyzed. I can hardly breathe!’

18–19  “Then this humanlike figure touched me again and gave me strength. He said, ‘Don’t be afraid, friend. Peace. Everything is going to be all right. Take courage. Be strong.’

“Even as he spoke, courage surged up within me. I said, ‘Go ahead, let my master speak. You’ve given me courage.’

Insight

Deported to Babylon as a teenager, Daniel distinguished himself to become the trusted adviser to the kings of two of the world’s superpowers—the Babylonians and Medo-Persians. Chapters 1-7 tell of the prophet’s interactions with three kings—Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and Darius. Chapters 8-12 deal with God’s predetermined plans for the Jews (Israel) and the gentiles (the world). Affirming God’s sovereignty and authority as the ultimate King of history, Daniel proclaims, “Wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others” (2:20-21).  By: K. T. Sim

The Unseen King

I have come in answer to your prayer.  Daniel 10:12 nlt

Pilgrim is a musical based on The Pilgrim’s Progress, an allegory of the life of a believer in Jesus. In the story, all the unseen forces of the spiritual world are made visible to the audience. The character of the King, representing God, is present onstage for almost the entire show. He’s dressed in white and actively blocks attacks from the enemy, tenderly holds those who are in pain, and nudges others to good works. Despite his indispensable role, the main human characters can’t physically see the King, only the effects of what He does.

Do we live as if the true King is active in our lives, even when we can’t physically see Him? In a time of need, the prophet Daniel received a vision from a heavenly messenger (Daniel 10:7) who’d been sent in direct response to his faithful prayers (v. 12). The messenger explained that spiritual warfare had delayed his coming and angelic backup had to be dispatched (v. 13). Daniel was reminded that even though he couldn’t see God, he was surrounded by evidence of His care and attention. “Do not be afraid, you are highly esteemed,” the messenger encouraged him (v. 19). At the end of Pilgrim, when the main character reaches heaven’s door after many tribulations, he joyfully cries out for the first time, “I can see the King!” Until we see Him with our new eyes in heaven, we look for His action in our lives today.   By:  Karen Pimpo

Reflect & Pray

How do you see God’s work in your life? Where do you struggle to believe that He’s with you?

King Jesus, please help me remember that You’re near.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Monday, July 29, 2024

What Do You See in Your Clouds?

Look, he is coming with the clouds. —Revelation 1:7

In the Bible, clouds are always connected with God. Clouds are those sorrows or sufferings or twists of providence that seem to challenge his rule. Seen apart from God, clouds look like accidents. But by these very clouds the Spirit of God is teaching us how to walk by faith. Without clouds, we would not need faith.

“Look, he is coming with the clouds.” Clouds are nothing more than the dust of our Father’s feet; they are the sign that he is here. God never comes in clear shining. What a revelation it is to know that sadness and bereavement and suffering are the clouds that come along with God!

It isn’t true that God wants us to learn something in our trials. Through every cloud he brings, he wants us to unlearn the things that are keeping us from a simple relationship to him. Sometimes we have to leave certain forms of religious activity and testimony alone until our relationship to God is simplified—until we have learned to turn to God, not to other people, for all our needs. The thought I should have is, “God and my own soul; other people are shadows.” Until other people become shadows, clouds and darkness will be mine every now and again. Is my relationship to God getting simpler than it ever has been?

There is a connection between the strange providences of God and what we know of him. We have to learn to interpret the mysteries of life in the light of our knowledge of God. Unless we can look the darkest, most atrocious fact in the face without questioning God’s character, we do not yet know him. “They were afraid as they entered the cloud” (Luke 9:34). Is there anyone besides Jesus in your cloud? If so, it will only get darker. You must get to the place where there is no one besides him.

Psalms 49-50; Romans 1

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

When you are joyful, be joyful; when you are sad, be sad. If God has given you a sweet cup, don’t make it bitter; and if He has given you a bitter cup, don’t try and make it sweet; take things as they come. 

Shade of His Hand, 1226 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Monday, July 29, 2024

Nothing More Important Than the Kids - #9796

I saw my friend Rich at a busy committee session. We had a lot to do and there were some very important choices to make. In fact, we didn't even get through everything we needed to! But Rich, well, he didn't forget what really mattered. He announced out of the blue, "Hey everybody! I brought baby pictures!" Oh, yes, you could guess! He's the father of a newborn son. So, forget everything else, man! Who cares about all this business stuff we've got to do? He wanted to share his greatest joy with us - his child. You know what? That man had his priorities straight.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Nothing More Important Than the Kids."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from the book of 3rd John. The funny thing about 3rd John is you don't ever have to give the chapter, you just give the verse because there's like only one chapter. So we're reading from 3 John 1:4. Here's John's priority agenda: "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth."

You know, in a sense, John is saying, "Hey, you want to see the picture of my children? That's what I'm proud of. That's what really matters to me. Look at my children." You know, we live in a world that just jumbles our priorities. Our life fills up with work, deadlines, home improvements, financial issues, and recreational things we want to do, and the Internet, and church work. And our children often end up getting our leftovers; whatever we can kind of scramble together of what's left of our energy, what's left of our input, what's left of our listening. We usually realize that they've gotten our leftovers when it's too late.

I've talked to a lot of guys after they've ended their business career, and I have never ever heard a man say, "You know, my only regret is I wish I'd spent more time with my business." I've had a number of people say, "I only wish I'd spent more time with my children while they had time."

If God has trusted you with a young life - a child - make meaningful time with that child a non-negotiable of your schedule. I mean, even if you have to change jobs, if it takes that to be a father, to be a mother, that's eternity's priority.

They'll change the name on the door of your office, because someone else could do your job. But you are the only mother or father that child has. This applies to spiritual children too; those that you may have led to Christ or to a closer relationship with Him. That was who John was speaking of literally. Don't just bring them to the Lord and walk away. They need you now more than ever.

When our children were small, they cried out when they needed us, and for sure kids have a way of letting you know that they need you. But as they grow, well, they don't cry so much, but they need us just as much, and maybe they cry in different ways. I know that you want the monument for your life to read, "His child/her child is walking in the truth." Well, you know, that takes time. That takes committed prayer for that child. It takes the right priorities. It might take changing things around.

The man with his baby pictures at that important meeting has the right idea. That precious child of yours; well, that's the agenda that really matters. I still remember a grandmother's prayer that was up on a plaque in her house. You can't argue with grandma. Here's what it said: "On that great resurrection day, may I stand before my Savior and say, 'Here am I, Lord, and the children you gave me.'"