Max Lucado Daily: Look Inside Yourself
When my daughter Jenna was six years old, I discovered her standing in front of a full-length mirror looking down her throat. I asked her what she was doing and she answered, “I’m looking to see if God is in my heart.” I chuckled and turned then overheard her ask Him, “Are you in there?”
She was asking the right question. “Are you in there?” It wasn’t enough for you to appear in a bush or dwell in the temple? It wasn’t enough for you to become human flesh and walk on the earth? You had to go further? You had to take up residence in us?
Paul wrote, “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?” (I Corinthians 6:19). Perhaps you didn’t. If not, thanks for letting me remind you. The world says look inside yourself and find self. God says look inside yourself and find God.
From When God Whispers Your Name
Matthew 24:29-51
New International Version (NIV)
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.’[a]
30 “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth[b] will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.[c] 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[d] 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,[e] 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.
Footnotes:
Matthew 24:29 Isaiah 13:10; 34:4
Matthew 24:30 Or the tribes of the land
Matthew 24:30 See Daniel 7:13-14.
Matthew 24:33 Or he
Matthew 24:36 Some manuscripts do not have nor the Son.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Read: Psalm 147:1-9
Praise the Lord.[a]
How good it is to sing praises to our God,
how pleasant and fitting to praise him!
2 The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
he gathers the exiles of Israel.
3 He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
4 He determines the number of the stars
and calls them each by name.
5 Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
his understanding has no limit.
6 The Lord sustains the humble
but casts the wicked to the ground.
7 Sing to the Lord with grateful praise;
make music to our God on the harp.
8 He covers the sky with clouds;
he supplies the earth with rain
and makes grass grow on the hills.
9 He provides food for the cattle
and for the young ravens when they call.
Footnotes:
Psalm 147:1 Hebrew Hallelu Yah; also in verse 20
Insight
The book of Psalms concludes with five hymns of praise (Psalms 146–150) that begin and end with the refrain, “Praise the Lord!” (Hebrew, Hallelujah). In Psalm 147, the psalmist calls for grateful worship (vv.1,7) as he reflects on the goodness of God to Israel (vv.2-3,6) and on His greatness in creation (vv.4-5,8-9). The psalmist celebrates God’s loving faithfulness in caring and blessing His chosen people individually (vv.2-3,7) and in displaying His mighty power in creating and sustaining His creation generally (vv.4-5,8-9). Focusing not only on God’s greatness but also on His closeness, goodness, and kindness, the psalmist affirms that it is God alone who provides security and prosperity (vv.13-14).
He Calls The Stars By Name
By David C. McCasland
He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name. —Psalm 147:4
On a plateau high above the Atacama Desert in Chile, the world’s largest radio telescope is giving astronomers a view of the universe never seen before. In an Associated Press article, Luis Andres Henao spoke of scientists from many countries “looking for clues about the dawn of the cosmos—from the coldest gases and dust where galaxies are formed and stars are born to the energy produced by the Big Bang.”
The Bible celebrates the mighty power and infinite understanding of God who “counts the number of the stars” and “calls them all by name” (Ps. 147:4). Yet the Creator of the universe is not a remote, uncaring force, but a loving heavenly Father who “heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (v.3). “The Lord lifts up the humble” (v.6) and “takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His mercy” (v.11).
He loves us so much that “He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
British author J. B. Phillips called Earth “the visited planet,” where the Prince of Glory is still working out His plan.
Our hope for today and forever lies in the loving mercy of God who calls each star by name.
The God who made the firmament,
Who made the deepest sea,
The God who put the stars in place
Is the God who cares for me. —Berg
God, who knows the name of every star, knows all our names as well.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, July 24, 2014
His Nature and Our Motives
. . . unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven —Matthew 5:20
The characteristic of a disciple is not that he does good things, but that he is good in his motives, having been made good by the supernatural grace of God. The only thing that exceeds right-doing is right-being. Jesus Christ came to place within anyone who would let Him a new heredity that would have a righteousness exceeding that of the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus is saying, “If you are My disciple, you must be right not only in your actions, but also in your motives, your aspirations, and in the deep recesses of the thoughts of your mind.” Your motives must be so pure that God Almighty can see nothing to rebuke. Who can stand in the eternal light of God and have nothing for Him to rebuke? Only the Son of God, and Jesus Christ claims that through His redemption He can place within anyone His own nature and make that person as pure and as simple as a child. The purity that God demands is impossible unless I can be remade within, and that is exactly what Jesus has undertaken to do through His redemption.
No one can make himself pure by obeying laws. Jesus Christ does not give us rules and regulations— He gives us His teachings which are truths that can only be interpreted by His nature which He places within us. The great wonder of Jesus Christ’s salvation is that He changes our heredity. He does not change human nature— He changes its source, and thereby its motives as well.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, July 24, 2014
TELLING ISN'T TRUSTING - #7184
Okay, I've got to admit this. When something's wrong with our car, you're not going to usually find me under the hood. I'm not really that good at that, so I head for the gas station. Now, Dave has worked on our car for years, and he does a very good job. So I would tell Dave the symptoms of what seems to be wrong with the car; the noise, the starting problem, or the loss of power. And then Dave talks back to me. He tells me what he thinks it might be, what he thinks it might cost and how long it might take to fix it. What do I do? Do I say, "Thanks, Dave!" and then chug away in my ailing car? Well, duh, no! I leave it there.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Telling Isn't Trusting."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Luke 7 beginning at verse 2. "A certain Centurion's servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. The Centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with Him." Now at this point they're telling Jesus about the problem just like I tell the mechanic about my car's problem. In this case it's a very valued servant.
Now, Jesus responds and the Centurion sends a message back and says, "'I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, "Go," and he goes; and that one, "Come," and he comes. I say to my servant, "Do this," and he does it.' When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him He said, 'I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.' Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well."
Look at those words, "such great faith." Now, why does Jesus say that? Well, see, this Centurion didn't just tell Jesus about the problem. He didn't just bring it to His attention. He trusted Jesus with it totally. That's why he got the miracle he needed.
See, it doesn't do any good if I just go to my mechanic and tell him about the problem. I have to leave my car in his hands; I've got to turn it over to him. I drive away in another car. I leave my car there because I trust the one I've taken it to.
Maybe you're looking at a problem or a need that really needs the touch of God right now. He's the Master Mechanic. He's the ultimate fixer. You say, "Well, I've prayed about it a lot, Ron." We always say, "I've prayed so much about it." Well, you've prayed about it, but have you left it with Him? You told Him, but have you trusted Him?
Notice the Centurion said, "Just say the word and it will be done." See, great faith recognizes the total authority of Jesus over this impossible situation and acts as if it's totally in Jesus' hands. He's the Lord of the outcome. He'll decide the outcome. That's great faith. And that's how you are when you pray about someone or something if you're exercising great faith. "Lord, if you say 'come' it will come. If you say 'go' it will go. If you say 'do this' it will be done."
When Jesus has the problem, you don't have it any more. When you tell Jesus about it, you walk in all bent over carrying this big load, but you walk out of that Throne Room... still bent over? No. When you've really trusted Him with it, you walk in bent over, but you walk out standing tall because you left your load in Jesus' hands. Relax in His total authority over your situation. Exercise that faith that brings down the supernatural; such great faith.
It's like the old song says, "I must tell Jesus all of my troubles." Let's upgrade that, "I must trust Jesus with all of my troubles." So, drive it to Jesus and then leave it there.
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Exodus 6, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily:Help From the Inside Out
When your hope comes from within you, your life is good as long as you are good. Your faith is strong as long as you are strong. But therein lies the problem. The Bible says, no one is good. Nor is anyone always strong; nor always secure. We need help from the inside out.
Jesus promised this kind of help in John 14:16-17 when he said, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper to be with you forever, the Spirit of truth. . .you know Him because He lives with you and will be in you.”
Not near us. Not above us. Not around us. But in us. In the part of us we don’t even know. In the heart no one else has seen. In the hidden recesses of our being dwells, not an angel, not a philosophy, not a genie, but Spirit of God. Imagine that!
From When God Whispers Your Name
Exodus 6
God Promises Deliverance
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.”
6 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,[d] but by my name the Lord[e] 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[f]?”
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[g]:
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?”
Exodus 6:3 Hebrew El-Shaddai
Exodus 6:3 See note at 3:15.
Exodus 6:12 Hebrew I am uncircumcised of lips; also in verse 30
Exodus 6:14 The Hebrew for families here and in verse 25 refers to units larger than clans.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Read: Deuteronomy 6:1-9
Love the Lord Your God
These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. 3 Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you.
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[a] 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
Footnotes:
Deuteronomy 6:4 Or The Lord our God is one Lord; or The Lord is our God, the Lord is one; or The Lord is our God, the Lord alone
Insight
Deuteronomy 6:4 contains the Shema (or Shema Yisrael). This affirmation of the oneness of God (“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!”) is the centerpiece of the morning and evening prayers of observant Jews. The title Shema comes from the Hebrew term for the first word in the verse, hear.
Waving The White Flag
By Joe Stowell
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God. —Deuteronomy 6:4-5
Recently, while watching a video of a church service held in South America, I noticed something I had never seen before in church. As the pastor passionately called his flock to yield their lives to Jesus, one of the parishioners took a white hankie out of his pocket and started waving it in the air. Then another, and another. With tears running down their cheeks, they were expressing full surrender to Christ.
But I wonder if there was more to the moment than the flags of surrender. I think they were waving flags of love to God. When God told His people to “love the Lord your God” (Deut. 6:5), it was in the context of His urging them to surrender their lives to Him.
From God’s point of view, life with Him is far more than just trying to be good. It is always about relationship—relationship in which surrender is the way we express our grateful love to Him. Jesus, in amazing love for us, surrendered Himself on the cross to rescue us from our helpless bondage to sin and set us on a journey to all that is good and glorious.
We don’t have enough words to tell God how much we love Him! So, let’s show Him our love by surrendering our hearts and lives to follow Him.
Lord, take my life and make it wholly Thine;
Fill my poor heart with Thy great love divine.
Take all my will, my passion, self, and pride;
I now surrender, Lord—in me abide. —Orr
Surrender is God’s love language.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Sanctification (2)
But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us . . . sanctification . . . —1 Corinthians 1:30
The Life Side. The mystery of sanctification is that the perfect qualities of Jesus Christ are imparted as a gift to me, not gradually, but instantly once I enter by faith into the realization that He “became for [me] . . . sanctification . . . .” Sanctification means nothing less than the holiness of Jesus becoming mine and being exhibited in my life.
The most wonderful secret of living a holy life does not lie in imitating Jesus, but in letting the perfect qualities of Jesus exhibit themselves in my human flesh. Sanctification is “Christ in you . . .” (Colossians 1:27). It is His wonderful life that is imparted to me in sanctification— imparted by faith as a sovereign gift of God’s grace. Am I willing for God to make sanctification as real in me as it is in His Word?
Sanctification means the impartation of the holy qualities of Jesus Christ to me. It is the gift of His patience, love, holiness, faith, purity, and godliness that is exhibited in and through every sanctified soul. Sanctification is not drawing from Jesus the power to be holy— it is drawing from Jesus the very holiness that was exhibited in Him, and that He now exhibits in me. Sanctification is an impartation, not an imitation. Imitation is something altogether different. The perfection of everything is in Jesus Christ, and the mystery of sanctification is that all the perfect qualities of Jesus are at my disposal. Consequently, I slowly but surely begin to live a life of inexpressible order, soundness, and holiness— “. . . kept by the power of God . . .” (1 Peter 1:5).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
MOUNT EVEREST IS CLOSED - #7183
It just sounds weird: "Mount Everest is closed." But that was the headline No one was going to climb that most iconic of all mountaineering quests, because 16 Sherpa guides were lost on the mountain, as blocks of ice as big as automobiles cascaded down on them.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Mount Everest is Closed."
You don't venture onto that peak without a Sherpa. They are the legendary people of the mountain; the guides who take climbers there - climbers who pay up to $100,000 to the Nepalese government to go. And the Sherpas didn't want the mountain "open for business" the rest of the year because it had cost too much. Did you know getting to the top of a mountain often does.
Our personal "Everest's"; that treasured goal that we're driven to achieve. "I will be married no matter what." So many who conquered that slope now wish they had never dreamed the dream, because it turned into a nightmare.
"I will get to the top in what I do, whatever it takes." Only to sacrifice a spouse, a marriage, a child, a good name to get there. A price too high to pay. "My kid's going to be a winner. I'll make sure of it." So he or she becomes more of a performer than a person. A creation of a parent's ego rather than the person God made them to be. A robot programmed to please, but dangerously lonely and stressed.
Success. We each have our own definition. And there's nothing intrinsically wrong with wanting to climb our mountain. But in the words of Jesus, "Count the cost" in relationships, in integrity. What's it going to cost you in your health, in the lives of your children, in your personal peace?
No conquest, no dream is worth ending up in the emergency room with a medical crisis of your own or the emotional meltdown of someone you love, leaving behind you a trail of people wounded or crushed as you race for your finish line. That's a price too high to pay.
I've seen it too many times. Driving for a goal - even a noble goal - can make you blind to the needs around you and deaf to their cries, and oblivious to the cost until the avalanche.
Jesus asked a haunting question. It's in our word for today from the Word of God in Mark 8:36. It is worth thinking about seriously. "What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?" And so many have. It's a price too high to pay.
Isn't it amazing that we keep climbing these mountains thinking that surely the peace I've been looking for, the significance I've been looking for, the meaning I've been looking for, the wholeness I've been looking for in my soul, it will be at the top of this mountain. You got to the top of the mountain and it wasn't there. Or you think it's going to be at the top of the mountain, but the people who've been there have found nothing there.
There's a reason for that, because we were never meant ultimately to find our happiness, and find our wholeness, and find our identity in anything other than the person who gave us our life in the first place. And that is the God who put us here. It says in the Bible, "You were created by Him and for Him." And we've lived for everything else but Him. There's only one hill you can climb, only one mountain, where you're going to find what you're looking for. It's called Skull Hill in the Bible. There's a cross at the top, and that is where God's Son died to pay the price to reunite you and me with the God who fills the hole in our soul and who holds our eternity in His hands.
Maybe you've been climbing the wrong hills. Maybe you've been climbing the wrong mountains. It's time to find your way to where Jesus has died for you and say, "Jesus, I am Yours." And to finally find what has eluded you for a lifetime that can only be found in Him. If you've never done that, and you say, "I wish I knew how to begin that personal relationship with Him." I want to invite you to our website where I'd love to show you how - ANewStory.com. Because there is no Everest that is worth giving up an irreplaceable treasure.
When your hope comes from within you, your life is good as long as you are good. Your faith is strong as long as you are strong. But therein lies the problem. The Bible says, no one is good. Nor is anyone always strong; nor always secure. We need help from the inside out.
Jesus promised this kind of help in John 14:16-17 when he said, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper to be with you forever, the Spirit of truth. . .you know Him because He lives with you and will be in you.”
Not near us. Not above us. Not around us. But in us. In the part of us we don’t even know. In the heart no one else has seen. In the hidden recesses of our being dwells, not an angel, not a philosophy, not a genie, but Spirit of God. Imagine that!
From When God Whispers Your Name
Exodus 6
God Promises Deliverance
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.”
6 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,[d] but by my name the Lord[e] 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[f]?”
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[g]:
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?”
Exodus 6:3 Hebrew El-Shaddai
Exodus 6:3 See note at 3:15.
Exodus 6:12 Hebrew I am uncircumcised of lips; also in verse 30
Exodus 6:14 The Hebrew for families here and in verse 25 refers to units larger than clans.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Read: Deuteronomy 6:1-9
Love the Lord Your God
These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. 3 Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you.
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[a] 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
Footnotes:
Deuteronomy 6:4 Or The Lord our God is one Lord; or The Lord is our God, the Lord is one; or The Lord is our God, the Lord alone
Insight
Deuteronomy 6:4 contains the Shema (or Shema Yisrael). This affirmation of the oneness of God (“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!”) is the centerpiece of the morning and evening prayers of observant Jews. The title Shema comes from the Hebrew term for the first word in the verse, hear.
Waving The White Flag
By Joe Stowell
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God. —Deuteronomy 6:4-5
Recently, while watching a video of a church service held in South America, I noticed something I had never seen before in church. As the pastor passionately called his flock to yield their lives to Jesus, one of the parishioners took a white hankie out of his pocket and started waving it in the air. Then another, and another. With tears running down their cheeks, they were expressing full surrender to Christ.
But I wonder if there was more to the moment than the flags of surrender. I think they were waving flags of love to God. When God told His people to “love the Lord your God” (Deut. 6:5), it was in the context of His urging them to surrender their lives to Him.
From God’s point of view, life with Him is far more than just trying to be good. It is always about relationship—relationship in which surrender is the way we express our grateful love to Him. Jesus, in amazing love for us, surrendered Himself on the cross to rescue us from our helpless bondage to sin and set us on a journey to all that is good and glorious.
We don’t have enough words to tell God how much we love Him! So, let’s show Him our love by surrendering our hearts and lives to follow Him.
Lord, take my life and make it wholly Thine;
Fill my poor heart with Thy great love divine.
Take all my will, my passion, self, and pride;
I now surrender, Lord—in me abide. —Orr
Surrender is God’s love language.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Sanctification (2)
But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us . . . sanctification . . . —1 Corinthians 1:30
The Life Side. The mystery of sanctification is that the perfect qualities of Jesus Christ are imparted as a gift to me, not gradually, but instantly once I enter by faith into the realization that He “became for [me] . . . sanctification . . . .” Sanctification means nothing less than the holiness of Jesus becoming mine and being exhibited in my life.
The most wonderful secret of living a holy life does not lie in imitating Jesus, but in letting the perfect qualities of Jesus exhibit themselves in my human flesh. Sanctification is “Christ in you . . .” (Colossians 1:27). It is His wonderful life that is imparted to me in sanctification— imparted by faith as a sovereign gift of God’s grace. Am I willing for God to make sanctification as real in me as it is in His Word?
Sanctification means the impartation of the holy qualities of Jesus Christ to me. It is the gift of His patience, love, holiness, faith, purity, and godliness that is exhibited in and through every sanctified soul. Sanctification is not drawing from Jesus the power to be holy— it is drawing from Jesus the very holiness that was exhibited in Him, and that He now exhibits in me. Sanctification is an impartation, not an imitation. Imitation is something altogether different. The perfection of everything is in Jesus Christ, and the mystery of sanctification is that all the perfect qualities of Jesus are at my disposal. Consequently, I slowly but surely begin to live a life of inexpressible order, soundness, and holiness— “. . . kept by the power of God . . .” (1 Peter 1:5).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
MOUNT EVEREST IS CLOSED - #7183
It just sounds weird: "Mount Everest is closed." But that was the headline No one was going to climb that most iconic of all mountaineering quests, because 16 Sherpa guides were lost on the mountain, as blocks of ice as big as automobiles cascaded down on them.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Mount Everest is Closed."
You don't venture onto that peak without a Sherpa. They are the legendary people of the mountain; the guides who take climbers there - climbers who pay up to $100,000 to the Nepalese government to go. And the Sherpas didn't want the mountain "open for business" the rest of the year because it had cost too much. Did you know getting to the top of a mountain often does.
Our personal "Everest's"; that treasured goal that we're driven to achieve. "I will be married no matter what." So many who conquered that slope now wish they had never dreamed the dream, because it turned into a nightmare.
"I will get to the top in what I do, whatever it takes." Only to sacrifice a spouse, a marriage, a child, a good name to get there. A price too high to pay. "My kid's going to be a winner. I'll make sure of it." So he or she becomes more of a performer than a person. A creation of a parent's ego rather than the person God made them to be. A robot programmed to please, but dangerously lonely and stressed.
Success. We each have our own definition. And there's nothing intrinsically wrong with wanting to climb our mountain. But in the words of Jesus, "Count the cost" in relationships, in integrity. What's it going to cost you in your health, in the lives of your children, in your personal peace?
No conquest, no dream is worth ending up in the emergency room with a medical crisis of your own or the emotional meltdown of someone you love, leaving behind you a trail of people wounded or crushed as you race for your finish line. That's a price too high to pay.
I've seen it too many times. Driving for a goal - even a noble goal - can make you blind to the needs around you and deaf to their cries, and oblivious to the cost until the avalanche.
Jesus asked a haunting question. It's in our word for today from the Word of God in Mark 8:36. It is worth thinking about seriously. "What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?" And so many have. It's a price too high to pay.
Isn't it amazing that we keep climbing these mountains thinking that surely the peace I've been looking for, the significance I've been looking for, the meaning I've been looking for, the wholeness I've been looking for in my soul, it will be at the top of this mountain. You got to the top of the mountain and it wasn't there. Or you think it's going to be at the top of the mountain, but the people who've been there have found nothing there.
There's a reason for that, because we were never meant ultimately to find our happiness, and find our wholeness, and find our identity in anything other than the person who gave us our life in the first place. And that is the God who put us here. It says in the Bible, "You were created by Him and for Him." And we've lived for everything else but Him. There's only one hill you can climb, only one mountain, where you're going to find what you're looking for. It's called Skull Hill in the Bible. There's a cross at the top, and that is where God's Son died to pay the price to reunite you and me with the God who fills the hole in our soul and who holds our eternity in His hands.
Maybe you've been climbing the wrong hills. Maybe you've been climbing the wrong mountains. It's time to find your way to where Jesus has died for you and say, "Jesus, I am Yours." And to finally find what has eluded you for a lifetime that can only be found in Him. If you've never done that, and you say, "I wish I knew how to begin that personal relationship with Him." I want to invite you to our website where I'd love to show you how - ANewStory.com. Because there is no Everest that is worth giving up an irreplaceable treasure.
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Exodus 5 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: At Peace with Yourself
There is a correlation between the way you feel about yourself and the way you feel about others. If you are at peace with yourself—you’ll get along with others. The converse is also true. If you are ashamed, embarrassed, or angry, other people are going to know it. The tragic thing is we tend to take it out on those we love unless the cycle is interrupted.
Which takes us to the question, “How does a person get relief?” Which takes us to one of the kindest verses in the Bible. In Matthew 11:28 Jesus says, “Come to me, all of you who are tired and have heavy loads, and I will give you rest.”
Be honest with Him. Admit you have soul secrets you’ve never dealt with. He’s just waiting for you to ask Him for help. You’ll be glad you did. Those near to you will be glad as well.
From When God Whispers Your Name
Exodus 5
Bricks Without Straw
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
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Read: Psalm 32:1-7
Blessed is the one
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
2 Blessed is the one
whose sin the Lord does not count against them
and in whose spirit is no deceit.
3 When I kept silent,
my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night
your hand was heavy on me;
my strength was sapped
as in the heat of summer.[b]
5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you
and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, “I will confess
my transgressions to the Lord.”
And you forgave
the guilt of my sin.
6 Therefore let all the faithful pray to you
while you may be found;
surely the rising of the mighty waters
will not reach them.
7 You are my hiding place;
you will protect me from trouble
and surround me with songs of deliverance.
Footnotes:
Psalm 32:1 Title: Probably a literary or musical term
Psalm 32:4 The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here and at the end of verses 5 and 7.
Insight
For about a year after his adultery with Bathsheba, David refused to repent of his sins (covetousness, adultery, deceit, and murder) until the prophet Nathan confronted him (2 Sam. 11–12). David penned Psalms 32 and 51 thereafter. In today’s psalm, David speaks of the heavy burden of guilt in his year-long denial of sin (vv.3-4). He also tells of the joy of receiving God’s gift of forgiveness when, with a contrite heart, he confesses and repents (vv.1-2,5) and becomes receptive to God’s rule in his life (vv.7-11). Warning of God’s disciplining hand (v.4), David urges all who have sinned to repent without delay (v.6).
Lasting Regrets
By Bill Crowder
When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. —Psalm 32:3
While I was talking with a gifted pianist, she asked me if I played any musical instruments. When I responded, “I play the radio,” she laughed and asked if I had ever wanted to play any instrument. My embarrassed answer was, “I took piano lessons as a boy but gave it up.” Now, in my adult years, I regret not continuing with the piano. I love music and wish I could play today. That conversation was a fresh reminder to me that life is often constituted by the choices we make—and some of them produce regret.
Some choices produce much more serious and painful regrets. King David discovered this when he chose to sleep with another man’s wife and then killed that man. He described the guilt that filled him as devastating, saying, “When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer” (Ps. 32:3-4). But David acknowledged and confessed his sin to God and found forgiveness (v.5).
It is only from God that we can receive the grace of forgiveness when our choices have produced painful regrets. And only in Him do we find the wisdom to make better choices.
Father of mercies, forgive me for the foolish choices
I have made. Please enable me to be wiser in
my choices. Teach me the value of resting
in Your grace.
God’s forgiveness frees us from the chains of regret.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Sanctification (1)
This is the will of God, your sanctification. . . —1 Thessalonians 4:3
The Death Side. In sanctification God has to deal with us on the death side as well as on the life side. Sanctification requires our coming to the place of death, but many of us spend so much time there that we become morbid. There is always a tremendous battle before sanctification is realized— something within us pushing with resentment against the demands of Christ. When the Holy Spirit begins to show us what sanctification means, the struggle starts immediately. Jesus said, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate . . . his own life . . . he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26).
In the process of sanctification, the Spirit of God will strip me down until there is nothing left but myself, and that is the place of death. Am I willing to be myself and nothing more? Am I willing to have no friends, no father, no brother, and no self-interest— simply to be ready for death? That is the condition required for sanctification. No wonder Jesus said, “I did not come to bring peace but a sword” (Matthew 10:34). This is where the battle comes, and where so many of us falter. We refuse to be identified with the death of Jesus Christ on this point. We say, “But this is so strict. Surely He does not require that of me.” Our Lord is strict, and He does require that of us.
Am I willing to reduce myself down to simply “me”? Am I determined enough to strip myself of all that my friends think of me, and all that I think of myself? Am I willing and determined to hand over my simple naked self to God? Once I am, He will immediately sanctify me completely, and my life will be free from being determined and persistent toward anything except God (see 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24).
When I pray, “Lord, show me what sanctification means for me,” He will show me. It means being made one with Jesus. Sanctification is not something Jesus puts in me— it is Himself in me (see 1 Corinthians 1:30).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Just the Two of Us - #7182
It had been a while since my wife and I had been able to have a vacation. In fact, it even took a few all-nighters to get us to a point where we could leave responsibly. But we did! It was a bit unusual for a vacation, because almost always there had been at least one of the three kids with us. But our daughter was married, our oldest son was involved in full-time ministry, and our youngest son was in college. It became a vacation like the pre-children days a very long time ago. See, for most of our year, the needs of our children shaped our daily schedules and the needs of many people. And most of our vacations we had to factor in what the kids would enjoy. We planned a lot of vacation days around them, as you probably have as a parent.
But suddenly we were waking up in the morning with just each other. It was great to ask just my wife, "What would you like to do today?" Every meal, every conversation, every choice, every activity-just us. And before everyone else, even our precious children, that's how it was. It was just us. We came back to the voices and needs of a lot of people again, but I want to live with that same bottom line, keeping my core relationship always at the center. But for a very special time, there were only two people in the whole world.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Just the Two of Us."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Isaiah 50:4. "The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning; wakens my ear to listen like one being taught." Now, look, you may or may not be a morning person; you might even hate morning people. But this is the way to begin each new day; the Lord getting you up for another day He has made; morning by morning Him waking you up.
And then speaking to your heart in those untouched, unspoiled moments, His preparation for what only He knows is going to be coming that day. The verse makes me think about Mary. It says that she sat at the Lord's feet, listening to what He said. Now, there was a lot of hustle and bustle around her. Her sister, Martha, was getting everything ready for dinner. But for those moments, there were only two people in the world. Mary could say, "Jesus and me."
See, that's how God wants you to begin every day; spending focused, one-on-one, exclusive time with Him, remembering again who you are supposed to be living for. It's kind of like a short, spiritual vacation like I took with my wife, where for that short time there were only two people in the whole world. With that number one relationship clarified; the one with Jesus, your priorities are straight. You're ready to "seek first the kingdom of God." You can face the day's demands without wandering off course.
Jesus knows exactly what you need to know each new morning. He knows what temptations you're going to be hitting, what surprises good or bad, what people you're going to be with, what questions you're going to need the answers for. He knows what pressures are going to be squeezing you, and He wants to get you ready for all that. But you do have to reserve time as it says here to "listen like one being taught" morning by morning.
Are you doing that? He wants to whisper words in your heart, usually through the book He wrote. And as you listen to music about Him, you read verses about Him, you pour out your heart to Him, you are filling up on Jesus before facing the rest of the world.
It made such a difference for me to be with my wife alone; to remember how much she means to me, to hear no voice but hers. I need that with my Savior each new day and so do you. Life's bottom line needs daily reinforcement. It ultimately comes down to just two people-Jesus and you.
Monday, July 21, 2014
Exodus 4, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: An Itchy, Scratchy Burlap Sack
You have a sack. An itchy, scratchy burlap sack! You probably aren’t even aware of it, you may not have been told about it, but it was given to you. You needed the sack to carry the rocks, boulders, pebbles. All are unwanted. Some were rocks of rejection. You thought you were good enough for the team, but the coach didn’t. The instructor didn’t. They and how many others? It doesn’t take long before you get a collection of stones. Make a bad choice…get called a few names…get abused. And so the sack gets heavy with stones we don’t deserve, along with a few we do.
How can you have dreams for the future when all your energy is required to shoulder the past? Jesus says He is the solution for weariness of the soul. Go to Him. “Come to me, all who are weak and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). He already knows what your stones are. He’s just waiting for you to give Him your sack!
From When God Whispers Your Name
Exodus 4
Signs for Moses
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[a]—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[b] 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.[c] “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
Monday, July 21, 2014
Read: John 4:7-15
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
Footnotes:
John 4:9 Or do not use dishes Samaritans have used
Insight
The stories of Nicodemus (John 3) and the woman at the well (John 4) are found side by side in Scripture, yet there is great contrast between them. Contrary to Nicodemus, the woman at the well recognized that Jesus was offering something that she could not do without. Nicodemus’ last words to Jesus were, “How can these things be?” (3:9). The woman simply responded, “Sir, give me this water” (4:15).
Water For The World
By C. P. Hia
He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. —John 7:38
Although 70 percent of the world is covered by water, less than 1 percent of it is drinkable by humans. Water conservation and sanitation are crucial matters in many parts of the world, as all life depends on having sanitary water.
Jesus went out of His way to introduce a lost woman to another kind of life-giving water. He deliberately chose to go to a town in Samaria, a place where no respectable rabbi would set foot. There, He told this woman about “living water.” Those who drink of it, He said, “will never thirst.” It will “become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14).
The living water is Jesus Himself. Those who receive Him have eternal life (v.14). But the living water He provides also serves another function. Jesus said of those who receive it: “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (7:38). The living water that refreshes us is to refresh others also.
As fresh-water distribution is uneven in the world, so too is the distribution of living water. Many people do not know followers of Jesus who really care about them. It is our privilege to share Him. Christ is, after all, the living water for whom people are thirsting.
Lord Jesus, I want to live for You. May Your
life and love flow through me as I go about my
duties today so that others may see You through
me and be drawn to the living water.
Jesus is a never-ending supply of living water for a parched world.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, July 21, 2014
The Doorway to the Kingdom
Blessed are the poor in spirit . . . —Matthew 5:3
Beware of thinking of our Lord as only a teacher. If Jesus Christ is only a teacher, then all He can do is frustrate me by setting a standard before me I cannot attain. What is the point of presenting me with such a lofty ideal if I cannot possibly come close to reaching it? I would be happier if I never knew it. What good is there in telling me to be what I can never be— to be “pure in heart” (Matthew 5:8), to do more than my duty, or to be completely devoted to God? I must know Jesus Christ as my Savior before His teaching has any meaning for me other than that of a lofty ideal which only leads to despair. But when I am born again by the Spirit of God, I know that Jesus Christ did not come only to teach— He came to make me what He teaches I should be. The redemption means that Jesus Christ can place within anyone the same nature that ruled His own life, and all the standards God gives us are based on that nature.
The teaching of the Sermon on the Mount produces a sense of despair in the natural man— exactly what Jesus means for it to do. As long as we have some self-righteous idea that we can carry out our Lord’s teaching, God will allow us to continue until we expose our own ignorance by stumbling over some obstacle in our way. Only then are we willing to come to Him as paupers and receive from Him. “Blessed are the poor in spirit . . . .” This is the first principle in the kingdom of God. The underlying foundation of Jesus Christ’s kingdom is poverty, not possessions; not making decisions for Jesus, but having such a sense of absolute futility that we finally admit, “Lord, I cannot even begin to do it.” Then Jesus says, “Blessed are you . . .” (Matthew 5:11). This is the doorway to the kingdom, and yet it takes us so long to believe that we are actually poor! The knowledge of our own poverty is what brings us to the proper place where Jesus Christ accomplishes His work.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, July 21, 2014
WHAT YOU'RE MISSING WHEN YOU'RE FLYING - #7181
P3 (right click to save)
I was on a typical wall-to-wall schedule, and old man winter wasn't cooperating. I was traveling with my wife and we were slipping and sliding through this major snow storm to get to our flight at the airport. We heard on the radio that flights were being seriously delayed. I told my wife, "That airport's going to close. I know it is." So we made a last-minute decision. We called Amtrak. They had two seats left on the train, and we diverted from the airport to the train station.
Now, it worked, but I was not a happy camper. I had no choice. They did close the airport that day, and as it turned out, we had to take the train both ways - to Chicago and back. But you know, as I watched America go by outside my window, I have to confess I began to unwind. This is the stuff I usually fly over in my rush to get to my destination. Now I've got a confession to make. The next trip my wife and I had to make - I asked her to check on the train.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "What You're Missing When You're Flying."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from some of the most familiar, beautiful words in the Bible, Psalm 23. "The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul." This is my favorite picture of my relationship with the Lord: I love Him shepherd, me sheep.
And this is an unusual ministry that the shepherd has. It's described in these verses; one that you might be having in your life right now. It's what I call the ministry of the enforced slowdown. He says, "He makes me lie down." But not in a bad place; it's in green pastures. And He makes you lie down to see some things you could never see when you're running through or flying by.
Now, the Lord has many means of making us lie down, doesn't he? I've experienced a few. Or at least to get you to slow down. He's got medical brakes that He steps on to slow you down, financial brakes, family brakes; some situation that forces us to stop and give it attention. Some circumstance comes along that forces you to go slower.
And then there's me when I had to take the train, grumbling and resisting every step of the way. Maybe you're there right now. But God has things for you to see that you're missing when you're going full throttle. Maybe you've been missing the person you're married to, and God's saying, "Slow down! Rediscover the treasure I gave you in this person."
Maybe you've been missing the daily drama of your child growing up right before your eyes; days you can never get back. And God's putting on the brakes so you can get to know your son or daughter. And unfortunately, a crisis is often what brings a family closer to each other than anything else.
Possibly you've been missing quality time with the Lord Himself, and God is saying, "Be still and know that I am God." Not be busy and know, and you've been flying right past your Lord day after day. Your priorities got jumbled somewhere. At the speed you've been traveling, you can't even see the faces of people. You can't hear what they're saying. You can't enjoy the journey because you're so obsessed with the destination. So in His love, the Shepherd has declared a slowdown for you. Embrace it!
If all of a sudden you can't fly like you're used to doing, don't pound the wall or don't complain. Thank the Lord for making you lie down so you can see some green pastures that you've been flying right by.
You have a sack. An itchy, scratchy burlap sack! You probably aren’t even aware of it, you may not have been told about it, but it was given to you. You needed the sack to carry the rocks, boulders, pebbles. All are unwanted. Some were rocks of rejection. You thought you were good enough for the team, but the coach didn’t. The instructor didn’t. They and how many others? It doesn’t take long before you get a collection of stones. Make a bad choice…get called a few names…get abused. And so the sack gets heavy with stones we don’t deserve, along with a few we do.
How can you have dreams for the future when all your energy is required to shoulder the past? Jesus says He is the solution for weariness of the soul. Go to Him. “Come to me, all who are weak and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). He already knows what your stones are. He’s just waiting for you to give Him your sack!
From When God Whispers Your Name
Exodus 4
Signs for Moses
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[a]—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[b] 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.[c] “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
Monday, July 21, 2014
Read: John 4:7-15
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
Footnotes:
John 4:9 Or do not use dishes Samaritans have used
Insight
The stories of Nicodemus (John 3) and the woman at the well (John 4) are found side by side in Scripture, yet there is great contrast between them. Contrary to Nicodemus, the woman at the well recognized that Jesus was offering something that she could not do without. Nicodemus’ last words to Jesus were, “How can these things be?” (3:9). The woman simply responded, “Sir, give me this water” (4:15).
Water For The World
By C. P. Hia
He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. —John 7:38
Although 70 percent of the world is covered by water, less than 1 percent of it is drinkable by humans. Water conservation and sanitation are crucial matters in many parts of the world, as all life depends on having sanitary water.
Jesus went out of His way to introduce a lost woman to another kind of life-giving water. He deliberately chose to go to a town in Samaria, a place where no respectable rabbi would set foot. There, He told this woman about “living water.” Those who drink of it, He said, “will never thirst.” It will “become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14).
The living water is Jesus Himself. Those who receive Him have eternal life (v.14). But the living water He provides also serves another function. Jesus said of those who receive it: “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (7:38). The living water that refreshes us is to refresh others also.
As fresh-water distribution is uneven in the world, so too is the distribution of living water. Many people do not know followers of Jesus who really care about them. It is our privilege to share Him. Christ is, after all, the living water for whom people are thirsting.
Lord Jesus, I want to live for You. May Your
life and love flow through me as I go about my
duties today so that others may see You through
me and be drawn to the living water.
Jesus is a never-ending supply of living water for a parched world.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, July 21, 2014
The Doorway to the Kingdom
Blessed are the poor in spirit . . . —Matthew 5:3
Beware of thinking of our Lord as only a teacher. If Jesus Christ is only a teacher, then all He can do is frustrate me by setting a standard before me I cannot attain. What is the point of presenting me with such a lofty ideal if I cannot possibly come close to reaching it? I would be happier if I never knew it. What good is there in telling me to be what I can never be— to be “pure in heart” (Matthew 5:8), to do more than my duty, or to be completely devoted to God? I must know Jesus Christ as my Savior before His teaching has any meaning for me other than that of a lofty ideal which only leads to despair. But when I am born again by the Spirit of God, I know that Jesus Christ did not come only to teach— He came to make me what He teaches I should be. The redemption means that Jesus Christ can place within anyone the same nature that ruled His own life, and all the standards God gives us are based on that nature.
The teaching of the Sermon on the Mount produces a sense of despair in the natural man— exactly what Jesus means for it to do. As long as we have some self-righteous idea that we can carry out our Lord’s teaching, God will allow us to continue until we expose our own ignorance by stumbling over some obstacle in our way. Only then are we willing to come to Him as paupers and receive from Him. “Blessed are the poor in spirit . . . .” This is the first principle in the kingdom of God. The underlying foundation of Jesus Christ’s kingdom is poverty, not possessions; not making decisions for Jesus, but having such a sense of absolute futility that we finally admit, “Lord, I cannot even begin to do it.” Then Jesus says, “Blessed are you . . .” (Matthew 5:11). This is the doorway to the kingdom, and yet it takes us so long to believe that we are actually poor! The knowledge of our own poverty is what brings us to the proper place where Jesus Christ accomplishes His work.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, July 21, 2014
WHAT YOU'RE MISSING WHEN YOU'RE FLYING - #7181
P3 (right click to save)
I was on a typical wall-to-wall schedule, and old man winter wasn't cooperating. I was traveling with my wife and we were slipping and sliding through this major snow storm to get to our flight at the airport. We heard on the radio that flights were being seriously delayed. I told my wife, "That airport's going to close. I know it is." So we made a last-minute decision. We called Amtrak. They had two seats left on the train, and we diverted from the airport to the train station.
Now, it worked, but I was not a happy camper. I had no choice. They did close the airport that day, and as it turned out, we had to take the train both ways - to Chicago and back. But you know, as I watched America go by outside my window, I have to confess I began to unwind. This is the stuff I usually fly over in my rush to get to my destination. Now I've got a confession to make. The next trip my wife and I had to make - I asked her to check on the train.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "What You're Missing When You're Flying."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from some of the most familiar, beautiful words in the Bible, Psalm 23. "The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul." This is my favorite picture of my relationship with the Lord: I love Him shepherd, me sheep.
And this is an unusual ministry that the shepherd has. It's described in these verses; one that you might be having in your life right now. It's what I call the ministry of the enforced slowdown. He says, "He makes me lie down." But not in a bad place; it's in green pastures. And He makes you lie down to see some things you could never see when you're running through or flying by.
Now, the Lord has many means of making us lie down, doesn't he? I've experienced a few. Or at least to get you to slow down. He's got medical brakes that He steps on to slow you down, financial brakes, family brakes; some situation that forces us to stop and give it attention. Some circumstance comes along that forces you to go slower.
And then there's me when I had to take the train, grumbling and resisting every step of the way. Maybe you're there right now. But God has things for you to see that you're missing when you're going full throttle. Maybe you've been missing the person you're married to, and God's saying, "Slow down! Rediscover the treasure I gave you in this person."
Maybe you've been missing the daily drama of your child growing up right before your eyes; days you can never get back. And God's putting on the brakes so you can get to know your son or daughter. And unfortunately, a crisis is often what brings a family closer to each other than anything else.
Possibly you've been missing quality time with the Lord Himself, and God is saying, "Be still and know that I am God." Not be busy and know, and you've been flying right past your Lord day after day. Your priorities got jumbled somewhere. At the speed you've been traveling, you can't even see the faces of people. You can't hear what they're saying. You can't enjoy the journey because you're so obsessed with the destination. So in His love, the Shepherd has declared a slowdown for you. Embrace it!
If all of a sudden you can't fly like you're used to doing, don't pound the wall or don't complain. Thank the Lord for making you lie down so you can see some green pastures that you've been flying right by.
Sunday, July 20, 2014
Matthew 24:1-28, Bible reading and devotionals.
MaxLucado.com: God is Enough
Let’s face it–anxiety or worry have no advantages! They ruin our health, rob us of joy, and change nothing! Our day stands no chance against the terrorists of the Land of Anxiety.
But Christ offers a worry-bazooka. Remember how He taught us to pray? “Give us this day our daily bread. Matthew 6:11” This simple sentence unveils God’s provision plan: live one day at a time.
Worry gives small problems big shadows. Corrie ten Boom said, “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows; it empties today of its strength.” And Romans 8:28 affirms: “Every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.”
Most anxiety stems, not from what we need, but from what we want. Philippians 4:4 says, “delight yourselves in the Lord, yes, find your joy in Him at all times!”
If God is enough, you’ll always have enough!
From Great Day Every Day
Matthew 24:1-28
New International Version (NIV)
The Destruction of the Temple and Signs of the End Times
24 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,’[a] 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.
Footnotes:
Matthew 24:15 Daniel 9:27; 11:31; 12:11
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Isaiah 49:1-6
The Servant of the Lord
Listen to me, you islands;
hear this, you distant nations:
Before I was born the Lord called me;
from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name.
2 He made my mouth like a sharpened sword,
in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me into a polished arrow
and concealed me in his quiver.
3 He said to me, “You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will display my splendor.”
4 But I said, “I have labored in vain;
I have spent my strength for nothing at all.
Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand,
and my reward is with my God.”
5 And now the Lord says—
he who formed me in the womb to be his servant
to bring Jacob back to him
and gather Israel to himself,
for I am[a] honored in the eyes of the Lord
and my God has been my strength—
6 he says:
“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant
to restore the tribes of Jacob
and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”
Footnotes:
Isaiah 49:5 Or him, / but Israel would not be gathered; / yet I will be
Insight
Isaiah prophesied under Kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, meaning that his ministry may have continued for more than 64 years. He was the son of Amoz (Isa.1:1), was married (his wife was referred to as “the prophetess,” 8:3), and had two sons, whose names symbolized the turbulent times in which Isaiah served his God. His first son’s name, Shear-Jashub (7:3), means “a remnant shall return” and his second son’s name, Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz (8:3), means “spoil quickly, plunder speedily.”
Small Ways In Small Places
By David H. Roper
For who has despised the day of small things? —Zechariah 4:10
Often I meet with people who serve in what they think are seemingly small ways in small places. They are frequently discouraged by loneliness, feeling that their acts of service are insignificant. When I hear them speak, I think of one of the angels in C. S. Lewis’ book Out of the Silent Planet. He said: “My people have a law never to speak of sizes or numbers to you. . . . It makes you do reverence to nothings and pass by what is really great.”
Sometimes culture says bigger is better—that size is the truest measure of success. It takes a strong person to resist that trend, especially if he or she is laboring in a small place. But we must not “pass by what is really great.”
It’s not that numbers aren’t important (after all, the apostles counted their converts; see Acts 2:41). Numbers represent living people with eternal needs. We should all work and pray for large numbers of people to enter the kingdom, but numbers mustn’t be the basis for self-esteem.
God doesn’t call us to find fulfillment in the amount of work we do for Him, or the number of people who are a part of that work, but in faithfully doing our work for His sake. Serving our great God with His strength in a small way is not a stepping-stone to greatness—it is greatness.
Lord, help me remember that there are no
small places or small people. All are precious
in Your sight. May I see the value of my work
and cherish it as You do.
Anyone doing God’s work in God’s way is important in His sight.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, July 20, 2014
Dependent on God’s Presence
Those who wait on the Lord . . . shall walk and not faint —Isaiah 40:31
There is no thrill for us in walking, yet it is the test for all of our steady and enduring qualities. To “walk and not faint” is the highest stretch possible as a measure of strength. The word walk is used in the Bible to express the character of a person— “. . . John . . . looking at Jesus as He walked. . . said, ’Behold the Lamb of God!’ ” (John 1:35-36). There is nothing abstract or obscure in the Bible; everything is vivid and real. God does not say, “Be spiritual,” but He says, “Walk before Me. . .” (Genesis 17:1).
When we are in an unhealthy condition either physically or emotionally, we always look for thrills in life. In our physical life this leads to our efforts to counterfeit the work of the Holy Spirit; in our emotional life it leads to obsessions and to the destruction of our morality; and in our spiritual life, if we insist on pursuing only thrills, on mounting up “with wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:31), it will result in the destruction of our spirituality.
Having the reality of God’s presence is not dependent on our being in a particular circumstance or place, but is only dependent on our determination to keep the Lord before us continually. Our problems arise when we refuse to place our trust in the reality of His presence. The experience the psalmist speaks of— “We will not fear, even though . . .” (Psalm 46:2)— will be ours once we are grounded on the truth of the reality of God’s presence, not just a simple awareness of it, but an understanding of the reality of it. Then we will exclaim, “He has been here all the time!” At critical moments in our lives it is necessary to ask God for guidance, but it should be unnecessary to be constantly saying, “Oh, Lord, direct me in this, and in that.” Of course He will, and in fact, He is doing it already! If our everyday decisions are not according to His will, He will press through them, bringing restraint to our spirit. Then we must be quiet and wait for the direction of His presence.
Let’s face it–anxiety or worry have no advantages! They ruin our health, rob us of joy, and change nothing! Our day stands no chance against the terrorists of the Land of Anxiety.
But Christ offers a worry-bazooka. Remember how He taught us to pray? “Give us this day our daily bread. Matthew 6:11” This simple sentence unveils God’s provision plan: live one day at a time.
Worry gives small problems big shadows. Corrie ten Boom said, “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows; it empties today of its strength.” And Romans 8:28 affirms: “Every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.”
Most anxiety stems, not from what we need, but from what we want. Philippians 4:4 says, “delight yourselves in the Lord, yes, find your joy in Him at all times!”
If God is enough, you’ll always have enough!
From Great Day Every Day
Matthew 24:1-28
New International Version (NIV)
The Destruction of the Temple and Signs of the End Times
24 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,’[a] 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.
Footnotes:
Matthew 24:15 Daniel 9:27; 11:31; 12:11
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Isaiah 49:1-6
The Servant of the Lord
Listen to me, you islands;
hear this, you distant nations:
Before I was born the Lord called me;
from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name.
2 He made my mouth like a sharpened sword,
in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me into a polished arrow
and concealed me in his quiver.
3 He said to me, “You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will display my splendor.”
4 But I said, “I have labored in vain;
I have spent my strength for nothing at all.
Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand,
and my reward is with my God.”
5 And now the Lord says—
he who formed me in the womb to be his servant
to bring Jacob back to him
and gather Israel to himself,
for I am[a] honored in the eyes of the Lord
and my God has been my strength—
6 he says:
“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant
to restore the tribes of Jacob
and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”
Footnotes:
Isaiah 49:5 Or him, / but Israel would not be gathered; / yet I will be
Insight
Isaiah prophesied under Kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, meaning that his ministry may have continued for more than 64 years. He was the son of Amoz (Isa.1:1), was married (his wife was referred to as “the prophetess,” 8:3), and had two sons, whose names symbolized the turbulent times in which Isaiah served his God. His first son’s name, Shear-Jashub (7:3), means “a remnant shall return” and his second son’s name, Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz (8:3), means “spoil quickly, plunder speedily.”
Small Ways In Small Places
By David H. Roper
For who has despised the day of small things? —Zechariah 4:10
Often I meet with people who serve in what they think are seemingly small ways in small places. They are frequently discouraged by loneliness, feeling that their acts of service are insignificant. When I hear them speak, I think of one of the angels in C. S. Lewis’ book Out of the Silent Planet. He said: “My people have a law never to speak of sizes or numbers to you. . . . It makes you do reverence to nothings and pass by what is really great.”
Sometimes culture says bigger is better—that size is the truest measure of success. It takes a strong person to resist that trend, especially if he or she is laboring in a small place. But we must not “pass by what is really great.”
It’s not that numbers aren’t important (after all, the apostles counted their converts; see Acts 2:41). Numbers represent living people with eternal needs. We should all work and pray for large numbers of people to enter the kingdom, but numbers mustn’t be the basis for self-esteem.
God doesn’t call us to find fulfillment in the amount of work we do for Him, or the number of people who are a part of that work, but in faithfully doing our work for His sake. Serving our great God with His strength in a small way is not a stepping-stone to greatness—it is greatness.
Lord, help me remember that there are no
small places or small people. All are precious
in Your sight. May I see the value of my work
and cherish it as You do.
Anyone doing God’s work in God’s way is important in His sight.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, July 20, 2014
Dependent on God’s Presence
Those who wait on the Lord . . . shall walk and not faint —Isaiah 40:31
There is no thrill for us in walking, yet it is the test for all of our steady and enduring qualities. To “walk and not faint” is the highest stretch possible as a measure of strength. The word walk is used in the Bible to express the character of a person— “. . . John . . . looking at Jesus as He walked. . . said, ’Behold the Lamb of God!’ ” (John 1:35-36). There is nothing abstract or obscure in the Bible; everything is vivid and real. God does not say, “Be spiritual,” but He says, “Walk before Me. . .” (Genesis 17:1).
When we are in an unhealthy condition either physically or emotionally, we always look for thrills in life. In our physical life this leads to our efforts to counterfeit the work of the Holy Spirit; in our emotional life it leads to obsessions and to the destruction of our morality; and in our spiritual life, if we insist on pursuing only thrills, on mounting up “with wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:31), it will result in the destruction of our spirituality.
Having the reality of God’s presence is not dependent on our being in a particular circumstance or place, but is only dependent on our determination to keep the Lord before us continually. Our problems arise when we refuse to place our trust in the reality of His presence. The experience the psalmist speaks of— “We will not fear, even though . . .” (Psalm 46:2)— will be ours once we are grounded on the truth of the reality of God’s presence, not just a simple awareness of it, but an understanding of the reality of it. Then we will exclaim, “He has been here all the time!” At critical moments in our lives it is necessary to ask God for guidance, but it should be unnecessary to be constantly saying, “Oh, Lord, direct me in this, and in that.” Of course He will, and in fact, He is doing it already! If our everyday decisions are not according to His will, He will press through them, bringing restraint to our spirit. Then we must be quiet and wait for the direction of His presence.
Saturday, July 19, 2014
Exodus 3, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: 'Birthdays'
What is it about birthdays that causes us to quiver so? Certainly part of the problem is the mirror. Time may be a great healer, but it’s a lousy beautician. But the real pain is deeper. Sometimes a dream-come-true-world has come true and it’s less than you’d hoped. Regret becomes a major pastime.
Luke 17:33 says, “Whoever tries to keep his life safe will lose it, and the one who’s prepared to lose his life will preserve it.” “There are two ways to view life,” Jesus is saying, “those who protect it or those who pursue it. The wisest are not the ones with the most years in their lives, but the most life in their years.”
You can take the safe route. Or you can hear the voice of adventure—God’s adventure. Adopt the child. Teach the class. Change careers. Make a difference. Sure it isn’t safe, but what is?
from He Still Moves Stones
Exodus 3
Moses and the Burning Bush
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,[e] 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[f] 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.[g] 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,[h] 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.”
Footnotes:
Exodus 3:6 Masoretic Text; Samaritan Pentateuch (see Acts 7:32) fathers
Exodus 3:12 The Hebrew is plural.
Exodus 3:14 Or I will be what I will be
Exodus 3:15 The Hebrew for Lord sounds like and may be related to the Hebrew for I am in verse 14.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Psalm 102:18-28
Let this be written for a future generation,
that a people not yet created may praise the Lord:
19 “The Lord looked down from his sanctuary on high,
from heaven he viewed the earth,
20 to hear the groans of the prisoners
and release those condemned to death.”
21 So the name of the Lord will be declared in Zion
and his praise in Jerusalem
22 when the peoples and the kingdoms
assemble to worship the Lord.
23 In the course of my life[a] he broke my strength;
he cut short my days.
24 So I said:
“Do not take me away, my God, in the midst of my days;
your years go on through all generations.
25 In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
26 They will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
Like clothing you will change them
and they will be discarded.
27 But you remain the same,
and your years will never end.
28 The children of your servants will live in your presence;
their descendants will be established before you.”
Insight
How comforting to know that God is always the same and never changes! Despite the twists and turns, ups and downs, and constant changes of our lives, we know that standing powerful and constant above it all is our God. The wonderful things that God has done for us must be preserved and told to others (v.18).
Whoppers Or Adventures?
By Randy Kilgore
But You are the same, and Your years will have no end. —Psalm 102:27
My grandfather loved to tell stories, and I loved to listen. Papaw had two kinds of tales. “Whoppers” were stories with a whiff of truth, but which changed with each new telling. “Adventures” were stories that really happened, and the facts never changed when retold. One day my grandfather told a story that just seemed too far-fetched to be true. “Whopper,” I declared, but my grandfather insisted it was true. Although his telling never varied, I simply couldn’t believe it, it was that unusual.
Then one day, while I was listening to a radio program, I heard the announcer tell a story that confirmed the truth of my grandfather’s tale. My grandfather’s “whopper” suddenly became an “adventure.” It was a moving moment of remembrance that made him even more trustworthy in my eyes.
When the psalmist wrote about the unchanging nature of God (102:27), he was offering this same comfort—the trustworthiness of God—to us. The idea is repeated in Hebrews 13:8 with these words, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” This can lift our hearts above our daily trials to remind us that an unchanging, trustworthy God rules over even the chaos of a changing world.
Our God is God—He does not change;
His truth, His love remain each day the same,
He’s faithful to His matchless name,
For God is God—He does not change. —D. DeHaan
Let the sameness of God waft over your heart with His peace in your storms.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, July 19, 2014
The Submission of the Believer
You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am —John 13:13
Our Lord never insists on having authority over us. He never says, “You will submit to me.” No, He leaves us perfectly free to choose— so free, in fact, that we can spit in His face or we can put Him to death, as others have done; and yet He will never say a word. But once His life has been created in me through His redemption, I instantly recognize His right to absolute authority over me. It is a complete and effective domination, in which I acknowledge that “You are worthy, O Lord . . .” (Revelation 4:11). It is simply the unworthiness within me that refuses to bow down or to submit to one who is worthy. When I meet someone who is more holy than myself, and I don’t recognize his worthiness, nor obey his instructions for me, it is a sign of my own unworthiness being revealed. God teaches us by using these people who are a little better than we are; not better intellectually, but more holy. And He continues to do so until we willingly submit. Then the whole attitude of our life is one of obedience to Him.
If our Lord insisted on our obedience, He would simply become a taskmaster and cease to have any real authority. He never insists on obedience, but when we truly see Him we will instantly obey Him. Then He is easily Lord of our life, and we live in adoration of Him from morning till night. The level of my growth in grace is revealed by the way I look at obedience. We should have a much higher view of the word obedience, rescuing it from the mire of the world. Obedience is only possible between people who are equals in their relationship to each other; like the relationship between father and son, not that between master and servant. Jesus showed this relationship by saying, “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30). “. . . though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). The Son was obedient as our Redeemer, because He was the Son, not in order to become God’s Son.
What is it about birthdays that causes us to quiver so? Certainly part of the problem is the mirror. Time may be a great healer, but it’s a lousy beautician. But the real pain is deeper. Sometimes a dream-come-true-world has come true and it’s less than you’d hoped. Regret becomes a major pastime.
Luke 17:33 says, “Whoever tries to keep his life safe will lose it, and the one who’s prepared to lose his life will preserve it.” “There are two ways to view life,” Jesus is saying, “those who protect it or those who pursue it. The wisest are not the ones with the most years in their lives, but the most life in their years.”
You can take the safe route. Or you can hear the voice of adventure—God’s adventure. Adopt the child. Teach the class. Change careers. Make a difference. Sure it isn’t safe, but what is?
from He Still Moves Stones
Exodus 3
Moses and the Burning Bush
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,[e] 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[f] 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.[g] 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,[h] 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.”
Footnotes:
Exodus 3:6 Masoretic Text; Samaritan Pentateuch (see Acts 7:32) fathers
Exodus 3:12 The Hebrew is plural.
Exodus 3:14 Or I will be what I will be
Exodus 3:15 The Hebrew for Lord sounds like and may be related to the Hebrew for I am in verse 14.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Psalm 102:18-28
Let this be written for a future generation,
that a people not yet created may praise the Lord:
19 “The Lord looked down from his sanctuary on high,
from heaven he viewed the earth,
20 to hear the groans of the prisoners
and release those condemned to death.”
21 So the name of the Lord will be declared in Zion
and his praise in Jerusalem
22 when the peoples and the kingdoms
assemble to worship the Lord.
23 In the course of my life[a] he broke my strength;
he cut short my days.
24 So I said:
“Do not take me away, my God, in the midst of my days;
your years go on through all generations.
25 In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
26 They will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
Like clothing you will change them
and they will be discarded.
27 But you remain the same,
and your years will never end.
28 The children of your servants will live in your presence;
their descendants will be established before you.”
Insight
How comforting to know that God is always the same and never changes! Despite the twists and turns, ups and downs, and constant changes of our lives, we know that standing powerful and constant above it all is our God. The wonderful things that God has done for us must be preserved and told to others (v.18).
Whoppers Or Adventures?
By Randy Kilgore
But You are the same, and Your years will have no end. —Psalm 102:27
My grandfather loved to tell stories, and I loved to listen. Papaw had two kinds of tales. “Whoppers” were stories with a whiff of truth, but which changed with each new telling. “Adventures” were stories that really happened, and the facts never changed when retold. One day my grandfather told a story that just seemed too far-fetched to be true. “Whopper,” I declared, but my grandfather insisted it was true. Although his telling never varied, I simply couldn’t believe it, it was that unusual.
Then one day, while I was listening to a radio program, I heard the announcer tell a story that confirmed the truth of my grandfather’s tale. My grandfather’s “whopper” suddenly became an “adventure.” It was a moving moment of remembrance that made him even more trustworthy in my eyes.
When the psalmist wrote about the unchanging nature of God (102:27), he was offering this same comfort—the trustworthiness of God—to us. The idea is repeated in Hebrews 13:8 with these words, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” This can lift our hearts above our daily trials to remind us that an unchanging, trustworthy God rules over even the chaos of a changing world.
Our God is God—He does not change;
His truth, His love remain each day the same,
He’s faithful to His matchless name,
For God is God—He does not change. —D. DeHaan
Let the sameness of God waft over your heart with His peace in your storms.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, July 19, 2014
The Submission of the Believer
You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am —John 13:13
Our Lord never insists on having authority over us. He never says, “You will submit to me.” No, He leaves us perfectly free to choose— so free, in fact, that we can spit in His face or we can put Him to death, as others have done; and yet He will never say a word. But once His life has been created in me through His redemption, I instantly recognize His right to absolute authority over me. It is a complete and effective domination, in which I acknowledge that “You are worthy, O Lord . . .” (Revelation 4:11). It is simply the unworthiness within me that refuses to bow down or to submit to one who is worthy. When I meet someone who is more holy than myself, and I don’t recognize his worthiness, nor obey his instructions for me, it is a sign of my own unworthiness being revealed. God teaches us by using these people who are a little better than we are; not better intellectually, but more holy. And He continues to do so until we willingly submit. Then the whole attitude of our life is one of obedience to Him.
If our Lord insisted on our obedience, He would simply become a taskmaster and cease to have any real authority. He never insists on obedience, but when we truly see Him we will instantly obey Him. Then He is easily Lord of our life, and we live in adoration of Him from morning till night. The level of my growth in grace is revealed by the way I look at obedience. We should have a much higher view of the word obedience, rescuing it from the mire of the world. Obedience is only possible between people who are equals in their relationship to each other; like the relationship between father and son, not that between master and servant. Jesus showed this relationship by saying, “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30). “. . . though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). The Son was obedient as our Redeemer, because He was the Son, not in order to become God’s Son.
Friday, July 18, 2014
Exodus 2 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Sowing Seeds
Many parents aren’t proud of their family trees. The harvest was taken, but no seed was sown. Childhood memories bring more hurt than inspiration. If such is the case, put down the family scrapbook and pick up your Bible. John 3:6 reminds us, “Human life comes from human parents, but spiritual life comes from the Spirit.” Your parents have given you genes, but God gives you grace.
Didn’t have a good father? Galatians 4:7 says God will be your father. Didn’t have a good role model? Ephesians 5:1 says, “You are God’s child whom He loves, so try to be like Him.”
You cannot control the way your forefathers responded to God. But you can control the way you respond to Him. The past does not have to be your prison. Choose well and someday—generations from now—your grandchildren and great-grandchildren will thank God for the seeds you sowed!
From When God Whispers Your Name
Exodus 2
The Birth of Moses
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[b] 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,[c] 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,[d] 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: Jeremiah 17:5-10
This is what the Lord says:
“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
who draws strength from mere flesh
and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
6 That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;
they will not see prosperity when it comes.
They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
in a salt land where no one lives.
7 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
8 They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”
9 The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?
10 “I the Lord search the heart
and examine the mind,
to reward each person according to their conduct,
according to what their deeds deserve.”
Insight
The heart is the very basis of character, including the mind and will. Because of our sinful nature, the “heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9). Jeremiah debunked the popular belief that people are basically good (cf. Job 25:4; Ps. 51:5). That God examines and tests the heart is the consistent teaching of Scripture (1 Sam. 16:7; 1 Chron. 28:9; 2 Chron. 6:30; Ps. 139:1-2; Jer. 11:20; Rom. 8:27; Heb. 4:12-13). Although we might try to hide our innermost thoughts and motives from others, God sees. He alone knows the true character of every person. God searches and knows us, but loves us despite our inherent sinfulness.
Living Bridges
By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord. —Jeremiah 17:7
People who live in Cherrapunji, India, have developed a unique way to get across the many rivers and streams in their land. They grow bridges from the roots of rubber trees. These “living bridges” take between 10 to 15 years to mature, but once they are established, they are extremely stable and last for hundreds of years.
The Bible compares a person who trusts in God to “a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river” (Jer. 17:8). Because its roots are well-nourished, this tree survives soaring temperatures. And during drought it continues to yield fruit.
Like a firmly rooted tree, people who rely on God have a sense of stability and vitality despite the worst circumstances. In contrast, people who place their trust in other humans often live with a sense of instability. The Bible compares them to desert shrubs that are frequently malnourished and stand alone (v.6). So it is with the spiritual lives of people who forsake God.
Where are our roots? Are we rooted in Jesus? (Col. 2:7). Are we a bridge that leads others to Him? If we know Christ, we can testify to this truth: Blessed are those who trust in the Lord (Jer. 17:7).
Jesus is all the world to me,
My life, my joy, my all;
He is my strength from day to day,
Without Him I would fall. —Thompson
Even strong trials cannot blow down a person who is rooted in God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, July 18, 2014
The Mystery of Believing
He said, "Who are You, Lord? —Acts 9:5
Through the miracle of redemption, Saul of Tarsus was instantly changed from a strong-willed and forceful Pharisee into a humble and devoted bondservant of the Lord Jesus.
There is nothing miraculous or mysterious about the things we can explain. We control what we are able to explain, consequently it is only natural to seek an explanation for everything. It is not natural to obey, yet it is not necessarily sinful to disobey. There can be no real disobedience, nor any moral virtue in obedience, unless a person recognizes the higher authority of the one giving the orders. If this recognition does not exist, even the one giving the orders may view the other person’s disobedience as freedom. If one rules another by saying, “You must do this,” and, “You will do that,” he breaks the human spirit, making it unfit for God. A person is simply a slave for obeying, unless behind his obedience is the recognition of a holy God.
Many people begin coming to God once they stop being religious, because there is only one master of the human heart— Jesus Christ, not religion. But “Woe is me” if after seeing Him I still will not obey (Isaiah 6:5 , also see Isaiah 6:1). Jesus will never insist that I obey, but if I don’t,I have already begun to sign the death certificate of the Son of God in my soul. When I stand face to face with Jesus Christ and say, “I will not obey,” He will never insist. But when I do this, I am backing away from the recreating power of His redemption. It makes no difference to God’s grace what an abomination I am, if I will only come to the light. But “Woe is me” if I refuse the light (seeJohn 3:19-21).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, July 18, 2014
STOLEN DAUGHTERS - #7180
Our firstborn - our daughter - was only a few days old when I first called her "Princess." She's been my princess ever since. I cannot imagine the agony of having her snatched from her school and taken who knows where.
That was the ordeal hundreds of Nigerian parents went through. Nearly 300 of their daughters were kidnapped from their school by terrorists. The kidnappers threatened to sell those girls for something like $12. Some daddy's princess, some mother's treasure, sold like cattle.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Stolen Daughters."
Demonstrations demanding action spread far beyond Nigeria. In fact, one national newscast said, "This has touched a nerve in women around the world." What a nightmare; your daughter stolen and taken to a very bad place. That's the kind of nightmare that I have shared with too many families.
After years of working with young people, my wife and I have grieved over a lot of stolen daughters. Thankfully not our own, but girls who - though they might still be there physically - have been taken away to a bad place morally, emotionally, or spiritually.
We've been there when a girl not yet a woman finds out she's going to be a mother; when a parent weeps over their daughter's life-scarring choices. I've been there when a parent has no idea where their daughter disappeared to. Been in the emergency room as a mom or dad waits as the doctors fight to save their girl who's overdosed.
Through it all, we've seen four ways that we can lose our daughters. First, missing dads: missing physically, or missing emotionally, leaving a girl unsure of her father's love, with this gaping daddy deficit. Which she will try to fill often by looking for love in all the wrong places and often getting lost.
And then there are misguided moms who let their little girls become "teenagers" long before they're ready. Break out the makeup, the clothes, and the styles of high school when she hasn't even finished elementary school. Psychologist Neil Postman called it "the disappearance of childhood." So many years ahead to be grown-up. Can't we let them have those few short years of being a child? If they act like they're 14 when they're ten, they'll be acting like they're 20 when they're 14 and often going to a very bad place.
Here's the third way we lose our daughters: selfish boys. Oh they know the words "I love you," but they really mean is, "I'll use you." Their hormones are in charge, and they're takers not givers. If we've let our daughters buy the lie that a guy gives them worth, they'll do almost anything to get one and keep one. Giving what they cannot get back only to end up used and not loved. We need to teach our daughters that any boy who says, "If you love me, you will let me" doesn't love you.
Unchallenged lies. Yes, that's the other way we lose our daughters. How about this one, "It's all about how you look." And Hollywood tells our girls, "Here's what you should look like." Leaving most girls looking in the mirror and seeing someone they think is "fat" or "ugly" and not worth much; desperate to please anyone who gives her a little attention and so easily lost.
I've always thought an inventor knows best about what he's made. Right? And our Inventor says, "Don't be concerned about the outward beauty...you should clothe yourselves with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty..." (1 Peter 3:3-4).
You know, the real worth of a girl is rooted in something that is in God's Word and our word for today from the Word of God, Ephesians 2:10, to say to our daughters, "We are God's workmanship." "You are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works God prepared in advance for you to do." No one on earth gives a girl her worth, and no one on earth can take it away.
Every daughter is a princess. Make sure she knows that. That's the best way to keep her safe.
Many parents aren’t proud of their family trees. The harvest was taken, but no seed was sown. Childhood memories bring more hurt than inspiration. If such is the case, put down the family scrapbook and pick up your Bible. John 3:6 reminds us, “Human life comes from human parents, but spiritual life comes from the Spirit.” Your parents have given you genes, but God gives you grace.
Didn’t have a good father? Galatians 4:7 says God will be your father. Didn’t have a good role model? Ephesians 5:1 says, “You are God’s child whom He loves, so try to be like Him.”
You cannot control the way your forefathers responded to God. But you can control the way you respond to Him. The past does not have to be your prison. Choose well and someday—generations from now—your grandchildren and great-grandchildren will thank God for the seeds you sowed!
From When God Whispers Your Name
Exodus 2
The Birth of Moses
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[b] 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,[c] 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,[d] 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: Jeremiah 17:5-10
This is what the Lord says:
“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
who draws strength from mere flesh
and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
6 That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;
they will not see prosperity when it comes.
They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
in a salt land where no one lives.
7 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
8 They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”
9 The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?
10 “I the Lord search the heart
and examine the mind,
to reward each person according to their conduct,
according to what their deeds deserve.”
Insight
The heart is the very basis of character, including the mind and will. Because of our sinful nature, the “heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9). Jeremiah debunked the popular belief that people are basically good (cf. Job 25:4; Ps. 51:5). That God examines and tests the heart is the consistent teaching of Scripture (1 Sam. 16:7; 1 Chron. 28:9; 2 Chron. 6:30; Ps. 139:1-2; Jer. 11:20; Rom. 8:27; Heb. 4:12-13). Although we might try to hide our innermost thoughts and motives from others, God sees. He alone knows the true character of every person. God searches and knows us, but loves us despite our inherent sinfulness.
Living Bridges
By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord. —Jeremiah 17:7
People who live in Cherrapunji, India, have developed a unique way to get across the many rivers and streams in their land. They grow bridges from the roots of rubber trees. These “living bridges” take between 10 to 15 years to mature, but once they are established, they are extremely stable and last for hundreds of years.
The Bible compares a person who trusts in God to “a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river” (Jer. 17:8). Because its roots are well-nourished, this tree survives soaring temperatures. And during drought it continues to yield fruit.
Like a firmly rooted tree, people who rely on God have a sense of stability and vitality despite the worst circumstances. In contrast, people who place their trust in other humans often live with a sense of instability. The Bible compares them to desert shrubs that are frequently malnourished and stand alone (v.6). So it is with the spiritual lives of people who forsake God.
Where are our roots? Are we rooted in Jesus? (Col. 2:7). Are we a bridge that leads others to Him? If we know Christ, we can testify to this truth: Blessed are those who trust in the Lord (Jer. 17:7).
Jesus is all the world to me,
My life, my joy, my all;
He is my strength from day to day,
Without Him I would fall. —Thompson
Even strong trials cannot blow down a person who is rooted in God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, July 18, 2014
The Mystery of Believing
He said, "Who are You, Lord? —Acts 9:5
Through the miracle of redemption, Saul of Tarsus was instantly changed from a strong-willed and forceful Pharisee into a humble and devoted bondservant of the Lord Jesus.
There is nothing miraculous or mysterious about the things we can explain. We control what we are able to explain, consequently it is only natural to seek an explanation for everything. It is not natural to obey, yet it is not necessarily sinful to disobey. There can be no real disobedience, nor any moral virtue in obedience, unless a person recognizes the higher authority of the one giving the orders. If this recognition does not exist, even the one giving the orders may view the other person’s disobedience as freedom. If one rules another by saying, “You must do this,” and, “You will do that,” he breaks the human spirit, making it unfit for God. A person is simply a slave for obeying, unless behind his obedience is the recognition of a holy God.
Many people begin coming to God once they stop being religious, because there is only one master of the human heart— Jesus Christ, not religion. But “Woe is me” if after seeing Him I still will not obey (Isaiah 6:5 , also see Isaiah 6:1). Jesus will never insist that I obey, but if I don’t,I have already begun to sign the death certificate of the Son of God in my soul. When I stand face to face with Jesus Christ and say, “I will not obey,” He will never insist. But when I do this, I am backing away from the recreating power of His redemption. It makes no difference to God’s grace what an abomination I am, if I will only come to the light. But “Woe is me” if I refuse the light (seeJohn 3:19-21).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, July 18, 2014
STOLEN DAUGHTERS - #7180
Our firstborn - our daughter - was only a few days old when I first called her "Princess." She's been my princess ever since. I cannot imagine the agony of having her snatched from her school and taken who knows where.
That was the ordeal hundreds of Nigerian parents went through. Nearly 300 of their daughters were kidnapped from their school by terrorists. The kidnappers threatened to sell those girls for something like $12. Some daddy's princess, some mother's treasure, sold like cattle.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Stolen Daughters."
Demonstrations demanding action spread far beyond Nigeria. In fact, one national newscast said, "This has touched a nerve in women around the world." What a nightmare; your daughter stolen and taken to a very bad place. That's the kind of nightmare that I have shared with too many families.
After years of working with young people, my wife and I have grieved over a lot of stolen daughters. Thankfully not our own, but girls who - though they might still be there physically - have been taken away to a bad place morally, emotionally, or spiritually.
We've been there when a girl not yet a woman finds out she's going to be a mother; when a parent weeps over their daughter's life-scarring choices. I've been there when a parent has no idea where their daughter disappeared to. Been in the emergency room as a mom or dad waits as the doctors fight to save their girl who's overdosed.
Through it all, we've seen four ways that we can lose our daughters. First, missing dads: missing physically, or missing emotionally, leaving a girl unsure of her father's love, with this gaping daddy deficit. Which she will try to fill often by looking for love in all the wrong places and often getting lost.
And then there are misguided moms who let their little girls become "teenagers" long before they're ready. Break out the makeup, the clothes, and the styles of high school when she hasn't even finished elementary school. Psychologist Neil Postman called it "the disappearance of childhood." So many years ahead to be grown-up. Can't we let them have those few short years of being a child? If they act like they're 14 when they're ten, they'll be acting like they're 20 when they're 14 and often going to a very bad place.
Here's the third way we lose our daughters: selfish boys. Oh they know the words "I love you," but they really mean is, "I'll use you." Their hormones are in charge, and they're takers not givers. If we've let our daughters buy the lie that a guy gives them worth, they'll do almost anything to get one and keep one. Giving what they cannot get back only to end up used and not loved. We need to teach our daughters that any boy who says, "If you love me, you will let me" doesn't love you.
Unchallenged lies. Yes, that's the other way we lose our daughters. How about this one, "It's all about how you look." And Hollywood tells our girls, "Here's what you should look like." Leaving most girls looking in the mirror and seeing someone they think is "fat" or "ugly" and not worth much; desperate to please anyone who gives her a little attention and so easily lost.
I've always thought an inventor knows best about what he's made. Right? And our Inventor says, "Don't be concerned about the outward beauty...you should clothe yourselves with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty..." (1 Peter 3:3-4).
You know, the real worth of a girl is rooted in something that is in God's Word and our word for today from the Word of God, Ephesians 2:10, to say to our daughters, "We are God's workmanship." "You are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works God prepared in advance for you to do." No one on earth gives a girl her worth, and no one on earth can take it away.
Every daughter is a princess. Make sure she knows that. That's the best way to keep her safe.
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Exodus 1, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: You Have a Choice
Early in the reign of King Josiah he made a brave choice. II Kings 22:2 tells us, "He lived as his ancestor David had lived, and he did not stop doing what was right." He flipped through his family scrapbook until he found an ancestor worthy of emulation. He found David and resolved, "I'm going to be like him."
The principle? We can't choose our parents, but we can choose our mentors. And since Josiah chose David, who had chosen God, things began to happen. Josiah broke up the idols. He broke down the altars. He was out to make a statement: What my fathers taught, I don't teach. What they embraced, I reject. Josiah had found the God of David and made Him his own. God has not left you adrift on a sea of heredity. You have a choice in the path you take. Choose well!
From When God Whispers Your Name
Exodus 1
The Israelites Oppressed
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[a] 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: Hebrews 10:19-25
A Call to Persevere in Faith
Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Insight
One of the great ongoing debates among Bible scholars involves the authorship of the letter to the Hebrews. In the early days of the church, it was generally regarded to have been written by the apostle Paul, but scholars disagree about its authorship today. Along with stylistic elements of the content that these scholars say does not match the writings of Paul, one often-cited argument against Pauline authorship is that Hebrews is anonymous, and Paul declared that he always signed his letters (2 Thess. 3:17). Some of the names offered as the possible human author of this inspired letter include Luke, Apollos, Barnabas, and Priscilla.
Lookin’ Good!
By Cindy Hess Kasper
Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. —Hebrews 10:24
After trying on my new sunglasses in the car one day, my daughter handed them back and said, “These are not sunglasses, Mom. They’re just fashion lenses. Let me guess,” she teased, “you bought them because you look cute in them.”
Okay, I have to admit—my daughter knows me. I hadn’t given a passing thought to UV rays or even whether those glasses would actually block the sun. I just really liked the way they looked on me.
Most of us like to look good. We want to appear that we “have it all together”—with no struggles or fears or temptations or heartaches.
Trying to maintain a façade of perfection on our spiritual journey doesn’t help us or our fellow travelers. But sharing our lives with others in the body of Christ benefits us as well as others. When we are a bit more transparent, we may find people who are struggling in a similar situation. And as we enjoy a growing fellowship with God and become more aware of our own brokenness and inadequacy, God is able to use us more fully to help others.
Let’s allow God to strip away any pretense and “let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Heb. 10:24 niv).
Wearing a mask that shows everything’s fine
Says that life’s struggles are not God’s design;
But when we’re open, transparent, and true,
People will trust God to meet their needs too. —Sper
Believers stand strong when they don’t stand alone.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, July 17, 2014
The Miracle of Belief
My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom . . . —1 Corinthians 2:4
Paul was a scholar and an orator of the highest degree; he was not speaking here out of a deep sense of humility, but was saying that when he preached the gospel, he would veil the power of God if he impressed people with the excellency of his speech. Belief in Jesus is a miracle produced only by the effectiveness of redemption, not by impressive speech, nor by wooing and persuading, but only by the sheer unaided power of God. The creative power of redemption comes through the preaching of the gospel, but never because of the personality of the preacher.
Real and effective fasting by a preacher is not fasting from food, but fasting from eloquence, from impressive diction, and from everything else that might hinder the gospel of God being presented. The preacher is there as the representative of God— “. . . as though God were pleading through us . . .” (2 Corinthians 5:20). He is there to present the gospel of God. If it is only because of my preaching that people desire to be better, they will never get close to Jesus Christ. Anything that flatters me in my preaching of the gospel will result in making me a traitor to Jesus, and I prevent the creative power of His redemption from doing its work.
“And I, if I am lifted up. . . , will draw all peoples to Myself” (John 12:32).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, July 17, 2014
New Glasses - #7179
Our son-in-law is pretty used to the scenery in Wheaton, Illinois. He lived there until he graduated from college. But one day he saw something sort of new that got his attention. He and my daughter were driving along, and my son-in-law pulled up to this stop sign on the street that he'd seen hundreds of times. He looked at the street sign and he said, "Hey, you know, I'm used to that sign being dull. It's not supposed to be that clear. I can really read it!" You want to guess why it suddenly had a sharpness to it that he didn't remember? Same sign; it hadn't changed. He just got his new glasses.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "New Glasses."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Mark 1. I'll begin reading at verse 35. Now, Jesus has just come through a full day of teaching, followed by a full night of healing many sick people and even dealing with the Devil in people's lives. So sleep must have felt awfully good that night, and I'll bet morning came quickly.
Well, here's what it says, "Very early in the morning while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place where He prayed. Simon and His companions were looking for Him. When they found Him they exclaimed, 'Everyone is looking for You.' Jesus replied, 'Let us go somewhere else to the nearby villages so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.' So He traveled throughout Galilee preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons."
Here is Jesus, surrounded by demands and decisions about priorities - needs all around Him. And in the midst of this relentless schedule there's one thing Jesus will not sacrifice - His Father time. Even if it costs Him sleep. After He's been with His Father, He comes away knowing what He has to do. "I must go preach in those other villages." It's as if He's been able to put on spiritual glasses to see His choices clearly for that day.
Well, in this simple daily meeting with God, Jesus is showing us - modeling for us - how we can sort out everything that's crowding in on us. See, you've got to be alone with God before you hear any other voices to discern what He wants from you that day before all those other people hit you. You need God's glasses to see the needs around you, and then which ones He wants you to say yes to and which ones He wants you to say no to.
Father time is time to get His orders from what you read in His Word; time to off-load all the burdens you're carrying so they don't have to distort your vision. It's time for you to let Him put in proper perspective the relatively little things that have become very big to you, and the really big things that you've allowed to become small. If you don't begin a day talking with and listening to your Heavenly Father, the other voices and the other choices will probably pull you right off course. The other voices frankly are louder than God's voice. That's why you need to be alone with Him to hear Him.
So, open God's Word early in the day and open your heart. Ask Him this: "Lord, help me to see what You see when you look at my family, when you look at my marriage, when you look at my need, when you look at my work. What do you see when you see that relationship, or this decision I have to make?" The question is this: "Is your daily time with your Lord optional or is it non-negotiable?" For Jesus, it was non-negotiable. How about you? Isn't it time to say, "Lord, no one can have my time with You. Beginning now, it will be each day the highest priority of my personal schedule."
Our son-in-law never knew how clear things could be until he looked at them through new glasses. Your life could be a lot less cloudy, a lot clearer, if you will begin each day with your Heavenly Father; looking at your world through His eyes.
Early in the reign of King Josiah he made a brave choice. II Kings 22:2 tells us, "He lived as his ancestor David had lived, and he did not stop doing what was right." He flipped through his family scrapbook until he found an ancestor worthy of emulation. He found David and resolved, "I'm going to be like him."
The principle? We can't choose our parents, but we can choose our mentors. And since Josiah chose David, who had chosen God, things began to happen. Josiah broke up the idols. He broke down the altars. He was out to make a statement: What my fathers taught, I don't teach. What they embraced, I reject. Josiah had found the God of David and made Him his own. God has not left you adrift on a sea of heredity. You have a choice in the path you take. Choose well!
From When God Whispers Your Name
Exodus 1
The Israelites Oppressed
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[a] 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: Hebrews 10:19-25
A Call to Persevere in Faith
Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Insight
One of the great ongoing debates among Bible scholars involves the authorship of the letter to the Hebrews. In the early days of the church, it was generally regarded to have been written by the apostle Paul, but scholars disagree about its authorship today. Along with stylistic elements of the content that these scholars say does not match the writings of Paul, one often-cited argument against Pauline authorship is that Hebrews is anonymous, and Paul declared that he always signed his letters (2 Thess. 3:17). Some of the names offered as the possible human author of this inspired letter include Luke, Apollos, Barnabas, and Priscilla.
Lookin’ Good!
By Cindy Hess Kasper
Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. —Hebrews 10:24
After trying on my new sunglasses in the car one day, my daughter handed them back and said, “These are not sunglasses, Mom. They’re just fashion lenses. Let me guess,” she teased, “you bought them because you look cute in them.”
Okay, I have to admit—my daughter knows me. I hadn’t given a passing thought to UV rays or even whether those glasses would actually block the sun. I just really liked the way they looked on me.
Most of us like to look good. We want to appear that we “have it all together”—with no struggles or fears or temptations or heartaches.
Trying to maintain a façade of perfection on our spiritual journey doesn’t help us or our fellow travelers. But sharing our lives with others in the body of Christ benefits us as well as others. When we are a bit more transparent, we may find people who are struggling in a similar situation. And as we enjoy a growing fellowship with God and become more aware of our own brokenness and inadequacy, God is able to use us more fully to help others.
Let’s allow God to strip away any pretense and “let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Heb. 10:24 niv).
Wearing a mask that shows everything’s fine
Says that life’s struggles are not God’s design;
But when we’re open, transparent, and true,
People will trust God to meet their needs too. —Sper
Believers stand strong when they don’t stand alone.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, July 17, 2014
The Miracle of Belief
My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom . . . —1 Corinthians 2:4
Paul was a scholar and an orator of the highest degree; he was not speaking here out of a deep sense of humility, but was saying that when he preached the gospel, he would veil the power of God if he impressed people with the excellency of his speech. Belief in Jesus is a miracle produced only by the effectiveness of redemption, not by impressive speech, nor by wooing and persuading, but only by the sheer unaided power of God. The creative power of redemption comes through the preaching of the gospel, but never because of the personality of the preacher.
Real and effective fasting by a preacher is not fasting from food, but fasting from eloquence, from impressive diction, and from everything else that might hinder the gospel of God being presented. The preacher is there as the representative of God— “. . . as though God were pleading through us . . .” (2 Corinthians 5:20). He is there to present the gospel of God. If it is only because of my preaching that people desire to be better, they will never get close to Jesus Christ. Anything that flatters me in my preaching of the gospel will result in making me a traitor to Jesus, and I prevent the creative power of His redemption from doing its work.
“And I, if I am lifted up. . . , will draw all peoples to Myself” (John 12:32).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, July 17, 2014
New Glasses - #7179
Our son-in-law is pretty used to the scenery in Wheaton, Illinois. He lived there until he graduated from college. But one day he saw something sort of new that got his attention. He and my daughter were driving along, and my son-in-law pulled up to this stop sign on the street that he'd seen hundreds of times. He looked at the street sign and he said, "Hey, you know, I'm used to that sign being dull. It's not supposed to be that clear. I can really read it!" You want to guess why it suddenly had a sharpness to it that he didn't remember? Same sign; it hadn't changed. He just got his new glasses.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "New Glasses."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Mark 1. I'll begin reading at verse 35. Now, Jesus has just come through a full day of teaching, followed by a full night of healing many sick people and even dealing with the Devil in people's lives. So sleep must have felt awfully good that night, and I'll bet morning came quickly.
Well, here's what it says, "Very early in the morning while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place where He prayed. Simon and His companions were looking for Him. When they found Him they exclaimed, 'Everyone is looking for You.' Jesus replied, 'Let us go somewhere else to the nearby villages so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.' So He traveled throughout Galilee preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons."
Here is Jesus, surrounded by demands and decisions about priorities - needs all around Him. And in the midst of this relentless schedule there's one thing Jesus will not sacrifice - His Father time. Even if it costs Him sleep. After He's been with His Father, He comes away knowing what He has to do. "I must go preach in those other villages." It's as if He's been able to put on spiritual glasses to see His choices clearly for that day.
Well, in this simple daily meeting with God, Jesus is showing us - modeling for us - how we can sort out everything that's crowding in on us. See, you've got to be alone with God before you hear any other voices to discern what He wants from you that day before all those other people hit you. You need God's glasses to see the needs around you, and then which ones He wants you to say yes to and which ones He wants you to say no to.
Father time is time to get His orders from what you read in His Word; time to off-load all the burdens you're carrying so they don't have to distort your vision. It's time for you to let Him put in proper perspective the relatively little things that have become very big to you, and the really big things that you've allowed to become small. If you don't begin a day talking with and listening to your Heavenly Father, the other voices and the other choices will probably pull you right off course. The other voices frankly are louder than God's voice. That's why you need to be alone with Him to hear Him.
So, open God's Word early in the day and open your heart. Ask Him this: "Lord, help me to see what You see when you look at my family, when you look at my marriage, when you look at my need, when you look at my work. What do you see when you see that relationship, or this decision I have to make?" The question is this: "Is your daily time with your Lord optional or is it non-negotiable?" For Jesus, it was non-negotiable. How about you? Isn't it time to say, "Lord, no one can have my time with You. Beginning now, it will be each day the highest priority of my personal schedule."
Our son-in-law never knew how clear things could be until he looked at them through new glasses. Your life could be a lot less cloudy, a lot clearer, if you will begin each day with your Heavenly Father; looking at your world through His eyes.
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