Max Lucado Daily: Consult God in Everything
How bold are your prayers? Boldness in prayer is an uncomfortable thought for many. We think of humbling ourselves before God or having a chat with God. But agonizing before God…or storming heaven with our prayers…or pounding on the door of the Most High…or wrestling with God? Isn't such prayer irreverent and presumptuous? It would be had God not invited us to pray as such.
The writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 4:16, "So let us come boldly to the very throne of God and stay there to receive his mercy and to find grace to help us in our times of need." Paul warns in 2 Corinthians 11:14 that "Satan masquerades himself as an angel of light." He's crafty, so it is essential that we consult God in everything! Is this opportunity from you, God? Are you in this venture, God? Acknowledge Him, heed Him, and ask Him. He will guide you.
From Glory Days
Proverbs 30
The Sayings of Agur
The sayings of Agur son of Jakeh contain this message.[a]
I am weary, O God;
I am weary and worn out, O God.[b]
2 I am too stupid to be human,
and I lack common sense.
3 I have not mastered human wisdom,
nor do I know the Holy One.
4 Who but God goes up to heaven and comes back down?
Who holds the wind in his fists?
Who wraps up the oceans in his cloak?
Who has created the whole wide world?
What is his name—and his son’s name?
Tell me if you know!
5 Every word of God proves true.
He is a shield to all who come to him for protection.
6 Do not add to his words,
or he may rebuke you and expose you as a liar.
7 O God, I beg two favors from you;
let me have them before I die.
8 First, help me never to tell a lie.
Second, give me neither poverty nor riches!
Give me just enough to satisfy my needs.
9 For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?”
And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God’s holy name.
10 Never slander a worker to the employer,
or the person will curse you, and you will pay for it.
11 Some people curse their father
and do not thank their mother.
12 They are pure in their own eyes,
but they are filthy and unwashed.
13 They look proudly around,
casting disdainful glances.
14 They have teeth like swords
and fangs like knives.
They devour the poor from the earth
and the needy from among humanity.
15 The leech has two suckers
that cry out, “More, more!”[c]
There are three things that are never satisfied—
no, four that never say, “Enough!”:
16 the grave,[d]
the barren womb,
the thirsty desert,
the blazing fire.
17 The eye that mocks a father
and despises a mother’s instructions
will be plucked out by ravens of the valley
and eaten by vultures.
18 There are three things that amaze me—
no, four things that I don’t understand:
19 how an eagle glides through the sky,
how a snake slithers on a rock,
how a ship navigates the ocean,
how a man loves a woman.
20 An adulterous woman consumes a man,
then wipes her mouth and says, “What’s wrong with that?”
21 There are three things that make the earth tremble—
no, four it cannot endure:
22 a slave who becomes a king,
an overbearing fool who prospers,
23 a bitter woman who finally gets a husband,
a servant girl who supplants her mistress.
24 There are four things on earth that are small but unusually wise:
25 Ants—they aren’t strong,
but they store up food all summer.
26 Hyraxes[e]—they aren’t powerful,
but they make their homes among the rocks.
27 Locusts—they have no king,
but they march in formation.
28 Lizards—they are easy to catch,
but they are found even in kings’ palaces.
29 There are three things that walk with stately stride—
no, four that strut about:
30 the lion, king of animals, who won’t turn aside for anything,
31 the strutting rooster,
the male goat,
a king as he leads his army.
32 If you have been a fool by being proud or plotting evil,
cover your mouth in shame.
33 As the beating of cream yields butter
and striking the nose causes bleeding,
so stirring up anger causes quarrels.
Footnotes:
30:1a Or son of Jakeh from Massa; or son of Jakeh, an oracle.
30:1b The Hebrew can also be translated The man declares this to Ithiel, / to Ithiel and to Ucal.
30:15 Hebrew two daughters who cry out, “Give, give!”
30:16 Hebrew Sheol.
30:26 Or Coneys, or Rock badgers.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, November 09, 2015
Read: Psalm 107:23–32
Some went off to sea in ships,
plying the trade routes of the world.
24 They, too, observed the Lord’s power in action,
his impressive works on the deepest seas.
25 He spoke, and the winds rose,
stirring up the waves.
26 Their ships were tossed to the heavens
and plunged again to the depths;
the sailors cringed in terror.
27 They reeled and staggered like drunkards
and were at their wits’ end.
28 “Lord, help!” they cried in their trouble,
and he saved them from their distress.
29 He calmed the storm to a whisper
and stilled the waves.
30 What a blessing was that stillness
as he brought them safely into harbor!
31 Let them praise the Lord for his great love
and for the wonderful things he has done for them.
32 Let them exalt him publicly before the congregation
and before the leaders of the nation.
INSIGHT:
Today’s psalm reminds us that God can indeed guide us to safe havens in the midst of life’s storms and trials. However, this psalm also reminds us that the same God who calms the storm and points the way to our “desired haven” (v. 30) is the God who sometimes stirs up the oceans in our lives. It is God who “stirred up a tempest” (v. 25) that caused the sailors to melt with fear and reel and stagger (vv. 26,27). Then “they cried out to the Lord . . . and he brought them out of their distress” (v. 28). The God who stirs the seas wants us to turn to Him for help. J.R. Hudberg
Charity Island
By Dennis Fisher
The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him.
Nahum 1:7
Charity Island is the largest island in Saginaw Bay in the Michigan waters of Lake Huron. For many years the island has provided a lighthouse for navigational aid and a safe harbor for those sailing these waters. The island received its name because sailors believed it was there “through the charity of God.”
Sometimes in life we have to navigate through seas of troubling circumstances. Like those sailors we need guidance and a place of safety; we might wish for our own Charity Island. The psalmist understood that God is the one who can bring tranquility to troubled waters and guide us to safe harbors. He wrote, “He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. They were glad when it grew calm, and he guided them to their desired haven” (Ps. 107:29-30).
While no one asks for the storms of life, they can multiply our appreciation for the guidance and refuge God provides. He offers the light of His Spirit and His Word to guide us. It is the safe harbor of His love that we long for. He alone can be our ultimate “Charity Island.”
Father, help me to seek Your light to guide me through the storms of life.
Share your story of how the Lord has been your light in the comments section below.
The living God will always be our shelter.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, November 09, 2015
Sacred Service
I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ… —Colossians 1:24
The Christian worker has to be a sacred “go-between.” He must be so closely identified with his Lord and the reality of His redemption that Christ can continually bring His creating life through him. I am not referring to the strength of one individual’s personality being superimposed on another, but the real presence of Christ coming through every aspect of the worker’s life. When we preach the historical facts of the life and death of our Lord as they are conveyed in the New Testament, our words are made sacred. God uses these words, on the basis of His redemption, to create something in those who listen which otherwise could never have been created. If we simply preach the effects of redemption in the human life instead of the revealed, divine truth regarding Jesus Himself, the result is not new birth in those who listen. The result is a refined religious lifestyle, and the Spirit of God cannot witness to it because such preaching is in a realm other than His. We must make sure that we are living in such harmony with God that as we proclaim His truth He can create in others those things which He alone can do.
When we say, “What a wonderful personality, what a fascinating person, and what wonderful insight!” then what opportunity does the gospel of God have through all of that? It cannot get through, because the attraction is to the messenger and not the message. If a person attracts through his personality, that becomes his appeal. If, however, he is identified with the Lord Himself, then the appeal becomes what Jesus Christ can do. The danger is to glory in men, yet Jesus says we are to lift up only Him (see John 12:32).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The root of faith is the knowledge of a Person, and one of the biggest snares is the idea that God is sure to lead us to success. My Utmost for His Highest, March 19, 761 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, November 09, 2015
The Story You Must Tell - #7521
It was shocking and it came on the day my Dad went to heaven. I flew in; I couldn't make it back in time before he took his last breath. But we'd had some great conversations before he died. And that was the day that my Mother made an announcement. She said, "You have a brother." What? Yeah, here I'm a grown man with children of my own. Now, I knew I'd had a baby brother who died when he was six months old, and that's how all of us came to know Jesus as a result of the tragedy that went into our family through that. But that was the day I learned about a brother I never knew about for all those years. Now, there's some complicated circumstances that would explain why I didn't know. But the fact is, my Dad and my Mom had never told me about this brother by another mother. Since then I've had a chance to meet the brother I never knew about, and wow, what a blessing and it's so enriched both of our lives, along with our wives as well. But it was a story I'd never heard. It was a story I wish I'd heard. It was a story that changed my life. But it was a story that I almost never heard.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Story You Must Tell."
You have a story! You have a story to tell that literally lives depend on; that can change lives forever. But you can't sit on it! Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 28. What an exciting chapter! This is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The angel has just appeared to these crest-fallen women who think the body of their Savior was stolen. He said, "He is not here; he has risen!" Now listen to these words, "Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has risen from the dead…' So, the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples."
Now, what good is a story, especially if it's good news and you don't tell it? Well, this is the good news about a death-conquering, life-changing Savior who crushed death that morning. The greatest fear we all have. The story you've got to tell is the story you probably know so well if you've been around Christian things very long.
You know about Jesus dying on the cross to carry the wrath of God upon Him for all of our sin, to set us free, to make it possible for us to be free and clean and forgiven and heaven-bound. And He's powerful enough to walk out of His grave under His own power. Here's the greatest love a person can experience; a love that would die for you. The greatest power a person can experience; a power that can conquer death. Wow! Don't you want to tell that story to someone? You know it; they don't.
We're living in a post Christian world; people around us probably aren't going to go to a religious meeting to hear a religious speaker talk on a religious subject in a religious place. They may be surrounded by Christian resources, and TV and radio, etc. But they don't know about all that. They have yet to find out that what Jesus did on the cross was for them. The only way they're going to know that is if you tell them the story you know so well.
They desperately need to hear about that. They desperately need to hear about a Jesus who is alive, who changes people, who does things that no one else can do and saves lives. It may be old hat to you about the sin and Christ dying for sin. But it's life-saving news for somebody that you know. The words of the angel on that resurrection morning were, "You've come and seen. Now, go and tell." That's Jesus' command to you. You must go and tell.
And you have a Hope Story. You are living proof that Jesus is alive, because He has done things in your life that no one else could have done. He has fixed what no one else could fix. He is changing what no one else could change. He is providing hope where nothing else could. You have a Hope Story, and that story of what Jesus did on the cross and how Jesus has changed you may be the difference between life and death and heaven and hell for somebody in your world.
Would you tell them the story you know? Give them the good news! You have a life-changing story to tell. But what good is a story if you don't tell it?
Monday, November 9, 2015
Sunday, November 8, 2015
Acts 5:1-21, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Not Eloquent Prayers-Honest Ones
For two years, I've asked God to remove the pain in my writing hand. After writing thirty-plus books in longhand, the repeated motion has restricted my movement. I stretch my fingers. I avoid the golf course. But most of all, I pray.
Better said, I argue. Shouldn't God heal my hand? So far he hasn't healed me. Or has he? These days I pray more as I write. Not eloquent prayers, but honest ones. "Lord, I need help. . .Father; my hand is stiff." The discomfort humbles me. I'm not Max, the author. I'm Max, the guy whose hand is wearing out. I want God to heal my hand. Thus far he has used my hand to heal my heart!
Here's my challenge to you! Join me at BeforeAmen.com-then every day for 4 weeks, pray 4 minutes. It'll change your life!
From Before Amen
Acts 5:1-21
Ananias and Sapphira
5 But there was a certain man named Ananias who, with his wife, Sapphira, sold some property. 2 He brought part of the money to the apostles, claiming it was the full amount. With his wife’s consent, he kept the rest.
3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself. 4 The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren’t lying to us but to God!”
5 As soon as Ananias heard these words, he fell to the floor and died. Everyone who heard about it was terrified. 6 Then some young men got up, wrapped him in a sheet, and took him out and buried him.
7 About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 Peter asked her, “Was this the price you and your husband received for your land?”
“Yes,” she replied, “that was the price.”
9 And Peter said, “How could the two of you even think of conspiring to test the Spirit of the Lord like this? The young men who buried your husband are just outside the door, and they will carry you out, too.”
10 Instantly, she fell to the floor and died. When the young men came in and saw that she was dead, they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 Great fear gripped the entire church and everyone else who heard what had happened.
The Apostles Heal Many
12 The apostles were performing many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers were meeting regularly at the Temple in the area known as Solomon’s Colonnade. 13 But no one else dared to join them, even though all the people had high regard for them. 14 Yet more and more people believed and were brought to the Lord—crowds of both men and women. 15 As a result of the apostles’ work, sick people were brought out into the streets on beds and mats so that Peter’s shadow might fall across some of them as he went by. 16 Crowds came from the villages around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those possessed by evil[a] spirits, and they were all healed.
The Apostles Meet Opposition
17 The high priest and his officials, who were Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. 18 They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. 19 But an angel of the Lord came at night, opened the gates of the jail, and brought them out. Then he told them, 20 “Go to the Temple and give the people this message of life!”
21 So at daybreak the apostles entered the Temple, as they were told, and immediately began teaching.
When the high priest and his officials arrived, they convened the high council[b]—the full assembly of the elders of Israel. Then they sent for the apostles to be brought from the jail for trial.
Footnotes:
5:16 Greek unclean.
5:21 Greek Sanhedrin; also in 5:27, 41.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, November 08, 2015
Read: Mark 2:1-12
Jesus Heals a Paralyzed Man
When Jesus returned to Capernaum several days later, the news spread quickly that he was back home. 2 Soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room, even outside the door. While he was preaching God’s word to them, 3 four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. 4 They couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head. Then they lowered the man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus. 5 Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “My child, your sins are forgiven.”
6 But some of the teachers of religious law who were sitting there thought to themselves, 7 “What is he saying? This is blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins!”
8 Jesus knew immediately what they were thinking, so he asked them, “Why do you question this in your hearts? 9 Is it easier to say to the paralyzed man ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk’? 10 So I will prove to you that the Son of Man[a] has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, 11 “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!”
12 And the man jumped up, grabbed his mat, and walked out through the stunned onlookers. They were all amazed and praised God, exclaiming, “We’ve never seen anything like this before!”
Footnotes:
2:10 “Son of Man” is a title Jesus used for himself.
INSIGHT:
Capernaum was a fishing community on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, which essentially became the headquarters of Jesus’ northern ministry (Matt. 4:13). Home to Peter, James, John, and Andrew—four of Jesus’ disciples—Capernaum was an important village on a major trade route. The name Capernaum means “the village of Nahum,” and Nahum was one of the Old Testament prophets. This fact seems to have been conveniently ignored by the religious leaders of Jesus’ day who, when debating His legitimacy as a prophet, said, “You are not also from Galilee, are you? Search, and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee” (John 7:52). Bill Crowder
Bringing Our Friends to Jesus
By David McCasland
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
Mark 2:5
During my childhood, one of the most feared diseases was polio, often called “infantile paralysis” because most of those infected were young children. Before a preventive vaccine was developed in the mid-1950s, some 20,000 people were paralyzed by polio and about 1,000 died from it each year in the United States alone.
In ancient times, paralysis was viewed as a permanent, hopeless condition. But one group of men believed Jesus could help their paralyzed friend. While Jesus was teaching in the village of Capernaum, four of the men carried the man to Him. When they couldn’t reach Jesus because of the crowd, “they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on” (Mark 2:1-4).
Jesus is the only One who can meet our deepest needs.
“When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven’ ” (v. 5), followed by “Get up, take your mat and go home” (v. 11). How remarkable that in response to the faith of the men who brought their friend, Jesus forgave his sins and healed his incurable condition!
When someone we know is facing serious physical difficulty or a spiritual crisis, it is our privilege to join together in prayer, bringing our friends to Jesus—the only One who can meet their deepest needs.
Lord Jesus, we know that You can speak the words of eternal life and healing to people in great need. We bring them to You in prayer today.
Praying for others is a privilege—and a responsibility.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, November 08, 2015
The Unrivaled Power of Prayer
We do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. —Romans 8:26
We realize that we are energized by the Holy Spirit for prayer; and we know what it is to pray in accordance with the Spirit; but we don’t often realize that the Holy Spirit Himself prays prayers in us which we cannot utter ourselves. When we are born again of God and are indwelt by the Spirit of God, He expresses for us the unutterable.
“He,” the Holy Spirit in you, “makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:27). And God searches your heart, not to know what your conscious prayers are, but to find out what the prayer of the Holy Spirit is.
The Spirit of God uses the nature of the believer as a temple in which to offer His prayers of intercession. “…your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit…” (1 Corinthians 6:19). When Jesus Christ cleansed the temple, “…He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple” (Mark 11:16). The Spirit of God will not allow you to use your body for your own convenience. Jesus ruthlessly cast out everyone who bought and sold in the temple, and said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer…. But you have made it a ‘den of thieves’ ” (Mark 11:17).
Have we come to realize that our “body is the temple of the Holy Spirit”? If so, we must be careful to keep it undefiled for Him. We have to remember that our conscious life, even though only a small part of our total person, is to be regarded by us as a “temple of the Holy Spirit.” He will be responsible for the unconscious part which we don’t know, but we must pay careful attention to and guard the conscious part for which we are responsible.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The main characteristic which is the proof of the indwelling Spirit is an amazing tenderness in personal dealing, and a blazing truthfulness with regard to God’s Word. Disciples Indeed, 386 R
For two years, I've asked God to remove the pain in my writing hand. After writing thirty-plus books in longhand, the repeated motion has restricted my movement. I stretch my fingers. I avoid the golf course. But most of all, I pray.
Better said, I argue. Shouldn't God heal my hand? So far he hasn't healed me. Or has he? These days I pray more as I write. Not eloquent prayers, but honest ones. "Lord, I need help. . .Father; my hand is stiff." The discomfort humbles me. I'm not Max, the author. I'm Max, the guy whose hand is wearing out. I want God to heal my hand. Thus far he has used my hand to heal my heart!
Here's my challenge to you! Join me at BeforeAmen.com-then every day for 4 weeks, pray 4 minutes. It'll change your life!
From Before Amen
Acts 5:1-21
Ananias and Sapphira
5 But there was a certain man named Ananias who, with his wife, Sapphira, sold some property. 2 He brought part of the money to the apostles, claiming it was the full amount. With his wife’s consent, he kept the rest.
3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself. 4 The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren’t lying to us but to God!”
5 As soon as Ananias heard these words, he fell to the floor and died. Everyone who heard about it was terrified. 6 Then some young men got up, wrapped him in a sheet, and took him out and buried him.
7 About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 Peter asked her, “Was this the price you and your husband received for your land?”
“Yes,” she replied, “that was the price.”
9 And Peter said, “How could the two of you even think of conspiring to test the Spirit of the Lord like this? The young men who buried your husband are just outside the door, and they will carry you out, too.”
10 Instantly, she fell to the floor and died. When the young men came in and saw that she was dead, they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 Great fear gripped the entire church and everyone else who heard what had happened.
The Apostles Heal Many
12 The apostles were performing many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers were meeting regularly at the Temple in the area known as Solomon’s Colonnade. 13 But no one else dared to join them, even though all the people had high regard for them. 14 Yet more and more people believed and were brought to the Lord—crowds of both men and women. 15 As a result of the apostles’ work, sick people were brought out into the streets on beds and mats so that Peter’s shadow might fall across some of them as he went by. 16 Crowds came from the villages around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those possessed by evil[a] spirits, and they were all healed.
The Apostles Meet Opposition
17 The high priest and his officials, who were Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. 18 They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. 19 But an angel of the Lord came at night, opened the gates of the jail, and brought them out. Then he told them, 20 “Go to the Temple and give the people this message of life!”
21 So at daybreak the apostles entered the Temple, as they were told, and immediately began teaching.
When the high priest and his officials arrived, they convened the high council[b]—the full assembly of the elders of Israel. Then they sent for the apostles to be brought from the jail for trial.
Footnotes:
5:16 Greek unclean.
5:21 Greek Sanhedrin; also in 5:27, 41.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, November 08, 2015
Read: Mark 2:1-12
Jesus Heals a Paralyzed Man
When Jesus returned to Capernaum several days later, the news spread quickly that he was back home. 2 Soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room, even outside the door. While he was preaching God’s word to them, 3 four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. 4 They couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head. Then they lowered the man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus. 5 Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “My child, your sins are forgiven.”
6 But some of the teachers of religious law who were sitting there thought to themselves, 7 “What is he saying? This is blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins!”
8 Jesus knew immediately what they were thinking, so he asked them, “Why do you question this in your hearts? 9 Is it easier to say to the paralyzed man ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk’? 10 So I will prove to you that the Son of Man[a] has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, 11 “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!”
12 And the man jumped up, grabbed his mat, and walked out through the stunned onlookers. They were all amazed and praised God, exclaiming, “We’ve never seen anything like this before!”
Footnotes:
2:10 “Son of Man” is a title Jesus used for himself.
INSIGHT:
Capernaum was a fishing community on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, which essentially became the headquarters of Jesus’ northern ministry (Matt. 4:13). Home to Peter, James, John, and Andrew—four of Jesus’ disciples—Capernaum was an important village on a major trade route. The name Capernaum means “the village of Nahum,” and Nahum was one of the Old Testament prophets. This fact seems to have been conveniently ignored by the religious leaders of Jesus’ day who, when debating His legitimacy as a prophet, said, “You are not also from Galilee, are you? Search, and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee” (John 7:52). Bill Crowder
Bringing Our Friends to Jesus
By David McCasland
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
Mark 2:5
During my childhood, one of the most feared diseases was polio, often called “infantile paralysis” because most of those infected were young children. Before a preventive vaccine was developed in the mid-1950s, some 20,000 people were paralyzed by polio and about 1,000 died from it each year in the United States alone.
In ancient times, paralysis was viewed as a permanent, hopeless condition. But one group of men believed Jesus could help their paralyzed friend. While Jesus was teaching in the village of Capernaum, four of the men carried the man to Him. When they couldn’t reach Jesus because of the crowd, “they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on” (Mark 2:1-4).
Jesus is the only One who can meet our deepest needs.
“When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven’ ” (v. 5), followed by “Get up, take your mat and go home” (v. 11). How remarkable that in response to the faith of the men who brought their friend, Jesus forgave his sins and healed his incurable condition!
When someone we know is facing serious physical difficulty or a spiritual crisis, it is our privilege to join together in prayer, bringing our friends to Jesus—the only One who can meet their deepest needs.
Lord Jesus, we know that You can speak the words of eternal life and healing to people in great need. We bring them to You in prayer today.
Praying for others is a privilege—and a responsibility.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, November 08, 2015
The Unrivaled Power of Prayer
We do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. —Romans 8:26
We realize that we are energized by the Holy Spirit for prayer; and we know what it is to pray in accordance with the Spirit; but we don’t often realize that the Holy Spirit Himself prays prayers in us which we cannot utter ourselves. When we are born again of God and are indwelt by the Spirit of God, He expresses for us the unutterable.
“He,” the Holy Spirit in you, “makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:27). And God searches your heart, not to know what your conscious prayers are, but to find out what the prayer of the Holy Spirit is.
The Spirit of God uses the nature of the believer as a temple in which to offer His prayers of intercession. “…your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit…” (1 Corinthians 6:19). When Jesus Christ cleansed the temple, “…He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple” (Mark 11:16). The Spirit of God will not allow you to use your body for your own convenience. Jesus ruthlessly cast out everyone who bought and sold in the temple, and said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer…. But you have made it a ‘den of thieves’ ” (Mark 11:17).
Have we come to realize that our “body is the temple of the Holy Spirit”? If so, we must be careful to keep it undefiled for Him. We have to remember that our conscious life, even though only a small part of our total person, is to be regarded by us as a “temple of the Holy Spirit.” He will be responsible for the unconscious part which we don’t know, but we must pay careful attention to and guard the conscious part for which we are responsible.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The main characteristic which is the proof of the indwelling Spirit is an amazing tenderness in personal dealing, and a blazing truthfulness with regard to God’s Word. Disciples Indeed, 386 R
Saturday, November 7, 2015
Proverbs 29 , bible reading and daily devotionals.
Max Lucado Daily: More Dinghy than Cruise Ship?
Are you more dinghy. . .than cruise ship? Or in my case, more blue jeans than blue blood? Well congratulations, God changes the world with folks like you!
The next time you say, “I don’t think God could use me!”—stop right there! Satan’s going to try to tell you that God has an IQ requirement. That he employs only experts and high-powered personalities. When you hear Satan whispering that lie—hit him with this: God stampeded the first-century society with swaybacks, not thoroughbreds. Before Jesus came along, the disciples were loading trucks, coaching soccer, and selling Slurpee drinks at the convenience store!
But what they had going for them was a willingness to take a step when Jesus said, “Follow me.”
So what do you think? More plumber than executive? More stand-in than movie star? Yeah—congratulations! God uses people like you…and me.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. Matthew 16:24?
From Max on Life
Proverbs 29
Whoever stubbornly refuses to accept criticism
will suddenly be destroyed beyond recovery.
2 When the godly are in authority, the people rejoice.
But when the wicked are in power, they groan.
3 The man who loves wisdom brings joy to his father,
but if he hangs around with prostitutes, his wealth is wasted.
4 A just king gives stability to his nation,
but one who demands bribes destroys it.
5 To flatter friends
is to lay a trap for their feet.
6 Evil people are trapped by sin,
but the righteous escape, shouting for joy.
7 The godly care about the rights of the poor;
the wicked don’t care at all.
8 Mockers can get a whole town agitated,
but the wise will calm anger.
9 If a wise person takes a fool to court,
there will be ranting and ridicule but no satisfaction.
10 The bloodthirsty hate blameless people,
but the upright seek to help them.[g]
11 Fools vent their anger,
but the wise quietly hold it back.
12 If a ruler pays attention to liars,
all his advisers will be wicked.
13 The poor and the oppressor have this in common—
the Lord gives sight to the eyes of both.
14 If a king judges the poor fairly,
his throne will last forever.
15 To discipline a child produces wisdom,
but a mother is disgraced by an undisciplined child.
16 When the wicked are in authority, sin flourishes,
but the godly will live to see their downfall.
17 Discipline your children, and they will give you peace of mind
and will make your heart glad.
18 When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild.
But whoever obeys the law is joyful.
19 Words alone will not discipline a servant;
the words may be understood, but they are not heeded.
20 There is more hope for a fool
than for someone who speaks without thinking.
21 A servant pampered from childhood
will become a rebel.
22 An angry person starts fights;
a hot-tempered person commits all kinds of sin.
23 Pride ends in humiliation,
while humility brings honor.
24 If you assist a thief, you only hurt yourself.
You are sworn to tell the truth, but you dare not testify.
25 Fearing people is a dangerous trap,
but trusting the Lord means safety.
26 Many seek the ruler’s favor,
but justice comes from the Lord.
27 The righteous despise the unjust;
the wicked despise the godly.
Footnotes:
29:10 Or The bloodthirsty hate blameless people, / and they seek to kill the upright; Hebrew reads The bloodthirsty hate blameless people; / as for the upright, they seek their life.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, November 07, 2015
Read: Acts 4:5-20
The next day the council of all the rulers and elders and teachers of religious law met in Jerusalem. 6 Annas the high priest was there, along with Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and other relatives of the high priest. 7 They brought in the two disciples and demanded, “By what power, or in whose name, have you done this?”
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of our people, 9 are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? 10 Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene,[a] the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. 11 For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says,
‘The stone that you builders rejected
has now become the cornerstone.’[b]
12 There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”
13 The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. 14 But since they could see the man who had been healed standing right there among them, there was nothing the council could say. 15 So they ordered Peter and John out of the council chamber[c] and conferred among themselves.
16 “What should we do with these men?” they asked each other. “We can’t deny that they have performed a miraculous sign, and everybody in Jerusalem knows about it. 17 But to keep them from spreading their propaganda any further, we must warn them not to speak to anyone in Jesus’ name again.” 18 So they called the apostles back in and commanded them never again to speak or teach in the name of Jesus.
19 But Peter and John replied, “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him? 20 We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard.”
Footnotes:
4:10 Or Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
4:11 Ps 118:22.
4:15 Greek the Sanhedrin.
Mention the Name
By Lawrence Darmani
I am in the Father, and . . . the Father is in me.
John 14:10
A church group invited a speaker to address their meeting. “Talk about God,” the group leader told him, “but leave out Jesus.”
“Why?” the man asked, taken aback.
“Well,” the leader explained, “some of our prominent members feel uncomfortable with Jesus. Just use God and we’ll be fine.”
Accepting such instructions, however, was a problem for the speaker who said later, “Without Jesus, I have no message.”
Something similar was asked of followers of Jesus in the days of the early church. Local religious leaders conferred together to warn the disciples not to speak about Jesus (Acts 4:17). But the disciples knew better. “We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard,” they said (v. 20).
To claim to believe in God and not in His Son Jesus Christ is a contradiction in terms. In John 10:30, Jesus clearly describes the unique relationship between Himself and God: “I and the Father are one”—thus establishing His deity. That is why He could say, “You believe in God; believe also in me” (John 14:1). Paul knew that Jesus is the very nature of God and equal with God (Phil. 2:6).
We need not shy away from the name Jesus, for “salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
Jesus, You are God. Thank You for showing Yourself to us in the Bible and in our lives. You have done so much for us. Help us to share with others what we know of You and have experienced of You.
The name of Jesus is at the heart of our faith and our hope.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, November 07, 2015
The Undetected Sacredness of Circumstances
We know that all things work together for good to those who love God… —Romans 8:28
The circumstances of a saint’s life are ordained of God. In the life of a saint there is no such thing as chance. God by His providence brings you into circumstances that you can’t understand at all, but the Spirit of God understands. God brings you to places, among people, and into certain conditions to accomplish a definite purpose through the intercession of the Spirit in you. Never put yourself in front of your circumstances and say, “I’m going to be my own providence here; I will watch this closely, or protect myself from that.” All your circumstances are in the hand of God, and therefore you don’t ever have to think they are unnatural or unique. Your part in intercessory prayer is not to agonize over how to intercede, but to use the everyday circumstances and people God puts around you by His providence to bring them before His throne, and to allow the Spirit in you the opportunity to intercede for them. In this way God is going to touch the whole world with His saints.
Am I making the Holy Spirit’s work difficult by being vague and unsure, or by trying to do His work for Him? I must do the human side of intercession— utilizing the circumstances in which I find myself and the people who surround me. I must keep my conscious life as a sacred place for the Holy Spirit. Then as I lift different ones to God through prayer, the Holy Spirit intercedes for them.
Your intercessions can never be mine, and my intercessions can never be yours, “…but the Spirit Himself makes intercession” in each of our lives (Romans 8:26). And without that intercession, the lives of others would be left in poverty and in ruin.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
God created man to be master of the life in the earth and sea and sky, and the reason he is not is because he took the law into his own hands, and became master of himself, but of nothing else. The Shadow of an Agony, 1163 L
Are you more dinghy. . .than cruise ship? Or in my case, more blue jeans than blue blood? Well congratulations, God changes the world with folks like you!
The next time you say, “I don’t think God could use me!”—stop right there! Satan’s going to try to tell you that God has an IQ requirement. That he employs only experts and high-powered personalities. When you hear Satan whispering that lie—hit him with this: God stampeded the first-century society with swaybacks, not thoroughbreds. Before Jesus came along, the disciples were loading trucks, coaching soccer, and selling Slurpee drinks at the convenience store!
But what they had going for them was a willingness to take a step when Jesus said, “Follow me.”
So what do you think? More plumber than executive? More stand-in than movie star? Yeah—congratulations! God uses people like you…and me.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. Matthew 16:24?
From Max on Life
Proverbs 29
Whoever stubbornly refuses to accept criticism
will suddenly be destroyed beyond recovery.
2 When the godly are in authority, the people rejoice.
But when the wicked are in power, they groan.
3 The man who loves wisdom brings joy to his father,
but if he hangs around with prostitutes, his wealth is wasted.
4 A just king gives stability to his nation,
but one who demands bribes destroys it.
5 To flatter friends
is to lay a trap for their feet.
6 Evil people are trapped by sin,
but the righteous escape, shouting for joy.
7 The godly care about the rights of the poor;
the wicked don’t care at all.
8 Mockers can get a whole town agitated,
but the wise will calm anger.
9 If a wise person takes a fool to court,
there will be ranting and ridicule but no satisfaction.
10 The bloodthirsty hate blameless people,
but the upright seek to help them.[g]
11 Fools vent their anger,
but the wise quietly hold it back.
12 If a ruler pays attention to liars,
all his advisers will be wicked.
13 The poor and the oppressor have this in common—
the Lord gives sight to the eyes of both.
14 If a king judges the poor fairly,
his throne will last forever.
15 To discipline a child produces wisdom,
but a mother is disgraced by an undisciplined child.
16 When the wicked are in authority, sin flourishes,
but the godly will live to see their downfall.
17 Discipline your children, and they will give you peace of mind
and will make your heart glad.
18 When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild.
But whoever obeys the law is joyful.
19 Words alone will not discipline a servant;
the words may be understood, but they are not heeded.
20 There is more hope for a fool
than for someone who speaks without thinking.
21 A servant pampered from childhood
will become a rebel.
22 An angry person starts fights;
a hot-tempered person commits all kinds of sin.
23 Pride ends in humiliation,
while humility brings honor.
24 If you assist a thief, you only hurt yourself.
You are sworn to tell the truth, but you dare not testify.
25 Fearing people is a dangerous trap,
but trusting the Lord means safety.
26 Many seek the ruler’s favor,
but justice comes from the Lord.
27 The righteous despise the unjust;
the wicked despise the godly.
Footnotes:
29:10 Or The bloodthirsty hate blameless people, / and they seek to kill the upright; Hebrew reads The bloodthirsty hate blameless people; / as for the upright, they seek their life.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, November 07, 2015
Read: Acts 4:5-20
The next day the council of all the rulers and elders and teachers of religious law met in Jerusalem. 6 Annas the high priest was there, along with Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and other relatives of the high priest. 7 They brought in the two disciples and demanded, “By what power, or in whose name, have you done this?”
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of our people, 9 are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? 10 Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene,[a] the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. 11 For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says,
‘The stone that you builders rejected
has now become the cornerstone.’[b]
12 There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”
13 The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. 14 But since they could see the man who had been healed standing right there among them, there was nothing the council could say. 15 So they ordered Peter and John out of the council chamber[c] and conferred among themselves.
16 “What should we do with these men?” they asked each other. “We can’t deny that they have performed a miraculous sign, and everybody in Jerusalem knows about it. 17 But to keep them from spreading their propaganda any further, we must warn them not to speak to anyone in Jesus’ name again.” 18 So they called the apostles back in and commanded them never again to speak or teach in the name of Jesus.
19 But Peter and John replied, “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him? 20 We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard.”
Footnotes:
4:10 Or Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
4:11 Ps 118:22.
4:15 Greek the Sanhedrin.
Mention the Name
By Lawrence Darmani
I am in the Father, and . . . the Father is in me.
John 14:10
A church group invited a speaker to address their meeting. “Talk about God,” the group leader told him, “but leave out Jesus.”
“Why?” the man asked, taken aback.
“Well,” the leader explained, “some of our prominent members feel uncomfortable with Jesus. Just use God and we’ll be fine.”
Accepting such instructions, however, was a problem for the speaker who said later, “Without Jesus, I have no message.”
Something similar was asked of followers of Jesus in the days of the early church. Local religious leaders conferred together to warn the disciples not to speak about Jesus (Acts 4:17). But the disciples knew better. “We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard,” they said (v. 20).
To claim to believe in God and not in His Son Jesus Christ is a contradiction in terms. In John 10:30, Jesus clearly describes the unique relationship between Himself and God: “I and the Father are one”—thus establishing His deity. That is why He could say, “You believe in God; believe also in me” (John 14:1). Paul knew that Jesus is the very nature of God and equal with God (Phil. 2:6).
We need not shy away from the name Jesus, for “salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
Jesus, You are God. Thank You for showing Yourself to us in the Bible and in our lives. You have done so much for us. Help us to share with others what we know of You and have experienced of You.
The name of Jesus is at the heart of our faith and our hope.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, November 07, 2015
The Undetected Sacredness of Circumstances
We know that all things work together for good to those who love God… —Romans 8:28
The circumstances of a saint’s life are ordained of God. In the life of a saint there is no such thing as chance. God by His providence brings you into circumstances that you can’t understand at all, but the Spirit of God understands. God brings you to places, among people, and into certain conditions to accomplish a definite purpose through the intercession of the Spirit in you. Never put yourself in front of your circumstances and say, “I’m going to be my own providence here; I will watch this closely, or protect myself from that.” All your circumstances are in the hand of God, and therefore you don’t ever have to think they are unnatural or unique. Your part in intercessory prayer is not to agonize over how to intercede, but to use the everyday circumstances and people God puts around you by His providence to bring them before His throne, and to allow the Spirit in you the opportunity to intercede for them. In this way God is going to touch the whole world with His saints.
Am I making the Holy Spirit’s work difficult by being vague and unsure, or by trying to do His work for Him? I must do the human side of intercession— utilizing the circumstances in which I find myself and the people who surround me. I must keep my conscious life as a sacred place for the Holy Spirit. Then as I lift different ones to God through prayer, the Holy Spirit intercedes for them.
Your intercessions can never be mine, and my intercessions can never be yours, “…but the Spirit Himself makes intercession” in each of our lives (Romans 8:26). And without that intercession, the lives of others would be left in poverty and in ruin.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
God created man to be master of the life in the earth and sea and sky, and the reason he is not is because he took the law into his own hands, and became master of himself, but of nothing else. The Shadow of an Agony, 1163 L
Friday, November 6, 2015
Proverbs 28, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: How Bold Are Your Prayers?
As John Wesley was crossing the Atlantic Ocean, heavy winds came up. He was reading in his cabin when he became aware the winds were knocking the ship off course, and he responded in prayer. Adam Clarke, a colleague, wrote it down.
"Almighty and everlasting God. . .Thou holdest the winds in thy fists and sittest upon the water . . .command these winds and these waves that they obey thee, and take us speedily and safely to the haven whither we would go."
Wesley stood up from his knees, took up his book, and continued to read. Dr. Clarke went on deck where he found calm winds and the ship on course. Wesley made no remark about the answered prayer. Clarke wrote, "So fully did he expect to be heard that he took it for granted that he was heard."
How bold are your prayers?
From Glory Days
Proverbs 28
The wicked run away when no one is chasing them,
but the godly are as bold as lions.
2 When there is moral rot within a nation, its government topples easily.
But wise and knowledgeable leaders bring stability.
3 A poor person who oppresses the poor
is like a pounding rain that destroys the crops.
4 To reject the law is to praise the wicked;
to obey the law is to fight them.
5 Evil people don’t understand justice,
but those who follow the Lord understand completely.
6 Better to be poor and honest
than to be dishonest and rich.
7 Young people who obey the law are wise;
those with wild friends bring shame to their parents.[e]
8 Income from charging high interest rates
will end up in the pocket of someone who is kind to the poor.
9 God detests the prayers
of a person who ignores the law.
10 Those who lead good people along an evil path
will fall into their own trap,
but the honest will inherit good things.
11 Rich people may think they are wise,
but a poor person with discernment can see right through them.
12 When the godly succeed, everyone is glad.
When the wicked take charge, people go into hiding.
13 People who conceal their sins will not prosper,
but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy.
14 Blessed are those who fear to do wrong,[f]
but the stubborn are headed for serious trouble.
15 A wicked ruler is as dangerous to the poor
as a roaring lion or an attacking bear.
16 A ruler with no understanding will oppress his people,
but one who hates corruption will have a long life.
17 A murderer’s tormented conscience will drive him into the grave.
Don’t protect him!
18 The blameless will be rescued from harm,
but the crooked will be suddenly destroyed.
19 A hard worker has plenty of food,
but a person who chases fantasies ends up in poverty.
20 The trustworthy person will get a rich reward,
but a person who wants quick riches will get into trouble.
21 Showing partiality is never good,
yet some will do wrong for a mere piece of bread.
22 Greedy people try to get rich quick
but don’t realize they’re headed for poverty.
23 In the end, people appreciate honest criticism
far more than flattery.
24 Anyone who steals from his father and mother
and says, “What’s wrong with that?”
is no better than a murderer.
25 Greed causes fighting;
trusting the Lord leads to prosperity.
26 Those who trust their own insight are foolish,
but anyone who walks in wisdom is safe.
27 Whoever gives to the poor will lack nothing,
but those who close their eyes to poverty will be cursed.
28 When the wicked take charge, people go into hiding.
When the wicked meet disaster, the godly flourish.
Footnotes:
28:7 Hebrew their father.
28:14 Or those who fear the Lord; Hebrew reads those who fear.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, November 06, 2015
Read: Exodus 4:10-17
But Moses pleaded with the Lord, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.”
11 Then the Lord asked Moses, “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go! I will be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what to say.”
13 But Moses again pleaded, “Lord, please! Send anyone else.”
14 Then the Lord became angry with Moses. “All right,” he said. “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he speaks well. And look! He is on his way to meet you now. He will be delighted to see you. 15 Talk to him, and put the words in his mouth. I will be with both of you as you speak, and I will instruct you both in what to do. 16 Aaron will be your spokesman to the people. He will be your mouthpiece, and you will stand in the place of God for him, telling him what to say. 17 And take your shepherd’s staff with you, and use it to perform the miraculous signs I have shown you.”
INSIGHT:
When God called Moses to deliver the Jews from Egyptian bondage, Moses protested and offered various reasons why he was not the right candidate for the job (Ex. 3). He questioned his own identity (v. 11), his lack of authority (v. 13), and his credibility and acceptability (4:1). God responded by assuring Moses of His power and presence (4:1-9). Moses then continued his protest, saying he lacked eloquence and was “slow of speech and tongue" (v. 10). But God assured Moses He would enable him to speak powerfully and effectively (v. 12). Running out of excuses, Moses asked God to “send someone else” (v. 13). He was angry with Moses for his lack of trust and being unwilling to take up the assignment (v. 14). God told Moses that He would enable him to do what He called him to do. Sim Kay Tee
He Trains My Hands
By Jaime Fernández Garrido
Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. Psalm 144:1
When former NBA player David Wood was playing for Taugrés de Baskonia, I was with him at a Spanish Basketball Cup final. Before one game, he read Psalm 144:1: “Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.” He turned to me and said, “You see? It’s as if God has written this verse just for me! He trains my hands to catch rebounds and my fingers to shoot!” David felt called to play basketball and had learned that God takes us as we are and enables us to do what He calls us to do.
We can easily dismiss ourselves as having little use to God because we feel we have nothing to offer. When God appeared to Moses and assigned him the task of telling the Israelites that He would deliver them from the Egyptians (Ex. 3:16-17), Moses felt inadequate. He said to the Lord, “I have never been eloquent . . . . I am slow of speech and tongue” (4:10). Perhaps Moses had some kind of speech impediment, or he was just afraid, but God overcame his inadequacy with His sufficiency. God said, “Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say” (v. 12).
All God wants from us is to follow His plans.
All God wants from us is to follow His plans. He will sort out the rest. In His mighty hands, you can be a blessing to others.
Here I am, Lord, ready to serve You in whatever way You desire. Lead me.
Dr. Jaime Fernández Garrido is director of the evangelical radio and television program Born Again, author of various books, and composer of more than 400 hymns and choruses.
God’s call to a task includes His strength to complete it.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, November 06, 2015
Intimate Theology
Do you believe this? —John 11:26
Martha believed in the power available to Jesus Christ; she believed that if He had been there He could have healed her brother; she also believed that Jesus had a special intimacy with God, and that whatever He asked of God, God would do. But— she needed a closer personal intimacy with Jesus. Martha’s theology had its fulfillment in the future. But Jesus continued to attract and draw her in until her belief became an intimate possession. It then slowly emerged into a personal inheritance— “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ…” (John 11:27).
Is the Lord dealing with you in the same way? Is Jesus teaching you to have a personal intimacy with Himself? Allow Him to drive His question home to you— “Do you believe this?” Are you facing an area of doubt in your life? Have you come, like Martha, to a crossroads of overwhelming circumstances where your theology is about to become a very personal belief? This happens only when a personal problem brings the awareness of our personal need.
To believe is to commit. In the area of intellectual learning I commit myself mentally, and reject anything not related to that belief. In the realm of personal belief I commit myself morally to my convictions and refuse to compromise. But in intimate personal belief I commit myself spiritually to Jesus Christ and make a determination to be dominated by Him alone.
Then, when I stand face to face with Jesus Christ and He says to me, “Do you believe this?” I find that faith is as natural as breathing. And I am staggered when I think how foolish I have been in not trusting Him earlier.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is nothing, naturally speaking, that makes us lose heart quicker than decay—the decay of bodily beauty, of natural life, of friendship, of associations, all these things make a man lose heart; but Paul says when we are trusting in Jesus Christ these things do not find us discouraged, light comes through them. The Place of Help, 1032 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, November 06, 2015
Trust Is the Difference - #7520
It's interesting to find out how we parented our kids, whether you solicited it or not. See, now that our children are parents, they love to tell us what they thought of our parenting skills. Oh, that's fun! Their observations are pretty interesting regarding what my wife and I did that worked and didn't work. Sometimes it's hilarious; I mean like discussing say their perspective on some of our disciplinary tactics. Sometimes it's convicting. Sometimes it's affirming, even touching.
An observation from our oldest son really got to me. He said, "There's something you guys did that made a difference in the way we turned out." Well, I wanted to know what that was. You're not always sure at the time, you know. He said, "You gave us a lot of trust even when it must have been scary to do it." Well frankly it was and we couldn't be sure how it would turn out. But he was telling us something very revealing. He responds to trust. He's not alone.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Trust Is the Difference."
Now we all like for someone to trust us. In fact, trust often brings out our best. In a way we're like our Creator, He'll do His best work in our lives in response to our trust. For example, in our word for today from the Word of God in Luke Chapter 8, verse 48, a woman with a twelve-year incurable medical problem is finally healed by Jesus, and He says, "Daughter, your faith has healed you." Later in Chapter 18, verse 42 of Luke a blind man comes to Him and He says, "Receive your sight, your faith has healed you." That's a pretty common phrase in Jesus' healings.
Like the people who came to Jesus in the New Testament, we often come with a great need. Maybe you're thinking of a need that you've been bringing Him recently, or you need to - financial, relationship, family, medical? It's a need for some help, some answers, some company maybe. The Bible is clear in portraying Jesus as a savior who has walked in our shoes, who feels what we feel, who cares about those needs. But ultimately, it isn't need that Jesus responds to. A lot of people needed Him; but He said it was faith that triggered the answer to the need. Jesus responds primarily to faith not to need.
Everyone needs rescue from the death penalty of sin; every one of us. But faith in what Jesus did is the difference between those who are saved - rescued - and those who are not. And Jesus said it was faith that triggered the supernatural for those people that He healed. It wasn't just the need. You can see this from the flipside of that in Mark 6:5-6, in His hometown of Nazareth. It says, "And because of their unbelief, He could not do any miracles among them."
They didn't have faith. The resources of God are accessed by active faith in Him. Jesus doesn't do miracles where people are not believing and expecting Him to. Which brings us to your need - the one that keeps bringing you to Jesus. Are you acting as if He's going to keep His promises? Or are you all worried, panicking, running around trying to figure out your own solution, taking matters into your own hands? You're going to fix this, right?
Are you moving ahead with the confidence of someone who really believes your Savior's in charge? He's in control, not you. That He's working on a comprehensive answer, not just a partial one. Are you someone who believes that His promises are totally true and you can plant both your feet on them? There's a lightness, a steadiness in a believer who has total trust in their Lord to do what is best for His glory and His child's good.
Maybe today is the day you bring it to Jesus one more time, only this time in an attitude of total surrender; totally resting on His promises with this childlike trust. He'd trade your trust for His peace and ultimately for His sovereign, loving intervention. My son said, "You trusted me" and that made the difference. When your Heavenly Father touches your need with His power, will He be able to say to you, "You trusted me and that made the difference"?
By the way, you don't have a relationship with Jesus. Nobody does. Nobody can go to heaven without first of all exercising total trust in what Jesus did on the cross for them. Trust is the difference between heaven and hell. Not agreement with Jesus. No, total trust in Him.
Have you ever told Him, "Jesus, I'm all yours. You're my only hope." If you've never done that to begin a relationship with Him, please consider that being today. Go to our website ANewStory.com or text us at 442-244-WORD. Trust in Jesus changes everything.
As John Wesley was crossing the Atlantic Ocean, heavy winds came up. He was reading in his cabin when he became aware the winds were knocking the ship off course, and he responded in prayer. Adam Clarke, a colleague, wrote it down.
"Almighty and everlasting God. . .Thou holdest the winds in thy fists and sittest upon the water . . .command these winds and these waves that they obey thee, and take us speedily and safely to the haven whither we would go."
Wesley stood up from his knees, took up his book, and continued to read. Dr. Clarke went on deck where he found calm winds and the ship on course. Wesley made no remark about the answered prayer. Clarke wrote, "So fully did he expect to be heard that he took it for granted that he was heard."
How bold are your prayers?
From Glory Days
Proverbs 28
The wicked run away when no one is chasing them,
but the godly are as bold as lions.
2 When there is moral rot within a nation, its government topples easily.
But wise and knowledgeable leaders bring stability.
3 A poor person who oppresses the poor
is like a pounding rain that destroys the crops.
4 To reject the law is to praise the wicked;
to obey the law is to fight them.
5 Evil people don’t understand justice,
but those who follow the Lord understand completely.
6 Better to be poor and honest
than to be dishonest and rich.
7 Young people who obey the law are wise;
those with wild friends bring shame to their parents.[e]
8 Income from charging high interest rates
will end up in the pocket of someone who is kind to the poor.
9 God detests the prayers
of a person who ignores the law.
10 Those who lead good people along an evil path
will fall into their own trap,
but the honest will inherit good things.
11 Rich people may think they are wise,
but a poor person with discernment can see right through them.
12 When the godly succeed, everyone is glad.
When the wicked take charge, people go into hiding.
13 People who conceal their sins will not prosper,
but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy.
14 Blessed are those who fear to do wrong,[f]
but the stubborn are headed for serious trouble.
15 A wicked ruler is as dangerous to the poor
as a roaring lion or an attacking bear.
16 A ruler with no understanding will oppress his people,
but one who hates corruption will have a long life.
17 A murderer’s tormented conscience will drive him into the grave.
Don’t protect him!
18 The blameless will be rescued from harm,
but the crooked will be suddenly destroyed.
19 A hard worker has plenty of food,
but a person who chases fantasies ends up in poverty.
20 The trustworthy person will get a rich reward,
but a person who wants quick riches will get into trouble.
21 Showing partiality is never good,
yet some will do wrong for a mere piece of bread.
22 Greedy people try to get rich quick
but don’t realize they’re headed for poverty.
23 In the end, people appreciate honest criticism
far more than flattery.
24 Anyone who steals from his father and mother
and says, “What’s wrong with that?”
is no better than a murderer.
25 Greed causes fighting;
trusting the Lord leads to prosperity.
26 Those who trust their own insight are foolish,
but anyone who walks in wisdom is safe.
27 Whoever gives to the poor will lack nothing,
but those who close their eyes to poverty will be cursed.
28 When the wicked take charge, people go into hiding.
When the wicked meet disaster, the godly flourish.
Footnotes:
28:7 Hebrew their father.
28:14 Or those who fear the Lord; Hebrew reads those who fear.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, November 06, 2015
Read: Exodus 4:10-17
But Moses pleaded with the Lord, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.”
11 Then the Lord asked Moses, “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go! I will be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what to say.”
13 But Moses again pleaded, “Lord, please! Send anyone else.”
14 Then the Lord became angry with Moses. “All right,” he said. “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he speaks well. And look! He is on his way to meet you now. He will be delighted to see you. 15 Talk to him, and put the words in his mouth. I will be with both of you as you speak, and I will instruct you both in what to do. 16 Aaron will be your spokesman to the people. He will be your mouthpiece, and you will stand in the place of God for him, telling him what to say. 17 And take your shepherd’s staff with you, and use it to perform the miraculous signs I have shown you.”
INSIGHT:
When God called Moses to deliver the Jews from Egyptian bondage, Moses protested and offered various reasons why he was not the right candidate for the job (Ex. 3). He questioned his own identity (v. 11), his lack of authority (v. 13), and his credibility and acceptability (4:1). God responded by assuring Moses of His power and presence (4:1-9). Moses then continued his protest, saying he lacked eloquence and was “slow of speech and tongue" (v. 10). But God assured Moses He would enable him to speak powerfully and effectively (v. 12). Running out of excuses, Moses asked God to “send someone else” (v. 13). He was angry with Moses for his lack of trust and being unwilling to take up the assignment (v. 14). God told Moses that He would enable him to do what He called him to do. Sim Kay Tee
He Trains My Hands
By Jaime Fernández Garrido
Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. Psalm 144:1
When former NBA player David Wood was playing for Taugrés de Baskonia, I was with him at a Spanish Basketball Cup final. Before one game, he read Psalm 144:1: “Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.” He turned to me and said, “You see? It’s as if God has written this verse just for me! He trains my hands to catch rebounds and my fingers to shoot!” David felt called to play basketball and had learned that God takes us as we are and enables us to do what He calls us to do.
We can easily dismiss ourselves as having little use to God because we feel we have nothing to offer. When God appeared to Moses and assigned him the task of telling the Israelites that He would deliver them from the Egyptians (Ex. 3:16-17), Moses felt inadequate. He said to the Lord, “I have never been eloquent . . . . I am slow of speech and tongue” (4:10). Perhaps Moses had some kind of speech impediment, or he was just afraid, but God overcame his inadequacy with His sufficiency. God said, “Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say” (v. 12).
All God wants from us is to follow His plans.
All God wants from us is to follow His plans. He will sort out the rest. In His mighty hands, you can be a blessing to others.
Here I am, Lord, ready to serve You in whatever way You desire. Lead me.
Dr. Jaime Fernández Garrido is director of the evangelical radio and television program Born Again, author of various books, and composer of more than 400 hymns and choruses.
God’s call to a task includes His strength to complete it.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, November 06, 2015
Intimate Theology
Do you believe this? —John 11:26
Martha believed in the power available to Jesus Christ; she believed that if He had been there He could have healed her brother; she also believed that Jesus had a special intimacy with God, and that whatever He asked of God, God would do. But— she needed a closer personal intimacy with Jesus. Martha’s theology had its fulfillment in the future. But Jesus continued to attract and draw her in until her belief became an intimate possession. It then slowly emerged into a personal inheritance— “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ…” (John 11:27).
Is the Lord dealing with you in the same way? Is Jesus teaching you to have a personal intimacy with Himself? Allow Him to drive His question home to you— “Do you believe this?” Are you facing an area of doubt in your life? Have you come, like Martha, to a crossroads of overwhelming circumstances where your theology is about to become a very personal belief? This happens only when a personal problem brings the awareness of our personal need.
To believe is to commit. In the area of intellectual learning I commit myself mentally, and reject anything not related to that belief. In the realm of personal belief I commit myself morally to my convictions and refuse to compromise. But in intimate personal belief I commit myself spiritually to Jesus Christ and make a determination to be dominated by Him alone.
Then, when I stand face to face with Jesus Christ and He says to me, “Do you believe this?” I find that faith is as natural as breathing. And I am staggered when I think how foolish I have been in not trusting Him earlier.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is nothing, naturally speaking, that makes us lose heart quicker than decay—the decay of bodily beauty, of natural life, of friendship, of associations, all these things make a man lose heart; but Paul says when we are trusting in Jesus Christ these things do not find us discouraged, light comes through them. The Place of Help, 1032 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, November 06, 2015
Trust Is the Difference - #7520
It's interesting to find out how we parented our kids, whether you solicited it or not. See, now that our children are parents, they love to tell us what they thought of our parenting skills. Oh, that's fun! Their observations are pretty interesting regarding what my wife and I did that worked and didn't work. Sometimes it's hilarious; I mean like discussing say their perspective on some of our disciplinary tactics. Sometimes it's convicting. Sometimes it's affirming, even touching.
An observation from our oldest son really got to me. He said, "There's something you guys did that made a difference in the way we turned out." Well, I wanted to know what that was. You're not always sure at the time, you know. He said, "You gave us a lot of trust even when it must have been scary to do it." Well frankly it was and we couldn't be sure how it would turn out. But he was telling us something very revealing. He responds to trust. He's not alone.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Trust Is the Difference."
Now we all like for someone to trust us. In fact, trust often brings out our best. In a way we're like our Creator, He'll do His best work in our lives in response to our trust. For example, in our word for today from the Word of God in Luke Chapter 8, verse 48, a woman with a twelve-year incurable medical problem is finally healed by Jesus, and He says, "Daughter, your faith has healed you." Later in Chapter 18, verse 42 of Luke a blind man comes to Him and He says, "Receive your sight, your faith has healed you." That's a pretty common phrase in Jesus' healings.
Like the people who came to Jesus in the New Testament, we often come with a great need. Maybe you're thinking of a need that you've been bringing Him recently, or you need to - financial, relationship, family, medical? It's a need for some help, some answers, some company maybe. The Bible is clear in portraying Jesus as a savior who has walked in our shoes, who feels what we feel, who cares about those needs. But ultimately, it isn't need that Jesus responds to. A lot of people needed Him; but He said it was faith that triggered the answer to the need. Jesus responds primarily to faith not to need.
Everyone needs rescue from the death penalty of sin; every one of us. But faith in what Jesus did is the difference between those who are saved - rescued - and those who are not. And Jesus said it was faith that triggered the supernatural for those people that He healed. It wasn't just the need. You can see this from the flipside of that in Mark 6:5-6, in His hometown of Nazareth. It says, "And because of their unbelief, He could not do any miracles among them."
They didn't have faith. The resources of God are accessed by active faith in Him. Jesus doesn't do miracles where people are not believing and expecting Him to. Which brings us to your need - the one that keeps bringing you to Jesus. Are you acting as if He's going to keep His promises? Or are you all worried, panicking, running around trying to figure out your own solution, taking matters into your own hands? You're going to fix this, right?
Are you moving ahead with the confidence of someone who really believes your Savior's in charge? He's in control, not you. That He's working on a comprehensive answer, not just a partial one. Are you someone who believes that His promises are totally true and you can plant both your feet on them? There's a lightness, a steadiness in a believer who has total trust in their Lord to do what is best for His glory and His child's good.
Maybe today is the day you bring it to Jesus one more time, only this time in an attitude of total surrender; totally resting on His promises with this childlike trust. He'd trade your trust for His peace and ultimately for His sovereign, loving intervention. My son said, "You trusted me" and that made the difference. When your Heavenly Father touches your need with His power, will He be able to say to you, "You trusted me and that made the difference"?
By the way, you don't have a relationship with Jesus. Nobody does. Nobody can go to heaven without first of all exercising total trust in what Jesus did on the cross for them. Trust is the difference between heaven and hell. Not agreement with Jesus. No, total trust in Him.
Have you ever told Him, "Jesus, I'm all yours. You're my only hope." If you've never done that to begin a relationship with Him, please consider that being today. Go to our website ANewStory.com or text us at 442-244-WORD. Trust in Jesus changes everything.
Thursday, November 5, 2015
Proverbs 27, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Choose Obedience
Remember where you are! As a child of God, you are in the Promised Land. Not geographically but spiritually. This is the land of grace and hope…freedom and truth…love and life! The devil has no jurisdiction over you. He acts as if he does. He walks with a swagger and brings temptation, but as you resist him and turn to God, James 4:7 tells us, he must flee.
Voices await you today. In your cul-de-sac, at school, and on the Internet. They are waiting for you. You cannot eliminate their presence, but you can prepare for their invitation. You are indwelled by the Spirit of the living God. You are His! Decide now what you will say then. Choose obedience! And as you do you can expect blessings. The blessings of a clear conscience, a good night's sleep, and the blessing of God's favor.
From Glory Days
Proverbs 27
Don’t brag about tomorrow,
since you don’t know what the day will bring.
2 Let someone else praise you, not your own mouth—
a stranger, not your own lips.
3 A stone is heavy and sand is weighty,
but the resentment caused by a fool is even heavier.
4 Anger is cruel, and wrath is like a flood,
but jealousy is even more dangerous.
5 An open rebuke
is better than hidden love!
6 Wounds from a sincere friend
are better than many kisses from an enemy.
7 A person who is full refuses honey,
but even bitter food tastes sweet to the hungry.
8 A person who strays from home
is like a bird that strays from its nest.
9 The heartfelt counsel of a friend
is as sweet as perfume and incense.
10 Never abandon a friend—
either yours or your father’s.
When disaster strikes, you won’t have to ask your brother for assistance.
It’s better to go to a neighbor than to a brother who lives far away.
11 Be wise, my child,[a] and make my heart glad.
Then I will be able to answer my critics.
12 A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions.
The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.
13 Get security from someone who guarantees a stranger’s debt.
Get a deposit if he does it for foreigners.[b]
14 A loud and cheerful greeting early in the morning
will be taken as a curse!
15 A quarrelsome wife is as annoying
as constant dripping on a rainy day.
16 Stopping her complaints is like trying to stop the wind
or trying to hold something with greased hands.
17 As iron sharpens iron,
so a friend sharpens a friend.
18 As workers who tend a fig tree are allowed to eat the fruit,
so workers who protect their employer’s interests will be rewarded.
19 As a face is reflected in water,
so the heart reflects the real person.
20 Just as Death and Destruction[c] are never satisfied,
so human desire is never satisfied.
21 Fire tests the purity of silver and gold,
but a person is tested by being praised.[d]
22 You cannot separate fools from their foolishness,
even though you grind them like grain with mortar and pestle.
23 Know the state of your flocks,
and put your heart into caring for your herds,
24 for riches don’t last forever,
and the crown might not be passed to the next generation.
25 After the hay is harvested and the new crop appears
and the mountain grasses are gathered in,
26 your sheep will provide wool for clothing,
and your goats will provide the price of a field.
27 And you will have enough goats’ milk for yourself,
your family, and your servant girls.
Footnotes:
27:11 Hebrew my son.
27:13 As in Greek and Latin versions (see also 20:16); Hebrew reads for a promiscuous woman.
27:20 Hebrew Sheol and Abaddon.
27:21 Or by flattery.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, November 05, 2015
Read: Psalm 86:1-13
A prayer of David.
1 Bend down, O Lord, and hear my prayer;
answer me, for I need your help.
2 Protect me, for I am devoted to you.
Save me, for I serve you and trust you.
You are my God.
3 Be merciful to me, O Lord,
for I am calling on you constantly.
4 Give me happiness, O Lord,
for I give myself to you.
5 O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive,
so full of unfailing love for all who ask for your help.
6 Listen closely to my prayer, O Lord;
hear my urgent cry.
7 I will call to you whenever I’m in trouble,
and you will answer me.
8 No pagan god is like you, O Lord.
None can do what you do!
9 All the nations you made
will come and bow before you, Lord;
they will praise your holy name.
10 For you are great and perform wonderful deeds.
You alone are God.
11 Teach me your ways, O Lord,
that I may live according to your truth!
Grant me purity of heart,
so that I may honor you.
12 With all my heart I will praise you, O Lord my God.
I will give glory to your name forever,
13 for your love for me is very great.
You have rescued me from the depths of death.[a]
Footnotes:
86:13 Hebrew of Sheol.
INSIGHT:
The psalms are often read as windows to the soul—songs that reflect the reality of our emotions and struggles. They encourage us to understand that God can handle our honesty as we express ourselves to Him. Yes, God is big enough to absorb our anger and listen to our complaints, but we must not overlook the context in which the writers of the psalms expressed their feelings. In today’s passage, over and over David recognizes his place in relationship to God. He acknowledges that he is “poor and needy” (v. 1), he is faithful to God and trusts in Him (v. 2), and he is God’s “servant” (v. 4). It is important that we understand who we are in relationship to God when we bring our hurts and struggles to Him. J.R. Hudberg
Angry Prayers
By Shelly Beach |
Fools give full vent to their rage, but the wise bring calm in the end.
Proverbs 29:11
The neighbors probably didn’t know what to think as they looked out their windows at me one wintry day. I was standing in the driveway with a garden shovel clutched in my hands, whacking wildly and angrily at a clump of ice that had formed beneath a corner gutter. With each smack, I was uttering prayers that were variations on one theme: “I can’t do this.” “You can’t expect me to do this.” “I don’t have the strength to do this.” As a caregiver, with a long list of responsibilities to handle, I now had this ice to deal with, and I had had enough!
My anger was wrapped around a bundle of lies: “I deserve better than this.” “God isn’t enough after all.” “Nobody cares anyway.” But when we choose to cling to our anger, we become mired in the trap of bitterness, never moving forward. And the only cure for anger is truth.
The truth is that God does not give us what we deserve; He gives us mercy instead. “You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you” (Ps. 86:5). The truth is that God is more than enough, despite what we see. The truth is that His strength is sufficient (2 Cor. 12:9). Yet before we can find such reassurance, we may need to step back, lay down the shovel of our own efforts, and take Jesus’ hand that’s extended to us in mercy and grace.
God is big enough to listen to our anger and loving enough to show us, in His time, the path forward.
Loving God, forgive me for my outbursts of anger. Today I choose to lay down my sinful anger and accept Your mercy and grace. Thank You for forgiveness and for truth that leads to wisdom.
Shelly Beach is the author of several books, including Precious Lord, Take My Hand: Meditations for Caregivers.
Grace: Getting what we don’t deserve.
Mercy: Not getting what we do deserve.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, November 05, 2015
Partakers of His Suffering
…but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings… —1 Peter 4:13
If you are going to be used by God, He will take you through a number of experiences that are not meant for you personally at all. They are designed to make you useful in His hands, and to enable you to understand what takes place in the lives of others. Because of this process, you will never be surprised by what comes your way. You say, “Oh, I can’t deal with that person.” Why can’t you? God gave you sufficient opportunities to learn from Him about that problem; but you turned away, not heeding the lesson, because it seemed foolish to spend your time that way.
The sufferings of Christ were not those of ordinary people. He suffered “according to the will of God” (1 Peter 4:19), having a different point of view of suffering from ours. It is only through our relationship with Jesus Christ that we can understand what God is after in His dealings with us. When it comes to suffering, it is part of our Christian culture to want to know God’s purpose beforehand. In the history of the Christian church, the tendency has been to avoid being identified with the sufferings of Jesus Christ. People have sought to carry out God’s orders through a shortcut of their own. God’s way is always the way of suffering— the way of the “long road home.”
Are we partakers of Christ’s sufferings? Are we prepared for God to stamp out our personal ambitions? Are we prepared for God to destroy our individual decisions by supernaturally transforming them? It will mean not knowing why God is taking us that way, because knowing would make us spiritually proud. We never realize at the time what God is putting us through— we go through it more or less without understanding. Then suddenly we come to a place of enlightenment, and realize— “God has strengthened me and I didn’t even know it!”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We have no right to judge where we should be put, or to have preconceived notions as to what God is fitting us for. God engineers everything; wherever He puts us, our one great aim is to pour out a whole-hearted devotion to Him in that particular work. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” My Utmost for His Highest, April 23, 773 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, November 05, 2015
Choosing Your Uniform - #7519
Okay, I admit I'm a history guy. So I stop at President's houses and all these places. My poor kids have gone on more tours of places: Revolutionary War, Civil War. Yep, of course we're going to stop and see that. We'd just come back from a vacation that included a tour of a Civil War battlefield and we had our appropriate souvenirs. That night there was actually a revealing addition to my wife's and my room! On her side there was a grey hat, on my side there was a blue hat. Guess who grew up in the south; guess who grew up in the north. But I'll tell you what. Back in those days, as in many battles throughout history, the color of your uniform makes you the other guy's target.
There's a story about one soldier during the Civil War who tried his own unique method of staying safe. He decided that he would wear a blue coat and grey pants. One small problem: he got shot at on both ends.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Choosing Your Uniform!"
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from John 19:38 - a man who had to make that choice. We're going to look at an amazing day in the life of this man who in a sense literally tried to wear two opposing uniforms.
Joseph of Arimathea - the scene is right after the death of Jesus, and it says, "Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilot for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate's permission he came and took the body away." We know now, and we'll know for all history that Joseph said, "I want Jesus buried in my tomb." Now, this is a man who wore the uniform of Jesus in his heart but who operated in surroundings and with people where Jesus wasn't respected. It could cost him a lot for people in his circle to know of his allegiance to Jesus! So on the outside he wore the uniform of his environment, blending in, but on the inside, he had his Jesus uniform. This sound a little familiar?
Is there a place where you cover up your Jesus uniform because it might cost you to show it, like at your job, or in school, with a particular group of people, or associates, or with your family, on Facebook? Well, the problem is when you don't choose your uniform, you just get pressure from both sides. You haven't declared the Jesus difference in your life to the unbelievers around you so they continue to expect you to be like them. Meanwhile, you have a Christian world that knows your Jesus side and expects you to live like you belong to Him! When you don't choose you've got pressure from both sides.
Well, be encouraged with what happened to Joseph. Suddenly he blew his cover, he went public, he acted as if he didn't care who knew he belonged to Jesus. What happened here? The cross happened. Joseph must have seen what Jesus suffered for him that day and he just couldn't deny his Savior anymore. Like Joseph, maybe it's time for you to say, "Jesus, if you could hang on a cross and die publicly for me, I can live publicly for you."
It was after an event where we had challenged Christian young people to be a Jesus ambassador to their friends. A young 12-year-old girl surprised her mom; I guess it was the next day. She'd had Jesus shirts but she only wore them to Christian places, but the morning after this rally she appeared ready for school wearing one of her Jesus shirts and her Mom was kind of taken aback. She said, "You're wearing that to school?" And her daughter replied, "Mom, today I'm going to start making a difference."
Well, it's not necessarily about wearing a Christian shirt or handing out Christian literature. But it is about making a firm decision to choose your uniform once and for all. To belong to Jesus and not care who knows it. To bring up your relationship with Him whenever there's an opportunity; to seek opportunities to tell people about that relationship.
Here's God's charge to you in Ephesians 6:13. "Put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand" You've tried maybe serving two masters. Haven't you done that long enough? You've postponed choosing your uniform long enough. Jesus stood for you, and He didn't care what it cost. Can't you do that for Him?
Remember where you are! As a child of God, you are in the Promised Land. Not geographically but spiritually. This is the land of grace and hope…freedom and truth…love and life! The devil has no jurisdiction over you. He acts as if he does. He walks with a swagger and brings temptation, but as you resist him and turn to God, James 4:7 tells us, he must flee.
Voices await you today. In your cul-de-sac, at school, and on the Internet. They are waiting for you. You cannot eliminate their presence, but you can prepare for their invitation. You are indwelled by the Spirit of the living God. You are His! Decide now what you will say then. Choose obedience! And as you do you can expect blessings. The blessings of a clear conscience, a good night's sleep, and the blessing of God's favor.
From Glory Days
Proverbs 27
Don’t brag about tomorrow,
since you don’t know what the day will bring.
2 Let someone else praise you, not your own mouth—
a stranger, not your own lips.
3 A stone is heavy and sand is weighty,
but the resentment caused by a fool is even heavier.
4 Anger is cruel, and wrath is like a flood,
but jealousy is even more dangerous.
5 An open rebuke
is better than hidden love!
6 Wounds from a sincere friend
are better than many kisses from an enemy.
7 A person who is full refuses honey,
but even bitter food tastes sweet to the hungry.
8 A person who strays from home
is like a bird that strays from its nest.
9 The heartfelt counsel of a friend
is as sweet as perfume and incense.
10 Never abandon a friend—
either yours or your father’s.
When disaster strikes, you won’t have to ask your brother for assistance.
It’s better to go to a neighbor than to a brother who lives far away.
11 Be wise, my child,[a] and make my heart glad.
Then I will be able to answer my critics.
12 A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions.
The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.
13 Get security from someone who guarantees a stranger’s debt.
Get a deposit if he does it for foreigners.[b]
14 A loud and cheerful greeting early in the morning
will be taken as a curse!
15 A quarrelsome wife is as annoying
as constant dripping on a rainy day.
16 Stopping her complaints is like trying to stop the wind
or trying to hold something with greased hands.
17 As iron sharpens iron,
so a friend sharpens a friend.
18 As workers who tend a fig tree are allowed to eat the fruit,
so workers who protect their employer’s interests will be rewarded.
19 As a face is reflected in water,
so the heart reflects the real person.
20 Just as Death and Destruction[c] are never satisfied,
so human desire is never satisfied.
21 Fire tests the purity of silver and gold,
but a person is tested by being praised.[d]
22 You cannot separate fools from their foolishness,
even though you grind them like grain with mortar and pestle.
23 Know the state of your flocks,
and put your heart into caring for your herds,
24 for riches don’t last forever,
and the crown might not be passed to the next generation.
25 After the hay is harvested and the new crop appears
and the mountain grasses are gathered in,
26 your sheep will provide wool for clothing,
and your goats will provide the price of a field.
27 And you will have enough goats’ milk for yourself,
your family, and your servant girls.
Footnotes:
27:11 Hebrew my son.
27:13 As in Greek and Latin versions (see also 20:16); Hebrew reads for a promiscuous woman.
27:20 Hebrew Sheol and Abaddon.
27:21 Or by flattery.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, November 05, 2015
Read: Psalm 86:1-13
A prayer of David.
1 Bend down, O Lord, and hear my prayer;
answer me, for I need your help.
2 Protect me, for I am devoted to you.
Save me, for I serve you and trust you.
You are my God.
3 Be merciful to me, O Lord,
for I am calling on you constantly.
4 Give me happiness, O Lord,
for I give myself to you.
5 O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive,
so full of unfailing love for all who ask for your help.
6 Listen closely to my prayer, O Lord;
hear my urgent cry.
7 I will call to you whenever I’m in trouble,
and you will answer me.
8 No pagan god is like you, O Lord.
None can do what you do!
9 All the nations you made
will come and bow before you, Lord;
they will praise your holy name.
10 For you are great and perform wonderful deeds.
You alone are God.
11 Teach me your ways, O Lord,
that I may live according to your truth!
Grant me purity of heart,
so that I may honor you.
12 With all my heart I will praise you, O Lord my God.
I will give glory to your name forever,
13 for your love for me is very great.
You have rescued me from the depths of death.[a]
Footnotes:
86:13 Hebrew of Sheol.
INSIGHT:
The psalms are often read as windows to the soul—songs that reflect the reality of our emotions and struggles. They encourage us to understand that God can handle our honesty as we express ourselves to Him. Yes, God is big enough to absorb our anger and listen to our complaints, but we must not overlook the context in which the writers of the psalms expressed their feelings. In today’s passage, over and over David recognizes his place in relationship to God. He acknowledges that he is “poor and needy” (v. 1), he is faithful to God and trusts in Him (v. 2), and he is God’s “servant” (v. 4). It is important that we understand who we are in relationship to God when we bring our hurts and struggles to Him. J.R. Hudberg
Angry Prayers
By Shelly Beach |
Fools give full vent to their rage, but the wise bring calm in the end.
Proverbs 29:11
The neighbors probably didn’t know what to think as they looked out their windows at me one wintry day. I was standing in the driveway with a garden shovel clutched in my hands, whacking wildly and angrily at a clump of ice that had formed beneath a corner gutter. With each smack, I was uttering prayers that were variations on one theme: “I can’t do this.” “You can’t expect me to do this.” “I don’t have the strength to do this.” As a caregiver, with a long list of responsibilities to handle, I now had this ice to deal with, and I had had enough!
My anger was wrapped around a bundle of lies: “I deserve better than this.” “God isn’t enough after all.” “Nobody cares anyway.” But when we choose to cling to our anger, we become mired in the trap of bitterness, never moving forward. And the only cure for anger is truth.
The truth is that God does not give us what we deserve; He gives us mercy instead. “You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you” (Ps. 86:5). The truth is that God is more than enough, despite what we see. The truth is that His strength is sufficient (2 Cor. 12:9). Yet before we can find such reassurance, we may need to step back, lay down the shovel of our own efforts, and take Jesus’ hand that’s extended to us in mercy and grace.
God is big enough to listen to our anger and loving enough to show us, in His time, the path forward.
Loving God, forgive me for my outbursts of anger. Today I choose to lay down my sinful anger and accept Your mercy and grace. Thank You for forgiveness and for truth that leads to wisdom.
Shelly Beach is the author of several books, including Precious Lord, Take My Hand: Meditations for Caregivers.
Grace: Getting what we don’t deserve.
Mercy: Not getting what we do deserve.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, November 05, 2015
Partakers of His Suffering
…but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings… —1 Peter 4:13
If you are going to be used by God, He will take you through a number of experiences that are not meant for you personally at all. They are designed to make you useful in His hands, and to enable you to understand what takes place in the lives of others. Because of this process, you will never be surprised by what comes your way. You say, “Oh, I can’t deal with that person.” Why can’t you? God gave you sufficient opportunities to learn from Him about that problem; but you turned away, not heeding the lesson, because it seemed foolish to spend your time that way.
The sufferings of Christ were not those of ordinary people. He suffered “according to the will of God” (1 Peter 4:19), having a different point of view of suffering from ours. It is only through our relationship with Jesus Christ that we can understand what God is after in His dealings with us. When it comes to suffering, it is part of our Christian culture to want to know God’s purpose beforehand. In the history of the Christian church, the tendency has been to avoid being identified with the sufferings of Jesus Christ. People have sought to carry out God’s orders through a shortcut of their own. God’s way is always the way of suffering— the way of the “long road home.”
Are we partakers of Christ’s sufferings? Are we prepared for God to stamp out our personal ambitions? Are we prepared for God to destroy our individual decisions by supernaturally transforming them? It will mean not knowing why God is taking us that way, because knowing would make us spiritually proud. We never realize at the time what God is putting us through— we go through it more or less without understanding. Then suddenly we come to a place of enlightenment, and realize— “God has strengthened me and I didn’t even know it!”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We have no right to judge where we should be put, or to have preconceived notions as to what God is fitting us for. God engineers everything; wherever He puts us, our one great aim is to pour out a whole-hearted devotion to Him in that particular work. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” My Utmost for His Highest, April 23, 773 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, November 05, 2015
Choosing Your Uniform - #7519
Okay, I admit I'm a history guy. So I stop at President's houses and all these places. My poor kids have gone on more tours of places: Revolutionary War, Civil War. Yep, of course we're going to stop and see that. We'd just come back from a vacation that included a tour of a Civil War battlefield and we had our appropriate souvenirs. That night there was actually a revealing addition to my wife's and my room! On her side there was a grey hat, on my side there was a blue hat. Guess who grew up in the south; guess who grew up in the north. But I'll tell you what. Back in those days, as in many battles throughout history, the color of your uniform makes you the other guy's target.
There's a story about one soldier during the Civil War who tried his own unique method of staying safe. He decided that he would wear a blue coat and grey pants. One small problem: he got shot at on both ends.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Choosing Your Uniform!"
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from John 19:38 - a man who had to make that choice. We're going to look at an amazing day in the life of this man who in a sense literally tried to wear two opposing uniforms.
Joseph of Arimathea - the scene is right after the death of Jesus, and it says, "Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilot for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate's permission he came and took the body away." We know now, and we'll know for all history that Joseph said, "I want Jesus buried in my tomb." Now, this is a man who wore the uniform of Jesus in his heart but who operated in surroundings and with people where Jesus wasn't respected. It could cost him a lot for people in his circle to know of his allegiance to Jesus! So on the outside he wore the uniform of his environment, blending in, but on the inside, he had his Jesus uniform. This sound a little familiar?
Is there a place where you cover up your Jesus uniform because it might cost you to show it, like at your job, or in school, with a particular group of people, or associates, or with your family, on Facebook? Well, the problem is when you don't choose your uniform, you just get pressure from both sides. You haven't declared the Jesus difference in your life to the unbelievers around you so they continue to expect you to be like them. Meanwhile, you have a Christian world that knows your Jesus side and expects you to live like you belong to Him! When you don't choose you've got pressure from both sides.
Well, be encouraged with what happened to Joseph. Suddenly he blew his cover, he went public, he acted as if he didn't care who knew he belonged to Jesus. What happened here? The cross happened. Joseph must have seen what Jesus suffered for him that day and he just couldn't deny his Savior anymore. Like Joseph, maybe it's time for you to say, "Jesus, if you could hang on a cross and die publicly for me, I can live publicly for you."
It was after an event where we had challenged Christian young people to be a Jesus ambassador to their friends. A young 12-year-old girl surprised her mom; I guess it was the next day. She'd had Jesus shirts but she only wore them to Christian places, but the morning after this rally she appeared ready for school wearing one of her Jesus shirts and her Mom was kind of taken aback. She said, "You're wearing that to school?" And her daughter replied, "Mom, today I'm going to start making a difference."
Well, it's not necessarily about wearing a Christian shirt or handing out Christian literature. But it is about making a firm decision to choose your uniform once and for all. To belong to Jesus and not care who knows it. To bring up your relationship with Him whenever there's an opportunity; to seek opportunities to tell people about that relationship.
Here's God's charge to you in Ephesians 6:13. "Put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand" You've tried maybe serving two masters. Haven't you done that long enough? You've postponed choosing your uniform long enough. Jesus stood for you, and He didn't care what it cost. Can't you do that for Him?
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Acts 4:23-37 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Obedience Leads to Blessing
Obedience leads to blessing. Disobedience leads to trouble. Remember Jesus' parable of two builders who each built a house? One built on cheap, easy-to-access sand. The other built on costly, difficult-to-reach rock. The second construction project demanded more time and expense, but when spring rains turned the creek into a gulley washer, guess which builder enjoyed a blessing and which experienced trouble?
According to Jesus in Matthew 7:24, the wise builder is "whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them." Both builders heard the teachings. The difference between the two wasn't knowledge and ignorance, but obedience and disobedience. Security comes as we put God's precepts into practice. We're only as strong as our obedience.
From Glory Days
Acts 4:23-37
The Believers Pray for Courage
23 As soon as they were freed, Peter and John returned to the other believers and told them what the leading priests and elders had said. 24 When they heard the report, all the believers lifted their voices together in prayer to God: “O Sovereign Lord, Creator of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them— 25 you spoke long ago by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant, saying,
‘Why were the nations so angry?
Why did they waste their time with futile plans?
26 The kings of the earth prepared for battle;
the rulers gathered together
against the Lord
and against his Messiah.’[a]
27 “In fact, this has happened here in this very city! For Herod Antipas, Pontius Pilate the governor, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were all united against Jesus, your holy servant, whom you anointed. 28 But everything they did was determined beforehand according to your will. 29 And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word. 30 Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
31 After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness.
The Believers Share Their Possessions
32 All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had. 33 The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all. 34 There were no needy people among them, because those who owned land or houses would sell them 35 and bring the money to the apostles to give to those in need.
36 For instance, there was Joseph, the one the apostles nicknamed Barnabas (which means “Son of Encouragement”). He was from the tribe of Levi and came from the island of Cyprus. 37 He sold a field he owned and brought the money to the apostles.
Footnotes:
4:25-26 Or his anointed one; or his Christ. Ps 2:1-2.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, November 04, 2015
Read: 2 Corinthians 11:1-4
Paul and the False Apostles
I hope you will put up with a little more of my foolishness. Please bear with me. 2 For I am jealous for you with the jealousy of God himself. I promised you as a pure bride[a] to one husband—Christ. 3 But I fear that somehow your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent. 4 You happily put up with whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different kind of Spirit than the one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed.
Footnotes:
11:2 Greek a virgin.
INSIGHT:
Paul’s relationship with the church at Corinth was a turbulent one. Paul founded the Corinthian church and spent 18 months there (Acts 18:1-18). Then he returned for another 3 months at a later time (20:3). In spite of this significant investment of time and energy, the Corinthian believers appear to have struggled with Paul’s authority and position as an apostle, as well as his correction of them. His letters to the church at Corinth are filled with evidence of his disappointment over their testy relationship. Still, Paul’s love for them is evidenced by his desire that they not be led astray by false teachers. Bill Crowder
Our Jealous God
By Mart DeHaan
The Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
Exodus 34:14
In 2014 a University of California researcher used a stuffed dog to show that animals are capable of jealousy. Professor Christine Harris asked dog owners to show affection for a stuffed animal in the presence of their pet. She found that three-fourths of the dogs responded with apparent envy. Some tried to get attention with touch or a gentle nudge. Others tried to push between their owner and the toy. A few went so far as to snap at their stuffed rival.
In a dog, jealousy seems heartwarming. In people, it can lead to less admirable results. Yet, as Moses and Paul remind us, there is also another jealousy—one that beautifully reflects the heart of God.
God made us & rescued us to know & enjoy Him forever.
When Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, he said he was “jealous for you with a godly jealousy” (2 Cor. 11:2). He didn’t want them to be “led astray from [their] sincere and pure devotion to Christ” (v. 3). Such jealousy reflects the heart of God, who told Moses in the Ten Commandments, “I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God” (Ex. 20:5).
God’s jealousy is not like our self-centered love. His heart expresses His protective zeal for those who are His by creation and salvation. He made us and rescued us to know and enjoy Him forever. How could we ask for anything more than a God who is so zealous—and jealous—for our happiness?
Father, help me shun anything that distracts me from You, so that I may always find enjoyment in who You are and in Your plan for me.
God loves every one of us as if there were but one of us to love. Augustine
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, November 04, 2015
The Authority of Truth
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. —James 4:8
It is essential that you give people the opportunity to act on the truth of God. The responsibility must be left with the individual— you cannot act for him. It must be his own deliberate act, but the evangelical message should always lead him to action. Refusing to act leaves a person paralyzed, exactly where he was previously. But once he acts, he is never the same. It is the apparent folly of the truth that stands in the way of hundreds who have been convicted by the Spirit of God. Once I press myself into action, I immediately begin to live. Anything less is merely existing. The moments I truly live are the moments when I act with my entire will.
When a truth of God is brought home to your soul, never allow it to pass without acting on it internally in your will, not necessarily externally in your physical life. Record it with ink and with blood— work it into your life. The weakest saint who transacts business with Jesus Christ is liberated the second he acts and God’s almighty power is available on his behalf. We come up to the truth of God, confess we are wrong, but go back again. Then we approach it again and turn back, until we finally learn we have no business going back. When we are confronted with such a word of truth from our redeeming Lord, we must move directly to transact business with Him. “Come to Me…” (Matthew 11:28). His word come means “to act.” Yet the last thing we want to do is come. But everyone who does come knows that, at that very moment, the supernatural power of the life of God invades him. The dominating power of the world, the flesh, and the devil is now paralyzed; not by your act, but because your act has joined you to God and tapped you in to His redemptive power.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
For the past three hundred years men have been pointing out how similar Jesus Christ’s teachings are to other good teachings. We have to remember that Christianity, if it is not a supernatural miracle, is a sham. The Highest Good, 548 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, November 04, 2015
How You End Up Where You Never Thought You'd Go - #7518
During the winter it's nice to think about a beach and all that sun. Of course the easiest way to cook yourself on the beach is to be there on a cloudy day. You say, "I don't feel a thing." But let me tell you by experience, the rays are still burning you.
On a much more serious level, that's what happens when people are exposed to lethal levels of radiation. Places like Chernobyl and Fukushima. People there were invaded by invisible radiation and I'm sure they didn't feel a thing. In the case of Chernobyl where we've had some years to look back, we know the deadly affect on that population. It's still too early to assess the full effect of the nuclear power plant meltdown in Fukushima, Japan. But we know the survivors of these nuclear incidents were gradually destroyed by something they couldn't even feel.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "How You End Up Where You Never Thought You'd Go."
Which brings us to our word for today from the Word of God, 2 Corinthians 7:1, where God says, "Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God." Now the Lord speaks to us here about the danger of being contaminated in our body and in our spirit, and the answer - the antidote - purify yourself. Really work on the holy things in your life. Don't let that contamination in. The devil is too smart to come up and say, "Hey, listen! I really want to poison your life and take you into some really dark stuff. Follow me and I'll take you to hell." No, who's going to go for that?
No, he would rather slowly wear you down, and maybe he's doing that right now and you don't even feel a thing. It's just slow, steady contamination. The devil believes in getting people more through erosion than explosion. There's moral radiation out there. And because you don't feel anything bad happening when it's hitting you, you'll think nothing is happening.
The enemy's strategy for making people what they never thought they would become, getting them to do what they never thought they would do, to think what they never thought they would think goes like this: He just tries to plant a thought. He doesn't try to get you to do anything. It's like think it, then ultimately want it, and then eventually do it and ultimately pay for it. I wonder where you might be in that strategy?
James 1:15 says, "After desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." The easiest way to radiate you with sinful ideas, I think, is through your entertainment. That's when your guard's down. You know when you're watching T.V. or you're listening to some music, you're not thinking much. You don't want to. It's a time when you are trying to relax; turn off the brain.
God knows that and that's why He says avoid the contamination. So, the devil will wrap sinful values and lifestyles in a package that's popular - everybody's seeing it, it's attractive, it's really entertaining, it's funny, it's catchy. He'll put it in a catchy song. He'll put sin in a very creative, engaging video, in an award-winning movie that everybody's talking about, everybody's seeing, it's getting great reviews - must see. He'll put it into a captivating novel, a popular T.V. program, an amusing T.V. program. The devil's fastest way to wear you down is to enter your heart in an entertaining package. That's when you're not thinking about what's going on, but you are getting radiated by his poison.
That's why it is time to intentionally begin to de-contaminate your life and say, "Where am I letting darkness in? Where are the portals that the enemy is able to exploit? The good rule of thumb is simply: Don't see what you don't want to be. The devil is pumping out moral radiation all the time through the media and we don't feel a thing. But, see, he wants to destroy you quietly. So you wake up one day and you say, "How did I end up here?" The Bible says, "Guard your heart; it is the well spring of life."
Don't find yourself slowly radiated by the invisible death of Satan's propaganda.
Obedience leads to blessing. Disobedience leads to trouble. Remember Jesus' parable of two builders who each built a house? One built on cheap, easy-to-access sand. The other built on costly, difficult-to-reach rock. The second construction project demanded more time and expense, but when spring rains turned the creek into a gulley washer, guess which builder enjoyed a blessing and which experienced trouble?
According to Jesus in Matthew 7:24, the wise builder is "whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them." Both builders heard the teachings. The difference between the two wasn't knowledge and ignorance, but obedience and disobedience. Security comes as we put God's precepts into practice. We're only as strong as our obedience.
From Glory Days
Acts 4:23-37
The Believers Pray for Courage
23 As soon as they were freed, Peter and John returned to the other believers and told them what the leading priests and elders had said. 24 When they heard the report, all the believers lifted their voices together in prayer to God: “O Sovereign Lord, Creator of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them— 25 you spoke long ago by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant, saying,
‘Why were the nations so angry?
Why did they waste their time with futile plans?
26 The kings of the earth prepared for battle;
the rulers gathered together
against the Lord
and against his Messiah.’[a]
27 “In fact, this has happened here in this very city! For Herod Antipas, Pontius Pilate the governor, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were all united against Jesus, your holy servant, whom you anointed. 28 But everything they did was determined beforehand according to your will. 29 And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word. 30 Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
31 After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness.
The Believers Share Their Possessions
32 All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had. 33 The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all. 34 There were no needy people among them, because those who owned land or houses would sell them 35 and bring the money to the apostles to give to those in need.
36 For instance, there was Joseph, the one the apostles nicknamed Barnabas (which means “Son of Encouragement”). He was from the tribe of Levi and came from the island of Cyprus. 37 He sold a field he owned and brought the money to the apostles.
Footnotes:
4:25-26 Or his anointed one; or his Christ. Ps 2:1-2.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, November 04, 2015
Read: 2 Corinthians 11:1-4
Paul and the False Apostles
I hope you will put up with a little more of my foolishness. Please bear with me. 2 For I am jealous for you with the jealousy of God himself. I promised you as a pure bride[a] to one husband—Christ. 3 But I fear that somehow your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent. 4 You happily put up with whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different kind of Spirit than the one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed.
Footnotes:
11:2 Greek a virgin.
INSIGHT:
Paul’s relationship with the church at Corinth was a turbulent one. Paul founded the Corinthian church and spent 18 months there (Acts 18:1-18). Then he returned for another 3 months at a later time (20:3). In spite of this significant investment of time and energy, the Corinthian believers appear to have struggled with Paul’s authority and position as an apostle, as well as his correction of them. His letters to the church at Corinth are filled with evidence of his disappointment over their testy relationship. Still, Paul’s love for them is evidenced by his desire that they not be led astray by false teachers. Bill Crowder
Our Jealous God
By Mart DeHaan
The Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
Exodus 34:14
In 2014 a University of California researcher used a stuffed dog to show that animals are capable of jealousy. Professor Christine Harris asked dog owners to show affection for a stuffed animal in the presence of their pet. She found that three-fourths of the dogs responded with apparent envy. Some tried to get attention with touch or a gentle nudge. Others tried to push between their owner and the toy. A few went so far as to snap at their stuffed rival.
In a dog, jealousy seems heartwarming. In people, it can lead to less admirable results. Yet, as Moses and Paul remind us, there is also another jealousy—one that beautifully reflects the heart of God.
God made us & rescued us to know & enjoy Him forever.
When Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, he said he was “jealous for you with a godly jealousy” (2 Cor. 11:2). He didn’t want them to be “led astray from [their] sincere and pure devotion to Christ” (v. 3). Such jealousy reflects the heart of God, who told Moses in the Ten Commandments, “I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God” (Ex. 20:5).
God’s jealousy is not like our self-centered love. His heart expresses His protective zeal for those who are His by creation and salvation. He made us and rescued us to know and enjoy Him forever. How could we ask for anything more than a God who is so zealous—and jealous—for our happiness?
Father, help me shun anything that distracts me from You, so that I may always find enjoyment in who You are and in Your plan for me.
God loves every one of us as if there were but one of us to love. Augustine
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, November 04, 2015
The Authority of Truth
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. —James 4:8
It is essential that you give people the opportunity to act on the truth of God. The responsibility must be left with the individual— you cannot act for him. It must be his own deliberate act, but the evangelical message should always lead him to action. Refusing to act leaves a person paralyzed, exactly where he was previously. But once he acts, he is never the same. It is the apparent folly of the truth that stands in the way of hundreds who have been convicted by the Spirit of God. Once I press myself into action, I immediately begin to live. Anything less is merely existing. The moments I truly live are the moments when I act with my entire will.
When a truth of God is brought home to your soul, never allow it to pass without acting on it internally in your will, not necessarily externally in your physical life. Record it with ink and with blood— work it into your life. The weakest saint who transacts business with Jesus Christ is liberated the second he acts and God’s almighty power is available on his behalf. We come up to the truth of God, confess we are wrong, but go back again. Then we approach it again and turn back, until we finally learn we have no business going back. When we are confronted with such a word of truth from our redeeming Lord, we must move directly to transact business with Him. “Come to Me…” (Matthew 11:28). His word come means “to act.” Yet the last thing we want to do is come. But everyone who does come knows that, at that very moment, the supernatural power of the life of God invades him. The dominating power of the world, the flesh, and the devil is now paralyzed; not by your act, but because your act has joined you to God and tapped you in to His redemptive power.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
For the past three hundred years men have been pointing out how similar Jesus Christ’s teachings are to other good teachings. We have to remember that Christianity, if it is not a supernatural miracle, is a sham. The Highest Good, 548 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, November 04, 2015
How You End Up Where You Never Thought You'd Go - #7518
During the winter it's nice to think about a beach and all that sun. Of course the easiest way to cook yourself on the beach is to be there on a cloudy day. You say, "I don't feel a thing." But let me tell you by experience, the rays are still burning you.
On a much more serious level, that's what happens when people are exposed to lethal levels of radiation. Places like Chernobyl and Fukushima. People there were invaded by invisible radiation and I'm sure they didn't feel a thing. In the case of Chernobyl where we've had some years to look back, we know the deadly affect on that population. It's still too early to assess the full effect of the nuclear power plant meltdown in Fukushima, Japan. But we know the survivors of these nuclear incidents were gradually destroyed by something they couldn't even feel.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "How You End Up Where You Never Thought You'd Go."
Which brings us to our word for today from the Word of God, 2 Corinthians 7:1, where God says, "Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God." Now the Lord speaks to us here about the danger of being contaminated in our body and in our spirit, and the answer - the antidote - purify yourself. Really work on the holy things in your life. Don't let that contamination in. The devil is too smart to come up and say, "Hey, listen! I really want to poison your life and take you into some really dark stuff. Follow me and I'll take you to hell." No, who's going to go for that?
No, he would rather slowly wear you down, and maybe he's doing that right now and you don't even feel a thing. It's just slow, steady contamination. The devil believes in getting people more through erosion than explosion. There's moral radiation out there. And because you don't feel anything bad happening when it's hitting you, you'll think nothing is happening.
The enemy's strategy for making people what they never thought they would become, getting them to do what they never thought they would do, to think what they never thought they would think goes like this: He just tries to plant a thought. He doesn't try to get you to do anything. It's like think it, then ultimately want it, and then eventually do it and ultimately pay for it. I wonder where you might be in that strategy?
James 1:15 says, "After desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." The easiest way to radiate you with sinful ideas, I think, is through your entertainment. That's when your guard's down. You know when you're watching T.V. or you're listening to some music, you're not thinking much. You don't want to. It's a time when you are trying to relax; turn off the brain.
God knows that and that's why He says avoid the contamination. So, the devil will wrap sinful values and lifestyles in a package that's popular - everybody's seeing it, it's attractive, it's really entertaining, it's funny, it's catchy. He'll put it in a catchy song. He'll put sin in a very creative, engaging video, in an award-winning movie that everybody's talking about, everybody's seeing, it's getting great reviews - must see. He'll put it into a captivating novel, a popular T.V. program, an amusing T.V. program. The devil's fastest way to wear you down is to enter your heart in an entertaining package. That's when you're not thinking about what's going on, but you are getting radiated by his poison.
That's why it is time to intentionally begin to de-contaminate your life and say, "Where am I letting darkness in? Where are the portals that the enemy is able to exploit? The good rule of thumb is simply: Don't see what you don't want to be. The devil is pumping out moral radiation all the time through the media and we don't feel a thing. But, see, he wants to destroy you quietly. So you wake up one day and you say, "How did I end up here?" The Bible says, "Guard your heart; it is the well spring of life."
Don't find yourself slowly radiated by the invisible death of Satan's propaganda.
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Proverbs 26, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily:
Obedience is the Key
Do you want a Promised Land life? Do you desire the fullness of Glory Days? Then obey God’s commands! What’s that? You expected something more mystical, exotic, or intriguing? You thought that the Promised Land level life was birthed from ecstatic utterances or angelic visions, mountaintop moments, or midnight messages from heaven? Sorry to disappoint you.
Obedience, wrote C.S. Lewis, is the key to all doors. Don’t think for a second you can heed the wrong voice, make the wrong choice, and escape the consequences. At the same time, obedience leads to a waterfall of goodness not just for you but for your children, your children’s children, and great-grandchildren. It is God’s promise in Exodus 20:6 to “show love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” As we obey God’s commands, we open the door for God’s favor!
From Glory Days
Proverbs 26
Honor is no more associated with fools
than snow with summer or rain with harvest.
2 Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow,
an undeserved curse will not land on its intended victim.
3 Guide a horse with a whip, a donkey with a bridle,
and a fool with a rod to his back!
4 Don’t answer the foolish arguments of fools,
or you will become as foolish as they are.
5 Be sure to answer the foolish arguments of fools,
or they will become wise in their own estimation.
6 Trusting a fool to convey a message
is like cutting off one’s feet or drinking poison!
7 A proverb in the mouth of a fool
is as useless as a paralyzed leg.
8 Honoring a fool
is as foolish as tying a stone to a slingshot.
9 A proverb in the mouth of a fool
is like a thorny branch brandished by a drunk.
10 An employer who hires a fool or a bystander
is like an archer who shoots at random.
11 As a dog returns to its vomit,
so a fool repeats his foolishness.
12 There is more hope for fools
than for people who think they are wise.
13 The lazy person claims, “There’s a lion on the road!
Yes, I’m sure there’s a lion out there!”
14 As a door swings back and forth on its hinges,
so the lazy person turns over in bed.
15 Lazy people take food in their hand
but don’t even lift it to their mouth.
16 Lazy people consider themselves smarter
than seven wise counselors.
17 Interfering in someone else’s argument
is as foolish as yanking a dog’s ears.
18 Just as damaging
as a madman shooting a deadly weapon
19 is someone who lies to a friend
and then says, “I was only joking.”
20 Fire goes out without wood,
and quarrels disappear when gossip stops.
21 A quarrelsome person starts fights
as easily as hot embers light charcoal or fire lights wood.
22 Rumors are dainty morsels
that sink deep into one’s heart.
23 Smooth[b] words may hide a wicked heart,
just as a pretty glaze covers a clay pot.
24 People may cover their hatred with pleasant words,
but they’re deceiving you.
25 They pretend to be kind, but don’t believe them.
Their hearts are full of many evils.[c]
26 While their hatred may be concealed by trickery,
their wrongdoing will be exposed in public.
27 If you set a trap for others,
you will get caught in it yourself.
If you roll a boulder down on others,
it will crush you instead.
28 A lying tongue hates its victims,
and flattering words cause ruin.
Footnotes:
26:25 Hebrew seven evils.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, November 03, 2015
Read: Ephesians 6:5-9
Slaves and Masters
Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. 6 Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. As slaves of Christ, do the will of God with all your heart. 7 Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. 8 Remember that the Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do, whether we are slaves or free.
9 Masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Don’t threaten them; remember, you both have the same Master in heaven, and he has no favorites.
INSIGHT:
Historians say that slaves composed about one-third of the population of Ephesus. In today’s reading Paul teaches believing slaves and masters how to live in a Christlike way within the established structures of society. These instructions called for reciprocal attitudes and applied to both slaves and masters (v. 9). Because of their new relationship with Christ, believers were accountable to Him as their Master, and He would judge fairly regardless of one’s social or economic status. Both slaves and masters were to treat each other with respect, sincerity, justice, and fairness (vv. 5-9). Sim Kay Tee
The Daily Grind
By David Roper
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters. Colossians 3:23
The high school I attended required 4 years of Latin instruction. I appreciate the value of that discipline now, but back then it was a grind. Our teacher believed in drill and repetition. “Repetitio est mater studiorum,” she intoned over us several times a day, which simply means, “Repetition is the mother of learning.” “Repetitio est absurdum,” we muttered under our breath. “Repetition is absurd.”
I realize now that most of life is simply that: repetition—a round of dull, uninspiring, lackluster things we must do again and again. “Repetition is both as ordinary and necessary as bread,” said Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. But he went on to say, “It is the bread that satisfies with benediction.”
Even the smallest tasks are done for God.
It’s a matter of taking up each duty, no matter how mundane, humble, or trivial, and asking God to bless it and put it to His intended purposes. In that way we take the drudgeries of life and turn them into holy work, filled with unseen, eternal consequence.
The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins said, “To lift up the hands in prayer gives God glory, but a man with a [pitchfork] in his hand, a woman with a slop pail, give Him glory, too. God is so great that all things give Him glory if you mean that they should.”
If whatever we do is done for Christ, we’ll be amazed at the joy and meaning we’ll find in even the most ordinary tasks.
Remind us today, Lord, that You are in the dull and ordinary tasks of life in a most extraordinary way. Let us not forget that we do even the smallest tasks for You.
A willing spirit changes the drudgery of duty into a labor of love.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, November 03, 2015
A Bondservant of Jesus
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me… —Galatians 2:20
These words mean the breaking and collapse of my independence brought about by my own hands, and the surrendering of my life to the supremacy of the Lord Jesus. No one can do this for me, I must do it myself. God may bring me up to this point three hundred and sixty-five times a year, but He cannot push me through it. It means breaking the hard outer layer of my individual independence from God, and the liberating of myself and my nature into oneness with Him; not following my own ideas, but choosing absolute loyalty to Jesus. Once I am at that point, there is no possibility of misunderstanding. Very few of us know anything about loyalty to Christ or understand what He meant when He said, “…for My sake” (Matthew 5:11). That is what makes a strong saint.
Has that breaking of my independence come? All the rest is religious fraud. The one point to decide is— will I give up? Will I surrender to Jesus Christ, placing no conditions whatsoever as to how the brokenness will come? I must be broken from my own understanding of myself. When I reach that point, immediately the reality of the supernatural identification with Jesus Christ takes place. And the witness of the Spirit of God is unmistakable— “I have been crucified with Christ….”
The passion of Christianity comes from deliberately signing away my own rights and becoming a bondservant of Jesus Christ. Until I do that, I will not begin to be a saint.
One student a year who hears God’s call would be sufficient for God to have called the Bible Training College into existence. This college has no value as an organization, not even academically. Its sole value for existence is for God to help Himself to lives. Will we allow Him to help Himself to us, or are we more concerned with our own ideas of what we are going to be?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Jesus Christ can afford to be misunderstood; we cannot. Our weakness lies in always wanting to vindicate ourselves.
The Place of Help
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, November 03, 2015
When Everything's Looking Dark - #7517
When I had lunch with my friends George and Linda, they told me that the view had really improved at their house. They told me that everything in their backyard had looked so dirty and so dingy for a long time - until the other day. They did something that totally changed the view. They cleaned the big window that looks out on the yard. See, when you're looking through a dirty window, everything looks dirty.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When Everything's Looking Dark."
Now the Apostle Paul was writing from a very depressing location when he wrote our word for today from the Word of God. He was actually in prison for doing something right. He was a victim of injustice. He was surrounded by gloom, he was isolated from the people who cared about him and honestly he was very uncertain about the future. So what was the view for him - Philippians 4:4, "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" How can he be so positive? How can he be so joyful?
Verse 6, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your requests to God." Paul said when you bring your situation to God with thanksgiving, you're focusing on the good things that God has done. Then verse 7 says, "And the peace of God..." In other words, as a result of that, "The peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." And then verse 8, "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things."
In other words Paul is saying train your brain not to dwell on the negatives but on the noble stuff, the true stuff, the right, the pure, the lovely, the things that are worthy of praise. He's telling us that life looks much brighter when you're looking out a clean window. But unfortunately, too often life looks dark and depressing, and discouraging, overwhelming to us.
That happened to George and Linda. That's how we ended up talking about their backyard window. They said there has been tension between them and some of their family members. They left their church because of some of the disillusioning things there; but now they're actively working on removing those sources of tension between them and between their family members and they're returning to their church, but this time with a new attitude. I said, "Hey, you cleaned your window". And they said, "What?" I said, "When you are looking through a dirty window everything looks dirty." Then they smiled at each other and said, "We just did that last week. We cleaned our back window and what a difference it's made."
They also cleaned the dirty window on their heart and they started to focus on positives, on solutions, on healing, and everything suddenly looked different. Maybe it's time for you to do some window cleaning. Maybe you've allowed some bitterness or resentment to creep into your heart. Maybe what you have been through has caused you to slip into thinking about yourself most of the time and into that awful swamp called self-pity. Or you focused a lot of your thinking on a person or some people who have wronged you or hurt you.
The fact is the view has become stressful, it's become discouraging, un-motivating, and it really isn't the stuff in the yard that's causing it. It's the attitude through which you are viewing things. It's your dirty window. Why don't you start back by what the Bible describes as the Rejoice Mode? It starts when you bring your situation to Jesus, and your attitude. It's your attitude that's dragging you down more than your situation. I guess it's the "rejoice choice" isn't it?
Each new day begin by listing to your Heavenly Father things for which you are thankful. There will always be plenty of them if you look for your God-sightings. And then start loading up your heart with music and scripture and conversation and people that will fill your tank with positive fuel. You may not be able to change what's in the yard, but you can change how you're looking at it. Haven't you been looking out the dirty window long enough?
Obedience is the Key
Do you want a Promised Land life? Do you desire the fullness of Glory Days? Then obey God’s commands! What’s that? You expected something more mystical, exotic, or intriguing? You thought that the Promised Land level life was birthed from ecstatic utterances or angelic visions, mountaintop moments, or midnight messages from heaven? Sorry to disappoint you.
Obedience, wrote C.S. Lewis, is the key to all doors. Don’t think for a second you can heed the wrong voice, make the wrong choice, and escape the consequences. At the same time, obedience leads to a waterfall of goodness not just for you but for your children, your children’s children, and great-grandchildren. It is God’s promise in Exodus 20:6 to “show love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” As we obey God’s commands, we open the door for God’s favor!
From Glory Days
Proverbs 26
Honor is no more associated with fools
than snow with summer or rain with harvest.
2 Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow,
an undeserved curse will not land on its intended victim.
3 Guide a horse with a whip, a donkey with a bridle,
and a fool with a rod to his back!
4 Don’t answer the foolish arguments of fools,
or you will become as foolish as they are.
5 Be sure to answer the foolish arguments of fools,
or they will become wise in their own estimation.
6 Trusting a fool to convey a message
is like cutting off one’s feet or drinking poison!
7 A proverb in the mouth of a fool
is as useless as a paralyzed leg.
8 Honoring a fool
is as foolish as tying a stone to a slingshot.
9 A proverb in the mouth of a fool
is like a thorny branch brandished by a drunk.
10 An employer who hires a fool or a bystander
is like an archer who shoots at random.
11 As a dog returns to its vomit,
so a fool repeats his foolishness.
12 There is more hope for fools
than for people who think they are wise.
13 The lazy person claims, “There’s a lion on the road!
Yes, I’m sure there’s a lion out there!”
14 As a door swings back and forth on its hinges,
so the lazy person turns over in bed.
15 Lazy people take food in their hand
but don’t even lift it to their mouth.
16 Lazy people consider themselves smarter
than seven wise counselors.
17 Interfering in someone else’s argument
is as foolish as yanking a dog’s ears.
18 Just as damaging
as a madman shooting a deadly weapon
19 is someone who lies to a friend
and then says, “I was only joking.”
20 Fire goes out without wood,
and quarrels disappear when gossip stops.
21 A quarrelsome person starts fights
as easily as hot embers light charcoal or fire lights wood.
22 Rumors are dainty morsels
that sink deep into one’s heart.
23 Smooth[b] words may hide a wicked heart,
just as a pretty glaze covers a clay pot.
24 People may cover their hatred with pleasant words,
but they’re deceiving you.
25 They pretend to be kind, but don’t believe them.
Their hearts are full of many evils.[c]
26 While their hatred may be concealed by trickery,
their wrongdoing will be exposed in public.
27 If you set a trap for others,
you will get caught in it yourself.
If you roll a boulder down on others,
it will crush you instead.
28 A lying tongue hates its victims,
and flattering words cause ruin.
Footnotes:
26:25 Hebrew seven evils.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, November 03, 2015
Read: Ephesians 6:5-9
Slaves and Masters
Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. 6 Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. As slaves of Christ, do the will of God with all your heart. 7 Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. 8 Remember that the Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do, whether we are slaves or free.
9 Masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Don’t threaten them; remember, you both have the same Master in heaven, and he has no favorites.
INSIGHT:
Historians say that slaves composed about one-third of the population of Ephesus. In today’s reading Paul teaches believing slaves and masters how to live in a Christlike way within the established structures of society. These instructions called for reciprocal attitudes and applied to both slaves and masters (v. 9). Because of their new relationship with Christ, believers were accountable to Him as their Master, and He would judge fairly regardless of one’s social or economic status. Both slaves and masters were to treat each other with respect, sincerity, justice, and fairness (vv. 5-9). Sim Kay Tee
The Daily Grind
By David Roper
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters. Colossians 3:23
The high school I attended required 4 years of Latin instruction. I appreciate the value of that discipline now, but back then it was a grind. Our teacher believed in drill and repetition. “Repetitio est mater studiorum,” she intoned over us several times a day, which simply means, “Repetition is the mother of learning.” “Repetitio est absurdum,” we muttered under our breath. “Repetition is absurd.”
I realize now that most of life is simply that: repetition—a round of dull, uninspiring, lackluster things we must do again and again. “Repetition is both as ordinary and necessary as bread,” said Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. But he went on to say, “It is the bread that satisfies with benediction.”
Even the smallest tasks are done for God.
It’s a matter of taking up each duty, no matter how mundane, humble, or trivial, and asking God to bless it and put it to His intended purposes. In that way we take the drudgeries of life and turn them into holy work, filled with unseen, eternal consequence.
The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins said, “To lift up the hands in prayer gives God glory, but a man with a [pitchfork] in his hand, a woman with a slop pail, give Him glory, too. God is so great that all things give Him glory if you mean that they should.”
If whatever we do is done for Christ, we’ll be amazed at the joy and meaning we’ll find in even the most ordinary tasks.
Remind us today, Lord, that You are in the dull and ordinary tasks of life in a most extraordinary way. Let us not forget that we do even the smallest tasks for You.
A willing spirit changes the drudgery of duty into a labor of love.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, November 03, 2015
A Bondservant of Jesus
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me… —Galatians 2:20
These words mean the breaking and collapse of my independence brought about by my own hands, and the surrendering of my life to the supremacy of the Lord Jesus. No one can do this for me, I must do it myself. God may bring me up to this point three hundred and sixty-five times a year, but He cannot push me through it. It means breaking the hard outer layer of my individual independence from God, and the liberating of myself and my nature into oneness with Him; not following my own ideas, but choosing absolute loyalty to Jesus. Once I am at that point, there is no possibility of misunderstanding. Very few of us know anything about loyalty to Christ or understand what He meant when He said, “…for My sake” (Matthew 5:11). That is what makes a strong saint.
Has that breaking of my independence come? All the rest is religious fraud. The one point to decide is— will I give up? Will I surrender to Jesus Christ, placing no conditions whatsoever as to how the brokenness will come? I must be broken from my own understanding of myself. When I reach that point, immediately the reality of the supernatural identification with Jesus Christ takes place. And the witness of the Spirit of God is unmistakable— “I have been crucified with Christ….”
The passion of Christianity comes from deliberately signing away my own rights and becoming a bondservant of Jesus Christ. Until I do that, I will not begin to be a saint.
One student a year who hears God’s call would be sufficient for God to have called the Bible Training College into existence. This college has no value as an organization, not even academically. Its sole value for existence is for God to help Himself to lives. Will we allow Him to help Himself to us, or are we more concerned with our own ideas of what we are going to be?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Jesus Christ can afford to be misunderstood; we cannot. Our weakness lies in always wanting to vindicate ourselves.
The Place of Help
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, November 03, 2015
When Everything's Looking Dark - #7517
When I had lunch with my friends George and Linda, they told me that the view had really improved at their house. They told me that everything in their backyard had looked so dirty and so dingy for a long time - until the other day. They did something that totally changed the view. They cleaned the big window that looks out on the yard. See, when you're looking through a dirty window, everything looks dirty.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When Everything's Looking Dark."
Now the Apostle Paul was writing from a very depressing location when he wrote our word for today from the Word of God. He was actually in prison for doing something right. He was a victim of injustice. He was surrounded by gloom, he was isolated from the people who cared about him and honestly he was very uncertain about the future. So what was the view for him - Philippians 4:4, "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" How can he be so positive? How can he be so joyful?
Verse 6, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your requests to God." Paul said when you bring your situation to God with thanksgiving, you're focusing on the good things that God has done. Then verse 7 says, "And the peace of God..." In other words, as a result of that, "The peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." And then verse 8, "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things."
In other words Paul is saying train your brain not to dwell on the negatives but on the noble stuff, the true stuff, the right, the pure, the lovely, the things that are worthy of praise. He's telling us that life looks much brighter when you're looking out a clean window. But unfortunately, too often life looks dark and depressing, and discouraging, overwhelming to us.
That happened to George and Linda. That's how we ended up talking about their backyard window. They said there has been tension between them and some of their family members. They left their church because of some of the disillusioning things there; but now they're actively working on removing those sources of tension between them and between their family members and they're returning to their church, but this time with a new attitude. I said, "Hey, you cleaned your window". And they said, "What?" I said, "When you are looking through a dirty window everything looks dirty." Then they smiled at each other and said, "We just did that last week. We cleaned our back window and what a difference it's made."
They also cleaned the dirty window on their heart and they started to focus on positives, on solutions, on healing, and everything suddenly looked different. Maybe it's time for you to do some window cleaning. Maybe you've allowed some bitterness or resentment to creep into your heart. Maybe what you have been through has caused you to slip into thinking about yourself most of the time and into that awful swamp called self-pity. Or you focused a lot of your thinking on a person or some people who have wronged you or hurt you.
The fact is the view has become stressful, it's become discouraging, un-motivating, and it really isn't the stuff in the yard that's causing it. It's the attitude through which you are viewing things. It's your dirty window. Why don't you start back by what the Bible describes as the Rejoice Mode? It starts when you bring your situation to Jesus, and your attitude. It's your attitude that's dragging you down more than your situation. I guess it's the "rejoice choice" isn't it?
Each new day begin by listing to your Heavenly Father things for which you are thankful. There will always be plenty of them if you look for your God-sightings. And then start loading up your heart with music and scripture and conversation and people that will fill your tank with positive fuel. You may not be able to change what's in the yard, but you can change how you're looking at it. Haven't you been looking out the dirty window long enough?
Monday, November 2, 2015
Proverbs 25, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: A Rousing Ovation
Scott Norwood, a former NFL champion with the Buffalo Bills, walked off the field with his head down. He missed the kick and lost the game. In spite of the loss the team was honored with a turnout of thousands of people cheering them on. Scott stayed in the background but fans had something else in mind. “We want Scott!” The chant grew to a rousing ovation. He missed the kick, but they made sure he knew he was still a part of their community.
In Hebrews 12:1, the Bible says we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Thousands upon thousands of saved saints are looking down upon us. Abraham. Peter. David. Paul. Joshua. Your grandpa, your uncle, your neighbor, your coach. They have seen God’s great grace; and they are all pulling for you. Do you hear them? They are chanting your name. “Don’t quit!” “It’s worth it!” “Try again!”
From Glory Days
Proverbs 25
More Proverbs of Solomon
These are more proverbs of Solomon, collected by the advisers of King Hezekiah of Judah.
2 It is God’s privilege to conceal things
and the king’s privilege to discover them.
3 No one can comprehend the height of heaven, the depth of the earth,
or all that goes on in the king’s mind!
4 Remove the impurities from silver,
and the sterling will be ready for the silversmith.
5 Remove the wicked from the king’s court,
and his reign will be made secure by justice.
6 Don’t demand an audience with the king
or push for a place among the great.
7 It’s better to wait for an invitation to the head table
than to be sent away in public disgrace.
Just because you’ve seen something,
8 don’t be in a hurry to go to court.
For what will you do in the end
if your neighbor deals you a shameful defeat?
9 When arguing with your neighbor,
don’t betray another person’s secret.
10 Others may accuse you of gossip,
and you will never regain your good reputation.
11 Timely advice is lovely,
like golden apples in a silver basket.
12 To one who listens, valid criticism
is like a gold earring or other gold jewelry.
13 Trustworthy messengers refresh like snow in summer.
They revive the spirit of their employer.
14 A person who promises a gift but doesn’t give it
is like clouds and wind that bring no rain.
15 Patience can persuade a prince,
and soft speech can break bones.
16 Do you like honey?
Don’t eat too much, or it will make you sick!
17 Don’t visit your neighbors too often,
or you will wear out your welcome.
18 Telling lies about others
is as harmful as hitting them with an ax,
wounding them with a sword,
or shooting them with a sharp arrow.
19 Putting confidence in an unreliable person in times of trouble
is like chewing with a broken tooth or walking on a lame foot.
20 Singing cheerful songs to a person with a heavy heart
is like taking someone’s coat in cold weather
or pouring vinegar in a wound.[a]
21 If your enemies are hungry, give them food to eat.
If they are thirsty, give them water to drink.
22 You will heap burning coals of shame on their heads,
and the Lord will reward you.
23 As surely as a north wind brings rain,
so a gossiping tongue causes anger!
24 It’s better to live alone in the corner of an attic
than with a quarrelsome wife in a lovely home.
25 Good news from far away
is like cold water to the thirsty.
26 If the godly give in to the wicked,
it’s like polluting a fountain or muddying a spring.
27 It’s not good to eat too much honey,
and it’s not good to seek honors for yourself.
28 A person without self-control
is like a city with broken-down walls.
Footnotes:
25:20 As in Greek version; Hebrew reads pouring vinegar on soda.
Read: Ecclesiastes 9:13-18
Thoughts on Wisdom and Folly
Here is another bit of wisdom that has impressed me as I have watched the way our world works. 14 There was a small town with only a few people, and a great king came with his army and besieged it. 15 A poor, wise man knew how to save the town, and so it was rescued. But afterward no one thought to thank him. 16 So even though wisdom is better than strength, those who are wise will be despised if they are poor. What they say will not be appreciated for long.
17 Better to hear the quiet words of a wise person
than the shouts of a foolish king.
18 Better to have wisdom than weapons of war,
but one sinner can destroy much that is good.
INSIGHT:
The author of the book of Ecclesiastes is unknown. Many believe it to be Solomon, the legendary wise son of King David. However, we are only told that the author is “the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem” (Eccl. 1:1). This description would fit King Solomon. J.R. Hudberg
Words of the Wise
By Cindy Hess Kasper
Words of the wise, spoken quietly, should be heard. —nkjv Ecclesiastes 9:17
My niece’s husband recently wrote these words on a social media site: “I would say a lot more online if it weren’t for this little voice that prompts me not to. As a follower of Jesus, you might think that little voice is the Holy Spirit. It isn’t. It’s my wife, Heidi.”
With the smile comes a sobering thought. The cautions of a discerning friend can reflect the wisdom of God. Ecclesiastes 9 says that the “words of the wise, spoken quietly, should be heard” (v. 17 nkjv).
Scripture warns us not to be wise in our own eyes or proud (Prov. 3:7; Isa. 5:21; Rom. 12:16). In other words, let’s not assume that we have all the answers! Proverbs 19:20 says, “Listen to advice and accept discipline, and at the end you will be counted among the wise.” Whether it is a friend, a spouse, a pastor, or a co-worker, God can use others to teach us more of His wisdom.
“Wisdom reposes in the heart of the discerning,” declares the book of Proverbs (14:33). Part of recognizing the Spirit’s wisdom is discovering how to listen and learn from each other.
Dear Lord, thank You for Your Word that teaches me how to love You and others. Thank You also for the people You place in my life to remind me of Your truth.
True wisdom begins and ends with God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, November 02, 2015
Obedience or Independence?
If you love Me, keep My commandments. —John 14:15
Our Lord never insists on obedience. He stresses very definitely what we ought to do, but He never forces us to do it. We have to obey Him out of a oneness of spirit with Him. That is why whenever our Lord talked about discipleship, He prefaced it with an “If,” meaning, “You do not need to do this unless you desire to do so.” “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself…” (Luke 9:23). In other words, “To be My disciple, let him give up his right to himself to Me.” Our Lord is not talking about our eternal position, but about our being of value to Him in this life here and now. That is why He sounds so stern (see Luke 14:26). Never try to make sense from these words by separating them from the One who spoke them.
The Lord does not give me rules, but He makes His standard very clear. If my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without hesitation. If I hesitate, it is because I love someone I have placed in competition with Him, namely, myself. Jesus Christ will not force me to obey Him, but I must. And as soon as I obey Him, I fulfill my spiritual destiny. My personal life may be crowded with small, petty happenings, altogether insignificant. But if I obey Jesus Christ in the seemingly random circumstances of life, they become pinholes through which I see the face of God. Then, when I stand face to face with God, I will discover that through my obedience thousands were blessed. When God’s redemption brings a human soul to the point of obedience, it always produces. If I obey Jesus Christ, the redemption of God will flow through me to the lives of others, because behind the deed of obedience is the reality of Almighty God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Jesus Christ is always unyielding to my claim to my right to myself. The one essential element in all our Lord’s teaching about discipleship is abandon, no calculation, no trace of self-interest. Disciples Indeed, 395 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, November 02, 2015
Facing Monsters - #7516
Oh sure, Mom and Dad thought it was just another excuse to stay awake longer. Adults don't believe what kids know to be the awful truth - that there are monsters in your closet at night. And they expect you to close your eyes and just start having sweet dreams? Come on!
Actually, I really had nothing to fear from those monsters that lived in my overactive imagination. But then there are real monsters that a lot of us have locked in a closet somewhere in our heart: the secret pain, the secret sin, the secret darkness of that unforgiving heart. They're like vampires. They live in the darkness. But they start to lose their power when you drag them into the light.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Facing Monsters."
I see that happen every summer in the lives of some of the amazing, young Native Americans that I travel with to Indian reservations. I say "amazing" because they bring visible hope to some of the most violent, most suicide-wracked reservations in America. I've been an eye-witness to that. They are fearless and relentless in telling their Hope Stories to anybody who will listen; stories of how a brown-skinned Savior named Jesus rescued them from a hopelessness that nearly destroyed them. I always feel like I'm seeing the love and power of God Almighty unleashed on those dusty reservation basketball courts - holy ground all of a sudden.
But I know the story behind the story. I know where all that power comes from. See, many of those youth that I've traveled with have faced the monster in their closet. They've dragged it into the light and they've turned it over to Jesus.
Like Cindy for example. Often abandoned, often physically abused by a drunken mother, never knowing her father. Then horribly betrayed by her mother's boyfriend. She trusted him so much, and he sexually violated her. The final chapter in a story that told her a cruel lie, "Cindy, you're worthless." A story line that brought her to the brink of suicide. She had a gun to her head literally.
Thank God, Cindy was rescued by Jesus. But there was a monster in her closet; bitterness, anger, maybe even hatred that she harbored in her heart. Understandably. But unforgiveness never hurts the person we refuse to forgive. But it eats us alive and, strangely, it ties us to the very person we can't stand.
The Native young people I've been with have been sinned against, and often they've responded with sin at levels most of us could not imagine. And, like so many of us, they stuff it in the closet. There it grows into a monster of ungrieved grief, unrepented sin, and unforgiven hurt; a monster that morphs into all kinds of anger, rage, depression and self-loathing.
I remember one night when I talked with our team about the Bible's revelation in our Word for today from the Word of God, 1 John 1:5-7. It says, "God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and we do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another (In other words it heals our broken relationships with each other.) and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin." That's healing our broken relationship with God.
That night many of those young warriors made a profound choice. They verbally declared, "Jesus, I forgive (and there was a name)_____________." A decision to treat a person who's sinned against you, not as they treated you, but as Jesus treated you; forgiving someone who does not deserve it. One of those "forgivers" was Cindy. It was for her - and for many others - the night they went free. After that, she exploded into an amazing spiritual rescuer, and she's left a trail of changed lives. Dealing with the darkness detonated the power of God in her.
It did that with Eric when he chose to burn those photos, the music, and even the clothes that kept pulling him back to his "old me". The pain of your past - the sin of your past - loses its power when you drag it into the light. The steps are 1) You've got to face it, 2) You've got to forsake it, and 3) You've got to forgive it.
It all begins when you understand how very much Jesus loves and forgives you. And you get from the Great Forgiver the ability to go free. The Bible says, "If the Son of God makes you free, you are free indeed." He wants to set you free from all the sin of your life, and then you are set free to be the forgiver who becomes a healer in people's lives.
If you've never begun a relationship with Him, let me just suggest you text us at 442-244-WORD to begin a relationship with Him. See, Jesus doesn't hang out in the dark. He's in the light, waiting to stand by your side to confront that monster and shatter your chains.
Scott Norwood, a former NFL champion with the Buffalo Bills, walked off the field with his head down. He missed the kick and lost the game. In spite of the loss the team was honored with a turnout of thousands of people cheering them on. Scott stayed in the background but fans had something else in mind. “We want Scott!” The chant grew to a rousing ovation. He missed the kick, but they made sure he knew he was still a part of their community.
In Hebrews 12:1, the Bible says we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Thousands upon thousands of saved saints are looking down upon us. Abraham. Peter. David. Paul. Joshua. Your grandpa, your uncle, your neighbor, your coach. They have seen God’s great grace; and they are all pulling for you. Do you hear them? They are chanting your name. “Don’t quit!” “It’s worth it!” “Try again!”
From Glory Days
Proverbs 25
More Proverbs of Solomon
These are more proverbs of Solomon, collected by the advisers of King Hezekiah of Judah.
2 It is God’s privilege to conceal things
and the king’s privilege to discover them.
3 No one can comprehend the height of heaven, the depth of the earth,
or all that goes on in the king’s mind!
4 Remove the impurities from silver,
and the sterling will be ready for the silversmith.
5 Remove the wicked from the king’s court,
and his reign will be made secure by justice.
6 Don’t demand an audience with the king
or push for a place among the great.
7 It’s better to wait for an invitation to the head table
than to be sent away in public disgrace.
Just because you’ve seen something,
8 don’t be in a hurry to go to court.
For what will you do in the end
if your neighbor deals you a shameful defeat?
9 When arguing with your neighbor,
don’t betray another person’s secret.
10 Others may accuse you of gossip,
and you will never regain your good reputation.
11 Timely advice is lovely,
like golden apples in a silver basket.
12 To one who listens, valid criticism
is like a gold earring or other gold jewelry.
13 Trustworthy messengers refresh like snow in summer.
They revive the spirit of their employer.
14 A person who promises a gift but doesn’t give it
is like clouds and wind that bring no rain.
15 Patience can persuade a prince,
and soft speech can break bones.
16 Do you like honey?
Don’t eat too much, or it will make you sick!
17 Don’t visit your neighbors too often,
or you will wear out your welcome.
18 Telling lies about others
is as harmful as hitting them with an ax,
wounding them with a sword,
or shooting them with a sharp arrow.
19 Putting confidence in an unreliable person in times of trouble
is like chewing with a broken tooth or walking on a lame foot.
20 Singing cheerful songs to a person with a heavy heart
is like taking someone’s coat in cold weather
or pouring vinegar in a wound.[a]
21 If your enemies are hungry, give them food to eat.
If they are thirsty, give them water to drink.
22 You will heap burning coals of shame on their heads,
and the Lord will reward you.
23 As surely as a north wind brings rain,
so a gossiping tongue causes anger!
24 It’s better to live alone in the corner of an attic
than with a quarrelsome wife in a lovely home.
25 Good news from far away
is like cold water to the thirsty.
26 If the godly give in to the wicked,
it’s like polluting a fountain or muddying a spring.
27 It’s not good to eat too much honey,
and it’s not good to seek honors for yourself.
28 A person without self-control
is like a city with broken-down walls.
Footnotes:
25:20 As in Greek version; Hebrew reads pouring vinegar on soda.
Read: Ecclesiastes 9:13-18
Thoughts on Wisdom and Folly
Here is another bit of wisdom that has impressed me as I have watched the way our world works. 14 There was a small town with only a few people, and a great king came with his army and besieged it. 15 A poor, wise man knew how to save the town, and so it was rescued. But afterward no one thought to thank him. 16 So even though wisdom is better than strength, those who are wise will be despised if they are poor. What they say will not be appreciated for long.
17 Better to hear the quiet words of a wise person
than the shouts of a foolish king.
18 Better to have wisdom than weapons of war,
but one sinner can destroy much that is good.
INSIGHT:
The author of the book of Ecclesiastes is unknown. Many believe it to be Solomon, the legendary wise son of King David. However, we are only told that the author is “the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem” (Eccl. 1:1). This description would fit King Solomon. J.R. Hudberg
Words of the Wise
By Cindy Hess Kasper
Words of the wise, spoken quietly, should be heard. —nkjv Ecclesiastes 9:17
My niece’s husband recently wrote these words on a social media site: “I would say a lot more online if it weren’t for this little voice that prompts me not to. As a follower of Jesus, you might think that little voice is the Holy Spirit. It isn’t. It’s my wife, Heidi.”
With the smile comes a sobering thought. The cautions of a discerning friend can reflect the wisdom of God. Ecclesiastes 9 says that the “words of the wise, spoken quietly, should be heard” (v. 17 nkjv).
Scripture warns us not to be wise in our own eyes or proud (Prov. 3:7; Isa. 5:21; Rom. 12:16). In other words, let’s not assume that we have all the answers! Proverbs 19:20 says, “Listen to advice and accept discipline, and at the end you will be counted among the wise.” Whether it is a friend, a spouse, a pastor, or a co-worker, God can use others to teach us more of His wisdom.
“Wisdom reposes in the heart of the discerning,” declares the book of Proverbs (14:33). Part of recognizing the Spirit’s wisdom is discovering how to listen and learn from each other.
Dear Lord, thank You for Your Word that teaches me how to love You and others. Thank You also for the people You place in my life to remind me of Your truth.
True wisdom begins and ends with God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, November 02, 2015
Obedience or Independence?
If you love Me, keep My commandments. —John 14:15
Our Lord never insists on obedience. He stresses very definitely what we ought to do, but He never forces us to do it. We have to obey Him out of a oneness of spirit with Him. That is why whenever our Lord talked about discipleship, He prefaced it with an “If,” meaning, “You do not need to do this unless you desire to do so.” “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself…” (Luke 9:23). In other words, “To be My disciple, let him give up his right to himself to Me.” Our Lord is not talking about our eternal position, but about our being of value to Him in this life here and now. That is why He sounds so stern (see Luke 14:26). Never try to make sense from these words by separating them from the One who spoke them.
The Lord does not give me rules, but He makes His standard very clear. If my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without hesitation. If I hesitate, it is because I love someone I have placed in competition with Him, namely, myself. Jesus Christ will not force me to obey Him, but I must. And as soon as I obey Him, I fulfill my spiritual destiny. My personal life may be crowded with small, petty happenings, altogether insignificant. But if I obey Jesus Christ in the seemingly random circumstances of life, they become pinholes through which I see the face of God. Then, when I stand face to face with God, I will discover that through my obedience thousands were blessed. When God’s redemption brings a human soul to the point of obedience, it always produces. If I obey Jesus Christ, the redemption of God will flow through me to the lives of others, because behind the deed of obedience is the reality of Almighty God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Jesus Christ is always unyielding to my claim to my right to myself. The one essential element in all our Lord’s teaching about discipleship is abandon, no calculation, no trace of self-interest. Disciples Indeed, 395 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, November 02, 2015
Facing Monsters - #7516
Oh sure, Mom and Dad thought it was just another excuse to stay awake longer. Adults don't believe what kids know to be the awful truth - that there are monsters in your closet at night. And they expect you to close your eyes and just start having sweet dreams? Come on!
Actually, I really had nothing to fear from those monsters that lived in my overactive imagination. But then there are real monsters that a lot of us have locked in a closet somewhere in our heart: the secret pain, the secret sin, the secret darkness of that unforgiving heart. They're like vampires. They live in the darkness. But they start to lose their power when you drag them into the light.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Facing Monsters."
I see that happen every summer in the lives of some of the amazing, young Native Americans that I travel with to Indian reservations. I say "amazing" because they bring visible hope to some of the most violent, most suicide-wracked reservations in America. I've been an eye-witness to that. They are fearless and relentless in telling their Hope Stories to anybody who will listen; stories of how a brown-skinned Savior named Jesus rescued them from a hopelessness that nearly destroyed them. I always feel like I'm seeing the love and power of God Almighty unleashed on those dusty reservation basketball courts - holy ground all of a sudden.
But I know the story behind the story. I know where all that power comes from. See, many of those youth that I've traveled with have faced the monster in their closet. They've dragged it into the light and they've turned it over to Jesus.
Like Cindy for example. Often abandoned, often physically abused by a drunken mother, never knowing her father. Then horribly betrayed by her mother's boyfriend. She trusted him so much, and he sexually violated her. The final chapter in a story that told her a cruel lie, "Cindy, you're worthless." A story line that brought her to the brink of suicide. She had a gun to her head literally.
Thank God, Cindy was rescued by Jesus. But there was a monster in her closet; bitterness, anger, maybe even hatred that she harbored in her heart. Understandably. But unforgiveness never hurts the person we refuse to forgive. But it eats us alive and, strangely, it ties us to the very person we can't stand.
The Native young people I've been with have been sinned against, and often they've responded with sin at levels most of us could not imagine. And, like so many of us, they stuff it in the closet. There it grows into a monster of ungrieved grief, unrepented sin, and unforgiven hurt; a monster that morphs into all kinds of anger, rage, depression and self-loathing.
I remember one night when I talked with our team about the Bible's revelation in our Word for today from the Word of God, 1 John 1:5-7. It says, "God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and we do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another (In other words it heals our broken relationships with each other.) and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin." That's healing our broken relationship with God.
That night many of those young warriors made a profound choice. They verbally declared, "Jesus, I forgive (and there was a name)_____________." A decision to treat a person who's sinned against you, not as they treated you, but as Jesus treated you; forgiving someone who does not deserve it. One of those "forgivers" was Cindy. It was for her - and for many others - the night they went free. After that, she exploded into an amazing spiritual rescuer, and she's left a trail of changed lives. Dealing with the darkness detonated the power of God in her.
It did that with Eric when he chose to burn those photos, the music, and even the clothes that kept pulling him back to his "old me". The pain of your past - the sin of your past - loses its power when you drag it into the light. The steps are 1) You've got to face it, 2) You've got to forsake it, and 3) You've got to forgive it.
It all begins when you understand how very much Jesus loves and forgives you. And you get from the Great Forgiver the ability to go free. The Bible says, "If the Son of God makes you free, you are free indeed." He wants to set you free from all the sin of your life, and then you are set free to be the forgiver who becomes a healer in people's lives.
If you've never begun a relationship with Him, let me just suggest you text us at 442-244-WORD to begin a relationship with Him. See, Jesus doesn't hang out in the dark. He's in the light, waiting to stand by your side to confront that monster and shatter your chains.
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