Revelation 13, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: HE WILL LEAD YOU HOME - December 6, 2024

After worshipping Christ the child, the wise men “departed for their own country another way” (Matthew 2:12 NKJV). Matthew uses the word “way” in other places to suggest a direction of life. He may be telling us that the wise men went home as different men. Called by a sign, instructed by Scripture, and directed home by God. It’s as if all the forces of heaven cooperated to guide the wise men.

God uses every possible means to communicate with you. The wonders of nature call to you. The promises and the prophecies of Scripture speak to you. God wants to help you find your way home.

And when God sends signs, be faithful. Let them lead you to Scripture. As Scripture directs, be humble. Let it lead you to worship. And as you worship the Son, be grateful. Because he will lead you home.

Christmas Stories: Heartwarming Classics of Angels, a Manger, and the Birth of Hope

Revelation 13

The Beast from the Sea

1–2  13 And the Dragon stood on the shore of the sea. I saw a Beast rising from the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads—on each horn a crown, and each head inscribed with a blasphemous name. The Beast I saw looked like a leopard with bear paws and a lion’s mouth. The Dragon turned over its power to it, its throne and great authority.

3–4  One of the Beast’s heads looked as if it had been struck a deathblow, and then healed. The whole earth was agog, gaping at the Beast. They worshiped the Dragon who gave the Beast authority, and they worshiped the Beast, exclaiming, “There’s never been anything like the Beast! No one would dare go to war with the Beast!”

5–8  The Beast had a loud mouth, boastful and blasphemous. It could do anything it wanted for forty-two months. It yelled blasphemies against God, blasphemed his Name, blasphemed his Church, especially those already dwelling with God in Heaven. It was permitted to make war on God’s holy people and conquer them. It held absolute sway over all tribes and peoples, tongues and races. Everyone on earth whose name was not written from the world’s foundation in the slaughtered Lamb’s Book of Life will worship the Beast.

9–10  Are you listening to this? They’ve made their bed; now they must lie in it. Anyone marked for prison goes straight to prison; anyone pulling a sword goes down by the sword. Meanwhile, God’s holy people passionately and faithfully stand their ground.

The Beast from Under the Ground

11–12  I saw another Beast rising out of the ground. It had two horns like a lamb but sounded like a dragon when it spoke. It was a puppet of the first Beast, made earth and everyone in it worship the first Beast, which had been healed of its deathblow.

13–17  This second Beast worked magical signs, dazzling people by making fire come down from Heaven. It used the magic it got from the Beast to dupe earth dwellers, getting them to make an image of the Beast that received the deathblow and lived. It was able to animate the image of the Beast so that it talked, and then arrange that anyone not worshiping the Beast would be killed. It forced all people, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to have a mark on the right hand or forehead. Without the mark of the name of the Beast or the number of its name, it was impossible to buy or sell anything.

18  Solve a riddle: Put your heads together and figure out the meaning of the number of the Beast. It’s a human number: 666.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Friday, December 06, 2024

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Matthew 25:34-40

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what’s coming to you in this kingdom. It’s been ready for you since the world’s foundation. And here’s why:

I was hungry and you fed me,

I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,

I was homeless and you gave me a room,

I was shivering and you gave me clothes,

I was sick and you stopped to visit,

I was in prison and you came to me.’

37–40  “Then those ‘sheep’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?’ Then the King will say, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.’

Today's Insights

Matthew’s gospel was written to a primarily Jewish Christian audience to present Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah of Israel, a king descended from the line of David. Matthew (Levi) frequently uses messianic language (such as “Son of David”) and Old Testament references to point to Christ as the Messiah.

Matthew 25:1-46 contains three parables detailing what it means to be ready for Jesus’ second coming: the parable of the ten virgins, the parable of the bags of gold, and the parable of the sheep and goats. Some commentators believe that although the story of the sheep and goats contains elements resembling a parable, it’s better viewed as a symbolic representation of the final judgment. Its message is that one day Christ will return to judge the nations (all people). Until then, we’re to serve Him by caring for others.

The Spirit of Christmas by Lisa M. Samra

Whatever you did for one of the least of these . . . you did for me. Matthew 25:40

At a Christmas dinner held at our church to celebrate the cultures of the international guests, I joyfully clapped along to the sound of the darbuka (a type of drum) and the oud (a guitar-like instrument) as a band played the traditional Middle Eastern carol, “Laylat Al-Milad.” The band’s singer explained the title means “Nativity Night.” The lyrics remind hearers that the spirit of Christmas is found in serving others, in ways like offering a thirsty person water or comforting someone weeping.

This carol likely draws from a parable where Jesus commends His followers for deeds they’d done for Him: providing food when He was hungry, drink when He was thirsty, and companionship and care when He was sick and alone (Matthew 25:34-36). Instead of simply accepting Jesus’ commendation, the people in the parable are surprised—thinking they hadn’t actually done these things for Christ. He responded, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (v. 40).

During the holiday season, the encouragement to get in the Christmas spirit is often a nudge toward expressing a festive attitude. “Laylat Al-Milad” reminds us that we can put into practice the true Christmas spirit by caring for others. And amazingly, when we do, we not only serve others but Jesus too.

Reflect & Pray

How have you understood the Christmas spirit? How might you serve others this season?

Dear Jesus, please help me reflect the spirit of Christmas You modeled by coming to earth not to be served but to serve.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Friday, December 06, 2024

The Bow in the Cloud

I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. — Genesis 9:13

God’s will is that human beings should enter into a moral relationship with him. All his covenants are for this purpose. “Why doesn’t God save me?” you ask. He has saved you, but you haven’t entered into a moral relationship with him. “Why hasn’t God answered my prayer?” He has answered it, but this isn’t the point. The question you must answer is, Will I step into a moral relationship with him? All of God’s great blessings are finished and complete, but they aren’t mine until I enter into a relationship based on his covenant.

Entering into a moral relationship with God requires exertion on my part. Just as God went beyond himself in his relationship with humanity, becoming flesh for our sake, so I must go beyond myself in my covenant with him. I can’t just sit back and wait. Waiting for God is like unbelief; it means that I lack faith in him, that I’m waiting for a specific thing to happen so that then I can have faith in that. God will never do the thing I’m waiting for, because that isn’t the basis of his relationship with humanity.

Faith in God is the rarest thing. Most of us have faith only in our feelings. We don’t believe God unless he places something in our hand, something we can point to and say, “Now I believe.” There’s no faith in that. God says, “Turn to me and be saved” (Isaiah 45:22), not “Turn to what I’ve given you.”

When I truly enter into a covenant relationship with God, letting go of everything else, I have no sense of having achieved something by my own merit. There’s no human ingredient in it at all, just an overwhelming feeling of being brought into union with him, the whole thing transfigured with peace and joy.

Daniel 3-4; 1 John 5

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

The measure of the worth of our public activity for God is the private profound communion we have with Him.… We have to pitch our tents where we shall always have quiet times with God, however noisy our times with the world may be.

My Utmost for His Highest, January 6, 736 R

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Friday, December 06, 2024

Not Good Enough for Heaven - #9890

I grew up around Lake Michigan. And when I was little, I used to go in it. Now I mostly just look at it when I'm in Chicago or in the Great Lakes area. Part of that is because of what happened to me when I was ten years old. My memories of that lake are memories of a struggle I will never forget. I was out with my friends. I didn't know how to swim and I was too proud to tell them. Well, I started to go under. No one took me seriously. I mean, I'm yelling. I'm trying to get some help. I'm drinking the lake! I'm in a panic, flailing around, and my friends are going, "Oh, Ron, you know him. He's such a clown!" Great! Finally, just in the nick of time, someone came. They grabbed me and they literally saved my life.

Let me tell you what I contributed to my rescue. That's right, absolutely nothing.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Not Good Enough for Heaven."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Ephesians 2:8-9. "It is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast." Okay, fasten your seat belt, because these statements out of God's Word are so radical they basically challenge every religious system in the world, whether it's Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, you name it. Because every system says, "Here are some good things you can do that will commend you to God, and He'll forgive the bad based on the good you do."

But this says, "No good you can do will pay off the bad." "Not by works." Could it be any plainer? Those are radical words! Nothing you can do to contribute to your rescue. No amount of religion. No amount of being a good boy or girl. This word "saved" here indicates that there's a rescue needed. We're dying spiritually because we have broken God's laws. We're away from God. We're powerless to get back to Him. It's like me in Lake Michigan that day. You can't rescue yourself.

Maybe you've been depending somehow on your own goodness to get you to heaven, or your family connections, or the money you give, or the fact that you agree with all the Jesus stuff. You've got Christ in your head but maybe not in your heart. It is, the Bible says, "the gift of God" paid for. Not by you, but by Jesus Christ. You don't pay for your gifts. Gifts are paid for by someone else. Your gift of eternal life was paid for by Jesus because you and I couldn't pay for it. He took your hell and mine. He took your payment for your sin dying on the cross.

How do you get it? It says, "through faith." Faith is what happened that day I grabbed that lifeguard. I just pinned all my hopes on him. For us to be saved - to be rescued - through faith, it means that we recognize that we are drowning spiritually, powerless to rescue ourselves. Are you willing to do that? Are you willing to surrender your self-efforts in order to finally get the peace of really knowing God personally?

You quit depending on your religion. It's not Jesus plus anything else. It's just Jesus. So you grab heaven's lifeguard like a drowning person would grab the person coming to rescue them. When did you do this? Have you ever had that moment with Jesus? You say, "I don't know I have." Well, then, you probably haven't. Maybe God is coming to you through this conversation today because He's courting you. He's after you. He's reaching out His hand to save you. This is life-or-death stuff - forever life or death.

If you haven't pinned all your hopes on Jesus, do it now. If you're not sure you belong to Jesus, let me invite you to go to our website. It's there so I can help you nail down your own relationship with Jesus and know for sure that you belong to Him. Not just believe in Him, but that you belong to Him. Let's get together at ANewStory.com.

Jesus plunged into your world to rescue you from sin. You can't rescue yourself from it. Today, as He comes to you, grab hold of your Rescuer.

Esther 5, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: GOD’S MESSAGES - December 5, 2024

“We have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him” (Matthew 2:2 NKJV).

You know, people see signs of God every day. Sunsets that steal the breath. Newborns that bring tears. But do all who see the signs draw near to God? No.

The wise men, however, understood the purpose of the sign. And they followed it to Jerusalem, where they heard about the scripture. The prophecy told them where to find Christ. It is interesting to note that the star reappeared after they learned about the prophecy. The star “came and stood shining right over the place where the Child was” (Matthew 2:9). It is as if the sign and word worked together to bring the wise men to Jesus.

The ultimate aim of all God’s messages, both miraculous and written, is to shed the light of heaven on Jesus.

Christmas Stories: Heartwarming Classics of Angels, a Manger, and the Birth of Hope

Esther 5

Three days later Esther dressed in her royal robes and took up a position in the inner court of the palace in front of the king’s throne room. The king was on his throne facing the entrance. When he noticed Queen Esther standing in the court, he was pleased to see her; the king extended the gold scepter in his hand. Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter. The king asked, “And what’s your desire, Queen Esther? What do you want? Ask and it’s yours—even if it’s half my kingdom!”

4  “If it please the king,” said Esther, “let the king come with Haman to a dinner I’ve prepared for him.”

5–6  “Get Haman at once,” said the king, “so we can go to dinner with Esther.”

So the king and Haman joined Esther at the dinner she had arranged. As they were drinking the wine, the king said, “Now, what is it you want? Half of my kingdom isn’t too much to ask! Just ask.”

7–8  Esther answered, “Here’s what I want. If the king favors me and is pleased to do what I desire and ask, let the king and Haman come again tomorrow to the dinner that I will fix for them. Then I’ll give a straight answer to the king’s question.”

9–13  Haman left the palace that day happy, beaming. And then he saw Mordecai sitting at the King’s Gate ignoring him, oblivious to him. Haman was furious with Mordecai. But he held himself in and went on home. He got his friends together with his wife Zeresh and started bragging about how much money he had, his many sons, all the times the king had honored him, and his promotion to the highest position in the government. “On top of all that,” Haman continued, “Queen Esther invited me to a private dinner she gave for the king, just the three of us. And she’s invited me to another one tomorrow. But I can’t enjoy any of it when I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the King’s Gate.”

14  His wife Zeresh and all his friends said, “Build a gallows seventy-five feet high. First thing in the morning speak with the king; get him to order Mordecai hanged on it. Then happily go with the king to dinner.”

Haman liked that. He had the gallows built.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Thursday, December 05, 2024

by Katara Patton

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Luke 22:41-44

He pulled away from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed, “Father, remove this cup from me. But please, not what I want. What do you want?” At once an angel from heaven was at his side, strengthening him. He prayed on all the harder. Sweat, wrung from him like drops of blood, poured off his face.

Today's Insights

In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve chose their own will over the will of their creator. God said, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die” (Genesis 2:16-17). Their actions have affected all future generations.

The garden of Gethsemane (see Matthew 26:36-46) is the second garden to have a universal impact on the course of human experience. There, Jesus was faced with a similar choice: do what seemed beneficial to Himself or submit to the will of the Father. Christ asked for there to be another way. But in a decision that would undo the rebellion of Adam and Eve, He submitted to God’s will and went to the cross (Luke 22:39-44).

A Prayer for God’s Will

Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done. Luke 22:42

As a young believer in Jesus, I picked up my new devotional Bible and read a familiar Scripture: “Ask and it will be given to you” (Matthew 7:7). The commentary explained that what we really should be asking God for is our will to line up with His. By seeking for His will to be done, we would be assured that we’d receive what we asked for. That was a new concept for me, and I prayed for God’s will to be done in my life.

Later that same day, I became surprisingly excited about a job opportunity I’d already turned down in my mind, and I was reminded about my prayer. Perhaps what I didn’t think I wanted was actually a part of God’s will for my life. I continued to pray and eventually accepted the job.

In a much more profound and eternally significant moment, Jesus modeled this for us. Before His betrayal and arrest, which led to His crucifixion, He prayed: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). Christ’s prayer was filled with anguish and agony as He faced physical and emotional pain (v. 44). Yet He was still able to “earnestly” pray for God’s will to be done.

God’s will in my life has become my ultimate prayer. This means I may desire things I don’t even know I want or need. The job I originally hadn’t wanted turned out to be the beginning of my journey in Christian publishing. Looking back, I believe God’s will was done.

Reflect & Pray

What prayer request is on your heart? What do you believe God is calling you to do?

Heavenly Father, please guide me to do Your will.

Learn how to discern and follow God’s calling in your life.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Thursday, December 05, 2024

The Temple of the Holy Spirit

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit? — 1 Corinthians 6:19

Do I realize that God holds me accountable for how I rule my body? Am I keeping my body under his rule, drawing on his grace in order to maintain righteousness? “I do not set aside the grace of God,” Paul writes, “for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (Galatians 2:21). To set aside the grace of God is to make it of no effect in my actual physical life.

“Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). I have to work out in my physical life the salvation that God, through his grace, has worked in. The grace of God is absolute; the salvation of Jesus is perfect; it is done, forever. I am not being saved; I am saved. Salvation is as eternal as God’s throne. But I am responsible for working out that salvation. This means that I have to manifest in my physical body the life of Jesus—not mystically, but really.

All who have been born again are capable of keeping their bodies under absolute control for God. God gives us dominion over the temple of the Holy Spirit, over imagination and affection. I must never give way to inordinate affection. Most of us are much stricter with others than we are with ourselves. We make excuses for our own inclinations while condemning others for things to which we are not naturally inclined.

“Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God” (Romans 12:1). Do I agree with my Lord and Master that my body will be his temple? If I do, then the entirety of God’s law for my body is summed up in this revelation: my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Daniel 1-2; 1 John 4

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

We are not to preach the doing of good things; good deeds are not to be preached, they are to be performed.

So Send I You

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Thursday, December 05, 2024

A Gift Only You Can Give - #9889

Poor Charlie Brown. For over 50 Christmases the same frustrated question has wailed from his mouth - "Can anyone tell me what Christmas is really all about?!"

My eight-year-old son could have told him. We were at the kitchen table devouring a Christmas Eve pizza, eager to start opening gifts. That's when the call came. Our kids sort of groaned collectively.

It was Wilma, the assistant principal at a tough inner city elementary school. She apologized for interrupting us on Christmas Eve (no apology needed), but she was desperate. She was trying to rescue Christmas for some of the children in her school. Their families had been burned out of their apartments in a recent series of suspicious fires. Their Christmases had gone up in flames.

Wilma asked, "Guys, is there any way you could look around the house and see if there's anything you might be able to donate for these kids and their families? I just didn't know who else to call at the last minute like this." Our three kids were off to go closet diving almost before I could explain the request. Karen and I went coat shopping in our closet.

Our son Doug was the first one to return from toy hunting. There's no way I could have expected what he was carrying in his arms. His bright red, nearly new, fully-equipped Tonka fire truck. Possibly his most treasured toy.

"I want to give this to some boy who might not have a Christmas," he said.

"Wow, Doug. I know how much you love that truck. But I don't want you to be sorry later on. Are you sure you want to give it?"

I've never forgotten his answer.

With wide eyes and a wrinkled brow, he held up that fire truck and he said, "But, Daddy - isn't this what Christmas is all about?"

Yes, Doug, it is.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Fire Truck and a Question for Christmas."

For some of us this Christmas, it may be about giving something that isn't easy for us to give. A gift of great value... and great sacrifice.

Giving someone time we don't have. Or a listening ear. A helping hand. An apology. Some overdue "I love you's."

Maybe our gift would be a place to stay or a financial intervention. A visit. A costly "I forgive you." A reconciling letter. A timeout for a caregiver. A meal together. Or, a second chance.

It may very well be a gift only you can give them. And one of greater value than anything from Amazon or the mall.

It was that very first Christmas when God gave the gift that, only He could give. A way for us to bridge the unbreachable gap between us and Him. Created by our defiant living of life "my way" instead of His way. What the Bible calls, sin. What the Bible says, carries an eternal death penalty.

But God comes to us with the priceless gift of eternal life in his hands. But it was surely the most expensive gift ever given, it cost Him everything.

Now a word for today from the Word of God, in Romans 8:32.

"He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all." You see it was only the life of the Son of God, that was birthed in that stable, and surrendered on that cross, that could pay our death penalty and give us Heaven.

And this could be your very first Christmas with Christ in your heart, if you would say to Him this day, Jesus, you died for my sin, I am yours, beginning today.

Our website if there to help you get that set, to help you get that done. I would encourage you to go today to ANewStory.com.

Jesus comes to us with hands that are open and nail-scarred, He's offering the gift only He can give. And asking -

"Isn't this what Christmas is all about?"

Esther 4, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: WHEN WE ARE GIVING - December 4, 2024

Oh, the things we do to give gifts to those we love. But we would do it all again. The fact is, we do it all again. Every Christmas, every birthday, and every so often we find ourselves in foreign territory. Grownups are in toy stores, wives are in the hunting department, and husbands are in the purse department.

And we do the most unusual things. We assemble bicycles at midnight. We hide new tires with mag wheels under the stairs. One fellow I heard about rented a movie theater so he and his wife could see their wedding pictures on their anniversary.

And we’d do it all again. Having pressed the grapes of service, we drink life’s sweetest wine—the wine of giving. We are at our best when we are giving. In fact, we are most like God when we are giving.

Christmas Stories: Heartwarming Classics of Angels, a Manger, and the Birth of Hope

Esther 4

When Mordecai learned what had been done, he ripped his clothes to shreds and put on sackcloth and ashes. Then he went out in the streets of the city crying out in loud and bitter cries. He came only as far as the King’s Gate, for no one dressed in sackcloth was allowed to enter the King’s Gate. As the king’s order was posted in every province, there was loud lament among the Jews—fasting, weeping, wailing. And most of them stretched out on sackcloth and ashes.

4–8  Esther’s maids and eunuchs came and told her. The queen was stunned. She sent fresh clothes to Mordecai so he could take off his sackcloth but he wouldn’t accept them. Esther called for Hathach, one of the royal eunuchs whom the king had assigned to wait on her, and told him to go to Mordecai and get the full story of what was happening. So Hathach went to Mordecai in the town square in front of the King’s Gate. Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him. He also told him the exact amount of money that Haman had promised to deposit in the royal bank to finance the massacre of the Jews. Mordecai also gave him a copy of the bulletin that had been posted in Susa ordering the massacre so he could show it to Esther when he reported back with instructions to go to the king and intercede and plead with him for her people.

9–11  Hathach came back and told Esther everything Mordecai had said. Esther talked it over with Hathach and then sent him back to Mordecai with this message: “Everyone who works for the king here, and even the people out in the provinces, knows that there is a single fate for every man or woman who approaches the king without being invited: death. The one exception is if the king extends his gold scepter; then he or she may live. And it’s been thirty days now since I’ve been invited to come to the king.”

12–14  When Hathach told Mordecai what Esther had said, Mordecai sent her this message: “Don’t think that just because you live in the king’s house you’re the one Jew who will get out of this alive. If you persist in staying silent at a time like this, help and deliverance will arrive for the Jews from someplace else; but you and your family will be wiped out. Who knows? Maybe you were made queen for just such a time as this.”

15–16  Esther sent back her answer to Mordecai: “Go and get all the Jews living in Susa together. Fast for me. Don’t eat or drink for three days, either day or night. I and my maids will fast with you. If you will do this, I’ll go to the king, even though it’s forbidden. If I die, I die.”

17  Mordecai left and carried out Esther’s instructions.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Wednesday, December 04, 2024

By Tim Gustafson

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

1 John 1:1-10

From the very first day, we were there, taking it all in—we heard it with our own ears, saw it with our own eyes, verified it with our own hands. The Word of Life appeared right before our eyes; we saw it happen! And now we’re telling you in most sober prose that what we witnessed was, incredibly, this: The infinite Life of God himself took shape before us.

3–4  We saw it, we heard it, and now we’re telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double our joy!

Walk in the Light

5  This, in essence, is the message we heard from Christ and are passing on to you: God is light, pure light; there’s not a trace of darkness in him.

6–7  If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we’re obviously lying through our teeth—we’re not living what we claim. But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificed blood of Jesus, God’s Son, purges all our sin.

8–10  If we claim that we’re free of sin, we’re only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins—make a clean breast of them—he won’t let us down; he’ll be true to himself. He’ll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing. If we claim that we’ve never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God—make a liar out of him. A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God.

Today's Insights

The word life in John’s writings means more than physical existence; rather, it describes the vibrant, rich quality of joyful fellowship with God—“the eternal life, which was with the Father” (1 John 1:2). Divine life transforms human life from mere existence into something more, as light transforms darkness (John 1:4-5). Through our bond with Jesus, believers in Him access that rich life—so that “our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). And believers’ fellowship with God also draws them into “fellowship with one another” (v. 7).

When Life Appeared

The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it. 1 John 1:2

In 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine dominated the world’s attention. As the magnitude of the catastrophe became apparent, officials scrambled to the critically essential task of containing the radiation. Lethal gamma rays from highly radioactive debris kept destroying the robots deployed to clean up the mess.

So they had to use “bio robots”—human beings! Thousands of heroic individuals became “Chernobyl liquidators,” disposing of the hazardous material in “shifts” of ninety seconds or less. People did what technology could not, at great personal risk.

Long ago, our rebellion against God introduced a catastrophe that led to all other catastrophes (see Genesis 3). Through Adam and Eve, we chose to part ways with our Creator, and we made our world a toxic mess in the process. We could never clean it up ourselves.

That’s the whole point of Christmas. The apostle John wrote of Jesus, “The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us” (1 John 1:2). Then John declared, “The blood of Jesus, [God’s] Son, purifies us from all sin” (v. 7).

Jesus has provided what His creatures could not. As we believe in Him, He restores us to a right relationship with His Father. He’s liquidated death itself. The life has appeared.

Reflect & Pray

How might you be trying to clean up your own mess? How will you give your struggles to Jesus today?

Loving God, thank You for sending Your Son into this world to clean up my mess.

Learn more about having a personal relationship with God.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Wednesday, December 04, 2024

The Law of Antagonism

In this world you will have trouble. — John16:33

Life without war is impossible, either in nature or in grace. The basis of physical, mental, moral, and spiritual life is antagonism. This is the open fact of life.

The law of antagonism means that in order to stay healthy, I have to fight. Health is a kind of balance between things that would harm me and my ability to resist them. Physical health occurs when there is a balance between my body and those things in the external world that are designed to put me to death. If I have enough vitality, enough fighting power, I will produce a healthy balance.

The same is true both mentally and morally. If I want to maintain a vigorous mental life, I have to fight; this is how the mental balance called thought is produced. When it comes to morality, everything that doesn’t partake of the nature of virtue is the enemy of virtue in me, and whether I am able to overcome and produce virtue depends on my moral vitality. When I am tempted to immorality in some particular and I fight against it, I am instantly moral in that particular. No one is virtuous by accident; virtue is acquired.

Spiritually, too, it is the same. When Jesus said that we would have trouble in this world, he meant that everything that is not spiritual would seek my undoing. “But,” he added, “take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). I have to learn to face down the things that come against me, and in that way produce the balance of holiness; then it becomes a delight to meet opposition. Holiness is the balance between my disposition and the law of God as expressed in Jesus Christ.

Ezekiel 47-48; 1 John 3

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

The attitude of a Christian towards the providential order in which he is placed is to recognize that God is behind it for purposes of His own. 

Biblical Ethics, 99 R

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Wednesday, December 04, 2024

YOUR PERSONAL TITANIC - #9888

It's been over 100 years, but there's something about the sinking of the Titanic that still fascinates us. The latest evidence, newly unearthed photographs and stories, the incredible success of the blockbuster movie, "Titanic." I mean, they've kind of refocused us on it. I've always found the story of the last hours of this supposedly unsinkable ship to be a haunting story. The people on the Titanic represented just about all the kinds of people that there are. Then I start thinking about how most of them died. At best, only a few hundred of them got into lifeboats. Many more of them went down with the ship only wearing life jackets. And, you know, there were different ways people handled those terrifying hours on that sinking ship, and it tells us a lot about what we're all really like.

Only about 700 of the Titanic's 2,200 passengers survived. But what's even more tragic is that many of the 1,500 who died didn't have to die because many of the lifeboats were only half full. And those who made it aboard could hear hundreds of people in the water, crying for help. But almost all those people died - not from drowning - they were in their lifejackets. They died from hypothermia.

Here's the awful truth: there were 20 lifeboats, from the Titanic, most partially empty. Only one of those 20 went back - too late for most of the people in the water. Only six of those people were saved. Most of them could have been saved if only those who had already been rescued had gone back for those who had no other chance but them.

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

Our Word for today from the Word of God comes from Ezekiel 33:6. It's about the watchman on the walls of an ancient city who sees the hostile army approaching. It says, "If the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that man will be taken away because of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood."

God says, "If you know someone is going to die and you're in a position to do something about it, and you don't, that person's blood is on your hands." We're appalled to think that those who had been saved from the Titanic would just row off into the night, save themselves, but doing nothing about those who were dying around them. But I have to ask, "Dear God, is that us?"

We've been rescued from sin's sinking ship - from an eternity without God and without hope. But are we just rowing on, enjoying our cozy lifeboat with others who are already saved, singing our lifeboat songs, going to our lifeboat committee meetings, and building a more comfortable lifeboat for those who are already saved? And oblivious sometimes to our co-workers, our neighbors, our loved ones, our friends who will die if we don't turn the lifeboat around and reach out for them and tell them about our Jesus. Maybe we're not oblivious - maybe we're just afraid to go after them, to reach out to them. Whatever the reason, the result is the same - we're saved, they're not and they're going to die and their blood will be on our hands.

God's clear word in Proverbs 24:11-12 says, "Rescue those who are being led away to death. If you say, 'We knew nothing about this,' does not He who weighs the heart perceive it? Will He not repay each person according to what he has done?" God is accepting no excuses on this.

He's wonderfully pulled you into His lifeboat. He's rescued you from an awful eternity. And now He has put you in the middle of some people who need to know that Jesus died for them; that He's the relationship they've been looking for their whole life. People who are destined to die eternally without Jesus if they don't find out what He did for them on the cross. You're in a position to rescue them. They're within your reach.

There's still room in the lifeboat for the people around you. Please, don't leave them where they are.

Esther 3, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: OUT OF THE MESS - December 3, 2024

In the mystery of Christmas, we find its majesty. The mystery of how God became flesh, why he chose to come, and how much he must love his people. Christmas is best pondered, not with logic, but with imagination.

The first Christmas was messy. Messy with crowded inns, traveling families, and barnyard animals sniffing at baby Jesus. Messy with questions: How did Mary become pregnant? What is Joseph supposed to tell his friends? Why is Herod hell-bent on killing babies? The first Christmas was messy. No midwife for Mary, no bed for Jesus, no explanation to give the scruffy shepherds.

Is this one messy for you? Christmas can be messy. But just as with Bethlehem, good came out of the mess. May good come out of yours.

Christmas Stories: Heartwarming Classics of Angels, a Manger, and the Birth of Hope

Esther 3

Some time later, King Xerxes promoted Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, making him the highest-ranking official in the government. All the king’s servants at the King’s Gate used to honor him by bowing down and kneeling before Haman—that’s what the king had commanded.

2–4  Except Mordecai. Mordecai wouldn’t do it, wouldn’t bow down and kneel. The king’s servants at the King’s Gate asked Mordecai about it: “Why do you cross the king’s command?” Day after day they spoke to him about this but he wouldn’t listen, so they went to Haman to see whether something shouldn’t be done about it. Mordecai had told them that he was a Jew.

5–6  When Haman saw for himself that Mordecai didn’t bow down and kneel before him, he was outraged. Meanwhile, having learned that Mordecai was a Jew, Haman hated to waste his fury on just one Jew; he looked for a way to eliminate not just Mordecai but all Jews throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes.

7  In the first month, the month of Nisan, of the twelfth year of Xerxes, the pur—that is, the lot—was cast under Haman’s charge to determine the propitious day and month. The lot turned up the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar.

8–9  Haman then spoke with King Xerxes: “There is an odd set of people scattered through the provinces of your kingdom who don’t fit in. Their customs and ways are different from those of everybody else. Worse, they disregard the king’s laws. They’re an affront; the king shouldn’t put up with them. If it please the king, let orders be given that they be destroyed. I’ll pay for it myself. I’ll deposit 375 tons of silver in the royal bank to finance the operation.”

10  The king slipped his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, archenemy of the Jews.

11  “Go ahead,” the king said to Haman. “It’s your money—do whatever you want with those people.”

12  The king’s secretaries were brought in on the thirteenth day of the first month. The orders were written out word for word as Haman had addressed them to the king’s satraps, the governors of every province, and the officials of every people. They were written in the script of each province and the language of each people in the name of King Xerxes and sealed with the royal signet ring.

13–14  Bulletins were sent out by couriers to all the king’s provinces with orders to massacre, kill, and eliminate all the Jews—youngsters and old men, women and babies—on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month Adar, and to plunder their goods. Copies of the bulletin were to be posted in each province, publicly available to all peoples, to get them ready for that day.

15  At the king’s command, the couriers took off; the order was also posted in the palace complex of Susa. The king and Haman sat back and had a drink while the city of Susa reeled from the news.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Tuesday, December 03, 2024

by- Karen Huang

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Psalm 139:1-10

God, investigate my life;

get all the facts firsthand.

I’m an open book to you;

even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking.

You know when I leave and when I get back;

I’m never out of your sight.

You know everything I’m going to say

before I start the first sentence.

I look behind me and you’re there,

then up ahead and you’re there, too—

your reassuring presence, coming and going.

This is too much, too wonderful—

I can’t take it all in!

7–12  Is there any place I can go to avoid your Spirit?

to be out of your sight?

If I climb to the sky, you’re there!

If I go underground, you’re there!

If I flew on morning’s wings

to the far western horizon,

You’d find me in a minute—

you’re already there waiting!

Today's Insights

Psalm 139 powerfully presents some of God’s attributes or qualities. In verses 1-6, the singer celebrates His omniscience—that He knows everything. In verses 7-12, he discusses the omnipresence of God—that He’s everywhere present at the same time. Then in verses 13-16, we consider His omnipotence—that He’s all-powerful, particularly in His power to create. And not just creation in general, but how He’s created us! David exults: “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (v. 14). Considering God deeply, however, leads the psalmist with a desire to be examined by Him. David concludes: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (vv. 23-24).

Discover praise and prayer in this study to learn more about the Psalms.

God Knows Me

You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. Psalm 139:1

When my sister found a storybook from our childhood, my mom, now in her seventies, was delighted. She remembered all the funny details about a bear who stole honey and got chased by a swarm of angry bees. She also remembered how my sister and I laughed as we anticipated the bear’s escape. “Thank you for always telling us stories when we were kids,” I told my mom. She knows my whole story including what I was like as a young child. Now that I’m an adult, she still knows and understands me.

God knows us too—deeper than any human being can, including ourselves. David says He’s “searched” us (Psalm 139:1). In His love, He’s examined us and understands us perfectly. God knows our thoughts, understanding the reasons behind and meanings of what we say (vv. 2, 4). He’s intimately familiar with every detail that makes us who we are, and He uses this knowledge to help us (vv. 2-5). He who knows us most doesn’t turn away in distaste but reaches out to us with His love and wisdom.

When we feel lonely, unseen, or forgotten, we can be secure in the truth that God is always with us, sees us, and knows us (vv. 7-10). He knows all the sides of us that others don’t—and more. Like David, we can say with confidence, “You know me . . . . Your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast” (vv. 1, 10).

Reflect & Pray

How are you encouraged by a wise and loving God who knows you so intimately? How can you share His loving presence with others?

Dear God, You know me best and love me most. I’m so grateful for Your hand on my life.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Tuesday, December 03, 2024

By the Power of the Spirit

My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power. — 1 Corinthians 2:4

When you preach, never substitute your own experience of salvation or sanctification for confidence in the power of the gospel. If you do, you will become an obstacle, blocking others’ access to spiritual reality. You have to make sure that, if you do share your knowledge of the way of salvation, you remain rooted and grounded in faith in God. Never rely on rhetorical skills; never seek to preach “with wise and persuasive words.” Rely instead on the Holy Spirit and on the certainty of God’s redemptive power. When you do, he will create his own life in the souls of those to whom you preach.

Once you are rooted in reality, nothing can shake you. If your faith is rooted only in your experiences, anything that happens is likely to disturb it. But nothing can ever disturb God or the almighty reality of redemption. Base your faith on redemption, and you will be as eternally secure as God. Get into personal contact with Jesus Christ, and you will never be moved again. This is what it means to be sanctified.

God puts his disapproval on our experiences when we begin to think of them as ends in themselves. Sanctification isn’t merely an experience; sanctification itself has to be sanctified. Jesus didn’t have a sanctified experience; he led a sanctified life, and he prayed that his disciples would do the same: “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified” (John 17:18–19). After I’ve had the experience of sanctification, I must deliberately give my sanctified life to God for his service so that he can use me as his hands and feet.

Ezekiel 45-46; 1 John 2

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Jesus Christ is always unyielding to my claim to my right to myself. The one essential element in all our Lord’s teaching about discipleship is abandon, no calculation, no trace of self-interest.

Disciples Indeed, 395 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Tuesday, December 03, 2024

Why Commitment Is Worth It - #9887

Oh, the frequent flier bonus. That's one of the smartest ideas the airlines ever had I think. You know, you don't usually have to think twice about what airline you're going to book with. If they've got a flight going to the city that I'm going to anywhere near the time I need to go, you know I'm going to try and stick with that one company. I'm just a loyal kind of guy! No. See, the airline credits the flier with mileage awards that convert ultimately into discounts, and upgrades, and even free trips. They're getting a little harder to get, but you know, it's still a pretty good deal. Now, that bonus incentive sure has worked in getting me to stay with one carrier over the years. Especially when I was flying all over the place. And I understand it's worked on millions of other flyers too. The golden principle here is pretty simple: the biggest rewards are for those who stick with the same carrier.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why Commitment Is Worth It."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Hebrews 10. I'm in verse 35. "So do not throw away your confidence." Okay, hang in there, right? Now, in other words, stay where you've been. "It will be" (here is the bonus) "richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God you will receive what He has promised." Well, the message here is pretty simple. Stay with what you've been committed to, and the rewards will be rich. Persevere so you'll receive.

Now, this is addressed to people, if you look at the context, whose commitment to Christ is being tested by very hard times. You can almost imagine in modern terms we might say to them, "Well, you know, it might be tempting to change carriers right now, but the bonuses, the rewards, are for those who stay put, who stay with the same carrier." That's a principle that covers a lot of living. Those who stay put get the biggest rewards.

It's true of marriage. Oh, people get restless in a marriage; the grass...it looks a little greener somewhere else. Or it gets tough and it's hard to work through this really stormy time. But the best of married love and the best intimacy earth has to offer isn't in the passionate days of courtship and the honeymoon. It comes from the long years of weathering storms and facing problems together and refusing to run when it's hard. One day the sun rises on a trust, a belonging, a safety that you can only know by staying with the same partner. It's a joy that the "bailer-outers" will never know.

I've seen it in ministry - people who jump from place to place. They never know the tremendous payoff of sticking it out in one place. They're never there for the harvest; they sow the seed and they leave before the harvest. See, a harvest comes only by patient, persevering work. So often the jumpers leave just before the results start to come. It's like we get to the Red Sea and leave before it parts. They put in the work, but they never see the bonuses. They just keep changing carriers.

It's just true in so many areas of life; sticking with a friend instead of changing friends all the time because it got a little rocky, committing yourself to a cause and sticking with it, or seeing a job through when you feel like quitting. Most importantly, follow Christ patiently, doggedly, stubbornly every day for a lifetime. Even when you can't feel anything, when you can't hear His voice, it is the loyal followers of Christ who see Him as nobody else does.

There's a song that says, "The longer I serve Him, the sweeter He grows." That is so true. Stay with the same company, and you'll really enjoy the rewards of not moving.

Revelation 12, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: LOOK FOR GOD - December 2, 2024

With the passing of years, Henry’s life had changed. His children were grown. The neighborhood was different. He was unhappy. He asked his minister if he was unhappy for some sin he’d committed. “Yes,” the wise pastor replied. “The sin of ignorance. One of your neighbors is the Messiah in disguise, and you have not seen him.”

With time, Henry saw things in people he’d never seen. When others spoke he listened. After all, he might be listening to the Messiah. The bounce returned to his step. His eyes took on a friendly sparkle. He said, “All I know is that things changed when I started looking for God.”

Now, that’s curious. The old man saw Jesus because he didn’t know what he looked like. The people in Jesus’ day missed him because they thought they did. How are things looking in your neighborhood?

Christmas Stories: Heartwarming Classics of Angels, a Manger, and the Birth of Hope

Revelation 12

The Woman, Her Son, and the Dragon

1–2  12 A great Sign appeared in Heaven: a Woman dressed all in sunlight, standing on the moon, and crowned with Twelve Stars. She was giving birth to a Child and cried out in the pain of childbirth.

3–4  And then another Sign alongside the first: a huge and fiery Dragon! It had seven heads and ten horns, a crown on each of the seven heads. With one flick of its tail it knocked a third of the Stars from the sky and dumped them on earth. The Dragon crouched before the Woman in childbirth, poised to eat up the Child when it came.

5–6  The Woman gave birth to a Son who will shepherd all nations with an iron rod. Her Son was seized and placed safely before God on his Throne. The Woman herself escaped to the desert to a place of safety prepared by God, all comforts provided her for 1,260 days.

7–12  War broke out in Heaven. Michael and his Angels fought the Dragon. The Dragon and his Angels fought back, but were no match for Michael. They were cleared out of Heaven, not a sign of them left. The great Dragon—ancient Serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, the one who led the whole earth astray—thrown out, and all his Angels thrown out with him, thrown down to earth. Then I heard a strong voice out of Heaven saying,

Salvation and power are established!

Kingdom of our God, authority of his Messiah!

The Accuser of our brothers and sisters thrown out,

who accused them day and night before God.

They defeated him through the blood of the Lamb

and the bold word of their witness.

They weren’t in love with themselves;

they were willing to die for Christ.

So rejoice, O Heavens, and all who live there,

but doom to earth and sea,

For the Devil’s come down on you with both feet;

he’s had a great fall;

He’s wild and raging with anger;

he hasn’t much time and he knows it.

13–17  When the Dragon saw he’d been thrown to earth, he went after the Woman who had given birth to the Man-Child. The Woman was given wings of a great eagle to fly to a place in the desert to be kept in safety and comfort for a time and times and half a time, safe and sound from the Serpent. The Serpent vomited a river of water to swamp and drown her, but earth came to her help, swallowing the water the Dragon spewed from its mouth. Helpless with rage, the Dragon raged at the Woman, then went off to make war with the rest of her children, the children who keep God’s commands and hold firm to the witness of Jesus.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Monday, December 02, 2024

James Banks

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Acts 11:19-26

Those who had been scattered by the persecution triggered by Stephen’s death traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, but they were still only speaking and dealing with their fellow Jews. Then some of the men from Cyprus and Cyrene who had come to Antioch started talking to Greeks, giving them the Message of the Master Jesus. God was pleased with what they were doing and put his stamp of approval on it—quite a number of the Greeks believed and turned to the Master.

22–24  When the church in Jerusalem got wind of this, they sent Barnabas to Antioch to check on things. As soon as he arrived, he saw that God was behind and in it all. He threw himself in with them, got behind them, urging them to stay with it the rest of their lives. He was a good man that way, enthusiastic and confident in the Holy Spirit’s ways. The community grew large and strong in the Master.

25–26  Then Barnabas went on to Tarsus to look for Saul. He found him and brought him back to Antioch. They were there a whole year, meeting with the church and teaching a lot of people. It was in Antioch that the disciples were for the first time called Christians.

Today's Insights

Everyone in the community of believers in Jesus was afraid of Saul because he was persecuting them (Acts 9:2). Even Ananias—who’d been given explicit instructions from Jesus to go to the house where Saul was staying—was afraid of the man (vv. 10-19). Later, when Saul, “who was also called Paul” (13:9), escaped with his life to Jerusalem, Christ’s disciples refused to allow him to join out of sheer fear of him (9:26). It was Barnabas who convinced Peter and the rest to welcome him as a fellow disciple of Jesus (v. 27), and it was Barnabas who saw potential in him for serving the church at Antioch (11:25-26). Where other believers feared him, Barnabas saw someone who’d been radically changed by Christ. Because of this encourager, Paul was able to begin the ministry that would forever change the trajectory of the church.

People of Encouragement

[Barnabas] encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. Acts 11:23

Today's Devotional

“Sheer encouragement.” That was the phrase J. R. R. Tolkien used to describe the personal support his friend and colleague C. S. Lewis gave him as he wrote the epic The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Tolkien’s work on the series had been painstaking and exacting, and he’d personally typed out the lengthy manuscripts more than twice. When he sent them to Lewis, Lewis responded, “All the long years you have spent on it are justified.” 

Perhaps Scripture’s best-known encourager was Joseph from Cyprus, better known as Barnabas (meaning “son of encouragement”), the name the apostles gave him (Acts 4:36). It was Barnabas who advocated for Paul to the apostles (9:27). Later, when non-Jewish believers began to place their faith in Jesus, Luke tells us Barnabas “was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts” (11:23). Luke describes him as “a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith,” adding that because of him, “a great number of people were brought to the Lord” (v. 24).

The worth of encouraging words can’t be measured. As we offer words of faith and love to others, God—who gives “eternal encouragement” (2 Thessalonians 2:16)—may move through what we share to transform someone’s life forever. May He help us to offer “sheer encouragement” to someone today!

Reflect & Pray

Who would you like to encourage? In what ways might you share God’s love with them through a kind deed or word?

Dear God, please help me to be an encouragement to someone today.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Monday, December 02, 2024

Christian Perfection

Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect… — Philippians 3:12

It’s a trap to imagine that God wants to make us perfect examples of what he can do. God isn’t producing specimens of holiness to put in his museum. His purpose is to make us one with him: “That they may be one as we are one” (John 17:22).

If becoming a model of personal holiness is your goal, your life won’t be devoted to God. Instead, it will be devoted to achieving whatever you see as the evidence of God in your life, whether it be perfect success or perfect discipline or perfect health. “But it can’t be God’s will for me to get sick,” you protest. It was God’s will to bruise his own Son; why shouldn’t he bruise you? What matters to God isn’t your consistency to an idea of what makes a perfect Christian. What matters is your real, vital relationship with Jesus Christ and your abandonment to him, whether you are sick or well.

Christian perfection is not, and never can be, human perfection. Christian perfection is the perfection of a relationship to God, a relationship that shows itself in all the irrelevancies of human life. When you obey the call of Jesus Christ, the first thing that strikes you is the seeming irrelevancy of the things he asks you to do. The next is the fact that some people appear to be leading perfectly consistent lives. Such lives might give you the idea that God is unnecessary, that all we need to reach the standard he wants is human effort and devotion. In a fallen world, this can never be true.

I am called to live in perfect relation to God so that my life will produce a longing for God in other lives, not so that others will admire me. Thoughts about myself will always hinder my usefulness to God. God isn’t perfecting me in order to put me on display; he’s getting me to the place where he can use me. I must let him have his way.

Ezekiel 42-44; 1 John 1

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

No one could have had a more sensitive love in human relationship than Jesus; and yet He says there are times when love to father and mother must be hatred in comparison to our love for Him.  

So Send I You, 1301 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Monday, December 02, 2024

Why Religion Isn't Enough - #9886

Years ago in college, our son and a young lady friend of his decided they needed to have an RDT. I know it sounds like an injection or like bug spray. But it actually had to do with what was going on between them. See, men and women at the college that they attended often would have an RDT with someone. And I guess history does repeat itself, because I actually had one with my future wife one night many years ago. We didn't call it that, but that's what it was. I told her this: "I'm just sick and tired of just having a brother/sister relationship. I want it to be more." I risked it all that day and, guess what, I married her.

Well, after she picked herself up off the floor, she got my drift. And we were married a long time. Whenever a man or woman in my son's school wanted to figure out what their relationship was, they would say, "It's RDT time." That's when they found out, "Is this a friendship? Or are we dating? Are we going steady? Is this a possible marriage situation? Are we pre-engaged? What do we call this?" Well, actually there comes a time when you need to know where you stand. Oh, and what is an RDT? I probably should tell you that. It's a Relationship Definition Time!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why Religion Isn't Enough."

It may be RDT time for you in the most important relationship of all. See, Jesus Christ calls for you and Him to have a relationship definition time. Our word for today from the Word of God, 2 Corinthians 13:5 is sobering. Listen, "Examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you - unless, of course, you fail the test? And I trust that you will discover that you have not failed the test."

Okay, you know about Jesus. You like Jesus. You agree with Jesus. You try to live like Jesus would want you to live, and that's all good. But have you ever made the Savior your Savior and put all your trust in Him; grabbing Him like he's your only hope? See, when it comes to getting things really settled with Jesus Christ once and for all, many of us are like a plane that keeps circling the airport. We're close. We're circling, but we never landed. And you're looking down on that cross where God's One and only Son is dying to pay your sin bill with God. You know that's where you'll get the sins of a lifetime erased from God's book.

But maybe you've never really landed. John 3:36 - "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. But whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." The New Testament makes it clear that believing in Jesus is telling Him He's your only hope. You're putting your total trust in what He did on the cross for you, abandoning any other hope. He's your only hope of knowing God, of going to heaven.

Have you ever done that with Him? Have you ever really believed in Jesus in that way? And there's only one other relationship option according to Jesus. You're rejecting Him. Not to believe is to reject. Not to decide is to decide.

The Roman Governor who tried Jesus unknowingly asked the question that decides every person's eternity, "What shall I do then with Jesus who is called Christ?" It's time for you to answer that question. It's relationship definition time.

If you're ready to finally get this settled, would you tell Him right now, "Lord, you're my only hope of having my sins erased from God's book, of ever having a relationship with God and of going to heaven. I believe You died for me, and beginning right now I want to belong to You." I want to invite you to visit our website, and let me walk you through the steps to make sure you belong to Jesus. It's called ANewStory.com.

Today is relationship definition time. There's an old gospel song that makes it pretty clear. "What will you do with Jesus? Neutral you cannot be. For some day your heart will be asking, 'What will He do with Me?'"

Esther 2 , bible reading and daily devotionals.

Max Lucado Daily: More Dinghy than Cruise Ship?

Are you more dinghy. . .than cruise ship? Or in my case, more blue jeans than blue blood? Well congratulations, God changes the world with folks like you!

The next time you say, “I don’t think God could use me!”—stop right there!  Satan’s going to try to tell you that God has an IQ requirement.  That he employs only experts and high-powered personalities.  When you hear Satan whispering that lie—hit him with this:  God stampeded the first-century society with swaybacks, not thoroughbreds.  Before Jesus came along, the disciples were loading trucks, coaching soccer, and selling Slurpee drinks at the convenience store!

But what they had going for them was a willingness to take a step when Jesus said, “Follow me.”

So what do you think?  More plumber than executive?  More stand-in than movie star? Yeah—congratulations!  God uses people like you…and me.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  Matthew 16:24?

From Max on Life

Esther 2

Later, when King Xerxes’ anger had cooled and he was having second thoughts about what Vashti had done and what he had ordered against her, the king’s young attendants stepped in and got the ball rolling: “Let’s begin a search for beautiful young virgins for the king. Let the king appoint officials in every province of his kingdom to bring every beautiful young virgin to the palace complex of Susa and to the harem run by Hegai, the king’s eunuch who oversees the women; he will put them through their beauty treatments. Then let the girl who best pleases the king be made queen in place of Vashti.”

The king liked this advice and took it.

5–7  Now there was a Jew who lived in the palace complex in Susa. His name was Mordecai the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish—a Ben-jaminite. His ancestors had been taken from Jerusalem with the exiles and carried off with King Jehoiachin of Judah by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon into exile. Mordecai had reared his cousin Hadassah, otherwise known as Esther, since she had no father or mother. The girl had a good figure and a beautiful face. After her parents died, Mordecai had adopted her.

8  When the king’s order had been publicly posted, many young girls were brought to the palace complex of Susa and given over to Hegai who was overseer of the women. Esther was among them.

9–10  Hegai liked Esther and took a special interest in her. Right off he started her beauty treatments, ordered special food, assigned her seven personal maids from the palace, and put her and her maids in the best rooms in the harem. Esther didn’t say anything about her family and racial background because Mordecai had told her not to.

11  Every day Mordecai strolled beside the court of the harem to find out how Esther was and get news of what she was doing.

12–14  Each girl’s turn came to go in to King Xerxes after she had completed the twelve months of prescribed beauty treatments—six months’ treatment with oil of myrrh followed by six months with perfumes and various cosmetics. When it was time for the girl to go to the king, she was given whatever she wanted to take with her when she left the harem for the king’s quarters. She would go there in the evening; in the morning she would return to a second harem overseen by Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch in charge of the concubines. She never again went back to the king unless the king took a special liking to her and asked for her by name.

15  When it was Esther’s turn to go to the king (Esther the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had adopted her as his daughter), she asked for nothing other than what Hegai, the king’s eunuch in charge of the harem, had recommended. Esther, just as she was, won the admiration of everyone who saw her.

16  She was taken to King Xerxes in the royal palace in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of the king’s reign.

17–18  The king fell in love with Esther far more than with any of his other women or any of the other virgins—he was totally smitten by her. He placed a royal crown on her head and made her queen in place of Vashti. Then the king gave a great banquet for all his nobles and officials—“Esther’s Banquet.” He proclaimed a holiday for all the provinces and handed out gifts with royal generosity.

19–20  On one of the occasions when the virgins were being gathered together, Mordecai was sitting at the King’s Gate. All this time, Esther had kept her family background and race a secret as Mordecai had ordered; Esther still did what Mordecai told her, just as when she was being raised by him.

21–23  On this day, with Mordecai sitting at the King’s Gate, Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who guarded the entrance, had it in for the king and were making plans to kill King Xerxes. But Mordecai learned of the plot and told Queen Esther, who then told King Xerxes, giving credit to Mordecai. When the thing was investigated and confirmed as true, the two men were hanged on a gallows. This was all written down in a logbook kept for the king’s use.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Sunday, December 01, 2024

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Titus 2:6-8

Also, guide the young men to live disciplined lives.

7–8  But mostly, show them all this by doing it yourself, incorruptible in your teaching, your words solid and sane. Then anyone who is dead set against us, when he finds nothing weird or misguided, might eventually come around.

By-Dave Branon

Today's Insights

Titus was one of the young men that Paul mentored in ministry. Unlike Timothy (see Acts 16:1-3), we know little about Titus. We’re not told how he and Paul met or how he came to have the apostle as his mentor. Titus is mentioned ten times in 2 Corinthians (2:13; 7:6, 13, 14; 8:6, 16, 17, 23; 12:18 [twice]) and two times in Galatians (2:1, 3)—solidifying our picture of him as an important member of Paul’s team. The only other mention of Titus (aside from the letter addressed to him) is in 2 Timothy 4:9-10, where Paul writes to Timothy: “Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia.”

Good Reputation for Christ

Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16

During his college days at Florida State University, Charlie Ward was a two-sport student athlete. In 1993, the young quarterback won the Heisman Trophy as the country’s best college American football player, and he also starred on the basketball team.

During a pregame talk one day, his basketball coach used some foul language as he talked to his players. He noticed that Charlie “wasn’t comfortable,” and said, “Charlie, what’s up?” Ward said, “Coach, you know, Coach Bowden [the football coach] doesn’t use that kind of language, and he gets us to play awfully hard.”

Charlie’s Christlike character allowed him to gently speak to his basketball coach about this issue. In fact, the coach told a reporter: “It’s almost as if there was an angel looking at you” when he talked to Charlie.

A good reputation with unbelievers and a faithful witness for Christ are hard to maintain. But at the same time, believers in Jesus can grow to be more like Him as He helps and guides us. In Titus 2, younger men, and by extension all believers, are called to “be self-controlled” (v. 6) and to “show integrity . . . and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned” (vv. 7-8).

When we live that way in Christ’s strength, we’ll not only honor Him but also build a good reputation. Then as God provides the wisdom we need, people will have reason to hear what we say.

Reflect & Pray

How does a good reputation help you influence others? What will help you grow in Christlike character?

Dear God, please help me to grow in character that reflects You and honors You.

For further study, read Evangelism—Reaching Out through Relationships.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Sunday, December 01, 2024

The Law and the Gospel

Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. — James 2:10

The moral law doesn’t take into account the fact that we are weak human beings. It doesn’t consider our infirmities or our sinful heredity. It simply demands that we be absolutely moral. The moral law never changes, either for the noblest or for the weakest. It doesn’t adjust itself to our shortcomings or make itself weak for the weak. It remains absolute for all time and eternity. If we don’t realize this, it’s because we are less than fully alive. Once we are born again and become fully alive to God’s will for us, life becomes a tragedy. The Spirit of God convicts us, and we know: “Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died” (Romans 7:9). Until we get to this place of conviction and see that we have no hope on our own, the cross of Christ is a farce to us.

“The law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin”

(v. 14). Conviction of sin always brings a fearful, binding sense of the law. It makes me feel hopeless, because I know that a guilty sinner like me cannot keep the law on my own. There is only one way I can get right with God, and that is by the death of Jesus Christ. I must get rid of the idea that I can ever be right with God through obedience. Who among us could ever obey God with absolute perfection!

“If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture . . .” (James 2:8). The moral law comes with an if. God never coerces us. In certain moods, we wish he would; in others, we wish he’d leave us alone. But when his will is ascendant in our lives, any question of compulsion is gone. Obeying God has to be a deliberate choice. Once we have made it, God will tax the remotest star and the last grain of sand to help us obey.

Ezekiel 40-41; 2 Peter 3

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Am I getting nobler, better, more helpful, more humble, as I get older? Am I exhibiting the life that men take knowledge of as having been with Jesus, or am I getting more self-assertive, more deliberately determined to have my own way? It is a great thing to tell yourself the truth.

The Place of Help

Esther 1, bible reading and daily devotionals.

Max Lucado Daily: More Dinghy than Cruise Ship?

Are you more dinghy. . .than cruise ship? Or in my case, more blue jeans than blue blood? Well congratulations, God changes the world with folks like you!

The next time you say, “I don’t think God could use me!”—stop right there!  Satan’s going to try to tell you that God has an IQ requirement.  That he employs only experts and high-powered personalities.  When you hear Satan whispering that lie—hit him with this:  God stampeded the first-century society with swaybacks, not thoroughbreds.  Before Jesus came along, the disciples were loading trucks, coaching soccer, and selling Slurpee drinks at the convenience store!

But what they had going for them was a willingness to take a step when Jesus said, “Follow me.”

So what do you think?  More plumber than executive?  More stand-in than movie star? Yeah—congratulations!  God uses people like you…and me.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  Matthew 16:24?

From Max on Life

Esther 1

This is the story of something that happened in the time of Xerxes, the Xerxes who ruled from India to Ethiopia—127 provinces in all. King Xerxes ruled from his royal throne in the palace complex of Susa. In the third year of his reign he gave a banquet for all his officials and ministers. The military brass of Persia and Media were also there, along with the princes and governors of the provinces.

4–7  For six months he put on exhibit the huge wealth of his empire and its stunningly beautiful royal splendors. At the conclusion of the exhibit, the king threw a weeklong party for everyone living in Susa, the capital—important and unimportant alike. The party was in the garden courtyard of the king’s summer house. The courtyard was elaborately decorated with white and blue cotton curtains tied with linen and purple cords to silver rings on marble columns. Silver and gold couches were arranged on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl, and colored stones. Drinks were served in gold chalices, each chalice one-of-a-kind. The royal wine flowed freely—a generous king!

8–9  The guests could drink as much as they liked—king’s orders!—with waiters at their elbows to refill the drinks. Meanwhile, Queen Vashti was throwing a separate party for women inside King Xerxes’ royal palace.

10–11  On the seventh day of the party, the king, high on the wine, ordered the seven eunuchs who were his personal servants (Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas) to bring him Queen Vashti resplendent in her royal crown. He wanted to show off her beauty to the guests and officials. She was extremely good-looking.

12–15  But Queen Vashti refused to come, refused the summons delivered by the eunuchs. The king lost his temper. Seething with anger over her insolence, the king called in his counselors, all experts in legal matters. It was the king’s practice to consult his expert advisors. Those closest to him were Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven highest-ranking princes of Persia and Media, the inner circle with access to the king’s ear. He asked them what legal recourse they had against Queen Vashti for not obeying King Xerxes’ summons delivered by the eunuchs.

16–18  Memucan spoke up in the council of the king and princes: “It’s not only the king Queen Vashti has insulted, it’s all of us, leaders and people alike in every last one of King Xerxes’ provinces. The word’s going to get out: ‘Did you hear the latest about Queen Vashti? King Xerxes ordered her to be brought before him and she wouldn’t do it!’ When the women hear it, they’ll start treating their husbands with contempt. The day the wives of the Persian and Mede officials get wind of the queen’s insolence, they’ll be out of control. Is that what we want, a country of angry women who don’t know their place?

19–20  “So, if the king agrees, let him pronounce a royal ruling and have it recorded in the laws of the Persians and Medes so that it cannot be revoked, that Vashti is permanently banned from King Xerxes’ presence. And then let the king give her royal position to a woman who knows her place. When the king’s ruling becomes public knowledge throughout the kingdom, extensive as it is, every woman, regardless of her social position, will show proper respect to her husband.”

21–22  The king and the princes liked this. The king did what Memucan proposed. He sent bulletins to every part of the kingdom, to each province in its own script, to each people in their own language: “Every man is master of his own house; whatever he says, goes.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Saturday, November 30, 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.

Today's Insights

The book of Daniel spans seventy years of the Babylonian exile and is both biography (chs. 1-6) and prophecy (chs. 7-12). The first six chapters tell how Daniel distinguished himself to become the trusted adviser to Nebuchadnezzar (5:11-12) and Darius (6:1-5)—kings of two of the superpower empires of the ancient world. When God exiled the Israelites to Babylon, He commanded them to work for “the peace and prosperity” of their conquerors (Jeremiah 29:7). Daniel “was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent” (Daniel 6:4) and “so distinguished himself . . . that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom” (v. 3).

A Grateful Response -Tom Felten

[Daniel] prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. Daniel 6:10

Raw fish and rainwater. An Australian sailor named Timothy survived on only those provisions for three months. Marooned on his storm-damaged catamaran, he was losing hope—bobbing 1,200 miles from land in the Pacific Ocean. But then the crew of a Mexican tuna boat spotted his ailing boat and rescued him. Later, the thin and weather-beaten man declared, “To the captain and fishing company that saved my life, I’m just so grateful!”

Timothy gave thanks following his ordeal, but the prophet Daniel revealed a grateful heart before, during, and after a crisis. Having been exiled to Babylon from Judah with other Jews (Daniel 1:1-6), Daniel had risen in power only to be threatened by other leaders who wanted him dead (6:1-7). His foes got the king of Babylon to sign a decree stating that anyone who prayed “to any god” would be “thrown into the lions’ den” (v. 7). What would Daniel, a man who loved and served the one true God, do? He “got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to . . . God, just as he had done before” (v. 10). He gave thanks, and his grateful heart was rewarded as God spared his life and brought him honor (vv. 26-28).

As the apostle Paul wrote, may God help us “give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Whether we’re facing a crisis or have just come through one, a grateful response honors Him and helps keep our faith afloat.  

Reflect & Pray

Why is it vital to regularly thank God? How can you grow a more grateful heart?

Dear God, please help me give thanks even when life is hard.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Saturday, November 30, 2024

By the Grace of God

His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain. — 1 Corinthians 15:10

The way we continually talk about our inabilities is an insult to the Creator. When we complain about our incompetence, we slander God; it’s as though we are saying he’s overlooked us. These things sound humble to people, but if you get into the habit of examining them from God’s point of view, you’ll be amazed at how rude and impertinent they are. “Oh, I wouldn’t want to say I’m sanctified. I’m no saint.” Say this before God, and it’s as though you’re saying, “No, Lord, it’s impossible for you to save and sanctify me. There are chances I haven’t had. There are so many imperfections in my brain and body. No, it isn’t possible.” This may sound wonderfully humble to other people, but before God it’s an attitude of defiance.

The opposite is also true. The things that sound humble to God may sound boastful to other people. If you say, “Thank God, I’m saved and sanctified,” people might think you’re bragging. But in God’s eyes it’s the pinnacle of humility. It means that you have so completely abandoned yourself to him that you know he is true.

Never worry about whether or not you sound humble to other people, but always be humble before God. Let him be all in all. Only one relationship matters, and that is your personal relationship to a personal redeemer. Maintain this relationship at all costs, letting go of everything else, and God will fulfill his purpose through you. One individual life may be of priceless value to God’s purpose, and yours may be that life.

Ezekiel 37-39; 2 Peter 2

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

We can understand the attributes of God in other ways, but we can only understand the Father’s heart in the Cross of Christ. 

The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption, 558 L

Revelation 11, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: THE NEXT DOOR SAVIOR - November 29, 2024

In the aftermath of 9/11 a group of religious leaders was invited to come to Washington and pray with President Bush. The group was well-frocked and well-known. You might wonder if I felt out of place. The only time I wear a robe is when I step out of the shower.

But when it came my turn to meet George W. Bush, I added, “And Mr. President, I was raised in Andrews, Texas—a half-hour drive from your hometown.” He smiled that lopsided smile and let his accent drawl ever so slightly. “Why, I know your town. I’ve walked those streets. I’ve even played your golf course.” It was nice to know that the president knew my home.

How much nicer to know the same about God. Yes, he rules the universe. Yes, he has walked your streets. He’s still the next door Savior. Jesus – above all powers? You bet he is!

Nextdoor Savior: Near Enough to Touch, Strong Enough to Trust

Revelation 11

The Two Witnesses

1–2  11 I was given a stick for a measuring rod and told, “Get up and measure God’s Temple and Altar and everyone worshiping in it. Exclude the outside court; don’t measure it. It’s been handed over to non-Jewish outsiders. They’ll desecrate the Holy City for forty-two months.

3–6  “Meanwhile, I’ll provide my two Witnesses. Dressed in sackcloth, they’ll prophesy for 1,260 days. These are the two Olive Trees, the two Lampstands, standing at attention before God on earth. If anyone tries to hurt them, a blast of fire from their mouths will incinerate them—burn them to a crisp just like that. They’ll have power to seal the sky so that it doesn’t rain for the time of their prophesying, power to turn rivers and springs to blood, power to hit earth with any and every disaster as often as they want.

7–10  “When they’ve completed their witness, the Beast from the Abyss will emerge and fight them, conquer and kill them, leaving their corpses exposed on the street of the Great City spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, the same City where their Master was crucified. For three and a half days they’ll be there—exposed, prevented from getting a decent burial, stared at by the curious from all over the world. Those people will cheer at the spectacle, shouting ‘Good riddance!’ and calling for a celebration, for these two prophets pricked the conscience of all the people on earth, made it impossible for them to enjoy their sins.

11  “Then, after three and a half days, the Living Spirit of God will enter them—they’re on their feet!—and all those gloating spectators will be scared to death.”

12–13  I heard a strong voice out of Heaven calling, “Come up here!” and up they went to Heaven, wrapped in a cloud, their enemies watching it all. At that moment there was a gigantic earthquake—a tenth of the city fell to ruin, seven thousand perished in the earthquake, the rest frightened to the core of their being, frightened into giving honor to the God-of-Heaven.

14  The second doom is past, the third doom coming right on its heels.

The Last Trumpet Sounds

15–18  The seventh Angel trumpeted. A crescendo of voices in Heaven sang out,

The kingdom of the world is now

the Kingdom of our God and his Messiah!

He will rule forever and ever!

The Twenty-four Elders seated before God on their thrones fell to their knees, worshiped, and sang,

We thank you, O God, Sovereign-Strong,

Who Is and Who Was.

You took your great power

and took over—reigned!

The angry nations now

get a taste of your anger.

The time has come to judge the dead,

to reward your servants, all prophets and saints,

Reward small and great who fear your Name,

and destroy the destroyers of earth.

19  The doors of God’s Temple in Heaven flew open, and the Ark of his Covenant was clearly seen surrounded by flashes of lightning, loud shouts, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a fierce hailstorm.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Friday, November 29, 2024

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Job 13:1-12

I’m Taking My Case to God

1–5  13 “Yes, I’ve seen all this with my own eyes,

heard and understood it with my very own ears.

Everything you know, I know,

so I’m not taking a backseat to any of you.

I’m taking my case straight to God Almighty;

I’ve had it with you—I’m going directly to God.

You graffiti my life with lies.

You’re a bunch of pompous quacks!

I wish you’d shut your mouths—

silence is your only claim to wisdom.

6–12  “Listen now while I make my case,

consider my side of things for a change.

Or are you going to keep on lying ‘to do God a service’?

to make up stories ‘to get him off the hook’?

Why do you always take his side?

Do you think he needs a lawyer to defend himself?

How would you fare if you were in the dock?

Your lies might convince a jury—but would they convince God?

He’d reprimand you on the spot

if he detected a bias in your witness.

Doesn’t his splendor put you in awe?

Aren’t you afraid to speak cheap lies before him?

Your wise sayings are knickknack wisdom,

good for nothing but gathering dust.

Today's Insights

We rightly remember Job as an exceptionally good man. “They have the patience of Job,” we say when we notice someone who demonstrates remarkable restraint under pressure. Not to be missed, however, is Job’s obvious humanity. Having lost his children, his health, and his wealth, we see him lash out at his friends who offer him useless counsel. “You . . . smear me with lies,” he says, and calls them “worthless physicians” (Job 13:4). The problem with Job’s friends is that they imagined they were speaking wisely when they were merely spouting empty platitudes. Job says of their advice, “Your maxims are proverbs of ashes; your defenses are defenses of clay” (v. 12). This raw picture of his response to his trouble and his alleged “comforters” (16:2) humanizes him, enriching our understanding of human pain and suffering. We also learn to guard our speech when we encounter another in deep pain.

Restraining Orde r-Kenneth Petersen

I want to argue my case with God himself. Job 13:3 nlt

Today's Devotional

A man in court filed a restraining order against God. He claimed God had been “particularly unkind” to him and had exhibited a “seriously negative attitude.” The presiding judge dismissed the suit, saying the man needed help not from the court but for his mental health. A true story: humorous, but also sad.

But are we so different? Don’t we sometimes want to say, “Stop, God, please, I’ve had enough!” Job did. He put God on trial. After enduring unspeakable personal tragedies, Job says, “I want to argue my case with God himself” (Job 13:3 nlt) and imagines taking “God to court” (9:3 nlt). He even puts forth a restraining order: “Withdraw your hand far from me, and stop frightening me” (13:21). Job’s prosecution argument wasn’t his own innocence but what he viewed as God’s unreasonable harshness: “Does it please you to oppress me?” (10:3).

Sometimes we feel God is unfair. In truth, the story of Job is complex, not providing easy answers. God restores Job’s physical fortunes in the end, but that isn’t always His plan for us. Perhaps we find something of a verdict in Job’s final admission: “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know” (42:3). The point is, God has reasons we know nothing of, and there’s wonderful hope in that.

Reflect & Pray

What occasions have prompted you to “take God to court”? Why is it okay for you to ask Him tough questions?

Dear God, I sometimes feel angry about what I’ve had to endure. Please help me bring my complaints to You.

For further study, read Understanding the Bible: The Wisdom Books.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Friday, November 29, 2024

The Absolute Authority of Jesus Christ

He shall glorify Me. — John 16:14

The sentimental religious movements of today have none of the rugged reality of the New Testament. Nothing in what they teach requires the death of Jesus Christ. All they require is prayer and devotion and a pious atmosphere. This type of religious experience isn’t supernatural or miraculous. It didn’t cost the passion of God. It isn’t dyed in the blood of the Lamb or stamped with the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t have the quality that makes people say with awe and wonder, “That is the work of God Almighty.”

The type of Christian experience the New Testament talks about is the experience of personal, passionate devotion to the person of Jesus Christ. Every other type of so-called Christian experience is detached from the person of Jesus. There’s no regeneration—no being born again into the kingdom where Christ lives—only the idea that he is a role model. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ is Savior long before he is a role model. Today he is often dismissed as the mere figurehead of a religion or as an example we should follow. Jesus Christ is a figurehead and an example, but he is also infinitely more. He is Salvation itself. He is the Gospel of God.

Jesus said, “When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, . . . he will glorify me” (John 16:13–14). When I commit myself to the revelation made in the New Testament, I receive from God the gift of the Holy Spirit, who begins to interpret to me what Jesus did, who does in me what Jesus Christ did for me. This is the supernatural, miraculous means by which I enter into a personal relationship with my Lord and become absolutely his.

Ezekiel 35-36; 2 Peter 1

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

Friday, November 29, 2024

Personal Power Failures - #9885

You think you've had a bad day? Oh, I'll tell you about a bad day. It was the summer of 1997; you're a cosmonaut on Russia's space station Mir. So far, you've battled a fire on board. Then a supply ship runs into you in a docking procedure. You lose 40% of your power. You think you've already had your fill of bad days for one mission. But then, the central computer on the space station suddenly shuts down. You are tumbling through space in what reporters called "chaotic flight." Hard to believe! It happened!

The day the computer failed, those cosmonauts were thrown into a particularly dangerous situation. That space station was solar-powered and all of a sudden, as one reporter put it, it lost its orientation to the sun, which means you don't have the power to meet the demands of your flight, and worst case, your life is in jeopardy. Why? All because Mir turned its back on the sun.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Personal Power Failures."

The crisis that faced that space station? Not enough power to meet the demands. That's a feeling a lot of us have had in our lives. Trying to meet the demands of our family, our relationships, our work responsibilities, and frankly, our resources just aren't enough. Do you ever feel like you're running without the personal peace you need, the love, the power? Maybe the description of that space station's situation describes your own life - "Chaotic flight."

It could be that the confusion and the power failure is for a similar reason, too, that space station is designed to draw its life from the sun. Listen to these words from the Bible about how God designed us. Speaking of Jesus, it says we were "created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16). That Him is the Son of God - S-O-N. Our lives? Well, they're essentially tumbling aimlessly when we lose our proper orientation to the Son. And according to God's Book, we all have.

Here we go from our Word for today from the Word of God in Isaiah 53:6. "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way." Three words explain why we feel so spiritually disoriented, "his own way." The One who gave us our life was supposed to run our life and we simply took our life and we've run it "our own way."

If you wanted to draw that in picture form, you'd probably put you on the left side of the page, God on the right, and you'd be walking away from Him, with your back to Him; with your back to the source of the love and the peace and the power and the meaning you need. If you die with your back still to Him, erase God from your picture forever. And that's hell. Unless you can find a way to get rid of your sin and get back to Him, like the space station without the sun, the result is ultimately death.

I'm so glad that "gone astray" verse doesn't stop there. It also tells us the way to find the God we've lost. It says, "And the Lord has laid on Him the wrongdoing of us all" The Him is Jesus and all the sin that cuts us off from God was laid on Jesus, God's sinless Son, when He died on that cross. You can literally walk up to that cross and say, "For me. He's doing that for me."

The day you tell Jesus you're putting your total trust in Him to rescue you from your sin is the day you find your Creator, the Son you were created for. For you, it could be today. That's why God brought us together, so this could be your day.

If you want to know how to begin with Him and how to know you belong to Him, that's what our website's all about. I urge you to check it out as soon as you can today - ANewStory.com.

Hasn't your "chaotic flight" lasted long enough? It's the Son - the Son of God - you need right now. He has all the power you'll ever need to meet every demand of your life.