Max Lucado Daily: YOUR RESEMBLANCE TO HIM
Pop psychology is wrong when it tells you to look inside yourself and find your value! According to the Bible you are good simply because God made you in his image. Period. He cherishes you because you bear a resemblance to him. And you will only be satisfied when you engage in your role as an image bearer of God. Such was the view of King David. “As for me,” he wrote, “I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness” (Psalm 17:15).
How much sadness would evaporate if every person simply chose to believe this– I was made for God’s glory and am being made into his image. Why does God love you with an everlasting love? It has everything to do with whose you are. You are his! And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!
2 Chronicles 11
When Rehoboam got back to Jerusalem he called up the men of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, 180,000 of their best soldiers, to go to war against Israel and recover the kingdom.
2-4 At the same time the word of God came to Shemaiah, a holy man, “Tell this to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, along with all the Israelites in Judah and Benjamin, This is God’s word: Don’t march out; don’t fight against your brothers the Israelites. Go back home, every last one of you; I’m in charge here.” And they did it; they did what God said and went home.
5-12 Rehoboam continued to live in Jerusalem but built up a defense system for Judah all around: in Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, Beth Zur, Soco, Adullam, Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah, Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron—a line of defense protecting Judah and Benjamin. He beefed up the fortifications, appointed commanders, and put in supplies of food, olive oil, and wine. He installed arms—large shields and spears—in all the forts, making them very strong. So Judah and Benjamin were secure for the time.
13-17 The priests and Levites from all over Israel came and made themselves available to Rehoboam. The Levites left their pastures and properties and moved to Judah and Jerusalem because Jeroboam and his sons had dismissed them from the priesthood of God and replaced them with his own priests to preside over the worship centers at which he had installed goat and calf demon-idols. Everyone from all the tribes of Israel who determined to seek the God of Israel migrated with the priests and Levites to Jerusalem to worship there, sacrificing to the God of their ancestors. That gave a tremendous boost to the kingdom of Judah. They stuck with Rehoboam son of Solomon for three years, loyal to the ways of David and Solomon for this period.
18-21 Rehoboam married Mahalath daughter of Jerimoth, David’s son, and Abihail daughter of Eliab, Jesse’s son. Mahalath bore him Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham. Then he married Maacah, Absalom’s daughter, and she bore him Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith. Maacah was Rehoboam’s favorite wife; he loved her more than all his other wives and concubines put together (and he had a lot—eighteen wives and sixty concubines who produced twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters!).
22-23 Rehoboam designated Abijah son of Maacah as the “first son” and leader of the brothers—he intended to make him the next king. He was shrewd in deploying his sons in all the fortress cities that made up his defense system in Judah and Benjamin; he kept them happy with much food and many wives.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Proverbs 27:1–10
Do not boastz about tomorrow,
for you do not know what a day may bring.a
2 Let someone else praise you, and not your own mouth;
an outsider, and not your own lips.b
3 Stone is heavy and sandc a burden,
but a fool’s provocation is heavier than both.
4 Anger is cruel and fury overwhelming,
but who can stand before jealousy?d
5 Better is open rebuke
than hidden love.
6 Wounds from a friend can be trusted,
but an enemy multiplies kisses.e
7 One who is full loathes honey from the comb,
but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet.
8 Like a bird that flees its nestf
is anyone who flees from home.
9 Perfumeg and incense bring joy to the heart,
and the pleasantness of a friend
springs from their heartfelt advice.
10 Do not forsake your friend or a friend of your family,
and do not go to your relative’s house when disasterh strikes you—
better a neighbor nearby than a relative far away.
Insight
The book of Proverbs consists of two main parts. After a preamble that introduces the book (1:1–7), the first nine chapters contain speeches. The text identifies the contents as the teaching of a father to his son. The second part of Proverbs (chs. 10–31) contains actual proverbs. Proverbs are short observations, encouragements, or prohibitions that often seem like simple, practical advice. It’s a mistake to read the individual proverbs without considering the theme of the whole book—the connection between wisdom and a relationship with God—for only a life empowered or guided by the Spirit can consistently live out this wisdom.
Adapted from Understanding the Bible: The Wisdom Books. Read it at discoveryseries.org/q0422.
Nearby Neighbors
Better a neighbor nearby than a relative far away. Proverbs 27:10
Our neighborhood, like many others, uses a website to help neighbors connect immediately with those surrounding them. In my community, members warn one another of mountain lion sightings and wildfire evacuation orders, as well as supply one another with child care when the need arises. It has even proven to be a resource for locating runaway pets. By leveraging the power of the internet, those living near one another are connecting again in ways that are often lost in today’s fast-paced world.
Being in relationship with those who live nearby was also important long ago in the days of King Solomon. While family relationships are truly important and can be a source of great support, Solomon indicates that the role of a friend is vital—especially when “disaster strikes” (Proverbs 27:10). Relatives might care deeply for their family members and desire to be of help in such circumstances. But if they’re far away, there’s little they can do in the moments when calamity strikes. Neighbors, however, because they’re close by, are likely to know of the need quickly and can assist more readily.
Because technology has made it easier than ever to remain connected with loved ones across the globe, we may be tempted to overlook those living nearby. Jesus, help us invest in relationships with the people You’ve placed around us! By: Kirsten Holmberg
Reflect & Pray
Who has brought you aid in your times of need? How can you come alongside those living nearest you?
Thank You, God, for giving us neighbors to show care for one another.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
Is Your Mind Stayed on God?
You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. —Isaiah 26:3
Is your mind stayed on God or is it starved? Starvation of the mind, caused by neglect, is one of the chief sources of exhaustion and weakness in a servant’s life. If you have never used your mind to place yourself before God, begin to do it now. There is no reason to wait for God to come to you. You must turn your thoughts and your eyes away from the face of idols and look to Him and be saved (see Isaiah 45:22).
Your mind is the greatest gift God has given you and it ought to be devoted entirely to Him. You should seek to be “bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ…” (2 Corinthians 10:5). This will be one of the greatest assets of your faith when a time of trial comes, because then your faith and the Spirit of God will work together. When you have thoughts and ideas that are worthy of credit to God, learn to compare and associate them with all that happens in nature— the rising and the setting of the sun, the shining of the moon and the stars, and the changing of the seasons. You will begin to see that your thoughts are from God as well, and your mind will no longer be at the mercy of your impulsive thinking, but will always be used in service to God.
“We have sinned with our fathers…[and]…did not remember…” (Psalm 106:6-7). Then prod your memory and wake up immediately. Don’t say to yourself, “But God is not talking to me right now.” He ought to be. Remember whose you are and whom you serve. Encourage yourself to remember, and your affection for God will increase tenfold. Your mind will no longer be starved, but will be quick and enthusiastic, and your hope will be inexpressibly bright.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Am I getting nobler, better, more helpful, more humble, as I get older? Am I exhibiting the life that men take knowledge of as having been with Jesus, or am I getting more self-assertive, more deliberately determined to have my own way? It is a great thing to tell yourself the truth.
The Place of Help
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
Realizing What Time It Is - #8632
Every year they have this annual White House Correspondents Dinner. I don't watch it often, but some years ago I actually did watch it and I was pretty amazed by what I heard. Reporters from all over the world are at this dinner, and the President of the United States is usually there - not always. He usually does an uncharacteristically humorous speech. I've seen several Presidents do that. Well, the President finished and then one of America's most popular comedians was introduced as the night's entertainment. But this man, who is known far more for being suggestive than being spiritual, made this statement: "I've been watching the evening news a lot lately with my Bible opened to the Book of Revelation. And as I'm hearing what's happened in the world, I just go 'check, check, check.'"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Realizing What Time It Is."
That's a comedian - not a theologian - observing how closely current events seem to be following the Bible's description of the world's climactic events. But these days a lot of people are suddenly thinking about things like a future that's beyond our control and an eternity that's just one heartbeat away. There's this sense - both cosmically and personally - that our time might be shorter than we thought.
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from the first chapter of Revelation, and it's a reassuring note actually in a pretty unpredictable world. In Revelation 1:8, Jesus says, referring to the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, "I am the Alpha and the Omega...who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty." Then in Revelation 1:17-18, Jesus says, "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades."
As countries rise and fall, as leaders come and go, as the world seems to be exploding or imploding, Jesus is the unchanging, undying Lord of human history. That was settled the day He walked out of His grave under His own power after His death for our sins on the cross. When every loved one is gone, when everything you've been depending on collapses, there stands Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He holds the keys!
He's your safe place in a dangerous world! A new follower of Christ was given a Bible and since no one showed him where to start reading, he started at the end with Revelation. A veteran Christian asked him if he understood anything he read there, and the new believer simply said, "Well, I understood one thing. We win!"
Well, actually Jesus wins. And that's in a world where we're so vulnerable, where things are so unpredictable, not to mention the fact that eternity is just a heartbeat away. This is a good time to be sure that you belong to the Lord of history, to the Conqueror of death – Jesus, the man who died for your sin so you could belong to Him.
If you've never begun this anchor relationship with Jesus Christ, you could do it this very day. You don't have to be inside stained glass windows. You could talk to Him right where you are. Just say, "Jesus, I want to be Yours from this day on. I have run my life. I've been a rebel against You and Your ways because I want to do it my way. I
now turn the wheel of my life over to You. I turn from running my own life and doing it my way. You died for me for everything I've done wrong; for everything I've done against You. And you're alive and I want you to walk into my life today. I'm Yours from today on."
He promised that at that point He would enter your life because of your personal invitation. If that's what you want, get it done today. Today is all you can be sure you have. And go to our website ANewStory.com.
Once you belong to Jesus Christ, you're secure no matter what collapses and you are ready for eternity, no matter when it comes.
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
Monday, February 10, 2020
2 Chronicles 10, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: GOD’S IMAGE AND LIKENESS
We are all made in God’s image and in his likeness! Sin has distorted this image, but it has not destroyed it. Our moral purity has been tainted, but do not think for a moment that God has rescinded his promise or altered his plan. He still creates people in his image to bear his likeness and reflect his glory.
As we fellowship with God, read his Word, obey his commands, and seek to reflect his character, something wonderful emerges. We say things God would say. We do things God would do. We forgive, we share, and we love. In time an image begins to appear. God’s goal is simply to rub away anything that is not of him so the inborn image of God can be seen in us! Because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!
2 Chronicles 10
Rehoboam traveled to Shechem where all Israel had gathered to inaugurate him as king. Jeroboam was then in Egypt, where he had taken asylum from King Solomon; when he got the report of Solomon’s death, he came back.
3-4 Summoned by Israel, Jeroboam and all Israel went to Rehoboam and said, “Your father made life hard for us—worked our fingers to the bone. Give us a break; lighten up on us and we’ll willingly serve you.”
5 “Give me,” said Rehoboam, “three days to think it over; then come back.” So the people left.
6 King Rehoboam talked it over with the elders who had advised his father when he was alive: “What’s your counsel? How do you suggest that I answer the people?”
7 They said, “If you will be a servant to this people, be considerate of their needs and respond with compassion, work things out with them, they’ll end up doing anything for you.”
8-9 But he rejected the counsel of the elders and asked the young men he’d grown up with who were now currying his favor, “What do you think? What should I say to these people who are saying, ‘Give us a break from your father’s harsh ways—lighten up on us’?”
10-11 The young turks he’d grown up with said, “These people who complain, ‘Your father was too hard on us; lighten up’—well, tell them this: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. If you think life under my father was hard, you haven’t seen the half of it. My father thrashed you with whips; I’ll beat you bloody with chains!’”
12-14 Three days later Jeroboam and the people showed up, just as Rehoboam had directed when he said, “Give me three days to think it over; then come back.” The king’s answer was harsh and rude. He spurned the counsel of the elders and went with the advice of the younger set: “If you think life under my father was hard, you haven’t seen the half of it: my father thrashed you with whips; I’ll beat you bloody with chains!”
15 Rehoboam turned a deaf ear to the people. God was behind all this, confirming the message that he had given to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah of Shiloh.
16-17 When all Israel realized that the king hadn’t listened to a word they’d said, they stood up to him and said,
Get lost, David!
We’ve had it with you, son of Jesse!
Let’s get out of here, Israel, and fast!
From now on, David, mind your own business.
And with that they left. Rehoboam continued to rule only those who lived in the towns of Judah.
18-19 When King Rehoboam next sent out Adoniram, head of the workforce, the Israelites ganged up on him, pelted him with stones, and killed him. King Rehoboam jumped in his chariot and escaped to Jerusalem as fast as he could. Israel has been in rebellion against the Davidic dynasty ever since.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, February 10, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Romans 12:9–16
Love in Action
9 Love must be sincere.v Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.w 10 Be devoted to one another in love.x Honor one another above yourselves.y 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor,z serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope,a patient in affliction,b faithful in prayer.c 13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need.d Practice hospitality.e
14 Bless those who persecute you;f bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.g 16 Live in harmony with one another.h Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.c Do not be conceited.i
Insight
Most of Paul’s letters were directed to churches he and his team had planted, but Rome (like Colossae) was an exception. So how did the church at Rome begin? One theory is that it got its start on the day of Pentecost—the day the church itself was born. On that day, as the uneducated disciples of Jesus began speaking of Him in languages previously unlearned, Luke records a list of places from which people had gathered to celebrate the feast in Jerusalem. Among them are “visitors from Rome” (Acts 2:10). The belief is that these hearers of the gospel message carried it with them back to their home and began to evangelize the city—the most powerful city in the world of that day. This resulted in the establishment of the church in Rome to whom Paul wrote his most theological letter, the book of Romans. By: Bill Crowder
In It Together
Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Romans 12:15
During a two-month period in 1994, as many as one million Tutsis were slain in Rwanda by Hutu tribe members bent on killing their fellow countrymen. In the wake of this horrific genocide, Bishop Geoffrey Rwubusisi approached his wife about reaching out to women whose loved ones had been slain. Mary’s reply was, “All I want to do is cry.” She too had lost members of her family. The bishop’s response was that of a wise leader and caring husband: “Mary, gather the women together and cry with them.” He knew his wife’s pain had prepared her to uniquely share in the pain of others.
The church, the family of God, is where all of life can be shared—the good and not-so-good. The New Testament words “one another” are used to capture our interdependence. “Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. . . . Live in harmony with one another” (Romans 12:10, 16). The extent of our connectedness is expressed in verse 15: “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.”
While the depth and scope of our pain may pale in comparison with those affected by genocide, it’s nonetheless personal and real. And, as with the pain of Mary, because of what God has done for us it can be embraced and shared for the comfort and good of others. By: Arthur Jackson
Reflect & Pray
When have you allowed someone else to share your sorrow? How does the body of Christ—the church—help you deal with the hard times in life?
Gracious God, forgive me for my reluctance to enter the pain of others. Help me to live more fully as a connected member of Your church.
Learn about loving as Jesus does at discoveryseries.org/q0208.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, February 10, 2020
Is Your Ability to See God Blinded?
Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things… —Isaiah 40:26
The people of God in Isaiah’s time had blinded their minds’ ability to see God by looking on the face of idols. But Isaiah made them look up at the heavens; that is, he made them begin to use their power to think and to visualize correctly. If we are children of God, we have a tremendous treasure in nature and will realize that it is holy and sacred. We will see God reaching out to us in every wind that blows, every sunrise and sunset, every cloud in the sky, every flower that blooms, and every leaf that fades, if we will only begin to use our blinded thinking to visualize it.
The real test of spiritual focus is being able to bring your mind and thoughts under control. Is your mind focused on the face of an idol? Is the idol yourself? Is it your work? Is it your idea of what a servant should be, or maybe your experience of salvation and sanctification? If so, then your ability to see God is blinded. You will be powerless when faced with difficulties and will be forced to endure in darkness. If your power to see has been blinded, don’t look back on your own experiences, but look to God. It is God you need. Go beyond yourself and away from the faces of your idols and away from everything else that has been blinding your thinking. Wake up and accept the ridicule that Isaiah gave to his people, and deliberately turn your thoughts and your eyes to God.
One of the reasons for our sense of futility in prayer is that we have lost our power to visualize. We can no longer even imagine putting ourselves deliberately before God. It is actually more important to be broken bread and poured-out wine in the area of intercession than in our personal contact with others. The power of visualization is what God gives a saint so that he can go beyond himself and be firmly placed into relationships he never before experienced.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are apt to think that everything that happens to us is to be turned into useful teaching; it is to be turned into something better than teaching, viz. into character. We shall find that the spheres God brings us into are not meant to teach us something but to make us something. The Love of God—The Ministry of the Unnoticed, 664 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, February 10, 2020
Just Stuff - #8631
If it's spring in America, someone is going to get hit with floods unfortunately. Years ago, I think it was April 1997, North Dakota got hit hard - especially in the area around Grand Forks, North Dakota. One woman who had to flee her home was interviewed by a reporter. She was eating her lunch in a school shelter where hundreds of victims were bivouacked. She must have surprised that reporter when she said, "You know, I feel very fortunate." I mean, after all, what had been her home only a day before was now awash in sewage and fuel. Then she gave her reasons for feeling fortunate. And you often hear this after a disaster. She just said, "My children are all safe. The rest is just stuff."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Just Stuff."
Now, that's a woman who, in the midst of losing a lot, had sorted out some of life's really core values. That's what God is calling us to do in our word for today from the Word of God in 1 John 2:15. "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him ... The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever."
If God were teaching us in a classroom setting, He might draw a line down the center of the chalkboard and He'd put these headings at the top of each column: "Stuff that doesn't last" and "Stuff that does last." And He says to not get too attached to earth-stuff because it "passes away."
Our great love, our great passion, and our great pursuit should be for the "will of God" things that we can't lose. The rest is "just stuff." It's all part of Jesus' command to "seek first the kingdom of God" (Matthew 6:33), even though we're surrounded by people who are totally consumed with getting possessions, getting promotions, getting prosperity, or getting prominence.
Actually, we've found that two of the most liberating words in the English language are these: "Earth stuff." Yep, over and over, my wife and I found ourselves saying those two words to regain our perspective in tough financial times, when something broke or got lost, or when we were trying to make some difficult choices. It just helps to stand back, look at what's really at stake, and be able to sort out what is "just earth stuff." It actually frees you from so much worry, anxiety and misplaced effort.
My life was profoundly affected by something that happened when I was becoming a teenager. Five American missionaries were martyred in their attempt to reach a tribe in the jungles of Ecuador; a tribe who had never heard the name of Jesus. Later, the widow of one and the sister of another went to that tribe to tell them about Jesus. Today, much of the Auca or Waodani Tribe knows Christ, and the murderers of the missionaries are the leaders of the Waodani church. Thousands of people are in God's work today, including me, because of the challenge of their example.
Jim Elliot, one of the martyred missionaries, sorted out the ultimate values in life in a powerful statement he wrote once. Here's what he said: "He is no fool who
gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." Well, that's it right there.
Either you live for the things you cannot ultimately keep, or you live for the things you can never lose. So which ones are you pursuing?
We are all made in God’s image and in his likeness! Sin has distorted this image, but it has not destroyed it. Our moral purity has been tainted, but do not think for a moment that God has rescinded his promise or altered his plan. He still creates people in his image to bear his likeness and reflect his glory.
As we fellowship with God, read his Word, obey his commands, and seek to reflect his character, something wonderful emerges. We say things God would say. We do things God would do. We forgive, we share, and we love. In time an image begins to appear. God’s goal is simply to rub away anything that is not of him so the inborn image of God can be seen in us! Because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!
2 Chronicles 10
Rehoboam traveled to Shechem where all Israel had gathered to inaugurate him as king. Jeroboam was then in Egypt, where he had taken asylum from King Solomon; when he got the report of Solomon’s death, he came back.
3-4 Summoned by Israel, Jeroboam and all Israel went to Rehoboam and said, “Your father made life hard for us—worked our fingers to the bone. Give us a break; lighten up on us and we’ll willingly serve you.”
5 “Give me,” said Rehoboam, “three days to think it over; then come back.” So the people left.
6 King Rehoboam talked it over with the elders who had advised his father when he was alive: “What’s your counsel? How do you suggest that I answer the people?”
7 They said, “If you will be a servant to this people, be considerate of their needs and respond with compassion, work things out with them, they’ll end up doing anything for you.”
8-9 But he rejected the counsel of the elders and asked the young men he’d grown up with who were now currying his favor, “What do you think? What should I say to these people who are saying, ‘Give us a break from your father’s harsh ways—lighten up on us’?”
10-11 The young turks he’d grown up with said, “These people who complain, ‘Your father was too hard on us; lighten up’—well, tell them this: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. If you think life under my father was hard, you haven’t seen the half of it. My father thrashed you with whips; I’ll beat you bloody with chains!’”
12-14 Three days later Jeroboam and the people showed up, just as Rehoboam had directed when he said, “Give me three days to think it over; then come back.” The king’s answer was harsh and rude. He spurned the counsel of the elders and went with the advice of the younger set: “If you think life under my father was hard, you haven’t seen the half of it: my father thrashed you with whips; I’ll beat you bloody with chains!”
15 Rehoboam turned a deaf ear to the people. God was behind all this, confirming the message that he had given to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah of Shiloh.
16-17 When all Israel realized that the king hadn’t listened to a word they’d said, they stood up to him and said,
Get lost, David!
We’ve had it with you, son of Jesse!
Let’s get out of here, Israel, and fast!
From now on, David, mind your own business.
And with that they left. Rehoboam continued to rule only those who lived in the towns of Judah.
18-19 When King Rehoboam next sent out Adoniram, head of the workforce, the Israelites ganged up on him, pelted him with stones, and killed him. King Rehoboam jumped in his chariot and escaped to Jerusalem as fast as he could. Israel has been in rebellion against the Davidic dynasty ever since.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, February 10, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Romans 12:9–16
Love in Action
9 Love must be sincere.v Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.w 10 Be devoted to one another in love.x Honor one another above yourselves.y 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor,z serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope,a patient in affliction,b faithful in prayer.c 13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need.d Practice hospitality.e
14 Bless those who persecute you;f bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.g 16 Live in harmony with one another.h Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.c Do not be conceited.i
Insight
Most of Paul’s letters were directed to churches he and his team had planted, but Rome (like Colossae) was an exception. So how did the church at Rome begin? One theory is that it got its start on the day of Pentecost—the day the church itself was born. On that day, as the uneducated disciples of Jesus began speaking of Him in languages previously unlearned, Luke records a list of places from which people had gathered to celebrate the feast in Jerusalem. Among them are “visitors from Rome” (Acts 2:10). The belief is that these hearers of the gospel message carried it with them back to their home and began to evangelize the city—the most powerful city in the world of that day. This resulted in the establishment of the church in Rome to whom Paul wrote his most theological letter, the book of Romans. By: Bill Crowder
In It Together
Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Romans 12:15
During a two-month period in 1994, as many as one million Tutsis were slain in Rwanda by Hutu tribe members bent on killing their fellow countrymen. In the wake of this horrific genocide, Bishop Geoffrey Rwubusisi approached his wife about reaching out to women whose loved ones had been slain. Mary’s reply was, “All I want to do is cry.” She too had lost members of her family. The bishop’s response was that of a wise leader and caring husband: “Mary, gather the women together and cry with them.” He knew his wife’s pain had prepared her to uniquely share in the pain of others.
The church, the family of God, is where all of life can be shared—the good and not-so-good. The New Testament words “one another” are used to capture our interdependence. “Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. . . . Live in harmony with one another” (Romans 12:10, 16). The extent of our connectedness is expressed in verse 15: “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.”
While the depth and scope of our pain may pale in comparison with those affected by genocide, it’s nonetheless personal and real. And, as with the pain of Mary, because of what God has done for us it can be embraced and shared for the comfort and good of others. By: Arthur Jackson
Reflect & Pray
When have you allowed someone else to share your sorrow? How does the body of Christ—the church—help you deal with the hard times in life?
Gracious God, forgive me for my reluctance to enter the pain of others. Help me to live more fully as a connected member of Your church.
Learn about loving as Jesus does at discoveryseries.org/q0208.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, February 10, 2020
Is Your Ability to See God Blinded?
Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things… —Isaiah 40:26
The people of God in Isaiah’s time had blinded their minds’ ability to see God by looking on the face of idols. But Isaiah made them look up at the heavens; that is, he made them begin to use their power to think and to visualize correctly. If we are children of God, we have a tremendous treasure in nature and will realize that it is holy and sacred. We will see God reaching out to us in every wind that blows, every sunrise and sunset, every cloud in the sky, every flower that blooms, and every leaf that fades, if we will only begin to use our blinded thinking to visualize it.
The real test of spiritual focus is being able to bring your mind and thoughts under control. Is your mind focused on the face of an idol? Is the idol yourself? Is it your work? Is it your idea of what a servant should be, or maybe your experience of salvation and sanctification? If so, then your ability to see God is blinded. You will be powerless when faced with difficulties and will be forced to endure in darkness. If your power to see has been blinded, don’t look back on your own experiences, but look to God. It is God you need. Go beyond yourself and away from the faces of your idols and away from everything else that has been blinding your thinking. Wake up and accept the ridicule that Isaiah gave to his people, and deliberately turn your thoughts and your eyes to God.
One of the reasons for our sense of futility in prayer is that we have lost our power to visualize. We can no longer even imagine putting ourselves deliberately before God. It is actually more important to be broken bread and poured-out wine in the area of intercession than in our personal contact with others. The power of visualization is what God gives a saint so that he can go beyond himself and be firmly placed into relationships he never before experienced.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are apt to think that everything that happens to us is to be turned into useful teaching; it is to be turned into something better than teaching, viz. into character. We shall find that the spheres God brings us into are not meant to teach us something but to make us something. The Love of God—The Ministry of the Unnoticed, 664 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, February 10, 2020
Just Stuff - #8631
If it's spring in America, someone is going to get hit with floods unfortunately. Years ago, I think it was April 1997, North Dakota got hit hard - especially in the area around Grand Forks, North Dakota. One woman who had to flee her home was interviewed by a reporter. She was eating her lunch in a school shelter where hundreds of victims were bivouacked. She must have surprised that reporter when she said, "You know, I feel very fortunate." I mean, after all, what had been her home only a day before was now awash in sewage and fuel. Then she gave her reasons for feeling fortunate. And you often hear this after a disaster. She just said, "My children are all safe. The rest is just stuff."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Just Stuff."
Now, that's a woman who, in the midst of losing a lot, had sorted out some of life's really core values. That's what God is calling us to do in our word for today from the Word of God in 1 John 2:15. "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him ... The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever."
If God were teaching us in a classroom setting, He might draw a line down the center of the chalkboard and He'd put these headings at the top of each column: "Stuff that doesn't last" and "Stuff that does last." And He says to not get too attached to earth-stuff because it "passes away."
Our great love, our great passion, and our great pursuit should be for the "will of God" things that we can't lose. The rest is "just stuff." It's all part of Jesus' command to "seek first the kingdom of God" (Matthew 6:33), even though we're surrounded by people who are totally consumed with getting possessions, getting promotions, getting prosperity, or getting prominence.
Actually, we've found that two of the most liberating words in the English language are these: "Earth stuff." Yep, over and over, my wife and I found ourselves saying those two words to regain our perspective in tough financial times, when something broke or got lost, or when we were trying to make some difficult choices. It just helps to stand back, look at what's really at stake, and be able to sort out what is "just earth stuff." It actually frees you from so much worry, anxiety and misplaced effort.
My life was profoundly affected by something that happened when I was becoming a teenager. Five American missionaries were martyred in their attempt to reach a tribe in the jungles of Ecuador; a tribe who had never heard the name of Jesus. Later, the widow of one and the sister of another went to that tribe to tell them about Jesus. Today, much of the Auca or Waodani Tribe knows Christ, and the murderers of the missionaries are the leaders of the Waodani church. Thousands of people are in God's work today, including me, because of the challenge of their example.
Jim Elliot, one of the martyred missionaries, sorted out the ultimate values in life in a powerful statement he wrote once. Here's what he said: "He is no fool who
gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." Well, that's it right there.
Either you live for the things you cannot ultimately keep, or you live for the things you can never lose. So which ones are you pursuing?
Sunday, February 9, 2020
2 Corinthians 2, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Thought Prevention
We are not a victim of our thoughts. We have a vote. We have a voice. We can exercise thought prevention!
"Don't talk to me," we say. "I'm in a bad mood." As if a mood were a place to which we were assigned, rather than an emotion we permit. Or we say, "Don't mess with her. She has a bad disposition." Is a bad disposition something we have like a cold or the flu? Or do we have a choice? Paul says we do. In 2 Corinthians 10:5 he says, "We capture every thought and make it give up and obey Christ."
Capture every thought-you get the impression we're the soldiers and the thoughts are our enemies. The minute they appear we go into action. Selfishness, step back! Envy, get lost! Find another home, Anger…you aren't allowed on this turf!
Capturing thoughts is serious business! But, you can do it!
From Max on Life
2 Corinthians 2
That’s why I decided not to make another visit that could only be painful to both of us. If by merely showing up I would put you in an embarrassingly painful position, how would you then be free to cheer and refresh me?
3-4 That was my reason for writing a letter instead of coming—so I wouldn’t have to spend a miserable time disappointing the very friends I had looked forward to cheering me up. I was convinced at the time I wrote it that what was best for me was also best for you. As it turned out, there was pain enough just in writing that letter, more tears than ink on the parchment. But I didn’t write it to cause pain; I wrote it so you would know how much I care—oh, more than care—love you!
5-8 Now, regarding the one who started all this—the person in question who caused all this pain—I want you to know that I am not the one injured in this as much as, with a few exceptions, all of you. So I don’t want to come down too hard. What the majority of you agreed to as punishment is punishment enough. Now is the time to forgive this man and help him back on his feet. If all you do is pour on the guilt, you could very well drown him in it. My counsel now is to pour on the love.
9-11 The focus of my letter wasn’t on punishing the offender but on getting you to take responsibility for the health of the church. So if you forgive him, I forgive him. Don’t think I’m carrying around a list of personal grudges. The fact is that I’m joining in with your forgiveness, as Christ is with us, guiding us. After all, we don’t want to unwittingly give Satan an opening for yet more mischief—we’re not oblivious to his sly ways!
12-14 When I arrived in Troas to proclaim the Message of the Messiah, I found the place wide open: God had opened the door; all I had to do was walk through it. But when I didn’t find Titus waiting for me with news of your condition, I couldn’t relax. Worried about you, I left and came on to Macedonia province looking for Titus and a reassuring word on you. And I got it, thank God!
14-16 In the Messiah, in Christ, God leads us from place to place in one perpetual victory parade. Through us, he brings knowledge of Christ. Everywhere we go, people breathe in the exquisite fragrance. Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognized by those on the way of salvation—an aroma redolent with life. But those on the way to destruction treat us more like the stench from a rotting corpse.
16-17 This is a terrific responsibility. Is anyone competent to take it on? No—but at least we don’t take God’s Word, water it down, and then take it to the streets to sell it cheap. We stand in Christ’s presence when we speak; God looks us in the face. We get what we say straight from God and say it as honestly as we can.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, February 09, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 103:8–14
The Lord is compassionate and gracious,u
slow to anger, abounding in love.
9 He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;v
10 he does not treat us as our sins deservew
or repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his lovex for those who fear him;y
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressionsz from us.
13 As a father has compassiona on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
14 for he knows how we are formed,b
he remembers that we are dust.c
Insight
“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love” (Psalm 103:8) echoes the description of God revealed to Moses on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 34:6–7). God’s love (Hebrew hesed) is often paired in the psalms with the word faithfulness (see Psalm 100:5), but Psalm 103 connects God’s love with His compassion (vv. 8, 13). The psalmist insists that God’s anger isn’t a vengeful, vindictive one, but is related to His longing for human beings to find forgiveness, healing, joy, and satisfaction in Him (vv. 3–5). By: Monica La Rose
We Are Dust
He remembers that we are dust. Psalm 103:14
The young father was at the end of his rope. “Ice cream! Ice cream!” his toddler screamed. The meltdown in the middle of the crowded mall began drawing the attention of shoppers nearby. “Fine, but we just need to do something for mommy first, okay?” the father said. “Nooooo! Ice cream!” And then she approached them: a small, well-dressed woman with shoes that matched her handbag. “He’s having a big fit,” the father said. The woman smiled and responded, “Actually, it looks like a big fit is having your little boy. Don’t forget he’s so small. He needs you to be patient and stay close.” The situation didn’t magically resolve itself, but it was just the kind of pause the father and son needed in the moment.
Echoes of the wise woman’s words are heard in Psalm 103. David writes of our God who is “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love” (v. 8). He then continues by invoking the image of an earthly father who “has compassion on his children,” and even more so “the Lord has compassion on those who fear him” (v. 13). God our Father “knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust” (v. 14). He knows we’re small and fragile.
We often fail and are overwhelmed by what this big world hands us. What an amazing assurance to know of our Father’s patient, ever-present, abounding love. By: John Blase
Reflect & Pray
When have you felt overwhelmed like a little child? How do you believe God the Father responded to you in that moment?
Thank You for being our patient, present Father who remembers who and what we are.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, February 09, 2020
Are You Exhausted Spiritually?
The everlasting God…neither faints nor is weary. —Isaiah 40:28
Exhaustion means that our vital energies are completely worn out and spent. Spiritual exhaustion is never the result of sin, but of service. Whether or not you experience exhaustion will depend on where you get your supplies. Jesus said to Peter, “Feed My sheep,” but He gave him nothing with which to feed them (John 21:17). The process of being made broken bread and poured-out wine means that you have to be the nourishment for other people’s souls until they learn to feed on God. They must drain you completely— to the very last drop. But be careful to replenish your supply, or you will quickly be utterly exhausted. Until others learn to draw on the life of the Lord Jesus directly, they will have to draw on His life through you. You must literally be their source of supply, until they learn to take their nourishment from God. We owe it to God to be our best for His lambs and sheep, as well as for Him.
Have you delivered yourself over to exhaustion because of the way you have been serving God? If so, then renew and rekindle your desires and affections. Examine your reasons for service. Is your source based on your own understanding or is it grounded on the redemption of Jesus Christ? Continually look back to the foundation of your love and affection and remember where your Source of power lies. You have no right to complain, “O Lord, I am so exhausted.” He saved and sanctified you to exhaust you. Be exhausted for God, but remember that He is your supply. “All my springs are in you” (Psalm 87:7).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Sincerity means that the appearance and the reality are exactly the same. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 1449 L
We are not a victim of our thoughts. We have a vote. We have a voice. We can exercise thought prevention!
"Don't talk to me," we say. "I'm in a bad mood." As if a mood were a place to which we were assigned, rather than an emotion we permit. Or we say, "Don't mess with her. She has a bad disposition." Is a bad disposition something we have like a cold or the flu? Or do we have a choice? Paul says we do. In 2 Corinthians 10:5 he says, "We capture every thought and make it give up and obey Christ."
Capture every thought-you get the impression we're the soldiers and the thoughts are our enemies. The minute they appear we go into action. Selfishness, step back! Envy, get lost! Find another home, Anger…you aren't allowed on this turf!
Capturing thoughts is serious business! But, you can do it!
From Max on Life
2 Corinthians 2
That’s why I decided not to make another visit that could only be painful to both of us. If by merely showing up I would put you in an embarrassingly painful position, how would you then be free to cheer and refresh me?
3-4 That was my reason for writing a letter instead of coming—so I wouldn’t have to spend a miserable time disappointing the very friends I had looked forward to cheering me up. I was convinced at the time I wrote it that what was best for me was also best for you. As it turned out, there was pain enough just in writing that letter, more tears than ink on the parchment. But I didn’t write it to cause pain; I wrote it so you would know how much I care—oh, more than care—love you!
5-8 Now, regarding the one who started all this—the person in question who caused all this pain—I want you to know that I am not the one injured in this as much as, with a few exceptions, all of you. So I don’t want to come down too hard. What the majority of you agreed to as punishment is punishment enough. Now is the time to forgive this man and help him back on his feet. If all you do is pour on the guilt, you could very well drown him in it. My counsel now is to pour on the love.
9-11 The focus of my letter wasn’t on punishing the offender but on getting you to take responsibility for the health of the church. So if you forgive him, I forgive him. Don’t think I’m carrying around a list of personal grudges. The fact is that I’m joining in with your forgiveness, as Christ is with us, guiding us. After all, we don’t want to unwittingly give Satan an opening for yet more mischief—we’re not oblivious to his sly ways!
12-14 When I arrived in Troas to proclaim the Message of the Messiah, I found the place wide open: God had opened the door; all I had to do was walk through it. But when I didn’t find Titus waiting for me with news of your condition, I couldn’t relax. Worried about you, I left and came on to Macedonia province looking for Titus and a reassuring word on you. And I got it, thank God!
14-16 In the Messiah, in Christ, God leads us from place to place in one perpetual victory parade. Through us, he brings knowledge of Christ. Everywhere we go, people breathe in the exquisite fragrance. Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognized by those on the way of salvation—an aroma redolent with life. But those on the way to destruction treat us more like the stench from a rotting corpse.
16-17 This is a terrific responsibility. Is anyone competent to take it on? No—but at least we don’t take God’s Word, water it down, and then take it to the streets to sell it cheap. We stand in Christ’s presence when we speak; God looks us in the face. We get what we say straight from God and say it as honestly as we can.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, February 09, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 103:8–14
The Lord is compassionate and gracious,u
slow to anger, abounding in love.
9 He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;v
10 he does not treat us as our sins deservew
or repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his lovex for those who fear him;y
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressionsz from us.
13 As a father has compassiona on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
14 for he knows how we are formed,b
he remembers that we are dust.c
Insight
“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love” (Psalm 103:8) echoes the description of God revealed to Moses on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 34:6–7). God’s love (Hebrew hesed) is often paired in the psalms with the word faithfulness (see Psalm 100:5), but Psalm 103 connects God’s love with His compassion (vv. 8, 13). The psalmist insists that God’s anger isn’t a vengeful, vindictive one, but is related to His longing for human beings to find forgiveness, healing, joy, and satisfaction in Him (vv. 3–5). By: Monica La Rose
We Are Dust
He remembers that we are dust. Psalm 103:14
The young father was at the end of his rope. “Ice cream! Ice cream!” his toddler screamed. The meltdown in the middle of the crowded mall began drawing the attention of shoppers nearby. “Fine, but we just need to do something for mommy first, okay?” the father said. “Nooooo! Ice cream!” And then she approached them: a small, well-dressed woman with shoes that matched her handbag. “He’s having a big fit,” the father said. The woman smiled and responded, “Actually, it looks like a big fit is having your little boy. Don’t forget he’s so small. He needs you to be patient and stay close.” The situation didn’t magically resolve itself, but it was just the kind of pause the father and son needed in the moment.
Echoes of the wise woman’s words are heard in Psalm 103. David writes of our God who is “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love” (v. 8). He then continues by invoking the image of an earthly father who “has compassion on his children,” and even more so “the Lord has compassion on those who fear him” (v. 13). God our Father “knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust” (v. 14). He knows we’re small and fragile.
We often fail and are overwhelmed by what this big world hands us. What an amazing assurance to know of our Father’s patient, ever-present, abounding love. By: John Blase
Reflect & Pray
When have you felt overwhelmed like a little child? How do you believe God the Father responded to you in that moment?
Thank You for being our patient, present Father who remembers who and what we are.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, February 09, 2020
Are You Exhausted Spiritually?
The everlasting God…neither faints nor is weary. —Isaiah 40:28
Exhaustion means that our vital energies are completely worn out and spent. Spiritual exhaustion is never the result of sin, but of service. Whether or not you experience exhaustion will depend on where you get your supplies. Jesus said to Peter, “Feed My sheep,” but He gave him nothing with which to feed them (John 21:17). The process of being made broken bread and poured-out wine means that you have to be the nourishment for other people’s souls until they learn to feed on God. They must drain you completely— to the very last drop. But be careful to replenish your supply, or you will quickly be utterly exhausted. Until others learn to draw on the life of the Lord Jesus directly, they will have to draw on His life through you. You must literally be their source of supply, until they learn to take their nourishment from God. We owe it to God to be our best for His lambs and sheep, as well as for Him.
Have you delivered yourself over to exhaustion because of the way you have been serving God? If so, then renew and rekindle your desires and affections. Examine your reasons for service. Is your source based on your own understanding or is it grounded on the redemption of Jesus Christ? Continually look back to the foundation of your love and affection and remember where your Source of power lies. You have no right to complain, “O Lord, I am so exhausted.” He saved and sanctified you to exhaust you. Be exhausted for God, but remember that He is your supply. “All my springs are in you” (Psalm 87:7).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Sincerity means that the appearance and the reality are exactly the same. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 1449 L
Saturday, February 8, 2020
2 Chronicles 9, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Connected But Not Altered
When you give your life to Christ, He moves in, unpacks his bags and is ready to change you into His likeness. So why do I still have the hang-ups of Max?
Part of the answer is in the story of a wealthy but frugal lady living in a small house at the turn of the century. Friends were surprised when she had electricity put in her home. Weeks afterward, a meter reader appeared. “Your meter shows scarcely any usage,” he said. “Are you using your power?” “Certainly,” she answered. “Each evening I turn on my lights long enough to light my candles; then I turn them off.”
She’s tapped into the power but doesn’t use it. Her house is connected but not altered. Don’t we make the same mistake? God is willing to change us into the likeness of the Savior. Shall we accept His offer?
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.” (Ephesians 1:18-19a).
From Just Like Jesus
2 Chronicles 9
The queen of Sheba heard of Solomon’s reputation and came to Jerusalem to put his reputation to the test, asking all the tough questions. She made a showy entrance—an impressive retinue of attendants and camels loaded with perfume and much gold and precious stones. She emptied her heart to Solomon, talking over everything she cared about. And Solomon answered everything she put to him—nothing stumped him. When the queen of Sheba experienced for herself Solomon’s wisdom and saw with her own eyes the palace he had built, the meals that were served, the impressive array of court officials, the sharply dressed waiters, the cupbearers, and then the elaborate worship extravagant with Whole-Burnt-Offerings at The Temple of God, it all took her breath away.
5-8 She said to the king, “It’s all true! Your reputation for accomplishment and wisdom that reached all the way to my country is confirmed. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it for myself; they didn’t exaggerate! Such wisdom and elegance—far more than I could ever have imagined. Lucky the men and women who work for you, getting to be around you every day and hear your wise words firsthand! And blessed be your God who has taken such a liking to you, making you king. Clearly, God’s love for Israel is behind this, making you king to keep a just order and nurture a God-pleasing people.”
9-11 She then gave the king four and a half tons of gold and sack after sack of spices and precious stones. There hasn’t been a cargo of spices like the shipload the queen of Sheba brought to King Solomon. The ships of Hiram also imported gold from Ophir along with fragrant sandalwood and expensive gems. The king used the sandalwood for fine cabinetry in The Temple of God and the royal palace, and for making harps and dulcimers for the musicians. Nothing like that shipment of sandalwood has been seen since.
12 King Solomon, for his part, gave the queen of Sheba all her heart’s desire—everything she asked for. She took away more than she brought. Satisfied, she returned home with her train of servants.
13-14 Solomon received twenty-five tons of gold annually. This was above and beyond the taxes and profit on trade with merchants and traders. All kings of Arabia and various and assorted governors also brought silver and gold to Solomon.
15-16 King Solomon crafted two hundred body-length shields of hammered gold—about fifteen pounds of gold to each shield—and about three hundred small shields about half that size. He stored the shields in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.
17-19 The king made a massive throne of ivory with a veneer of gold. The throne had six steps leading up to it with an attached footstool of gold. The armrests on each side were flanked by lions. Lions, twelve of them, were placed at either end of the six steps. There was no throne like it in any other kingdom.
20 King Solomon’s chalices and tankards were made of gold, and all the dinnerware and serving utensils in the House of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. Nothing was made of silver; silver was considered common and cheap in the time of Solomon.
21 The king’s ships, manned by Hiram’s sailors, made a round trip to Tarshish every three years, returning with a cargo of gold, silver, and ivory, apes and peacocks.
22-24 King Solomon was richer and wiser than all the kings of the earth—he surpassed them all. Kings came from all over the world to be with Solomon and get in on the wisdom God had given him. Everyone who came brought gifts—artifacts of gold and silver, fashionable robes and gowns, the latest in weapons, exotic spices, horses, and mules—parades of visitors, year after year.
25-28 Solomon collected horses and chariots. He had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen in barracks in the chariot-cities and in Jerusalem. He ruled over all the kings from the River Euphrates in the east, throughout the Philistine country, and as far west as the border of Egypt. The king made silver as common as rocks and cedar as common as the fig trees in the lowland hills. He carried on a brisk horse-trading business with Egypt and other places.
29-31 The rest of Solomon’s life and rule, from start to finish, one can read in the records of Nathan the prophet, the prophecy of Ahijah of Shiloh, and in the visions of Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam son of Nebat. Solomon ruled in Jerusalem over all Israel for forty years. Solomon died and was buried in the City of David his father. His son Rehoboam was the next king.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, February 08, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 48
A song. A psalm of the Sons of Korah.
1 Great is the Lord,q and most worthy of praise,r
in the city of our God,s his holy mountain.t
2 Beautifulu in its loftiness,
the joy of the whole earth,
like the heights of Zaphonb v is Mount Zion,w
the city of the Great King.x
3 God is in her citadels;y
he has shown himself to be her fortress.z
4 When the kings joined forces,
when they advanced together,a
5 they saw her and were astounded;
they fled in terror.b
6 Trembling seizedc them there,
pain like that of a woman in labor.d
7 You destroyed them like ships of Tarshishe
shattered by an east wind.f
8 As we have heard,
so we have seen
in the city of the Lord Almighty,
in the city of our God:
God makes her secure
forever.c g
9 Within your temple, O God,
we meditateh on your unfailing love.i
10 Like your name,j O God,
your praise reaches to the ends of the earth;k
your right hand is filled with righteousness.
11 Mount Zion rejoices,
the villages of Judah are glad
because of your judgments.l
12 Walk about Zion, go around her,
count her towers,m
13 consider well her ramparts,n
view her citadels,o
that you may tell of them
to the next generation.p
14 For this God is our God for ever and ever;
he will be our guideq even to the end.
Insight
Psalm 48 is a hymn which may have been adopted as a celebration of Zion (Jerusalem). Scholars suggest it was used during the Feast of Tabernacles. God’s presence was declared to be in the city of Zion’s citadels as a fortress (v. 3). The picture of kings fleeing in terror at the sight of the city (vv. 4–5) held up Zion as a symbol of God’s protection. The call to “walk about Zion, go around her, count her towers, consider well her ramparts, view her citadels” (vv. 12–13) would have allowed those present to see Zion’s structures and gain a tangible sense of God’s presence and protection—a physical act of worship that would strengthen their faith. By: Julie Schwab
Raise Praise
Your praise reaches to the ends of the earth. Psalm 48:10
You can generally tell where a map was drawn by what lies in its middle. We tend to think our home is the center of the world, so we put a dot in the middle and sketch out from there. Nearby towns might be fifty miles to the north or half a day’s drive to the south, but all are described in relation to where we are. The Psalms draw their “map” from God’s earthly home in the Old Testament, so the center of biblical geography is Jerusalem.
Psalm 48 is one of many psalms that praise Jerusalem. This “city of our God, his holy mountain” is “beautiful in its loftiness, the joy of the whole earth” (vv. 1–2). Because “God is in her citadels,” He “makes her secure forever” (vv. 3, 8). God’s fame begins in Jerusalem’s temple and spreads outward to “the ends of the earth” (vv. 9–10).
Unless you’re reading this in Jerusalem, your home is not in the center of the biblical world. Yet your region matters immensely, because God will not rest until His praise reaches “to the ends of the earth” (v. 10). Would you like to be part of the way God reaches His goal? Worship each week with God’s people, and openly live each day for His glory. God’s fame extends “to the ends of the earth” when we devote all that we are and have to Him. By: Mike Wittmer
Reflect & Pray
How have you spread God’s fame this week? What else might you do?
Father, use me to spread Your fame to the ends of the earth.
To learn more about the Psalms, visit christianuniversity.org/OT222.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, February 08, 2020
The Cost of Sanctification
May the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely… —1 Thessalonians 5:23
When we pray, asking God to sanctify us, are we prepared to measure up to what that really means? We take the word sanctification much too lightly. Are we prepared to pay the cost of sanctification? The cost will be a deep restriction of all our earthly concerns, and an extensive cultivation of all our godly concerns. Sanctification means to be intensely focused on God’s point of view. It means to secure and to keep all the strength of our body, soul, and spirit for God’s purpose alone. Are we really prepared for God to perform in us everything for which He separated us? And after He has done His work, are we then prepared to separate ourselves to God just as Jesus did? “For their sakes I sanctify Myself…” (John 17:19). The reason some of us have not entered into the experience of sanctification is that we have not realized the meaning of sanctification from God’s perspective. Sanctification means being made one with Jesus so that the nature that controlled Him will control us. Are we really prepared for what that will cost? It will cost absolutely everything in us which is not of God.
Are we prepared to be caught up into the full meaning of Paul’s prayer in this verse? Are we prepared to say, “Lord, make me, a sinner saved by grace, as holy as You can”? Jesus prayed that we might be one with Him, just as He is one with the Father (see John 17:21-23). The resounding evidence of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life is the unmistakable family likeness to Jesus Christ, and the freedom from everything which is not like Him. Are we prepared to set ourselves apart for the Holy Spirit’s work in us?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
An intellectual conception of God may be found in a bad vicious character. The knowledge and vision of God is dependent entirely on a pure heart. Character determines the revelation of God to the individual. The pure in heart see God. Biblical Ethics, 125 R
When you give your life to Christ, He moves in, unpacks his bags and is ready to change you into His likeness. So why do I still have the hang-ups of Max?
Part of the answer is in the story of a wealthy but frugal lady living in a small house at the turn of the century. Friends were surprised when she had electricity put in her home. Weeks afterward, a meter reader appeared. “Your meter shows scarcely any usage,” he said. “Are you using your power?” “Certainly,” she answered. “Each evening I turn on my lights long enough to light my candles; then I turn them off.”
She’s tapped into the power but doesn’t use it. Her house is connected but not altered. Don’t we make the same mistake? God is willing to change us into the likeness of the Savior. Shall we accept His offer?
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.” (Ephesians 1:18-19a).
From Just Like Jesus
2 Chronicles 9
The queen of Sheba heard of Solomon’s reputation and came to Jerusalem to put his reputation to the test, asking all the tough questions. She made a showy entrance—an impressive retinue of attendants and camels loaded with perfume and much gold and precious stones. She emptied her heart to Solomon, talking over everything she cared about. And Solomon answered everything she put to him—nothing stumped him. When the queen of Sheba experienced for herself Solomon’s wisdom and saw with her own eyes the palace he had built, the meals that were served, the impressive array of court officials, the sharply dressed waiters, the cupbearers, and then the elaborate worship extravagant with Whole-Burnt-Offerings at The Temple of God, it all took her breath away.
5-8 She said to the king, “It’s all true! Your reputation for accomplishment and wisdom that reached all the way to my country is confirmed. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it for myself; they didn’t exaggerate! Such wisdom and elegance—far more than I could ever have imagined. Lucky the men and women who work for you, getting to be around you every day and hear your wise words firsthand! And blessed be your God who has taken such a liking to you, making you king. Clearly, God’s love for Israel is behind this, making you king to keep a just order and nurture a God-pleasing people.”
9-11 She then gave the king four and a half tons of gold and sack after sack of spices and precious stones. There hasn’t been a cargo of spices like the shipload the queen of Sheba brought to King Solomon. The ships of Hiram also imported gold from Ophir along with fragrant sandalwood and expensive gems. The king used the sandalwood for fine cabinetry in The Temple of God and the royal palace, and for making harps and dulcimers for the musicians. Nothing like that shipment of sandalwood has been seen since.
12 King Solomon, for his part, gave the queen of Sheba all her heart’s desire—everything she asked for. She took away more than she brought. Satisfied, she returned home with her train of servants.
13-14 Solomon received twenty-five tons of gold annually. This was above and beyond the taxes and profit on trade with merchants and traders. All kings of Arabia and various and assorted governors also brought silver and gold to Solomon.
15-16 King Solomon crafted two hundred body-length shields of hammered gold—about fifteen pounds of gold to each shield—and about three hundred small shields about half that size. He stored the shields in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.
17-19 The king made a massive throne of ivory with a veneer of gold. The throne had six steps leading up to it with an attached footstool of gold. The armrests on each side were flanked by lions. Lions, twelve of them, were placed at either end of the six steps. There was no throne like it in any other kingdom.
20 King Solomon’s chalices and tankards were made of gold, and all the dinnerware and serving utensils in the House of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. Nothing was made of silver; silver was considered common and cheap in the time of Solomon.
21 The king’s ships, manned by Hiram’s sailors, made a round trip to Tarshish every three years, returning with a cargo of gold, silver, and ivory, apes and peacocks.
22-24 King Solomon was richer and wiser than all the kings of the earth—he surpassed them all. Kings came from all over the world to be with Solomon and get in on the wisdom God had given him. Everyone who came brought gifts—artifacts of gold and silver, fashionable robes and gowns, the latest in weapons, exotic spices, horses, and mules—parades of visitors, year after year.
25-28 Solomon collected horses and chariots. He had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen in barracks in the chariot-cities and in Jerusalem. He ruled over all the kings from the River Euphrates in the east, throughout the Philistine country, and as far west as the border of Egypt. The king made silver as common as rocks and cedar as common as the fig trees in the lowland hills. He carried on a brisk horse-trading business with Egypt and other places.
29-31 The rest of Solomon’s life and rule, from start to finish, one can read in the records of Nathan the prophet, the prophecy of Ahijah of Shiloh, and in the visions of Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam son of Nebat. Solomon ruled in Jerusalem over all Israel for forty years. Solomon died and was buried in the City of David his father. His son Rehoboam was the next king.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, February 08, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 48
A song. A psalm of the Sons of Korah.
1 Great is the Lord,q and most worthy of praise,r
in the city of our God,s his holy mountain.t
2 Beautifulu in its loftiness,
the joy of the whole earth,
like the heights of Zaphonb v is Mount Zion,w
the city of the Great King.x
3 God is in her citadels;y
he has shown himself to be her fortress.z
4 When the kings joined forces,
when they advanced together,a
5 they saw her and were astounded;
they fled in terror.b
6 Trembling seizedc them there,
pain like that of a woman in labor.d
7 You destroyed them like ships of Tarshishe
shattered by an east wind.f
8 As we have heard,
so we have seen
in the city of the Lord Almighty,
in the city of our God:
God makes her secure
forever.c g
9 Within your temple, O God,
we meditateh on your unfailing love.i
10 Like your name,j O God,
your praise reaches to the ends of the earth;k
your right hand is filled with righteousness.
11 Mount Zion rejoices,
the villages of Judah are glad
because of your judgments.l
12 Walk about Zion, go around her,
count her towers,m
13 consider well her ramparts,n
view her citadels,o
that you may tell of them
to the next generation.p
14 For this God is our God for ever and ever;
he will be our guideq even to the end.
Insight
Psalm 48 is a hymn which may have been adopted as a celebration of Zion (Jerusalem). Scholars suggest it was used during the Feast of Tabernacles. God’s presence was declared to be in the city of Zion’s citadels as a fortress (v. 3). The picture of kings fleeing in terror at the sight of the city (vv. 4–5) held up Zion as a symbol of God’s protection. The call to “walk about Zion, go around her, count her towers, consider well her ramparts, view her citadels” (vv. 12–13) would have allowed those present to see Zion’s structures and gain a tangible sense of God’s presence and protection—a physical act of worship that would strengthen their faith. By: Julie Schwab
Raise Praise
Your praise reaches to the ends of the earth. Psalm 48:10
You can generally tell where a map was drawn by what lies in its middle. We tend to think our home is the center of the world, so we put a dot in the middle and sketch out from there. Nearby towns might be fifty miles to the north or half a day’s drive to the south, but all are described in relation to where we are. The Psalms draw their “map” from God’s earthly home in the Old Testament, so the center of biblical geography is Jerusalem.
Psalm 48 is one of many psalms that praise Jerusalem. This “city of our God, his holy mountain” is “beautiful in its loftiness, the joy of the whole earth” (vv. 1–2). Because “God is in her citadels,” He “makes her secure forever” (vv. 3, 8). God’s fame begins in Jerusalem’s temple and spreads outward to “the ends of the earth” (vv. 9–10).
Unless you’re reading this in Jerusalem, your home is not in the center of the biblical world. Yet your region matters immensely, because God will not rest until His praise reaches “to the ends of the earth” (v. 10). Would you like to be part of the way God reaches His goal? Worship each week with God’s people, and openly live each day for His glory. God’s fame extends “to the ends of the earth” when we devote all that we are and have to Him. By: Mike Wittmer
Reflect & Pray
How have you spread God’s fame this week? What else might you do?
Father, use me to spread Your fame to the ends of the earth.
To learn more about the Psalms, visit christianuniversity.org/OT222.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, February 08, 2020
The Cost of Sanctification
May the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely… —1 Thessalonians 5:23
When we pray, asking God to sanctify us, are we prepared to measure up to what that really means? We take the word sanctification much too lightly. Are we prepared to pay the cost of sanctification? The cost will be a deep restriction of all our earthly concerns, and an extensive cultivation of all our godly concerns. Sanctification means to be intensely focused on God’s point of view. It means to secure and to keep all the strength of our body, soul, and spirit for God’s purpose alone. Are we really prepared for God to perform in us everything for which He separated us? And after He has done His work, are we then prepared to separate ourselves to God just as Jesus did? “For their sakes I sanctify Myself…” (John 17:19). The reason some of us have not entered into the experience of sanctification is that we have not realized the meaning of sanctification from God’s perspective. Sanctification means being made one with Jesus so that the nature that controlled Him will control us. Are we really prepared for what that will cost? It will cost absolutely everything in us which is not of God.
Are we prepared to be caught up into the full meaning of Paul’s prayer in this verse? Are we prepared to say, “Lord, make me, a sinner saved by grace, as holy as You can”? Jesus prayed that we might be one with Him, just as He is one with the Father (see John 17:21-23). The resounding evidence of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life is the unmistakable family likeness to Jesus Christ, and the freedom from everything which is not like Him. Are we prepared to set ourselves apart for the Holy Spirit’s work in us?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
An intellectual conception of God may be found in a bad vicious character. The knowledge and vision of God is dependent entirely on a pure heart. Character determines the revelation of God to the individual. The pure in heart see God. Biblical Ethics, 125 R
Friday, February 7, 2020
2 Chronicles 8 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: MADE IN GOD’S IMAGE
We all ask the question, “Am I somebody important?” It’s easy to feel anything but important when your ex takes your energy, or old age takes your dignity. Somebody important? Hardly. But remember this promise of God: you were created by God, in God’s image, for God’s glory.
God spoke, “Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature, so they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, and, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth” (Genesis 1:26 MSG).
God never declared, “Let us make oceans in our image,” or “birds in our likeness.” The heavens above reflect the glory of God, but they are not made in the image of God. Yet you are! And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!
2 Chronicles 8
At the end of twenty years, Solomon had quite a list of accomplishments. He had:
built The Temple of God and his own palace;
rebuilt the cities that Hiram had given him and colonized them with Israelites;
marched on Hamath Zobah and took it;
fortified Tadmor in the desert and all the store-cities he had founded in Hamath;
built the fortress cities Upper Beth Horon and Lower Beth Horon, complete with walls, gates, and bars;
built Baalath and store-cities;
built chariot-cities for his horses.
Solomon built impulsively and extravagantly—whenever a whim took him. And in Jerusalem, in Lebanon—wherever he fancied.
7-10 The remnants from the original inhabitants of the land (Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, Jebusites—all non-Israelites), survivors of the holy wars, were rounded up by Solomon for his gangs of slave labor. The policy is in effect today. But true Israelites were not treated this way; they were used in his army and administration—government leaders and commanders of his chariots and charioteers. They were also the project managers responsible for Solomon’s building operations—250 in all in charge of the workforce.
11 Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter from the City of David to a house built especially for her, “Because,” he said, “my wife cannot live in the house of David king of Israel, for the areas in which the Chest of God has entered are sacred.”
12-13 Then Solomon offered Whole-Burnt-Offerings to God on the Altar of God that he had built in front of The Temple porch. He kept to the regular schedule of worship set down by Moses: Sabbaths, New Moons, and the three annual feasts of Unraised Bread (Passover), Weeks (Pentecost), and Booths.
14-15 He followed the practice of his father David in setting up groups of priests carrying out the work of worship, with the Levites assigned to lead the sacred music for praising God and to assist the priests in the daily worship; he assigned security guards to be on duty at each gate—that’s what David the man of God had ordered. The king’s directions to the priests and Levites and financial stewards were kept right down to the fine print—no innovations—including the treasuries.
16 All that Solomon set out to do, from the groundbreaking of The Temple of God to its finish, was now complete.
17-18 Then Solomon went to Ezion Geber and Elath on the coast of Edom. Hiram sent him ships and with them veteran sailors. Joined by Solomon’s men they sailed to Ophir (in east Africa), loaded on fifteen tons of gold, and brought it back to King Solomon.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, February 07, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Colossians 3:12–17
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselvesu with compassion, kindness, humility,v gentleness and patience.w 13 Bear with each otherx and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.y 14 And over all these virtues put on love,z which binds them all together in perfect unity.a
15 Let the peace of Christb rule in your hearts, since as members of one bodyc you were called to peace.d And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christe dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdomf through psalms,g hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.h 17 And whatever you do,i whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanksj to God the Father through him.
Insight
It appears that the faith community in Colossae was a sister church to the church at nearby Laodicea (the same Laodicea Jesus so strongly challenged in Revelation 3:14–22). Paul writes to the church at Colossae: “After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea” (Colossians 4:16). Not only were these cities close geographically, but there was a solid relationship between them—even to the point of sharing their letters with one another. Additionally, the church at Colossae received a letter written to one of its leaders, Philemon. The Colossians would have had the benefit of no less than three letters from the apostle Paul. By: Bill Crowder
Does What We Do Matter?
Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31
I dropped my forehead to my hand with a sigh, “I don’t know how I’m going to get it all done.” My friend’s voice crackled through the phone: “You have to give yourself some credit. You’re doing a lot.” He then listed the things I was trying to do—maintain a healthy lifestyle, work, do well in graduate school, write, and attend a Bible study. I wanted to do all these things for God, but instead I was more focused on what I was doing than how I was doing it—or that perhaps I was trying to do too much.
Paul reminded the church in Colossae that they were to live in a way that glorified God. Ultimately, what they specifically did on a day-to-day basis was not as important as how they did it. They were to do their work with “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (Colossians 3:12), to be forgiving, and above all to love (vv. 13–14) and to “do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (v. 17). Their work wasn’t to be separated from Christlike living.
What we do matters, but how we do it, why, and who we do it for matters more. Each day we can choose to work in a stressed-out way or in a way that honors God and seeks out the meaning Jesus adds to our work. When we pursue the latter, we find satisfaction. By: Julie Schwab
Reflect & Pray
In what ways do you do things out of need or obligation rather than for God’s glory? How do you think meaning is found in Christ rather than accomplishments?
Jesus, forgive me for the times I stress over what I’m trying to accomplish. Help me to instead seek to accomplish things for Your glory.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, February 07, 2020
Spiritual Dejection
We were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. —Luke 24:21
Every fact that the disciples stated was right, but the conclusions they drew from those facts were wrong. Anything that has even a hint of dejection spiritually is always wrong. If I am depressed or burdened, I am to blame, not God or anyone else. Dejection stems from one of two sources— I have either satisfied a lust or I have not had it satisfied. In either case, dejection is the result. Lust means “I must have it at once.” Spiritual lust causes me to demand an answer from God, instead of seeking God Himself who gives the answer. What have I been hoping or trusting God would do? Is today “the third day” and He has still not done what I expected? Am I therefore justified in being dejected and in blaming God? Whenever we insist that God should give us an answer to prayer we are off track. The purpose of prayer is that we get ahold of God, not of the answer. It is impossible to be well physically and to be dejected, because dejection is a sign of sickness. This is also true spiritually. Dejection spiritually is wrong, and we are always to blame for it.
We look for visions from heaven and for earth-shaking events to see God’s power. Even the fact that we are dejected is proof that we do this. Yet we never realize that all the time God is at work in our everyday events and in the people around us. If we will only obey, and do the task that He has placed closest to us, we will see Him. One of the most amazing revelations of God comes to us when we learn that it is in the everyday things of life that we realize the magnificent deity of Jesus Christ.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Am I learning how to use my Bible? The way to become complete for the Master’s service is to be well soaked in the Bible; some of us only exploit certain passages. Our Lord wants to give us continuous instruction out of His word; continuous instruction turns hearers into disciples. Approved Unto God, 11 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, February 07, 2020
A Father's Greatest Gift - #8630
Okay, so it was one of those times when our kids were going crazy that my wife would love to repeat one of her favorite sayings, "The apple falls not far from the tree." I never did hear her say that when they did something good. Actually, I have been credited or blamed for a number of things as their father. Supposedly, my daughter has her father's nose, and some people think she got some writing ability from me. My sons have been accused of having my sense of humor, which is totally scary. I wish I could find out who has their father's hair; more and more of it is missing. Well, if you're a father, your children do have a lot of you in them, let's face it. I hope they've inherited what really matters from you.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Father's Greatest Gift."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Exodus 3:6. Moses is at the crossroads of his life. He is about to be directed by God to lead God's people out of slavery in Egypt. This is huge! God is making this awesome personal appearance to him, and He tells Moses how to approach this holy ground. And then, in a sense, He introduces Himself to this overwhelmed servant of God. Here's what the Bible says, "Then He said, 'I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.'" Now that last part of God's signature was a title He used often in Old Testament times. But what's distinctive was that God begins by telling Moses he was the God of his father.
Deep inside Moses was this buried treasure that God was opening at the burning bush - a lifetime of knowing Jehovah God. Moses had lived in pagan affluence, he'd lived in a wilderness, but no matter where he went, he carried this spiritual treasure. And who put it there? His father!
But then, a lot of our attitude toward God comes from the kind of man Dad is. After all, God has asked us to call Him Father. And when we hear about God, we tend to call up our feelings about our earthly father. Sadly, those feelings are pretty painful and negative in some young people. I've often had to remind them that God is not the father you had on earth, but he's the father you always wished you had.
As a father, you have a lot of important roles, but none is so cosmic, so eternal as planting God in your son or daughter. Our culture has this idea that spiritual stuff is a mom's business, but that's dead wrong. God didn't introduce Himself as the God of your mother, even though she was a godly woman. In Ephesians 6:4, when God gives the New Testament instruction to raise your children in the Lord, it is introduced to fathers! The spiritual buck stops with the man!
Your child is learning how important this Heavenly Father is from your teaching or how unimportant He seems to be from your silence. Your son or daughter is learning about God from how you treat them. Is "father" forgiving or unforgiving; attentive or inattentive; affectionate or detached; pure or profane; truthful or untrustworthy. Is he fair or arbitrary? Is he there for you or not there for you?
What if God were to appear to your child in their moment of crisis and say, "I am the God of your father." What kind of God would they think He is? There was a five-year-old boy in a New York hospital who was dying of leukemia. One night his father was getting ready to leave, and the boy said, "Daddy, what is God like?" The father cleared his throat a couple of times and fumbled around for an answer. The little guy could tell his dad was uncomfortable, so he just said, "Daddy, that's OK. If God's like you, then I'm not afraid." Wow!
Dad, show them that kind of God. And if you can't because you don't know Him
yourself, maybe it's time to make God your Father by trusting Jesus to be your Savior. If you want to know how to have that relationship with Him, Dad, go to our website. It's ANewStory.com.
And make sure daily you give your precious son or daughter more of God, because all a child can get from a father, that is His greatest gift of all.
We all ask the question, “Am I somebody important?” It’s easy to feel anything but important when your ex takes your energy, or old age takes your dignity. Somebody important? Hardly. But remember this promise of God: you were created by God, in God’s image, for God’s glory.
God spoke, “Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature, so they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, and, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth” (Genesis 1:26 MSG).
God never declared, “Let us make oceans in our image,” or “birds in our likeness.” The heavens above reflect the glory of God, but they are not made in the image of God. Yet you are! And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!
2 Chronicles 8
At the end of twenty years, Solomon had quite a list of accomplishments. He had:
built The Temple of God and his own palace;
rebuilt the cities that Hiram had given him and colonized them with Israelites;
marched on Hamath Zobah and took it;
fortified Tadmor in the desert and all the store-cities he had founded in Hamath;
built the fortress cities Upper Beth Horon and Lower Beth Horon, complete with walls, gates, and bars;
built Baalath and store-cities;
built chariot-cities for his horses.
Solomon built impulsively and extravagantly—whenever a whim took him. And in Jerusalem, in Lebanon—wherever he fancied.
7-10 The remnants from the original inhabitants of the land (Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, Jebusites—all non-Israelites), survivors of the holy wars, were rounded up by Solomon for his gangs of slave labor. The policy is in effect today. But true Israelites were not treated this way; they were used in his army and administration—government leaders and commanders of his chariots and charioteers. They were also the project managers responsible for Solomon’s building operations—250 in all in charge of the workforce.
11 Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter from the City of David to a house built especially for her, “Because,” he said, “my wife cannot live in the house of David king of Israel, for the areas in which the Chest of God has entered are sacred.”
12-13 Then Solomon offered Whole-Burnt-Offerings to God on the Altar of God that he had built in front of The Temple porch. He kept to the regular schedule of worship set down by Moses: Sabbaths, New Moons, and the three annual feasts of Unraised Bread (Passover), Weeks (Pentecost), and Booths.
14-15 He followed the practice of his father David in setting up groups of priests carrying out the work of worship, with the Levites assigned to lead the sacred music for praising God and to assist the priests in the daily worship; he assigned security guards to be on duty at each gate—that’s what David the man of God had ordered. The king’s directions to the priests and Levites and financial stewards were kept right down to the fine print—no innovations—including the treasuries.
16 All that Solomon set out to do, from the groundbreaking of The Temple of God to its finish, was now complete.
17-18 Then Solomon went to Ezion Geber and Elath on the coast of Edom. Hiram sent him ships and with them veteran sailors. Joined by Solomon’s men they sailed to Ophir (in east Africa), loaded on fifteen tons of gold, and brought it back to King Solomon.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, February 07, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Colossians 3:12–17
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselvesu with compassion, kindness, humility,v gentleness and patience.w 13 Bear with each otherx and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.y 14 And over all these virtues put on love,z which binds them all together in perfect unity.a
15 Let the peace of Christb rule in your hearts, since as members of one bodyc you were called to peace.d And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christe dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdomf through psalms,g hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.h 17 And whatever you do,i whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanksj to God the Father through him.
Insight
It appears that the faith community in Colossae was a sister church to the church at nearby Laodicea (the same Laodicea Jesus so strongly challenged in Revelation 3:14–22). Paul writes to the church at Colossae: “After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea” (Colossians 4:16). Not only were these cities close geographically, but there was a solid relationship between them—even to the point of sharing their letters with one another. Additionally, the church at Colossae received a letter written to one of its leaders, Philemon. The Colossians would have had the benefit of no less than three letters from the apostle Paul. By: Bill Crowder
Does What We Do Matter?
Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31
I dropped my forehead to my hand with a sigh, “I don’t know how I’m going to get it all done.” My friend’s voice crackled through the phone: “You have to give yourself some credit. You’re doing a lot.” He then listed the things I was trying to do—maintain a healthy lifestyle, work, do well in graduate school, write, and attend a Bible study. I wanted to do all these things for God, but instead I was more focused on what I was doing than how I was doing it—or that perhaps I was trying to do too much.
Paul reminded the church in Colossae that they were to live in a way that glorified God. Ultimately, what they specifically did on a day-to-day basis was not as important as how they did it. They were to do their work with “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (Colossians 3:12), to be forgiving, and above all to love (vv. 13–14) and to “do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (v. 17). Their work wasn’t to be separated from Christlike living.
What we do matters, but how we do it, why, and who we do it for matters more. Each day we can choose to work in a stressed-out way or in a way that honors God and seeks out the meaning Jesus adds to our work. When we pursue the latter, we find satisfaction. By: Julie Schwab
Reflect & Pray
In what ways do you do things out of need or obligation rather than for God’s glory? How do you think meaning is found in Christ rather than accomplishments?
Jesus, forgive me for the times I stress over what I’m trying to accomplish. Help me to instead seek to accomplish things for Your glory.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, February 07, 2020
Spiritual Dejection
We were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. —Luke 24:21
Every fact that the disciples stated was right, but the conclusions they drew from those facts were wrong. Anything that has even a hint of dejection spiritually is always wrong. If I am depressed or burdened, I am to blame, not God or anyone else. Dejection stems from one of two sources— I have either satisfied a lust or I have not had it satisfied. In either case, dejection is the result. Lust means “I must have it at once.” Spiritual lust causes me to demand an answer from God, instead of seeking God Himself who gives the answer. What have I been hoping or trusting God would do? Is today “the third day” and He has still not done what I expected? Am I therefore justified in being dejected and in blaming God? Whenever we insist that God should give us an answer to prayer we are off track. The purpose of prayer is that we get ahold of God, not of the answer. It is impossible to be well physically and to be dejected, because dejection is a sign of sickness. This is also true spiritually. Dejection spiritually is wrong, and we are always to blame for it.
We look for visions from heaven and for earth-shaking events to see God’s power. Even the fact that we are dejected is proof that we do this. Yet we never realize that all the time God is at work in our everyday events and in the people around us. If we will only obey, and do the task that He has placed closest to us, we will see Him. One of the most amazing revelations of God comes to us when we learn that it is in the everyday things of life that we realize the magnificent deity of Jesus Christ.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Am I learning how to use my Bible? The way to become complete for the Master’s service is to be well soaked in the Bible; some of us only exploit certain passages. Our Lord wants to give us continuous instruction out of His word; continuous instruction turns hearers into disciples. Approved Unto God, 11 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, February 07, 2020
A Father's Greatest Gift - #8630
Okay, so it was one of those times when our kids were going crazy that my wife would love to repeat one of her favorite sayings, "The apple falls not far from the tree." I never did hear her say that when they did something good. Actually, I have been credited or blamed for a number of things as their father. Supposedly, my daughter has her father's nose, and some people think she got some writing ability from me. My sons have been accused of having my sense of humor, which is totally scary. I wish I could find out who has their father's hair; more and more of it is missing. Well, if you're a father, your children do have a lot of you in them, let's face it. I hope they've inherited what really matters from you.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Father's Greatest Gift."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Exodus 3:6. Moses is at the crossroads of his life. He is about to be directed by God to lead God's people out of slavery in Egypt. This is huge! God is making this awesome personal appearance to him, and He tells Moses how to approach this holy ground. And then, in a sense, He introduces Himself to this overwhelmed servant of God. Here's what the Bible says, "Then He said, 'I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.'" Now that last part of God's signature was a title He used often in Old Testament times. But what's distinctive was that God begins by telling Moses he was the God of his father.
Deep inside Moses was this buried treasure that God was opening at the burning bush - a lifetime of knowing Jehovah God. Moses had lived in pagan affluence, he'd lived in a wilderness, but no matter where he went, he carried this spiritual treasure. And who put it there? His father!
But then, a lot of our attitude toward God comes from the kind of man Dad is. After all, God has asked us to call Him Father. And when we hear about God, we tend to call up our feelings about our earthly father. Sadly, those feelings are pretty painful and negative in some young people. I've often had to remind them that God is not the father you had on earth, but he's the father you always wished you had.
As a father, you have a lot of important roles, but none is so cosmic, so eternal as planting God in your son or daughter. Our culture has this idea that spiritual stuff is a mom's business, but that's dead wrong. God didn't introduce Himself as the God of your mother, even though she was a godly woman. In Ephesians 6:4, when God gives the New Testament instruction to raise your children in the Lord, it is introduced to fathers! The spiritual buck stops with the man!
Your child is learning how important this Heavenly Father is from your teaching or how unimportant He seems to be from your silence. Your son or daughter is learning about God from how you treat them. Is "father" forgiving or unforgiving; attentive or inattentive; affectionate or detached; pure or profane; truthful or untrustworthy. Is he fair or arbitrary? Is he there for you or not there for you?
What if God were to appear to your child in their moment of crisis and say, "I am the God of your father." What kind of God would they think He is? There was a five-year-old boy in a New York hospital who was dying of leukemia. One night his father was getting ready to leave, and the boy said, "Daddy, what is God like?" The father cleared his throat a couple of times and fumbled around for an answer. The little guy could tell his dad was uncomfortable, so he just said, "Daddy, that's OK. If God's like you, then I'm not afraid." Wow!
Dad, show them that kind of God. And if you can't because you don't know Him
yourself, maybe it's time to make God your Father by trusting Jesus to be your Savior. If you want to know how to have that relationship with Him, Dad, go to our website. It's ANewStory.com.
And make sure daily you give your precious son or daughter more of God, because all a child can get from a father, that is His greatest gift of all.
Thursday, February 6, 2020
2 Chronicles 7, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: GOD’S GREAT AND PRECIOUS PROMISES
According to Peter, God’s promises aren’t just great, they are very great. They aren’t just valuable, they are precious! (2 Peter 1:4).
It is God’s great and precious promises that lead us into a new reality, a holy environment. They are direction signs intended to guide us away from the toxic swampland and into the clean air of heaven. They are strong boulders that form the bridge over which we walk from our sin to salvation.
Promises are the stitching in the spine of the Bible. Receive them. Allow them to soak you like a spring shower. Let’s be what we were intended to be —people of the Promise. Fill your heart with hope, and let the devil himself hear you declare your belief in God’s goodness! Because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!
2 Chronicles 7
When Solomon finished praying, a bolt of lightning out of heaven struck the Whole-Burnt-Offering and sacrifices and the Glory of God filled The Temple. The Glory was so dense that the priests couldn’t get in—God so filled The Temple that there was no room for the priests! When all Israel saw the fire fall from heaven and the Glory of God fill The Temple, they fell on their knees, bowed their heads, and worshiped, thanking God:
Yes! God is good!
His love never quits!
4-6 Then the king and all Israel worshiped, offering sacrifices to God. King Solomon worshiped by sacrificing 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep at the dedication of The Temple. The priests were all on duty; the choir and orchestra of Levites that David had provided for singing and playing anthems to the praise and love of God were all there; across the courtyard the priests blew trumpets. All Israelites were on their feet.
7-10 Solomon set apart the central area of the courtyard in front of God’s Temple for sacred use and there sacrificed the Whole-Burnt-Offerings, Grain-Offerings, and fat from the Peace-Offerings—the Bronze Altar was too small to handle all these offerings. This is how Solomon kept the great autumn Feast of Booths. For seven days there were people there all the way from the far northeast (the Entrance to Hamath) to the far southwest (the Brook of Egypt)—a huge congregation. They started out celebrating for seven days, and then did it for another seven days, a week for dedicating the Altar and another for the Feast itself—two solid weeks of celebration! On the twenty-third day of the seventh month Solomon dismissed his congregation. They left rejoicing, exuberant over all the good God had done for David and Solomon and his people Israel.
11 Solomon completed building The Temple of God and the royal palace—the projects he had set his heart on doing. Everything was done—success! Satisfaction!
12-18 God appeared to Solomon that very night and said, “I accept your prayer; yes, I have chosen this place as a temple for sacrifice, a house of worship. If I ever shut off the supply of rain from the skies or order the locusts to eat the crops or send a plague on my people, and my people, my God-defined people, respond by humbling themselves, praying, seeking my presence, and turning their backs on their wicked lives, I’ll be there ready for you: I’ll listen from heaven, forgive their sins, and restore their land to health. From now on I’m alert day and night to the prayers offered at this place. Believe me, I’ve chosen and sanctified this Temple that you have built: My Name is stamped on it forever; my eyes are on it and my heart in it always. As for you, if you live in my presence as your father David lived, pure in heart and action, living the life I’ve set out for you, attentively obedient to my guidance and judgments, then I’ll back your kingly rule over Israel—make it a sure thing on a sure foundation. The same covenant guarantee I gave to David your father I’m giving to you, namely, ‘You can count on always having a descendant on Israel’s throne.’
19-22 “But if you or your sons betray me, ignoring my guidance and judgments, taking up with alien gods by serving and worshiping them, then the guarantee is off: I’ll wipe Israel right off the map and repudiate this Temple I’ve just sanctified to honor my Name. And Israel will be nothing but a bad joke among the peoples of the world. And this Temple, splendid as it now is, will become an object of contempt; tourists will shake their heads, saying, ‘What happened here? What’s the story behind these ruins?’ Then they’ll be told, ‘The people who used to live here betrayed their God, the very God who rescued their ancestors from Egypt; they took up with alien gods, worshiping and serving them. That’s what’s behind this God-visited devastation.’”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, February 06, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Lamentations 2:10–13, 18–19
The elders of Daughter Zion
sit on the ground in silence;h
they have sprinkled dusti on their headsj
and put on sackcloth.k
The young women of Jerusalem
have bowed their heads to the ground.l
11 My eyes fail from weeping,m
I am in torment withinn;
my hearto is poured outp on the ground
because my people are destroyed,q
because children and infants faintr
in the streets of the city.
12 They say to their mothers,
“Where is bread and wine?”s
as they faint like the wounded
in the streets of the city,
as their lives ebb awayt
in their mothers’ arms.u
13 What can I say for you?v
With what can I compare you,
Daughterw Jerusalem?
To what can I liken you,
that I may comfort you,
Virgin Daughter Zion?x
Your wound is as deep as the sea.y
Who can heal you?
The hearts of the people
cry out to the Lord.r
You walls of Daughter Zion,s
let your tearst flow like a river
day and night;u
give yourself no relief,
your eyes no rest.v
19 Arise, cry out in the night,
as the watches of the night begin;
pour out your heartw like water
in the presence of the Lord.x
Lift up your handsy to him
for the lives of your children,
who faintz from hunger
at every street corner.
Insight
Jeremiah, known as the “weeping prophet,” is traditionally believed to be the author of Lamentations. The book contains five poems. The first four are written as acrostics using the twenty-two consonants of the Hebrew alphabet to mark the individual stanzas. The book mourns the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 587 bc when Babylon defeated the nation of Judah and took its people captive. Commentator R. K. Harrison in Jeremiah and Lamentations writes: “[The poems] make it clear that the real tragedy inherent in the destruction of Judah lies in the fact that it could almost certainly have been avoided. The actual causes of the calamity were the people themselves.” Despite the repeated warnings of God’s prophets, they chose idolatry over following the one true God.
By: Alyson Kieda
Mercy’s Lament
My heart is poured out on the ground . . . because children and infants faint in the streets of the city.
Lamentations 2:11
Her father blamed his illness on witchcraft. It was AIDS. When he died, his daughter, ten-year-old Mercy, grew even closer to her mother. But her mother was sick too, and three years later she died. From then on, Mercy’s sister raised the five siblings. That’s when Mercy began to keep a journal of her deep pain.
The prophet Jeremiah kept a record of his pain too. In the grim book of Lamentations, he wrote of atrocities done to Judah by the Babylonian army. Jeremiah’s heart was especially grieved for the youngest victims. “My heart is poured out on the ground,” he cried, “because my people are destroyed, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city” (2:11). The people of Judah had a history of ignoring God, but their children were paying the price too. “Their lives ebb away in their mothers’ arms,” wrote Jeremiah (v. 12).
We might have expected Jeremiah to reject God in the face of such suffering. Instead, he urged the survivors, “Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children” (v. 19).
It’s good, as Mercy and Jeremiah did, to pour out our hearts to God. Lament is a crucial part of being human. Even when God permits such pain, He grieves with us. Made as we are in His image, He must lament too!
By: Tim Gustafson
Reflect & Pray
How do you handle the painful situations in your life? How might it help you to write it down and share your journal with a friend?
Dear God, I’m hurting because of ____________________. You see my grief. Please show Your strength in my life today.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, February 06, 2020
Are You Ready To Be Poured Out As an Offering? (2)
I am already being poured out as a drink offering… —2 Timothy 4:6
Are you ready to be poured out as an offering? It is an act of your will, not your emotions. Tell God you are ready to be offered as a sacrifice for Him. Then accept the consequences as they come, without any complaints, in spite of what God may send your way. God sends you through a crisis in private, where no other person can help you. From the outside your life may appear to be the same, but the difference is taking place in your will. Once you have experienced the crisis in your will, you will take no thought of the cost when it begins to affect you externally. If you don’t deal with God on the level of your will first, the result will be only to arouse sympathy for yourself.
“Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar” (Psalm 118:27). You must be willing to be placed on the altar and go through the fire; willing to experience what the altar represents— burning, purification, and separation for only one purpose— the elimination of every desire and affection not grounded in or directed toward God. But you don’t eliminate it, God does. You “bind the sacrifice…to the horns of the altar” and see to it that you don’t wallow in self-pity once the fire begins. After you have gone through the fire, there will be nothing that will be able to trouble or depress you. When another crisis arises, you will realize that things cannot touch you as they used to do. What fire lies ahead in your life?
Tell God you are ready to be poured out as an offering, and God will prove Himself to be all you ever dreamed He would be.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
No one could have had a more sensitive love in human relationship than Jesus; and yet He says there are times when love to father and mother must be hatred in comparison to our love for Him. So Send I You, 1301 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, February 06, 2020
Your Personal Life Support System - #8629
You know, we celebrated not too long ago the wonderful first guys to land on the moon and walk on the moon. Neil Armstrong, of course. But, you know, when he first stepped onto the surface of the moon for his "one small step for man," he really didn't look like himself. No, he was totally wrapped up in that modern-day armor we call a space suit. Well, there is a reason of course. The moon is an environment hostile to humans. An unequipped, unprotected astronaut would have died in an instant of lunar exposure. Why? No oxygen. That big pack on his back - that was the margin of survival.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Personal Life Support System."
Now if the Apollo astronauts had depended on their surroundings for their lives, they would have died on the moon. Instead, they depended on the life-support system that they carried with them!
Actually, you don't have to go to the moon to find a hostile atmosphere to survive in. We've got that right here. Spiritually speaking, we live in an environment where the air is often pretty polluted with temptation, with totally un-God ways of thinking, with stress, with negativity. When that's pretty much what your soul breathes all day long, you end up gasping for air and sometimes going under.
What we need is something like the Apollo astronauts had; we need a life-support system that will sustain us through the bombardment of the day. But it needs to be something totally dependable and highly mobile - a life-pack that you can have with you everywhere you go. And there is one. Our word for today from the Word of God, Psalm 119:11, says, "I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You." David says, "I have planted God's words in my heart to answer the sinful pressures that are coming against me."
So what's your personal life-support system in a spiritually and emotionally hostile environment: the words of God, committed to memory, so you'll always have them when you need them. You can't always carry a Bible around with you, and if you do, you wouldn't usually have time to start looking up verses in the middle of your situation. In fact, you'd probably have to carry a concordance, too, so you'd know where to look in the Bible!
But you can always carry Scripture that you have "hidden in your heart." During the Vietnam War, and you may have heard this, there were American pilots imprisoned for years in a prison they call the "Hanoi Hilton." And they tried to piece together as much of the Bible as they could from memory. I wonder how much of a Bible you'd have if all you had was what you've memorized? In a sense, that is all you have when you're in the middle of a real life situation.
So, maybe it's time for you to get serious about a regular program of committing Bible verses to memory. What you're doing is you're actually planting the responses of God in your personality so you can respond to what's happening with a heaven-answer, not an earth-answer. How many times have I been sustained by saying Deuteronomy 33:25 aloud, "Your strength will equal your days, Ron" ... or Isaiah 40:31, "Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." How many times have I been helped by the battle cry of 2 Corinthians 10:5, "We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." Man, I'll tell you, the list of times I've been rescued by a verse that I've made my own is endless.
D.L. Moody said, "When you're thinking sin, think Scripture." You can't think Scripture if you don't know any Scripture. Our minds are cluttered with tons of earth-trivia. We need more of heaven in our heart, don't we? So, load up on heaven's oxygen - God's own words - and you'll be breathing better air all day long from that life-support system that you carry in your heart.
According to Peter, God’s promises aren’t just great, they are very great. They aren’t just valuable, they are precious! (2 Peter 1:4).
It is God’s great and precious promises that lead us into a new reality, a holy environment. They are direction signs intended to guide us away from the toxic swampland and into the clean air of heaven. They are strong boulders that form the bridge over which we walk from our sin to salvation.
Promises are the stitching in the spine of the Bible. Receive them. Allow them to soak you like a spring shower. Let’s be what we were intended to be —people of the Promise. Fill your heart with hope, and let the devil himself hear you declare your belief in God’s goodness! Because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!
2 Chronicles 7
When Solomon finished praying, a bolt of lightning out of heaven struck the Whole-Burnt-Offering and sacrifices and the Glory of God filled The Temple. The Glory was so dense that the priests couldn’t get in—God so filled The Temple that there was no room for the priests! When all Israel saw the fire fall from heaven and the Glory of God fill The Temple, they fell on their knees, bowed their heads, and worshiped, thanking God:
Yes! God is good!
His love never quits!
4-6 Then the king and all Israel worshiped, offering sacrifices to God. King Solomon worshiped by sacrificing 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep at the dedication of The Temple. The priests were all on duty; the choir and orchestra of Levites that David had provided for singing and playing anthems to the praise and love of God were all there; across the courtyard the priests blew trumpets. All Israelites were on their feet.
7-10 Solomon set apart the central area of the courtyard in front of God’s Temple for sacred use and there sacrificed the Whole-Burnt-Offerings, Grain-Offerings, and fat from the Peace-Offerings—the Bronze Altar was too small to handle all these offerings. This is how Solomon kept the great autumn Feast of Booths. For seven days there were people there all the way from the far northeast (the Entrance to Hamath) to the far southwest (the Brook of Egypt)—a huge congregation. They started out celebrating for seven days, and then did it for another seven days, a week for dedicating the Altar and another for the Feast itself—two solid weeks of celebration! On the twenty-third day of the seventh month Solomon dismissed his congregation. They left rejoicing, exuberant over all the good God had done for David and Solomon and his people Israel.
11 Solomon completed building The Temple of God and the royal palace—the projects he had set his heart on doing. Everything was done—success! Satisfaction!
12-18 God appeared to Solomon that very night and said, “I accept your prayer; yes, I have chosen this place as a temple for sacrifice, a house of worship. If I ever shut off the supply of rain from the skies or order the locusts to eat the crops or send a plague on my people, and my people, my God-defined people, respond by humbling themselves, praying, seeking my presence, and turning their backs on their wicked lives, I’ll be there ready for you: I’ll listen from heaven, forgive their sins, and restore their land to health. From now on I’m alert day and night to the prayers offered at this place. Believe me, I’ve chosen and sanctified this Temple that you have built: My Name is stamped on it forever; my eyes are on it and my heart in it always. As for you, if you live in my presence as your father David lived, pure in heart and action, living the life I’ve set out for you, attentively obedient to my guidance and judgments, then I’ll back your kingly rule over Israel—make it a sure thing on a sure foundation. The same covenant guarantee I gave to David your father I’m giving to you, namely, ‘You can count on always having a descendant on Israel’s throne.’
19-22 “But if you or your sons betray me, ignoring my guidance and judgments, taking up with alien gods by serving and worshiping them, then the guarantee is off: I’ll wipe Israel right off the map and repudiate this Temple I’ve just sanctified to honor my Name. And Israel will be nothing but a bad joke among the peoples of the world. And this Temple, splendid as it now is, will become an object of contempt; tourists will shake their heads, saying, ‘What happened here? What’s the story behind these ruins?’ Then they’ll be told, ‘The people who used to live here betrayed their God, the very God who rescued their ancestors from Egypt; they took up with alien gods, worshiping and serving them. That’s what’s behind this God-visited devastation.’”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, February 06, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Lamentations 2:10–13, 18–19
The elders of Daughter Zion
sit on the ground in silence;h
they have sprinkled dusti on their headsj
and put on sackcloth.k
The young women of Jerusalem
have bowed their heads to the ground.l
11 My eyes fail from weeping,m
I am in torment withinn;
my hearto is poured outp on the ground
because my people are destroyed,q
because children and infants faintr
in the streets of the city.
12 They say to their mothers,
“Where is bread and wine?”s
as they faint like the wounded
in the streets of the city,
as their lives ebb awayt
in their mothers’ arms.u
13 What can I say for you?v
With what can I compare you,
Daughterw Jerusalem?
To what can I liken you,
that I may comfort you,
Virgin Daughter Zion?x
Your wound is as deep as the sea.y
Who can heal you?
The hearts of the people
cry out to the Lord.r
You walls of Daughter Zion,s
let your tearst flow like a river
day and night;u
give yourself no relief,
your eyes no rest.v
19 Arise, cry out in the night,
as the watches of the night begin;
pour out your heartw like water
in the presence of the Lord.x
Lift up your handsy to him
for the lives of your children,
who faintz from hunger
at every street corner.
Insight
Jeremiah, known as the “weeping prophet,” is traditionally believed to be the author of Lamentations. The book contains five poems. The first four are written as acrostics using the twenty-two consonants of the Hebrew alphabet to mark the individual stanzas. The book mourns the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 587 bc when Babylon defeated the nation of Judah and took its people captive. Commentator R. K. Harrison in Jeremiah and Lamentations writes: “[The poems] make it clear that the real tragedy inherent in the destruction of Judah lies in the fact that it could almost certainly have been avoided. The actual causes of the calamity were the people themselves.” Despite the repeated warnings of God’s prophets, they chose idolatry over following the one true God.
By: Alyson Kieda
Mercy’s Lament
My heart is poured out on the ground . . . because children and infants faint in the streets of the city.
Lamentations 2:11
Her father blamed his illness on witchcraft. It was AIDS. When he died, his daughter, ten-year-old Mercy, grew even closer to her mother. But her mother was sick too, and three years later she died. From then on, Mercy’s sister raised the five siblings. That’s when Mercy began to keep a journal of her deep pain.
The prophet Jeremiah kept a record of his pain too. In the grim book of Lamentations, he wrote of atrocities done to Judah by the Babylonian army. Jeremiah’s heart was especially grieved for the youngest victims. “My heart is poured out on the ground,” he cried, “because my people are destroyed, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city” (2:11). The people of Judah had a history of ignoring God, but their children were paying the price too. “Their lives ebb away in their mothers’ arms,” wrote Jeremiah (v. 12).
We might have expected Jeremiah to reject God in the face of such suffering. Instead, he urged the survivors, “Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children” (v. 19).
It’s good, as Mercy and Jeremiah did, to pour out our hearts to God. Lament is a crucial part of being human. Even when God permits such pain, He grieves with us. Made as we are in His image, He must lament too!
By: Tim Gustafson
Reflect & Pray
How do you handle the painful situations in your life? How might it help you to write it down and share your journal with a friend?
Dear God, I’m hurting because of ____________________. You see my grief. Please show Your strength in my life today.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, February 06, 2020
Are You Ready To Be Poured Out As an Offering? (2)
I am already being poured out as a drink offering… —2 Timothy 4:6
Are you ready to be poured out as an offering? It is an act of your will, not your emotions. Tell God you are ready to be offered as a sacrifice for Him. Then accept the consequences as they come, without any complaints, in spite of what God may send your way. God sends you through a crisis in private, where no other person can help you. From the outside your life may appear to be the same, but the difference is taking place in your will. Once you have experienced the crisis in your will, you will take no thought of the cost when it begins to affect you externally. If you don’t deal with God on the level of your will first, the result will be only to arouse sympathy for yourself.
“Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar” (Psalm 118:27). You must be willing to be placed on the altar and go through the fire; willing to experience what the altar represents— burning, purification, and separation for only one purpose— the elimination of every desire and affection not grounded in or directed toward God. But you don’t eliminate it, God does. You “bind the sacrifice…to the horns of the altar” and see to it that you don’t wallow in self-pity once the fire begins. After you have gone through the fire, there will be nothing that will be able to trouble or depress you. When another crisis arises, you will realize that things cannot touch you as they used to do. What fire lies ahead in your life?
Tell God you are ready to be poured out as an offering, and God will prove Himself to be all you ever dreamed He would be.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
No one could have had a more sensitive love in human relationship than Jesus; and yet He says there are times when love to father and mother must be hatred in comparison to our love for Him. So Send I You, 1301 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, February 06, 2020
Your Personal Life Support System - #8629
You know, we celebrated not too long ago the wonderful first guys to land on the moon and walk on the moon. Neil Armstrong, of course. But, you know, when he first stepped onto the surface of the moon for his "one small step for man," he really didn't look like himself. No, he was totally wrapped up in that modern-day armor we call a space suit. Well, there is a reason of course. The moon is an environment hostile to humans. An unequipped, unprotected astronaut would have died in an instant of lunar exposure. Why? No oxygen. That big pack on his back - that was the margin of survival.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Personal Life Support System."
Now if the Apollo astronauts had depended on their surroundings for their lives, they would have died on the moon. Instead, they depended on the life-support system that they carried with them!
Actually, you don't have to go to the moon to find a hostile atmosphere to survive in. We've got that right here. Spiritually speaking, we live in an environment where the air is often pretty polluted with temptation, with totally un-God ways of thinking, with stress, with negativity. When that's pretty much what your soul breathes all day long, you end up gasping for air and sometimes going under.
What we need is something like the Apollo astronauts had; we need a life-support system that will sustain us through the bombardment of the day. But it needs to be something totally dependable and highly mobile - a life-pack that you can have with you everywhere you go. And there is one. Our word for today from the Word of God, Psalm 119:11, says, "I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You." David says, "I have planted God's words in my heart to answer the sinful pressures that are coming against me."
So what's your personal life-support system in a spiritually and emotionally hostile environment: the words of God, committed to memory, so you'll always have them when you need them. You can't always carry a Bible around with you, and if you do, you wouldn't usually have time to start looking up verses in the middle of your situation. In fact, you'd probably have to carry a concordance, too, so you'd know where to look in the Bible!
But you can always carry Scripture that you have "hidden in your heart." During the Vietnam War, and you may have heard this, there were American pilots imprisoned for years in a prison they call the "Hanoi Hilton." And they tried to piece together as much of the Bible as they could from memory. I wonder how much of a Bible you'd have if all you had was what you've memorized? In a sense, that is all you have when you're in the middle of a real life situation.
So, maybe it's time for you to get serious about a regular program of committing Bible verses to memory. What you're doing is you're actually planting the responses of God in your personality so you can respond to what's happening with a heaven-answer, not an earth-answer. How many times have I been sustained by saying Deuteronomy 33:25 aloud, "Your strength will equal your days, Ron" ... or Isaiah 40:31, "Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." How many times have I been helped by the battle cry of 2 Corinthians 10:5, "We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." Man, I'll tell you, the list of times I've been rescued by a verse that I've made my own is endless.
D.L. Moody said, "When you're thinking sin, think Scripture." You can't think Scripture if you don't know any Scripture. Our minds are cluttered with tons of earth-trivia. We need more of heaven in our heart, don't we? So, load up on heaven's oxygen - God's own words - and you'll be breathing better air all day long from that life-support system that you carry in your heart.
Wednesday, February 5, 2020
2 Corinthians 1, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: IT’S A SHAKY WORLD
It’s a shaky world out there. Could you use some unshakable hope? We live in a day of despair. The suicide rate in America has increased 24 percent since 1999. How do we explain the increase? We’ve never been more educated. We’re saturated with entertainment and recreation. Yet more people than ever are orchestrating their own deaths. How could this be?
Among the answers must be that people are dying for lack of hope. Secularism reduces the world to a few decades between birth and hearse. Many believe this world is as good as it gets. But people of the promise have an advantage. They are like Abraham who didn’t ask skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong. (Romans 4:20 MSG) Because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!
2 Corinthians 1
I, Paul, have been sent on a special mission by the Messiah, Jesus, planned by God himself. I write this to God’s congregation in Corinth, and to believers all over Achaia province. May all the gifts and benefits that come from God our Father and the Master, Jesus Christ, be yours! Timothy, someone you know and trust, joins me in this greeting.
3-5 All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort—we get a full measure of that, too.
6-7 When we suffer for Jesus, it works out for your healing and salvation. If we are treated well, given a helping hand and encouraging word, that also works to your benefit, spurring you on, face forward, unflinching. Your hard times are also our hard times. When we see that you’re just as willing to endure the hard times as to enjoy the good times, we know you’re going to make it, no doubt about it.
8-11 We don’t want you in the dark, friends, about how hard it was when all this came down on us in Asia province. It was so bad we didn’t think we were going to make it. We felt like we’d been sent to death row, that it was all over for us. As it turned out, it was the best thing that could have happened. Instead of trusting in our own strength or wits to get out of it, we were forced to trust God totally—not a bad idea since he’s the God who raises the dead! And he did it, rescued us from certain doom. And he’ll do it again, rescuing us as many times as we need rescuing. You and your prayers are part of the rescue operation—I don’t want you in the dark about that either. I can see your faces even now, lifted in praise for God’s deliverance of us, a rescue in which your prayers played such a crucial part.
12-14 Now that the worst is over, we’re pleased we can report that we’ve come out of this with conscience and faith intact, and can face the world—and even more importantly, face you with our heads held high. But it wasn’t by any fancy footwork on our part. It was God who kept us focused on him, uncompromised. Don’t try to read between the lines or look for hidden meanings in this letter. We’re writing plain, unembellished truth, hoping that you’ll now see the whole picture as well as you’ve seen some of the details. We want you to be as proud of us as we are of you when we stand together before our Master Jesus.
15-16 Confident of your welcome, I had originally planned two great visits with you—coming by on my way to Macedonia province, and then again on my return trip. Then we could have had a bon-voyage party as you sent me off to Judea. That was the plan.
17-19 Are you now going to accuse me of being flip with my promises because it didn’t work out? Do you think I talk out of both sides of my mouth—a glib yes one moment, a glib no the next? Well, you’re wrong. I try to be as true to my word as God is to his. Our word to you wasn’t a careless yes canceled by an indifferent no. How could it be? When Silas and Timothy and I proclaimed the Son of God among you, did you pick up on any yes-and-no, on-again, off-again waffling? Wasn’t it a clean, strong Yes?
20-22 Whatever God has promised gets stamped with the Yes of Jesus. In him, this is what we preach and pray, the great Amen, God’s Yes and our Yes together, gloriously evident. God affirms us, making us a sure thing in Christ, putting his Yes within us. By his Spirit he has stamped us with his eternal pledge—a sure beginning of what he is destined to complete.
23 Now, are you ready for the real reason I didn’t visit you in Corinth? As God is my witness, the only reason I didn’t come was to spare you pain. I was being considerate of you, not indifferent, not manipulative.
24 We’re not in charge of how you live out the faith, looking over your shoulders, suspiciously critical. We’re partners, working alongside you, joyfully expectant. I know that you stand by your own faith, not by ours.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, February 05, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
1 John 2:18–27
Warnings Against Denying the Son
Dear children, this is the last hour;o and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming,p even now many antichrists have come.q This is how we know it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us,r but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.s
20 But you have an anointingt from the Holy One,u and all of you know the truth.e v 21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know itw and because no lie comes from the truth. 22 Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son.x 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.y
24 As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginningz remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.a 25 And this is what he promised us—eternal life.b
26 I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.c 27 As for you, the anointingd you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all thingse and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.f
Insight
John was one of Christ’s first disciples (along with Andrew; see John 1:35–40). Scholars believe he was the only one of Christ’s faithful eleven disciples who wasn’t martyred for his faith. It’s also largely agreed that his writing ministry (the gospel of John; 1, 2, and 3 John; and Revelation) came late in life—perhaps in ad 80–90. John never names himself in his own gospel, but usually describes himself as “one of them” (John 13:23) or “one of His disciples” (esv), “another disciple” (18:15), or “the other disciple” (20:2, 4). Most often, however, he refers to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7; 21:20). By: Bill Crowder
How to Stay on Track
The Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true—it is not a lie. 1 John 2:27 nlt
As the world’s fastest blind runner, David Brown of the U.S. Paralympic Team credits his wins to God, his mother’s early advice (“no sitting around”), and his running guide—veteran sprinter Jerome Avery. Tethered to Brown by a string tied to their fingers, Avery guides Brown’s winning races with words and touches.
“It’s all about listening to his cues,” says Brown, who says he could “swing out wide” on 200-meter races where the track curves. “Day in and day out, we’re going over race strategies,” Brown says, “communicating with each other—not only verbal cues, but physical cues.”
In our own life’s race, we’re blessed with a Divine Guide. Our Helper, the Holy Spirit, leads our steps when we follow Him. “I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray,” wrote John (1 John 2:26). “But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know” (v. 27 nlt).
John stressed this wisdom to the believers of his day who faced “antichrists” who denied the Father and that Jesus is the Messiah (v. 22). We face such deniers today as well. But the Holy Spirit, our Guide, leads us in following Jesus. We can trust His guidance to touch us with truth, keeping us on track. By: Patricia Raybon
Reflect & Pray
How attuned are you to the Holy Spirit’s guidance? How can you listen better when He guides, warns, and directs?
Dear God, attune our hearts to Your Holy Spirit’s guidance so we’ll run to Your truth and not to lies.
Read about the filling of the Spirit at discoveryseries.org/q0301.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, February 05, 2020
Are You Ready To Be Poured Out As an Offering? (1)
If I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. —Philippians 2:17
Are you willing to sacrifice yourself for the work of another believer—to pour out your life sacrificially for the ministry and faith of others? Or do you say, “I am not willing to be poured out right now, and I don’t want God to tell me how to serve Him. I want to choose the place of my own sacrifice. And I want to have certain people watching me and saying, ‘Well done.’ ”
It is one thing to follow God’s way of service if you are regarded as a hero, but quite another thing if the road marked out for you by God requires becoming a “doormat” under other people’s feet. God’s purpose may be to teach you to say, “I know how to be abased…” (Philippians 4:12). Are you ready to be sacrificed like that? Are you ready to be less than a mere drop in the bucket— to be so totally insignificant that no one remembers you even if they think of those you served? Are you willing to give and be poured out until you are used up and exhausted— not seeking to be ministered to, but to minister? Some saints cannot do menial work while maintaining a saintly attitude, because they feel such service is beneath their dignity.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Beware of pronouncing any verdict on the life of faith if you are not living it. Not Knowing Whither, 900 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, February 05, 2020
Catching the Golden Moment - #8628
My wife was a really gifted photographer. Actually, she missed some memorable photographs because of her husband. See, I was in too much of a hurry to stop. Here's how the scenario went, "Honey, look at that picture!" Well, I don't see what she sees. But there is one there, and it's usually some beautiful scene somewhere we were driving. And on several occasions I would say, "Hey, you know we'll be back this way a little later. Why don't we get it then?" Somehow the same picture isn't there later. The same objects are usually there, but the lighting, the shadows, the mood; the magic moment has changed. I remember one time we were driving along in New England, and there was this cabin nestled back in the woods in this little valley, and a beautiful rainbow over that. And I said...Now, here was a really smart guy, "Honey, listen, we'll be back in just a few minutes." Well, now, you know that picture wasn't there a few minutes later. Duh! It's amazing how there's this brief...I guess you'd call it a window during which you can capture the scene, and then it's gone. It might be the same players and the same setting, but the golden moment is gone.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Catching the Golden Moment."
Our word for today from the Word of God is in John 9:4. And Jesus here is in contact with a man who's been blind from birth. He's discussing how this man's blindness is going to provide an opportunity for the power of God to be displayed. And then Jesus says in these well-known words, "As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him who sent Me. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
Jesus is describing here what I like to call the work of God window. It's a brief opening during which you can accomplish a spiritual objective. And then just like those photo opportunities that we've missed, the golden moment passes...maybe forever. Jesus refers to it as the time during which it is day, before the night comes.
There's a special timing in God's work, and we need to be able to see it. We need to be able to tell what time it is in our lives and other people's lives and God's timetable in some person's life. When the window opens to get a job done for Him, you drop everything and you work like mad. Now the work of God window might be a teachable moment that suddenly arises in the life of one of your children, or a friend, or a family member. Jump on that moment. It won't be there long.
Or, we usually want to teach them when we want to teach them, when it's convenient. But the wise believer waits for that opening that comes in their life through some circumstances - some incident. And you say, "Whoa! This is the time to talk about it, isn't it?" Someone who's been closed perhaps to the message of Christ is suddenly needing what you can give. So you drop your scheduled agenda and seize that moment.
These ministry windows come in the lives of individuals that we know, they come in churches, they come in Christian ministries, and they come in the lives of our children. Suddenly there's this unexpected season of opportunity. Jesus said, "Grab it while it's there; while it's day." A circle of friends might be, for just a short time, suddenly open to hearing God's perspective. Or maybe a team you're on, or a workplace you're in, or maybe in a dorm. It could be God is moving in your life and getting you to a place of greater usefulness for Him. Take that opportunity right now. Maybe that door will never be open like this again.
Our mission is to wake up in the morning and begin looking for the window that day may hold. And it might be a surprise! When spiritual opportunity opens up, respond even if it means you have to drop your plans or change your plans. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you that nudge and listen to those Spirit promptings. Like a farmer r
acing the harvest, work hard till it's dark...till the window closes. The picture may never look like this again, and it won't look like this for long. So, hey, grab this golden moment.
It’s a shaky world out there. Could you use some unshakable hope? We live in a day of despair. The suicide rate in America has increased 24 percent since 1999. How do we explain the increase? We’ve never been more educated. We’re saturated with entertainment and recreation. Yet more people than ever are orchestrating their own deaths. How could this be?
Among the answers must be that people are dying for lack of hope. Secularism reduces the world to a few decades between birth and hearse. Many believe this world is as good as it gets. But people of the promise have an advantage. They are like Abraham who didn’t ask skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong. (Romans 4:20 MSG) Because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!
2 Corinthians 1
I, Paul, have been sent on a special mission by the Messiah, Jesus, planned by God himself. I write this to God’s congregation in Corinth, and to believers all over Achaia province. May all the gifts and benefits that come from God our Father and the Master, Jesus Christ, be yours! Timothy, someone you know and trust, joins me in this greeting.
3-5 All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort—we get a full measure of that, too.
6-7 When we suffer for Jesus, it works out for your healing and salvation. If we are treated well, given a helping hand and encouraging word, that also works to your benefit, spurring you on, face forward, unflinching. Your hard times are also our hard times. When we see that you’re just as willing to endure the hard times as to enjoy the good times, we know you’re going to make it, no doubt about it.
8-11 We don’t want you in the dark, friends, about how hard it was when all this came down on us in Asia province. It was so bad we didn’t think we were going to make it. We felt like we’d been sent to death row, that it was all over for us. As it turned out, it was the best thing that could have happened. Instead of trusting in our own strength or wits to get out of it, we were forced to trust God totally—not a bad idea since he’s the God who raises the dead! And he did it, rescued us from certain doom. And he’ll do it again, rescuing us as many times as we need rescuing. You and your prayers are part of the rescue operation—I don’t want you in the dark about that either. I can see your faces even now, lifted in praise for God’s deliverance of us, a rescue in which your prayers played such a crucial part.
12-14 Now that the worst is over, we’re pleased we can report that we’ve come out of this with conscience and faith intact, and can face the world—and even more importantly, face you with our heads held high. But it wasn’t by any fancy footwork on our part. It was God who kept us focused on him, uncompromised. Don’t try to read between the lines or look for hidden meanings in this letter. We’re writing plain, unembellished truth, hoping that you’ll now see the whole picture as well as you’ve seen some of the details. We want you to be as proud of us as we are of you when we stand together before our Master Jesus.
15-16 Confident of your welcome, I had originally planned two great visits with you—coming by on my way to Macedonia province, and then again on my return trip. Then we could have had a bon-voyage party as you sent me off to Judea. That was the plan.
17-19 Are you now going to accuse me of being flip with my promises because it didn’t work out? Do you think I talk out of both sides of my mouth—a glib yes one moment, a glib no the next? Well, you’re wrong. I try to be as true to my word as God is to his. Our word to you wasn’t a careless yes canceled by an indifferent no. How could it be? When Silas and Timothy and I proclaimed the Son of God among you, did you pick up on any yes-and-no, on-again, off-again waffling? Wasn’t it a clean, strong Yes?
20-22 Whatever God has promised gets stamped with the Yes of Jesus. In him, this is what we preach and pray, the great Amen, God’s Yes and our Yes together, gloriously evident. God affirms us, making us a sure thing in Christ, putting his Yes within us. By his Spirit he has stamped us with his eternal pledge—a sure beginning of what he is destined to complete.
23 Now, are you ready for the real reason I didn’t visit you in Corinth? As God is my witness, the only reason I didn’t come was to spare you pain. I was being considerate of you, not indifferent, not manipulative.
24 We’re not in charge of how you live out the faith, looking over your shoulders, suspiciously critical. We’re partners, working alongside you, joyfully expectant. I know that you stand by your own faith, not by ours.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, February 05, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
1 John 2:18–27
Warnings Against Denying the Son
Dear children, this is the last hour;o and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming,p even now many antichrists have come.q This is how we know it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us,r but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.s
20 But you have an anointingt from the Holy One,u and all of you know the truth.e v 21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know itw and because no lie comes from the truth. 22 Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son.x 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.y
24 As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginningz remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.a 25 And this is what he promised us—eternal life.b
26 I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.c 27 As for you, the anointingd you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all thingse and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.f
Insight
John was one of Christ’s first disciples (along with Andrew; see John 1:35–40). Scholars believe he was the only one of Christ’s faithful eleven disciples who wasn’t martyred for his faith. It’s also largely agreed that his writing ministry (the gospel of John; 1, 2, and 3 John; and Revelation) came late in life—perhaps in ad 80–90. John never names himself in his own gospel, but usually describes himself as “one of them” (John 13:23) or “one of His disciples” (esv), “another disciple” (18:15), or “the other disciple” (20:2, 4). Most often, however, he refers to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7; 21:20). By: Bill Crowder
How to Stay on Track
The Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true—it is not a lie. 1 John 2:27 nlt
As the world’s fastest blind runner, David Brown of the U.S. Paralympic Team credits his wins to God, his mother’s early advice (“no sitting around”), and his running guide—veteran sprinter Jerome Avery. Tethered to Brown by a string tied to their fingers, Avery guides Brown’s winning races with words and touches.
“It’s all about listening to his cues,” says Brown, who says he could “swing out wide” on 200-meter races where the track curves. “Day in and day out, we’re going over race strategies,” Brown says, “communicating with each other—not only verbal cues, but physical cues.”
In our own life’s race, we’re blessed with a Divine Guide. Our Helper, the Holy Spirit, leads our steps when we follow Him. “I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray,” wrote John (1 John 2:26). “But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know” (v. 27 nlt).
John stressed this wisdom to the believers of his day who faced “antichrists” who denied the Father and that Jesus is the Messiah (v. 22). We face such deniers today as well. But the Holy Spirit, our Guide, leads us in following Jesus. We can trust His guidance to touch us with truth, keeping us on track. By: Patricia Raybon
Reflect & Pray
How attuned are you to the Holy Spirit’s guidance? How can you listen better when He guides, warns, and directs?
Dear God, attune our hearts to Your Holy Spirit’s guidance so we’ll run to Your truth and not to lies.
Read about the filling of the Spirit at discoveryseries.org/q0301.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, February 05, 2020
Are You Ready To Be Poured Out As an Offering? (1)
If I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. —Philippians 2:17
Are you willing to sacrifice yourself for the work of another believer—to pour out your life sacrificially for the ministry and faith of others? Or do you say, “I am not willing to be poured out right now, and I don’t want God to tell me how to serve Him. I want to choose the place of my own sacrifice. And I want to have certain people watching me and saying, ‘Well done.’ ”
It is one thing to follow God’s way of service if you are regarded as a hero, but quite another thing if the road marked out for you by God requires becoming a “doormat” under other people’s feet. God’s purpose may be to teach you to say, “I know how to be abased…” (Philippians 4:12). Are you ready to be sacrificed like that? Are you ready to be less than a mere drop in the bucket— to be so totally insignificant that no one remembers you even if they think of those you served? Are you willing to give and be poured out until you are used up and exhausted— not seeking to be ministered to, but to minister? Some saints cannot do menial work while maintaining a saintly attitude, because they feel such service is beneath their dignity.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Beware of pronouncing any verdict on the life of faith if you are not living it. Not Knowing Whither, 900 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, February 05, 2020
Catching the Golden Moment - #8628
My wife was a really gifted photographer. Actually, she missed some memorable photographs because of her husband. See, I was in too much of a hurry to stop. Here's how the scenario went, "Honey, look at that picture!" Well, I don't see what she sees. But there is one there, and it's usually some beautiful scene somewhere we were driving. And on several occasions I would say, "Hey, you know we'll be back this way a little later. Why don't we get it then?" Somehow the same picture isn't there later. The same objects are usually there, but the lighting, the shadows, the mood; the magic moment has changed. I remember one time we were driving along in New England, and there was this cabin nestled back in the woods in this little valley, and a beautiful rainbow over that. And I said...Now, here was a really smart guy, "Honey, listen, we'll be back in just a few minutes." Well, now, you know that picture wasn't there a few minutes later. Duh! It's amazing how there's this brief...I guess you'd call it a window during which you can capture the scene, and then it's gone. It might be the same players and the same setting, but the golden moment is gone.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Catching the Golden Moment."
Our word for today from the Word of God is in John 9:4. And Jesus here is in contact with a man who's been blind from birth. He's discussing how this man's blindness is going to provide an opportunity for the power of God to be displayed. And then Jesus says in these well-known words, "As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him who sent Me. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
Jesus is describing here what I like to call the work of God window. It's a brief opening during which you can accomplish a spiritual objective. And then just like those photo opportunities that we've missed, the golden moment passes...maybe forever. Jesus refers to it as the time during which it is day, before the night comes.
There's a special timing in God's work, and we need to be able to see it. We need to be able to tell what time it is in our lives and other people's lives and God's timetable in some person's life. When the window opens to get a job done for Him, you drop everything and you work like mad. Now the work of God window might be a teachable moment that suddenly arises in the life of one of your children, or a friend, or a family member. Jump on that moment. It won't be there long.
Or, we usually want to teach them when we want to teach them, when it's convenient. But the wise believer waits for that opening that comes in their life through some circumstances - some incident. And you say, "Whoa! This is the time to talk about it, isn't it?" Someone who's been closed perhaps to the message of Christ is suddenly needing what you can give. So you drop your scheduled agenda and seize that moment.
These ministry windows come in the lives of individuals that we know, they come in churches, they come in Christian ministries, and they come in the lives of our children. Suddenly there's this unexpected season of opportunity. Jesus said, "Grab it while it's there; while it's day." A circle of friends might be, for just a short time, suddenly open to hearing God's perspective. Or maybe a team you're on, or a workplace you're in, or maybe in a dorm. It could be God is moving in your life and getting you to a place of greater usefulness for Him. Take that opportunity right now. Maybe that door will never be open like this again.
Our mission is to wake up in the morning and begin looking for the window that day may hold. And it might be a surprise! When spiritual opportunity opens up, respond even if it means you have to drop your plans or change your plans. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you that nudge and listen to those Spirit promptings. Like a farmer r
acing the harvest, work hard till it's dark...till the window closes. The picture may never look like this again, and it won't look like this for long. So, hey, grab this golden moment.
Tuesday, February 4, 2020
2 Chronicles 6 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: OUR DEPENDABLE GOD
From the first chapter of Scripture, the Bible makes a case for the dependability of God. Without exception when God spoke, something wonderful happened. By divine fiat there was light, land, beaches, and creatures. God consulted no advisers. He needed no assistance. “For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm” (Psalm 33:9).
The same power is seen in Jesus. He is unchanging. He’s never caught off guard by the unexpected. “God never changes or casts a shifting shadow” (James 1:17). God is strong. He does not overpromise and under deliver. “God is able to do whatever he promises” (Romans 4:21).
“It is impossible for God to lie” (Hebrews 6:18). God will keep his promises! It must happen because of who God is! And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!
2 Chronicles 6
Then Solomon said,
God said he would dwell in a cloud,
But I’ve built a temple most splendid,
A place for you to live in forever.
3 The king then turned to face the congregation that had come together and blessed them:
4-6 “Blessed be God, the God of Israel, who spoke personally to my father David. Now he has done what he promised when he said, ‘From the day I brought my people Israel up from Egypt, I haven’t set apart one city among the tribes of Israel in which to build a temple to honor my Name, or chosen one person to be the leader. But now I have chosen both a city and a person: Jerusalem for honoring my Name and David to lead my people Israel.’
7-9 “My father David very much wanted to build a temple honoring the Name of God, the God of Israel, but God told him, ‘It was good that you wanted to build a temple in my honor—most commendable! But you are not the one to do it. Your son, who will carry on your dynasty, will build it for my Name.’
10-11 “And now you see the promise completed. God has done what he said he would do; I have succeeded David my father and now rule Israel; and I have built a temple to honor God, the God of Israel, and have secured a place for the Chest that holds the Covenant of God, the covenant he made with the people of Israel.”
12-16 Before the entire congregation of Israel, Solomon took his position at the Altar of God and stretched out his hands. Solomon had made a bronze dais seven and a half feet square and four and a half feet high and placed it inside the court; that’s where he now stood. Then he knelt in full view of the whole congregation, stretched his hands to heaven, and prayed:
God, O God of Israel, there is no God like you in the skies above or on the earth below, who unswervingly keeps covenant with his servants and unfailingly loves them while they sincerely live in obedience to your way. You kept your word to David my father, your promise. You did exactly what you promised—every detail. The proof is before us today!
Keep it up, God, O God of Israel! Continue to keep the promises you made to David my father when you said, “You’ll always have a descendant to represent my rule on Israel’s throne, on the one condition that your sons are as careful to live obediently in my presence as you have.”
17 O God, God of Israel, let this all happen—
confirm and establish it!
18-21 Can it be that God will actually move into our neighborhood? Why, the cosmos itself isn’t large enough to give you breathing room, let alone this Temple I’ve built. Even so, I’m bold to ask: Pay attention to these my prayers, both intercessory and personal, O God, my God. Listen to my prayers, energetic and devout, that I’m setting before you right now. Keep your eyes open to this Temple day and night, this place you promised to dignify with your Name. And listen to the prayers that I pray in this place. And listen to your people Israel when they pray at this place.
Listen from your home in heaven
and when you hear, forgive.
22 When someone hurts a neighbor and promises to make things right, and then comes and repeats the promise before your Altar in this Temple,
23 Listen from heaven and act;
judge your servants, making the offender pay for the offense
And set the offended free,
dismissing all charges.
24-25 When your people Israel are beaten by an enemy because they’ve sinned against you, but then turn to you and acknowledge your rule in prayers desperate and devout in this Temple,
Listen from your home in heaven;
forgive the sin of your people Israel,
return them to the land you gave to them and their ancestors.
26-27 When the skies shrivel up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, but then they pray at this place, acknowledging your rule and quit their sins because you have scourged them,
Listen from your home in heaven,
forgive the sins of your servants, your people Israel.
Then start over with them;
train them to live right and well;
Send rain on the land
you gave as inheritance to your people.
28-31 When disasters strike, famine or catastrophe, crop failure or disease, locust or beetle, or when an enemy attacks their defenses—calamity of any sort—any prayer that’s prayed from anyone at all among your people Israel, their hearts penetrated by disaster, hands and arms thrown out for help to this Temple,
Listen from your home in heaven, forgive and reward us:
reward each life and circumstance,
For you know each life from the inside,
(you’re the only one with such inside knowledge!),
So they’ll live before you in lifelong reverence and believing
obedience on this land you gave our ancestors.
32 And don’t forget the foreigner who is not a member of your people Israel but has come from a far country because of your reputation—people are going to be attracted here by your great reputation, your wonderworking power—and who come to pray to this Temple.
33 Listen from your home in heaven
and honor the prayers of the foreigner,
So that people all over the world
will know who you are and what you’re like,
And live in reverent obedience before you,
just as your own people Israel do,
So they’ll know that you personally
make this Temple that I’ve built what it is.
34-35 When your people go to war against their enemies at the time and place you send them and they pray to God toward the city you chose and The Temple I’ve built to honor your Name,
Listen from heaven to what they pray and ask for
and do what is right for them.
36-39 When they sin against you—and they certainly will; there’s no one without sin!—and in anger you turn them over to the enemy and they are taken captive to the enemy’s land, whether far or near, but repent in the country of their captivity and pray with changed hearts in their exile, “We’ve sinned; we’ve done wrong; we’ve been most wicked,” and turn back to you heart and soul in the land of the enemy who conquered them, and pray to you toward their homeland, the land you gave their ancestors, toward the city you chose, and this Temple I have built to the honor of your Name,
Listen from your home in heaven
to their prayers desperate and devout;
Do what is best for them.
Forgive your people who have sinned against you.
40 And now, dear God, be alert and attentive to prayer, all prayer, offered in this place.
41-42 Up, God, enjoy your new place of quiet repose,
you and your mighty covenant Chest;
Dress your priests up in salvation clothes,
let your holy people celebrate goodness.
And don’t, God, back out on your anointed ones,
keep in mind the love promised to David your servant.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, February 04, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Matthew 5:43–48
Love for Enemies
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbori z and hate your enemy.’a 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,b 45 that you may be childrenc of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.d 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?e Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.f
Insight
One of Israel’s earliest national laws commanded them to treat their enemies with benevolence and respect (Exodus 23:4–5). In Matthew 5:43–48, Jesus clarified why this was commanded. In loving our enemies, we’re emulating the generosity and kindness that God our Father has shown to all men, including the wicked (v. 45). Paul similarly called us not to “repay anyone evil for evil” (Romans 12:17). Instead, we’re to “overcome evil with good” (v. 21). We can do this because we can trust God to administer justice (v. 19).
God-Sized Love
If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Matthew 5:46
I once visited an impoverished neighborhood of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. Homes were made of corrugated iron, with electrical wires dangling live above them. There I had the privilege of interviewing families and hearing how churches were helping to combat unemployment, drug use, and crime.
In one alleyway I climbed a rickety ladder to a small room to interview a mother and her son. But just a moment later someone rushed up, saying, “We must leave now.” A machete-wielding gang leader was apparently gathering a mob to ambush us.
We visited a second neighborhood, but there we had no problem. Later I discovered why. As I visited each home, a gang leader stood outside guarding us. It turned out his daughter was being fed and educated by the church, and because believers were standing by her, he stood by us.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus presents a standard of love that’s beyond comparison. This kind of love embraces not just the “worthy” but the undeserving (Matthew 5:43–45), reaching beyond family and friends to touch those who can’t or won’t love us back (vv. 46–47). This is God-sized love (v. 48)—the kind that blesses everyone.
As believers in Santo Domingo live out this love, neighborhoods are starting to change. Tough hearts are warming to their cause. That’s what happens when God-sized love comes to town. By: Sheridan Voysey
Reflect & Pray
How would you describe the difference between human love and godly love? Who can you bless today who can’t repay you?
Jesus, pour Your love into me so I may pour it out to others—even to those who can’t repay the favor.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, February 04, 2020
The Compelling Majesty of His Power
The love of Christ compels us… —2 Corinthians 5:14
Paul said that he was overpowered, subdued, and held as in a vise by “the love of Christ.” Very few of us really know what it means to be held in the grip of the love of God. We tend so often to be controlled simply by our own experience. The one thing that gripped and held Paul, to the exclusion of everything else, was the love of God. “The love of Christ compels us….” When you hear that coming from the life of a man or woman it is unmistakable. You will know that the Spirit of God is completely unhindered in that person’s life.
When we are born again by the Spirit of God, our testimony is based solely on what God has done for us, and rightly so. But that will change and be removed forever once you “receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…” (Acts 1:8). Only then will you begin to realize what Jesus meant when He went on to say, “…you shall be witnesses to Me….” Not witnesses to what Jesus can do— that is basic and understood— but “witnesses to Me….” We will accept everything that happens as if it were happening to Him, whether we receive praise or blame, persecution or reward. No one is able to take this stand for Jesus Christ who is not totally compelled by the majesty of His power. It is the only thing that matters, and yet it is strange that it’s the last thing we as Christian workers realize. Paul said that he was gripped by the love of God and that is why he acted as he did. People could perceive him as mad or sane— he did not care. There was only one thing he lived for— to persuade people of the coming judgment of God and to tell them of “the love of Christ.” This total surrender to “the love of Christ” is the only thing that will bear fruit in your life. And it will always leave the mark of God’s holiness and His power, never drawing attention to your personal holiness.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The great point of Abraham’s faith in God was that he was prepared to do anything for God. Not Knowing Whither, 903 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, February 04, 2020
So Beautiful, So Dead - #8627
Flowers are always special. They just seem kind of more special in the winter. There was a lady who worked in our ministry offices and she had some flowers on her desk. I stopped by to pick up some work, and there I saw these beautiful flowers in a vase. That's pretty significant. I mean, after all, how many times do the words "man" and "notice" ever go together in the same sentence, right? Actually, I noticed a few more times as I hustled down the hall past her door. Then I actually put on the brakes for a moment and I stuck my head in to smell the flowers on her desk. It wasn't worth the stop. There was no smell. They're fake!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "So Beautiful, So Dead."
Those flowers can sure fool you. They look so real, but they have no life. Just like so many folks who look like they really belong to Jesus Christ, but there's no life there. Jesus warned us about this fatal difference in His story about God's Kingdom being like a wheat field where wheat grows right next to another grass that looks just like wheat. Jesus said no man can tell which is the real wheat until harvest time, or Judgment Day. Then the "wheat" will be gathered into heaven and the wheat lookalike will be burned.
In another place, Jesus describes people who will come before Him on Judgment Day, talking all the right Christian words and beliefs and activities. They've got the resume, but He'll tell them, "I never knew you." That's frightening stuff. You can see why the Bible said in 2 Corinthians 13:5, which is our word for today from the Word of God, "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you - unless, of course, you fail the test?" The time to realize that you know about Jesus but you don't know Him is now, not when you're standing before Him, because then it's too late.
Just like those artificial flowers that are so beautiful but so dead. It's so easy to look like someone who belongs to Jesus but not really know Him. Especially if you've been around Jesus most of your life. You know the words. You believe the beliefs. You try to do the right things. You go to the right meetings. You give to the right things. And, quite possibly, everyone around you assumes you belong to Him except Jesus. And He's the only one who matters.
That "examine yourself" verse says to make sure "Christ Jesus is in you." A lot of people have Jesus around them, but not in them because there's never been a time when they consciously, personally really opened up their life to Him. He can be in your head, but not in your heart. Which means you will miss heaven by eighteen inches. That's how far it is from your head to your heart. And God says, "It is with the heart man believes and is saved" (Romans 10:9).
One night I went into a church not married. The woman I wanted to marry came down the aisle. We stood in front of the minister. We walked out together, but I left still not married. It was the rehearsal. The next night, same woman, same man, s
ame minister, same aisle, but this time I walked out married. The first night I was just going through the motions. The second night I committed my life to her. Maybe you've been going through all the motions of knowing Jesus. But somewhere, you've missed the step of saying, "Jesus, I know what you did on that cross was for me. And you're my only hope. Beginning right here, beginning right now, I'm Yours!" That's when you give yourself to Him.
If you know you've done that, you really do belong to Him. If you don't know you've done that, you probably haven't. But that could change today. And what a relief, what a difference there's going to be when you're His for real.
Let me encourage you to say today, "Jesus, I'm yours." And to go to our website. Right there I think I can help walk you through the beginning of a relationship with Jesus Christ so you can be sure you belong to Him. That website is ANewStory.com. I hope you'll get there today.
There's no more going through the motions. No, make this the real deal. Let this be your personal Jesus-day!
From the first chapter of Scripture, the Bible makes a case for the dependability of God. Without exception when God spoke, something wonderful happened. By divine fiat there was light, land, beaches, and creatures. God consulted no advisers. He needed no assistance. “For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm” (Psalm 33:9).
The same power is seen in Jesus. He is unchanging. He’s never caught off guard by the unexpected. “God never changes or casts a shifting shadow” (James 1:17). God is strong. He does not overpromise and under deliver. “God is able to do whatever he promises” (Romans 4:21).
“It is impossible for God to lie” (Hebrews 6:18). God will keep his promises! It must happen because of who God is! And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!
2 Chronicles 6
Then Solomon said,
God said he would dwell in a cloud,
But I’ve built a temple most splendid,
A place for you to live in forever.
3 The king then turned to face the congregation that had come together and blessed them:
4-6 “Blessed be God, the God of Israel, who spoke personally to my father David. Now he has done what he promised when he said, ‘From the day I brought my people Israel up from Egypt, I haven’t set apart one city among the tribes of Israel in which to build a temple to honor my Name, or chosen one person to be the leader. But now I have chosen both a city and a person: Jerusalem for honoring my Name and David to lead my people Israel.’
7-9 “My father David very much wanted to build a temple honoring the Name of God, the God of Israel, but God told him, ‘It was good that you wanted to build a temple in my honor—most commendable! But you are not the one to do it. Your son, who will carry on your dynasty, will build it for my Name.’
10-11 “And now you see the promise completed. God has done what he said he would do; I have succeeded David my father and now rule Israel; and I have built a temple to honor God, the God of Israel, and have secured a place for the Chest that holds the Covenant of God, the covenant he made with the people of Israel.”
12-16 Before the entire congregation of Israel, Solomon took his position at the Altar of God and stretched out his hands. Solomon had made a bronze dais seven and a half feet square and four and a half feet high and placed it inside the court; that’s where he now stood. Then he knelt in full view of the whole congregation, stretched his hands to heaven, and prayed:
God, O God of Israel, there is no God like you in the skies above or on the earth below, who unswervingly keeps covenant with his servants and unfailingly loves them while they sincerely live in obedience to your way. You kept your word to David my father, your promise. You did exactly what you promised—every detail. The proof is before us today!
Keep it up, God, O God of Israel! Continue to keep the promises you made to David my father when you said, “You’ll always have a descendant to represent my rule on Israel’s throne, on the one condition that your sons are as careful to live obediently in my presence as you have.”
17 O God, God of Israel, let this all happen—
confirm and establish it!
18-21 Can it be that God will actually move into our neighborhood? Why, the cosmos itself isn’t large enough to give you breathing room, let alone this Temple I’ve built. Even so, I’m bold to ask: Pay attention to these my prayers, both intercessory and personal, O God, my God. Listen to my prayers, energetic and devout, that I’m setting before you right now. Keep your eyes open to this Temple day and night, this place you promised to dignify with your Name. And listen to the prayers that I pray in this place. And listen to your people Israel when they pray at this place.
Listen from your home in heaven
and when you hear, forgive.
22 When someone hurts a neighbor and promises to make things right, and then comes and repeats the promise before your Altar in this Temple,
23 Listen from heaven and act;
judge your servants, making the offender pay for the offense
And set the offended free,
dismissing all charges.
24-25 When your people Israel are beaten by an enemy because they’ve sinned against you, but then turn to you and acknowledge your rule in prayers desperate and devout in this Temple,
Listen from your home in heaven;
forgive the sin of your people Israel,
return them to the land you gave to them and their ancestors.
26-27 When the skies shrivel up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, but then they pray at this place, acknowledging your rule and quit their sins because you have scourged them,
Listen from your home in heaven,
forgive the sins of your servants, your people Israel.
Then start over with them;
train them to live right and well;
Send rain on the land
you gave as inheritance to your people.
28-31 When disasters strike, famine or catastrophe, crop failure or disease, locust or beetle, or when an enemy attacks their defenses—calamity of any sort—any prayer that’s prayed from anyone at all among your people Israel, their hearts penetrated by disaster, hands and arms thrown out for help to this Temple,
Listen from your home in heaven, forgive and reward us:
reward each life and circumstance,
For you know each life from the inside,
(you’re the only one with such inside knowledge!),
So they’ll live before you in lifelong reverence and believing
obedience on this land you gave our ancestors.
32 And don’t forget the foreigner who is not a member of your people Israel but has come from a far country because of your reputation—people are going to be attracted here by your great reputation, your wonderworking power—and who come to pray to this Temple.
33 Listen from your home in heaven
and honor the prayers of the foreigner,
So that people all over the world
will know who you are and what you’re like,
And live in reverent obedience before you,
just as your own people Israel do,
So they’ll know that you personally
make this Temple that I’ve built what it is.
34-35 When your people go to war against their enemies at the time and place you send them and they pray to God toward the city you chose and The Temple I’ve built to honor your Name,
Listen from heaven to what they pray and ask for
and do what is right for them.
36-39 When they sin against you—and they certainly will; there’s no one without sin!—and in anger you turn them over to the enemy and they are taken captive to the enemy’s land, whether far or near, but repent in the country of their captivity and pray with changed hearts in their exile, “We’ve sinned; we’ve done wrong; we’ve been most wicked,” and turn back to you heart and soul in the land of the enemy who conquered them, and pray to you toward their homeland, the land you gave their ancestors, toward the city you chose, and this Temple I have built to the honor of your Name,
Listen from your home in heaven
to their prayers desperate and devout;
Do what is best for them.
Forgive your people who have sinned against you.
40 And now, dear God, be alert and attentive to prayer, all prayer, offered in this place.
41-42 Up, God, enjoy your new place of quiet repose,
you and your mighty covenant Chest;
Dress your priests up in salvation clothes,
let your holy people celebrate goodness.
And don’t, God, back out on your anointed ones,
keep in mind the love promised to David your servant.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, February 04, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Matthew 5:43–48
Love for Enemies
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbori z and hate your enemy.’a 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,b 45 that you may be childrenc of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.d 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?e Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.f
Insight
One of Israel’s earliest national laws commanded them to treat their enemies with benevolence and respect (Exodus 23:4–5). In Matthew 5:43–48, Jesus clarified why this was commanded. In loving our enemies, we’re emulating the generosity and kindness that God our Father has shown to all men, including the wicked (v. 45). Paul similarly called us not to “repay anyone evil for evil” (Romans 12:17). Instead, we’re to “overcome evil with good” (v. 21). We can do this because we can trust God to administer justice (v. 19).
God-Sized Love
If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Matthew 5:46
I once visited an impoverished neighborhood of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. Homes were made of corrugated iron, with electrical wires dangling live above them. There I had the privilege of interviewing families and hearing how churches were helping to combat unemployment, drug use, and crime.
In one alleyway I climbed a rickety ladder to a small room to interview a mother and her son. But just a moment later someone rushed up, saying, “We must leave now.” A machete-wielding gang leader was apparently gathering a mob to ambush us.
We visited a second neighborhood, but there we had no problem. Later I discovered why. As I visited each home, a gang leader stood outside guarding us. It turned out his daughter was being fed and educated by the church, and because believers were standing by her, he stood by us.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus presents a standard of love that’s beyond comparison. This kind of love embraces not just the “worthy” but the undeserving (Matthew 5:43–45), reaching beyond family and friends to touch those who can’t or won’t love us back (vv. 46–47). This is God-sized love (v. 48)—the kind that blesses everyone.
As believers in Santo Domingo live out this love, neighborhoods are starting to change. Tough hearts are warming to their cause. That’s what happens when God-sized love comes to town. By: Sheridan Voysey
Reflect & Pray
How would you describe the difference between human love and godly love? Who can you bless today who can’t repay you?
Jesus, pour Your love into me so I may pour it out to others—even to those who can’t repay the favor.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, February 04, 2020
The Compelling Majesty of His Power
The love of Christ compels us… —2 Corinthians 5:14
Paul said that he was overpowered, subdued, and held as in a vise by “the love of Christ.” Very few of us really know what it means to be held in the grip of the love of God. We tend so often to be controlled simply by our own experience. The one thing that gripped and held Paul, to the exclusion of everything else, was the love of God. “The love of Christ compels us….” When you hear that coming from the life of a man or woman it is unmistakable. You will know that the Spirit of God is completely unhindered in that person’s life.
When we are born again by the Spirit of God, our testimony is based solely on what God has done for us, and rightly so. But that will change and be removed forever once you “receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…” (Acts 1:8). Only then will you begin to realize what Jesus meant when He went on to say, “…you shall be witnesses to Me….” Not witnesses to what Jesus can do— that is basic and understood— but “witnesses to Me….” We will accept everything that happens as if it were happening to Him, whether we receive praise or blame, persecution or reward. No one is able to take this stand for Jesus Christ who is not totally compelled by the majesty of His power. It is the only thing that matters, and yet it is strange that it’s the last thing we as Christian workers realize. Paul said that he was gripped by the love of God and that is why he acted as he did. People could perceive him as mad or sane— he did not care. There was only one thing he lived for— to persuade people of the coming judgment of God and to tell them of “the love of Christ.” This total surrender to “the love of Christ” is the only thing that will bear fruit in your life. And it will always leave the mark of God’s holiness and His power, never drawing attention to your personal holiness.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The great point of Abraham’s faith in God was that he was prepared to do anything for God. Not Knowing Whither, 903 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, February 04, 2020
So Beautiful, So Dead - #8627
Flowers are always special. They just seem kind of more special in the winter. There was a lady who worked in our ministry offices and she had some flowers on her desk. I stopped by to pick up some work, and there I saw these beautiful flowers in a vase. That's pretty significant. I mean, after all, how many times do the words "man" and "notice" ever go together in the same sentence, right? Actually, I noticed a few more times as I hustled down the hall past her door. Then I actually put on the brakes for a moment and I stuck my head in to smell the flowers on her desk. It wasn't worth the stop. There was no smell. They're fake!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "So Beautiful, So Dead."
Those flowers can sure fool you. They look so real, but they have no life. Just like so many folks who look like they really belong to Jesus Christ, but there's no life there. Jesus warned us about this fatal difference in His story about God's Kingdom being like a wheat field where wheat grows right next to another grass that looks just like wheat. Jesus said no man can tell which is the real wheat until harvest time, or Judgment Day. Then the "wheat" will be gathered into heaven and the wheat lookalike will be burned.
In another place, Jesus describes people who will come before Him on Judgment Day, talking all the right Christian words and beliefs and activities. They've got the resume, but He'll tell them, "I never knew you." That's frightening stuff. You can see why the Bible said in 2 Corinthians 13:5, which is our word for today from the Word of God, "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you - unless, of course, you fail the test?" The time to realize that you know about Jesus but you don't know Him is now, not when you're standing before Him, because then it's too late.
Just like those artificial flowers that are so beautiful but so dead. It's so easy to look like someone who belongs to Jesus but not really know Him. Especially if you've been around Jesus most of your life. You know the words. You believe the beliefs. You try to do the right things. You go to the right meetings. You give to the right things. And, quite possibly, everyone around you assumes you belong to Him except Jesus. And He's the only one who matters.
That "examine yourself" verse says to make sure "Christ Jesus is in you." A lot of people have Jesus around them, but not in them because there's never been a time when they consciously, personally really opened up their life to Him. He can be in your head, but not in your heart. Which means you will miss heaven by eighteen inches. That's how far it is from your head to your heart. And God says, "It is with the heart man believes and is saved" (Romans 10:9).
One night I went into a church not married. The woman I wanted to marry came down the aisle. We stood in front of the minister. We walked out together, but I left still not married. It was the rehearsal. The next night, same woman, same man, s
ame minister, same aisle, but this time I walked out married. The first night I was just going through the motions. The second night I committed my life to her. Maybe you've been going through all the motions of knowing Jesus. But somewhere, you've missed the step of saying, "Jesus, I know what you did on that cross was for me. And you're my only hope. Beginning right here, beginning right now, I'm Yours!" That's when you give yourself to Him.
If you know you've done that, you really do belong to Him. If you don't know you've done that, you probably haven't. But that could change today. And what a relief, what a difference there's going to be when you're His for real.
Let me encourage you to say today, "Jesus, I'm yours." And to go to our website. Right there I think I can help walk you through the beginning of a relationship with Jesus Christ so you can be sure you belong to Him. That website is ANewStory.com. I hope you'll get there today.
There's no more going through the motions. No, make this the real deal. Let this be your personal Jesus-day!
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