Max Lucado Daily: God Loves You
God Loves You
Posted: 04 Jan 2011 10:01 PM PST
If we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 1 John 4:12 NIV
God loves you. Personally. Powerfully. Passionately. Others have promised and failed. But God has promised and succeeded.
He loves with you with an unfailing love. And his love - if you will let it - can fill you and leave you with a love worth giving.
Exodus 7
1 Then the LORD said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. 2 You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country. 3 But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt, 4 he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites. 5 And the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.”
6 Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD commanded them. 7 Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.
Aaron’s Staff Becomes a Snake
8 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, 9 “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Perform a miracle,’ then say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh,’ and it will become a snake.”
10 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. 11 Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts: 12 Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. 13 Yet Pharaoh’s heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the LORD had said.
The Plague of Blood
14 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go. 15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the river. Confront him on the bank of the Nile, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake. 16 Then say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the wilderness. But until now you have not listened. 17 This is what the LORD says: By this you will know that I am the LORD: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood. 18 The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink; the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water.’”
19 The LORD said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt—over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs—and they will turn to blood.’ Blood will be everywhere in Egypt, even in vessels of wood and stone.”
20 Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD had commanded. He raised his staff in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials and struck the water of the Nile, and all the water was changed into blood. 21 The fish in the Nile died, and the river smelled so bad that the Egyptians could not drink its water. Blood was everywhere in Egypt.
22 But the Egyptian magicians did the same things by their secret arts, and Pharaoh’s heart became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said. 23 Instead, he turned and went into his palace, and did not take even this to heart. 24 And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile to get drinking water, because they could not drink the water of the river.
The Plague of Frogs
25 Seven days passed after the LORD struck the Nile.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Isaiah 31:1-5
Isaiah 31:1-5 (NIV)Isa 1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the Lord. 2 Yet he too is wise and can bring disaster; he does not take back his words. He will rise up against the house of the wicked, against those who help evildoers. 3 But the Egyptians are men and not God; their horses are flesh and not spirit. When the Lord stretches out his hand, he who helps will stumble, he who is helped will fall; both will perish together. 4 This is what the Lord says to me: "As a lion growls, a great lion over his prey-- and though a whole band of shepherds is called together against him, he is not frightened by their shouts or disturbed by their clamor-- so the Lord Almighty will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and on its heights. 5 Like birds hovering overhead, the Lord Almighty will shield Jerusalem; he will shield it and deliver it, he will 'pass over' it and will rescue it."
Lion Of Judah
January 5, 2011 — by Julie Ackerman Link
Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed. —Revelation 5:5
The lounging lions in Kenya’s Masai Mara game reserve looked harmless. They rolled on their backs in low-lying bushes. They rubbed their faces on branches as if trying to comb their magnificent manes. They drank leisurely from a stream. They strode slowly across dry, scrubby terrain as if they had all the time in the world. The only time I saw their teeth was when one of them yawned.
Their serene appearance is deceiving, however. The reason they can be so relaxed is that they have nothing to fear—no shortage of food and no natural predators. The lions look lazy and listless, but they are the strongest and fiercest of all. One roar sends all other animals running for their lives.
Sometimes it seems as if God is lounging. When we don’t see Him at work, we conclude that He’s not doing anything. We hear people mock God and deny His existence, and we anxiously wonder why He doesn’t defend Himself. But God “will not be afraid of their voice nor be disturbed by their noise” (Isa. 31:4). He has nothing to fear. One roar from Him, and His detractors will scatter like rodents.
If you wonder why God isn’t anxious when you are, it’s because He has everything under control. He knows that Jesus, the Lion of Judah, will triumph.
When fear and worry test your faith
And anxious thoughts assail,
Remember God is in control
And He will never fail. —Sper
Because God is in control, we have nothing to fear.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
January 5th, 2011
The Life of Power to Follow
Jesus answered him, ’Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward’ —John 13:36
“And when He had spoken this, He said to him, ’Follow Me’ ” (John 21:19). Three years earlier Jesus had said, “Follow Me” (Matthew 4:19), and Peter followed with no hesitation. The irresistible attraction of Jesus was upon him and he did not need the Holy Spirit to help him do it. Later he came to the place where he denied Jesus, and his heart broke. Then he received the Holy Spirit and Jesus said again, “Follow Me” (John 21:19). Now no one is in front of Peter except the Lord Jesus Christ. The first “Follow Me” was nothing mysterious; it was an external following. Jesus is now asking for an internal sacrifice and yielding (see John 21:18).
Between these two times Peter denied Jesus with oaths and curses (see Matthew 26:69-75). But then he came completely to the end of himself and all of his self-sufficiency. There was no part of himself he would ever rely on again. In his state of destitution, he was finally ready to receive all that the risen Lord had for him. “. . . He breathed on them, and said to them, ’Receive the Holy Spirit’ ” (John 20:22). No matter what changes God has performed in you, never rely on them. Build only on a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, and on the Spirit He gives.
All our promises and resolutions end in denial because we have no power to accomplish them. When we come to the end of ourselves, not just mentally but completely, we are able to “receive the Holy Spirit.” “Receive the Holy Spirit “— the idea is that of invasion. There is now only One who directs the course of your life, the Lord Jesus Christ.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Entertainitis - #6258
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Okay, try to picture this. Here's a group of maybe a hundred teenagers in a seminar for two hours, sitting on concrete the whole time, taking notes the whole time, and asking for more when the seminar is dismissed. You say, "Whoa! What planet were you on?" That was in Haiti when I was there a few years ago, teaching in a workshop in a gymnasium. Now, the only place to sit was in the balcony, and in the balcony of that gym it was all concrete. They told me to take two hours. Wow! I said, "I could talk here all the time!" Okay, I could probably figure out something to say for two hours, and I did. Believe it or not, I was the first one finished! I know that's pretty hard for you to believe that I finished first, but I really did. Give me two hours and I can. Well, they quickly ran to the next seminar to get some more.
Now, I returned to America, and you know you'd better be done in 20 minutes here or you'll be talking to yourself. Unless, of course, you're funny enough to be like a Christian comedian. Let's not be too rough on our teenagers; they happen to have a disease that afflicts the whole American church. And it is a disease that produces spiritual midgets.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Entertainitis."
Our word for today from the Word of God follows the feeding of the 5,000, where it says in John 6:14 , "After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, 'Surely this is the prophet who was to come into the world.'" Well, they chased Him all the way across the lake of Galilee, and when they found Him on the other side of the lake, it says they asked Him, "'Rabbi, when did you get here?' Jesus answered, 'I tell you the truth, you're looking for me not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.'" In verse 30 they asked Him, "What miraculous sign will You give that we may see it and believe You? What will you do?"
Finally, after Jesus begins to talk to them about the shedding of blood and a cross, verse 66 it says, "From this time many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him." Now, here's a crowd, and they are ready to follow Jesus as long as there was a good show: miracles, excited crowds, cheers, surprises, songs, good feelings. But as soon as it got serious or demanding, as soon as it cost something, they checked out - the first known case of entertainitis. Yep, interest in spiritual input as long as it's easy to take.
I didn't realize how shallow our faith here is until I met Christians in other countries. They know how to pray powerfully, extensively. They're hungry, not for jokes and stories, but for solid, biblical teaching. They're interested in the substance of Christianity, not the style of the speaker. And while we're having socials, they're having revivals. While we accept mediocrity, they're expecting miracles.
Now, we're a product of a media culture; kind of a Sesame Street, Internet pop-up approach that changes the subject every 60 seconds. But compared to believers in the rest of the world, we have a Sesame Street faith. The first step toward the cure of entertainitis is to recognize the disease and to want a cure. We need to begin to re-train our hearts to look for the truth in a message, not the entertainment value; to look for the Bible in a song, not the beat; to quit expecting speakers to do all the work for us; to pack the auditorium for a sermon, not just for a concert or a special event; to understand this is a war, not a picnic.
Most important, we need to commit ourselves to the spiritual discipline of a personal Bible study - time with Jesus that starts every day. That's the anchor of an authentic Christian life. Maybe it's time we say, "Lord, I'm tired of being so deep into my shallow, entertaining faith. I want to get rid of this disease of entertainitis."
Remember what happened to the people who had it first? They eventually abandoned Jesus.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Matthew 24, Bible reading and Daily Devotions
Max Lucado Daily: Your Problems Matter to God
Your Problems Matter to God
Posted: 03 Jan 2011 10:01 PM PST
Thank God! He deserves your thanks. His love never quits. Psalm 136:1 The Message
If I know that one of the privileges of fatherhood is to comfort, then why am I so reluctant to let my heavenly Father comfort me?
Why do I think he wouldn’t care about my problems? (“They are puny compared to starving people in India.”)
Why do I think he is too busy for me?
Matthew 24:29-51 (New International Version, ©2010)
29 “Immediately after the distress of those days
“‘the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’
30 “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. 31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
32 “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 33 Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. 34 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
The Day and Hour Unknown
36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.
42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
45 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46 It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. 47 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48 But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ 49 and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. 50 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. 51 He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Matthew 22:34-40
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.
35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:
36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"
37 Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'
38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'
40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
A Lover Of God
January 4, 2011 — by David C. McCasland
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. —Matthew 22:37
In a brief biography of St. Francis of Assisi, G. K. Chesterton begins with a glimpse into the heart of this unique and compassionate man born in the 12th century. Chesterton writes: “As St. Francis did not love humanity but men, so he did not love Christianity but Christ. . . . The reader cannot even begin to see the sense of a story that may well seem to him a very wild one, until he understands that to this great mystic his religion was not a thing like a theory but a thing like a love-affair.”
When Jesus was asked to name the greatest command in the Law, He replied, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment” (Matt. 22:37-38). The questioner wanted to test Jesus, but the Lord answered him with the key element in pleasing God. First and foremost, our relationship with Him is a matter of the heart.
If we see God as a taskmaster and consider obedience to Him as a burden, then we have joined those of whom the Lord said, “I have this against you, that you have left your first love” (Rev. 2:4).
The way of joy is to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind.
Oh, help me, Lord, to take by grace divine
Yet more and more of that great love of Thine;
That day by day my heart may give to Thee
A deeper love, and grow more constantly. —Mountain
Put Christ first and you’ll find a joy that lasts.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
January 4th, 2011
Why Can I Not Follow You Now?
Peter said to Him, ’Lord, why can I not follow You now?’ —John 13:37
There are times when you can’t understand why you cannot do what you want to do. When God brings a time of waiting, and appears to be unresponsive, don’t fill it with busyness, just wait. The time of waiting may come to teach you the meaning of sanctification— to be set apart from sin and made holy— or it may come after the process of sanctification has begun to teach you what service means. Never run before God gives you His direction. If you have the slightest doubt, then He is not guiding. Whenever there is doubt— wait.
At first you may see clearly what God’s will is— the severance of a friendship, the breaking off of a business relationship, or something else you feel is distinctly God’s will for you to do. But never act on the impulse of that feeling. If you do, you will cause difficult situations to arise which will take years to untangle. Wait for God’s timing and He will do it without any heartache or disappointment. When it is a question of the providential will of God, wait for God to move.
Peter did not wait for God. He predicted in his own mind where the test would come, and it came where he did not expect it. “I will lay down my life for Your sake.” Peter’s statement was honest but ignorant. “Jesus answered him, ’ . . . the rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times’ ” (John 13:38). This was said with a deeper knowledge of Peter than Peter had of himself. He could not follow Jesus because he did not know himself or his own capabilities well enough. Natural devotion may be enough to attract us to Jesus, to make us feel His irresistible charm, but it will never make us disciples. Natural devotion will deny Jesus, always falling short of what it means to truly follow Him.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Platform You Would Never Choose - #6257
Tuesday, January 4, 2010
A lot of us were like broke most of the time we were in college. So, it was always nice to find some free Saturday night entertainment. And in downtown Chicago, there was a place called Bug House Square. Yeah, it's not the real name it was, but that was what it was affectionately known in the neighborhood at the time. See, Bug House Square was a small city park just north of downtown Chicago. And it was a place where anybody could get up and make a speech about anything - thus, the name. So, people who couldn't find a platform anywhere else, well, they could find one at Bug House Square. Some frustrated people got to deliver the message that they never got to deliver anywhere else. You know, it's frustrating to have a message and no platform to proclaim it from. And it's surprising sometimes where our platform turns out to be.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Platform You Would Never Choose."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Acts 16 . Now, Paul and Silas are in prison for preaching the Gospel in Philippi. They have been severely beaten, they're in the stocks, they're in the inner dungeon, they are in great pain, and they aren't going anywhere. "About midnight Paul and Silas get to praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners are listening to them." Never heard anything like this in prison! "Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors were open, he drew his sword, he was about to kill himself..." Well, that would mean he'd be executed by Rome anyway. "...he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, ‘Don't harm yourself! We are all here!' The jailer called for lights, he rushed in and he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and he asked, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?'"
Now, Paul and Silas have, up to this point, only been able to come to Philippi and find the places where people prayed together. I think their question might be, "How do we get a hearing for the Gospel here in Philippi?" Well, here you've got people with a message, and they're trying to find a point of entry to preach that message - a platform. Maybe that sounds like you. Now, you're not in Philippi, but you know that you have in Christ what your family is looking for; your friends are looking for; your coworkers. But how do you get their attention? Well, you might be surprised.
God started the church at Philippi by putting Paul and Silas in a prison and in an earthquake. And it was how they handled their prison and their earthquake that opened a way for the Gospel. That suggests a very eye-opening principle. The big problem that you've got may be the best platform you've got. Maybe you're in a prison right now: physical limitations, an injury, an illness. Maybe you're going through a really lonely time, and it's like a prison. Or you're on the edge of financial or business disaster. You're unemployed. People are watching you now. Can you sing in your prison? Can you demonstrate the inner freedom and the peace that only Christ can give? Or maybe you're in an earthquake right now and everything's shaking. Things that have never moved before are breaking loose.
See, if you can demonstrate that inner peace when the walls are caving in, you will preach Christ more eloquently than any sermon ever could. You're surrounded by people who are in depression because of their prison; who are in panic because of their earthquake. And they're watching to see the difference in how you handle yours.
So, let God sanctify that sick bed, that crisis, that unemployment line, that struggle. He will make it into a platform for the life-saving message of the Gospel. It's a platform you'd never choose, but God has. And you can speak eloquently through your songs in the middle of the night.
Your Problems Matter to God
Posted: 03 Jan 2011 10:01 PM PST
Thank God! He deserves your thanks. His love never quits. Psalm 136:1 The Message
If I know that one of the privileges of fatherhood is to comfort, then why am I so reluctant to let my heavenly Father comfort me?
Why do I think he wouldn’t care about my problems? (“They are puny compared to starving people in India.”)
Why do I think he is too busy for me?
Matthew 24:29-51 (New International Version, ©2010)
29 “Immediately after the distress of those days
“‘the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’
30 “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. 31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
32 “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 33 Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. 34 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
The Day and Hour Unknown
36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.
42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
45 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46 It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. 47 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48 But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ 49 and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. 50 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. 51 He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Matthew 22:34-40
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.
35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:
36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"
37 Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'
38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'
40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
A Lover Of God
January 4, 2011 — by David C. McCasland
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. —Matthew 22:37
In a brief biography of St. Francis of Assisi, G. K. Chesterton begins with a glimpse into the heart of this unique and compassionate man born in the 12th century. Chesterton writes: “As St. Francis did not love humanity but men, so he did not love Christianity but Christ. . . . The reader cannot even begin to see the sense of a story that may well seem to him a very wild one, until he understands that to this great mystic his religion was not a thing like a theory but a thing like a love-affair.”
When Jesus was asked to name the greatest command in the Law, He replied, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment” (Matt. 22:37-38). The questioner wanted to test Jesus, but the Lord answered him with the key element in pleasing God. First and foremost, our relationship with Him is a matter of the heart.
If we see God as a taskmaster and consider obedience to Him as a burden, then we have joined those of whom the Lord said, “I have this against you, that you have left your first love” (Rev. 2:4).
The way of joy is to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind.
Oh, help me, Lord, to take by grace divine
Yet more and more of that great love of Thine;
That day by day my heart may give to Thee
A deeper love, and grow more constantly. —Mountain
Put Christ first and you’ll find a joy that lasts.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
January 4th, 2011
Why Can I Not Follow You Now?
Peter said to Him, ’Lord, why can I not follow You now?’ —John 13:37
There are times when you can’t understand why you cannot do what you want to do. When God brings a time of waiting, and appears to be unresponsive, don’t fill it with busyness, just wait. The time of waiting may come to teach you the meaning of sanctification— to be set apart from sin and made holy— or it may come after the process of sanctification has begun to teach you what service means. Never run before God gives you His direction. If you have the slightest doubt, then He is not guiding. Whenever there is doubt— wait.
At first you may see clearly what God’s will is— the severance of a friendship, the breaking off of a business relationship, or something else you feel is distinctly God’s will for you to do. But never act on the impulse of that feeling. If you do, you will cause difficult situations to arise which will take years to untangle. Wait for God’s timing and He will do it without any heartache or disappointment. When it is a question of the providential will of God, wait for God to move.
Peter did not wait for God. He predicted in his own mind where the test would come, and it came where he did not expect it. “I will lay down my life for Your sake.” Peter’s statement was honest but ignorant. “Jesus answered him, ’ . . . the rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times’ ” (John 13:38). This was said with a deeper knowledge of Peter than Peter had of himself. He could not follow Jesus because he did not know himself or his own capabilities well enough. Natural devotion may be enough to attract us to Jesus, to make us feel His irresistible charm, but it will never make us disciples. Natural devotion will deny Jesus, always falling short of what it means to truly follow Him.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Platform You Would Never Choose - #6257
Tuesday, January 4, 2010
A lot of us were like broke most of the time we were in college. So, it was always nice to find some free Saturday night entertainment. And in downtown Chicago, there was a place called Bug House Square. Yeah, it's not the real name it was, but that was what it was affectionately known in the neighborhood at the time. See, Bug House Square was a small city park just north of downtown Chicago. And it was a place where anybody could get up and make a speech about anything - thus, the name. So, people who couldn't find a platform anywhere else, well, they could find one at Bug House Square. Some frustrated people got to deliver the message that they never got to deliver anywhere else. You know, it's frustrating to have a message and no platform to proclaim it from. And it's surprising sometimes where our platform turns out to be.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Platform You Would Never Choose."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Acts 16 . Now, Paul and Silas are in prison for preaching the Gospel in Philippi. They have been severely beaten, they're in the stocks, they're in the inner dungeon, they are in great pain, and they aren't going anywhere. "About midnight Paul and Silas get to praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners are listening to them." Never heard anything like this in prison! "Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors were open, he drew his sword, he was about to kill himself..." Well, that would mean he'd be executed by Rome anyway. "...he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, ‘Don't harm yourself! We are all here!' The jailer called for lights, he rushed in and he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and he asked, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?'"
Now, Paul and Silas have, up to this point, only been able to come to Philippi and find the places where people prayed together. I think their question might be, "How do we get a hearing for the Gospel here in Philippi?" Well, here you've got people with a message, and they're trying to find a point of entry to preach that message - a platform. Maybe that sounds like you. Now, you're not in Philippi, but you know that you have in Christ what your family is looking for; your friends are looking for; your coworkers. But how do you get their attention? Well, you might be surprised.
God started the church at Philippi by putting Paul and Silas in a prison and in an earthquake. And it was how they handled their prison and their earthquake that opened a way for the Gospel. That suggests a very eye-opening principle. The big problem that you've got may be the best platform you've got. Maybe you're in a prison right now: physical limitations, an injury, an illness. Maybe you're going through a really lonely time, and it's like a prison. Or you're on the edge of financial or business disaster. You're unemployed. People are watching you now. Can you sing in your prison? Can you demonstrate the inner freedom and the peace that only Christ can give? Or maybe you're in an earthquake right now and everything's shaking. Things that have never moved before are breaking loose.
See, if you can demonstrate that inner peace when the walls are caving in, you will preach Christ more eloquently than any sermon ever could. You're surrounded by people who are in depression because of their prison; who are in panic because of their earthquake. And they're watching to see the difference in how you handle yours.
So, let God sanctify that sick bed, that crisis, that unemployment line, that struggle. He will make it into a platform for the life-saving message of the Gospel. It's a platform you'd never choose, but God has. And you can speak eloquently through your songs in the middle of the night.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Exodus 6, Bible reading and Daily Devotions
Max Lucado Daily: God Listens
God Listens
Posted: 02 Jan 2011 10:01 PM PST
“I call to you in times of trouble, because you will answer me.” Psalm 86:7
You can talk to God because God listens.
Your voice matters in heaven. He takes you very seriously. When you enter His presence, the attendants turn to you to hear your voice. No need to fear that you will be ignored.
Even if you stammer or stumble, even if what you have to say impresses no one, it impresses God, and he listens.
Exodus 6
1 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: Because of my mighty hand he will let them go; because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country.”
2 God also said to Moses, “I am the LORD. 3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself fully known to them. 4 I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they resided as foreigners. 5 Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.
6 “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. 7 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. 8 And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.’”
9 Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor.
10 Then the LORD said to Moses, 11 “Go, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the Israelites go out of his country.”
12 But Moses said to the LORD, “If the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with faltering lips?”
Family Record of Moses and Aaron
13 Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron about the Israelites and Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he commanded them to bring the Israelites out of Egypt.
14 These were the heads of their families:
The sons of Reuben the firstborn son of Israel were Hanok and Pallu, Hezron and Karmi. These were the clans of Reuben.
15 The sons of Simeon were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jakin, Zohar and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman. These were the clans of Simeon.
16 These were the names of the sons of Levi according to their records: Gershon, Kohath and Merari. Levi lived 137 years.
17 The sons of Gershon, by clans, were Libni and Shimei.
18 The sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel. Kohath lived 133 years.
19 The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi.
These were the clans of Levi according to their records.
20 Amram married his father’s sister Jochebed, who bore him Aaron and Moses. Amram lived 137 years.
21 The sons of Izhar were Korah, Nepheg and Zikri.
22 The sons of Uzziel were Mishael, Elzaphan and Sithri.
23 Aaron married Elisheba, daughter of Amminadab and sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
24 The sons of Korah were Assir, Elkanah and Abiasaph. These were the Korahite clans.
25 Eleazar son of Aaron married one of the daughters of Putiel, and she bore him Phinehas.
These were the heads of the Levite families, clan by clan.
26 It was this Aaron and Moses to whom the LORD said, “Bring the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.” 27 They were the ones who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt about bringing the Israelites out of Egypt—this same Moses and Aaron.
Aaron to Speak for Moses
28 Now when the LORD spoke to Moses in Egypt, 29 he said to him, “I am the LORD. Tell Pharaoh king of Egypt everything I tell you.”
30 But Moses said to the LORD, “Since I speak with faltering lips, why would Pharaoh listen to me?”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: 1 Samuel 1:1-18
1 Samuel 1:1-18 (NIV)1Sa 1 There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. 2 He had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none. 3 Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the Lord. 4 Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. 5 But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb. 6 And because the Lord had closed her womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. 7 This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat. 8 Elkanah her husband would say to her, "Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don't you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don't I mean more to you than ten sons?" 9 Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the Lord's temple. 10 In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord. 11 And she made a vow, saying, "O Lord Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant's misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head." 12 As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. 13 Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk 14 and said to her, "How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine." 15 "Not so, my lord," Hannah replied, "I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. 16 Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief." 17 Eli answered, "Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him." 18 She said, "May your servant find favor in your eyes." Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast.
An Overcoming Faith
January 3, 2011 — by Randy Kilgore
I cried to the Lord with my voice, and He heard me from His holy hill. —Psalm 3:4
Few things disable new workers on a job like criticism from veterans. Good hiring managers know to protect new employees by surrounding them with mentors willing to shield them from unnecessary barbs.
Hannah is a mentor to us in dealing with criticism and deep desires of the heart (1 Sam. 1:1-18). Surrounded by a husband who didn’t understand, a taunting peer, and an overly judgmental clergyman, Hannah found a way through the fog by confiding in God (v.10). While we now know God answered the prayer of Hannah’s heart by giving her a child, we don’t know for sure if Eli’s blessing was a wish or a promise from God (v.17). I think her no-longer-sad face came most of all because she gained peace from confiding in Him.
We were created to be in relationship with God; and when we take that relationship to an intimate level, it bonds us not only to His presence but also to His strength. Prayers that express our hurts and emotions are most assuredly welcomed by God because they demonstrate our trust in Him. We will often find perspective, and nearly always come away comforted, knowing we’ve entrusted the things that are troubling us—whether criticism or deep desires—to the One who is best able to sort through them.
The kindest Friend I’ve ever had
Is One I cannot see,
Yet One in whom I can confide,
Who loves and blesses me. —Shuler
In prayer, it’s better to have a heart without words
than words without heart.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
January 3rd, 2011
Clouds and Darkness
Clouds and darkness surround Him . . . —Psalm 97:2
A person who has not been born again by the Spirit of God will tell you that the teachings of Jesus are simple. But when he is baptized by the Holy Spirit, he finds that “clouds and darkness surround Him . . . .” When we come into close contact with the teachings of Jesus Christ we have our first realization of this. The only possible way to have full understanding of the teachings of Jesus is through the light of the Spirit of God shining inside us. If we have never had the experience of taking our casual, religious shoes off our casual, religious feet— getting rid of all the excessive informality with which we approach God— it is questionable whether we have ever stood in His presence. The people who are flippant and disrespectful in their approach to God are those who have never been introduced to Jesus Christ. Only after the amazing delight and liberty of realizing what Jesus Christ does, comes the impenetrable “darkness” of realizing who He is.
Jesus said, “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). Once, the Bible was just so many words to us — “clouds and darkness”— then, suddenly, the words become spirit and life because Jesus re-speaks them to us when our circumstances make the words new. That is the way God speaks to us; not by visions and dreams, but by words. When a man gets to God, it is by the most simple way— words.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Home Folks' Hazard - #6256
Monday, January 3, 2011
I was on a trip to Florida, and I had just a little personal time - enough to get over to Epcot Center at Disney World, which is a really cool place. You know, they've set it up so it's like you're actually in several of the big countries of the world; some of which I've actually been to for real. And it was just really great to be in touch with kind of the world that way. Now, I had a very busy working week, and I had to get over there quickly. I didn't really have a lot of time. So, I grabbed a van, actually part of a limousine service. And as we were getting near Epcot, I said to the driver, "Man, I'll bet you drive here in your sleep, don't you? I mean, this is something you do all the time. You probably do it with your eyes closed." He said, "Oh, yeah, man, I could. I've been here so many times." I said, "Yeah, and I'll bet you've been at Epcot many times, haven't you." He said, "Yeah, I have." I said, "Well how many times have you actually been in Epcot?" He said, "Oh, I... I've never been in." He just brings people there. Well, you know what, it's so often that way isn't it?
I mean, you live right on top of what tourists come from all over the world to see, but you don't go in there yourself. We moved to the New York area to Northern New Jersey, and we were really eager to explore what was there. And we'd say to people who were born there, "Hey, been over to the Empire State Building? Been to the Statue of Liberty? Been to this battlefield in New Jersey or this beautiful country store in this little country town?" And they go, "No, I think it's boring here, and no, I haven't been there." You know, we were discovering it. There was a lot of great stuff. They'd never been to see it. See, it's common for us to be close to something for so long that we miss it, including the one thing that we can't afford to miss.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Home Folks' Hazard."
Our word for today from the Word of God is found in Mark chapter 6. I'm going to read verses 1-6. Here's the home folks hazard. "Jesus went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed." Now, this is Nazareth, of course. "Where did this man get these things?" they asked. "What's this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son?" Then they took offence at him. Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown, among his relatives, in his own house is a prophet without honor." He could not do any miracles there...and he was amazed at their lack of faith. Wow! This is a sobering passage, because the people who grew up with Jesus are the ones who expected no miracle.
Oh, they knew all about him. "What would you like to know about Jesus?" "Oh, we know his brother here. Oh, his sister lives right down the street. His Mom? Oh, yeah. I just saw her at the grocery store today. I used to play with them when we were little." They grew up with Jesus, but nothing happened between Jesus and them. It's sort of like those of us who live near some great sights and experiences, like my driver down in Florida, or people who live around New York and don't ever go to anything in New York. They take them for granted.
Now, maybe you grew up with Jesus in a sense. You've been around Christ for years. Well, there are two dangers for those of us who've known about Him for so long. First of all, you can underestimate Him. That's what happened to some people in this story. So many of us spiritual veterans are living in mediocrity; we pray little prayers; we live small Christian lives. Maybe it's been a long time since you've really lived dangerously and taken some risks for Christ and expected the supernatural. Has your relationship with Christ become boring, predictable, managed? New arrivals in the kingdom eagerly explore all that Christ can do, and He never disappoints them. But the people who lived around Christ would take Him for granted.
But the other danger is an even greater one, and that is that even though you've known all about Him for years, you don't know Him personally. You have never actually had a personal, saving transaction with Jesus Christ at His cross. You could be a candidate to be the smartest person in hell, with all the knowledge but no relationship.
If you're not really sure you belong to Him - you believe things about Him - but you've never really given yourself to Him, let this be your day. Would you go to our website and let me help you there make sure you belong to Him. Go to YoursForLife.net.
One of the greatest tragedies of all eternity would be if you'd been around Jesus your whole life and missed Him...and missed heaven.
God Listens
Posted: 02 Jan 2011 10:01 PM PST
“I call to you in times of trouble, because you will answer me.” Psalm 86:7
You can talk to God because God listens.
Your voice matters in heaven. He takes you very seriously. When you enter His presence, the attendants turn to you to hear your voice. No need to fear that you will be ignored.
Even if you stammer or stumble, even if what you have to say impresses no one, it impresses God, and he listens.
Exodus 6
1 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: Because of my mighty hand he will let them go; because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country.”
2 God also said to Moses, “I am the LORD. 3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself fully known to them. 4 I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they resided as foreigners. 5 Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.
6 “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. 7 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. 8 And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.’”
9 Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor.
10 Then the LORD said to Moses, 11 “Go, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the Israelites go out of his country.”
12 But Moses said to the LORD, “If the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with faltering lips?”
Family Record of Moses and Aaron
13 Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron about the Israelites and Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he commanded them to bring the Israelites out of Egypt.
14 These were the heads of their families:
The sons of Reuben the firstborn son of Israel were Hanok and Pallu, Hezron and Karmi. These were the clans of Reuben.
15 The sons of Simeon were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jakin, Zohar and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman. These were the clans of Simeon.
16 These were the names of the sons of Levi according to their records: Gershon, Kohath and Merari. Levi lived 137 years.
17 The sons of Gershon, by clans, were Libni and Shimei.
18 The sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel. Kohath lived 133 years.
19 The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi.
These were the clans of Levi according to their records.
20 Amram married his father’s sister Jochebed, who bore him Aaron and Moses. Amram lived 137 years.
21 The sons of Izhar were Korah, Nepheg and Zikri.
22 The sons of Uzziel were Mishael, Elzaphan and Sithri.
23 Aaron married Elisheba, daughter of Amminadab and sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
24 The sons of Korah were Assir, Elkanah and Abiasaph. These were the Korahite clans.
25 Eleazar son of Aaron married one of the daughters of Putiel, and she bore him Phinehas.
These were the heads of the Levite families, clan by clan.
26 It was this Aaron and Moses to whom the LORD said, “Bring the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.” 27 They were the ones who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt about bringing the Israelites out of Egypt—this same Moses and Aaron.
Aaron to Speak for Moses
28 Now when the LORD spoke to Moses in Egypt, 29 he said to him, “I am the LORD. Tell Pharaoh king of Egypt everything I tell you.”
30 But Moses said to the LORD, “Since I speak with faltering lips, why would Pharaoh listen to me?”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: 1 Samuel 1:1-18
1 Samuel 1:1-18 (NIV)1Sa 1 There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. 2 He had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none. 3 Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the Lord. 4 Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. 5 But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb. 6 And because the Lord had closed her womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. 7 This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat. 8 Elkanah her husband would say to her, "Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don't you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don't I mean more to you than ten sons?" 9 Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the Lord's temple. 10 In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord. 11 And she made a vow, saying, "O Lord Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant's misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head." 12 As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. 13 Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk 14 and said to her, "How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine." 15 "Not so, my lord," Hannah replied, "I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. 16 Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief." 17 Eli answered, "Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him." 18 She said, "May your servant find favor in your eyes." Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast.
An Overcoming Faith
January 3, 2011 — by Randy Kilgore
I cried to the Lord with my voice, and He heard me from His holy hill. —Psalm 3:4
Few things disable new workers on a job like criticism from veterans. Good hiring managers know to protect new employees by surrounding them with mentors willing to shield them from unnecessary barbs.
Hannah is a mentor to us in dealing with criticism and deep desires of the heart (1 Sam. 1:1-18). Surrounded by a husband who didn’t understand, a taunting peer, and an overly judgmental clergyman, Hannah found a way through the fog by confiding in God (v.10). While we now know God answered the prayer of Hannah’s heart by giving her a child, we don’t know for sure if Eli’s blessing was a wish or a promise from God (v.17). I think her no-longer-sad face came most of all because she gained peace from confiding in Him.
We were created to be in relationship with God; and when we take that relationship to an intimate level, it bonds us not only to His presence but also to His strength. Prayers that express our hurts and emotions are most assuredly welcomed by God because they demonstrate our trust in Him. We will often find perspective, and nearly always come away comforted, knowing we’ve entrusted the things that are troubling us—whether criticism or deep desires—to the One who is best able to sort through them.
The kindest Friend I’ve ever had
Is One I cannot see,
Yet One in whom I can confide,
Who loves and blesses me. —Shuler
In prayer, it’s better to have a heart without words
than words without heart.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
January 3rd, 2011
Clouds and Darkness
Clouds and darkness surround Him . . . —Psalm 97:2
A person who has not been born again by the Spirit of God will tell you that the teachings of Jesus are simple. But when he is baptized by the Holy Spirit, he finds that “clouds and darkness surround Him . . . .” When we come into close contact with the teachings of Jesus Christ we have our first realization of this. The only possible way to have full understanding of the teachings of Jesus is through the light of the Spirit of God shining inside us. If we have never had the experience of taking our casual, religious shoes off our casual, religious feet— getting rid of all the excessive informality with which we approach God— it is questionable whether we have ever stood in His presence. The people who are flippant and disrespectful in their approach to God are those who have never been introduced to Jesus Christ. Only after the amazing delight and liberty of realizing what Jesus Christ does, comes the impenetrable “darkness” of realizing who He is.
Jesus said, “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). Once, the Bible was just so many words to us — “clouds and darkness”— then, suddenly, the words become spirit and life because Jesus re-speaks them to us when our circumstances make the words new. That is the way God speaks to us; not by visions and dreams, but by words. When a man gets to God, it is by the most simple way— words.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Home Folks' Hazard - #6256
Monday, January 3, 2011
I was on a trip to Florida, and I had just a little personal time - enough to get over to Epcot Center at Disney World, which is a really cool place. You know, they've set it up so it's like you're actually in several of the big countries of the world; some of which I've actually been to for real. And it was just really great to be in touch with kind of the world that way. Now, I had a very busy working week, and I had to get over there quickly. I didn't really have a lot of time. So, I grabbed a van, actually part of a limousine service. And as we were getting near Epcot, I said to the driver, "Man, I'll bet you drive here in your sleep, don't you? I mean, this is something you do all the time. You probably do it with your eyes closed." He said, "Oh, yeah, man, I could. I've been here so many times." I said, "Yeah, and I'll bet you've been at Epcot many times, haven't you." He said, "Yeah, I have." I said, "Well how many times have you actually been in Epcot?" He said, "Oh, I... I've never been in." He just brings people there. Well, you know what, it's so often that way isn't it?
I mean, you live right on top of what tourists come from all over the world to see, but you don't go in there yourself. We moved to the New York area to Northern New Jersey, and we were really eager to explore what was there. And we'd say to people who were born there, "Hey, been over to the Empire State Building? Been to the Statue of Liberty? Been to this battlefield in New Jersey or this beautiful country store in this little country town?" And they go, "No, I think it's boring here, and no, I haven't been there." You know, we were discovering it. There was a lot of great stuff. They'd never been to see it. See, it's common for us to be close to something for so long that we miss it, including the one thing that we can't afford to miss.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Home Folks' Hazard."
Our word for today from the Word of God is found in Mark chapter 6. I'm going to read verses 1-6. Here's the home folks hazard. "Jesus went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed." Now, this is Nazareth, of course. "Where did this man get these things?" they asked. "What's this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son?" Then they took offence at him. Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown, among his relatives, in his own house is a prophet without honor." He could not do any miracles there...and he was amazed at their lack of faith. Wow! This is a sobering passage, because the people who grew up with Jesus are the ones who expected no miracle.
Oh, they knew all about him. "What would you like to know about Jesus?" "Oh, we know his brother here. Oh, his sister lives right down the street. His Mom? Oh, yeah. I just saw her at the grocery store today. I used to play with them when we were little." They grew up with Jesus, but nothing happened between Jesus and them. It's sort of like those of us who live near some great sights and experiences, like my driver down in Florida, or people who live around New York and don't ever go to anything in New York. They take them for granted.
Now, maybe you grew up with Jesus in a sense. You've been around Christ for years. Well, there are two dangers for those of us who've known about Him for so long. First of all, you can underestimate Him. That's what happened to some people in this story. So many of us spiritual veterans are living in mediocrity; we pray little prayers; we live small Christian lives. Maybe it's been a long time since you've really lived dangerously and taken some risks for Christ and expected the supernatural. Has your relationship with Christ become boring, predictable, managed? New arrivals in the kingdom eagerly explore all that Christ can do, and He never disappoints them. But the people who lived around Christ would take Him for granted.
But the other danger is an even greater one, and that is that even though you've known all about Him for years, you don't know Him personally. You have never actually had a personal, saving transaction with Jesus Christ at His cross. You could be a candidate to be the smartest person in hell, with all the knowledge but no relationship.
If you're not really sure you belong to Him - you believe things about Him - but you've never really given yourself to Him, let this be your day. Would you go to our website and let me help you there make sure you belong to Him. Go to YoursForLife.net.
One of the greatest tragedies of all eternity would be if you'd been around Jesus your whole life and missed Him...and missed heaven.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Exodus 5, Bible reading and Daily Devotions
Max Lucado Daily: He Did It All For You
He Did It All For You
Posted: 01 Jan 2011 10:00 PM PST
“The heavens tell the glory of God.” Psalm 19:1
If you were the only person on earth, the earth would look exactly the same.
The Himalayas would still have their drama and the Caribbean would still have its charm. The sun would still nestle behind the Rockies in the evening and spray light on the desert in the mornings. If you were the sole pilgrim on this globe, God would not diminish its beauty one degree.
Because he did all for you.
Exodus 5
Bricks Without Straw
1 Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.’”
2 Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go.”
3 Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword.”
4 But the king of Egypt said, “Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!” 5 Then Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working.”
6 That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and overseers in charge of the people: 7 “You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. 8 But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ 9 Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.”
10 Then the slave drivers and the overseers went out and said to the people, “This is what Pharaoh says: ‘I will not give you any more straw. 11 Go and get your own straw wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced at all.’” 12 So the people scattered all over Egypt to gather stubble to use for straw. 13 The slave drivers kept pressing them, saying, “Complete the work required of you for each day, just as when you had straw.” 14 And Pharaoh’s slave drivers beat the Israelite overseers they had appointed, demanding, “Why haven’t you met your quota of bricks yesterday or today, as before?”
15 Then the Israelite overseers went and appealed to Pharaoh: “Why have you treated your servants this way? 16 Your servants are given no straw, yet we are told, ‘Make bricks!’ Your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people.”
17 Pharaoh said, “Lazy, that’s what you are—lazy! That is why you keep saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.’ 18 Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks.”
19 The Israelite overseers realized they were in trouble when they were told, “You are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you for each day.” 20 When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, 21 and they said, “May the LORD look on you and judge you! You have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”
God Promises Deliverance
22 Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? 23 Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: 1 Peter 4:12-19
1 Peter 4:12-19 (NIV)1Pe 12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. 15 If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. 16 However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And, "If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?" 19 So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
Trouble
January 2, 2011 — by Dennis J. De Haan
Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you. —1 Peter 4:12
Does it surprise you that trouble is a part of life? Probably not. We all know trouble close-up and personal—bad health, empty bank account, blighted love, grief, loss of job, and the list goes on.
It shouldn’t surprise us, therefore, that God permits the added trials of being ridiculed and hated because we follow Christ (1 Peter 4:12). But trouble, whether it is common to man or unique to Christians, can reveal to us the moral fiber of our soul.
I have never seen a golf course without hazards. They are part of the game. Golfers speak of the courses with the most hazards as the most challenging, and they will travel a long way to test their skill against the most demanding 18 holes.
Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “If I had a formula for bypassing trouble, I wouldn’t pass it around. I wouldn’t be doing anyone a favor. Trouble creates a capacity to handle it . . . . Meet it as a friend, for you’ll see a lot of it and you had better be on speaking terms with it.”
Let’s not think it strange when trouble comes, for God is using it to test the stamina of our souls. The best way to handle trouble is to commit our “souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator” (v.19).
The troubles that we face each day
Reveal how much we need the Lord;
They test our faith and strength of will
And help us then to trust God’s Word. —D. De Haan
Great triumphs are born out of great troubles.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
January 2, 2011
Will You Go Out Without Knowing?
He went out, not knowing where he was going —Hebrews 11:8
Have you ever “gone out” in this way? If so, there is no logical answer possible when anyone asks you what you are doing. One of the most difficult questions to answer in Christian work is, “What do you expect to do?”You don’t know what you are going to do. The only thing you know is that God knows what He is doing. Continually examine your attitude toward God to see if you are willing to “go out” in every area of your life, trusting in God entirely. It is this attitude that keeps you in constant wonder, because you don’t know what God is going to do next. Each morning as you wake, there is a new opportunity to “go out,” building your confidence in God. “. . . do not worry about your life . . . nor about the body . . .” (Luke 12:22). In other words, don’t worry about the things that concerned you before you did “go out.”
Have you been asking God what He is going to do? He will never tell you. God does not tell you what He is going to do— He reveals to you who He is. Do you believe in a miracle-working God, and will you “go out” in complete surrender to Him until you are not surprised one iota by anything He does?
Believe God is always the God you know Him to be when you are nearest to Him. Then think how unnecessary and disrespectful worry is! Let the attitude of your life be a continual willingness to “go out” in dependence upon God, and your life will have a sacred and inexpressible charm about it that is very satisfying to Jesus. You must learn to “go out” through your convictions, creeds, or experiences until you come to the point in your faith where there is nothing between yourself and God.
He Did It All For You
Posted: 01 Jan 2011 10:00 PM PST
“The heavens tell the glory of God.” Psalm 19:1
If you were the only person on earth, the earth would look exactly the same.
The Himalayas would still have their drama and the Caribbean would still have its charm. The sun would still nestle behind the Rockies in the evening and spray light on the desert in the mornings. If you were the sole pilgrim on this globe, God would not diminish its beauty one degree.
Because he did all for you.
Exodus 5
Bricks Without Straw
1 Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.’”
2 Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go.”
3 Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword.”
4 But the king of Egypt said, “Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!” 5 Then Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working.”
6 That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and overseers in charge of the people: 7 “You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. 8 But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ 9 Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.”
10 Then the slave drivers and the overseers went out and said to the people, “This is what Pharaoh says: ‘I will not give you any more straw. 11 Go and get your own straw wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced at all.’” 12 So the people scattered all over Egypt to gather stubble to use for straw. 13 The slave drivers kept pressing them, saying, “Complete the work required of you for each day, just as when you had straw.” 14 And Pharaoh’s slave drivers beat the Israelite overseers they had appointed, demanding, “Why haven’t you met your quota of bricks yesterday or today, as before?”
15 Then the Israelite overseers went and appealed to Pharaoh: “Why have you treated your servants this way? 16 Your servants are given no straw, yet we are told, ‘Make bricks!’ Your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people.”
17 Pharaoh said, “Lazy, that’s what you are—lazy! That is why you keep saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.’ 18 Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks.”
19 The Israelite overseers realized they were in trouble when they were told, “You are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you for each day.” 20 When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, 21 and they said, “May the LORD look on you and judge you! You have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”
God Promises Deliverance
22 Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? 23 Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: 1 Peter 4:12-19
1 Peter 4:12-19 (NIV)1Pe 12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. 15 If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. 16 However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And, "If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?" 19 So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
Trouble
January 2, 2011 — by Dennis J. De Haan
Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you. —1 Peter 4:12
Does it surprise you that trouble is a part of life? Probably not. We all know trouble close-up and personal—bad health, empty bank account, blighted love, grief, loss of job, and the list goes on.
It shouldn’t surprise us, therefore, that God permits the added trials of being ridiculed and hated because we follow Christ (1 Peter 4:12). But trouble, whether it is common to man or unique to Christians, can reveal to us the moral fiber of our soul.
I have never seen a golf course without hazards. They are part of the game. Golfers speak of the courses with the most hazards as the most challenging, and they will travel a long way to test their skill against the most demanding 18 holes.
Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “If I had a formula for bypassing trouble, I wouldn’t pass it around. I wouldn’t be doing anyone a favor. Trouble creates a capacity to handle it . . . . Meet it as a friend, for you’ll see a lot of it and you had better be on speaking terms with it.”
Let’s not think it strange when trouble comes, for God is using it to test the stamina of our souls. The best way to handle trouble is to commit our “souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator” (v.19).
The troubles that we face each day
Reveal how much we need the Lord;
They test our faith and strength of will
And help us then to trust God’s Word. —D. De Haan
Great triumphs are born out of great troubles.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
January 2, 2011
Will You Go Out Without Knowing?
He went out, not knowing where he was going —Hebrews 11:8
Have you ever “gone out” in this way? If so, there is no logical answer possible when anyone asks you what you are doing. One of the most difficult questions to answer in Christian work is, “What do you expect to do?”You don’t know what you are going to do. The only thing you know is that God knows what He is doing. Continually examine your attitude toward God to see if you are willing to “go out” in every area of your life, trusting in God entirely. It is this attitude that keeps you in constant wonder, because you don’t know what God is going to do next. Each morning as you wake, there is a new opportunity to “go out,” building your confidence in God. “. . . do not worry about your life . . . nor about the body . . .” (Luke 12:22). In other words, don’t worry about the things that concerned you before you did “go out.”
Have you been asking God what He is going to do? He will never tell you. God does not tell you what He is going to do— He reveals to you who He is. Do you believe in a miracle-working God, and will you “go out” in complete surrender to Him until you are not surprised one iota by anything He does?
Believe God is always the God you know Him to be when you are nearest to Him. Then think how unnecessary and disrespectful worry is! Let the attitude of your life be a continual willingness to “go out” in dependence upon God, and your life will have a sacred and inexpressible charm about it that is very satisfying to Jesus. You must learn to “go out” through your convictions, creeds, or experiences until you come to the point in your faith where there is nothing between yourself and God.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Exodus 4, Bible reading and Daily Devotions
Max Lucado Daily: Go to Him
Go to Him
Posted: 31 Dec 2010 10:01 PM PST
“God is our protection and our strength. He always helps in times of trouble.” Psalm 46:12
Ever feel as if you need to get away? So did Jesus. (Mark 1:35)
Ever have so many demands that you can’t stop for lunch? He can relate. (Mark 6:31) . . .
Do your friends ever let you down? When Christ needed help, his friends dozed off. (Matthew 26:40) . . .
When you turn to him for help, he runs to you to help. Why? He knows how you feel. He’s been there . . .
So go to him.
Exodus 4
Signs for Moses
1 Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’?”
2 Then the LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?”
“A staff,” he replied.
3 The LORD said, “Throw it on the ground.”
Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. 4 Then the LORD said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. 5 “This,” said the LORD, “is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.”
6 Then the LORD said, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, the skin was leprous—it had become as white as snow.
7 “Now put it back into your cloak,” he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.
8 Then the LORD said, “If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second. 9 But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.”
10 Moses said to the LORD, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”
11 The LORD said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the LORD? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
13 But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”
14 Then the LORD’s anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you. 15 You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. 16 He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. 17 But take this staff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it.”
Moses Returns to Egypt
18 Then Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Let me return to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive.”
Jethro said, “Go, and I wish you well.”
19 Now the LORD had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead.” 20 So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.
21 The LORD said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. 22 Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son, 23 and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.’”
24 At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met Moses and was about to kill him. 25 But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said. 26 So the LORD let him alone. (At that time she said “bridegroom of blood,” referring to circumcision.)
27 The LORD said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him. 28 Then Moses told Aaron everything the LORD had sent him to say, and also about all the signs he had commanded him to perform.
29 Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, 30 and Aaron told them everything the LORD had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, 31 and they believed. And when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Psalm 63:1-8
1 O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
2 I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.
3 Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.
4 I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
6 On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night.
7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.
8 My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.
Eat Fast, Pay Less
January 1, 2011 — by C. P. Hia
My soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You. —Psalm 63:1
A hotel in Singapore introduced an express buffet—eat all you can in 30 minutes and pay just half the price! After that experience, one diner reported: “I lost my decorum, stuffing my mouth with yet more food. I lost my civility, . . . and I lost my appetite for the rest of the day, so severe was my heartburn.”
Sometimes I think in our devotional reading we treat God’s Word like an express buffet. We wolf it down as fast as we can and wonder why we haven’t learned very much. Like physical food, spiritual food needs chewing! For those of us who have been Christians for a long time, we may have a tendency to speed-read through the passages we’ve read many times before. But in doing so, we miss what God is meaning to show us. One sure sign of this is when we learn nothing new from that passage.
David’s desire was right when he wrote in Psalm 119:15, “I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate Your ways.” That’s the way to treat God’s Word—to take time to mull it over.
Let’s not come to the Bible as if we were going to an express buffet. Only by meditating on God’s Word will we get the most value for our spiritual well-being.
Spending time in meditation,
Hiding Scripture in our heart,
Works in us a transformation
So from sin we can depart. —Sper
Reading the Bible without reflecting
is like eating without chewing.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
January 1st, 2011
Let Us Keep to the Point
". . . my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death" —Philippians 1:20
My Utmost for His Highest. “. . . my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed . . . .” We will all feel very much ashamed if we do not yield to Jesus the areas of our lives He has asked us to yield to Him. It’s as if Paul were saying, “My determined purpose is to be my utmost for His highest— my best for His glory.” To reach that level of determination is a matter of the will, not of debate or of reasoning. It is absolute and irrevocable surrender of the will at that point. An undue amount of thought and consideration for ourselves is what keeps us from making that decision, although we cover it up with the pretense that it is others we are considering. When we think seriously about what it will cost others if we obey the call of Jesus, we tell God He doesn’t know what our obedience will mean. Keep to the point— He does know. Shut out every other thought and keep yourself before God in this one thing only— my utmost for His highest. I am determined to be absolutely and entirely for Him and Him alone.
My Unstoppable Determination for His Holiness. “Whether it means life or death-it makes no difference!” (see Philippians 1:21). Paul was determined that nothing would stop him from doing exactly what God wanted. But before we choose to follow God’s will, a crisis must develop in our lives. This happens because we tend to be unresponsive to God’s gentler nudges. He brings us to the place where He asks us to be our utmost for Him and we begin to debate. He then providentially produces a crisis where we have to decide— for or against. That moment becomes a great crossroads in our lives. If a crisis has come to you on any front, surrender your will to Jesus absolutely and irrevocably.
Go to Him
Posted: 31 Dec 2010 10:01 PM PST
“God is our protection and our strength. He always helps in times of trouble.” Psalm 46:12
Ever feel as if you need to get away? So did Jesus. (Mark 1:35)
Ever have so many demands that you can’t stop for lunch? He can relate. (Mark 6:31) . . .
Do your friends ever let you down? When Christ needed help, his friends dozed off. (Matthew 26:40) . . .
When you turn to him for help, he runs to you to help. Why? He knows how you feel. He’s been there . . .
So go to him.
Exodus 4
Signs for Moses
1 Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’?”
2 Then the LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?”
“A staff,” he replied.
3 The LORD said, “Throw it on the ground.”
Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. 4 Then the LORD said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. 5 “This,” said the LORD, “is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.”
6 Then the LORD said, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, the skin was leprous—it had become as white as snow.
7 “Now put it back into your cloak,” he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.
8 Then the LORD said, “If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second. 9 But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.”
10 Moses said to the LORD, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”
11 The LORD said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the LORD? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
13 But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”
14 Then the LORD’s anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you. 15 You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. 16 He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. 17 But take this staff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it.”
Moses Returns to Egypt
18 Then Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Let me return to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive.”
Jethro said, “Go, and I wish you well.”
19 Now the LORD had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead.” 20 So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.
21 The LORD said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. 22 Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son, 23 and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.’”
24 At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met Moses and was about to kill him. 25 But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said. 26 So the LORD let him alone. (At that time she said “bridegroom of blood,” referring to circumcision.)
27 The LORD said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him. 28 Then Moses told Aaron everything the LORD had sent him to say, and also about all the signs he had commanded him to perform.
29 Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, 30 and Aaron told them everything the LORD had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, 31 and they believed. And when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Psalm 63:1-8
1 O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
2 I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.
3 Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.
4 I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
6 On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night.
7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.
8 My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.
Eat Fast, Pay Less
January 1, 2011 — by C. P. Hia
My soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You. —Psalm 63:1
A hotel in Singapore introduced an express buffet—eat all you can in 30 minutes and pay just half the price! After that experience, one diner reported: “I lost my decorum, stuffing my mouth with yet more food. I lost my civility, . . . and I lost my appetite for the rest of the day, so severe was my heartburn.”
Sometimes I think in our devotional reading we treat God’s Word like an express buffet. We wolf it down as fast as we can and wonder why we haven’t learned very much. Like physical food, spiritual food needs chewing! For those of us who have been Christians for a long time, we may have a tendency to speed-read through the passages we’ve read many times before. But in doing so, we miss what God is meaning to show us. One sure sign of this is when we learn nothing new from that passage.
David’s desire was right when he wrote in Psalm 119:15, “I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate Your ways.” That’s the way to treat God’s Word—to take time to mull it over.
Let’s not come to the Bible as if we were going to an express buffet. Only by meditating on God’s Word will we get the most value for our spiritual well-being.
Spending time in meditation,
Hiding Scripture in our heart,
Works in us a transformation
So from sin we can depart. —Sper
Reading the Bible without reflecting
is like eating without chewing.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
January 1st, 2011
Let Us Keep to the Point
". . . my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death" —Philippians 1:20
My Utmost for His Highest. “. . . my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed . . . .” We will all feel very much ashamed if we do not yield to Jesus the areas of our lives He has asked us to yield to Him. It’s as if Paul were saying, “My determined purpose is to be my utmost for His highest— my best for His glory.” To reach that level of determination is a matter of the will, not of debate or of reasoning. It is absolute and irrevocable surrender of the will at that point. An undue amount of thought and consideration for ourselves is what keeps us from making that decision, although we cover it up with the pretense that it is others we are considering. When we think seriously about what it will cost others if we obey the call of Jesus, we tell God He doesn’t know what our obedience will mean. Keep to the point— He does know. Shut out every other thought and keep yourself before God in this one thing only— my utmost for His highest. I am determined to be absolutely and entirely for Him and Him alone.
My Unstoppable Determination for His Holiness. “Whether it means life or death-it makes no difference!” (see Philippians 1:21). Paul was determined that nothing would stop him from doing exactly what God wanted. But before we choose to follow God’s will, a crisis must develop in our lives. This happens because we tend to be unresponsive to God’s gentler nudges. He brings us to the place where He asks us to be our utmost for Him and we begin to debate. He then providentially produces a crisis where we have to decide— for or against. That moment becomes a great crossroads in our lives. If a crisis has come to you on any front, surrender your will to Jesus absolutely and irrevocably.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Matthew 24, Bible reading and Daily Devotions
Max Lucado Daily: He Leads Us
He Leads Us
Posted: 30 Dec 2010 10:01 PM PST
Your word is like a lamp for my feet and a light for my path. Psalm 119:105
God isn’t going to let you see the distant scene. So you might as well quit looking for it. He promises a lamp unto our feet, not a crystal ball into the future. We do not need to know what will happen tomorrow. We only need to know He leads us and we will find grace to help us when we need it.
Matthew 24
The Destruction of the Temple and Signs of the End Times
1 Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. 2 “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
4 Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.
9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
15 “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. 18 Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. 19 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 20 Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.
22 “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. 23 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you ahead of time.
26 “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. 27 For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28 Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Psalm 111
Psalms 111:1-10 (NIV)Ps 1 Praise the Lord. I will extol the Lord with all my heart in the council of the upright and in the assembly. 2 Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them. 3 Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever. 4 He has caused his wonders to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and compassionate. 5 He provides food for those who fear him; he remembers his covenant forever. 6 He has shown his people the power of his works, giving them the lands of other nations. 7 The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy. 8 They are steadfast for ever and ever, done in faithfulness and uprightness. 9 He provided redemption for his people; he ordained his covenant forever-- holy and awesome is his name. 10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.
Rearview Mirror Reflections
December 31, 2010 — by Joe Stowell
For You, Lord, have made me glad . . . ; I will triumph in the works of Your hands. —Psalm 92:4
I’ve always thought that you can see the hand of God best in the rearview mirror. Looking back, it’s easier to understand why He placed us in the home that He did; why He brought certain people and circumstances into and out of our lives; why He permitted difficulties and pain; why He took us to different places and put us in various jobs and careers.
In my own life, I get a lot of clarity (though not perfect clarity—that’s heaven’s joy!) about the wise and loving ways of God as I reflect on the ways He has managed my journey by “the works of [His] hands” (Ps. 92:4). With the psalmist, it makes me glad and strikes a note of joy in my heart to see how often God has assisted, directed, and managed the outcomes so faithfully (Ps. 111).
Looking ahead, though, is not always so clear. Have you ever had that lost feeling when the road ahead seems twisted, foggy, and scary? Before you move into next year, stop and look in the rearview mirror of the year gone by, and joyfully realize that God meant it when He said, “‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we may boldly say: ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear’ ” (Heb. 13:5-6).
With the promise of God’s presence and help in mind, you can move ahead into 2011 with utmost confidence.
Shall not He who led me safely
Through the footsteps of this day
Lead with equal understanding
All along my future way? —Adams
God’s guidance in the past gives courage for the future.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 31st, 2010
Yesterday
You shall not go out with haste, . . . for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard —Isaiah 52:12
Security from Yesterday. “. . . God requires an account of what is past” (Ecclesiastes 3:15). At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise when we remember our yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace tends to be lessened by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future. God reminds us of the past to protect us from a very shallow security in the present.
Security for Tomorrow. “. . . the Lord will go before you . . . .” This is a gracious revelation— that God will send His forces out where we have failed to do so. He will keep watch so that we will not be tripped up again by the same failures, as would undoubtedly happen if He were not our “rear guard.” And God’s hand reaches back to the past, settling all the claims against our conscience.
Security for Today. “You shall not go out with haste . . . .” As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, forgetful delight, nor with the quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ.
Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
When the Quarterback's A Referee! - #6255
Friday, December 31, 2010
It's unbelievable what a total cultural phenomenon the Super Bowl has become in America. The whole country seems to stop for the extravaganza surrounding the professional football championship game. More avocados are consumed on that day than any other of the year, for example, in a guacamole dip at Super Bowl parties. Commercial time sells for two and half million dollars for 30 seconds. Big city water departments report major drops in water pressure, citywide, at commercial times - as Americans take a simultaneous bathroom break. Even many churches with Sunday night services have decided they can't compete with the Super Bowl. A lot of them have chosen to have outreaches in the form of Super Bowl parties at their church. Our local TV news covered one church where they're doing that. Looking at the crowd, it was hard to distinguish which one was the pastor. Well, he was the one dressed in a black and white striped shirt - the pastor was the referee!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When The Quarterback's A Referee!"
It's okay for a spiritual leader to be a referee for a day. It's not okay for it to take up most of his life. But sadly, many people in spiritual leadership spend as much time refereeing the complaints and conflicts of their people as they do preparing to teach the Word of God and leading the work of God. Something's wrong in this picture.
That's what the Apostle Paul is trying to tell the believers in Corinth in our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Corinthians 1 , beginning with verse 10. As I read these words, see if they describe in any way any group of believers you're a part of. "I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no division among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. My brothers, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you...One of you says, 'I follow Paul'; another, 'I follow Apollos'; another, 'I follow Cephas;' another, 'I follow Christ.' Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?"
These people had gotten their eyes off Jesus and they were focusing on issues and personalities. When God's people do that, the Body of Christ, which has already been broken enough, is broken again. For in our world today, we are His Body. Someone has wisely said that Christians are the only soldiers who form their firing squads in a circle! Can you imagine any army turning their guns on each other, rather than focusing them on their common enemy? We do it all the time! And pastors and other spiritual leaders have to abandon quarterbacking God's team and waste precious time being a referee instead!
Personal egos, personal agendas, control freaks, soapbox issues, turf fights - these are tools of our enemy to divide us and to make the work of God into the pitiful and powerless facsimile of a work of man. As a result, there are tons of discouraged pastors and leaders who are being dragged into battles that don't really matter much and away from the battles that really do matter. Paul's call in Philippians 1:27 is that we conduct ourselves "in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ." And what is that? "Stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the Gospel." See, as long as a group of believers is focused on the Lord and on the lost, they're going to be playing as a winning team. When we forget that we're surrounded by spiritually dying people and that we have a life-or-death mission to rescue them, we take our eye off the ball and we start bickering over trivial pursuits. Rescue unites people around a mission where turf and trivia just don't matter!
No spiritual leader should spend his time as a referee. There's too much ground to gain, and he's God's quarterback. And no team that wears Jesus' colors should waste their time in struggles with each other. We have a Savior to follow together and a sea of dying people around us to rescue. Let's fight for them and not with each other!
He Leads Us
Posted: 30 Dec 2010 10:01 PM PST
Your word is like a lamp for my feet and a light for my path. Psalm 119:105
God isn’t going to let you see the distant scene. So you might as well quit looking for it. He promises a lamp unto our feet, not a crystal ball into the future. We do not need to know what will happen tomorrow. We only need to know He leads us and we will find grace to help us when we need it.
Matthew 24
The Destruction of the Temple and Signs of the End Times
1 Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. 2 “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
4 Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.
9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
15 “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. 18 Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. 19 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 20 Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.
22 “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. 23 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you ahead of time.
26 “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. 27 For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28 Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Psalm 111
Psalms 111:1-10 (NIV)Ps 1 Praise the Lord. I will extol the Lord with all my heart in the council of the upright and in the assembly. 2 Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them. 3 Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever. 4 He has caused his wonders to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and compassionate. 5 He provides food for those who fear him; he remembers his covenant forever. 6 He has shown his people the power of his works, giving them the lands of other nations. 7 The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy. 8 They are steadfast for ever and ever, done in faithfulness and uprightness. 9 He provided redemption for his people; he ordained his covenant forever-- holy and awesome is his name. 10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.
Rearview Mirror Reflections
December 31, 2010 — by Joe Stowell
For You, Lord, have made me glad . . . ; I will triumph in the works of Your hands. —Psalm 92:4
I’ve always thought that you can see the hand of God best in the rearview mirror. Looking back, it’s easier to understand why He placed us in the home that He did; why He brought certain people and circumstances into and out of our lives; why He permitted difficulties and pain; why He took us to different places and put us in various jobs and careers.
In my own life, I get a lot of clarity (though not perfect clarity—that’s heaven’s joy!) about the wise and loving ways of God as I reflect on the ways He has managed my journey by “the works of [His] hands” (Ps. 92:4). With the psalmist, it makes me glad and strikes a note of joy in my heart to see how often God has assisted, directed, and managed the outcomes so faithfully (Ps. 111).
Looking ahead, though, is not always so clear. Have you ever had that lost feeling when the road ahead seems twisted, foggy, and scary? Before you move into next year, stop and look in the rearview mirror of the year gone by, and joyfully realize that God meant it when He said, “‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we may boldly say: ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear’ ” (Heb. 13:5-6).
With the promise of God’s presence and help in mind, you can move ahead into 2011 with utmost confidence.
Shall not He who led me safely
Through the footsteps of this day
Lead with equal understanding
All along my future way? —Adams
God’s guidance in the past gives courage for the future.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 31st, 2010
Yesterday
You shall not go out with haste, . . . for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard —Isaiah 52:12
Security from Yesterday. “. . . God requires an account of what is past” (Ecclesiastes 3:15). At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise when we remember our yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace tends to be lessened by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future. God reminds us of the past to protect us from a very shallow security in the present.
Security for Tomorrow. “. . . the Lord will go before you . . . .” This is a gracious revelation— that God will send His forces out where we have failed to do so. He will keep watch so that we will not be tripped up again by the same failures, as would undoubtedly happen if He were not our “rear guard.” And God’s hand reaches back to the past, settling all the claims against our conscience.
Security for Today. “You shall not go out with haste . . . .” As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, forgetful delight, nor with the quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ.
Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
When the Quarterback's A Referee! - #6255
Friday, December 31, 2010
It's unbelievable what a total cultural phenomenon the Super Bowl has become in America. The whole country seems to stop for the extravaganza surrounding the professional football championship game. More avocados are consumed on that day than any other of the year, for example, in a guacamole dip at Super Bowl parties. Commercial time sells for two and half million dollars for 30 seconds. Big city water departments report major drops in water pressure, citywide, at commercial times - as Americans take a simultaneous bathroom break. Even many churches with Sunday night services have decided they can't compete with the Super Bowl. A lot of them have chosen to have outreaches in the form of Super Bowl parties at their church. Our local TV news covered one church where they're doing that. Looking at the crowd, it was hard to distinguish which one was the pastor. Well, he was the one dressed in a black and white striped shirt - the pastor was the referee!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When The Quarterback's A Referee!"
It's okay for a spiritual leader to be a referee for a day. It's not okay for it to take up most of his life. But sadly, many people in spiritual leadership spend as much time refereeing the complaints and conflicts of their people as they do preparing to teach the Word of God and leading the work of God. Something's wrong in this picture.
That's what the Apostle Paul is trying to tell the believers in Corinth in our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Corinthians 1 , beginning with verse 10. As I read these words, see if they describe in any way any group of believers you're a part of. "I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no division among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. My brothers, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you...One of you says, 'I follow Paul'; another, 'I follow Apollos'; another, 'I follow Cephas;' another, 'I follow Christ.' Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?"
These people had gotten their eyes off Jesus and they were focusing on issues and personalities. When God's people do that, the Body of Christ, which has already been broken enough, is broken again. For in our world today, we are His Body. Someone has wisely said that Christians are the only soldiers who form their firing squads in a circle! Can you imagine any army turning their guns on each other, rather than focusing them on their common enemy? We do it all the time! And pastors and other spiritual leaders have to abandon quarterbacking God's team and waste precious time being a referee instead!
Personal egos, personal agendas, control freaks, soapbox issues, turf fights - these are tools of our enemy to divide us and to make the work of God into the pitiful and powerless facsimile of a work of man. As a result, there are tons of discouraged pastors and leaders who are being dragged into battles that don't really matter much and away from the battles that really do matter. Paul's call in Philippians 1:27 is that we conduct ourselves "in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ." And what is that? "Stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the Gospel." See, as long as a group of believers is focused on the Lord and on the lost, they're going to be playing as a winning team. When we forget that we're surrounded by spiritually dying people and that we have a life-or-death mission to rescue them, we take our eye off the ball and we start bickering over trivial pursuits. Rescue unites people around a mission where turf and trivia just don't matter!
No spiritual leader should spend his time as a referee. There's too much ground to gain, and he's God's quarterback. And no team that wears Jesus' colors should waste their time in struggles with each other. We have a Savior to follow together and a sea of dying people around us to rescue. Let's fight for them and not with each other!
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Exodus 3, Bible reading and Daily Devotions
Max Lucado Daily: The House of the Lord
The House of the Lord
Posted: 29 Dec 2010 10:01 PM PST
I will live in the house of the Lord forever. Psalm 23:6
When David says, “I will live in the house of the Lord forever,” he’s saying simply that he never wants to step away from God. He craves to remain in the aura, in the atmosphere, in the awareness that he is in God’s house, wherever he is ...
God wants to be the one in whom “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28, NIV).
Exodus 3
Moses and the Burning Bush
1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”
4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
And Moses said, “Here I am.”
5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
7 The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”
13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’
“This is my name forever,
the name you shall call me
from generation to generation.
16 “Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. 17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’
18 “The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God.’ 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.
21 “And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. 22 Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Hebrews 11:32-40
32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets,
33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions,
34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.
35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection.
36 Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison.
37 They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated--
38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.
40 God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
Life Is Like Riding A Bicycle
December 30, 2010 — by Dennis Fisher
All these . . . obtained a good testimony through faith. —Hebrews 11:39
In a letter to his son Eduard, Albert Einstein gave this advice: “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.” The great physicist’s advice is wise and practical.
This wise counsel can apply to the Christian life. Many believers by faith keep moving ahead through painful and trying circumstances. But when they experience a personal moral failure, they lose their balance and fall. Their regret and feeling of unworthiness of God’s forgiveness may then keep them down and they no longer move ahead in their spiritual life.
The Bible gives us many examples of those who have experienced serious personal failure. Abraham lied to Pharaoh about his wife, Sarah (Gen. 12:11-17). Jacob deceived his father to acquire Esau’s blessing (Gen. 27:18-29). Moses disobeyed God by striking the rock instead of speaking to it (Num. 20:7-12). Despite their failures, we are told: “all these . . . obtained a good testimony through faith” (Heb. 11:39).
These biblical characters are lifted up as examples because after they fell, they turned back to God and began to follow Him again. Have you lost your spiritual balance through a sinful choice, which is keeping you down? Repent and follow the God of second chances once again.
I’ve strayed, O Lord, and turned aside,
I’ve disobeyed Your voice;
But now contrite of heart I turn
And make Your will my choice. —D. De Haan
Our God is a God of second chances.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 30th, 2010
"And Every Virtue We Possess"
. . . All my springs are in you —Psalm 87:7
Our Lord never “patches up” our natural virtues, that is, our natural traits, qualities, or characteristics. He completely remakes a person on the inside— “. . . put on the new man . . .” (Ephesians 4:24). In other words, see that your natural human life is putting on all that is in keeping with the new life. The life God places within us develops its own new virtues, not the virtues of the seed of Adam, but of Jesus Christ. Once God has begun the process of sanctification in your life, watch and see how God causes your confidence in your own natural virtues and power to wither away. He will continue until you learn to draw your life from the reservoir of the resurrection life of Jesus. Thank God if you are going through this drying-up experience!
The sign that God is at work in us is that He is destroying our confidence in the natural virtues, because they are not promises of what we are going to be, but only a wasted reminder of what God created man to be. We want to cling to our natural virtues, while all the time God is trying to get us in contact with the life of Jesus Christ— a life that can never be described in terms of natural virtues. It is the saddest thing to see people who are trying to serve God depending on that which the grace of God never gave them. They are depending solely on what they have by virtue of heredity. God does not take our natural virtues and transform them, because our natural virtues could never even come close to what Jesus Christ wants. No natural love, no natural patience, no natural purity can ever come up to His demands. But as we bring every part of our natural bodily life into harmony with the new life God has placed within us, He will exhibit in us the virtues that were characteristic of the Lord Jesus.
And every virtue we possess
Is His alone.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Most Dangerous Season of All - #6254
Thursday, December 30, 2010
It happens a lot in sports - especially when there's one of those games they like to call "The Big Game." Two rivals go at it in a game that's really important in the standings, and one team blows out the other team with this huge, lopsided victory. You can almost predict what's going to happen to the winning team in their next game, even if they play some pitiful team that loses a lot more than they win. The guys who totally dominated their rivals in the Big Game may very well lose the little game that follows. It happens a lot. You win big and then, for some reason, you lose big.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Most Dangerous Season of All."
When you've really won big, it's easy to let down, get overconfident, or just get careless. When you've been the champion for a while, you tend to coast, and suddenly you're not the champion anymore. That doesn't just happen in sports, it happens in life. In fact, it happened many times in the Bible; like what happened to the Jewish king Uzziah, as recorded in 2 Chronicles 26 , which is where we find our word for today from the Word of God.
From this story, and many others like it, we can conclude that a season of success in your life may actually be the most dangerous season of all. Uzziah led his nation to new levels of economic prosperity, military dominance, and international respect. The Bible says, "As long as he sought the Lord, God gave him success." Notice, God gave him success; see, success is not your achievement. It's God's gift. You don't achieve success, you receive success.
Now, in 2 Chronicles 26:15 we read, "His fame spread far and wide, for he was greatly helped until he became powerful. But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall." What follows is the tragic account of a king who becomes arrogant, self-willed, a man who starts doing it His way, not God's way; and ultimately a man who dies the horrible death of leprosy.
Uzziah's story unfortunately, is not unique. The truth is that very few of us are able to handle success. If you're experiencing a time of success and pretty smooth sailing right now, it's important to realize that you may be in the spiritual danger zone. When you're flying high, it's just all too easy to forget how you got there. Or, more importantly, Who (capital "W"!) - Who got you there. The ancient Jews were given a solemn warning from God when they went from the wilderness to the wealth of the Promised Land: "Be careful that you do not forget the Lord." And, sure enough, they did.
So if this is a good season of your life, don't ruin it by getting careless. Have you allowed your success to inflate you? Are you thinking, "Hey, I'm really something" instead of "He's really something"? Have you moved from the desperate praying of the hard times to less frequent, less fervent prayers now that you're in the good times? Have you started to rely on your gifts, your cleverness, your experience, your strength, instead of what you once relied on - totally depending on God? Are you becoming more self-focused? Are you taking more things into your own hands instead of leaving them in God's hands?
Those are some of the great dangers of success. Don't make God remind you who is the source of everything you've got, because success that costs you the blessing of your Lord is simply success that you cannot afford.
The House of the Lord
Posted: 29 Dec 2010 10:01 PM PST
I will live in the house of the Lord forever. Psalm 23:6
When David says, “I will live in the house of the Lord forever,” he’s saying simply that he never wants to step away from God. He craves to remain in the aura, in the atmosphere, in the awareness that he is in God’s house, wherever he is ...
God wants to be the one in whom “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28, NIV).
Exodus 3
Moses and the Burning Bush
1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”
4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
And Moses said, “Here I am.”
5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
7 The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”
13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’
“This is my name forever,
the name you shall call me
from generation to generation.
16 “Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. 17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’
18 “The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God.’ 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.
21 “And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. 22 Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Hebrews 11:32-40
32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets,
33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions,
34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.
35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection.
36 Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison.
37 They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated--
38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.
40 God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
Life Is Like Riding A Bicycle
December 30, 2010 — by Dennis Fisher
All these . . . obtained a good testimony through faith. —Hebrews 11:39
In a letter to his son Eduard, Albert Einstein gave this advice: “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.” The great physicist’s advice is wise and practical.
This wise counsel can apply to the Christian life. Many believers by faith keep moving ahead through painful and trying circumstances. But when they experience a personal moral failure, they lose their balance and fall. Their regret and feeling of unworthiness of God’s forgiveness may then keep them down and they no longer move ahead in their spiritual life.
The Bible gives us many examples of those who have experienced serious personal failure. Abraham lied to Pharaoh about his wife, Sarah (Gen. 12:11-17). Jacob deceived his father to acquire Esau’s blessing (Gen. 27:18-29). Moses disobeyed God by striking the rock instead of speaking to it (Num. 20:7-12). Despite their failures, we are told: “all these . . . obtained a good testimony through faith” (Heb. 11:39).
These biblical characters are lifted up as examples because after they fell, they turned back to God and began to follow Him again. Have you lost your spiritual balance through a sinful choice, which is keeping you down? Repent and follow the God of second chances once again.
I’ve strayed, O Lord, and turned aside,
I’ve disobeyed Your voice;
But now contrite of heart I turn
And make Your will my choice. —D. De Haan
Our God is a God of second chances.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 30th, 2010
"And Every Virtue We Possess"
. . . All my springs are in you —Psalm 87:7
Our Lord never “patches up” our natural virtues, that is, our natural traits, qualities, or characteristics. He completely remakes a person on the inside— “. . . put on the new man . . .” (Ephesians 4:24). In other words, see that your natural human life is putting on all that is in keeping with the new life. The life God places within us develops its own new virtues, not the virtues of the seed of Adam, but of Jesus Christ. Once God has begun the process of sanctification in your life, watch and see how God causes your confidence in your own natural virtues and power to wither away. He will continue until you learn to draw your life from the reservoir of the resurrection life of Jesus. Thank God if you are going through this drying-up experience!
The sign that God is at work in us is that He is destroying our confidence in the natural virtues, because they are not promises of what we are going to be, but only a wasted reminder of what God created man to be. We want to cling to our natural virtues, while all the time God is trying to get us in contact with the life of Jesus Christ— a life that can never be described in terms of natural virtues. It is the saddest thing to see people who are trying to serve God depending on that which the grace of God never gave them. They are depending solely on what they have by virtue of heredity. God does not take our natural virtues and transform them, because our natural virtues could never even come close to what Jesus Christ wants. No natural love, no natural patience, no natural purity can ever come up to His demands. But as we bring every part of our natural bodily life into harmony with the new life God has placed within us, He will exhibit in us the virtues that were characteristic of the Lord Jesus.
And every virtue we possess
Is His alone.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Most Dangerous Season of All - #6254
Thursday, December 30, 2010
It happens a lot in sports - especially when there's one of those games they like to call "The Big Game." Two rivals go at it in a game that's really important in the standings, and one team blows out the other team with this huge, lopsided victory. You can almost predict what's going to happen to the winning team in their next game, even if they play some pitiful team that loses a lot more than they win. The guys who totally dominated their rivals in the Big Game may very well lose the little game that follows. It happens a lot. You win big and then, for some reason, you lose big.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Most Dangerous Season of All."
When you've really won big, it's easy to let down, get overconfident, or just get careless. When you've been the champion for a while, you tend to coast, and suddenly you're not the champion anymore. That doesn't just happen in sports, it happens in life. In fact, it happened many times in the Bible; like what happened to the Jewish king Uzziah, as recorded in 2 Chronicles 26 , which is where we find our word for today from the Word of God.
From this story, and many others like it, we can conclude that a season of success in your life may actually be the most dangerous season of all. Uzziah led his nation to new levels of economic prosperity, military dominance, and international respect. The Bible says, "As long as he sought the Lord, God gave him success." Notice, God gave him success; see, success is not your achievement. It's God's gift. You don't achieve success, you receive success.
Now, in 2 Chronicles 26:15 we read, "His fame spread far and wide, for he was greatly helped until he became powerful. But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall." What follows is the tragic account of a king who becomes arrogant, self-willed, a man who starts doing it His way, not God's way; and ultimately a man who dies the horrible death of leprosy.
Uzziah's story unfortunately, is not unique. The truth is that very few of us are able to handle success. If you're experiencing a time of success and pretty smooth sailing right now, it's important to realize that you may be in the spiritual danger zone. When you're flying high, it's just all too easy to forget how you got there. Or, more importantly, Who (capital "W"!) - Who got you there. The ancient Jews were given a solemn warning from God when they went from the wilderness to the wealth of the Promised Land: "Be careful that you do not forget the Lord." And, sure enough, they did.
So if this is a good season of your life, don't ruin it by getting careless. Have you allowed your success to inflate you? Are you thinking, "Hey, I'm really something" instead of "He's really something"? Have you moved from the desperate praying of the hard times to less frequent, less fervent prayers now that you're in the good times? Have you started to rely on your gifts, your cleverness, your experience, your strength, instead of what you once relied on - totally depending on God? Are you becoming more self-focused? Are you taking more things into your own hands instead of leaving them in God's hands?
Those are some of the great dangers of success. Don't make God remind you who is the source of everything you've got, because success that costs you the blessing of your Lord is simply success that you cannot afford.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Exodus 2, Bible reading and Daily Devotions
Max Lucado Daily: Don’t Waste the Moments
Don’t Waste the Moments
Posted: 28 Dec 2010 10:01 PM PST
Carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at the center of God’s love. Jude 20, The Message
Imagine considering every moment as a potential time of communion with God. By the time your life is over, you will have spent six months at stoplights, eight months opening junk mail, a year and a half looking for lost stuff… and a whopping five years standing in various lines.
Why don’t you give these moments to God?
Exodus 2
The Birth of Moses
1 Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. 3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.
5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.
7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”
8 “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”
Moses Flees to Midian
11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12 Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?”
14 The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.”
15 When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well. 16 Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17 Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.
18 When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?”
19 They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”
20 “And where is he?” Reuel asked his daughters. “Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat.”
21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. 22 Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”
23 During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. 24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Deuteronomy 4:1-10
Deuteronomy 4:1-10 (NIV)Dt 1 Hear now, O Israel, the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. 2 Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you. 3 You saw with your own eyes what the Lord did at Baal Peor. The Lord your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor, 4 but all of you who held fast to the Lord your God are still alive today. 5 See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the Lord my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. 6 Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people." 7 What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him? 8 And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today? 9 Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. 10 Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when he said to me, "Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children."
Common Standards
December 29, 2010 — by Julie Ackerman Link
What great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments? —Deuteronomy 4:8
In the frenzied early days of the Internet, Web developers were making up their own rules. The result was confusion. Among the problems was that what looked good on one computer was unreadable on another. This caused developers to refer to the Internet as the wild, wild Web, an allusion to the days of the wild, wild West in the US when law and order were pretty much nonexistent. To bring order out of chaos, Web developers started calling for others to agree on common standards.
Their plea reminds us of why it was important for the Israelites to have laws to live by when they left Egypt (Deut. 4:1). Without them, there would be anarchy. With them, however, they would have a system that was so superior that it would demonstrate to other nations the greatness of their God (v.8).
Today, to bring order out of the chaos of our sinful, selfish world, believers submit to the law of Christ (Gal. 6:2), who Himself is the fulfillment of the law (Matt. 5:17). When we submit to the standard established by Christ and love others as God loves us, we will live in peace with one another and thus provide a witness to the world of how great God is.
Let us go forth, as called of God,
Redeemed by Jesus’ precious blood;
His love to show, His life to live,
His message speak, His mercy give. —Whittle
The world will know by our love for God and others
that He is great.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 29th, 2010
Deserter or Disciple?
From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more —John 6:66
When God, by His Spirit through His Word, gives you a clear vision of His will, you must “walk in the light” of that vision (1 John 1:7). Even though your mind and soul may be thrilled by it, if you don’t “walk in the light” of it you will sink to a level of bondage never envisioned by our Lord. Mentally disobeying the “heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19) will make you a slave to ideas and views that are completely foreign to Jesus Christ. Don’t look at someone else and say, “Well, if he can have those views and prosper, why can’t I?” You have to “walk in the light” of the vision that has been given to you. Don’t compare yourself with others or judge them— that is between God and them. When you find that one of your favorite and strongly held views clashes with the “heavenly vision,” do not begin to debate it. If you do, a sense of property and personal right will emerge in you— things on which Jesus placed no value. He was against these things as being the root of everything foreign to Himself— “. . . for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses” (Luke 12:15). If we don’t see and understand this, it is because we are ignoring the underlying principles of our Lord’s teaching.
Our tendency is to lie back and bask in the memory of the wonderful experience we had when God revealed His will to us. But if a New Testament standard is revealed to us by the light of God, and we don’t try to measure up, or even feel inclined to do so, then we begin to backslide. It means your conscience does not respond to the truth. You can never be the same after the unveiling of a truth. That moment marks you as one who either continues on with even more devotion as a disciple of Jesus Christ, or as one who turns to go back as a deserter.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Delete Button You Can't Reach - #6253
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
So many times, the latest technology becomes a great blessing and a great curse. For example, are cell phones a blessing or a curse? Yes. It's great that I can reach anyone or they can reach me basically anytime or anywhere. And it's terrible that people can reach me anytime, anywhere. How about e-mail? Fast, efficient communication from wherever you are to wherever they are. But then there's "spam" - the e-mail equivalent of junk mail. You can wake up to dozens of new e-mails, including a bunch you really don't want. But there's this button on your computer that really comes in handy. It just says "delete." If you don't like what you're getting, delete. If you don't want to keep something, delete. If you wrote something you decide you don't want to send, delete. One key stroke and what you don't want is gone.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Delete Button You Can't Reach."
Here's the problem. Because we live in a world where it's so easy to delete, we may start thinking we can delete things that, in fact, are not going to go away. Like the consequences of our actions for example. The payback for the things we've done wrong. The judgment of Almighty God for making ourselves number one instead of Him. There are some things you just can't delete. Delay, maybe. Delete, never.
That's guaranteed, actually, by God Himself in our word for today from the Word of God in Galatians 6:7 . It's one of the laws of the universe, and no one is so smart or even religious enough to escape it. God says, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows." Sow corn, you'll get corn whether you want corn or not. Sow wheat, you'll get wheat. Sow sin, you'll get judgment; consequences here and eternal consequences forever.
Any farmer can tell you that you don't reap the harvest as soon as you sow the seed. But make no mistake. The harvest is delayed but it's inevitable. In the case of our disobedience toward God, the Bible spells out the harvest in these chilling words: "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23 ). That death is life here without the God who makes life work and life after death without God in a place called hell.
There are short-term "undeletable" consequences for sin. Deceit today, discredited and un-trusted tomorrow. Indulging your lust today, scarred relationships and disgusting bondage tomorrow. Sex outside of marriage today, the real thing ruined tomorrow. Trash talk today, loss of respect and reputation tomorrow. But far worse than those consequences is the eternal death penalty that our sin carries with it. No religion on earth, and no amount of your goodness can possible delete your sin from God's book. Only the One whose laws we've broken can delete your sin and cancel your hell. The delete button for human sin is beyond human reach.
The Bible declares our only hope in these words: "Christ carried our sins in His body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24 ). When Jesus said "Father, forgive them" from His cross, He was including you. If you abandon all other hope of being forgiven and pin all your hopes on Him. The Bible says He is "a God...who pardons sin" and who will "hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea" (Micah 7:18-19 ). Imagine. Every sin, every wrong thing you've ever done, deleted by one stroke of God's hand because you reached out to Jesus, His Son, and you said, "Rescue me. You're my only hope, Jesus!"
If that's what you want, then I'd love to help you take this step into a love relationship with Jesus. Let me invite you to our website. That's really why it's there. We've just simply put it there to provide a simple explanation of how to get started with Him. Just go to yoursforlife.net. Or maybe you'd just like to receive my free booklet, called Yours For Life. It has the same information in it. You can call for it toll-free at 877-741-1200.
The awful harvest for your sin was taken by Jesus on the cross, so you could make the greatest trade in the world - eternal death for eternal life.
Don’t Waste the Moments
Posted: 28 Dec 2010 10:01 PM PST
Carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at the center of God’s love. Jude 20, The Message
Imagine considering every moment as a potential time of communion with God. By the time your life is over, you will have spent six months at stoplights, eight months opening junk mail, a year and a half looking for lost stuff… and a whopping five years standing in various lines.
Why don’t you give these moments to God?
Exodus 2
The Birth of Moses
1 Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. 3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.
5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.
7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”
8 “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”
Moses Flees to Midian
11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12 Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?”
14 The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.”
15 When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well. 16 Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17 Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.
18 When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?”
19 They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”
20 “And where is he?” Reuel asked his daughters. “Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat.”
21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. 22 Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”
23 During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. 24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Deuteronomy 4:1-10
Deuteronomy 4:1-10 (NIV)Dt 1 Hear now, O Israel, the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. 2 Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you. 3 You saw with your own eyes what the Lord did at Baal Peor. The Lord your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor, 4 but all of you who held fast to the Lord your God are still alive today. 5 See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the Lord my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. 6 Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people." 7 What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him? 8 And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today? 9 Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. 10 Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when he said to me, "Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children."
Common Standards
December 29, 2010 — by Julie Ackerman Link
What great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments? —Deuteronomy 4:8
In the frenzied early days of the Internet, Web developers were making up their own rules. The result was confusion. Among the problems was that what looked good on one computer was unreadable on another. This caused developers to refer to the Internet as the wild, wild Web, an allusion to the days of the wild, wild West in the US when law and order were pretty much nonexistent. To bring order out of chaos, Web developers started calling for others to agree on common standards.
Their plea reminds us of why it was important for the Israelites to have laws to live by when they left Egypt (Deut. 4:1). Without them, there would be anarchy. With them, however, they would have a system that was so superior that it would demonstrate to other nations the greatness of their God (v.8).
Today, to bring order out of the chaos of our sinful, selfish world, believers submit to the law of Christ (Gal. 6:2), who Himself is the fulfillment of the law (Matt. 5:17). When we submit to the standard established by Christ and love others as God loves us, we will live in peace with one another and thus provide a witness to the world of how great God is.
Let us go forth, as called of God,
Redeemed by Jesus’ precious blood;
His love to show, His life to live,
His message speak, His mercy give. —Whittle
The world will know by our love for God and others
that He is great.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 29th, 2010
Deserter or Disciple?
From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more —John 6:66
When God, by His Spirit through His Word, gives you a clear vision of His will, you must “walk in the light” of that vision (1 John 1:7). Even though your mind and soul may be thrilled by it, if you don’t “walk in the light” of it you will sink to a level of bondage never envisioned by our Lord. Mentally disobeying the “heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19) will make you a slave to ideas and views that are completely foreign to Jesus Christ. Don’t look at someone else and say, “Well, if he can have those views and prosper, why can’t I?” You have to “walk in the light” of the vision that has been given to you. Don’t compare yourself with others or judge them— that is between God and them. When you find that one of your favorite and strongly held views clashes with the “heavenly vision,” do not begin to debate it. If you do, a sense of property and personal right will emerge in you— things on which Jesus placed no value. He was against these things as being the root of everything foreign to Himself— “. . . for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses” (Luke 12:15). If we don’t see and understand this, it is because we are ignoring the underlying principles of our Lord’s teaching.
Our tendency is to lie back and bask in the memory of the wonderful experience we had when God revealed His will to us. But if a New Testament standard is revealed to us by the light of God, and we don’t try to measure up, or even feel inclined to do so, then we begin to backslide. It means your conscience does not respond to the truth. You can never be the same after the unveiling of a truth. That moment marks you as one who either continues on with even more devotion as a disciple of Jesus Christ, or as one who turns to go back as a deserter.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Delete Button You Can't Reach - #6253
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
So many times, the latest technology becomes a great blessing and a great curse. For example, are cell phones a blessing or a curse? Yes. It's great that I can reach anyone or they can reach me basically anytime or anywhere. And it's terrible that people can reach me anytime, anywhere. How about e-mail? Fast, efficient communication from wherever you are to wherever they are. But then there's "spam" - the e-mail equivalent of junk mail. You can wake up to dozens of new e-mails, including a bunch you really don't want. But there's this button on your computer that really comes in handy. It just says "delete." If you don't like what you're getting, delete. If you don't want to keep something, delete. If you wrote something you decide you don't want to send, delete. One key stroke and what you don't want is gone.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Delete Button You Can't Reach."
Here's the problem. Because we live in a world where it's so easy to delete, we may start thinking we can delete things that, in fact, are not going to go away. Like the consequences of our actions for example. The payback for the things we've done wrong. The judgment of Almighty God for making ourselves number one instead of Him. There are some things you just can't delete. Delay, maybe. Delete, never.
That's guaranteed, actually, by God Himself in our word for today from the Word of God in Galatians 6:7 . It's one of the laws of the universe, and no one is so smart or even religious enough to escape it. God says, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows." Sow corn, you'll get corn whether you want corn or not. Sow wheat, you'll get wheat. Sow sin, you'll get judgment; consequences here and eternal consequences forever.
Any farmer can tell you that you don't reap the harvest as soon as you sow the seed. But make no mistake. The harvest is delayed but it's inevitable. In the case of our disobedience toward God, the Bible spells out the harvest in these chilling words: "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23 ). That death is life here without the God who makes life work and life after death without God in a place called hell.
There are short-term "undeletable" consequences for sin. Deceit today, discredited and un-trusted tomorrow. Indulging your lust today, scarred relationships and disgusting bondage tomorrow. Sex outside of marriage today, the real thing ruined tomorrow. Trash talk today, loss of respect and reputation tomorrow. But far worse than those consequences is the eternal death penalty that our sin carries with it. No religion on earth, and no amount of your goodness can possible delete your sin from God's book. Only the One whose laws we've broken can delete your sin and cancel your hell. The delete button for human sin is beyond human reach.
The Bible declares our only hope in these words: "Christ carried our sins in His body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24 ). When Jesus said "Father, forgive them" from His cross, He was including you. If you abandon all other hope of being forgiven and pin all your hopes on Him. The Bible says He is "a God...who pardons sin" and who will "hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea" (Micah 7:18-19 ). Imagine. Every sin, every wrong thing you've ever done, deleted by one stroke of God's hand because you reached out to Jesus, His Son, and you said, "Rescue me. You're my only hope, Jesus!"
If that's what you want, then I'd love to help you take this step into a love relationship with Jesus. Let me invite you to our website. That's really why it's there. We've just simply put it there to provide a simple explanation of how to get started with Him. Just go to yoursforlife.net. Or maybe you'd just like to receive my free booklet, called Yours For Life. It has the same information in it. You can call for it toll-free at 877-741-1200.
The awful harvest for your sin was taken by Jesus on the cross, so you could make the greatest trade in the world - eternal death for eternal life.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Exodus 1, Bible reading and Daily Devotions
Max Lucado Daily: God’s Hands
God’s Hands
Posted: 27 Dec 2010 10:01 PM PST
I look at your heavens, which you made with your fingers. I see the moon and stars, which you created. Psalm 8:3
We serve the God who designed the universe and set our world in motion. But those hands that hung the stars in the heavens also wiped away the tears of the widow and the leper. And they will wipe away your tears as well.
Exodus 1
The Israelites Oppressed
1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah; 3 Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin; 4 Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. 5 The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all; Joseph was already in Egypt.
6 Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, 7 but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them.
8 Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. 9 “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. 10 Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”
11 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites 13 and worked them ruthlessly. 14 They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.
15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16 “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” 17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 18 Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”
19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”
20 So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.
22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Psalm 77:1-14
Psalms 77:1-14 (NIV)Ps 1 I cried out to God for help; I cried out to God to hear me. 2 When I was in distress, I sought the Lord; at night I stretched out untiring hands and my soul refused to be comforted. 3 I remembered you, O God, and I groaned; I mused, and my spirit grew faint. Selah 4 You kept my eyes from closing; I was too troubled to speak. 5 I thought about the former days, the years of long ago; 6 I remembered my songs in the night. My heart mused and my spirit inquired: 7 "Will the Lord reject forever? Will he never show his favor again? 8 Has his unfailing love vanished forever? Has his promise failed for all time? 9 Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has he in anger withheld his compassion?" Selah 10 Then I thought, "To this I will appeal: the years of the right hand of the Most High." 11 I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. 12 I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds. 13 Your ways, O God, are holy. What god is so great as our God? 14 You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples.
The Year In Review
December 28, 2010 — by David C. McCasland
I will remember the works of the Lord; surely I will remember Your wonders of old. —Psalm 77:11
During the last week of December, newscasters often look back at the significant events of the past year—the triumphs and failures of prominent people, natural disasters, economic challenges, and the deaths of celebrities and leaders. The most surprising events usually receive top billing.
If you reviewed the past year of your life, what would appear on the list? Has an unexpected event caused you to question God or to more deeply experience His goodness?
Psalm 77 chronicles the lament of a person in distress who felt as if God no longer cared (vv.7-9). “Has His mercy ceased forever? Has His promise failed forevermore?” (v.8). Yet, even in anguish, the psalmist said, “I will remember the works of the Lord; surely I will remember Your wonders of old” (v.11). The result was a renewal of trust and hope: “You are the God who does wonders; You have declared Your strength among the peoples” (v.14).
As you think back over this past year, why not write down the significant events in your life. Don’t be afraid to include your difficulties and disappointments, but remember to consider all the ways God has been with you.
During every difficulty, we can always find the faithfulness of God.
When we look back and contemplate
What we’ve been through this year,
We’ll praise You, Lord, for all You’ve done—
Your faithfulness is clear. —Sper
Difficulties in our lives give us the opportunity
to experience the faithfulness of God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 28th, 2010
Continuous Conversion
. . . unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven —Matthew 18:3
These words of our Lord refer to our initial conversion, but we should continue to turn to God as children, being continuously converted every day of our lives. If we trust in our own abilities, instead of God’s, we produce consequences for which God will hold us responsible. When God through His sovereignty brings us into new situations, we should immediately make sure that our natural life submits to the spiritual, obeying the orders of the Spirit of God. Just because we have responded properly in the past is no guarantee that we will do so again. The response of the natural to the spiritual should be continuous conversion, but this is where we so often refuse to be obedient. No matter what our situation is, the Spirit of God remains unchanged and His salvation unaltered. But we must “put on the new man . . .” (Ephesians 4:24). God holds us accountable every time we refuse to convert ourselves, and He sees our refusal as willful disobedience. Our natural life must not rule— God must rule in us.
To refuse to be continuously converted puts a stumbling block in the growth of our spiritual life. There are areas of self-will in our lives where our pride pours contempt on the throne of God and says, “I won’t submit.” We deify our independence and self-will and call them by the wrong name. What God sees as stubborn weakness, we call strength. There are whole areas of our lives that have not yet been brought into submission, and this can only be done by this continuous conversion. Slowly but surely we can claim the whole territory for the Spirit of God.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Banning the Poison That Brings You Down - #6252
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
The eagles are coming back! We almost lost certain kinds of eagles - for good! They were on their way to becoming extinct. That's why they were legally declared an endangered species. It meant that if you hurt an eagle, you might end up in a steel nest of your own for a few years! But the good news is that in state after state, the eagle population is actually making a strong comeback. One huge reason: the banning of the widely-used pesticide called DDT. It turned out to be a poison that wasn't just killing pests; it was killing the majestic eagle.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Banning the Poison That Brings You Down."
Now our sons have run an exciting part of our work - a life-changing youth ministry on a remote Indian reservation. Not long ago, one young man came to Christ from a painful and drug-ridden life, and he brought a sledgehammer to their weekly meeting called "Jump Start." Now, they may have been wondering if he was bringing it to use on them! But he brought it to use on a stack of his favorite music CDs; music he said he felt he could no longer listen to and live the way that Jesus wants him to live.
He's beginning to understand, actually, a basic principle of learning to soar spiritually - you have to ban from your life the poison that brings down an eagle. And soul DDT is all around us. It's in music, it's in movies, fantasy games, TV shows, the Internet. It's in things we read or look at, it's in humor, it's in conversation. So God's charge to us in our word for today from the Word of God is as timely as ever. Philippians 4:8 - "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things." How about what you've been watching or listening to? Honestly, can you call it "pure, noble, true, right, lovely"?
That verse describes God's mental diet for any child of His who is serious about being God's man or God's woman. You are what you eat - garbage in, garbage out. Or, in the crystal-clear directive of Proverbs 4:23 , "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." Everything you do and say originates with what's in your heart - it's the reservoir from which everything comes. And what's in your heart depends on what you put in your heart, what you let in your heart. And you need to post a 24-hour guard around your heart; a guard who refuses to let in anything that will feed your anger, your lust, your depression, your wrong desires, your dark side.
Ephesians 5:11 commands us to "have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness." But somehow, if it's in music we really like or a show or a movie or a web site we really enjoy, we just let the poison in because we like the package it comes in. But, it's still soul poison. Maybe you struggle with why the old you keeps coming back and taking over - the "you" that you hate, that brings you down, that hurts your relationship with your Savior. Could it be that your dark side keeps winning because you keep feeding it with influences that keep pushing the same old sinful buttons? You've got to starve what you want to die!
Romans 16:19-20 gives us a powerful plan for living in victory over Satan and the dark side he has used against us so many times. It says: "Be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil." Bulk up on what's "noble, pure, right, praiseworthy." And slam the door on anything that portrays or celebrates ideas and actions that Jesus died to destroy.
You're an eagle! You're destined by God to fly. But when you let soul poison in, you're not flyin', you're dyin'.
God’s Hands
Posted: 27 Dec 2010 10:01 PM PST
I look at your heavens, which you made with your fingers. I see the moon and stars, which you created. Psalm 8:3
We serve the God who designed the universe and set our world in motion. But those hands that hung the stars in the heavens also wiped away the tears of the widow and the leper. And they will wipe away your tears as well.
Exodus 1
The Israelites Oppressed
1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah; 3 Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin; 4 Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. 5 The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all; Joseph was already in Egypt.
6 Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, 7 but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them.
8 Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. 9 “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. 10 Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”
11 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites 13 and worked them ruthlessly. 14 They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.
15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16 “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” 17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 18 Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”
19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”
20 So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.
22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Psalm 77:1-14
Psalms 77:1-14 (NIV)Ps 1 I cried out to God for help; I cried out to God to hear me. 2 When I was in distress, I sought the Lord; at night I stretched out untiring hands and my soul refused to be comforted. 3 I remembered you, O God, and I groaned; I mused, and my spirit grew faint. Selah 4 You kept my eyes from closing; I was too troubled to speak. 5 I thought about the former days, the years of long ago; 6 I remembered my songs in the night. My heart mused and my spirit inquired: 7 "Will the Lord reject forever? Will he never show his favor again? 8 Has his unfailing love vanished forever? Has his promise failed for all time? 9 Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has he in anger withheld his compassion?" Selah 10 Then I thought, "To this I will appeal: the years of the right hand of the Most High." 11 I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. 12 I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds. 13 Your ways, O God, are holy. What god is so great as our God? 14 You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples.
The Year In Review
December 28, 2010 — by David C. McCasland
I will remember the works of the Lord; surely I will remember Your wonders of old. —Psalm 77:11
During the last week of December, newscasters often look back at the significant events of the past year—the triumphs and failures of prominent people, natural disasters, economic challenges, and the deaths of celebrities and leaders. The most surprising events usually receive top billing.
If you reviewed the past year of your life, what would appear on the list? Has an unexpected event caused you to question God or to more deeply experience His goodness?
Psalm 77 chronicles the lament of a person in distress who felt as if God no longer cared (vv.7-9). “Has His mercy ceased forever? Has His promise failed forevermore?” (v.8). Yet, even in anguish, the psalmist said, “I will remember the works of the Lord; surely I will remember Your wonders of old” (v.11). The result was a renewal of trust and hope: “You are the God who does wonders; You have declared Your strength among the peoples” (v.14).
As you think back over this past year, why not write down the significant events in your life. Don’t be afraid to include your difficulties and disappointments, but remember to consider all the ways God has been with you.
During every difficulty, we can always find the faithfulness of God.
When we look back and contemplate
What we’ve been through this year,
We’ll praise You, Lord, for all You’ve done—
Your faithfulness is clear. —Sper
Difficulties in our lives give us the opportunity
to experience the faithfulness of God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 28th, 2010
Continuous Conversion
. . . unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven —Matthew 18:3
These words of our Lord refer to our initial conversion, but we should continue to turn to God as children, being continuously converted every day of our lives. If we trust in our own abilities, instead of God’s, we produce consequences for which God will hold us responsible. When God through His sovereignty brings us into new situations, we should immediately make sure that our natural life submits to the spiritual, obeying the orders of the Spirit of God. Just because we have responded properly in the past is no guarantee that we will do so again. The response of the natural to the spiritual should be continuous conversion, but this is where we so often refuse to be obedient. No matter what our situation is, the Spirit of God remains unchanged and His salvation unaltered. But we must “put on the new man . . .” (Ephesians 4:24). God holds us accountable every time we refuse to convert ourselves, and He sees our refusal as willful disobedience. Our natural life must not rule— God must rule in us.
To refuse to be continuously converted puts a stumbling block in the growth of our spiritual life. There are areas of self-will in our lives where our pride pours contempt on the throne of God and says, “I won’t submit.” We deify our independence and self-will and call them by the wrong name. What God sees as stubborn weakness, we call strength. There are whole areas of our lives that have not yet been brought into submission, and this can only be done by this continuous conversion. Slowly but surely we can claim the whole territory for the Spirit of God.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Banning the Poison That Brings You Down - #6252
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
The eagles are coming back! We almost lost certain kinds of eagles - for good! They were on their way to becoming extinct. That's why they were legally declared an endangered species. It meant that if you hurt an eagle, you might end up in a steel nest of your own for a few years! But the good news is that in state after state, the eagle population is actually making a strong comeback. One huge reason: the banning of the widely-used pesticide called DDT. It turned out to be a poison that wasn't just killing pests; it was killing the majestic eagle.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Banning the Poison That Brings You Down."
Now our sons have run an exciting part of our work - a life-changing youth ministry on a remote Indian reservation. Not long ago, one young man came to Christ from a painful and drug-ridden life, and he brought a sledgehammer to their weekly meeting called "Jump Start." Now, they may have been wondering if he was bringing it to use on them! But he brought it to use on a stack of his favorite music CDs; music he said he felt he could no longer listen to and live the way that Jesus wants him to live.
He's beginning to understand, actually, a basic principle of learning to soar spiritually - you have to ban from your life the poison that brings down an eagle. And soul DDT is all around us. It's in music, it's in movies, fantasy games, TV shows, the Internet. It's in things we read or look at, it's in humor, it's in conversation. So God's charge to us in our word for today from the Word of God is as timely as ever. Philippians 4:8 - "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things." How about what you've been watching or listening to? Honestly, can you call it "pure, noble, true, right, lovely"?
That verse describes God's mental diet for any child of His who is serious about being God's man or God's woman. You are what you eat - garbage in, garbage out. Or, in the crystal-clear directive of Proverbs 4:23 , "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." Everything you do and say originates with what's in your heart - it's the reservoir from which everything comes. And what's in your heart depends on what you put in your heart, what you let in your heart. And you need to post a 24-hour guard around your heart; a guard who refuses to let in anything that will feed your anger, your lust, your depression, your wrong desires, your dark side.
Ephesians 5:11 commands us to "have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness." But somehow, if it's in music we really like or a show or a movie or a web site we really enjoy, we just let the poison in because we like the package it comes in. But, it's still soul poison. Maybe you struggle with why the old you keeps coming back and taking over - the "you" that you hate, that brings you down, that hurts your relationship with your Savior. Could it be that your dark side keeps winning because you keep feeding it with influences that keep pushing the same old sinful buttons? You've got to starve what you want to die!
Romans 16:19-20 gives us a powerful plan for living in victory over Satan and the dark side he has used against us so many times. It says: "Be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil." Bulk up on what's "noble, pure, right, praiseworthy." And slam the door on anything that portrays or celebrates ideas and actions that Jesus died to destroy.
You're an eagle! You're destined by God to fly. But when you let soul poison in, you're not flyin', you're dyin'.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)