Isaiah 4, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: TAKE THE INITIATIVE

You may find this hard to believe, but not everyone likes the preacher. There are times when I misstep or misspeak and incur the displeasure of a parishioner. In the early years of my ministry, when I got wind of someone’s unhappiness, I just dismissed the problem. If he doesn’t bring it to me, then I have no hand in the matter, I thought.

But then I read Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:23-24: “If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift.” Jesus commands the offender, even if unintentional, to take the initiative. I have found without fail this step has resulted in restoration. When Scripture is mixed with obedience, a healing elixir results!

From God is With You Every Day

Isaiah 4

That will be the day when seven women
    will gang up on one man, saying,
“We’ll take care of ourselves,
    get our own food and clothes.
Just give us a child. Make us pregnant
    so we’ll have something to live for!”
God’s Branch
2-4 And that’s when God’s Branch will sprout green and lush. The produce of the country will give Israel’s survivors something to be proud of again. Oh, they’ll hold their heads high! Everyone left behind in Zion, all the discards and rejects in Jerusalem, will be reclassified as “holy”—alive and therefore precious. God will give Zion’s women a good bath. He’ll scrub the bloodstained city of its violence and brutality, purge the place with a firestorm of judgment.

5-6 Then God will bring back the ancient pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night and mark Mount Zion and everyone in it with his glorious presence, his immense, protective presence, shade from the burning sun and shelter from the driving rain.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Read: Romans 16:1–4,13,21–23

Be sure to welcome our friend Phoebe in the way of the Master, with all the generous hospitality we Christians are famous for. I heartily endorse both her and her work. She’s a key representative of the church at Cenchrea. Help her out in whatever she asks. She deserves anything you can do for her. She’s helped many a person, including me.

3-5 Say hello to Priscilla and Aquila, who have worked hand in hand with me in serving Jesus. They once put their lives on the line for me. And I’m not the only one grateful to them. All the non-Jewish gatherings of believers also owe them plenty, to say nothing of the church that meets in their house.

21 And here are some more greetings from our end. Timothy, my partner in this work, Lucius, and my cousins Jason and Sosipater all said to tell you hello.

22 I, Tertius, who wrote this letter at Paul’s dictation, send you my personal greetings.

23 Gaius, who is host here to both me and the whole church, wants to be remembered to you.
Erastus, the city treasurer, and our good friend Quartus send their greetings.

INSIGHT:
The letter to the Romans is arguably Paul’s most intensely theological letter. Yet in Romans 16, he issues more personal greetings than in any other letter—twenty-seven! These personal greetings, included at the close of a theological letter about the nature of the gospel, serve as a significant reminder. The message of the death and resurrection of Jesus is not merely a piece of intellectual information. The doctrines that form the foundation for our rescue in Christ are not an academic exercise. These truths describe the love of God for human beings who have names and faces and struggles and victories. The gospel is the story of God’s unfailing love for people—people like those listed here. People like you and me.

The Swagger
By Anne Cetas

Encourage one another and build each other up. 1 Thessalonians 5:11

In the summer of 2015, Hunter (aged 15) carried his brother Braden (8) for a fifty-seven-mile walk to raise awareness of the needs of people with cerebral palsy. Braden weighs sixty pounds, so Hunter needed frequent rest stops where others helped him stretch his muscles, and he wore special harnesses to disperse Braden’s weight. Hunter says that while the harnesses helped with the physical discomfort, what helped him most were the people along the way. “If it weren’t for everyone cheering and walking with us, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. . . . My legs were sore, but my friends picked me up and I made it through . . . .” His mom named the arduous trek “The Cerebral Palsy Swagger.”

The apostle Paul, who we think of as strong and courageous, also needed to be “picked up.” In Romans 16 he lists a number of people who did just that for him. They served alongside him, encouraged him, met his needs, and prayed for him. He mentions Phoebe; Priscilla and Aquila, who were co-workers; Rufus’s mother, who had been like a mother to him as well; Gaius, who showed him hospitality; and many more.

Hunter and Branden

Encouragers pick others up when troubles weigh them down.
We all need friends who pick us up, and we all know of others who need our encouragement. As Jesus helps and carries us, let us help one another.

Lord, in Your wisdom You established Your church as a place for us to love and care for each other. Help me to extend the grace I've received to others.

Encouragers pick others up when troubles weigh them down.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Are You Discouraged or Devoted?

…Jesus…said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have…and come, follow Me." But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich. —Luke 18:22-23

Have you ever heard the Master say something very difficult to you? If you haven’t, I question whether you have ever heard Him say anything at all. Jesus says a tremendous amount to us that we listen to, but do not actually hear. And once we do hear Him, His words are harsh and unyielding.

Jesus did not show the least concern that this rich young ruler should do what He told him, nor did Jesus make any attempt to keep this man with Him. He simply said to him, “Sell all that you have…and come, follow Me.” Our Lord never pleaded with him; He never tried to lure him— He simply spoke the strictest words that human ears have ever heard, and then left him alone.

Have I ever heard Jesus say something difficult and unyielding to me? Has He said something personally to me to which I have deliberately listened— not something I can explain for the sake of others, but something I have heard Him say directly to me? This man understood what Jesus said. He heard it clearly, realizing the full impact of its meaning, and it broke his heart. He did not go away as a defiant person, but as one who was sorrowful and discouraged. He had come to Jesus on fire with zeal and determination, but the words of Jesus simply froze him. Instead of producing enthusiastic devotion to Jesus, they produced heartbreaking discouragement. And Jesus did not go after him, but let him go. Our Lord knows perfectly well that once His word is truly heard, it will bear fruit sooner or later. What is so terrible is that some of us prevent His words from bearing fruit in our present life. I wonder what we will say when we finally make up our minds to be devoted to Him on that particular point? One thing is certain— He will never throw our past failures back in our faces.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

The great word of Jesus to His disciples is Abandon. When God has brought us into the relationship of disciples, we have to venture on His word; trust entirely to Him and watch that when He brings us to the venture, we take it.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
The Single Question on Your Final Exam - #7723

Dr. Henry was one of the most challenging professors I had in college. And I anticipated the final exam in his class was going to be a monumental challenge. Who knows what questions Dr. Henry could throw at us from his incredible intellect! Well, word began to leak out about his final from the first students that took it. They didn't give any details-they just shared one surprising, tantalizing fact. They said, "There's only one question on the exam!" Well, most of us took that news as encouragement as we stood on the edge of academic survival. But when Dr. Henry set the exam in front of us, we weren't quite as encouraged. This entire semester of theology class had been devoted to what the Bible says about the person and work of the Holy Spirit. The professor's question? "Describe the Person and work of the Holy Spirit." Oh come on! One question, but what a question!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Single Question on Your Final Exam."

You may have been out of school a while. I'm sure you don't miss final exams, but you still have one more. We all do. The day your heart beats its last and you stand before the God who made you; the day when, as the old timers used to say, you "meet your Maker." And it appears from God's Word, the Bible, that there will only be one question on your final exam. But what a question!

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 John 5:11-12, "God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life." God says the human race is divided into two groups, and only two. Those who have Jesus and therefore have eternal life-they will go to heaven when they die. And those who do not have Jesus and therefore do not have eternal life-they'll go to eternal separation from God at a place Jesus called hell when they die. In the words of John 3:36, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."

Now there's no question where God wants you to be forever-with Him in heaven. That's why He paid such a high price to remove what would keep you out of heaven-the sin of your life; all those countless times you've done it your way instead of God's way. You can't get into heaven with sin. And it won't work just trying to repay the wrong we've done with religion or being good. Sin has to be removed. And that seems impossible when the penalty for running our own lives is an eternal death penalty.

But God loves you so much that, according to John 3:16, "He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." God sent His Son to carry all the guilt and all the dying of your sin-to literally die your death penalty. So you shouldn't be surprised when you stand before God and He asks you that one question on His final exam-the one that determines where you'll be forever. "What did you do with My Son?" Not, "What good things did you do?" Not, "Did you believe the right things?" Not, "What religion were you?" God is interested in only one thing,
"What did you do with His Son who gave His life for you?"

Now it won't be enough to say, "Well, I liked Your Son" or "I spent a lot of time around Your Son" or "I agreed with everything about Your Son." The only answer that will open the gates of heaven to you is, "Lord, I invited Your Son, Jesus, into my heart and I put my total trust in Him to be my Rescuer from my sin."

Has there ever been a time when you've done that? If you're not sure, please let today be your Jesus-day. Tell Him you want to be His-you want to belong to Him. "Jesus, I believe when You died on that cross it was my sin You were paying for. And, Jesus, I'm putting all my trust in You to be my Rescuer from my sin. I am Yours."

Our website is there to help you to cross over from death to life this very day. I hope you'll go there – ANewStory.com.

You do have a final exam coming-God has already set the time. He's let us know what the question will be so you can be ready. "What did you do with My Son?" I pray you'll be able to point to this very day as the day you reached out and you took for yourself what His Son died to give you.

Isaiah 3, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: WHAT’S YOUR DESTINY?

How can you know what you should do with your life? What’s your destiny? Your skill set—your ability—is your road map. It leads you to your destiny. Take note of your strengths. They are bread crumbs that will lead you to where God wants you to be, to the job and to the ministry he wants you to do.

Remember, God loves you too much to give you a job and not the skills to do it. What you do for a living should conform to your design. One study stated that only 13 percent of all workers find their work truly meaningful. Imagine the impact this unhappiness has on health, family, and performance. Find something you like to do, and do it so well that people pay you to do it. That’s not just good advice; it’s godly design!

From God is With You Every Day

Isaiah 3

Jerusalem on Its Last Legs

 The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
    is emptying Jerusalem and Judah
Of all the basic necessities,
    plain bread and water to begin with.
He’s withdrawing police and protection,
    judges and courts,
    pastors and teachers,
    captains and generals,
    doctors and nurses,
    and, yes, even the repairmen and jacks-of-all-trades.
He says, “I’ll put little kids in charge of the city.
    Schoolboys and schoolgirls will order everyone around.
People will be at each other’s throats,
    stabbing one another in the back:
Neighbor against neighbor, young against old,
    the no-account against the well-respected.
One brother will grab another and say,
    ‘You look like you’ve got a head on your shoulders.
Do something!
    Get us out of this mess.’
And he’ll say, ‘Me? Not me! I don’t have a clue.
    Don’t put me in charge of anything.’
8-9 “Jerusalem’s on its last legs.
    Judah is soon down for the count.
Everything people say and do
    is at cross-purposes with God,
    a slap in my face.
Brazen in their depravity,
    they flaunt their sins like degenerate Sodom.
Doom to their eternal souls! They’ve made their bed;
    now they’ll sleep in it.
10-11 “Reassure the righteous
    that their good living will pay off.
But doom to the wicked! Disaster!
    Everything they did will be done to them.
12 “Skinny kids terrorize my people.
    Silly girls bully them around.
My dear people! Your leaders are taking you down a blind alley.
    They’re sending you off on a wild-goose chase.”
A City Brought to Her Knees by Her Sorrows
13-15 God enters the courtroom.
    He takes his place at the bench to judge his people.
God calls for order in the court,
    hauls the leaders of his people into the dock:
“You’ve played havoc with this country.
    Your houses are stuffed with what you’ve stolen from the poor.
What is this anyway? Stomping on my people,
    grinding the faces of the poor into the dirt?”
That’s what the Master,
    God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says.
16-17 God says, “Zion women are stuck-up,
    prancing around in their high heels,
Making eyes at all the men in the street,
    swinging their hips,
Tossing their hair,
    gaudy and garish in cheap jewelry.”
The Master will fix it so those Zion women
    will all turn bald—
Scabby, bald-headed women.
    The Master will do it.
18-23 The time is coming when the Master will strip them of their fancy baubles—the dangling earrings, anklets and bracelets, combs and mirrors and silk scarves, diamond brooches and pearl necklaces, the rings on their fingers and the rings on their toes, the latest fashions in hats, exotic perfumes and aphrodisiacs, gowns and capes, all the world’s finest in fabrics and design.

24 Instead of wearing seductive scents,
    these women are going to smell like rotting cabbages;
Instead of modeling flowing gowns,
    they’ll be sporting rags;
Instead of their stylish hairdos,
    scruffy heads;
Instead of beauty marks,
    scabs and scars.
25-26 Your finest fighting men will be killed,
    your soldiers left dead on the battlefield.
The entrance gate to Zion will be clotted
    with people mourning their dead—
A city stooped under the weight of her loss,
    brought to her knees by her sorrows.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Read: John 1:1–8

The Life-Light

The Word was first,
the Word present to God,
    God present to the Word.
The Word was God,
    in readiness for God from day one.
3-5 Everything was created through him;
    nothing—not one thing!—
    came into being without him.
What came into existence was Life,
    and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
    the darkness couldn’t put it out.
6-8 There once was a man, his name John, sent by God to point out the way to the Life-Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light.

INSIGHT:
Bible scholars call the gospel of John the Autopic Gospel because John looked at the life of Christ in his own unique way. For example, the “I ams” of Christ—such as “I am the way” (14:6) and “I am the vine” (15:5)—are found only in John’s record of the life of Jesus Christ on earth. The other Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—are called the Synoptic Gospels because they offer similar viewpoints. Although Matthew, Mark, and Luke each give their own account of the life of Christ, they share many of the same observations and stories about our Lord’s life, death, burial, and resurrection.

Bringing Light into Darkness
By C. P. Hia

In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16

In 1989, Vaclav Havel was elevated from his position as a political prisoner to become the first elected president of Czechoslovakia. Years later at his funeral in Prague in 2011, former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who herself was born in Prague, described him as one who had “brought the light to places of deep darkness.”

What Havel’s introduction of light did in the political arena of Czechoslovakia (and later the Czech Republic), our Lord Jesus did for the whole world. He brought light into existence when He created light out of darkness at the dawn of time (John 1:2–3; cf. Gen 1:2–3). Then, with His birth, He brought light to the spiritual arena. Jesus is the life and light that darkness cannot overcome (John 1:5).

“Let your light shine before others.” Matthew 5:16
John the Baptist came from the wilderness to bear witness to Jesus, the light of the world. We can do the same today. In fact that is what Jesus told us to do: “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:16).

In our world today—when good is often considered bad and bad is seen as good, when truth and error are switched around—people are looking for direction in life. May we be the ones who shine the light of Christ into our world.

Father in heaven, thank You for the light of Jesus that came into the world and for the light He has brought into my life. Help me to remain grateful and to be Your light in the dark world around me.

Shine the Light!

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Does He Know Me?

He calls his own…by name… —John 10:3

en I have sadly misunderstood Him? (see John 20:11-18). It is possible to know all about doctrine and still not know Jesus. A person’s soul is in grave danger when the knowledge of doctrine surpasses Jesus, avoiding intimate touch with Him. Why was Mary weeping? Doctrine meant no more to her than the grass under her feet. In fact, any Pharisee could have made a fool of Mary doctrinally, but one thing they could never ridicule was the fact that Jesus had cast seven demons out of her (see Luke 8:2); yet His blessings were nothing to her in comparison with knowing Jesus Himself. “…she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus….Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ ” (John 20:14, 16). Once He called Mary by her name, she immediately knew that she had a personal history with the One who spoke. “She turned and said to Him, ‘Rabboni!’ ” (John 20:16).

When I have stubbornly doubted? (see John 20:24-29). Have I been doubting something about Jesus— maybe an experience to which others testify, but which I have not yet experienced? The other disciples said to Thomas, “We have seen the Lord” (John 20:25). But Thomas doubted, saying, “Unless I see…I will not believe” (John 20:25). Thomas needed the personal touch of Jesus. When His touches will come we never know, but when they do come they are indescribably precious. “Thomas…said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ ” (John 20:28).

When I have selfishly denied Him? (see John 21:15-17). Peter denied Jesus Christ with oaths and curses (see Matthew 26:69-75), and yet after His resurrection Jesus appeared to Peter alone. Jesus restored Peter in private, and then He restored him publicly before the others. And Peter said to Him, “Lord…You know that I love You” (John 21:17).

Do I have a personal history with Jesus Christ? The one true sign of discipleship is intimate oneness with Him— a knowledge of Jesus that nothing can shake.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

Our danger is to water down God’s word to suit ourselves. God never fits His word to suit me; He fits me to suit His word. Not Knowing Whither, 901 R

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Hope With Skin On - #7722

Well, our ministry was being honored with a gracious award from a Christian foundation, named in honor of a visionary pastor in a major American city. Before his sudden death some years ago, he'd been a powerful spiritual force in that city. But he didn't start out as a pastor. First, he was known and loved as a news anchorman for a major network station. On the night that changed his life forever, he went to cover a gang shooting. He reported at the spot where the killing had taken place with the chalk outline of the victim on the street behind him. He interviewed a gang member from the neighborhood and asked him, "Have you ever thought about living another way; getting out of this cycle of violence?" It was this young man's answer that rocked him: "How can you think about another way to live when you've never seen another way to live?" It was a question that ultimately caused that anchorman to change the whole direction of his life.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Hope With Skin On."

I wonder how many people are living the way they are because they've never seen another way to live. Everyone they know is living the same way, so how could they think about another way?

That's where you come in if you belong to Jesus Christ. He put you where you are to be a living alternative; a flesh-and-blood demonstration of another way to treat people, another way to handle stress, a way to be happy without having scars and regrets. Our word for today from the Word of God explains how important you are (or you could be) to people you work with, or play with, or live near. Philippians 2:15, "Become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe, as you hold out the word of life."

For centuries, men have charted their course through the darkness by the light of the stars. The stars have shown them the way to go. You are God's guiding star for some people in your personal world. Our children all went to public school in an area where they were often the only Jesus-follower in their class. But we didn't send them to school every day playing defense, just trying to "survive." We wanted them to understand that God wanted them playing offense-aggressively showing others a different way to be.

It started when our daughter came home from an early grade talking about all the bad things the kids at school said and did. That's when I began to give our kids two send-off words every day as they left for school, "Go mad!" That meant "Go Make a Difference!" I told our kids that in a class where everyone lies, you need to show them that not "everyone" does, because you always tell the truth. In a class where everyone talks dirty, show them not "everyone" does by always keeping it clean. Show them someone who thinks sex is too special to ruin, that your body is too important to trash, and that other people are too important to cut down. In a world where it's "all about me," you live as if it's all about them. If you become like the people around you, the light goes out and then everyone really is living in total darkness.

So don't let the darkness around you dim your light; don't let it extinguish your light. They may try to put it out sometimes or they may attack you because you're not like them, but believe me, they desperately need for you to be different. Because you're the only Jesus they can see; you're their only hope of another way to live.

And either your life is a reason to come to Jesus or a reason to reject Him. Don't condemn them-love them. Show them the better life you can live with Jesus in your heart. Without you, there's no hope of a better way. You are their hope with skin on!

2 Corinthians 11:16-33, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: GOD WORKS

There are so many things we don’t know. We don’t know if the economy will dip or if our team will win. We don’t know what our spouse is thinking or how our kids will turn out. The apostle Paul reminds us we don’t even know what we ought to pray for. But according to Romans 8:28, we can be absolutely certain about four things. We know:

God works. He is busy behind the scenes, above the fray.
God works for the good. Not for our comfort or pleasure, but for the ultimate good of his children.
God works for the good of those who love him. Make his story your story, and your story takes on a happy ending. Guaranteed.
God works in all things. He works not through a few things; or through the good things; or best things; but in all things!
God works— this we know! Let God’s Word be the authoritative word in your world.

From God is With You Every Day

2 Corinthians 11:16-33

Many a Long and Lonely Night

 Let me come back to where I started—and don’t hold it against me if I continue to sound a little foolish. Or if you’d rather, just accept that I am a fool and let me rant on a little. I didn’t learn this kind of talk from Christ. Oh, no, it’s a bad habit I picked up from the three-ring preachers that are so popular these days. Since you sit there in the judgment seat observing all these shenanigans, you can afford to humor an occasional fool who happens along. You have such admirable tolerance for impostors who rob your freedom, rip you off, steal you blind, put you down—even slap your face! I shouldn’t admit it to you, but our stomachs aren’t strong enough to tolerate that kind of stuff.

21-23 Since you admire the egomaniacs of the pulpit so much (remember, this is your old friend, the fool, talking), let me try my hand at it. Do they brag of being Hebrews, Israelites, the pure race of Abraham? I’m their match. Are they servants of Christ? I can go them one better. (I can’t believe I’m saying these things. It’s crazy to talk this way! But I started, and I’m going to finish.)

23-27 I’ve worked much harder, been jailed more often, beaten up more times than I can count, and at death’s door time after time. I’ve been flogged five times with the Jews’ thirty-nine lashes, beaten by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks once. I’ve been shipwrecked three times, and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day. In hard traveling year in and year out, I’ve had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes. I’ve been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by desert sun and sea storm, and betrayed by those I thought were my brothers. I’ve known drudgery and hard labor, many a long and lonely night without sleep, many a missed meal, blasted by the cold, naked to the weather.

28-29 And that’s not the half of it, when you throw in the daily pressures and anxieties of all the churches. When someone gets to the end of his rope, I feel the desperation in my bones. When someone is duped into sin, an angry fire burns in my gut.

30-33 If I have to “brag” about myself, I’ll brag about the humiliations that make me like Jesus. The eternal and blessed God and Father of our Master Jesus knows I’m not lying. Remember the time I was in Damascus and the governor of King Aretas posted guards at the city gates to arrest me? I crawled through a window in the wall, was let down in a basket, and had to run for my life.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Monday, August 15, 2016
Proverbs 22:1-12

The Cure Comes Through Discipline

A sterling reputation is better than striking it rich;
    a gracious spirit is better than money in the bank.
2 The rich and the poor shake hands as equals—
    God made them both!
3 A prudent person sees trouble coming and ducks;
    a simpleton walks in blindly and is clobbered.
4 The payoff for meekness and Fear-of-God
    is plenty and honor and a satisfying life.
5 The perverse travel a dangerous road, potholed and mud-slick;
    if you know what’s good for you, stay clear of it.
6 Point your kids in the right direction—
    when they’re old they won’t be lost.
7 The poor are always ruled over by the rich,
    so don’t borrow and put yourself under their power.
8 Whoever sows sin reaps weeds,
    and bullying anger sputters into nothing.
9 Generous hands are blessed hands
    because they give bread to the poor.
10 Kick out the troublemakers and things will quiet down;
    you need a break from bickering and griping!
11 God loves the pure-hearted and well-spoken;
    good leaders also delight in their friendship.
12 God guards knowledge with a passion,
    but he’ll have nothing to do with deception.

INSIGHT:
The Proverbs hold wisdom to help us live for the Lord and leave a legacy. Just the first 8 verses of Proverbs 22 are loaded with wonderful insights about many different aspects of life. Verse 1 tells us of the value of a good name. The Hebrew word for “good name” carries with it the idea of “good repute” (see Eccl. 7:1).

A Legacy Life
By Joe Stowell

A good name is more desirable than great riches. Proverbs 22:1

While staying in a hotel in a small town I noticed that the church across the street was having a service. People were jammed into the church with a standing-room-only crowd of both young and old flowing out onto the sidewalk. When I noticed a hearse by the curb, I realized it was a funeral. And given the crowd, I assumed that it was the celebration of the life of some local hero—perhaps a wealthy businessperson or a famous personality. Curious, I said to the desk clerk, “That’s an amazing turnout for a funeral; it must be for a famous person in town.”

“No,” he replied. “He wasn’t rich or famous but he was a good man.”

Lord, help me to pursue a life that is pleasing to You and honors Your name.
This reminded me of the wisdom of the proverb that says, “A good name is more desirable than great riches” (Prov. 22:1). It’s a good idea to think about what kind of legacy we are leaving for our family, friends, and neighbors. From God’s perspective it’s not our resumé or the amount of money we’ve accumulated that matters but rather the kind of life we have lived.

When a friend of mine passed away, his daughter wrote, “This world has lost a righteous man and in this world that is no small thing!” It’s that kind of legacy that we should be seeking for the glory of God.

Lord, help me to pursue a life that is pleasing to You and honors Your name.

Live to leave a legacy for God’s glory.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, August 15, 2016

The Evidence of the New Birth
You must be born again. —John 3:7

The answer to Nicodemus’ question, “How can a man be born when he is old?” is: Only when he is willing to die to everything in his life, including his rights, his virtues, and his religion, and becomes willing to receive into himself a new life that he has never before experienced (John 3:4). This new life exhibits itself in our conscious repentance and through our unconscious holiness.

“But as many as received Him…” (John 1:12). Is my knowledge of Jesus the result of my own internal spiritual perception, or is it only what I have learned through listening to others? Is there something in my life that unites me with the Lord Jesus as my personal Savior? My spiritual history must have as its underlying foundation a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ. To be born again means that I see Jesus.

“…unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God ” (John 3:3). Am I seeking only for the evidence of God’s kingdom, or am I actually recognizing His absolute sovereign control? The new birth gives me a new power of vision by which I begin to discern God’s control. His sovereignty was there all the time, but with God being true to His nature, I could not see it until I received His very nature myself.

“Whoever has been born of God does not sin…” (1 John 3:9). Am I seeking to stop sinning or have I actually stopped? To be born of God means that I have His supernatural power to stop sinning. The Bible never asks, “Should a Christian sin?” The Bible emphatically states that a Christian must not sin. The work of the new birth is being effective in us when we do not commit sin. It is not merely that we have the power not to sin, but that we have actually stopped sinning. Yet 1 John 3:9 does not mean that we cannot sin— it simply means that if we will obey the life of God in us, that we do not have to sin.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

If there is only one strand of faith amongst all the corruption within us, God will take hold of that one strand.  Not Knowing Whither, 888 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, August 15, 2016

Painful Times, Beautiful Harvest - #7721

Our friends have a nice vegetable garden and they wanted it to be nicer. So, they decided to try the Squanto method. You might remember from your American history that Squanto was the Native American who helped the Pilgrims survive by teaching them about corn, and especially about how to get it to grow – by burying a dead fish with the seed as fertilizer. Remembering that little secret, our friends brought home a bunch of dead fish from the New Jersey Shore and they buried those fish in their garden with their vegetable seeds. Well, as time wore on, the fish announced their presence to the entire neighborhood – with a horrendous stink! Now, it is possible that no suburban garden has ever smelled so bad. That's the bad news, but the good news is that they were literally overwhelmed with the harvest of vegetables that year! They were hauling it in faster than they could eat it, freeze it, or can it. They called a lot of their friends and begged them to come over and get some vegetables. Yes, the stench was pitiful, but the harvest that came from it was bountiful!

 I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Painful Times, Beautiful Harvest."

Let's face it! There are things that happen in our lives that just plain stink like our friends' fertilized garden, and when everything stinks you usually can't see anything good about it. You might be in one of those painful seasons right now. If so, it's important for you to remember something that is easy to forget. The things in our lives that really stink are used by God to ultimately produce a wonderful harvest.

Maybe we should figure that out just from the way we all entered the world-through this painful process called labor. But the pain of the process – which is very real and very intense–is ultimately overshadowed by the beautiful result of that baby. And take it from our daughter or our two daughters-in-law. They love every day with their children; the beautiful result that lasted a lot longer than their painful process.

This idea of what I'm calling the "beautiful stink" is explained in our word for today from the Word of God in Romans 5 beginning at verse 3. Paul, who experienced many of the things in life that stink, says, "We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us."

Now, like our friends with the fishy garden, God calls us to endure the stink. That's called perseverance-hanging in there, not giving up, not losing hope, not turning our back on Him, and we'll harvest what the Bible calls character. Right now you might need some encouragement, a reminder of the great harvest that may come through this hard-to-bare season of your life.

For example, it's our hard times that give us a more tender heart so we can help heal other hurting people. God may use this unpleasant season to give you a ministry you have never had before, or to bring you into a new humility, a new closeness to people you love, new priorities that clarify the things that really matter and the things that really don't. Your suffering might be God's means of giving people an opportunity to pour out love on you, or of bringing you closer to Him than you've ever been, or to experience His grace and His power in a measure you have never touched before.

Maybe the harvest of your hard times will be some deep relationships, forged in the crucible, or a firsthand faith in God, rather than one that is just your family's or your church's, or maybe even people going to heaven someday because they saw Jesus in you during your time of great pain.

It's a Law of Life – God brings beautiful results out of painful processes. But you do have to make it through the stink first. Just ask our gardener friends – thinking about the great harvest coming doesn't make the stench go away but it sure helps you endure it. Down the road, when you're hauling in the overwhelming harvest of God's goodness in your life, you know, the stink won't matter much anymore.