Max Lucado Daily: DON’T SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF
D. L. Moody was one of the most influential Christians of his generation. He led thousands of people to faith and established many institutions of education and training. He was famous for saying, “Right now I’m having so much trouble with D. L. Moody that I don’t have time to find fault with the other fellow.”
There is a time to speak up. But before you do, check your motives. The goal is to help, never to hurt. Look at yourself before you look down on others. Rather than put them in their place, put yourself in their place. The truth is we all drop the ball on occasion. So, shouldn’t we bear with one another?
The clear majority of details in the world are simply that—small stuff. Don’t sweat the small stuff, and you won’t sweat much at all. Life is too precious and brief to be spent in a huff.
2 Kings 25
The revolt dates from the ninth year and tenth month of Zedekiah’s reign. Nebuchadnezzar set out for Jerusalem immediately with a full army. He set up camp and sealed off the city by building siege mounds around it. The city was under siege for nineteen months (until the eleventh year of Zedekiah). By the fourth month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year, on the ninth day of the month, the famine was so bad that there wasn’t so much as a crumb of bread for anyone. Then there was a breakthrough. At night, under cover of darkness, the entire army escaped through an opening in the wall (it was the gate between the two walls above the King’s Garden). They slipped through the lines of the Babylonians who surrounded the city and headed for the Jordan on the Arabah Valley road. But the Babylonians were in pursuit of the king and they caught up with him in the Plains of Jericho. By then Zedekiah’s army had deserted and was scattered. The Babylonians took Zedekiah prisoner and marched him off to the king of Babylon at Riblah, then tried and sentenced him on the spot. Zedekiah’s sons were executed right before his eyes; the summary murder of his sons was the last thing he saw, for they then blinded him. Securely handcuffed, he was hauled off to Babylon.
8-12 In the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, on the seventh day of the fifth month, Nebuzaradan, the king of Babylon’s chief deputy, arrived in Jerusalem. He burned The Temple of God to the ground, went on to the royal palace, and then finished off the city—burned the whole place down. He put the Babylonian troops he had with him to work knocking down the city walls. Finally, he rounded up everyone left in the city, including those who had earlier deserted to the king of Babylon, and took them off into exile. He left a few poor dirt farmers behind to tend the vineyards and what was left of the fields.
13-15 The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars, the bronze washstands, and the huge bronze basin (the Sea) that were in The Temple of God and hauled the bronze off to Babylon. They also took the various bronze-crafted liturgical accessories used in the services of Temple worship, as well as the gold and silver censers and sprinkling bowls. The king’s deputy didn’t miss a thing—he took every scrap of precious metal he could find.
16-17 The amount of bronze they got from the two pillars, the Sea, and all the washstands that Solomon had made for The Temple of God was enormous—they couldn’t weigh it all! Each pillar stood twenty-seven feet high, plus another four and a half feet for an ornate capital of bronze filigree and decorative fruit.
18-21 The king’s deputy took a number of special prisoners: Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the associate priest, three wardens, the chief remaining army officer, five of the king’s counselors, the accountant, the chief recruiting officer for the army, and sixty men of standing from among the people. Nebuzaradan the king’s deputy marched them all off to the king of Babylon at Riblah. And there at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king of Babylon killed the lot of them in cold blood.
Judah went into exile, orphaned from her land.
22-23 Regarding the common people who were left behind in Judah, this: Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, as their governor. When veteran army officers among the people heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah, they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. Among them were Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, Jaazaniah the son of the Maacathite, and some of their followers.
24 Gedaliah assured the officers and their men, giving them his word, “Don’t be afraid of the Babylonian officials. Go back to your farms and families and respect the king of Babylon. Trust me, everything is going to be all right.”
25 Some time later—it was in the seventh month—Ishmael son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama (he had royal blood in him), came back with ten men and killed Gedaliah, the traitor Jews, and the Babylonian officials who were stationed at Mizpah—a bloody massacre.
26 But then, afraid of what the Babylonians would do, they all took off for Egypt, leaders and people, small and great.
27-30 When Jehoiachin king of Judah had been in exile for thirty-seven years, Evil-Merodach became king in Babylon and let Jehoiachin out of prison. This release took place on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month. The king treated him most courteously and gave him preferential treatment beyond anything experienced by the other political prisoners held in Babylon. Jehoiachin took off his prison garb and for the rest of his life ate his meals in company with the king. The king provided everything he needed to live comfortably.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, September 19, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Matthew 6:25–32
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
Footnotes:
Matthew 6:27 Or single cubit to your height
Insight
Our passage today continues Christ’s Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7) and is a subsection of the major theme considered in chapter 6—“the Christian walking and living in this world, in his relationship to the Father” (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount). But while the earlier subsection (vv. 19–24) deals with the danger of laying up and hoarding the treasures of this earth, this portion is concerned with our worrying or being anxious about material things. Some believe the first passage addresses the rich, while today’s addresses the poor or those who struggle to make ends meet. But it’s also possible for the rich to be obsessed with worry over material things. No matter how we look at these texts, both convey the danger of trying to find our security anywhere but in God and His great care for us (1 Peter 5:7). By: Alyson Kieda
Feeling Small
What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? Psalm 8:4
Many movie critics consider David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia one of the greatest films of all time. With its seemingly endless vistas of the Arabian deserts, it has influenced a generation of filmmakers—including Academy Award-winning director Steven Spielberg. “I was inspired the first time I saw Lawrence,” said Spielberg. “It made me feel puny. It still makes me feel puny. And that’s one measure of its greatness.”
What makes me feel small is creation’s vastness—when I gaze at an ocean, fly over the polar ice cap, or survey a night sky sparkling with a billion stars. If the created universe is so expansive, how much greater must be the Creator who spoke it into being!
God’s greatness and our feelings of insignificance are echoed by David when he declares, “What are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?” (Psalm 8:4 nlt). But Jesus assures us, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matthew 6:26).
I may feel small and insignificant, but through my Father’s eyes, I have great worth—a worth that is proven every time I look at the cross. The price He was willing to pay to restore me to fellowship with Him is evidence of how He values me. By: Bill Crowder
Reflect & Pray
What wonder of creation draws your attention to God? How does it impact you to know how much your Creator values you?
Father, help us to remember Your heart is for us. Read The Surprising Side of God at discoveryseries.org/q0213.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, September 19, 2019
Are You Going on With Jesus?
You are those who have continued with Me in My trials. —Luke 22:28
It is true that Jesus Christ is with us through our temptations, but are we going on with Him through His temptations? Many of us turn back from going on with Jesus from the very moment we have an experience of what He can do. Watch when God changes your circumstances to see whether you are going on with Jesus, or siding with the world, the flesh, and the devil. We wear His name, but are we going on with Him? “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more” (John 6:66).
The temptations of Jesus continued throughout His earthly life, and they will continue throughout the life of the Son of God in us. Are we going on with Jesus in the life we are living right now?
We have the idea that we ought to shield ourselves from some of the things God brings around us. May it never be! It is God who engineers our circumstances, and whatever they may be we must see that we face them while continually abiding with Him in His temptations. They are His temptations, not temptations to us, but temptations to the life of the Son of God in us. Jesus Christ’s honor is at stake in our bodily lives. Are we remaining faithful to the Son of God in everything that attacks His life in us?
Are you going on with Jesus? The way goes through Gethsemane, through the city gate, and on “outside the camp” (Hebrews 13:13). The way is lonely and goes on until there is no longer even a trace of a footprint to follow— but only the voice saying, “Follow Me” (Matthew 4:19).
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
Thursday, September 19, 2019
The Core is What Counts - #8529
The first hurricane I was in made me think of the Three Little Pigs story. It also made me think of the wolf, "I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down." We were on vacation with our family at the time, and the hurricane was moving into where we were on the coast. We moved downstairs from our upstairs bedroom. We listened to the local station go off air because the water was coming into the station. We tried to sleep but the wind was howling and the rain was pummeling the house. Well the next morning we went out and we surveyed what had happened. The power was out. The trees and wires were down. There was like wreckage everywhere. We had to actually wash and flush using the water that we had wisely stored in the bathtub before the hurricane hit. We ate by candlelight. We changed all our plans, but we were safe. See the storm had beaten up everything around us and it sure affected our lifestyle. But the things that really mattered - they were safe.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Core is What Counts."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from wonderful promises from the Lord in Psalms 91:1. "He who dwells in the shelter of The Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty." It goes on then to say in verse 4, "He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, or the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you." Verses 9 and 10: "If you make The Most High your dwelling - even the Lord, who is my refuge - then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent, for he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways."
Okay, the hurricane is blowing against your life. There's the night terror, the flying arrows, the stalking pestilence, but God says very clearly it will not come near you. He says, "If you make The Most High your dwelling, it will not befall you. No disaster will come near you." It sounds like our night in a hurricane. Everything around us was getting blown around but the core was safe.
My wife and I have been through hurricane times in our life like everybody. We were actually discussing the deaths of several people close to us at one point and a really tough financial situation. We had converging problems with cars, with equipment, a lot of struggles with people close to us; a lot of pressures. You say, "Hey, man, come on. I have my own list." I know, I'm sure you do. But I said, "Honey, thank God the core is okay."
The core - it's your relationship with God, your relationship with your family, and your central mission - your ministry. The wind outside may be doing tons of damage. The devil is nibbling all around the core. But maybe you can say as we did, "Lord thank you for protecting the core." It's important during a hurricane to see the difference between the core and I guess I call it non-core things in your life.
You pray for the protection of the blood of Jesus on the core of your life. Don't over-react to your hurricane because it's blowing everything around. It's tough, but it will pass. Guard carefully the priorities that keep the core things healthy. Don't let the hurricane take you out of those priorities. And praise the Lord while the pressure is on that you can't lose what really counts.
You say, "Ron, the devil got into the core already." Then, man, drop everything and fight for what he's trying to take. Remember that no one can touch the center core of your unloseable relationship with Jesus Christ. You've got that forever. Paul said in 2 Timothy 1:12, "I am persuaded that He is able to guard what I have committed to Him until that day."
Let the wind blow. It will do damage around you. It may affect your lifestyle, but pray for the core. Fight for the core. Thank God if the core is safe. You see, if the core is okay, you're doing okay.
Thursday, September 19, 2019
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
2 Kings 24, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: A BEAM IN YOUR EYE
“Why do you notice the little piece of dust in your friend’s eye, but you don’t notice the big piece of wood in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3).
Anyone who thinks Jesus never cracked a joke hasn’t read these words from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus envisioned a fellow who has a two-by-four sticking out of his eye. He doesn’t see the log in his own eye but can’t help but notice a man who stands across the street dabbing his eye with a tissue. He declares, “Don’t you know that if you get something in your eye, it can be harmful?”
On target? Yes, sirree, Bob. We have eagle- eye vision when it comes to others but can be blind as moles when we examine ourselves. If you want to change the world, begin with yourself. This is how happiness happens.
2 Kings 24
It was during his reign that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded the country. Jehoiakim became his puppet. But after three years he had had enough and revolted.
2-4 God dispatched a succession of raiding bands against him: Babylonian, Aramean, Moabite, and Ammonite. The strategy was to destroy Judah. Through the preaching of his servants and prophets, God had said he would do this, and now he was doing it. None of this was by chance—it was God’s judgment as he turned his back on Judah because of the enormity of the sins of Manasseh—Manasseh, the killer-king, who made the Jerusalem streets flow with the innocent blood of his victims. God wasn’t about to overlook such crimes.
5-6 The rest of the life and times of Jehoiakim is written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. Jehoiakim died and was buried with his ancestors. His son Jehoiachin became the next king.
7 The threat from Egypt was now over—no more invasions by the king of Egypt—for by this time the king of Babylon had captured all the land between the Brook of Egypt and the Euphrates River, land formerly controlled by the king of Egypt.
8-9 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king. His rule in Jerusalem lasted only three months. His mother’s name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan; she was from Jerusalem. In God’s opinion he also was an evil king, no different from his father.
10-12 The next thing to happen was that the officers of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon attacked Jerusalem and put it under siege. While his officers were laying siege to the city, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon paid a personal visit. And Jehoiachin king of Judah, along with his mother, officers, advisors, and government leaders, surrendered.
12-14 In the eighth year of his reign Jehoiachin was taken prisoner by the king of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar emptied the treasuries of both The Temple of God and the royal palace and confiscated all the gold furnishings that Solomon king of Israel had made for The Temple of God. This should have been no surprise—God had said it would happen. And then he emptied Jerusalem of people—all its leaders and soldiers, all its craftsmen and artisans. He took them into exile, something like ten thousand of them! The only ones he left were the very poor.
15-16 He took Jehoiachin into exile to Babylon. With him he took the king’s mother, his wives, his chief officers, the community leaders, anyone who was anybody—in round numbers, seven thousand soldiers plus another thousand or so craftsmen and artisans, all herded off into exile in Babylon.
17 Then the king of Babylon made Jehoiachin’s uncle, Mattaniah, his puppet king, but changed his name to Zedekiah.
18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he started out as king. He was king in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah. Her hometown was Libnah.
19 As far as God was concerned Zedekiah was just one more evil king, a carbon copy of Jehoiakim.
20 The source of all this doom to Jerusalem and Judah was God’s anger—God turned his back on them as an act of judgment. And then Zedekiah revolted against the king of Babylon.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
1 Peter 5:8–10
Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
Insight
The Scriptures have much to tell us about our spiritual adversary, Satan. Peter, writing from his own painful defeat, warns us of our adversary “the devil [who] prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Some thirty years before writing this letter, Peter boasted that he would never disown Jesus (Matthew 26:33–35), but in his overconfident pride he failed to “be alert and of sober mind” (1 Peter 5:8). According to John, the whole world is presently under Satan’s control (1 John 5:19), but Jesus came “to destroy the devil’s work” (3:8). Jesus has already defeated Satan (John 12:31; 16:11; Hebrews 2:14), but the devil is permitted to continue to deceive people for a season (2 Corinthians 11:14). Satan’s end is sealed, however, for he will be “thrown into the lake of burning sulfur . . . tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Revelation 20:10).
Turn and Run
Resist [the devil], standing firm in the faith. 1 Peter 5:9
Ali was a beautiful, smart, and talented teenager with loving parents. But after high school something prompted her to try heroin. Her parents noticed changes in her and sent her to a rehabilitation facility after Ali eventually admitted the impact it was having on her. After treatment, they asked what she would tell her friends about trying drugs. Her advice: “Just turn and run.” She urged that “just saying no” wasn’t enough.
Tragically, Ali relapsed and died at age twenty-two of an overdose. In an attempt to keep others from the same fate, her heartbroken parents appeared on a local news program encouraging listeners to “run for Ali” by staying far from situations where they could be exposed to drugs and other dangers.
The apostle Paul urged his spiritual son Timothy (and us) to run from evil (2 Timothy 2:22), and the apostle Peter likewise warned, “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith” (1 Peter 5:8–9).
None of us is immune to temptation. And often the best thing to do is to steer clear of situations where we’ll be tempted—though they can’t always be avoided. But we can be better prepared by having a strong faith in God based in the Bible and strengthened through prayer. When we “[stand] firm in the faith” we’ll know when to turn and run to Him. By: Alyson Kieda
Reflect & Pray
In what area(s) are you particularly susceptible to temptation? What has helped you to resist?
Dear God, there are so many temptations out there. Help us to watch and pray so that we won’t fall. And thank You for welcoming us back when we do.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
His Temptation and Ours
We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. —Hebrews 4:15
Until we are born again, the only kind of temptation we understand is the kind mentioned in James 1:14, “Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.” But through regeneration we are lifted into another realm where there are other temptations to face, namely, the kind of temptations our Lord faced. The temptations of Jesus had no appeal to us as unbelievers because they were not at home in our human nature. Our Lord’s temptations and ours are in different realms until we are born again and become His brothers. The temptations of Jesus are not those of a mere man, but the temptations of God as Man. Through regeneration, the Son of God is formed in us (see Galatians 4:19), and in our physical life He has the same setting that He had on earth. Satan does not tempt us just to make us do wrong things— he tempts us to make us lose what God has put into us through regeneration, namely, the possibility of being of value to God. He does not come to us on the premise of tempting us to sin, but on the premise of shifting our point of view, and only the Spirit of God can detect this as a temptation of the devil.
Temptation means a test of the possessions held within the inner, spiritual part of our being by a power outside us and foreign to us. This makes the temptation of our Lord explainable. After Jesus’ baptism, having accepted His mission of being the One “who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) He “was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness” (Matthew 4:1) and into the testing devices of the devil. Yet He did not become weary or exhausted. He went through the temptation “without sin,” and He retained all the possessions of His spiritual nature completely intact.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is perilously possible to make our conceptions of God like molten lead poured into a specially designed mould, and when it is cold and hard we fling it at the heads of the religious people who don’t agree with us. Disciples Indeed, 388 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
The Great Door Opener - #8528
I had a funny conversation with the owner of a local restaurant one day. The restaurant was close to our office, so I was there pretty frequently. I usually ran in and grabbed the quickest thing I could and ran out. Well, I was at the cash register and there were two or three others waiting to pay when Tony, the owner, said, "What do you do anyway?" Well, I wanted an opportunity there, and I thought this might be the first chance I had to really let him know that I know Christ.
On the spur of the moment I gave him what I thought was a creative answer that might get him thinking a little bit. I said, "Oh, I'm a manufacturer's representative." He said, "What?" "Well, you probably want to know what manufacturer." He said, "Yeah." I said, "The manufacturer of you and me." He said, "Oh, you work for my mother?" I said, "No, no, no. I work for the person who manufactured your mother, and the mother before her, and her mother before her." I know this is an odd conversation. He said, "That's funny! You don't look Italian."
Well, we went around on this merry-go-round a couple of times, and finally I said, "Actually, I lead a Christian organization that works with young people and their families." He said, "Oh, you're one of those born again things?" I said, "Well, it depends on what you mean by that. If you mean a cult with people who have antennas, do I have any antenna? No." I said, "Do you know who said those words first?" He said, "No." I said, "You know, Jesus said those words first. He invented that whole idea. It's referred to in the Bible, and it actually refers to a brand new start that He can give you when you come to Him after being what he called "born again."
Then he looked at me, and I was actually caught up short by his next comment. He explained why he had these questions about my life in the first place. He simply said, "All I know is that you're happy all the time." I thought, "Man, we are being watched." And you know, it's something pretty simple that can start something pretty eternal.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Great Door Opener."
Our word for today from the Word of God, we're in the book of Nehemiah. He's a servant. Actually, he's a cupbearer or waiter as it were to the king. And in chapter 2 and verse 1, he says, "I had not been sad in the kings' presence, so the king asked me, 'Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This could be nothing but sadness of heart.'" Of course we know Nehemiah was very sad because he wanted to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, his home city.
"'I was very much afraid,' Nehemiah said, 'But I said to the king, "May the king live forever. Why should my face not look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruin?' The king said to me, 'What is it you want?' Then I prayed to the God of heaven and I answered the king." Well, from that point on, he shares his dream, the king supports it, and the rest... well, it's the miraculous history of the rebuilding of the walls and the gates of the city of Jerusalem.
Notice here the king says, "How come you're sad today?" So, apparently Nehemiah had a reputation for being a pretty happy camper at work. Do you? See, for Nehemiah, a bad mood at work must have been the exception. Is that how it is for you?
If you've ever been to an antique store, you know that something becomes more valuable as it becomes harder to find. Well, today, a smile is precious because it's getting hard to find. So much so that it eventually demands an explanation, "Hey, what kind of work do you do?" The restaurant owner asked me that. He said, "I guess the reason you're happy all the time is you enjoy your work." I said, "No, it's because I enjoy my relationship with Him. He's the reason."
What attracted him, he said, was happiness. Let's consider your usual attitude at work or at school. Is it kind of dark, complaining, kind of a dull let's-get-through-it attitude? Or do you carry the presence of Christ into your school or your workplace? Your greatest attention getter for Christ may be that you have a smile in a sea of sour. A Christian draws his joy, not from what's going on around him, but who Jesus is going on inside him. Nehemiah said, "The joy of the Lord is your strength."
You might be wondering how to get an open door to the people around you. You might prove that Jesus works by your smile, your consistent joy, your positive spirit. Those may be the greatest door openers in the world.
“Why do you notice the little piece of dust in your friend’s eye, but you don’t notice the big piece of wood in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3).
Anyone who thinks Jesus never cracked a joke hasn’t read these words from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus envisioned a fellow who has a two-by-four sticking out of his eye. He doesn’t see the log in his own eye but can’t help but notice a man who stands across the street dabbing his eye with a tissue. He declares, “Don’t you know that if you get something in your eye, it can be harmful?”
On target? Yes, sirree, Bob. We have eagle- eye vision when it comes to others but can be blind as moles when we examine ourselves. If you want to change the world, begin with yourself. This is how happiness happens.
2 Kings 24
It was during his reign that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded the country. Jehoiakim became his puppet. But after three years he had had enough and revolted.
2-4 God dispatched a succession of raiding bands against him: Babylonian, Aramean, Moabite, and Ammonite. The strategy was to destroy Judah. Through the preaching of his servants and prophets, God had said he would do this, and now he was doing it. None of this was by chance—it was God’s judgment as he turned his back on Judah because of the enormity of the sins of Manasseh—Manasseh, the killer-king, who made the Jerusalem streets flow with the innocent blood of his victims. God wasn’t about to overlook such crimes.
5-6 The rest of the life and times of Jehoiakim is written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. Jehoiakim died and was buried with his ancestors. His son Jehoiachin became the next king.
7 The threat from Egypt was now over—no more invasions by the king of Egypt—for by this time the king of Babylon had captured all the land between the Brook of Egypt and the Euphrates River, land formerly controlled by the king of Egypt.
8-9 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king. His rule in Jerusalem lasted only three months. His mother’s name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan; she was from Jerusalem. In God’s opinion he also was an evil king, no different from his father.
10-12 The next thing to happen was that the officers of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon attacked Jerusalem and put it under siege. While his officers were laying siege to the city, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon paid a personal visit. And Jehoiachin king of Judah, along with his mother, officers, advisors, and government leaders, surrendered.
12-14 In the eighth year of his reign Jehoiachin was taken prisoner by the king of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar emptied the treasuries of both The Temple of God and the royal palace and confiscated all the gold furnishings that Solomon king of Israel had made for The Temple of God. This should have been no surprise—God had said it would happen. And then he emptied Jerusalem of people—all its leaders and soldiers, all its craftsmen and artisans. He took them into exile, something like ten thousand of them! The only ones he left were the very poor.
15-16 He took Jehoiachin into exile to Babylon. With him he took the king’s mother, his wives, his chief officers, the community leaders, anyone who was anybody—in round numbers, seven thousand soldiers plus another thousand or so craftsmen and artisans, all herded off into exile in Babylon.
17 Then the king of Babylon made Jehoiachin’s uncle, Mattaniah, his puppet king, but changed his name to Zedekiah.
18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he started out as king. He was king in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah. Her hometown was Libnah.
19 As far as God was concerned Zedekiah was just one more evil king, a carbon copy of Jehoiakim.
20 The source of all this doom to Jerusalem and Judah was God’s anger—God turned his back on them as an act of judgment. And then Zedekiah revolted against the king of Babylon.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
1 Peter 5:8–10
Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
Insight
The Scriptures have much to tell us about our spiritual adversary, Satan. Peter, writing from his own painful defeat, warns us of our adversary “the devil [who] prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Some thirty years before writing this letter, Peter boasted that he would never disown Jesus (Matthew 26:33–35), but in his overconfident pride he failed to “be alert and of sober mind” (1 Peter 5:8). According to John, the whole world is presently under Satan’s control (1 John 5:19), but Jesus came “to destroy the devil’s work” (3:8). Jesus has already defeated Satan (John 12:31; 16:11; Hebrews 2:14), but the devil is permitted to continue to deceive people for a season (2 Corinthians 11:14). Satan’s end is sealed, however, for he will be “thrown into the lake of burning sulfur . . . tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Revelation 20:10).
Turn and Run
Resist [the devil], standing firm in the faith. 1 Peter 5:9
Ali was a beautiful, smart, and talented teenager with loving parents. But after high school something prompted her to try heroin. Her parents noticed changes in her and sent her to a rehabilitation facility after Ali eventually admitted the impact it was having on her. After treatment, they asked what she would tell her friends about trying drugs. Her advice: “Just turn and run.” She urged that “just saying no” wasn’t enough.
Tragically, Ali relapsed and died at age twenty-two of an overdose. In an attempt to keep others from the same fate, her heartbroken parents appeared on a local news program encouraging listeners to “run for Ali” by staying far from situations where they could be exposed to drugs and other dangers.
The apostle Paul urged his spiritual son Timothy (and us) to run from evil (2 Timothy 2:22), and the apostle Peter likewise warned, “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith” (1 Peter 5:8–9).
None of us is immune to temptation. And often the best thing to do is to steer clear of situations where we’ll be tempted—though they can’t always be avoided. But we can be better prepared by having a strong faith in God based in the Bible and strengthened through prayer. When we “[stand] firm in the faith” we’ll know when to turn and run to Him. By: Alyson Kieda
Reflect & Pray
In what area(s) are you particularly susceptible to temptation? What has helped you to resist?
Dear God, there are so many temptations out there. Help us to watch and pray so that we won’t fall. And thank You for welcoming us back when we do.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
His Temptation and Ours
We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. —Hebrews 4:15
Until we are born again, the only kind of temptation we understand is the kind mentioned in James 1:14, “Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.” But through regeneration we are lifted into another realm where there are other temptations to face, namely, the kind of temptations our Lord faced. The temptations of Jesus had no appeal to us as unbelievers because they were not at home in our human nature. Our Lord’s temptations and ours are in different realms until we are born again and become His brothers. The temptations of Jesus are not those of a mere man, but the temptations of God as Man. Through regeneration, the Son of God is formed in us (see Galatians 4:19), and in our physical life He has the same setting that He had on earth. Satan does not tempt us just to make us do wrong things— he tempts us to make us lose what God has put into us through regeneration, namely, the possibility of being of value to God. He does not come to us on the premise of tempting us to sin, but on the premise of shifting our point of view, and only the Spirit of God can detect this as a temptation of the devil.
Temptation means a test of the possessions held within the inner, spiritual part of our being by a power outside us and foreign to us. This makes the temptation of our Lord explainable. After Jesus’ baptism, having accepted His mission of being the One “who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) He “was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness” (Matthew 4:1) and into the testing devices of the devil. Yet He did not become weary or exhausted. He went through the temptation “without sin,” and He retained all the possessions of His spiritual nature completely intact.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is perilously possible to make our conceptions of God like molten lead poured into a specially designed mould, and when it is cold and hard we fling it at the heads of the religious people who don’t agree with us. Disciples Indeed, 388 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
The Great Door Opener - #8528
I had a funny conversation with the owner of a local restaurant one day. The restaurant was close to our office, so I was there pretty frequently. I usually ran in and grabbed the quickest thing I could and ran out. Well, I was at the cash register and there were two or three others waiting to pay when Tony, the owner, said, "What do you do anyway?" Well, I wanted an opportunity there, and I thought this might be the first chance I had to really let him know that I know Christ.
On the spur of the moment I gave him what I thought was a creative answer that might get him thinking a little bit. I said, "Oh, I'm a manufacturer's representative." He said, "What?" "Well, you probably want to know what manufacturer." He said, "Yeah." I said, "The manufacturer of you and me." He said, "Oh, you work for my mother?" I said, "No, no, no. I work for the person who manufactured your mother, and the mother before her, and her mother before her." I know this is an odd conversation. He said, "That's funny! You don't look Italian."
Well, we went around on this merry-go-round a couple of times, and finally I said, "Actually, I lead a Christian organization that works with young people and their families." He said, "Oh, you're one of those born again things?" I said, "Well, it depends on what you mean by that. If you mean a cult with people who have antennas, do I have any antenna? No." I said, "Do you know who said those words first?" He said, "No." I said, "You know, Jesus said those words first. He invented that whole idea. It's referred to in the Bible, and it actually refers to a brand new start that He can give you when you come to Him after being what he called "born again."
Then he looked at me, and I was actually caught up short by his next comment. He explained why he had these questions about my life in the first place. He simply said, "All I know is that you're happy all the time." I thought, "Man, we are being watched." And you know, it's something pretty simple that can start something pretty eternal.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Great Door Opener."
Our word for today from the Word of God, we're in the book of Nehemiah. He's a servant. Actually, he's a cupbearer or waiter as it were to the king. And in chapter 2 and verse 1, he says, "I had not been sad in the kings' presence, so the king asked me, 'Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This could be nothing but sadness of heart.'" Of course we know Nehemiah was very sad because he wanted to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, his home city.
"'I was very much afraid,' Nehemiah said, 'But I said to the king, "May the king live forever. Why should my face not look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruin?' The king said to me, 'What is it you want?' Then I prayed to the God of heaven and I answered the king." Well, from that point on, he shares his dream, the king supports it, and the rest... well, it's the miraculous history of the rebuilding of the walls and the gates of the city of Jerusalem.
Notice here the king says, "How come you're sad today?" So, apparently Nehemiah had a reputation for being a pretty happy camper at work. Do you? See, for Nehemiah, a bad mood at work must have been the exception. Is that how it is for you?
If you've ever been to an antique store, you know that something becomes more valuable as it becomes harder to find. Well, today, a smile is precious because it's getting hard to find. So much so that it eventually demands an explanation, "Hey, what kind of work do you do?" The restaurant owner asked me that. He said, "I guess the reason you're happy all the time is you enjoy your work." I said, "No, it's because I enjoy my relationship with Him. He's the reason."
What attracted him, he said, was happiness. Let's consider your usual attitude at work or at school. Is it kind of dark, complaining, kind of a dull let's-get-through-it attitude? Or do you carry the presence of Christ into your school or your workplace? Your greatest attention getter for Christ may be that you have a smile in a sea of sour. A Christian draws his joy, not from what's going on around him, but who Jesus is going on inside him. Nehemiah said, "The joy of the Lord is your strength."
You might be wondering how to get an open door to the people around you. You might prove that Jesus works by your smile, your consistent joy, your positive spirit. Those may be the greatest door openers in the world.
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Galatians 6, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: DON’T PET THE PEEVES
There is a way the world should be run. And when others behave in ways we don’t like, we call that a pet peeve. Not a colossal divide or a legal violation…just a pet peeve. You know, joy is such a precious commodity. Why squander it on a quibble?
The phrases we use regarding our pet peeves reveal the person who actually suffers. He “gets under my skin” or “gets on my nerves,” or she is such a “pain in my neck.” Whose skin, nerves, and neck? Ours! Who suffers? We do! Every pet peeve writes a check on our joy account.
For this reason the apostle Paul said, “Be patient, bearing with one another in love” (Ephesians 4:2). The patient person sees all the peculiarities of the world. But rather than react, he bears with them. This is how happiness happens.
Galatians 6
Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.
4-5 Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.
6 Be very sure now, you who have been trained to a self-sufficient maturity, that you enter into a generous common life with those who have trained you, sharing all the good things that you have and experience.
7-8 Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.
9-10 So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.
11-13 Now, in these last sentences, I want to emphasize in the bold scrawls of my personal handwriting the immense importance of what I have written to you. These people who are attempting to force the ways of circumcision on you have only one motive: They want an easy way to look good before others, lacking the courage to live by a faith that shares Christ’s suffering and death. All their talk about the law is gas. They themselves don’t keep the law! And they are highly selective in the laws they do observe. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast of their success in recruiting you to their side. That is contemptible!
14-16 For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate. Can’t you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do—submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life! All who walk by this standard are the true Israel of God—his chosen people. Peace and mercy on them!
17 Quite frankly, I don’t want to be bothered anymore by these disputes. I have far more important things to do—the serious living of this faith. I bear in my body scars from my service to Jesus.
18 May what our Master Jesus Christ gives freely be deeply and personally yours, my friends. Oh, yes!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Galatians 3:23–29
Before the coming of this faith,[a] we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Footnotes:
Galatians 3:23 Or through the faithfulness of Jesus … 23 Before faith came
Insight
Much has been written about Paul’s view of the law as it relates to the Christian life. The apostle wrote about the law in several letters to the early believers in Jesus, most notably in his letter to the Romans. Here in Galatians, Paul initially paints the law as a jailer who held us in custody until faith was revealed (3:23). A jailer restricts prisoners’ activities and keeps them confined within certain parameters. In verse 24, however, Paul calls the law our guardian—a role with a different connotation. A guardian is charged with protection and safety; one who keeps those under his care from harm and helps them to grow and flourish. In each case, jailer or guardian, Paul says that because faith has come, they’re no longer needed.
More than Water
All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. Galatians 3:27
One of my earliest childhood memories of church was a pastor walking down the aisle, challenging us to “remember the waters of our baptism.” Remember the waters? I asked myself. How can you remember water? He then proceeded to splash everyone with water, which as a young child both delighted and confused me.
Why should we think about baptism? When a person is baptized, there’s so much more to it than water. Baptism symbolizes how through faith in Jesus, we’ve become “clothed” with Him (Galatians 3:27). Or in other words, it’s celebrating that we belong to Him and that He lives in and through us.
As if that weren’t significant enough, the passage tells us that if we’ve been clothed with Christ our identity is found in Him. We’re the very children of God (v. 26). As such, we’ve been made right with God by faith—not by following Old Testament law (vv. 23–25). We’re not divided against one another by gender, culture, and status. We’re set free and brought into unity through Christ and are now His own (v. 29).
So there are very good reasons to remember baptism and all it represents. We aren’t simply focusing on the act itself but that we belong to Jesus and have become children of God. Our identity, future, and spiritual freedom are found in Him. By: Peter Chin
Reflect & Pray
What does it mean for you to be clothed with Christ and to belong to Him? What are ways in which you can regularly celebrate and remember the meaning of baptism?
God, help me to never forget that through Jesus I am a child of God!
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Is There Good in Temptation?
No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man… —1 Corinthians 10:13
The word temptation has come to mean something bad to us today, but we tend to use the word in the wrong way. Temptation itself is not sin; it is something we are bound to face simply by virtue of being human. Not to be tempted would mean that we were already so shameful that we would be beneath contempt. Yet many of us suffer from temptations we should never have to suffer, simply because we have refused to allow God to lift us to a higher level where we would face temptations of another kind.
A person’s inner nature, what he possesses in the inner, spiritual part of his being, determines what he is tempted by on the outside. The temptation fits the true nature of the person being tempted and reveals the possibilities of his nature. Every person actually determines or sets the level of his own temptation, because temptation will come to him in accordance with the level of his controlling, inner nature.
Temptation comes to me, suggesting a possible shortcut to the realization of my highest goal— it does not direct me toward what I understand to be evil, but toward what I understand to be good. Temptation is something that confuses me for a while, and I don’t know whether something is right or wrong. When I yield to it, I have made lust a god, and the temptation itself becomes the proof that it was only my own fear that prevented me from falling into the sin earlier.
Temptation is not something we can escape; in fact, it is essential to the well-rounded life of a person. Beware of thinking that you are tempted as no one else— what you go through is the common inheritance of the human race, not something that no one has ever before endured. God does not save us from temptations— He sustains us in the midst of them (see Hebrews 2:18 and Hebrews 4:15-16).
There is no allowance whatever in the New Testament for the man who says he is saved by grace but who does not produce the graceful goods. Jesus Christ by His Redemption can make our actual life in keeping with our religious profession.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Pulling the Plug On the Scoreboard - #8527
It was a great day for me when I went bowling and found out that they had invented automatic score keeping. I never could figure it out, especially on the more complicated stuff, when you just had to add it up on these cards. We never went bowling often, but when we did, we used to fumble around trying to figure out how to score the game. There are some folks who'll say, "Let's just have fun in this (whatever the sport is). Forget about the score!" We are not among those folks. No, in fact, no matter what the sport, most athletes would not be interested if no points were kept for goals, or runs, or touchdowns, or whatever. But I have to wonder if the people who just enjoy the game without keeping score have a little less stress in their lives.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Pulling the Plug On the Scoreboard."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Peter 4:9, "Above all, love each other deeply because love covers a multitude of sins." Okay, now God starts off by saying, "above all," and the man through whom He's writing, Peter, gives an interesting description of what Christian love is in very practical terms. It's something that covers a multitude of sins. Now think of the opposite - un-love doesn't overlook any sin, any mistake, any offense.
See, the problem is this score keeping thing. We tend to keep score in our relationships, we rack up a negative point when someone fails us, or hurts us, or slights us, or in any way blows it. It was Peter who asked Jesus how many times he was expected to not score things someone did against them, to forgive them. Jesus said, "Seventy times seven." Let it go 490 times! By that time, who's counting anyway?
Maybe a relationship of yours is suffering because you've been keeping score with your mate, your son, your daughter, your parent? Maybe you've been racking up points against your friend, or your co-worker, or that person at church? And when they do something that bothers you or hurts you, you kind of figuratively roll your eyes and say, "There they go again." And you put another mark against them on your negative scoreboard.
In fact, those marks ultimately become a negative filter through which you view everything that person does. They can't do anything right now - even their good is explained away or it's unrecorded because it doesn't fit your negative grid; your negative narrative. Now, could it be that you keep bringing up those negatives, especially to make your point? Someone you're supposed to be loving might be drowning in your critical comments, your judgmental attitude, your negative assumptions.
The man who wrote these words, Simon Peter, experienced this kind of forgiving love himself. Remember he totally let his Lord down, denied Him three times in Jesus' greatest hour of need, but he found that Jesus did not hold that against him. In fact, when he finally got together with Peter individually after His resurrection, Jesus said, "Do you love Me?" Not, "Why did you fail me?" "Do you love Me?" That's all He wanted to know.
That's how Jesus is treating you, and now He's asking you to treat other people with the same kind of grace and mercy. Not to treat them in the way that they have treated you, but to treat them in the way that Jesus has treated you... and Jesus has had a lot more to forgive than you ever will. Colossians 3:13 says it so well, "Forgive, as the Lord forgave you."
It's time to put the scoreboard away isn't it? Like your Lord has done with you. Remember, un-love notices and records ever slight, every problem, every mistake. But we're servants of a Savior who makes us into people who love as He does - without a scoreboard.
There is a way the world should be run. And when others behave in ways we don’t like, we call that a pet peeve. Not a colossal divide or a legal violation…just a pet peeve. You know, joy is such a precious commodity. Why squander it on a quibble?
The phrases we use regarding our pet peeves reveal the person who actually suffers. He “gets under my skin” or “gets on my nerves,” or she is such a “pain in my neck.” Whose skin, nerves, and neck? Ours! Who suffers? We do! Every pet peeve writes a check on our joy account.
For this reason the apostle Paul said, “Be patient, bearing with one another in love” (Ephesians 4:2). The patient person sees all the peculiarities of the world. But rather than react, he bears with them. This is how happiness happens.
Galatians 6
Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.
4-5 Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.
6 Be very sure now, you who have been trained to a self-sufficient maturity, that you enter into a generous common life with those who have trained you, sharing all the good things that you have and experience.
7-8 Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.
9-10 So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.
11-13 Now, in these last sentences, I want to emphasize in the bold scrawls of my personal handwriting the immense importance of what I have written to you. These people who are attempting to force the ways of circumcision on you have only one motive: They want an easy way to look good before others, lacking the courage to live by a faith that shares Christ’s suffering and death. All their talk about the law is gas. They themselves don’t keep the law! And they are highly selective in the laws they do observe. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast of their success in recruiting you to their side. That is contemptible!
14-16 For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate. Can’t you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do—submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life! All who walk by this standard are the true Israel of God—his chosen people. Peace and mercy on them!
17 Quite frankly, I don’t want to be bothered anymore by these disputes. I have far more important things to do—the serious living of this faith. I bear in my body scars from my service to Jesus.
18 May what our Master Jesus Christ gives freely be deeply and personally yours, my friends. Oh, yes!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Galatians 3:23–29
Before the coming of this faith,[a] we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Footnotes:
Galatians 3:23 Or through the faithfulness of Jesus … 23 Before faith came
Insight
Much has been written about Paul’s view of the law as it relates to the Christian life. The apostle wrote about the law in several letters to the early believers in Jesus, most notably in his letter to the Romans. Here in Galatians, Paul initially paints the law as a jailer who held us in custody until faith was revealed (3:23). A jailer restricts prisoners’ activities and keeps them confined within certain parameters. In verse 24, however, Paul calls the law our guardian—a role with a different connotation. A guardian is charged with protection and safety; one who keeps those under his care from harm and helps them to grow and flourish. In each case, jailer or guardian, Paul says that because faith has come, they’re no longer needed.
More than Water
All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. Galatians 3:27
One of my earliest childhood memories of church was a pastor walking down the aisle, challenging us to “remember the waters of our baptism.” Remember the waters? I asked myself. How can you remember water? He then proceeded to splash everyone with water, which as a young child both delighted and confused me.
Why should we think about baptism? When a person is baptized, there’s so much more to it than water. Baptism symbolizes how through faith in Jesus, we’ve become “clothed” with Him (Galatians 3:27). Or in other words, it’s celebrating that we belong to Him and that He lives in and through us.
As if that weren’t significant enough, the passage tells us that if we’ve been clothed with Christ our identity is found in Him. We’re the very children of God (v. 26). As such, we’ve been made right with God by faith—not by following Old Testament law (vv. 23–25). We’re not divided against one another by gender, culture, and status. We’re set free and brought into unity through Christ and are now His own (v. 29).
So there are very good reasons to remember baptism and all it represents. We aren’t simply focusing on the act itself but that we belong to Jesus and have become children of God. Our identity, future, and spiritual freedom are found in Him. By: Peter Chin
Reflect & Pray
What does it mean for you to be clothed with Christ and to belong to Him? What are ways in which you can regularly celebrate and remember the meaning of baptism?
God, help me to never forget that through Jesus I am a child of God!
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Is There Good in Temptation?
No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man… —1 Corinthians 10:13
The word temptation has come to mean something bad to us today, but we tend to use the word in the wrong way. Temptation itself is not sin; it is something we are bound to face simply by virtue of being human. Not to be tempted would mean that we were already so shameful that we would be beneath contempt. Yet many of us suffer from temptations we should never have to suffer, simply because we have refused to allow God to lift us to a higher level where we would face temptations of another kind.
A person’s inner nature, what he possesses in the inner, spiritual part of his being, determines what he is tempted by on the outside. The temptation fits the true nature of the person being tempted and reveals the possibilities of his nature. Every person actually determines or sets the level of his own temptation, because temptation will come to him in accordance with the level of his controlling, inner nature.
Temptation comes to me, suggesting a possible shortcut to the realization of my highest goal— it does not direct me toward what I understand to be evil, but toward what I understand to be good. Temptation is something that confuses me for a while, and I don’t know whether something is right or wrong. When I yield to it, I have made lust a god, and the temptation itself becomes the proof that it was only my own fear that prevented me from falling into the sin earlier.
Temptation is not something we can escape; in fact, it is essential to the well-rounded life of a person. Beware of thinking that you are tempted as no one else— what you go through is the common inheritance of the human race, not something that no one has ever before endured. God does not save us from temptations— He sustains us in the midst of them (see Hebrews 2:18 and Hebrews 4:15-16).
There is no allowance whatever in the New Testament for the man who says he is saved by grace but who does not produce the graceful goods. Jesus Christ by His Redemption can make our actual life in keeping with our religious profession.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Pulling the Plug On the Scoreboard - #8527
It was a great day for me when I went bowling and found out that they had invented automatic score keeping. I never could figure it out, especially on the more complicated stuff, when you just had to add it up on these cards. We never went bowling often, but when we did, we used to fumble around trying to figure out how to score the game. There are some folks who'll say, "Let's just have fun in this (whatever the sport is). Forget about the score!" We are not among those folks. No, in fact, no matter what the sport, most athletes would not be interested if no points were kept for goals, or runs, or touchdowns, or whatever. But I have to wonder if the people who just enjoy the game without keeping score have a little less stress in their lives.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Pulling the Plug On the Scoreboard."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Peter 4:9, "Above all, love each other deeply because love covers a multitude of sins." Okay, now God starts off by saying, "above all," and the man through whom He's writing, Peter, gives an interesting description of what Christian love is in very practical terms. It's something that covers a multitude of sins. Now think of the opposite - un-love doesn't overlook any sin, any mistake, any offense.
See, the problem is this score keeping thing. We tend to keep score in our relationships, we rack up a negative point when someone fails us, or hurts us, or slights us, or in any way blows it. It was Peter who asked Jesus how many times he was expected to not score things someone did against them, to forgive them. Jesus said, "Seventy times seven." Let it go 490 times! By that time, who's counting anyway?
Maybe a relationship of yours is suffering because you've been keeping score with your mate, your son, your daughter, your parent? Maybe you've been racking up points against your friend, or your co-worker, or that person at church? And when they do something that bothers you or hurts you, you kind of figuratively roll your eyes and say, "There they go again." And you put another mark against them on your negative scoreboard.
In fact, those marks ultimately become a negative filter through which you view everything that person does. They can't do anything right now - even their good is explained away or it's unrecorded because it doesn't fit your negative grid; your negative narrative. Now, could it be that you keep bringing up those negatives, especially to make your point? Someone you're supposed to be loving might be drowning in your critical comments, your judgmental attitude, your negative assumptions.
The man who wrote these words, Simon Peter, experienced this kind of forgiving love himself. Remember he totally let his Lord down, denied Him three times in Jesus' greatest hour of need, but he found that Jesus did not hold that against him. In fact, when he finally got together with Peter individually after His resurrection, Jesus said, "Do you love Me?" Not, "Why did you fail me?" "Do you love Me?" That's all He wanted to know.
That's how Jesus is treating you, and now He's asking you to treat other people with the same kind of grace and mercy. Not to treat them in the way that they have treated you, but to treat them in the way that Jesus has treated you... and Jesus has had a lot more to forgive than you ever will. Colossians 3:13 says it so well, "Forgive, as the Lord forgave you."
It's time to put the scoreboard away isn't it? Like your Lord has done with you. Remember, un-love notices and records ever slight, every problem, every mistake. But we're servants of a Savior who makes us into people who love as He does - without a scoreboard.
Monday, September 16, 2019
2 Kings 23, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: THE GIFT OF ENCOURAGEMENT
Every person needs to hear a “wonderful.” Here is why. Companies spend billions of dollars to convince us that we are chubby, smelly, ugly and out-of-date. Inadequacy indwells a billion hearts.
Would you distribute encouragement? Will you make some happiness happen? Will you remind humanity that we are made in God’s image? That we are chosen, destined, and loved?
Start by listening intently. Ask someone to tell you his, or her, story. Give the rarest of gifts— your full attention.
Praise abundantly. Biblical encouragement is no casual, kind word but rather a premeditated resolve to lift the spirit of another person. Everyone needs a cheerleader.
Give the gift that God loves to give— the gift of encouragement. This is how happiness happens.
2 Kings 23
The king acted immediately, assembling all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. Then the king proceeded to The Temple of God, bringing everyone in his train—priests and prophets and people ranging from the famous to the unknown. Then he read out publicly everything written in the Book of the Covenant that was found in The Temple of God. The king stood by the pillar and before God solemnly committed them all to the covenant: to follow God believingly and obediently; to follow his instructions, heart and soul, on what to believe and do; to put into practice the entire covenant, all that was written in the book. The people stood in affirmation; their commitment was unanimous.
4-9 Then the king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, his associate priest, and The Temple sentries to clean house—to get rid of everything in The Temple of God that had been made for worshiping Baal and Asherah and the cosmic powers. He had them burned outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and then disposed of the ashes in Bethel. He fired the pagan priests whom the kings of Judah had hired to supervise the local sex-and-religion shrines in the towns of Judah and neighborhoods of Jerusalem. In a stroke he swept the country clean of the polluting stench of the round-the-clock worship of Baal, sun and moon, stars—all the so-called cosmic powers. He took the obscene phallic Asherah pole from The Temple of God to the Valley of Kidron outside Jerusalem, burned it up, then ground up the ashes and scattered them in the cemetery. He tore out the rooms of the male sacred prostitutes that had been set up in The Temple of God; women also used these rooms for weavings for Asherah. He swept the outlying towns of Judah clean of priests and smashed the sex-and-religion shrines where they worked their trade from one end of the country to the other—all the way from Geba to Beersheba. He smashed the sex-and-religion shrine that had been set up just to the left of the city gate for the private use of Joshua, the city mayor. Even though these sex-and-religion priests did not defile the Altar in The Temple itself, they were part of the general priestly corruption and had to go.
10-11 Then Josiah demolished the Topheth, the iron furnace griddle set up in the Valley of Ben Hinnom for sacrificing children in the fire. No longer could anyone burn son or daughter to the god Molech. He hauled off the horse statues honoring the sun god that the kings of Judah had set up near the entrance to The Temple. They were in the courtyard next to the office of Nathan-Melech, the warden. He burned up the sun-chariots as so much rubbish.
12-15 The king smashed all the altars to smithereens—the altar on the roof shrine of Ahaz, the various altars the kings of Judah had made, the altars of Manasseh that littered the courtyard of The Temple—he smashed them all, pulverized the fragments, and scattered their dust in the Valley of Kidron. The king proceeded to make a clean sweep of all the sex-and-religion shrines that had proliferated east of Jerusalem on the south slope of Abomination Hill, the ones Solomon king of Israel had built to the obscene Sidonian sex goddess Ashtoreth, to Chemosh the dirty-old-god of the Moabites, and to Milcom the depraved god of the Ammonites. He tore apart the altars, chopped down the phallic Asherah-poles, and scattered old bones over the sites. Next, he took care of the altar at the shrine in Bethel that Jeroboam son of Nebat had built—the same Jeroboam who had led Israel into a life of sin. He tore apart the altar, burned down the shrine leaving it in ashes, and then lit fire to the phallic Asherah-pole.
16 As Josiah looked over the scene, he noticed the tombs on the hillside. He ordered the bones removed from the tombs and had them cremated on the ruined altars, desacralizing the evil altars. This was a fulfillment of the word of God spoken by the Holy Man years before when Jeroboam had stood by the altar at the sacred convocation.
17 Then the king said, “And that memorial stone—whose is that?”
The men from the city said, “That’s the grave of the Holy Man who spoke the message against the altar at Bethel that you have just fulfilled.”
18 Josiah said, “Don’t trouble his bones.” So they left his bones undisturbed, along with the bones of the prophet from Samaria.
19-20 But Josiah hadn’t finished. He now moved through all the towns of Samaria where the kings of Israel had built neighborhood sex-and-religion shrines, shrines that had so angered God. He tore the shrines down and left them in ruins—just as at Bethel. He killed all the priests who had conducted the sacrifices and cremated them on their own altars, thus desacralizing the altars. Only then did Josiah return to Jerusalem.
21 The king now commanded the people, “Celebrate the Passover to God, your God, exactly as directed in this Book of the Covenant.”
22-23 This commanded Passover had not been celebrated since the days that the judges judged Israel—none of the kings of Israel and Judah had celebrated it. But in the eighteenth year of the rule of King Josiah this very Passover was celebrated to God in Jerusalem.
24 Josiah scrubbed the place clean and trashed spirit-mediums, sorcerers, domestic gods, and carved figures—all the vast accumulation of foul and obscene relics and images on display everywhere you looked in Judah and Jerusalem. Josiah did this in obedience to the words of God’s Revelation written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in The Temple of God.
25 There was no king to compare with Josiah—neither before nor after—a king who turned in total and repentant obedience to God, heart and mind and strength, following the instructions revealed to and written by Moses. The world would never again see a king like Josiah.
26-27 But despite Josiah, God’s hot anger did not cool; the raging anger ignited by Manasseh burned unchecked. And God, not swerving in his judgment, gave sentence: “I’ll remove Judah from my presence in the same way I removed Israel. I’ll turn my back on this city, Jerusalem, that I chose, and even from this Temple of which I said, ‘My Name lives here.’”
28-30 The rest of the life and times of Josiah is written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. Josiah’s death came about when Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt marched out to join forces with the king of Assyria at the Euphrates River. When King Josiah intercepted him at the Plain of Megiddo, Neco killed him. Josiah’s servants took his body in a chariot, returned him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. By popular choice Jehoahaz son of Josiah was anointed and succeeded his father as king.
31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to rule. He was king in Jerusalem for a mere three months. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah. She came from Libnah.
32 In God’s opinion, he was an evil king, reverting to the evil ways of his ancestors.
33-34 Pharaoh Neco captured Jehoahaz at Riblah in the country of Hamath and put him in chains, preventing him from ruling in Jerusalem. He demanded that Judah pay tribute of nearly four tons of silver and seventy-five pounds of gold. Then Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim son of Josiah the successor to Josiah, but changed his name to Jehoiakim. Jehoahaz was carted off to Egypt and eventually died there.
35 Meanwhile Jehoiakim, like a good puppet, dutifully paid out the silver and gold demanded by Pharaoh. He scraped up the money by gouging the people, making everyone pay an assessed tax.
36-37 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to rule; he was king for eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah. She had come from Rumah. In God’s opinion he was an evil king, picking up on the evil ways of his ancestors.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, September 16, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Proverbs 26:4–12
Do not answer a fool according to his folly,
or you yourself will be just like him.
5 Answer a fool according to his folly,
or he will be wise in his own eyes.
6 Sending a message by the hands of a fool
is like cutting off one’s feet or drinking poison.
7 Like the useless legs of one who is lame
is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.
8 Like tying a stone in a sling
is the giving of honor to a fool.
9 Like a thornbush in a drunkard’s hand
is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.
10 Like an archer who wounds at random
is one who hires a fool or any passer-by.
11 As a dog returns to its vomit,
so fools repeat their folly.
12 Do you see a person wise in their own eyes?
There is more hope for a fool than for them.
Insight
The Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon) is Hebrew poetry that uses a variety of poetic devices. In Proverbs 26, metaphors and analogies are used. The foolish person is compared to weather that’s inappropriate for the season (v. 1), an animal that needs to be constrained (v. 3), a useless leg (v. 7), and a powerless sling (v. 8). These comparisons warn about the self-destructive nature of foolish choices. By: Bill Crowder
Don’t Feed the Trolls
Make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace. Colossians 4:5–6
Ever heard the expression, “Don’t feed the trolls”? “Trolls” refers to a new problem in today’s digital world—online users who repeatedly post intentionally inflammatory and hurtful comments on news or social media discussion boards. But ignoring such comments—not “feeding” the trolls—makes it harder for them to derail a conversation.
Of course, it’s nothing new to encounter people who aren’t genuinely interested in productive conversation. “Don’t feed the trolls” could almost be a modern equivalent of Proverbs 26:4, which warns that arguing with an arrogant, unreceptive person risks stooping to their level.
And yet . . . even the most seemingly stubborn person is also a priceless image-bearer of God. If we’re quick to dismiss others, we may be the ones in danger of being arrogant and becoming unreceptive to God’s grace (see Matthew 5:22).
That might, in part, explain why Proverbs 26:5 offers the exact opposite guideline. Because it takes humble, prayerful dependence on God to discern how best to show others love in each situation (see Colossians 4:5–6). Sometimes we speak up; other times, it’s best to be silent.
May we find peace in knowing that the same God who drew us near while we were still in hardened opposition to Him (Romans 5:6) is powerfully at work in each person’s heart. By: Monica Brands
Reflect & Pray
How have you witnessed very different approaches being used by God to touch others? How can you better speak the truth in love?
Loving God, help me share Your love with others around me.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, September 16, 2019
Praying to God in Secret
When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place… —Matthew 6:6
The primary thought in the area of religion is— keep your eyes on God, not on people. Your motivation should not be the desire to be known as a praying person. Find an inner room in which to pray where no one even knows you are praying, shut the door, and talk to God in secret. Have no motivation other than to know your Father in heaven. It is impossible to carry on your life as a disciple without definite times of secret prayer.
“When you pray, do not use vain repetitions…” (Matthew 6:7). God does not hear us because we pray earnestly— He hears us solely on the basis of redemption. God is never impressed by our earnestness. Prayer is not simply getting things from God— that is only the most elementary kind of prayer. Prayer is coming into perfect fellowship and oneness with God. If the Son of God has been formed in us through regeneration (see Galatians 4:19), then He will continue to press on beyond our common sense and will change our attitude about the things for which we pray.
“Everyone who asks receives…” (Matthew 7:8). We pray religious nonsense without even involving our will, and then we say that God did not answer— but in reality we have never asked for anything. Jesus said, “…you will ask what you desire…” (John 15:7). Asking means that our will must be involved. Whenever Jesus talked about prayer, He spoke with wonderful childlike simplicity. Then we respond with our critical attitude, saying, “Yes, but even Jesus said that we must ask.” But remember that we have to ask things of God that are in keeping with the God whom Jesus Christ revealed.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Beware of bartering the Word of God for a more suitable conception of your own. Disciples Indeed, 386 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, September 16, 2019
The Days of The King - #8526
The battles were horrendous. The casualties were many. But the outcome changed everything. That's a very quick summary of the final episode of J. R. R. Tolkien's classic trilogy, Lord of the Rings. That trilogy actually jumped off of dusty bookshelves and into the popular culture with their portrayal in three very successful movies. In the story, Tolkien weaves a tale of a world called Middle Earth where these soulless, subhuman beings are attempting to stamp out what they call the "Age of Humans." Finally, in the concluding "Return of the King," Middle Earth's rightful king, Aragorn, leads the humans in one last, all-out attempt to turn back the forces of evil. After many costly battles, there's this glorious coronation day for the triumphant king. As the crown is placed on the head of the rightful ruler before this jubilant crowd of his subjects, they know the dark days are over. And the one who crowned him makes this hopeful announcement, "Now begin the days of the King!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Days of The King."
It might be time for that announcement in your life - that the rightful King is finally on the throne. Because up until now, you've been there making the calls, running things your way, giving Jesus time and maybe even money, but not the throne.
In Tolkien's Return of the King, there was a man who was supposed to be the caretaker of the throne until the rightful ruler takes his place there. But when it comes time for the king to take the throne, the caretaker refuses to let go of it. He has to be forcibly and violently overthrown. Don't wait for that to happen to you. Jesus is the King of all kings. He is the Lord of all lords. What are you doing holding onto the throne of your life where He is supposed to reign supreme?
Our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Peter 3:15 reveals this straightforward command: "In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord." Notice it says, "in your heart." A lot of people are willing to let Christ be Lord in their head. He's like the honorary chairman of their life, but they're still doing what they want to do, deciding which things Jesus can run and which things they'll not let Him run. Jesus rips the mask off of that charade with His penetrating question in Luke 6:46, "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?"
Lord in your head, Lord in your theology, Lord in your vocabulary...that's not what Lord means! "Lord" is the one who is running things, and could the reality be that you are the real "Lord" of much of your life? Then you're a rebel against the only rightful King - no matter how religiously you dress up your rebellion.
Western Christianity honestly is often a compartmentalized faith: where you have this beautiful Jesus compartment in your life where you pray, you go to His meetings, you read His book, you do His work. But then there are all the other compartments: how you treat people, how you spend your money, what you do on a date, what you watch, what you listen to, how you run your business, your social life, your finances. Wait a minute! What are you doing running all that anyway? Jesus paid everything He had for your life. He's not interested in just occupying a compartment! He paid the whole price; He should have the whole thing!
The original word for "Lord" literally means "the controller." Honestly now, who's the controller in your life? If it's not Jesus, then a rebel is on the throne - His throne. And things will never be right in your life so long as you are on the throne. Today this could be one of the most liberating, most decisive days of your life, if you would make this Coronation Day for the One who is the nail-scarred, death-conquering, rightful King of you. Find a place where you can bow before King Jesus today and surrender it all to Him, where you can relinquish a throne that has cost you all ready so much to occupy.
If you've never begun your relationship with Him, putting your trust in what he did on the cross for you, tell him today, "Jesus, it's all you beginning today." Go to our website, get the information you need to secure that relationship. It's ANewStory.com.
Today could begin the days of the King!
Every person needs to hear a “wonderful.” Here is why. Companies spend billions of dollars to convince us that we are chubby, smelly, ugly and out-of-date. Inadequacy indwells a billion hearts.
Would you distribute encouragement? Will you make some happiness happen? Will you remind humanity that we are made in God’s image? That we are chosen, destined, and loved?
Start by listening intently. Ask someone to tell you his, or her, story. Give the rarest of gifts— your full attention.
Praise abundantly. Biblical encouragement is no casual, kind word but rather a premeditated resolve to lift the spirit of another person. Everyone needs a cheerleader.
Give the gift that God loves to give— the gift of encouragement. This is how happiness happens.
2 Kings 23
The king acted immediately, assembling all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. Then the king proceeded to The Temple of God, bringing everyone in his train—priests and prophets and people ranging from the famous to the unknown. Then he read out publicly everything written in the Book of the Covenant that was found in The Temple of God. The king stood by the pillar and before God solemnly committed them all to the covenant: to follow God believingly and obediently; to follow his instructions, heart and soul, on what to believe and do; to put into practice the entire covenant, all that was written in the book. The people stood in affirmation; their commitment was unanimous.
4-9 Then the king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, his associate priest, and The Temple sentries to clean house—to get rid of everything in The Temple of God that had been made for worshiping Baal and Asherah and the cosmic powers. He had them burned outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and then disposed of the ashes in Bethel. He fired the pagan priests whom the kings of Judah had hired to supervise the local sex-and-religion shrines in the towns of Judah and neighborhoods of Jerusalem. In a stroke he swept the country clean of the polluting stench of the round-the-clock worship of Baal, sun and moon, stars—all the so-called cosmic powers. He took the obscene phallic Asherah pole from The Temple of God to the Valley of Kidron outside Jerusalem, burned it up, then ground up the ashes and scattered them in the cemetery. He tore out the rooms of the male sacred prostitutes that had been set up in The Temple of God; women also used these rooms for weavings for Asherah. He swept the outlying towns of Judah clean of priests and smashed the sex-and-religion shrines where they worked their trade from one end of the country to the other—all the way from Geba to Beersheba. He smashed the sex-and-religion shrine that had been set up just to the left of the city gate for the private use of Joshua, the city mayor. Even though these sex-and-religion priests did not defile the Altar in The Temple itself, they were part of the general priestly corruption and had to go.
10-11 Then Josiah demolished the Topheth, the iron furnace griddle set up in the Valley of Ben Hinnom for sacrificing children in the fire. No longer could anyone burn son or daughter to the god Molech. He hauled off the horse statues honoring the sun god that the kings of Judah had set up near the entrance to The Temple. They were in the courtyard next to the office of Nathan-Melech, the warden. He burned up the sun-chariots as so much rubbish.
12-15 The king smashed all the altars to smithereens—the altar on the roof shrine of Ahaz, the various altars the kings of Judah had made, the altars of Manasseh that littered the courtyard of The Temple—he smashed them all, pulverized the fragments, and scattered their dust in the Valley of Kidron. The king proceeded to make a clean sweep of all the sex-and-religion shrines that had proliferated east of Jerusalem on the south slope of Abomination Hill, the ones Solomon king of Israel had built to the obscene Sidonian sex goddess Ashtoreth, to Chemosh the dirty-old-god of the Moabites, and to Milcom the depraved god of the Ammonites. He tore apart the altars, chopped down the phallic Asherah-poles, and scattered old bones over the sites. Next, he took care of the altar at the shrine in Bethel that Jeroboam son of Nebat had built—the same Jeroboam who had led Israel into a life of sin. He tore apart the altar, burned down the shrine leaving it in ashes, and then lit fire to the phallic Asherah-pole.
16 As Josiah looked over the scene, he noticed the tombs on the hillside. He ordered the bones removed from the tombs and had them cremated on the ruined altars, desacralizing the evil altars. This was a fulfillment of the word of God spoken by the Holy Man years before when Jeroboam had stood by the altar at the sacred convocation.
17 Then the king said, “And that memorial stone—whose is that?”
The men from the city said, “That’s the grave of the Holy Man who spoke the message against the altar at Bethel that you have just fulfilled.”
18 Josiah said, “Don’t trouble his bones.” So they left his bones undisturbed, along with the bones of the prophet from Samaria.
19-20 But Josiah hadn’t finished. He now moved through all the towns of Samaria where the kings of Israel had built neighborhood sex-and-religion shrines, shrines that had so angered God. He tore the shrines down and left them in ruins—just as at Bethel. He killed all the priests who had conducted the sacrifices and cremated them on their own altars, thus desacralizing the altars. Only then did Josiah return to Jerusalem.
21 The king now commanded the people, “Celebrate the Passover to God, your God, exactly as directed in this Book of the Covenant.”
22-23 This commanded Passover had not been celebrated since the days that the judges judged Israel—none of the kings of Israel and Judah had celebrated it. But in the eighteenth year of the rule of King Josiah this very Passover was celebrated to God in Jerusalem.
24 Josiah scrubbed the place clean and trashed spirit-mediums, sorcerers, domestic gods, and carved figures—all the vast accumulation of foul and obscene relics and images on display everywhere you looked in Judah and Jerusalem. Josiah did this in obedience to the words of God’s Revelation written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in The Temple of God.
25 There was no king to compare with Josiah—neither before nor after—a king who turned in total and repentant obedience to God, heart and mind and strength, following the instructions revealed to and written by Moses. The world would never again see a king like Josiah.
26-27 But despite Josiah, God’s hot anger did not cool; the raging anger ignited by Manasseh burned unchecked. And God, not swerving in his judgment, gave sentence: “I’ll remove Judah from my presence in the same way I removed Israel. I’ll turn my back on this city, Jerusalem, that I chose, and even from this Temple of which I said, ‘My Name lives here.’”
28-30 The rest of the life and times of Josiah is written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. Josiah’s death came about when Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt marched out to join forces with the king of Assyria at the Euphrates River. When King Josiah intercepted him at the Plain of Megiddo, Neco killed him. Josiah’s servants took his body in a chariot, returned him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. By popular choice Jehoahaz son of Josiah was anointed and succeeded his father as king.
31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to rule. He was king in Jerusalem for a mere three months. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah. She came from Libnah.
32 In God’s opinion, he was an evil king, reverting to the evil ways of his ancestors.
33-34 Pharaoh Neco captured Jehoahaz at Riblah in the country of Hamath and put him in chains, preventing him from ruling in Jerusalem. He demanded that Judah pay tribute of nearly four tons of silver and seventy-five pounds of gold. Then Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim son of Josiah the successor to Josiah, but changed his name to Jehoiakim. Jehoahaz was carted off to Egypt and eventually died there.
35 Meanwhile Jehoiakim, like a good puppet, dutifully paid out the silver and gold demanded by Pharaoh. He scraped up the money by gouging the people, making everyone pay an assessed tax.
36-37 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to rule; he was king for eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah. She had come from Rumah. In God’s opinion he was an evil king, picking up on the evil ways of his ancestors.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, September 16, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Proverbs 26:4–12
Do not answer a fool according to his folly,
or you yourself will be just like him.
5 Answer a fool according to his folly,
or he will be wise in his own eyes.
6 Sending a message by the hands of a fool
is like cutting off one’s feet or drinking poison.
7 Like the useless legs of one who is lame
is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.
8 Like tying a stone in a sling
is the giving of honor to a fool.
9 Like a thornbush in a drunkard’s hand
is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.
10 Like an archer who wounds at random
is one who hires a fool or any passer-by.
11 As a dog returns to its vomit,
so fools repeat their folly.
12 Do you see a person wise in their own eyes?
There is more hope for a fool than for them.
Insight
The Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon) is Hebrew poetry that uses a variety of poetic devices. In Proverbs 26, metaphors and analogies are used. The foolish person is compared to weather that’s inappropriate for the season (v. 1), an animal that needs to be constrained (v. 3), a useless leg (v. 7), and a powerless sling (v. 8). These comparisons warn about the self-destructive nature of foolish choices. By: Bill Crowder
Don’t Feed the Trolls
Make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace. Colossians 4:5–6
Ever heard the expression, “Don’t feed the trolls”? “Trolls” refers to a new problem in today’s digital world—online users who repeatedly post intentionally inflammatory and hurtful comments on news or social media discussion boards. But ignoring such comments—not “feeding” the trolls—makes it harder for them to derail a conversation.
Of course, it’s nothing new to encounter people who aren’t genuinely interested in productive conversation. “Don’t feed the trolls” could almost be a modern equivalent of Proverbs 26:4, which warns that arguing with an arrogant, unreceptive person risks stooping to their level.
And yet . . . even the most seemingly stubborn person is also a priceless image-bearer of God. If we’re quick to dismiss others, we may be the ones in danger of being arrogant and becoming unreceptive to God’s grace (see Matthew 5:22).
That might, in part, explain why Proverbs 26:5 offers the exact opposite guideline. Because it takes humble, prayerful dependence on God to discern how best to show others love in each situation (see Colossians 4:5–6). Sometimes we speak up; other times, it’s best to be silent.
May we find peace in knowing that the same God who drew us near while we were still in hardened opposition to Him (Romans 5:6) is powerfully at work in each person’s heart. By: Monica Brands
Reflect & Pray
How have you witnessed very different approaches being used by God to touch others? How can you better speak the truth in love?
Loving God, help me share Your love with others around me.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, September 16, 2019
Praying to God in Secret
When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place… —Matthew 6:6
The primary thought in the area of religion is— keep your eyes on God, not on people. Your motivation should not be the desire to be known as a praying person. Find an inner room in which to pray where no one even knows you are praying, shut the door, and talk to God in secret. Have no motivation other than to know your Father in heaven. It is impossible to carry on your life as a disciple without definite times of secret prayer.
“When you pray, do not use vain repetitions…” (Matthew 6:7). God does not hear us because we pray earnestly— He hears us solely on the basis of redemption. God is never impressed by our earnestness. Prayer is not simply getting things from God— that is only the most elementary kind of prayer. Prayer is coming into perfect fellowship and oneness with God. If the Son of God has been formed in us through regeneration (see Galatians 4:19), then He will continue to press on beyond our common sense and will change our attitude about the things for which we pray.
“Everyone who asks receives…” (Matthew 7:8). We pray religious nonsense without even involving our will, and then we say that God did not answer— but in reality we have never asked for anything. Jesus said, “…you will ask what you desire…” (John 15:7). Asking means that our will must be involved. Whenever Jesus talked about prayer, He spoke with wonderful childlike simplicity. Then we respond with our critical attitude, saying, “Yes, but even Jesus said that we must ask.” But remember that we have to ask things of God that are in keeping with the God whom Jesus Christ revealed.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Beware of bartering the Word of God for a more suitable conception of your own. Disciples Indeed, 386 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, September 16, 2019
The Days of The King - #8526
The battles were horrendous. The casualties were many. But the outcome changed everything. That's a very quick summary of the final episode of J. R. R. Tolkien's classic trilogy, Lord of the Rings. That trilogy actually jumped off of dusty bookshelves and into the popular culture with their portrayal in three very successful movies. In the story, Tolkien weaves a tale of a world called Middle Earth where these soulless, subhuman beings are attempting to stamp out what they call the "Age of Humans." Finally, in the concluding "Return of the King," Middle Earth's rightful king, Aragorn, leads the humans in one last, all-out attempt to turn back the forces of evil. After many costly battles, there's this glorious coronation day for the triumphant king. As the crown is placed on the head of the rightful ruler before this jubilant crowd of his subjects, they know the dark days are over. And the one who crowned him makes this hopeful announcement, "Now begin the days of the King!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Days of The King."
It might be time for that announcement in your life - that the rightful King is finally on the throne. Because up until now, you've been there making the calls, running things your way, giving Jesus time and maybe even money, but not the throne.
In Tolkien's Return of the King, there was a man who was supposed to be the caretaker of the throne until the rightful ruler takes his place there. But when it comes time for the king to take the throne, the caretaker refuses to let go of it. He has to be forcibly and violently overthrown. Don't wait for that to happen to you. Jesus is the King of all kings. He is the Lord of all lords. What are you doing holding onto the throne of your life where He is supposed to reign supreme?
Our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Peter 3:15 reveals this straightforward command: "In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord." Notice it says, "in your heart." A lot of people are willing to let Christ be Lord in their head. He's like the honorary chairman of their life, but they're still doing what they want to do, deciding which things Jesus can run and which things they'll not let Him run. Jesus rips the mask off of that charade with His penetrating question in Luke 6:46, "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?"
Lord in your head, Lord in your theology, Lord in your vocabulary...that's not what Lord means! "Lord" is the one who is running things, and could the reality be that you are the real "Lord" of much of your life? Then you're a rebel against the only rightful King - no matter how religiously you dress up your rebellion.
Western Christianity honestly is often a compartmentalized faith: where you have this beautiful Jesus compartment in your life where you pray, you go to His meetings, you read His book, you do His work. But then there are all the other compartments: how you treat people, how you spend your money, what you do on a date, what you watch, what you listen to, how you run your business, your social life, your finances. Wait a minute! What are you doing running all that anyway? Jesus paid everything He had for your life. He's not interested in just occupying a compartment! He paid the whole price; He should have the whole thing!
The original word for "Lord" literally means "the controller." Honestly now, who's the controller in your life? If it's not Jesus, then a rebel is on the throne - His throne. And things will never be right in your life so long as you are on the throne. Today this could be one of the most liberating, most decisive days of your life, if you would make this Coronation Day for the One who is the nail-scarred, death-conquering, rightful King of you. Find a place where you can bow before King Jesus today and surrender it all to Him, where you can relinquish a throne that has cost you all ready so much to occupy.
If you've never begun your relationship with Him, putting your trust in what he did on the cross for you, tell him today, "Jesus, it's all you beginning today." Go to our website, get the information you need to secure that relationship. It's ANewStory.com.
Today could begin the days of the King!
Sunday, September 15, 2019
2 Kings 22, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Scripture Memory - Week 1
Welcome to the first week of a special Glory Days Scripture Memory Challenge.
In Joshua Chapter 1 God said to Joshua, "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth. . .meditate on it. . .observe to do all that's written in it. . ."
We all have battles to fight and strongholds to face. How do we fight these? By hiding the Word of God deep in our hearts. Start by memorizing Joshua 1:9: "Have I not commanded you to be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."
Go to GloryDaysToday.com-and I'll show you a simple way to memorize this week's verse. And as you commit this verse to memory, remember God has given you power and he is with you wherever you go!
Verses to remember.
2 Kings 22
Josiah was eight years old when he became king. He ruled for thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah; she was from Bozkath. He lived the way God wanted. He kept straight on the path blazed by his ancestor David, not one step to either left or right.
3-7 One day in the eighteenth year of his kingship, King Josiah sent the royal secretary Shaphan son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, to The Temple of God with instructions: “Go to Hilkiah the high priest and have him count the money that has been brought to The Temple of God that the doormen have collected from the people. Have them turn it over to the foremen who are managing the work on The Temple of God so they can pay the workers who are repairing God’s Temple, all the carpenters, construction workers, and masons. Also, authorize them to buy the lumber and dressed stone for The Temple repairs. You don’t need to get a receipt for the money you give them—they’re all honest men.”
8 The high priest Hilkiah reported to Shaphan the royal secretary, “I’ve just found the Book of God’s Revelation, instructing us in God’s ways. I found it in The Temple!” He gave it to Shaphan and Shaphan read it.
9 Then Shaphan the royal secretary came back to the king and gave him an account of what had gone on: “Your servants have bagged up the money that has been collected for The Temple; they have given it to the foremen to pay The Temple workers.”
10 Then Shaphan the royal secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest gave me a book.” Shaphan proceeded to read it to the king.
11-13 When the king heard what was written in the book, God’s Revelation, he ripped his robes in dismay. And then he called for Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Acbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the royal secretary, and Asaiah the king’s personal aide. He ordered them all: “Go and pray to God for me and for this people—for all Judah! Find out what we must do in response to what is written in this book that has just been found! God’s anger must be burning furiously against us—our ancestors haven’t obeyed a thing written in this book, followed none of the instructions directed to us.”
14-17 Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Acbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went straight to Huldah the prophetess. She was the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, who was in charge of the palace wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter. The five men consulted with her. In response to them she said, “God’s word, the God of Israel: Tell the man who sent you here that I’m on my way to bring the doom of judgment on this place and this people. Every word written in the book read by the king of Judah will happen. And why? Because they’ve deserted me and taken up with other gods, made me thoroughly angry by setting up their god-making businesses. My anger is raging white-hot against this place and nobody is going to put it out.
18-20 “And also tell the king of Judah, since he sent you to ask God for direction; tell him this, God’s comment on what he read in the book: ‘Because you took seriously the doom of judgment I spoke against this place and people, and because you responded in humble repentance, tearing your robe in dismay and weeping before me, I’m taking you seriously. God’s word: I’ll take care of you. You’ll have a quiet death and be buried in peace. You won’t be around to see the doom that I’m going to bring upon this place.’”
The men took her message back to the king.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, September 15, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Ephesians 4:1–6
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Insight
Paul and his team planted the church at Ephesus during his second missionary journey (Acts 18:19). He returned during his third journey, spending three years there growing the faith of the young believers in Jesus (19:1–41; 20:31). We read of the apostle’s final direct engagement with the Ephesians in Acts 20:17–38. As he was traveling to Jerusalem at the conclusion of his third missionary journey, Paul stopped at the port city of Miletus in western Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) and called for the Ephesian elders so he could invest in the congregation there one final time. Paul wrote the letter to the Ephesians some years later while he was under house arrest in Rome, awaiting his hearing before Caesar (28:30). Combined together, these points of contact reveal a deeper investment and relationship of Paul with the Ephesians than any of the other churches he served.
To learn more about Paul’s interaction with the Ephesian believers, visit christianuniversity.org/NT334-03.
Unity
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:3
In 1722 a small group of Moravian Christians, who lived in what is now the Czech Republic, found refuge from persecution on the estate of a generous German count. Within four years, more than 300 people came. But instead of an ideal community for persecuted refugees, the settlement became filled with discord. Different perspectives on Christianity brought division. What they did next may seem like a small choice, but it launched an incredible revival: They began to focus on what they agreed on rather than on what they disagreed on. The result was unity.
The apostle Paul strongly encouraged the believers in the church in Ephesus to live in unity. Sin would always bring trouble, selfish desires, and conflict in relationships. But as those who were made “alive with Christ” the Ephesians were called to live out their new identity in practical ways (Ephesians 5:2). Primarily, they were to “make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (4:3).
This unity isn’t just simple camaraderie achieved through human strength. We are to “be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love” (v. 2). From a human perspective, it’s impossible to act in this way. We can’t reach unity through our own power but through God’s perfect power “that is at work within us” (3:20). By: Estera Pirosca Escobar
Reflect & Pray
How are you experiencing division or unity in your community of faith? What efforts can you make in God’s strength to keep the unity of the Spirit?
Father, You who are over all and through all and in all, live among us in such a way that unity will be present.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, September 15, 2019
What To Renounce
We have renounced the hidden things of shame… —2 Corinthians 4:2
Have you “renounced the hidden things of shame” in your life— the things that your sense of honor or pride will not allow to come into the light? You can easily hide them. Is there a thought in your heart about anyone that you would not like to be brought into the light? Then renounce it as soon as it comes to mind— renounce everything in its entirety until there is no hidden dishonesty or craftiness about you at all. Envy, jealousy, and strife don’t necessarily arise from your old nature of sin, but from the flesh which was used for these kinds of things in the past (see Romans 6:19 and 1 Peter 4:1-3). You must maintain continual watchfulness so that nothing arises in your life that would cause you shame.
“…not walking in craftiness…” (2 Corinthians 4:2). This means not resorting to something simply to make your own point. This is a terrible trap. You know that God will allow you to work in only one way— the way of truth. Then be careful never to catch people through the other way— the way of deceit. If you act deceitfully, God’s blight and ruin will be upon you. What may be craftiness for you, may not be for others— God has called you to a higher standard. Never dull your sense of being your utmost for His highest— your best for His glory. For you, doing certain things would mean craftiness coming into your life for a purpose other than what is the highest and best, and it would dull the motivation that God has given you. Many people have turned back because they are afraid to look at things from God’s perspective. The greatest spiritual crisis comes when a person has to move a little farther on in his faith than the beliefs he has already accepted.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
A fanatic is one who entrenches himself in invincible ignorance. Baffled to Fight Better, 59 R
Welcome to the first week of a special Glory Days Scripture Memory Challenge.
In Joshua Chapter 1 God said to Joshua, "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth. . .meditate on it. . .observe to do all that's written in it. . ."
We all have battles to fight and strongholds to face. How do we fight these? By hiding the Word of God deep in our hearts. Start by memorizing Joshua 1:9: "Have I not commanded you to be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."
Go to GloryDaysToday.com-and I'll show you a simple way to memorize this week's verse. And as you commit this verse to memory, remember God has given you power and he is with you wherever you go!
Verses to remember.
Joshua 1:9Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."2 Timothy 3:16-17 New International Version (NIV)16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.Joshua 21:43-45 New International Version (NIV)43 So the Lord gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their ancestors, and they took possession of it and settled there. 44 The Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their ancestors. Not one of their enemies withstood them; the Lord gave all their enemies into their hands. 45 Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.
2 Kings 22
Josiah was eight years old when he became king. He ruled for thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah; she was from Bozkath. He lived the way God wanted. He kept straight on the path blazed by his ancestor David, not one step to either left or right.
3-7 One day in the eighteenth year of his kingship, King Josiah sent the royal secretary Shaphan son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, to The Temple of God with instructions: “Go to Hilkiah the high priest and have him count the money that has been brought to The Temple of God that the doormen have collected from the people. Have them turn it over to the foremen who are managing the work on The Temple of God so they can pay the workers who are repairing God’s Temple, all the carpenters, construction workers, and masons. Also, authorize them to buy the lumber and dressed stone for The Temple repairs. You don’t need to get a receipt for the money you give them—they’re all honest men.”
8 The high priest Hilkiah reported to Shaphan the royal secretary, “I’ve just found the Book of God’s Revelation, instructing us in God’s ways. I found it in The Temple!” He gave it to Shaphan and Shaphan read it.
9 Then Shaphan the royal secretary came back to the king and gave him an account of what had gone on: “Your servants have bagged up the money that has been collected for The Temple; they have given it to the foremen to pay The Temple workers.”
10 Then Shaphan the royal secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest gave me a book.” Shaphan proceeded to read it to the king.
11-13 When the king heard what was written in the book, God’s Revelation, he ripped his robes in dismay. And then he called for Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Acbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the royal secretary, and Asaiah the king’s personal aide. He ordered them all: “Go and pray to God for me and for this people—for all Judah! Find out what we must do in response to what is written in this book that has just been found! God’s anger must be burning furiously against us—our ancestors haven’t obeyed a thing written in this book, followed none of the instructions directed to us.”
14-17 Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Acbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went straight to Huldah the prophetess. She was the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, who was in charge of the palace wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter. The five men consulted with her. In response to them she said, “God’s word, the God of Israel: Tell the man who sent you here that I’m on my way to bring the doom of judgment on this place and this people. Every word written in the book read by the king of Judah will happen. And why? Because they’ve deserted me and taken up with other gods, made me thoroughly angry by setting up their god-making businesses. My anger is raging white-hot against this place and nobody is going to put it out.
18-20 “And also tell the king of Judah, since he sent you to ask God for direction; tell him this, God’s comment on what he read in the book: ‘Because you took seriously the doom of judgment I spoke against this place and people, and because you responded in humble repentance, tearing your robe in dismay and weeping before me, I’m taking you seriously. God’s word: I’ll take care of you. You’ll have a quiet death and be buried in peace. You won’t be around to see the doom that I’m going to bring upon this place.’”
The men took her message back to the king.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, September 15, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Ephesians 4:1–6
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Insight
Paul and his team planted the church at Ephesus during his second missionary journey (Acts 18:19). He returned during his third journey, spending three years there growing the faith of the young believers in Jesus (19:1–41; 20:31). We read of the apostle’s final direct engagement with the Ephesians in Acts 20:17–38. As he was traveling to Jerusalem at the conclusion of his third missionary journey, Paul stopped at the port city of Miletus in western Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) and called for the Ephesian elders so he could invest in the congregation there one final time. Paul wrote the letter to the Ephesians some years later while he was under house arrest in Rome, awaiting his hearing before Caesar (28:30). Combined together, these points of contact reveal a deeper investment and relationship of Paul with the Ephesians than any of the other churches he served.
To learn more about Paul’s interaction with the Ephesian believers, visit christianuniversity.org/NT334-03.
Unity
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:3
In 1722 a small group of Moravian Christians, who lived in what is now the Czech Republic, found refuge from persecution on the estate of a generous German count. Within four years, more than 300 people came. But instead of an ideal community for persecuted refugees, the settlement became filled with discord. Different perspectives on Christianity brought division. What they did next may seem like a small choice, but it launched an incredible revival: They began to focus on what they agreed on rather than on what they disagreed on. The result was unity.
The apostle Paul strongly encouraged the believers in the church in Ephesus to live in unity. Sin would always bring trouble, selfish desires, and conflict in relationships. But as those who were made “alive with Christ” the Ephesians were called to live out their new identity in practical ways (Ephesians 5:2). Primarily, they were to “make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (4:3).
This unity isn’t just simple camaraderie achieved through human strength. We are to “be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love” (v. 2). From a human perspective, it’s impossible to act in this way. We can’t reach unity through our own power but through God’s perfect power “that is at work within us” (3:20). By: Estera Pirosca Escobar
Reflect & Pray
How are you experiencing division or unity in your community of faith? What efforts can you make in God’s strength to keep the unity of the Spirit?
Father, You who are over all and through all and in all, live among us in such a way that unity will be present.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, September 15, 2019
What To Renounce
We have renounced the hidden things of shame… —2 Corinthians 4:2
Have you “renounced the hidden things of shame” in your life— the things that your sense of honor or pride will not allow to come into the light? You can easily hide them. Is there a thought in your heart about anyone that you would not like to be brought into the light? Then renounce it as soon as it comes to mind— renounce everything in its entirety until there is no hidden dishonesty or craftiness about you at all. Envy, jealousy, and strife don’t necessarily arise from your old nature of sin, but from the flesh which was used for these kinds of things in the past (see Romans 6:19 and 1 Peter 4:1-3). You must maintain continual watchfulness so that nothing arises in your life that would cause you shame.
“…not walking in craftiness…” (2 Corinthians 4:2). This means not resorting to something simply to make your own point. This is a terrible trap. You know that God will allow you to work in only one way— the way of truth. Then be careful never to catch people through the other way— the way of deceit. If you act deceitfully, God’s blight and ruin will be upon you. What may be craftiness for you, may not be for others— God has called you to a higher standard. Never dull your sense of being your utmost for His highest— your best for His glory. For you, doing certain things would mean craftiness coming into your life for a purpose other than what is the highest and best, and it would dull the motivation that God has given you. Many people have turned back because they are afraid to look at things from God’s perspective. The greatest spiritual crisis comes when a person has to move a little farther on in his faith than the beliefs he has already accepted.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
A fanatic is one who entrenches himself in invincible ignorance. Baffled to Fight Better, 59 R
Saturday, September 14, 2019
Galatians 5, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: An Invitation
In Joshua Chapter 1 God said, "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth; but you shall meditate on it day and night that you may observe to do all that is written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous, and you will have good success."
God's word to Joshua is God's word to us! I invite you to join me at GloryDaysToday.com for a 4-week journey in a Glory Days Scripture Memorization Challenge to memorize a verse a week.
Start with Joshua 1:9- the reminder that God has given you power. Then 2 Timothy 3:16-17- Scripture is a weapon useful in all situations. John 1:12- a reminder to inherit your inheritance. And then Joshua 21:43-45- the reminder that God fights for you, in the power of God's Word, to face down every stronghold that stands against us!
From Glory Days
Galatians 5
Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.
2-3 I am emphatic about this. The moment any one of you submits to circumcision or any other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ’s hard-won gift of freedom is squandered. I repeat my warning: The person who accepts the ways of circumcision trades all the advantages of the free life in Christ for the obligations of the slave life of the law.
4-6 I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love.
7-10 You were running superbly! Who cut in on you, deflecting you from the true course of obedience? This detour doesn’t come from the One who called you into the race in the first place. And please don’t toss this off as insignificant. It only takes a minute amount of yeast, you know, to permeate an entire loaf of bread. Deep down, the Master has given me confidence that you will not defect. But the one who is upsetting you, whoever he is, will bear the divine judgment.
11-12 As for the rumor that I continue to preach the ways of circumcision (as I did in those pre-Damascus Road days), that is absurd. Why would I still be persecuted, then? If I were preaching that old message, no one would be offended if I mentioned the Cross now and then—it would be so watered-down it wouldn’t matter one way or the other. Why don’t these agitators, obsessive as they are about circumcision, go all the way and castrate themselves!
13-15 It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?
16-18 My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?
19-21 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.
This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.
22-23 But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.
23-24 Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified.
25-26 Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, September 14, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
John 12:37–43
Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. 38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet:
“Lord, who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”[a]
39 For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:
40 “He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their hearts,
so they can neither see with their eyes,
nor understand with their hearts,
nor turn—and I would heal them.”[b]
41 Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.
42 Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved human praise more than praise from God.
Footnotes:
John 12:38 Isaiah 53:1
John 12:40 Isaiah 6:10
Insight
When John (12:38–40) quotes Isaiah 53:1 and 6:10, it might appear that he’s blaming God for pre-determining widespread unbelief in Jesus. But when we read both Isaiah and John in context, we see that God decided ahead of time to give His people the freedom to have their own way so that He could show them how far He would go to rescue them from themselves.
John described religious leaders who, for their own political and religious reasons, were afraid to believe in Jesus (John 11:45–53; 12:42–43). Isaiah—a prophet living six centuries before Christ—wrote about a King who would eventually show up in the story and glory of Jesus (Isaiah 6:1–10; John 12:41) and in the God-given freedom of those who refused to believe in Him. Without divine revelation, they couldn’t and wouldn’t believe Christ was their Messiah.
Whatever the Cost
They would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear. John 12:42
The film Paul, Apostle of Christ takes an unflinching look at persecution in the early days of the church. Even the movie’s minor characters reveal how dangerous it was to follow Jesus. Consider these roles listed in the credits: Beaten Woman; Beaten Man; Christian Victims 1, 2, and 3.
Identifying with Christ often came at a high cost. And in much of the world, it’s still dangerous to follow Jesus. Many in the church today can relate to that kind of persecution. Some of us, however, may feel “persecuted” prematurely—outraged any time our faith is mocked or we suspect we were passed over for a promotion because of our beliefs.
Obviously, there’s a colossal difference between sacrificing social status and sacrificing our lives. Realistically, though, self-interest, financial stability, and social acceptance have always been intense human motivators. We see this in the actions of some of Jesus’s earliest converts. The apostle John reports that, mere days before Jesus’s crucifixion, although most Israelites were still rejecting Him (John 12:37), many “even among the leaders believed” (v. 42). However, “They would not openly acknowledge their faith . . . for they loved human praise more than praise from God” (vv. 42–43).
Today we still face societal pressures (and worse) to keep our faith in Christ hidden. Whatever the cost, let’s stand together as a people who seek God’s approval more than human praise. By: Tim Gustafson
Reflect & Pray
We might be tempted to judge the early believers who hid their faith, but are we any different? Are there times we choose to be quiet so we can hide our identification with Jesus?
Jesus, I want to be a close friend of Yours.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, September 14, 2019
Arguments or Obedience
…the simplicity that is in Christ. —2 Corinthians 11:3
Simplicity is the secret to seeing things clearly. A saint does not think clearly until a long time passes, but a saint ought to see clearly without any difficulty. You cannot think through spiritual confusion to make things clear; to make things clear, you must obey. In intellectual matters you can think things out, but in spiritual matters you will only think yourself into further wandering thoughts and more confusion. If there is something in your life upon which God has put His pressure, then obey Him in that matter. Bring all your “arguments and…every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” regarding the matter, and everything will become as clear as daylight to you (2 Corinthians 10:5). Your reasoning capacity will come later, but reasoning is not how we see. We see like children, and when we try to be wise we see nothing (see Matthew 11:25).
Even the very smallest thing that we allow in our lives that is not under the control of the Holy Spirit is completely sufficient to account for spiritual confusion, and spending all of our time thinking about it will still never make it clear. Spiritual confusion can only be conquered through obedience. As soon as we obey, we have discernment. This is humiliating, because when we are confused we know that the reason lies in the state of our mind. But when our natural power of sight is devoted and submitted in obedience to the Holy Spirit, it becomes the very power by which we perceive God’s will, and our entire life is kept in simplicity.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We can understand the attributes of God in other ways, but we can only understand the Father’s heart in the Cross of Christ. The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption, 558 L
In Joshua Chapter 1 God said, "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth; but you shall meditate on it day and night that you may observe to do all that is written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous, and you will have good success."
God's word to Joshua is God's word to us! I invite you to join me at GloryDaysToday.com for a 4-week journey in a Glory Days Scripture Memorization Challenge to memorize a verse a week.
Start with Joshua 1:9- the reminder that God has given you power. Then 2 Timothy 3:16-17- Scripture is a weapon useful in all situations. John 1:12- a reminder to inherit your inheritance. And then Joshua 21:43-45- the reminder that God fights for you, in the power of God's Word, to face down every stronghold that stands against us!
From Glory Days
Galatians 5
Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.
2-3 I am emphatic about this. The moment any one of you submits to circumcision or any other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ’s hard-won gift of freedom is squandered. I repeat my warning: The person who accepts the ways of circumcision trades all the advantages of the free life in Christ for the obligations of the slave life of the law.
4-6 I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love.
7-10 You were running superbly! Who cut in on you, deflecting you from the true course of obedience? This detour doesn’t come from the One who called you into the race in the first place. And please don’t toss this off as insignificant. It only takes a minute amount of yeast, you know, to permeate an entire loaf of bread. Deep down, the Master has given me confidence that you will not defect. But the one who is upsetting you, whoever he is, will bear the divine judgment.
11-12 As for the rumor that I continue to preach the ways of circumcision (as I did in those pre-Damascus Road days), that is absurd. Why would I still be persecuted, then? If I were preaching that old message, no one would be offended if I mentioned the Cross now and then—it would be so watered-down it wouldn’t matter one way or the other. Why don’t these agitators, obsessive as they are about circumcision, go all the way and castrate themselves!
13-15 It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?
16-18 My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?
19-21 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.
This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.
22-23 But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.
23-24 Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified.
25-26 Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, September 14, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
John 12:37–43
Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. 38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet:
“Lord, who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”[a]
39 For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:
40 “He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their hearts,
so they can neither see with their eyes,
nor understand with their hearts,
nor turn—and I would heal them.”[b]
41 Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.
42 Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved human praise more than praise from God.
Footnotes:
John 12:38 Isaiah 53:1
John 12:40 Isaiah 6:10
Insight
When John (12:38–40) quotes Isaiah 53:1 and 6:10, it might appear that he’s blaming God for pre-determining widespread unbelief in Jesus. But when we read both Isaiah and John in context, we see that God decided ahead of time to give His people the freedom to have their own way so that He could show them how far He would go to rescue them from themselves.
John described religious leaders who, for their own political and religious reasons, were afraid to believe in Jesus (John 11:45–53; 12:42–43). Isaiah—a prophet living six centuries before Christ—wrote about a King who would eventually show up in the story and glory of Jesus (Isaiah 6:1–10; John 12:41) and in the God-given freedom of those who refused to believe in Him. Without divine revelation, they couldn’t and wouldn’t believe Christ was their Messiah.
Whatever the Cost
They would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear. John 12:42
The film Paul, Apostle of Christ takes an unflinching look at persecution in the early days of the church. Even the movie’s minor characters reveal how dangerous it was to follow Jesus. Consider these roles listed in the credits: Beaten Woman; Beaten Man; Christian Victims 1, 2, and 3.
Identifying with Christ often came at a high cost. And in much of the world, it’s still dangerous to follow Jesus. Many in the church today can relate to that kind of persecution. Some of us, however, may feel “persecuted” prematurely—outraged any time our faith is mocked or we suspect we were passed over for a promotion because of our beliefs.
Obviously, there’s a colossal difference between sacrificing social status and sacrificing our lives. Realistically, though, self-interest, financial stability, and social acceptance have always been intense human motivators. We see this in the actions of some of Jesus’s earliest converts. The apostle John reports that, mere days before Jesus’s crucifixion, although most Israelites were still rejecting Him (John 12:37), many “even among the leaders believed” (v. 42). However, “They would not openly acknowledge their faith . . . for they loved human praise more than praise from God” (vv. 42–43).
Today we still face societal pressures (and worse) to keep our faith in Christ hidden. Whatever the cost, let’s stand together as a people who seek God’s approval more than human praise. By: Tim Gustafson
Reflect & Pray
We might be tempted to judge the early believers who hid their faith, but are we any different? Are there times we choose to be quiet so we can hide our identification with Jesus?
Jesus, I want to be a close friend of Yours.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, September 14, 2019
Arguments or Obedience
…the simplicity that is in Christ. —2 Corinthians 11:3
Simplicity is the secret to seeing things clearly. A saint does not think clearly until a long time passes, but a saint ought to see clearly without any difficulty. You cannot think through spiritual confusion to make things clear; to make things clear, you must obey. In intellectual matters you can think things out, but in spiritual matters you will only think yourself into further wandering thoughts and more confusion. If there is something in your life upon which God has put His pressure, then obey Him in that matter. Bring all your “arguments and…every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” regarding the matter, and everything will become as clear as daylight to you (2 Corinthians 10:5). Your reasoning capacity will come later, but reasoning is not how we see. We see like children, and when we try to be wise we see nothing (see Matthew 11:25).
Even the very smallest thing that we allow in our lives that is not under the control of the Holy Spirit is completely sufficient to account for spiritual confusion, and spending all of our time thinking about it will still never make it clear. Spiritual confusion can only be conquered through obedience. As soon as we obey, we have discernment. This is humiliating, because when we are confused we know that the reason lies in the state of our mind. But when our natural power of sight is devoted and submitted in obedience to the Holy Spirit, it becomes the very power by which we perceive God’s will, and our entire life is kept in simplicity.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We can understand the attributes of God in other ways, but we can only understand the Father’s heart in the Cross of Christ. The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption, 558 L
Friday, September 13, 2019
2 Kings 21, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: THE MICHELANGELO IMPACT
Three years into my role as senior minister of our church, a former senior minister returned to live in our city and serve on our staff. Charles Prince was thirty years my senior, Harvard educated, and a member of the Mensa society. I was in my thirties, a rookie, and a charter member of the Dense Society. Charles said, “There will be no tension in our relationship. I’m going to be your biggest cheerleader.” And he was— for twenty-five years, until the day he died!
Intentional encouragement has a Michelangelo impact on people. The sculptor saw the figure of David within the marble and carved it out. The encourager does the same. He sees your best self and calls it out, not with a chisel, but with words of affirmation. That is how happiness happens!
2 Kings 21
Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king. He ruled for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. In God’s judgment he was a bad king—an evil king. He reintroduced all the moral rot and spiritual corruption that had been scoured from the country when God dispossessed the pagan nations in favor of the children of Israel. He rebuilt all the sex-and-religion shrines that his father Hezekiah had torn down, and he built altars and phallic images for the sex god Baal and sex goddess Asherah, exactly what Ahaz king of Israel had done. He worshiped the cosmic powers, taking orders from the constellations. He even built these pagan altars in The Temple of God, the very Jerusalem Temple dedicated exclusively by God’s decree (“in Jerusalem I place my Name”) to God’s Name. And he built shrines to the cosmic powers and placed them in both courtyards of The Temple of God. He burned his own son in a sacrificial offering. He practiced black magic and fortunetelling. He held séances and consulted spirits from the underworld. Much evil—in God’s judgment, a career in evil. And God was angry.
7-8 As a last straw he placed the carved image of the sex goddess Asherah in The Temple of God, a flagrant and provocative violation of God’s well-known statement to both David and Solomon, “In this Temple and in this city Jerusalem, my choice out of all the tribes of Israel, I place my Name—exclusively and forever. Never again will I let my people Israel wander off from this land I gave to their ancestors. But here’s the condition: They must keep everything I’ve commanded in the instructions my servant Moses passed on to them.”
9 But the people didn’t listen. Manasseh led them off the beaten path into practices of evil even exceeding the evil of the pagan nations that God had earlier destroyed.
10-12 God, thoroughly fed up, sent word through his servants the prophets: “Because Manasseh king of Judah has committed these outrageous sins, eclipsing the sin-performance of the Amorites before him, setting new records in evil, using foul idols to debase Judah into a nation of sinners, this is my judgment, God’s verdict: I, the God of Israel, will visit catastrophe on Jerusalem and Judah, a doom so terrible that when people hear of it they’ll shake their heads in disbelief, saying, ‘I can’t believe it!’
13-15 “I’ll visit the fate of Samaria on Jerusalem, a rerun of Ahab’s doom. I’ll wipe out Jerusalem as you would wipe out a dish, wiping it out and turning it over to dry. I’ll get rid of what’s left of my inheritance, dumping them on their enemies. If their enemies can salvage anything from them, they’re welcome to it. They’ve been nothing but trouble to me from the day their ancestors left Egypt until now. They pushed me to my limit; I won’t put up with their evil any longer.”
16 The final word on Manasseh was that he was an indiscriminate murderer. He drenched Jerusalem with the innocent blood of his victims. That’s on top of all the sins in which he involved his people. As far as God was concerned, he’d turned them into a nation of sinners.
17-18 The rest of the life and times of Manasseh, everything he did and his sorry record of sin, is written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. Manasseh died and joined his ancestors. He was buried in the palace garden, the Garden of Uzza. His son Amon became the next king.
19-22 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king. He was king for two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz. She was from Jotbah. In God’s opinion he lived an evil life, just like his father Manasseh. He followed in the footsteps of his father, serving and worshiping the same foul gods his father had served. He totally deserted the God of his ancestors; he did not live God’s way.
23-24 Amon’s servants revolted and assassinated him, killing the king right in his own palace. But the people, in their turn, killed the conspirators against King Amon and then crowned Josiah, Amon’s son, as king.
25-26 The rest of the life and times of Amon is written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. They buried Amon in his burial plot in the Garden of Uzza. His son Josiah became the next king.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, September 13, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Proverbs 16:1–9
To humans belong the plans of the heart,
but from the Lord comes the proper answer of the tongue.
2 All a person’s ways seem pure to them,
but motives are weighed by the Lord.
3 Commit to the Lord whatever you do,
and he will establish your plans.
4 The Lord works out everything to its proper end—
even the wicked for a day of disaster.
5 The Lord detests all the proud of heart.
Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.
6 Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for;
through the fear of the Lord evil is avoided.
7 When the Lord takes pleasure in anyone’s way,
he causes their enemies to make peace with them.
8 Better a little with righteousness
than much gain with injustice.
9 In their hearts humans plan their course,
but the Lord establishes their steps.
Insight
The book of Proverbs stresses honoring God in whatever we do. One phrase that parallels this sentiment is “the fear of the Lord” (16:6), which speaks of profound reverence and respect for God. Such awe, honor, and deference should be reserved uniquely for Him as Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer, and Lord over all. The personal and corporate value of possessing this essential quality is noted throughout the Proverbs. The fear of the Lord is foundational for wise living (1:7; 9:10); it’s something that can be chosen (1:29); possessing it prolongs one’s life (10:27); and its value is greater than material wealth (15:16). Those who are guided by the fear of the Lord protect themselves from evil (16:6; 19:23) and have everything they need (10:3).
Whatever We Do
Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans. Proverbs 16:3
In Surprised by Joy, C. S. Lewis confessed he came to Christianity at the age of thirty-three, “kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance to escape.” Despite Lewis’s own personal resistance, his shortcomings, and the obstacles he faced, the Lord transformed him into a courageous and creative defender of the faith. Lewis proclaimed God’s truth and love through writing powerful essays and novels that are still being read, studied, and shared more than fifty-five years after his death. His life reflected his belief that a person is “never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream.”
As we make plans and follow dreams, God can purify our motives and empower us to devote whatever we do to Him (Proverbs 16:1–3). From the most ordinary tasks to the greatest challenges, we can live for the glory of our almighty Maker, who “works out everything to its proper end” (v. 4). Every action, every word, and every thought can become an expression of heartfelt worship, a sacrificial gift to honor our Lord, as He watches over us (v. 7).
God can’t be limited by our limitations, our reservations, or our tendencies to settle or dream small. As we choose to live for Him—dedicated to and dependent on Him—He will bring about His plans for us. Whatever we do can be done with Him, for Him, and only because of Him. By: Xochitl Dixon
Reflect & Pray
How can Proverbs 16:3 help you be more confident in the use of your gifts? What steps can you take to honor God as you follow a dream He’s placed on your heart?
God, thank You for reminding us that no jobs are too small and no dreams are too big in Your great kingdom.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, September 13, 2019
After Surrender— Then What?
I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. —John 17:4
True surrender is not simply surrender of our external life but surrender of our will— and once that is done, surrender is complete. The greatest crisis we ever face is the surrender of our will. Yet God never forces a person’s will into surrender, and He never begs. He patiently waits until that person willingly yields to Him. And once that battle has been fought, it never needs to be fought again.
Surrender for Deliverance. “Come to Me…and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). It is only after we have begun to experience what salvation really means that we surrender our will to Jesus for rest. Whatever is causing us a sense of uncertainty is actually a call to our will— “Come to Me.” And it is a voluntary coming.
Surrender for Devotion. “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself…” (Matthew 16:24). The surrender here is of my self to Jesus, with His rest at the heart of my being. He says, “If you want to be My disciple, you must give up your right to yourself to Me.” And once this is done, the remainder of your life will exhibit nothing but the evidence of this surrender, and you never need to be concerned again with what the future may hold for you. Whatever your circumstances may be, Jesus is totally sufficient (see 2 Corinthians 12:9 and Philippians 4:19).
Surrender for Death. “…another will gird you…” (John 21:18; also see John 21:19). Have you learned what it means to be girded for death? Beware of some surrender that you make to God in an ecstatic moment in your life, because you are apt to take it back again. True surrender is a matter of being “united together [with Jesus] in the likeness of His death” (Romans 6:5) until nothing ever appeals to you that did not appeal to Him.
And after you surrender— then what? Your entire life should be characterized by an eagerness to maintain unbroken fellowship and oneness with God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Always keep in contact with those books and those people that enlarge your horizon and make it possible for you to stretch yourself mentally. The Moral Foundations of Life, 721 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, September 13, 2019
The Very Best Day...When Your Debt Goes Away! - #8525
Oh there's always lots of commencement speeches come about May and June. Most of them, pretty predictable. "Live up to your potential." "Follow your dreams." "The sky's the limit." But maybe there's never been a commencement speech like the one at Morehouse College recently. Billionaire businessman Robert Smith set 396 graduates free in one day.
He was reflecting on the long history of an African-American family, and then he announced that "on behalf of the eight generations of my family who have been in this country, we're going to put a little fuel in your bus." More like rocket fuel! In one breathtaking moment, he suddenly announced that his family was creating a grant that would pay the student loans of every graduate! What a moment! The dreaded debt just beyond the degree - suddenly gone!
In the case of one graduate I heard interviewed, those loans amounted to $200,000! Paid for in a day! Once he got past the shock of what he had just heard, he literally began jumping up and down. And shouting out loud, "I'm debt free! I'm debt free! Thank God!" And the interviewer said simply, "This is life-changing for you."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Very Best Day...When Your Debt Goes Away!"
Now I've certainly never been to a graduation like that one. But I understand the crazy joy of people who've had their debt erased in a day. A much larger debt than any of them could pay in a lifetime. I know. I'm one of them.
The announcement that has set millions free from the most crushing debt of all was made in three words... "It is finished." Jesus made that announcement as He died an undeserved death on an unthinkable cross. Those three words were just one word in the language of the day. "Tetelestai." Archaeologists actually found that word carved on stone tablet receipts in an ancient accountant's office. It meant, "paid in full."
Jesus was paying the biggest, most consequential debt I owe. Because I owe the very God who gave me my life. Because I hijacked that life from my Creator and, in essence, I declared myself the god of what I did with His gift. Or, as the Bible says, "All of us have wandered away like sheep. Each of us has turned to his own way" (Isaiah 53:6). "All of us," it says. Ignoring Him. Pushing the Creator of the universe to the edge of our life. And ending up with a wall between us and Him. So, as the Bible says, "your sins have separated you from your God" (Isaiah 59:2).
I think we already knew that. Because we do things to try to make it right with God. After all, why do we bother with religion and trying to do some good deeds? Maybe we're hoping to somehow pay down our moral debt from a life lived "my way" instead of His way.
But we're in way too deep to ever be able to pay for our cosmic rebellion. Because "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). He's a perfect God. I'm a serial sinner. All the good I could ever do can't pay my death penalty. But somebody has to die, and somebody did. Jesus did. As it says in our word for today from the Word of God in 1 John 2:24, "He personally carried our sins (my sins!) in His body on the cross."
All the hurtful things I've ever done. All the lies I've ever told. All the things that I thought I'd never do and I did. All the trust betrayed. All the dirty things, the selfish things, the secret things. "Finished" on that day when He took my debt and became, on that cross both debtor and the deliverer. He might as well have been looking straight at me when He spoke those three liberating words.
It is this unspeakable love that has won my heart. And the hearts of millions who've carried with them to that cross their backpack full of rocks - all the guilt, the shame, the regrets, the sin of a lifetime. Debtors who left that cross with the backpack gone. Their sins forgiven. Their debt erased. And their eternity secure because the One who paid their debt that conquered death by walking out of His grave and now into their life. We can shout, "I'm debt free! Thank God!"
I want that for you. He wants that for you. Tell Him today, "Jesus, I believe when you died it was for my sin. I'm yours." Go to our website today at this crossroads moment and get the information that will help you be sure that you know him. It's ANewStory.com.
I've had people tell me so many times, "I feel like a 100-pound weight has been lifted off my back!" Well, it has. You're forgiven. You're going to Heaven. The debt is gone, paid in full.
Three years into my role as senior minister of our church, a former senior minister returned to live in our city and serve on our staff. Charles Prince was thirty years my senior, Harvard educated, and a member of the Mensa society. I was in my thirties, a rookie, and a charter member of the Dense Society. Charles said, “There will be no tension in our relationship. I’m going to be your biggest cheerleader.” And he was— for twenty-five years, until the day he died!
Intentional encouragement has a Michelangelo impact on people. The sculptor saw the figure of David within the marble and carved it out. The encourager does the same. He sees your best self and calls it out, not with a chisel, but with words of affirmation. That is how happiness happens!
2 Kings 21
Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king. He ruled for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. In God’s judgment he was a bad king—an evil king. He reintroduced all the moral rot and spiritual corruption that had been scoured from the country when God dispossessed the pagan nations in favor of the children of Israel. He rebuilt all the sex-and-religion shrines that his father Hezekiah had torn down, and he built altars and phallic images for the sex god Baal and sex goddess Asherah, exactly what Ahaz king of Israel had done. He worshiped the cosmic powers, taking orders from the constellations. He even built these pagan altars in The Temple of God, the very Jerusalem Temple dedicated exclusively by God’s decree (“in Jerusalem I place my Name”) to God’s Name. And he built shrines to the cosmic powers and placed them in both courtyards of The Temple of God. He burned his own son in a sacrificial offering. He practiced black magic and fortunetelling. He held séances and consulted spirits from the underworld. Much evil—in God’s judgment, a career in evil. And God was angry.
7-8 As a last straw he placed the carved image of the sex goddess Asherah in The Temple of God, a flagrant and provocative violation of God’s well-known statement to both David and Solomon, “In this Temple and in this city Jerusalem, my choice out of all the tribes of Israel, I place my Name—exclusively and forever. Never again will I let my people Israel wander off from this land I gave to their ancestors. But here’s the condition: They must keep everything I’ve commanded in the instructions my servant Moses passed on to them.”
9 But the people didn’t listen. Manasseh led them off the beaten path into practices of evil even exceeding the evil of the pagan nations that God had earlier destroyed.
10-12 God, thoroughly fed up, sent word through his servants the prophets: “Because Manasseh king of Judah has committed these outrageous sins, eclipsing the sin-performance of the Amorites before him, setting new records in evil, using foul idols to debase Judah into a nation of sinners, this is my judgment, God’s verdict: I, the God of Israel, will visit catastrophe on Jerusalem and Judah, a doom so terrible that when people hear of it they’ll shake their heads in disbelief, saying, ‘I can’t believe it!’
13-15 “I’ll visit the fate of Samaria on Jerusalem, a rerun of Ahab’s doom. I’ll wipe out Jerusalem as you would wipe out a dish, wiping it out and turning it over to dry. I’ll get rid of what’s left of my inheritance, dumping them on their enemies. If their enemies can salvage anything from them, they’re welcome to it. They’ve been nothing but trouble to me from the day their ancestors left Egypt until now. They pushed me to my limit; I won’t put up with their evil any longer.”
16 The final word on Manasseh was that he was an indiscriminate murderer. He drenched Jerusalem with the innocent blood of his victims. That’s on top of all the sins in which he involved his people. As far as God was concerned, he’d turned them into a nation of sinners.
17-18 The rest of the life and times of Manasseh, everything he did and his sorry record of sin, is written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. Manasseh died and joined his ancestors. He was buried in the palace garden, the Garden of Uzza. His son Amon became the next king.
19-22 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king. He was king for two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz. She was from Jotbah. In God’s opinion he lived an evil life, just like his father Manasseh. He followed in the footsteps of his father, serving and worshiping the same foul gods his father had served. He totally deserted the God of his ancestors; he did not live God’s way.
23-24 Amon’s servants revolted and assassinated him, killing the king right in his own palace. But the people, in their turn, killed the conspirators against King Amon and then crowned Josiah, Amon’s son, as king.
25-26 The rest of the life and times of Amon is written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. They buried Amon in his burial plot in the Garden of Uzza. His son Josiah became the next king.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, September 13, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Proverbs 16:1–9
To humans belong the plans of the heart,
but from the Lord comes the proper answer of the tongue.
2 All a person’s ways seem pure to them,
but motives are weighed by the Lord.
3 Commit to the Lord whatever you do,
and he will establish your plans.
4 The Lord works out everything to its proper end—
even the wicked for a day of disaster.
5 The Lord detests all the proud of heart.
Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.
6 Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for;
through the fear of the Lord evil is avoided.
7 When the Lord takes pleasure in anyone’s way,
he causes their enemies to make peace with them.
8 Better a little with righteousness
than much gain with injustice.
9 In their hearts humans plan their course,
but the Lord establishes their steps.
Insight
The book of Proverbs stresses honoring God in whatever we do. One phrase that parallels this sentiment is “the fear of the Lord” (16:6), which speaks of profound reverence and respect for God. Such awe, honor, and deference should be reserved uniquely for Him as Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer, and Lord over all. The personal and corporate value of possessing this essential quality is noted throughout the Proverbs. The fear of the Lord is foundational for wise living (1:7; 9:10); it’s something that can be chosen (1:29); possessing it prolongs one’s life (10:27); and its value is greater than material wealth (15:16). Those who are guided by the fear of the Lord protect themselves from evil (16:6; 19:23) and have everything they need (10:3).
Whatever We Do
Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans. Proverbs 16:3
In Surprised by Joy, C. S. Lewis confessed he came to Christianity at the age of thirty-three, “kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance to escape.” Despite Lewis’s own personal resistance, his shortcomings, and the obstacles he faced, the Lord transformed him into a courageous and creative defender of the faith. Lewis proclaimed God’s truth and love through writing powerful essays and novels that are still being read, studied, and shared more than fifty-five years after his death. His life reflected his belief that a person is “never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream.”
As we make plans and follow dreams, God can purify our motives and empower us to devote whatever we do to Him (Proverbs 16:1–3). From the most ordinary tasks to the greatest challenges, we can live for the glory of our almighty Maker, who “works out everything to its proper end” (v. 4). Every action, every word, and every thought can become an expression of heartfelt worship, a sacrificial gift to honor our Lord, as He watches over us (v. 7).
God can’t be limited by our limitations, our reservations, or our tendencies to settle or dream small. As we choose to live for Him—dedicated to and dependent on Him—He will bring about His plans for us. Whatever we do can be done with Him, for Him, and only because of Him. By: Xochitl Dixon
Reflect & Pray
How can Proverbs 16:3 help you be more confident in the use of your gifts? What steps can you take to honor God as you follow a dream He’s placed on your heart?
God, thank You for reminding us that no jobs are too small and no dreams are too big in Your great kingdom.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, September 13, 2019
After Surrender— Then What?
I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. —John 17:4
True surrender is not simply surrender of our external life but surrender of our will— and once that is done, surrender is complete. The greatest crisis we ever face is the surrender of our will. Yet God never forces a person’s will into surrender, and He never begs. He patiently waits until that person willingly yields to Him. And once that battle has been fought, it never needs to be fought again.
Surrender for Deliverance. “Come to Me…and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). It is only after we have begun to experience what salvation really means that we surrender our will to Jesus for rest. Whatever is causing us a sense of uncertainty is actually a call to our will— “Come to Me.” And it is a voluntary coming.
Surrender for Devotion. “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself…” (Matthew 16:24). The surrender here is of my self to Jesus, with His rest at the heart of my being. He says, “If you want to be My disciple, you must give up your right to yourself to Me.” And once this is done, the remainder of your life will exhibit nothing but the evidence of this surrender, and you never need to be concerned again with what the future may hold for you. Whatever your circumstances may be, Jesus is totally sufficient (see 2 Corinthians 12:9 and Philippians 4:19).
Surrender for Death. “…another will gird you…” (John 21:18; also see John 21:19). Have you learned what it means to be girded for death? Beware of some surrender that you make to God in an ecstatic moment in your life, because you are apt to take it back again. True surrender is a matter of being “united together [with Jesus] in the likeness of His death” (Romans 6:5) until nothing ever appeals to you that did not appeal to Him.
And after you surrender— then what? Your entire life should be characterized by an eagerness to maintain unbroken fellowship and oneness with God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Always keep in contact with those books and those people that enlarge your horizon and make it possible for you to stretch yourself mentally. The Moral Foundations of Life, 721 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, September 13, 2019
The Very Best Day...When Your Debt Goes Away! - #8525
Oh there's always lots of commencement speeches come about May and June. Most of them, pretty predictable. "Live up to your potential." "Follow your dreams." "The sky's the limit." But maybe there's never been a commencement speech like the one at Morehouse College recently. Billionaire businessman Robert Smith set 396 graduates free in one day.
He was reflecting on the long history of an African-American family, and then he announced that "on behalf of the eight generations of my family who have been in this country, we're going to put a little fuel in your bus." More like rocket fuel! In one breathtaking moment, he suddenly announced that his family was creating a grant that would pay the student loans of every graduate! What a moment! The dreaded debt just beyond the degree - suddenly gone!
In the case of one graduate I heard interviewed, those loans amounted to $200,000! Paid for in a day! Once he got past the shock of what he had just heard, he literally began jumping up and down. And shouting out loud, "I'm debt free! I'm debt free! Thank God!" And the interviewer said simply, "This is life-changing for you."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Very Best Day...When Your Debt Goes Away!"
Now I've certainly never been to a graduation like that one. But I understand the crazy joy of people who've had their debt erased in a day. A much larger debt than any of them could pay in a lifetime. I know. I'm one of them.
The announcement that has set millions free from the most crushing debt of all was made in three words... "It is finished." Jesus made that announcement as He died an undeserved death on an unthinkable cross. Those three words were just one word in the language of the day. "Tetelestai." Archaeologists actually found that word carved on stone tablet receipts in an ancient accountant's office. It meant, "paid in full."
Jesus was paying the biggest, most consequential debt I owe. Because I owe the very God who gave me my life. Because I hijacked that life from my Creator and, in essence, I declared myself the god of what I did with His gift. Or, as the Bible says, "All of us have wandered away like sheep. Each of us has turned to his own way" (Isaiah 53:6). "All of us," it says. Ignoring Him. Pushing the Creator of the universe to the edge of our life. And ending up with a wall between us and Him. So, as the Bible says, "your sins have separated you from your God" (Isaiah 59:2).
I think we already knew that. Because we do things to try to make it right with God. After all, why do we bother with religion and trying to do some good deeds? Maybe we're hoping to somehow pay down our moral debt from a life lived "my way" instead of His way.
But we're in way too deep to ever be able to pay for our cosmic rebellion. Because "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). He's a perfect God. I'm a serial sinner. All the good I could ever do can't pay my death penalty. But somebody has to die, and somebody did. Jesus did. As it says in our word for today from the Word of God in 1 John 2:24, "He personally carried our sins (my sins!) in His body on the cross."
All the hurtful things I've ever done. All the lies I've ever told. All the things that I thought I'd never do and I did. All the trust betrayed. All the dirty things, the selfish things, the secret things. "Finished" on that day when He took my debt and became, on that cross both debtor and the deliverer. He might as well have been looking straight at me when He spoke those three liberating words.
It is this unspeakable love that has won my heart. And the hearts of millions who've carried with them to that cross their backpack full of rocks - all the guilt, the shame, the regrets, the sin of a lifetime. Debtors who left that cross with the backpack gone. Their sins forgiven. Their debt erased. And their eternity secure because the One who paid their debt that conquered death by walking out of His grave and now into their life. We can shout, "I'm debt free! Thank God!"
I want that for you. He wants that for you. Tell Him today, "Jesus, I believe when you died it was for my sin. I'm yours." Go to our website today at this crossroads moment and get the information that will help you be sure that you know him. It's ANewStory.com.
I've had people tell me so many times, "I feel like a 100-pound weight has been lifted off my back!" Well, it has. You're forgiven. You're going to Heaven. The debt is gone, paid in full.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)