Psalm 27, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Be Honest — Honest to God
Prayer really is simple. Resist the urge to complicate it. Don’t take pride in well-crafted prayers. Don’t apologize for incoherent prayers. No games. No cover-ups. Just be honest—honest to God.
Climb into His lap. Tell Him everything that’s on your heart. Or tell Him nothing at all. Just lift your heart to heaven and declare, “Father. . .Daddy.” Stress. Fear. Guilt. Grief. Demands on all sides. And all we can summon is a plaintive, “Oh, Father.” If so, that’s enough. Your heavenly Father will wrap you in His arms!
Sign on at BeforeAmen.com–take the brief Prayer Strengths Assessment. It will encourage you and give you a simple building block for your growth in prayer. Then get ready to connect with God as never before!
Before Amen

Psalm 27
Light, space, zest—
    that’s God!
So, with him on my side I’m fearless,
    afraid of no one and nothing.
2 When vandal hordes ride down
    ready to eat me alive,
Those bullies and toughs
    fall flat on their faces.
3 When besieged,
    I’m calm as a baby.
When all hell breaks loose,
    I’m collected and cool.
4 I’m asking God for one thing,
    only one thing:
To live with him in his house
    my whole life long.
I’ll contemplate his beauty;
    I’ll study at his feet.
5 That’s the only quiet, secure place
    in a noisy world,
The perfect getaway,
    far from the buzz of traffic.
6 God holds me head and shoulders
    above all who try to pull me down.
I’m headed for his place to offer anthems
    that will raise the roof!
Already I’m singing God-songs;
    I’m making music to God.
7-9 Listen, God, I’m calling at the top of my lungs:
    “Be good to me! Answer me!”
When my heart whispered, “Seek God,”
    my whole being replied,
“I’m seeking him!”
    Don’t hide from me now!
9-10 You’ve always been right there for me;
    don’t turn your back on me now.
Don’t throw me out, don’t abandon me;
    you’ve always kept the door open.
My father and mother walked out and left me,
    but God took me in.
11-12 Point me down your highway, God;
    direct me along a well-lighted street;
    show my enemies whose side you’re on.
Don’t throw me to the dogs,
    those liars who are out to get me,
    filling the air with their threats.
13-14 I’m sure now I’ll see God’s goodness
    in the exuberant earth.
Stay with God!
    Take heart. Don’t quit.
I’ll say it again:
    Stay with God.

Saturday, October 15, 2022
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Today's Scripture
Jeremiah 29:4–14
This is the Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel’s God, to all the exiles I’ve taken from Jerusalem to Babylon:
5  “Build houses and make yourselves at home.
“Put in gardens and eat what grows in that country.
6  “Marry and have children. Encourage your children to marry and have children so that you’ll thrive in that country and not waste away.
7  “Make yourselves at home there and work for the country’s welfare.
“Pray for Babylon’s well-being. If things go well for Babylon, things will go well for you.”
8–9  Yes. Believe it or not, this is the Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel’s God: “Don’t let all those so-called preachers and know-it-alls who are all over the place there take you in with their lies. Don’t pay any attention to the fantasies they keep coming up with to please you. They’re a bunch of liars preaching lies—and claiming I sent them! I never sent them, believe me.” God’s Decree!
10–11  This is God’s Word on the subject: “As soon as Babylon’s seventy years are up and not a day before, I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.
12  “When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen.
13–14  “When you come looking for me, you’ll find me.
“Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” God’s Decree.
“I’ll turn things around for you. I’ll bring you back from all the countries into which I drove you”—God’s Decree—“bring you home to the place from which I sent you off into exile. You can count on it.

Insight
Sometimes the prophet Jeremiah is called the “weeping prophet” because of the way he grieved over the people being taken captive by Babylon. In Jeremiah 13:17, we read: “If you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly, overflowing with tears, because the Lord’s flock will be taken captive.” It’s just one expression of the prophet’s many tears shed for his people (see also 9:1, 18; 14:17; 31:16). Lamentations 2:11 also describes Jeremiah’s tears as he observed the fall of Jerusalem.
By: Bill Crowder
Signs of Life
I will come to you and fulfill my good promise. Jeremiah 29:10
When my daughter received a pair of pet crabs as a gift, she filled a glass tank with sand so the creatures could climb and dig. She supplied water, protein, and vegetable scraps for their dining pleasure. They seemed happy, so it was shocking when they disappeared one day. We searched everywhere. Finally, we learned they were likely under the sand, and would be there for about two months as they shed their exoskeletons.
Two months passed, and then another month, and I had begun to worry that they’d died. The longer we waited, the more impatient I became. Then, finally, we saw signs of life, and the crabs emerged from the sand.
I wonder if Israel doubted that God’s prophecy for them would be fulfilled when they lived as exiles in Babylon. Did they feel despair? Did they worry they’d be there forever? Through Jeremiah, God had said, “I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to [Jerusalem]” (Jeremiah 29:10). Sure enough, seventy years later, God caused the Persian king Cyrus to allow the Jews to return and rebuild their temple in Jerusalem (Ezra 1:1–4).
In seasons of waiting when it seems like nothing is happening, God hasn’t forgotten us. As the Holy Spirit helps us to develop patience, we can know that He’s the Hope-Giver, the Promise-Keeper, and the One who controls the future.
By:  Jennifer Benson Schuldt
Reflect & Pray
How does understanding God’s character help you when you’re waiting? What’s the relationship between doubt and faith?
Dear God, help me to have faith in You as I wait. Show me how to handle doubt and display faith instead.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, October 15, 2022
The Key to the Missionary’s Message
He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. —1 John 2:2
The key to the missionary’s message is the propitiation of Christ Jesus— His sacrifice for us that completely satisfied the wrath of God. Look at any other aspect of Christ’s work, whether it is healing, saving, or sanctifying, and you will see that there is nothing limitless about those. But— “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”— that is limitless (John 1:29). The missionary’s message is the limitless importance of Jesus Christ as the propitiation for our sins, and a missionary is someone who is immersed in the truth of that revelation.
The real key to the missionary’s message is the “remissionary” aspect of Christ’s life, not His kindness, His goodness, or even His revealing of the fatherhood of God to us. “…repentance and remission of sins should be preached…to all nations…” (Luke 24:47). The greatest message of limitless importance is that “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins….” The missionary’s message is not nationalistic, favoring nations or individuals; it is “for the whole world.” When the Holy Spirit comes into me, He does not consider my partialities or preferences; He simply brings me into oneness with the Lord Jesus.
A missionary is someone who is bound by marriage to the stated mission and purpose of his Lord and Master. He is not to proclaim his own point of view, but is only to proclaim “the Lamb of God.” It is easier to belong to a faction that simply tells what Jesus Christ has done for me, and easier to become a devotee of divine healing, or of a special type of sanctification, or of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But Paul did not say, “Woe is me if I do not preach what Christ has done for me,” but, “…woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16). And this is the gospel— “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
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
Bible in a Year: Isaiah 45-46; 1 Thessalonians 3

John 10:22-42 And Devotionals

 Max Lucado: POWER FROM THE SPIRIT - October 14, 2022

Perhaps the greatest characteristic of fire is this: energy. It is the secret of the electric current. It has empowered countless coal-burning engines and fueled too many stoves to count. Fire combusts. Fire ignites. Fire moves things. And the Spirit? Does he not move us? “You shall receive power,” promised Jesus, “when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8 NKJV).

God doesn’t want us to give him our best effort. We don’t try our hardest and then turn to God; we turn to God and trust him to do the work for and in us. The greatest force in the universe will work within you to give you the power you need to become more and more like him. He will make you holy, in an instant, and make you holier over a lifetime.

John 10:22-42

They were celebrating Hanukkah just then in Jerusalem. It was winter. Jesus was strolling in the Temple across Solomon’s Porch. The Jews, circling him, said, “How long are you going to keep us guessing? If you’re the Messiah, tell us straight out.”

25-30 Jesus answered, “I told you, but you don’t believe. Everything I have done has been authorized by my Father, actions that speak louder than words. You don’t believe because you’re not my sheep. My sheep recognize my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them real and eternal life. They are protected from the Destroyer for good. No one can steal them from out of my hand. The Father who put them under my care is so much greater than the Destroyer and Thief. No one could ever get them away from him. I and the Father are one heart and mind.”

31-32 Again the Jews picked up rocks to throw at him. Jesus said, “I have made a present to you from the Father of a great many good actions. For which of these acts do you stone me?”

33 The Jews said, “We’re not stoning you for anything good you did, but for what you said—this blasphemy of calling yourself God.”

34-38 Jesus said, “I’m only quoting your inspired Scriptures, where God said, ‘I tell you—you are gods.’ If God called your ancestors ‘gods’—and Scripture doesn’t lie—why do you yell, ‘Blasphemer! Blasphemer!’ at the unique One the Father consecrated and sent into the world, just because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? If I don’t do the things my Father does, well and good; don’t believe me. But if I am doing them, put aside for a moment what you hear me say about myself and just take the evidence of the actions that are right before your eyes. Then perhaps things will come together for you, and you’ll see that not only are we doing the same thing, we are the same—Father and Son. He is in me; I am in him.”

39-42 They tried yet again to arrest him, but he slipped through their fingers. He went back across the Jordan to the place where John first baptized, and stayed there. A lot of people followed him over. They were saying, “John did no miracles, but everything he said about this man has come true.” Many believed in him then and there.

Our Daily Bread Devotional 

Read: 

Deuteronomy 10:14–22  Look around you: Everything you see is God’s—the heavens above and beyond, the Earth, and everything on it. But it was your ancestors who God fell in love with; he picked their children—that’s you!—out of all the other peoples. That’s where we are right now. So cut away the thick calluses from your heart and stop being so willfully hardheaded. God, your God, is the God of all gods, he’s the Master of all masters, a God immense and powerful and awesome. He doesn’t play favorites, takes no bribes, makes sure orphans and widows are treated fairly, takes loving care of foreigners by seeing that they get food and clothing.

19-21 

You must treat foreigners with the same loving care—
    remember, you were once foreigners in Egypt.
Reverently respect God, your God, serve him, hold tight to him,
    back up your promises with the authority of his name.
He’s your praise! He’s your God!
He did all these tremendous, these staggering things
    that you saw with your own eyes.

22 When your ancestors entered Egypt, they numbered a mere seventy souls. And now look at you—you look more like the stars in the night skies in number. And your God did it.

Insight: Today’s passage (Deuteronomy 10:14–22) is written in a more elevated style from the rest of the book; it contains more descriptive language and uses rhetorical devices—such as repetition of ideas in different forms—to allow the hearer to absorb the content. This suggests that Moses’ speech is reaching a climax. Old Testament scholar Daniel Block says that Moses “is about to declare the moral and spiritual implications of the privilege of covenant relationship that he has been preaching to this point of the second address.” The moral requirement is adherence to the law of God. Moses reiterates this three times with three different admonitions: keep the commands (vv. 12–13), circumcise your heart (v. 16), and fear and serve God (v. 20). Each of these calls to submit to and serve God is followed by an attribution of praise (see vv. 14, 17, 21).

Baby boy:

By Tim Gustafson

[God] defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you. Deuteronomy 10:18

For more than a year, his legal name was “Baby Boy.” Discovered by a security guard who heard his cries, Baby Boy had been abandoned—hours old and wrapped only in a bag—in a hospital parking lot.

Soon after his discovery, Social Services called the people who would one day become his forever family. The couple took him in and called him Grayson (not his real name). Finally, the adoption was complete, and Grayson’s name became official. Today you can meet a delightful child who mispronounces his r’s as he earnestly engages you in conversation. You’d never guess he’d once been found abandoned in a bag.

Late in his life, Moses reviewed God’s character and what He’d done for the people of Israel. “The Lord set his affection on your ancestors and loved them,” Moses told them (Deuteronomy 10:15). This love had a broad scope. “He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing,” Moses said (v. 18). “He is the one you praise; he is your God” (v. 21).

Whether it’s through adoption or simply through love and service, we’re all called to reflect God’s love. That loving couple became the hands and feet God used to extend His love to someone who might have gone unnoticed and unclaimed. We can serve as His hands and feet too.

Reflect:How have you sensed God extending His love to you in ways large and small? What small thing might you do today to reflect that love?

Pray: Heavenly Father, have mercy on the fatherless. Help me to be Your hands and feet today. 

My Utmost for His Highest 

The Key to the Missionary’s Work

By Oswald Chambers

Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…" —Matthew 28:18-19

The key to the missionary’s work is the authority of Jesus Christ, not the needs of the lost. We are inclined to look on our Lord as one who assists us in our endeavors for God. Yet our Lord places Himself as the absolute sovereign and supreme Lord over His disciples. He does not say that the lost will never be saved if we don’t go— He simply says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations….” He says, “Go on the basis of the revealed truth of My sovereignty, teaching and preaching out of your living experience of Me.”

“Then the eleven disciples went…to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them” (Matthew 28:16). If I want to know the universal sovereignty of Christ, I must know Him myself. I must take time to worship the One whose name I bear. Jesus says, “Come to Me…”— that is the place to meet Jesus— “all you who labor and are heavy laden…” (Matthew 11:28)— and how many missionaries are! We completely dismiss these wonderful words of the universal Sovereign of the world, but they are the words of Jesus to His disciples meant for here and now.

“Go therefore….” To “go” simply means to live. Acts 1:8 is the description of how to go. Jesus did not say in this verse, “Go into Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria,” but, “…you shall be witnesses to Me in [all these places].” He takes upon Himself the work of sending us.

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you…” (John 15:7)— that is the way to keep going. Where we are placed is then a matter of indifference to us, because God sovereignly engineers our goings.

“None of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus…” (Acts 20:24). That is how to keep going until we are gone from this life.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

The root of faith is the knowledge of a Person, and one of the biggest snares is the idea that God is sure to lead us to success. My Utmost for His Highest, March 19, 761 L

Bible in a Year: Isaiah 43-44; 1 Thessalonians 2

A Word With You by Ron Hutchcraft

Your Goal or Your Soul

Our sons were - and are - crazy about baseball, and then followed the grandsons. They know the players, the standings, the stats. Did I mention they're crazy about baseball? Yeah, it's true; it runs in the family. But dark clouds again rolled in over America's baseball stadiums, because, well, there were suddenly more reports that some stars, who are a lot of kids' heroes, cheated to be great. You remember all that.

PED? No, that's not the initials for some new government program. I guess it's a performance-enhancing steroid against the rules of baseball to have in your system. But it's all about winning, right? In professional sports, the bucks are big, the pressure is big, the temptations are big.

But no one's bigger than the rules. Breaking them might help you win the game, but at a pretty high price. You trade your priceless character for some cheap victories. Your accomplishments aren't really you - they're you plus the drugs. What could have been the Hall of Fame can be overshadowed by the Hall of Shame.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Goal or Your Soul."

Before we put on our black robe to judge some baseball players, maybe we should look in the mirror. See, I'm a very goal-oriented person. I know if you've got a goal, somewhere you're going to be tempted to compromise to get there, because we're all susceptible to that "win, no matter what" drumbeat of our culture. We all want to win in business. We want to have "super kids" so we'll be "super-parents." We want to get the girl, we want to land the guy. Whatever our arena, we're driven to come out on top, no matter what the cost to our family, our integrity, our health, our future. If "winning" means backstabbing, stepping on people, neglecting people, breaking promises, lying, betraying - hey, it's all about winning, right? It's all about getting to our big goal, right?

No, it's all about your soul; your character, who you are, not what you accomplish. It's about giving the game your very best, but without regrets, without compromises, without betraying trust or leaving a trail of tears. After all, who can afford the most costly trade there is: gaining the world in exchange for your soul?

That's why integrity's so important. The Bible says, "The integrity of the upright guides them." See, your integrity's like a missile's internal guidance system. It guarantees that you stay on course and reach your target. So even if I "lose," I really win. My soul was not on sale to get to my goal. That integrity Bible verse concludes by saying, "but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity." Whatever I might gain by compromising, I have so much more to lose.

I've had some disturbingly sad conversations with folks who were nearing the end of their life; people trying to come to terms with some haunting regrets about what - or who - they sacrificed in order to succeed. Sadly, there are no "do-overs." But I'll tell you this: I am profoundly grateful there is forgiveness. In our word for today from the Word of God, Psalm 130:3, a man who had terribly failed his God, his family, his followers wrote: "If You, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with You there is forgiveness."

Listen, it's not cheap to have every sin of your past erased from God's book. It takes blood, but not mine, not yours. In God's words, "The blood of Jesus His Son purifies us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). All sin! However hurtful; covered by the payment that was made for it when Jesus hung on a cross dying for it.

I invite you, if you've never had that cleaning take place; that internal cleansing; the forgiving of God for every wrong thing you've ever done, let this be the day you come to Jesus who died so that could happen and give you to Him. Let me encourage you to go to our website. I'd love to show you exactly how to begin that relationship with Him there. Go to ANewStory.com.

And once you've embraced Him as the Forgiver of your sin, He gives you the grace to retrace your regrets to work to restore what - or who - you've hurt. Because you know what Jesus said, "I make all things new (Revelation 21:5)."

Psalm 26 and Devotionals

 MAX LUCADO: VICTORY OVER SIN - October 13, 2022

The Holy Spirit will give you power over the struggle of sin. Many Christians can relate to these words of the apostle Paul: “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24 ESV). This sobering confession is the exclamation point on the apostle’s remembrance of his life before he followed Christ. Each day was a day of defeat. Many people feel the same way today.

If that is you, observe what Paul says just a few verses later. Romans 8 is Paul’s great statement of liberation. In contrast to the previous chapter, he speaks of victory and assurance and grace. The difference? Chapter 7 was life under the old law; chapter 8 is life in the Spirit.

The point? Victory over sin is the result of the presence of God’s Spirit within us.

Psalm 26

Clear my name, God;
    I’ve kept an honest shop.
I’ve thrown in my lot with you, God, and
    I’m not budging.

2 

Examine me, God, from head to foot,
    order your battery of tests.
Make sure I’m fit
    inside and out

3 

So I never lose
    sight of your love,
But keep in step with you,
    never missing a beat.

4-5 

I don’t hang out with tricksters,
    I don’t pal around with thugs;
I hate that pack of gangsters,
    I don’t deal with double-dealers.

6-7 

I scrub my hands with purest soap,
    then join hands with the others in the great circle,
    dancing around your altar, God,
Singing God-songs at the top of my lungs,
    telling God-stories.

8-10 

God, I love living with you;
    your house glows with your glory.
When it’s time for spring cleaning,
    don’t sweep me out with the quacks and crooks,
Men with bags of dirty tricks,
    women with purses stuffed with bribe-money.

11-12 

You know I’ve been aboveboard with you;
    now be aboveboard with me.
I’m on the level with you, God;
    I bless you every chance I get.

Our Daily Bread

Read: Romans 5:6–11

Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.

9-11 Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!

Insight:

In Romans 5, the apostle Paul sets up one of the most beautiful pictures of Jesus’ work on the cross. Shortly after saying that God proved His love for humanity through Christ’s death, Paul turns his attention to our death. Death, he says, became a plague over all humanity because the first Adam chose rebellion over obedience. As a result, every human dies. But Jesus—the last Adam—chose obedience to the Father. As a result, He opened the path through death to eternal life for everyone who will believe in Him.

We were God’s enemies when He sent Jesus. We were doomed to die because of Adam’s and our own rebellion. But God didn’t give up on us. Instead, He showed us love through Jesus. And His faithfulness broke both the power of sin and death, leading us back to life.

Will you still love me?

By Karen Huang

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

Ten-year-old Lyn-Lyn had finally been adopted, but she was afraid. In the orphanage where she’d grown up, she was punished over the slightest mistake. Lyn-Lyn asked her adoptive mom, who was a friend of mine: “Mommy, do you love me?” When my friend replied yes, Lyn-Lyn asked, “If I make a mistake, will you still love me?”

Although unspoken, some of us might ask that same question when we feel we’ve disappointed God: “Will You still love me?” We know that as long as we live in this world, we’ll fail and sin at times. And we wonder, Do my mistakes affect God’s love for me?

John 3:16 assures us of God’s love. He gave His Son, Jesus, to die on our behalf so that if we believe in Him, we’ll receive eternal life. But what if we fail Him even after we place our trust in Him? That’s when we need to remember that “Christ died for us” even when we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). If He could love us at our worst, how can we doubt His love today when we’re His children?

When we sin, our Father lovingly corrects and disciplines us. That’s not rejection (8:1); that’s love (Hebrews 12:6). Let’s live as God’s beloved children, resting in the blessed assurance that His love for us is steadfast and everlasting.

Reflect: How does understanding God’s love for you strengthen you to obey Him? How does it impact your view of sin?

Pray:Heavenly Father, thank You for Your steadfast and unchanging love.

My Utmost for His Highest 

Individual Discouragement and Personal Growth

By Oswald Chambers

…when Moses was grown…he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens. —Exodus 2:11

Moses saw the oppression of his people and felt certain that he was the one to deliver them, and in the righteous indignation of his own spirit he started to right their wrongs. After he launched his first strike for God and for what was right, God allowed Moses to be driven into empty discouragement, sending him into the desert to feed sheep for forty years. At the end of that time, God appeared to Moses and said to him, “ ‘…bring My people…out of Egypt.’ But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go…?’ ” (Exodus 3:10-11). In the beginning Moses had realized that he was the one to deliver the people, but he had to be trained and disciplined by God first. He was right in his individual perspective, but he was not the person for the work until he had learned true fellowship and oneness with God.

We may have the vision of God and a very clear understanding of what God wants, and yet when we start to do it, there comes to us something equivalent to Moses’ forty years in the wilderness. It’s as if God had ignored the entire thing, and when we are thoroughly discouraged, God comes back and revives His call to us. And then we begin to tremble and say, “Who am I that I should go…?” We must learn that God’s great stride is summed up in these words— “I AM WHO I AM…has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14). We must also learn that our individual effort for God shows nothing but disrespect for Him— our individuality is to be rendered radiant through a personal relationship with God, so that He may be “well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). We are focused on the right individual perspective of things; we have the vision and can say, “I know this is what God wants me to do.” But we have not yet learned to get into God’s stride. If you are going through a time of discouragement, there is a time of great personal growth ahead.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

Awe is the condition of a man’s spirit realizing Who God is and what He has done for him personally. Our Lord emphasizes the attitude of a child; no attitude can express such solemn awe and familiarity as that of a child.  Not Knowing Whither, 882 L

Bible in a Year: Isaiah 41-42; 1 Thessalonians 1

A Word With You by Ron Hutchcraft

MAKING IT THROUGH THE PAIN - #9329

Our three-year-old grandson had been around long enough to show us that he's gonna be the one who lived on the edge. You know, trying daring things, and basically a physical kind of guy. Consequently, he might be on a first name basis with the folks in the emergency room. We hope not, but you know, he's already visited there more than once in his short career. The first time he got a bad cut on his lip from a fall - lots of bleeding, run to the emergency room, stitches. This medical stuff was all new to him. Oh, listen he fought it. It took four people to hold down this tiger while the stitches were put in. It was traumatic for everybody involved - including my wife who was one of those E. R. wrestlers that night trying to hold him down. The second time was when another fall caused a big cut in his chin. Lots of bleeding, run to the emergency room, stitches. Get a pattern here? Less fighting this time. Oh, it wasn't easy, but it wasn't as bad as the first time. Who knows, maybe pretty soon he'll be helping them put the stitches in!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Making It Through The Pain."

We figured out two reasons that the second time was a little less traumatic than the first time for our grandson. First, he knew from experience that the pain of this process didn't last forever. Secondly, he knew from his first time around that he got a reward when this was over - let's hear it for popsicles and stickers!

Maybe there's something we can all gain from a little boy's emergency room experiences with pain - maybe it can even help you get through the painful time you're going through right now. What were those two things that helped you get through a process that's really hurting you? You know it won't last forever. You know there's a reward when it's over.

God's great ambassador, Paul, learned those secrets of making it through the pain, and he had a postgraduate degree in suffering - beatings, imprisonments, attacks on his reputation, death threats, excruciating physical conditions. This is a man who's got the credentials to talk to us about the great hurts of life. And he does in our word for today from the Word of God in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.

With all he's enduring, Paul says: "We do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, and what is unseen is eternal."

Well, you know, you can lose your health, you can lose your business, you can lose your marriage, you can lose people you love and still not lose heart. How? First, remember these four letters - TTSP. Yep, they stand for, "This too shall pass." Your ordeal is, in Paul's words "momentary" and "temporary" against the backdrop of your eternity in heaven. It won't always be this way. Secondly, think about the reward for finishing your painful assignment faithfully. Paul called it "eternal glory." At the end of this, you've got something really good, and it will last forever.

One other thing that our grandson might ultimately learn about the pain of the doctor's procedures - the purpose of the pain is to make him better. That's the purpose of your pain too. To make you more like Jesus, to make you more of a helper and a healer for hurting people. And, by the way, they're all around you. The relatively short duration of your pain, the reward you'll get for bearing it, the good it can produce in your life - none of those take away the pain, but they sure make it bearable. They give it meaning, and they make you bearable, too.

What you're going through has an end, it has a reward, and it has a point. So you don't have to fight it. The doctor who's got your case - Dr. Jesus - loves you deeply, holds you tightly, and He knows exactly what He's doing.

Psalm 25 And Devotionals

 MAX LUCADO: A REFINING FIRE - October 12, 2022

Fire is a chemical reaction that releases energy in the form of light and heat. If there is enough air, fuel, and heat, the fire will keep advancing. Can’t something similar be said about the Spirit of God? If we let him do his work, he will not be quenched.

Yet this flame is never intended for our harm. Everything that is good about a fire can be listed as a blessing of the Holy Spirit. Fire is a purifying force. The Holy Spirit is the ultimate purifier. Are we fit to serve as a temple of the Holy Spirit? We need the cleansing, sanctifying work of the Spirit of God to prepare us for this assignment.

Invite this refining fire to finish this work in your heart. “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16 NIV).

Psalm 25 

My head is high, God, held high;
I’m looking to you, God;
No hangdog skulking for me.

3 

I’ve thrown in my lot with you;
You won’t embarrass me, will you?
Or let my enemies get the best of me?

Don’t embarrass any of us
Who went out on a limb for you.
It’s the traitors who should be humiliated.

4 

Show me how you work, God;
School me in your ways.

5 

Take me by the hand;
Lead me down the path of truth.
You are my Savior, aren’t you?

6 

Mark the milestones of your mercy and love, God;
Rebuild the ancient landmarks!

7 

Forget that I sowed wild oats;
Mark me with your sign of love.
Plan only the best for me, God!

8 

God is fair and just;
He corrects the misdirected,
Sends them in the right direction.

9 

He gives the rejects his hand,
And leads them step-by-step.

10 

From now on every road you travel
Will take you to God.
Follow the Covenant signs;
Read the charted directions.

11 

Keep up your reputation, God;
Forgive my bad life;
It’s been a very bad life.

12 

My question: What are God-worshipers like?
Your answer: Arrows aimed at God’s bull’s-eye.

13 

They settle down in a promising place;
Their kids inherit a prosperous farm.

14 

God-friendship is for God-worshipers;
They are the ones he confides in.

15 

If I keep my eyes on God,
I won’t trip over my own feet.

16 

Look at me and help me!
I’m all alone and in big trouble.

17 

My heart and mind are fighting each other;
Call a truce to this civil war.

18 

Take a hard look at my life of hard labor,
Then lift this ton of sin.

19 

Do you see how many people
Have it in for me?
How viciously they hate me?

20 

Keep watch over me and keep me out of trouble;
Don’t let me down when I run to you.

21 

Use all your skill to put me together;
I wait to see your finished product.

22 

God, give your people a break
From this run of bad luck.

Our Daily Bread 

Read-Psalm 90:1–14

God, it seems you’ve been our home forever;
    long before the mountains were born,
Long before you brought earth itself to birth,
    from “once upon a time” to “kingdom come”—you are God.

3-11 

So don’t return us to mud, saying,
    “Back to where you came from!”
Patience! You’ve got all the time in the world—whether
    a thousand years or a day, it’s all the same to you.
Are we no more to you than a wispy dream,
    no more than a blade of grass
That springs up gloriously with the rising sun
    and is cut down without a second thought?
Your anger is far and away too much for us;
    we’re at the end of our rope.
You keep track of all our sins; every misdeed
    since we were children is entered in your books.
All we can remember is that frown on your face.
    Is that all we’re ever going to get?
We live for seventy years or so
    (with luck we might make it to eighty),
And what do we have to show for it? Trouble.
    Toil and trouble and a marker in the graveyard.
Who can make sense of such rage,
    such anger against the very ones who fear you?

12-17 

Oh! Teach us to live well!
    Teach us to live wisely and well!
Come back, God—how long do we have to wait?—
    and treat your servants with kindness for a change.
Surprise us with love at daybreak;
    then we’ll skip and dance all the day long.
Make up for the bad times with some good times;
    we’ve seen enough evil to last a lifetime.
Let your servants see what you’re best at—
    the ways you rule and bless your children.
And let the loveliness of our Lord, our God, rest on us,
    confirming the work that we do.
    Oh, yes. Affirm the work that we do!

Insight- Moses’ authorship of Psalm 90, based on the superscription, makes it the oldest of the psalms whose authorship we know. In addition to this psalm, Moses is ascribed authorship of the first five books of the Bible—the Pentateuch or Torah—making him the most prolific Old Testament writer. Some scholars believe that the background to the writing of this psalm may have been Israel’s failure at Kadesh Barnea (Numbers 13–14), where they rejected the land of promise despite Joshua and Caleb’s glowing account of the magnificent new homeland God had promised them. That rejection resulted in the forty years of wilderness wanderings the Israelites endured.

Life Expectancy 

By Kenneth Petersen

A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by.  - Psalm 90:4

In 1990, French researchers had a computer problem: a data error when processing the age of Jeanne Calment. She was 115 years old, an age outside the parameters of the software program. The programmers had assumed no one could possibly live that long! In fact, Jeanne lived until the age of 122.

The psalmist writes, “Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures” (Psalm 90:10). This is a figurative way of saying that whatever age we live to, even to the age of Jeanne Calment, our lives on earth are indeed limited. Our lifetimes are in the sovereign hands of a loving God (v. 5). In the spiritual realm, however, we’re reminded of what “God time” really is: “A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by” (v. 4).

And in the person of Jesus Christ “life expectancy” has been given a whole new meaning: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life” (John 3:36). “Has” is in the present tense: right now, in our current physical moment of trouble and tears, our future is blessed, and our lifespan is limitless.

In this we rejoice and with the psalmist pray, “Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days” (Psalm 90:14).

Reflect-What worries do you have about your life and its limits? How are you comforted by the presence of Jesus?

Pray- Loving God, sometimes this life is hard, but—even so—I sing for joy in Your provision for me. Satisfy me today with Your unfailing love.

My Utmost for His Highest 

Getting into God’s Stride

By Oswald Chambers

Enoch walked with God… —Genesis 5:24

The true test of a person’s spiritual life and character is not what he does in the extraordinary moments of life, but what he does during the ordinary times when there is nothing tremendous or exciting happening. A person’s worth is revealed in his attitude toward the ordinary things of life when he is not under the spotlight (see John 1:35-37 and John 3:30). It is painful work to get in step with God and to keep pace with Him— it means getting your second wind spiritually. In learning to walk with God, there is always the difficulty of getting into His stride, but once we have done so, the only characteristic that exhibits itself is the very life of God Himself. The individual person is merged into a personal oneness with God, and God’s stride and His power alone are exhibited.

It is difficult to get into stride with God, because as soon as we start walking with Him we find that His pace has surpassed us before we have even taken three steps. He has different ways of doing things, and we have to be trained and disciplined in His ways. It was said of Jesus— “He will not fail nor be discouraged…” (Isaiah 42:4) because He never worked from His own individual standpoint, but always worked from the standpoint of His Father. And we must learn to do the same. Spiritual truth is learned through the atmosphere that surrounds us, not through intellectual reasoning. It is God’s Spirit that changes the atmosphere of our way of looking at things, and then things begin to be possible which before were impossible. Getting into God’s stride means nothing less than oneness with Him. It takes a long time to get there, but keep at it. Don’t give up because the pain is intense right now— get on with it, and before long you will find that you have a new vision and a new purpose.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

God created man to be master of the life in the earth and sea and sky, and the reason he is not is because he took the law into his own hands, and became master of himself, but of nothing else.  The Shadow of an Agony, 1163 L

Bible in a Year: Isaiah 39-40; Colossians 4

A Word With You 

By Ron Hutchcraft 

LIVING LIKE YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS - #9328

Our oldest son and his wife, who became our wonderful daughter, were living on an Indian reservation and had ministered there for several years. And then it was time to expect their first baby. It was wonderful that this baby girl was going to come. They lived pretty far from the hospital, so of course, you needed to "get in gear" when it was time. Right? And those were the words our daughter-in-law spoke that fateful night, "I think it's time!" Well, they had gone to the classes. They knew what to do. Oh, but my son? Well, he simply started (this is what I've been told) walking around in circles in his living room going, "Okay! Okay!" Meanwhile his wife's gently going, "It's time." "Okay! Okay!" Well, listen, when you know what time it is, you need to know what action to take.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Living Like You Know What Time It Is."

By the way, they got there in time. I thought you might want to know.

Well, you and I have been chosen by God to live in very important times, and it's important for us to know what time it is and what to do with that. I mean, people are exploring all kinds of spiritual answers. There are big questions about all the uncertainties of the world economy, and politics, and we're so dependent on technology.

Then there's worry about who's the latest to get nuclear weapons, and terrorism that can pop up anywhere, anytime, and a world that is looking more and more like the kind of world Jesus said he'd come back to than maybe it's ever looked before. These are extraordinary times. It's time to do some extraordinary living. It's time for some urgent action, because God is going, "It's time! It's time!" We're at a defining moment, and we've got to realize what time it is and respond accordingly.

Like some people did at another defining moment some 3,000 years ago. Israel was emerging as a nation, as they have again today. Their first king, Saul, had turned out to be a disaster. He died as a suicide in battle, and people are deciding where their allegiance is going to be. God has His man for king: David. He's about to take his rightful throne as his descendant, Jesus Christ, will do one day when He returns to earth to rule from what the Bible calls "the throne of David."

1 Chronicles 12 records that there were many fighting men who "came to Hebron fully determined to make David king over all Israel." We also read that "the Spirit came upon Amasai, chief of the Thirty, and he said: 'We are yours, O David! We are with you, O son of Jesse!'" And then in our word for today from the Word of God, 1 Chronicles 12:32, we read about one group of people who show us how to really be in a defining moment. And they lived in one; we live in one. The Bible describes "the men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do."

Now if you understand the times you're living in, you will know what you should do. And those who are committed to enthroning the rightful king - and we know Christ is that king - they show us the defining choice in defining times back then and now; making the King your king and living to enlarge His kingdom. They were, it says, "fully determined to make David king over all." That's where your choices lie. To make sure the king, King Jesus, first is your king. This is a moment like never before, to say, "I am Yours, O Jesus! I am with You, O Son of God!" He's moving toward wrapping up all of history. You'd better make sure He's the center of your personal history.

Secondly, if you really know what time it is, you're going to be living to enlarge this kingdom of King Jesus before He returns. That means getting as many people to belong to Him as you can. Throwing your influence and your money, your possessions into the greatest cause on this planet; the cause for which your King gave His life - rescuing spiritually dying people.

It's time to look through everything we own, everything we've planned, everything we've dreamed in light of the times that God has chosen us to live in. When it's the fourth quarter, you don't play as if it's the first quarter. Be sure you understand the time and then you'll know what to do.

It has never mattered more to live for what really matters and what will matter forever. Can you hear Jesus saying it, "It's time!"?

Psalm 24 and Devotionals

 MAX LUCADO: A SOUL ABLAZE - October 11, 2022
“I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming…He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Luke 3:16 NRSV).
This is how John the Baptist introduced his cousin to the world. Baptize you with Holy Spirit and fire? Such was the job description of Jesus. Heaven arrives packing heat.
Please note that Jesus is the giver of the Holy Spirit fire. Do you desire the Spirit? Then turn to Christ. Receive him as Savior and Lord. He, then, will “baptize” you in the Spirit. He will plunge, immerse, and submerge you in the very being of the Spirit. Just as Jesus stepped out of the river dripping the Jordan, so we step forth into the world drenched in the Spirit of heaven.
The soul baptized in the Spirit is a soul ablaze.

Psalm 24- God claims Earth and everything in it,
    God claims World and all who live on it.
He built it on Ocean foundations,
    laid it out on River girders.
3-4 
Who can climb Mount God?
    Who can scale the holy north-face?
Only the clean-handed,
    only the pure-hearted;
Men who won’t cheat,
    women who won’t seduce.
5-6 
God is at their side;
    with God’s help they make it.
This, Jacob, is what happens
    to God-seekers, God-questers.
7 
Wake up, you sleepyhead city!
Wake up, you sleepyhead people!
    King-Glory is ready to enter.
8 
Who is this King-Glory?
    God, armed
    and battle-ready.
9 
Wake up, you sleepyhead city!
Wake up, you sleepyhead people!
    King-Glory is ready to enter.
10 
Who is this King-Glory?
    God-of-the-Angel-Armies:
    he is King-Glory.

Our Daily Bread
Read-Genesis 12:1–9 Abram and Sarai
God told Abram: “Leave your country, your family, and your father’s home for a land that I will show you.
2-3 
I’ll make you a great nation
    and bless you.
I’ll make you famous;
    you’ll be a blessing.
I’ll bless those who bless you;
    those who curse you I’ll curse.
All the families of the Earth
    will be blessed through you.”
4-6 So Abram left just as God said, and Lot left with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot with him, along with all the possessions and people they had gotten in Haran, and set out for the land of Canaan and arrived safe and sound.
Abram passed through the country as far as Shechem and the Oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites occupied the land.
7 God appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your children.” Abram built an altar at the place God had appeared to him.
8 He moved on from there to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent between Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. He built an altar there and prayed to God.
9 Abram kept moving, steadily making his way south, to the Negev.
Insight;
The Hebrew phrase translated “go” (Genesis 12:1) is literally “go to yourself.” While difficult to translate, this emphatic command is perhaps captured more closely by the King James translation: “Get thee out.” 
The promises given to Abraham—land, abundant children, and blessing (vv. 2–3, 7)—echo the consequences of Adam and Eve’s fall—exile from the garden, difficult childbirth, and difficulty cultivating the land (3:16–24). These parallels hint that God would begin His plan to undo the consequences of the fall through this couple, through whom “all peoples on earth” would “be blessed” (12:3).
Your Part, Gods Part 
By Leslie Koh
Go . . . to the land I will show you. . . . So Abram went. Genesis 12:1, 4
When my friend Janice was asked to manage her department at work after just a few years, she felt overwhelmed. Praying over it, she felt God was prompting her to accept the appointment—but still, she feared she couldn’t cope with the responsibility. “How can I lead with so little experience?” she asked God. “Why put me here if I’m going to be a failure?”
Later, Janice was reading about God’s call of Abram in Genesis 12 and noted that his part was to “go . . . to the land [God] will show you. . . . So Abram went” (vv. 1, 4). This was a radical move, because nobody uprooted like this in the ancient world. But God was asking him to trust Him by leaving everything he knew behind, and He would do the rest. Identity? You’ll be a great nation. Provision? I’ll bless you. Reputation? A great name. Purpose? You’ll be a blessing to all peoples on earth. He made some big mistakes along the way, but “by faith Abraham . . . obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8).
This realization took a big burden off Janice’s heart. “I don’t have to worry about ‘succeeding’ at my job,” she told me later. “I just have to focus on trusting God to enable me to do the work.” As God provides the faith we need, may we trust Him with all our lives.
Reflect: What worries do you have about your responsibilities? How is God asking you to trust Him in your present circumstances?
Pray-
Dear God, I want to surrender to You my fears and worries about succeeding in my roles and responsibilities. Please help me to do my part as You do Yours.

My Utmost for His Highest 
God’s Silence— Then What?
By Oswald Chambers
When He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. —John 11:6

Has God trusted you with His silence— a silence that has great meaning? God’s silences are actually His answers. Just think of those days of absolute silence in the home at Bethany! Is there anything comparable to those days in your life? Can God trust you like that, or are you still asking Him for a visible answer? God will give you the very blessings you ask if you refuse to go any further without them, but His silence is the sign that He is bringing you into an even more wonderful understanding of Himself. Are you mourning before God because you have not had an audible response? When you cannot hear God, you will find that He has trusted you in the most intimate way possible— with absolute silence, not a silence of despair, but one of pleasure, because He saw that you could withstand an even bigger revelation. If God has given you a silence, then praise Him— He is bringing you into the mainstream of His purposes. The actual evidence of the answer in time is simply a matter of God’s sovereignty. Time is nothing to God. For a while you may have said, “I asked God to give me bread, but He gave me a stone instead” (see Matthew 7:9). He did not give you a stone, and today you find that He gave you the “bread of life” (John 6:35).
A wonderful thing about God’s silence is that His stillness is contagious— it gets into you, causing you to become perfectly confident so that you can honestly say, “I know that God has heard me.” His silence is the very proof that He has. As long as you have the idea that God will always bless you in answer to prayer, He will do it, but He will never give you the grace of His silence. If Jesus Christ is bringing you into the understanding that prayer is for the glorifying of His Father, then He will give you the first sign of His intimacy— silence.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The truth is we have nothing to fear and nothing to overcome because He is all in all and we are more than conquerors through Him. The recognition of this truth is not flattering to the worker’s sense of heroics, but it is amazingly glorifying to the work of Christ. Approved Unto God, 4 R
Bible in a Year: Isaiah 37-38; Colossians 3

A Word With You by Ron Hutchcraft 
Everybody's Got a Story
We met Gal on an Indian reservation. She wasn't very easy to get to know. Gal was a cute black and white dog owned by a missionary couple that our On Eagles' Wings Team was working with on a remote reservation. Most dogs run up to you when you come to the door, even if you're a stranger, and they're usually all over you. Not Gal. She ran the other way and cowered in the corner, no matter how gentle, how friendly you were to her. She didn't want to come out of her corner for anybody. "Strange dog," I thought. Until her owners explained that Gal had been terribly abused by her first owners. When she saw people, she saw pain.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Everybody's Got a Story."
You couldn't understand the way that dog acted until you knew her story. People are like that, too. You watch how they act, how they treat people, you see that attitude they have, and you say, "Forget you, buddy" or you respond with the same garbage they'd just dished out to you. But the "make a difference" people in this world, the healers, are the ones who never forget this critical issue in dealing with people: you can't understand the way they act until you know their story. And everybody's got a story.
I remember discovering how wrong I had been about some people in our class in college after many of them poured out their hearts at our senior retreat. Late into the night, people you thought you knew revealed the pain in their background. And suddenly the lights went on and you said, "So that's what I've been seeing all these years!" And you felt badly that you had been responding to them based on their deeds, and never considering the needs behind those deeds.
That's the kind of radical love God's calling you and me to in our word for today from the Word of God in Ephesians 4, beginning with verse 29. He says, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up, according to their needs." In other words, don't say things that will tear a person down, just things that will build a person up. Why? Because you're focusing on their needs, not just their deeds. You may hate their deeds, but God's asking you to develop His compassion to respond to the needs that drive their deeds. Whether that person is your child, your spouse, your parent, your friend, your coworker, someone at church.
If you knew their story, you'd understand that they've been made to feel worthless much of their life. So they make choices based on the fact that they're trash they think. Or maybe they treat other people that same way. Maybe their story includes some awful hurt that has turned them hard so they won't get hurt anymore. Maybe there's some morally dark chapters in their past that can make them critical and legalistic today because they hate what they used to be. Maybe they wound because they've been wounded. Somewhere behind the way they act is a story of a perfectionist parent, of trust lost because of abuse, the absence of a father's love, abandonment, failure, tragedy.
So, the Bible says, "Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger." That's our response to their deeds. "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other..." That's how we will respond if we operate, trying to understand there are needs beneath those deeds; there's a history behind those hang-ups.
One thing I can tell you from a lot of years of learning what's really inside people - when a person is hardest to love, they need your love the most! And that's when you ask Jesus to release His love through you because your love isn't enough. React to their bad attitude or their bad treatment, and you can just be another person who just wounds an already wounded person more. Respond with the mercy and the grace and the compassion you get from Jesus and you can be part of healing that wounded person. Because everybody's got a story, and you can help write a new chapter.

Psalm 22 and devotions

Max Lucado: KEEP LISTENING - October 10, 2022
The phrase “led by the Spirit of God” is such a happy one. The Spirit gently leads us as a shepherd would lead a flock. He is more committed to leading us than we are to following him. So relax! And if you don’t sense his guidance, ask again.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5 NKJV). He is completely capable to lead you where he wants you to go. He might use a nudge, a prick of the conscience, a reminder of Scripture. The Spirit first speaks through the verse. He may complement the verse with a voice. Go first to the verse. His will never contradicts his Word. When you open your Bible, God opens his mouth. The verse and the voice. God is calling. Keep listening.

Psalm 22
God, God . . . my God!
    Why did you dump me
    miles from nowhere?
Doubled up with pain, I call to God
    all the day long. No answer. Nothing.
I keep at it all night, tossing and turning.
3-5 
And you! Are you indifferent, above it all,
    leaning back on the cushions of Israel’s praise?
We know you were there for our parents:
    they cried for your help and you gave it;
    they trusted and lived a good life.
6-8 
And here I am, a nothing—an earthworm,
    something to step on, to squash.
Everyone pokes fun at me;
    they make faces at me, they shake their heads:
“Let’s see how God handles this one;
    since God likes him so much, let him help him!”
9-11 
And to think you were midwife at my birth,
    setting me at my mother’s breasts!
When I left the womb you cradled me;
    since the moment of birth you’ve been my God.
Then you moved far away
    and trouble moved in next door.
I need a neighbor.
12-13 
Herds of bulls come at me,
    the raging bulls stampede,
Horns lowered, nostrils flaring,
    like a herd of buffalo on the move.
14-15 
I’m a bucket kicked over and spilled,
    every joint in my body has been pulled apart.
My heart is a blob
    of melted wax in my gut.
I’m dry as a bone,
    my tongue black and swollen.
They have laid me out for burial
    in the dirt.
16-18 
Now packs of wild dogs come at me;
    thugs gang up on me.
They pin me down hand and foot,
    and lock me in a cage—a bag
Of bones in a cage, stared at
    by every passerby.
They take my wallet and the shirt off my back,
    and then throw dice for my clothes.
19-21 
You, God—don’t put off my rescue!
    Hurry and help me!
Don’t let them cut my throat;
    don’t let those mongrels devour me.
If you don’t show up soon,
    I’m done for—gored by the bulls,
    meat for the lions.
22-24 
Here’s the story I’ll tell my friends when they come to worship,
    and punctuate it with Hallelujahs:
Shout Hallelujah, you God-worshipers;
    give glory, you sons of Jacob;
    adore him, you daughters of Israel.
He has never let you down,
    never looked the other way
    when you were being kicked around.
He has never wandered off to do his own thing;
    he has been right there, listening.
25-26 
Here in this great gathering for worship
    I have discovered this praise-life.
And I’ll do what I promised right here
    in front of the God-worshipers.
Down-and-outers sit at God’s table
    and eat their fill.
Everyone on the hunt for God
    is here, praising him.
“Live it up, from head to toe.
    Don’t ever quit!”
27-28 
From the four corners of the earth
    people are coming to their senses,
    are running back to God.
Long-lost families
    are falling on their faces before him.
God has taken charge;
    from now on he has the last word.
29 
All the power-mongers are before him
    —worshiping!
All the poor and powerless, too
    —worshiping!
Along with those who never got it together
    —worshiping!
30-31 
Our children and their children
    will get in on this
As the word is passed along
    from parent to child.
Babies not yet conceived
    will hear the good news—
    that God does what he says.

Our Daily Bread 
Read : Philippians 4:4-7
Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!
6-7 Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life
Insight:
Paul frequently used a literary device in his writing known as asyndeton—a deliberate omission of conjunctions to be as concise and persuasive as possible. He employed this device at the end of his letter to the church in Philippi (Philippians 4:4–7), where he gives four admonitions: “rejoice” (twice); “let your gentleness be evident to all”; “do not be anxious,” and “present your requests to God.” While on the surface these instructions may seem disconnected, the meaning of the words gentleness and anxious points to the context of the persecution the Philippians were suffering. The use of asyndeton adds a motivating force to his words. From his own circumstances of being persecuted, Paul was writing with as much force and emphasis as he could muster to encourage the Philippian believers to hold on to Jesus and express their faith well.
Happy Thanksgiving 
By Elisa Morgan
In every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 
Philippians 4:6
A study by psychologist Robert Emmons divided volunteers into three groups that each made weekly entries in journals. One group wrote five things they were grateful for. One described five daily hassles. And a control group listed five events that had impacted them in a small way. The results of the study revealed that those in the gratitude group felt better about their lives overall, were more optimistic about the future, and reported fewer health problems.
Giving thanks has a way of changing the way we look at life. Thanksgiving can even make us happier.
The Bible has long extolled the benefits of giving thanks to God, as doing so reminds us of His character. The Psalms repeatedly call God’s people to give Him thanks because “the Lord is good and his love endures forever” (Psalm 100:5) and to thank Him for His unfailing love and wonderful deeds (107:8, 15, 21, 31).
As the apostle Paul closed his letter to the Philippians—the letter itself a kind of thank-you note to a church that had supported him—he linked thankful prayers with the peace of God “which transcends all understanding” (4:7). When we focus on God and His goodness, we find that we can pray without anxiety, in every situation, with thanksgiving. Giving thanks brings us a peace that uniquely guards our hearts and minds and changes the way we look at life. A heart full of gratitude nurtures a spirit of joy.
Reflect-
What threatens your sense of gratitude? How is God calling you to a “happy thanksgiving” as you bring your needs before Him?
Pray-
Father in heaven, where I see problems, grant me a spirit of gratitude and grateful praise.

Our Utmost for His Highest 
How Will I Know?
By Oswald Chambers
Jesus answered and said, "I thank You, Father…that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes." —Matthew 11:25

We do not grow into a spiritual relationship step by step— we either have a relationship or we do not. God does not continue to cleanse us more and more from sin— “But if we walk in the light,” we are cleansed “from all sin” (1 John 1:7). It is a matter of obedience, and once we obey, the relationship is instantly perfected. But if we turn away from obedience for even one second, darkness and death are immediately at work again.
All of God’s revealed truths are sealed until they are opened to us through obedience. You will never open them through philosophy or thinking. But once you obey, a flash of light comes immediately. Let God’s truth work into you by immersing yourself in it, not by worrying into it. The only way you can get to know the truth of God is to stop trying to find out and by being born again. If you obey God in the first thing He shows you, then He instantly opens up the next truth to you. You could read volumes on the work of the Holy Spirit, when five minutes of total, uncompromising obedience would make things as clear as sunlight. Don’t say, “I suppose I will understand these things someday!” You can understand them now. And it is not study that brings understanding to you, but obedience. Even the smallest bit of obedience opens heaven, and the deepest truths of God immediately become yours. Yet God will never reveal more truth about Himself to you, until you have obeyed what you know already. Beware of becoming one of the “wise and prudent.” “If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know…” (John 7:17).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The root of faith is the knowledge of a Person, and one of the biggest snares is the idea that God is sure to lead us to success. My Utmost for His Highest, March 19, 761 L
Bible in a Year: Isaiah 34-36; Colossians 2

A Word with You by Ron Hutchcraft 
BEYOND OUR SYMPTOMS TO OUR DISEASE - #9326
Where are those gnats coming from? Not in the studio. I mean every family member - one after another - was asking that around our house. We had this sudden outbreak of pesky little bugs floating around through the air. Have you ever seen them? And you'd see every one of us swatting back and forth. We couldn't imagine where they were coming from. Where do these guys come from? We killed as many as we could.
One day my wife, who was no doubt the smartest member of the family, decided that we had to answer the original question, "Where are these gnats coming from?" One theory was that maybe they were coming from that flower pot in the corner in the living room. See we forgot that we had left a little water in that pot, and sure enough that turned out to be a lovely breeding ground. So, I carried that pot outside, and I felt like we had won the battle because we got to the source.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Beyond Our Symptoms to Our Disease."
Our word for today from the Word of God, Mark 2:4-5, and maybe you remember the story. There's four friends who had a paralyzed friend. When Jesus came to their town of Capernaum, they decided that the best hope for their friend to ever get well was to take him to Jesus. It says, "Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus, and after digging through it, lowered the mat that the paralyzed man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, 'Son, your sins are forgiven.'"
Later it says in verse 11, "He said to the paralytic, 'I tell you, get up! Take up your mat and go home.' He got up, took his mat, and walked out in full view of them all." Can you imagine the reaction of these friends when they go to all this trouble literally coming through the roof, dropping their friend in front of Jesus to get his paralysis taken care of, and Jesus says, "Your sins are forgiven"? Sin? Was that even an issue?
It always is, because Jesus knows what our deepest problem is. And He knows that paralysis isn't the ultimate problem this young man has. He goes first to the much more 
difficult issue of dealing with the barrier between a man and his God. He's concerned about what cripples us, and He'll deal with that. But He's more concerned about the cancer of sin that's killing us on the inside.
I was meeting with Bill. He was a championship high school football player, but he was in rehab the second time for cocaine addiction. He learned about God's help through the 12-step Narcotics Anonymous Program. I asked him, "Bill, did you learn how Jesus could be your helper with your addiction?" He said, "Yeah." I said, "Did you know that addiction is not your problem?" He said, "It isn't?" I said, "No. Sin is your problem. Addiction is your symptom. You need now to find out how He can be your Savior from your sin."
See, the gnats keep coming out in various ways until you get at the source of the gnats in your life, and that's sin. You say, "Well, my problem is my loneliness, my relationships, my family, this frustrating obstacle." See, the fact is the symptom isn't the problem. At the root we're trying to handle life without the help of a Savior. We're trying to figure out the future without the personal leading of the One who designed us. We're trying every self-improvement plan we can; trying every smart idea. But the gnats keep coming.
We've got to remove the source of the problem, and only the Savior can do that. You can't carry it out. He carried it in His body on a cross. All those problems, and hurts, and frustrations have been trying to bring you to the fact that you need a Savior. You have a Savior if you'll make Him yours.
If you're tired of the struggle, bring all those burdens, all that sin to the cross. You'll be forgiven forever. You'll be changed. Why not begin your relationship with Jesus today? Our website can tell you how. It's ANewStory.com. Jesus being your helper with your hassles just isn't enough. You need Jesus to be the Savior from your sin. phrase “led by the Spirit of God” is such a happy one. The Spirit gently leads us as a shepherd would lead a flock. He is more committed to leading us than we are to following him. So relax! And if you don’t sense his guidance, ask again.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5 NKJV). He is completely capable to lead you where he wants you to go. He might use a nudge, a prick of the conscience, a reminder of Scripture. The Spirit first speaks through the verse. He may complement the verse with a voice. Go first to the verse. His will never contradicts his Word. When you open your Bible, God opens his mouth. The verse and the voice. God is calling. Keep listening.
Psalm 22
God, God . . . my God!
    Why did you dump me
    miles from nowhere?
Doubled up with pain, I call to God
    all the day long. No answer. Nothing.
I keep at it all night, tossing and turning.
3-5 
And you! Are you indifferent, above it all,
    leaning back on the cushions of Israel’s praise?
We know you were there for our parents:
    they cried for your help and you gave it;
    they trusted and lived a good life.
6-8 
And here I am, a nothing—an earthworm,
    something to step on, to squash.
Everyone pokes fun at me;
    they make faces at me, they shake their heads:
“Let’s see how God handles this one;
    since God likes him so much, let him help him!”
9-11 
And to think you were midwife at my birth,
    setting me at my mother’s breasts!
When I left the womb you cradled me;
    since the moment of birth you’ve been my God.
Then you moved far away
    and trouble moved in next door.
I need a neighbor.
12-13 
Herds of bulls come at me,
    the raging bulls stampede,
Horns lowered, nostrils flaring,
    like a herd of buffalo on the move.
14-15 
I’m a bucket kicked over and spilled,
    every joint in my body has been pulled apart.
My heart is a blob
    of melted wax in my gut.
I’m dry as a bone,
    my tongue black and swollen.
They have laid me out for burial
    in the dirt.
16-18 
Now packs of wild dogs come at me;
    thugs gang up on me.
They pin me down hand and foot,
    and lock me in a cage—a bag
Of bones in a cage, stared at
    by every passerby.
They take my wallet and the shirt off my back,
    and then throw dice for my clothes.
19-21 
You, God—don’t put off my rescue!
    Hurry and help me!
Don’t let them cut my throat;
    don’t let those mongrels devour me.
If you don’t show up soon,
    I’m done for—gored by the bulls,
    meat for the lions.
22-24 
Here’s the story I’ll tell my friends when they come to worship,
    and punctuate it with Hallelujahs:
Shout Hallelujah, you God-worshipers;
    give glory, you sons of Jacob;
    adore him, you daughters of Israel.
He has never let you down,
    never looked the other way
    when you were being kicked around.
He has never wandered off to do his own thing;
    he has been right there, listening.
25-26 
Here in this great gathering for worship
    I have discovered this praise-life.
And I’ll do what I promised right here
    in front of the God-worshipers.
Down-and-outers sit at God’s table
    and eat their fill.
Everyone on the hunt for God
    is here, praising him.
“Live it up, from head to toe.
    Don’t ever quit!”
27-28 
From the four corners of the earth
    people are coming to their senses,
    are running back to God.
Long-lost families
    are falling on their faces before him.
God has taken charge;
    from now on he has the last word.
29 
All the power-mongers are before him
    —worshiping!
All the poor and powerless, too
    —worshiping!
Along with those who never got it together
    —worshiping!
30-31 
Our children and their children
    will get in on this
As the word is passed along
    from parent to child.
Babies not yet conceived
    will hear the good news—
    that God does what he says.
Our Daily Bread 
Read : Philippians 4:4-7
Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!
6-7 Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life
Insight:
Paul frequently used a literary device in his writing known as asyndeton—a deliberate omission of conjunctions to be as concise and persuasive as possible. He employed this device at the end of his letter to the church in Philippi (Philippians 4:4–7), where he gives four admonitions: “rejoice” (twice); “let your gentleness be evident to all”; “do not be anxious,” and “present your requests to God.” While on the surface these instructions may seem disconnected, the meaning of the words gentleness and anxious points to the context of the persecution the Philippians were suffering. The use of asyndeton adds a motivating force to his words. From his own circumstances of being persecuted, Paul was writing with as much force and emphasis as he could muster to encourage the Philippian believers to hold on to Jesus and express their faith well.
Happy Thanksgiving 
By Elisa Morgan
In every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 
Philippians 4:6
A study by psychologist Robert Emmons divided volunteers into three groups that each made weekly entries in journals. One group wrote five things they were grateful for. One described five daily hassles. And a control group listed five events that had impacted them in a small way. The results of the study revealed that those in the gratitude group felt better about their lives overall, were more optimistic about the future, and reported fewer health problems.
Giving thanks has a way of changing the way we look at life. Thanksgiving can even make us happier.
The Bible has long extolled the benefits of giving thanks to God, as doing so reminds us of His character. The Psalms repeatedly call God’s people to give Him thanks because “the Lord is good and his love endures forever” (Psalm 100:5) and to thank Him for His unfailing love and wonderful deeds (107:8, 15, 21, 31).
As the apostle Paul closed his letter to the Philippians—the letter itself a kind of thank-you note to a church that had supported him—he linked thankful prayers with the peace of God “which transcends all understanding” (4:7). When we focus on God and His goodness, we find that we can pray without anxiety, in every situation, with thanksgiving. Giving thanks brings us a peace that uniquely guards our hearts and minds and changes the way we look at life. A heart full of gratitude nurtures a spirit of joy.
Reflect-
What threatens your sense of gratitude? How is God calling you to a “happy thanksgiving” as you bring your needs before Him?
Pray-
Father in heaven, where I see problems, grant me a spirit of gratitude and grateful praise.
Our Utmost for His Highest 
How Will I Know?
By Oswald Chambers
Jesus answered and said, "I thank You, Father…that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes." —Matthew 11:25

We do not grow into a spiritual relationship step by step— we either have a relationship or we do not. God does not continue to cleanse us more and more from sin— “But if we walk in the light,” we are cleansed “from all sin” (1 John 1:7). It is a matter of obedience, and once we obey, the relationship is instantly perfected. But if we turn away from obedience for even one second, darkness and death are immediately at work again.
All of God’s revealed truths are sealed until they are opened to us through obedience. You will never open them through philosophy or thinking. But once you obey, a flash of light comes immediately. Let God’s truth work into you by immersing yourself in it, not by worrying into it. The only way you can get to know the truth of God is to stop trying to find out and by being born again. If you obey God in the first thing He shows you, then He instantly opens up the next truth to you. You could read volumes on the work of the Holy Spirit, when five minutes of total, uncompromising obedience would make things as clear as sunlight. Don’t say, “I suppose I will understand these things someday!” You can understand them now. And it is not study that brings understanding to you, but obedience. Even the smallest bit of obedience opens heaven, and the deepest truths of God immediately become yours. Yet God will never reveal more truth about Himself to you, until you have obeyed what you know already. Beware of becoming one of the “wise and prudent.” “If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know…” (John 7:17).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The root of faith is the knowledge of a Person, and one of the biggest snares is the idea that God is sure to lead us to success. My Utmost for His Highest, March 19, 761 L
Bible in a Year: Isaiah 34-36; Colossians 2
A Word with You by Ron Hutchcraft 
BEYOND OUR SYMPTOMS TO OUR DISEASE - #9326
Where are those gnats coming from? Not in the studio. I mean every family member - one after another - was asking that around our house. We had this sudden outbreak of pesky little bugs floating around through the air. Have you ever seen them? And you'd see every one of us swatting back and forth. We couldn't imagine where they were coming from. Where do these guys come from? We killed as many as we could.
One day my wife, who was no doubt the smartest member of the family, decided that we had to answer the original question, "Where are these gnats coming from?" One theory was that maybe they were coming from that flower pot in the corner in the living room. See we forgot that we had left a little water in that pot, and sure enough that turned out to be a lovely breeding ground. So, I carried that pot outside, and I felt like we had won the battle because we got to the source.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Beyond Our Symptoms to Our Disease."
Our word for today from the Word of God, Mark 2:4-5, and maybe you remember the story. There's four friends who had a paralyzed friend. When Jesus came to their town of Capernaum, they decided that the best hope for their friend to ever get well was to take him to Jesus. It says, "Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus, and after digging through it, lowered the mat that the paralyzed man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, 'Son, your sins are forgiven.'"
Later it says in verse 11, "He said to the paralytic, 'I tell you, get up! Take up your mat and go home.' He got up, took his mat, and walked out in full view of them all." Can you imagine the reaction of these friends when they go to all this trouble literally coming through the roof, dropping their friend in front of Jesus to get his paralysis taken care of, and Jesus says, "Your sins are forgiven"? Sin? Was that even an issue?
It always is, because Jesus knows what our deepest problem is. And He knows that paralysis isn't the ultimate problem this young man has. He goes first to the much more 
difficult issue of dealing with the barrier between a man and his God. He's concerned about what cripples us, and He'll deal with that. But He's more concerned about the cancer of sin that's killing us on the inside.
I was meeting with Bill. He was a championship high school football player, but he was in rehab the second time for cocaine addiction. He learned about God's help through the 12-step Narcotics Anonymous Program. I asked him, "Bill, did you learn how Jesus could be your helper with your addiction?" He said, "Yeah." I said, "Did you know that addiction is not your problem?" He said, "It isn't?" I said, "No. Sin is your problem. Addiction is your symptom. You need now to find out how He can be your Savior from your sin."
See, the gnats keep coming out in various ways until you get at the source of the gnats in your life, and that's sin. You say, "Well, my problem is my loneliness, my relationships, my family, this frustrating obstacle." See, the fact is the symptom isn't the problem. At the root we're trying to handle life without the help of a Savior. We're trying to figure out the future without the personal leading of the One who designed us. We're trying every self-improvement plan we can; trying every smart idea. But the gnats keep coming.
We've got to remove the source of the problem, and only the Savior can do that. You can't carry it out. He carried it in His body on a cross. All those problems, and hurts, and frustrations have been trying to bring you to the fact that you need a Savior. You have a Savior if you'll make Him yours.
If you're tired of the struggle, bring all those burdens, all that sin to the cross. You'll be forgiven forever. You'll be changed. Why not begin your relationship with Jesus today? Our website can tell you how. It's ANewStory.com. Jesus being your helper with your hassles just isn't enough. You need Jesus to be the Savior from your sin.

John 10:1-21 Our Daily Bread Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: A Compelling Prayer Example

Before amen-comes the power of a simple prayer!

Jesus set a compelling prayer example. He prayed before He ate. He prayed for children. He prayed for the sick. He prayed with thanks…and with tears. He had made the planets and shaped the stars, yet He prayed.
Here's a prayer for us today!
"Father, you have made me your child through your Spirit. In your kindness you have adopted me and delivered me from sin and death. Remind me today what it means to be your child. It's so easy for me to live every day on my own terms. Help me live it in light of your grace. Thank you for accepting me as I am but not leaving me the same. In Jesus' name, amen."
Here's my prayer challenge to you! Sign on at BeforeAmen.com-then every day for 4 weeks, pray 4 minutes-it'll change your life forever!

John 10:1-21
He Calls His Sheep by Name
“Let me set this before you as plainly as I can. If a person climbs over or through the fence of a sheep pen instead of going through the gate, you know he’s up to no good—a sheep rustler! The shepherd walks right up to the gate. The gatekeeper opens the gate to him and the sheep recognize his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he gets them all out, he leads them and they follow because they are familiar with his voice. They won’t follow a stranger’s voice but will scatter because they aren’t used to the sound of it.”
6-10 Jesus told this simple story, but they had no idea what he was talking about. So he tried again. “I’ll be explicit, then. I am the Gate for the sheep. All those others are up to no good—sheep rustlers, every one of them. But the sheep didn’t listen to them. I am the Gate. Anyone who goes through me will be cared for—will freely go in and out, and find pasture. A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.
11-13 “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd puts the sheep before himself, sacrifices himself if necessary. A hired man is not a real shepherd. The sheep mean nothing to him. He sees a wolf come and runs for it, leaving the sheep to be ravaged and scattered by the wolf. He’s only in it for the money. The sheep don’t matter to him.
14-18 “I am the Good Shepherd. I know my own sheep and my own sheep know me. In the same way, the Father knows me and I know the Father. I put the sheep before myself, sacrificing myself if necessary. You need to know that I have other sheep in addition to those in this pen. I need to gather and bring them, too. They’ll also recognize my voice. Then it will be one flock, one Shepherd. This is why the Father loves me: because I freely lay down my life. And so I am free to take it up again. No one takes it from me. I lay it down of my own free will. I have the right to lay it down; I also have the right to take it up again. I received this authority personally from my Father.”
19-21 This kind of talk caused another split in the Jewish ranks. A lot of them were saying, “He’s crazy, a maniac—out of his head completely. Why bother listening to him?” But others weren’t so sure: “These aren’t the words of a crazy man. Can a ‘maniac’ open blind eyes?”

Our Daily Bread 
Read: Hebrews 4:12-13
God means what he says. What he says goes. His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon’s scalpel, cutting through everything, whether doubt or defense, laying us open to listen and obey. Nothing and no one can resist God’s Word. We can’t get away from it—no matter what.
Insight:

The book of Hebrews begins by saying: “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:1–2). Moses, who enters the picture in chapter 3, was one of those messengers who called people to faith and trust in God—to enter into His rest. Hebrews 3:7–4:7 emphasizes the “today-ness” of the Scriptures (see 3:7, 13, 15; 4:7). The writer’s word choices in Hebrews 4:12 highlight the potency of the Word of God: it’s “alive and active”; it’s “sharper than any double-edged sword”; “it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” The invitation to believe God’s dynamic Word remains: “Therefore, since we have a great high priest . . . , Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess” (v. 14).

The power of scripture by Mike Wittmer
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is alive and active
Stephen was an up-and-coming comedian, and a prodigal. Raised in a Christian family, he struggled with doubt after his dad and two brothers died in a plane crash. By his early twenties, he’d lost his faith. But he found it one night on the frigid streets of Chicago. A stranger gave him a pocket New Testament, and Stephen cracked open the pages. An index said those struggling with anxiety should read Matthew 6:27–34, from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
Stephen turned there, and the words kindled a fire in his heart. He recalls, “I was absolutely, immediately lightened. I stood on the street corner in the cold and read the sermon, and my life has never been the same.”
Such is the power of Scripture. The Bible is unlike any other book, for it’s alive. We don’t just read the Bible. The Bible reads us. “Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit . . . ; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).
Scripture presents the most powerful force on the planet, a force that transforms and leads us toward spiritual maturity. Let’s open it and read it out loud, asking God to ignite our hearts. He promises that the words He’s spoken “will not return to [Him] empty, but will accomplish what [He desires] and achieve the purpose for which [He] sent it” (Isaiah 55:11). Our lives will never be the same.
Reflect: How has Scripture changed your life? What expectations do you have when you read it?
Pray -
Heavenly Father, thank You for giving me the Bible. Please make it alive in my life.
Learn more about the overall message of the Bible.

My Utmost For His Highest 
Building on the Atonement
By Oswald Chambers
…present…your members as instruments of righteousness to God. —Romans 6:13
I cannot save and sanctify myself; I cannot make atonement for sin; I cannot redeem the world; I cannot right what is wrong, purify what is impure, or make holy what is unholy. That is all the sovereign work of God. Do I have faith in what Jesus Christ has done? He has made the perfect atonement for sin. Am I in the habit of constantly realizing it? The greatest need we have is not to do things, but to believe things. The redemption of Christ is not an experience, it is the great act of God which He has performed through Christ, and I have to build my faith on it. If I construct my faith on my own experience, I produce the most unscriptural kind of life— an isolated life, with my eyes focused solely on my own holiness. Beware of that human holiness that is not based on the atonement of the Lord. It has no value for anything except a life of isolation— it is useless to God and a nuisance to man. Measure every kind of experience you have by our Lord Himself. We cannot do anything pleasing to God unless we deliberately build on the foundation of the atonement by the Cross of Christ.
The atonement of Jesus must be exhibited in practical, unassuming ways in my life. Every time I obey, the absolute deity of God is on my side, so that the grace of God and my natural obedience are in perfect agreement. Obedience means that I have completely placed my trust in the atonement, and my obedience is immediately met by the delight of the supernatural grace of God.
Beware of the human holiness that denies the reality of the natural life— it is a fraud. Continually bring yourself to the trial or test of the atonement and ask, “Where is the discernment of the atonement in this, and in that?”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS Bible in a Year: Isaiah 32-33; Colossians 1

Psalm 21, Our Daily Bread Devotionals,

 Max Lucado Daily:A Heartfelt Conversation with God

Prayer is to a privilege for the pious, nor the art of a chosen few. Prayer is simply a heartfelt conversation between God and His child. When we invite God into our world, He brings a host of gifts: joy, patience, resilience.  Anxieties come, but they don't stick. Fears surface and then depart. I'm completing my sixth decade, yet I'm wired with energy. Happier, healthier, and more hopeful! Struggles come, for sure. But so does God.

My friend, He wants to talk with you. Even now as you hear these words, He taps at the door. Open it. Welcome Him in…and let the conversation begin!

Here's my prayer challenge to you! Every day for 4 weeks, pray 4 minutes with the simple prayer at BeforeAmen.com.  Then get ready to connect with God like never before!

Psalm 21

Your strength, God, is the king’s strength.
    Helped, he’s hollering Hosannas.
You gave him exactly what he wanted;
    you didn’t hold back.
You filled his arms with gifts;
    you gave him a right royal welcome.
He wanted a good life; you gave it to him,
    and then made it a long life as a bonus.
You lifted him high and bright as a cumulus cloud,
    then dressed him in rainbow colors.
You pile blessings on him;
    you make him glad when you smile.
Is it any wonder the king loves God?
    that he’s sticking with the Best?

8-12 

With a fistful of enemies in one hand
    and a fistful of haters in the other,
You radiate with such brilliance
    that they cringe as before a furnace.
Now the furnace swallows them whole,
    the fire eats them alive!
You purge the earth of their progeny,
    you wipe the slate clean.
All their evil schemes, the plots they cook up,
    have fizzled—every one.
You sent them packing;
    they couldn’t face you.

13 Show your strength, God, so no one can miss it.

Our Daily Bread Devotional 

Read 2 Peter 1:3-10

Confirming One’s Calling and Election

3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.

10 Therefore, my brothers and sisters,[a] make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble,

Insight:

We have little explicit background on the letter of 2 Peter. J. Daryl Charles, writing in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, says: “The absence of names and places renders it difficult to be conclusive about the identity of the recipients of 2 Peter and the context out of which the letter arose. While the provenance and destination of the letter elude any certainty, numerous textual indicators point to a particular social location in which the readership finds itself, making it likely that the letter is addressed to Christians in Greece or Asia Minor, where Paul’s letters had already circulated (3:15–16).” The general agreement among conservative scholars is that Peter wrote the letter from Rome prior to his death, which was anticipated in chapter 1 (v. 15). Second Peter focuses on several themes, including spiritual growth (1:4–8), Christ’s transfiguration (vv. 16–18), false teachers (ch. 2), and the coming day of the Lord (3:3–10).

Self control in God‘s strength 

By Kirsten Holmberg

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life. 2 Peter 1:3

A 1972 study known as the “marshmallow test” was developed to gauge children’s ability to delay gratification of their desires. The kids were each offered a single marshmallow to enjoy but were told if they could refrain from eating it for ten minutes, they’d be given a second one. About a third of the children were able to hold out for the larger reward. Another third gobbled it up within thirty seconds!

We might struggle to show self-control when offered something we desire, even if we know it would benefit us more in the future to wait. Yet Peter urged us to “add to [our] faith” many important virtues, including self-control (2 Peter 1:5–6). Having laid hold of faith in Jesus, Peter encouraged his readers, and us, to continue to grow in goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, affection, and love “in increasing measure” as evidence of that faith (vv. 5–8).

While these virtues don’t earn us God’s favor nor secure our place in heaven, they demonstrate—to ourselves as well as to all those with whom we interact—our need to exercise self-control as God provides the wisdom and strength to do so. And, best of all, He’s “given us everything we need [to live] a godly life,” one that pleases Him, through the power of the Holy Spirit (v. 3).

Reflection:In whom do you observe Christlike qualities? How might you cultivate those qualities in your own life as God provides what you need?

Pray:

Holy Spirit, please grow in me the qualities that reflect Jesus so I might reveal Your goodness to the world around me.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers October 08

Coming to Jesus'

Come to Me . . . —Matthew 11:28

Isn’t it humiliating to be told that we must come to Jesus! Think of the things about which we will not come to Jesus Christ. If you want to know how real you are, test yourself by these words— “Come to Me . . . .” In every dimension in which you are not real, you will argue or evade the issue altogether rather than come; you will go through sorrow rather than come; and you will do anything rather than come the last lap of the race of seemingly unspeakable foolishness and say, “Just as I am, I come.” As long as you have even the least bit of spiritual disrespect, it will always reveal itself in the fact that you are expecting God to tell you to do something very big, and yet all He is telling you to do is to “Come . . . .”

“Come to Me . . . .” When you hear those words, you will know that something must happen in you before you can come. The Holy Spirit will show you what you have to do, and it will involve anything that will uproot whatever is preventing you from getting through to Jesus. And you will never get any further until you are willing to do that very thing. The Holy Spirit will search out that one immovable stronghold within you, but He cannot budge it unless you are willing to let Him do so.

How often have you come to God with your requests and gone away thinking, “I’ve really received what I wanted this time!” And yet you go away with nothing, while all the time God has stood with His hands outstretched not only to take you but also for you to take Him. Just think of the invincible, unconquerable, and untiring patience of Jesus, who lovingly says, “Come to Me. . . .”