1 John 2, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: ETERNAL GLORY - October 4, 2024

Certain chapters in this life seem so unnecessary. Suffering. Loneliness. Disease. Holocausts. Martyrdom. Hurricanes, earthquakes, monsoons. If we assume this world exists just for pre-grave happiness, these atrocities disqualify it from doing so. But what if this earth is the womb? Might these challenges, severe as they may be, serve to prepare us, to equip us for the world to come?

The apostle Paul would think so. He wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:17, “These little troubles are getting us ready for an eternal glory that will make all our troubles seem like nothing.” Eternal glory? I’d like a large cup of that, wouldn’t you? Go ahead and request it. The barista is brewing that cup for you. And everything in this life is preparing you for the next.       

Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear

1 John 2

I write this, dear children, to guide you out of sin. But if anyone does sin, we have a Priest-Friend in the presence of the Father: Jesus Christ, righteous Jesus. When he served as a sacrifice for our sins, he solved the sin problem for good—not only ours, but the whole world’s.

The Only Way to Know We’re in Him

2–3  Here’s how we can be sure that we know God in the right way: Keep his commandments.

4–6  If someone claims, “I know him well!” but doesn’t keep his commandments, he’s obviously a liar. His life doesn’t match his words. But the one who keeps God’s word is the person in whom we see God’s mature love. This is the only way to be sure we’re in God. Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived.

7–8  My dear friends, I’m not writing anything new here. This is the oldest commandment in the book, and you’ve known it from day one. It’s always been implicit in the Message you’ve heard. On the other hand, perhaps it is new, freshly minted as it is in both Christ and you—the darkness on its way out and the True Light already blazing!

9–11  Anyone who claims to live in God’s light and hates a brother or sister is still in the dark. It’s the person who loves brother and sister who dwells in God’s light and doesn’t block the light from others. But whoever hates is still in the dark, stumbles around in the dark, doesn’t know which end is up, blinded by the darkness.

Loving the World

12–13  I remind you, my dear children: Your sins are forgiven in Jesus’ name. You veterans were in on the ground floor, and know the One who started all this; you newcomers have won a big victory over the Evil One.

13–14  And a second reminder, dear children: You know the Father from personal experience. You veterans know the One who started it all; and you newcomers—such vitality and strength! God’s word is so steady in you. Your fellowship with God enables you to gain a victory over the Evil One.

15–17  Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.

Antichrists Everywhere You Look

18  Children, time is just about up. You heard that Antichrist is coming. Well, they’re all over the place, antichrists everywhere you look. That’s how we know that we’re close to the end.

19  They left us, but they were never really with us. If they had been, they would have stuck it out with us, loyal to the end. In leaving, they showed their true colors, showed they never did belong.

20–21  But you belong. The Holy One anointed you, and you all know it. I haven’t been writing this to tell you something you don’t know, but to confirm the truth you do know, and to remind you that the truth doesn’t breed lies.

22–23  So who is lying here? It’s the person who denies that Jesus is the Divine Christ, that’s who. This is what makes an antichrist: denying the Father, denying the Son. No one who denies the Son has any part with the Father, but affirming the Son is an embrace of the Father as well.

24–25  Stay with what you heard from the beginning, the original message. Let it sink into your life. If what you heard from the beginning lives deeply in you, you will live deeply in both Son and Father. This is exactly what Christ promised: eternal life, real life!

26–27  I’ve written to warn you about those who are trying to deceive you. But they’re no match for what is embedded deeply within you—Christ’s anointing, no less! You don’t need any of their so-called teaching. Christ’s anointing teaches you the truth on everything you need to know about yourself and him, uncontaminated by a single lie. Live deeply in what you were taught.

Live Deeply in Christ

28  And now, children, stay with Christ. Live deeply in Christ. Then we’ll be ready for him when he appears, ready to receive him with open arms, with no cause for red-faced guilt or lame excuses when he arrives.

29  Once you’re convinced that he is right and righteous, you’ll recognize that all who practice righteousness are God’s true children.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Friday, October 04, 2024

Today's Scripture

1 Peter 2:21-25

This is the kind of life you’ve been invited into, the kind of life Christ lived. He suffered everything that came his way so you would know that it could be done, and also know how to do it, step-by-step.

He never did one thing wrong,

Not once said anything amiss.

They called him every name in the book and he said nothing back. He suffered in silence, content to let God set things right. He used his servant body to carry our sins to the Cross so we could be rid of sin, free to live the right way. His wounds became your healing. You were lost sheep with no idea who you were or where you were going. Now you’re named and kept for good by the Shepherd of your souls.

Insight

Writing to believers in Jesus suffering persecution and unjust treatment in a hostile and unbelieving world, Peter encouraged them to live godly and exemplary lives (1 Peter 2:12). He instructed them to submit to governments, respect everyone—including the king and even cruel masters—love fellow believers, reverently fear God, persevere in doing good, and patiently endure unfair treatment, which pleases God (vv. 13-20). They were to follow Christ’s example in enduring such suffering and unjust treatments (v. 21). His unjust suffering is at the heart of God’s salvation plan of substitutionary (or vicarious) atonement. The sinless Savior “ ‘himself bore our sins’ in his body on the cross” (v. 24), “the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring [us] to God” (3:18). Jesus’ suffering served God’s purpose. We’re like sheep who’ve lost our way but because of His suffering, we “have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of [our] souls” (2:25). By: K. T. Sim

A Christlike Response

When they hurled their insults at [Jesus], he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. 1 Peter 2:23

George was working on a construction job in the heat of the Carolina summer sun when someone living nearby walked into the yard where he was working. Clearly angry, the neighbor began to curse and criticize everything about the project and how it was being done. George received the verbal blows without response until the angry neighbor stopped yelling. Then he gently responded, “You’ve had a really hard day, haven’t you?” Suddenly, the angry neighbor’s face softened, his head dipped, and he said, “I’m sorry for the way I spoke to you.” George’s kindness had defused the neighbor’s wrath.  

There are times when we want to strike back. To give abuse for abuse and insult for insult. What George modeled instead was a kindness seen most perfectly in the way Jesus bore the consequences of our sins: “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23). 

All of us will face moments when we’re misunderstood, misrepresented, or attacked. We may want to respond in kind, but the heart of Jesus calls us to be kind, to pursue peace and display understanding. As He enables us today, perhaps God could use us to bless someone enduring a hard day. By:  Bill Crowder

Reflect & Pray

What makes it so easy to strike back at others for their unkind words? How can you be more intentional about showing kindness to those who are unkind to you?

Caring Father, please help me to find in You the strength, grace, and wisdom to display the heart of Jesus.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Friday, October 04, 2024

Put to the Test

. . . called to be his holy people. — 1 Corinthians 1:2

Thank God for the sight of all you haven’t yet become. God has called you to be one of his holy people, you’ve had the vision of what he wants, but you aren’t there yet by any means.

God calls his children to the mountaintop and gives them a vision. Then he sends them down into the valley of everyday life, the valley where the vision will be put to the test. It’s in the valley that most of us turn back, because it’s there that we must prove whether or not we’ll be the chosen ones. We aren’t quite prepared for the blows that must come if we’re going to be turned into the shape of the vision. Are we willing to be hammered into shape by God’s hand? The hammering always comes in commonplace ways, through the circumstances and people we encounter in our daily lives.

There are times when we know God’s purpose for us, times when he’s given us a vision and we see it clearly. Whether this vision will be turned into actual character depends on us, not on God. If we prefer to bask in the memory of the vision, we’ll be of no use in the ordinary stuff of human life. We have to learn to live in reliance on what we saw in the vision—not in ecstasies and conscious contemplation of God, but living our ordinary lives in light of the vision. We must do this until the vision becomes a reality. Every bit of the training God is putting us through is leading us to this goal. Learn to thank God for making his demands known.

The little “I am” always sulks when God says, “Do.” Let your little “I am” be shriveled up in the face of the great “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14). God must dominate our lives. Isn’t it startling to realize that he knows where we live? That he knows the burrows we crawl into? He’ll hunt us up like a lightning flash. No human being knows human beings as God does.

Isaiah 20-22; Ephesians 6

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

It is perilously possible to make our conceptions of God like molten lead poured into a specially designed mould, and when it is cold and hard we fling it at the heads of the religious people who don’t agree with us.

Disciples Indeed

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Friday, October 04, 2024

Guarding Your Heart - #9845

The area around New York City is dotted with some scenic, protected bodies of water. They are reservoirs that supply the water for the millions of people that are in that area. Now, having lived in the New York City area for a number of years, we often took a weekend drive as a family and, well, we enjoyed looking at them. They're very, very scenic. You know?

But maybe I've seen too many articles and news reports on terrorism, but I got to thinking one day what a target those reservoirs might be. I mean, if a terrorist or some mentally deranged person wanted to destroy a lot of people, I figure all he would have to do is poison the water from which we all drink. Actually a strategy like that is already in the works.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Guarding Your Heart."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Proverbs 4, and I'm going to read verse 23. It starts this way, "Above all else..." Okay, that's like God clearing His throat. I mean, this is important! When God says, "This is above everything else" pay attention! "Above all else guard your heart." That's the "above all else" - guard your heart. "For it is," the Bible says, "the wellspring (or maybe we could say reservoir) of life." See, God's saying, "I want you to protect what you let into your thoughts and into your heart, because today's thoughts produce tomorrow's actions.

Now, how could the devil plant his ideas in your mind so he could gradually darken your view of love, your view of marriage, your view of the future? How could he put his ideas in there about sex, about the value of human life, and just kind of a slowly growing darkness? How could he do that? Well, obviously he's not going to walk right up to you and say, "Hi, I'm the devil and I'd like to plant a few of my ideas in your brain." He's a little more subtle than that and we're a little smarter than that.

No, he's going to do it the same way that a terrorist might get his poison into your body: poison the source; poison the water from which we all drink. Well, mentally, what's the water we all drink from? Well, television, movies, what we read, our music, what we watch on the Internet, magazines. The problem is this: Many believers, who would never drink the devil's poisonous ideas directly, routinely allow those ideas to sneak in through their entertainment, music, or website, or movies, or their videos.

See, the devil's cleverly disguised and attractively packaged ideas that are woven all through our media. For example, if you watch enough couples involved in premarital or extramarital sex, it starts to feel slightly more normal, a little more acceptable. You're not even aware your guard's coming down because you didn't guard your heart. You let it sneak in, "Hey, that was just entertainment, right, sown in the words of a song, or sown in something portrayed on a TV show, or a movie.

But it is still the outright breaking of God's moral law. Let's go back to Proverbs 4:23, "Guard your heart." Just say those words with me, "Guard your heart." That means I shouldn't be, I can't be watching or listening to a portrayal of something God is against. Stand back and maybe you'll see how you have kind of dozed off mentally and spiritually. The guard went to sleep! The guard needs to wake up and say, "Hey, no! You can't come into this mind; you can't come into this heart."

Put a guard in front of the reservoir. There's a lot of poison in the mental water around us. Why do we drink it so freely?

Ezekiel 46, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: EVERY PERSON MATTERS TO GOD - October 3, 2024

Life is so much easier if we can just put labels on people. Pigeonholing permits us to wash our hands and leave. “Oh I know him—he’s an alcoholic.” “She’s a liberal Democrat.” “He’s divorced.” Categorizing others creates distance and gives us a convenient exit strategy for avoiding involvement.

But Jesus took an entirely different approach. He was all about including people. Jesus touched lepers and loved foreigners. His Facebook page included the likes of Matthew the IRS agent and some floozy he met at Simon’s house. You see, Jesus set aside the privileges of deity. He took on the status of a slave. He became a human.

Jesus sends this message: No playground displays of superiority. Don’t call any person common. Don’t call any person unfit. Every person matters to God!

Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear

Ezekiel 46

 “ ‘Message from God, the Master: The gate of the inside courtyard on the east is to be shut on the six working days, but open on the Sabbath. It is also to be open on the New Moon. The prince will enter through the entrance area of the gate complex and stand at the gateposts as the priests present his burnt offerings and peace offerings while he worships there on the porch. He will then leave, but the gate won’t be shut until evening. On Sabbaths and New Moons, the people are to worship before God at the outside entrance to that gate complex.

4–5  “ ‘The prince supplies for God the burnt offering for the Sabbath—six unblemished lambs and an unblemished ram. The grain offering to go with the ram is about five and a half gallons plus a gallon of oil, and a handful of grain for each lamb.

6–7  “ ‘At the New Moon he is to supply a bull calf, six lambs, and a ram, all without blemish. He will also supply five and a half gallons of grain offering and a gallon of oil for both ram and bull, and a handful of grain offering for each lamb.

8  “ ‘When the prince enters, he will go through the entrance vestibule of the gate complex and leave the same way.

9–10  “ ‘But when the people of the land come to worship God at the commanded feasts, those who enter through the north gate will exit from the south gate, and those who enter though the south gate will exit from the north gate. You don’t exit the gate through which you enter, but through the opposite gate. The prince is to be there, mingling with them, going in and out with them.

11  “ ‘At the festivals and the commanded feasts, the appropriate grain offering is five and a half gallons, with a gallon of oil for the bull and ram and a handful of grain for each lamb.

12  “ ‘When the prince brings a freewill offering to God, whether a burnt offering or a peace offering, the east gate is to be opened for him. He offers his burnt or peace offering the same as he does on the Sabbath. Then he leaves, and after he is out, the gate is shut.

13–15  “ ‘Every morning you are to bring a yearling lamb unblemished for a burnt offering to God. Also, every morning bring a grain offering of about a gallon of grain with a quart or so of oil to moisten it. Presenting this grain offering to God is standard procedure. The lamb, the grain offering, and the oil for the burnt offering are a regular daily ritual.

16–18  “ ‘A Message from God, the Master: If the prince deeds a gift from his inheritance to one of his sons, it stays in the family. But if he deeds a gift from his inheritance to a servant, the servant keeps it only until the year of liberation (the Jubilee year). After that, it comes back to the prince. His inheritance is only for his sons. It stays in the family. The prince must not take the inheritance from any of the people, dispossessing them of their land. He can give his sons only what he himself owns. None of my people are to be run off their land.’ ”

19–20  Then the man brought me through the north gate into the holy chambers assigned to the priests and showed me a back room to the west. He said, “This is the kitchen where the priests will cook the guilt offering and sin offering and bake the grain offering so that they won’t have to do it in the outside courtyard and endanger the unprepared people out there with The Holy.”

21–23  He proceeded to take me to the outside courtyard and around to each of its four corners. In each corner I observed another court. In each of the four corners of the outside courtyard were smaller courts sixty by forty-five feet, each the same size. On the inside walls of the courts was a stone shelf, and beneath the shelves, hearths for cooking.

24  He said, “These are the kitchens where those who serve in the Temple will cook the sacrifices of the people.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Thursday, October 03, 2024

Today's Scripture

Numbers 13:27-14:9

Then they told the story of their trip:

27–29  “We went to the land to which you sent us and, oh! It does flow with milk and honey! Just look at this fruit! The only thing is that the people who live there are fierce, their cities are huge and well fortified. Worse yet, we saw descendants of the giant Anak. Amalekites are spread out in the Negev; Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites hold the hill country; and the Canaanites are established on the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan.”

30  Caleb interrupted, called for silence before Moses and said, “Let’s go up and take the land—now. We can do it.”

31–33  But the others said, “We can’t attack those people; they’re way stronger than we are.” They spread scary rumors among the People of Israel. They said, “We scouted out the land from one end to the other—it’s a land that swallows people whole. Everybody we saw was huge. Why, we even saw the Nephilim giants (the Anak giants come from the Nephilim). Alongside them we felt like grasshoppers. And they looked down on us as if we were grasshoppers.”

1–3  14 The whole community was in an uproar, wailing all night long. All the People of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The entire community was in on it: “Why didn’t we die in Egypt? Or in this wilderness? Why has God brought us to this country to kill us? Our wives and children are about to become plunder. Why don’t we just head back to Egypt? And right now!”

4  Soon they were all saying it to one another: “Let’s pick a new leader; let’s head back to Egypt.”

5  Moses and Aaron fell on their faces in front of the entire community, gathered in emergency session.

6–9  Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, members of the scouting party, ripped their clothes and addressed the assembled People of Israel: “The land we walked through and scouted out is a very good land—very good indeed. If God is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land that flows, as they say, with milk and honey. And he’ll give it to us. Just don’t rebel against God! And don’t be afraid of those people. Why, we’ll have them for lunch! They have no protection and God is on our side. Don’t be afraid of them!”

Insight

The word picture used to describe the land promised to God’s covenant people is one that “[flows] with milk and honey” (Numbers 13:27; 14:8). This attention-grabbing phrase that depicts richness and abundance first appears in Exodus 3:8, where it describes the land God has allotted to His people: “a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.” The word flowing is as significant to the phase as the other words. The same Hebrew word (zuv) is translated “gushed out” in Psalm 78:20 and 105:41. Such visual images of what God has promised helps to strengthen our faith. By: Arthur Jackson

Saying Yes by Faith

The Lord is with us. Numbers 14:9

When asked if I’d accept a new responsibility at work, I wanted to say no. I thought of the challenges and felt inadequate to handle them. But as I prayed and sought guidance from the Bible and other believers, I realized God was calling me to say yes. Through the Scriptures, I was also reassured of His help. So, I accepted the task, but still with some dread.

I see myself in the Israelites and the ten spies who recoiled from occupying Canaan (Numbers 13:27-29, 31-33; 14:1-4). They too saw the difficulties, wondering how they could defeat the powerful people in the land and subdue their fortified cities. “We seemed like grasshoppers,” the spies said (13:33), and the Israelites grumbled, “Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword?” (14:3).

Only Caleb and Joshua remembered that God had already promised He’d give Canaan to His people (Genesis 17:8; Numbers 13:2). They drew confidence from His promise, seeing the difficulties ahead in the light of God’s presence and help. They’d face the difficulties with His power, protection, and resources, not their own (Numbers 14:6-9).       

The task God gave me wasn’t easy—but He helped me through it. While we won’t always be spared difficulties in His assignments, we can—like Caleb and Joshua—face them knowing, “The Lord is with us” (v. 9). By:  Karen Huang

Reflect & Pray

When have you felt inadequate to do a task you knew God was asking you to do? How do Caleb and Joshua’s examples help?

Dear God, please help me to follow You wholeheartedly.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Thursday, October 03, 2024

The Sphere of Service

He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer.” — Mark 9:29

After the disciples had tried and failed to cast out an impure spirit, they went to Jesus in confusion, asking, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” (Mark 9:28). Jesus replied that it was only through prayer—only through concentration and more concentration on him, only through a personal relationship with him—that such a spirit could be driven out. The disciples had tried to do God’s work by drawing on their own ideas rather than by concentrating on God’s power.

If you approach things as the disciples did, you will remain as powerless as they were. You may be eager to work for God, but if you work for him without knowing him, you’ll end up working against him. Sometimes you are faced with a difficult situation and you pray about it, yet nothing happens—not on the outside. But if you are concentrating on Jesus, if you have a personal relationship with him, you know that emancipation will be given. The focus of your service must be to make sure that there is nothing between Jesus and yourself. If there is, you can only overcome it by facing it and going straight through it into his presence, not by ignoring it in irritation. Face the issue with the Lord, and eventually that very thing, along with everything that’s happened in connection with it, will glorify him.

The one purpose for which we are in this world is concentration on God. Get the noisy cries of religion out of your ears, the cries that say, “Do this and don’t do that.” Never! Jesus says, “Be this and that, and I will do through you.”

Isaiah 17-19; Ephesians 5:17-33

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

We never enter into the Kingdom of God by having our head questions answered, but only by commitment.

The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption, 565 R

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Thursday, October 03, 2024

How Much God Thinks You're Worth - #9844

It's always moving when it comes to Memorial Day and you have all these families of veterans and people who were lost in a war or a battle and all these very poignant stories on television and in the news. You know, Memorial Day and days like it, they're different when you're a veteran or the loved one of someone who died for America's freedom. Because every day is Memorial Day. Because freedom's price for you has a name, a face, an empty chair at the table.

During the Memorial Day observances one Memorial Day, I heard some veterans and some families asking a haunting question. It's embodied in a statement that came from one combat veteran, a former Navy Seal, and a current TV commentator. It really touched me. He said: "It's important for veterans who fought to believe the sacrifice was worth it." The question especially arises when the ground that people bled and died to take is then later lost to the enemy.

"Was the sacrifice worth it?" Whatever the battle, whatever the war, that's what the warrior wants to know.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How Much God Thinks You're Worth."

As I sat in church recently, a sobering thought hit me. It's one I haven't been able to shake. Does Jesus look at me and ask that question, "Was the sacrifice worth it?"

He didn't risk His life. He gave His life. He came here knowing that He alone could pay the price for the sin of the world - for my sin. "The righteous for the unrighteous." That's the way the Bible says it. Nothing could break His heart more than to see the ground He died to liberate in our lives being lost to the enemy. Like us continuing to hang onto the junk that He bled to deliver us from.

In our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Peter 2:24 it says, "He personally carried our sins in His own body on the cross, so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right." Does He ever say to us, "Do you know I died so you wouldn't have to do that thing that you're doing now"?

Sin is so much more than breaking rules. It's really about breaking Jesus' heart. Like when His blood-bought child fills their heart with pornographic fantasies. Or uses their body - the "temple of the Holy Spirit," the Bible calls it, for the very sexual sins He died for. "You are not your own," the Bible says, "you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

It's got to wound Him again when we wound others that He died for with our runaway mouth. Or we just keep lying. Or we abandon our marriage vows. Or succumb to pride, bitterness, unforgiveness, or so many other dark impulses unworthy of His life's sacrifice. The Bible says, "Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ" (Philippians 1:27).

I guess the most hurtful way we can dishonor the blood-sacrifice of Jesus is to think that there's some other way we can get rid of our sin or get into heaven. Like being good, or being religious. Listen, if there was any other way my spiritual death penalty could have been paid, Jesus would never have endured the agony of the cross. Why would He do that if there was another way?

Our faith in anything else to make our peace with God says, "Jesus, what You did on the cross was not enough. I'm going to do something." To honor the unspeakable blood sacrifice of God's only Son is to abandon any other hope but Him. And then to drop the junk that killed Him. Have you ever done that?

Have you ever had your Jesus moment when you've put the life He died for, paid for with His blood, in His hands? If you've never done that, maybe He's talking to you today about this being your day. If you want to do that, tell Him, "Jesus, I'm yours." And please, go to our website and let me meet you there and help you know how to begin this relationship. It's ANewStory.com.

He looks at me. He looks at you, and then He looks at the nail prints in His hands and perhaps He asks: "Was the sacrifice worth it?"

Ezekiel 45, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: FROM POVERTY TO PRIDE - October 2, 2024

There’s a predictable progression from poverty to pride. The poor man prays and works; God hears and blesses. The humble man becomes rich and forgets God. The faithful, poor man becomes the proud, rich man. As God said through Hosea, “When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me” (Hosea 13:6 NIV).

How can a person survive prosperity? Scripture says do not be haughty. Do not think for a moment that you had anything to do with your accumulation. Scripture also makes clear that your stocks, cash, and 401(k) are not yours. 1 Timothy 6:17 warns us to not put our “trust in uncertain riches.” Money is an untrustworthy foundation. Have you noticed that the word miser is just one letter short of the word misery?

Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear

Ezekiel 45

Sacred Space for God

1–4  45 “When you divide up the inheritance of the land, you must set aside part of the land as sacred space for God: approximately seven miles long by six miles wide, all of it holy ground. Within this rectangle, reserve a seven-hundred-fifty-foot square for the Sanctuary with a seventy-five-foot buffer zone surrounding it. Mark off within the sacred reserve a section seven miles long by three miles wide. The Sanctuary with its Holy of Holies will be placed there. This is where the priests will live, those who lead worship in the Sanctuary and serve God there. Their houses will be there along with The Holy Place.

5  “To the north of the sacred reserve, an area roughly seven miles long and two and a quarter miles wide will be set aside as land for the villages of the Levites who administer the affairs of worship in the Sanctuary.

6  “To the south of the sacred reserve, measure off a section seven miles long and about a mile and a half wide for the city itself, an area held in common by the whole family of Israel.

7–8  “The prince gets the land abutting the seven-mile east and west borders of the central sacred square, extending eastward toward the Jordan and westward toward the Mediterranean. This is the prince’s possession in Israel. My princes will no longer bully my people, running roughshod over them. They’ll respect the land as it has been allotted to the tribes.

9–12  “This is the Message of God, the Master: ‘I’ve put up with you long enough, princes of Israel! Quit bullying and taking advantage of my people. Do what’s just and right for a change. Use honest scales—honest weights and honest measures. Every pound must have sixteen ounces. Every gallon must measure four quarts. The ounce is the basic measure for both. And your coins must be honest—no wooden nickels!

Everyone in the Land Must Contribute

13–15  “ ‘These are the prescribed offerings you are to supply: one-sixtieth part of your wheat, one-sixtieth part of your barley, one-hundredth part of your oil, one sheep out of every two hundred from the lush pastures of Israel. These will be used for the grain offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings for making the atonement sacrifices for the people. Decree of God, the Master.

16–17  “ ‘Everyone in the land must contribute to these special offerings that the prince in Israel will administer. It’s the prince’s job to provide the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings at the Holy Festivals, the New Moons, and the Sabbaths—all the commanded feasts among the people of Israel. Sin offerings, grain offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings for making atonement for the people of Israel are his responsibility.

18–20  “ ‘This is the Message from God, the Master: On the first day of the first month, take an unblemished bull calf and purify the Sanctuary. The priest is to take blood from the sin offerings and rub it on the doorposts of the Temple, on the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and on the gate entrance to the inside courtyard. Repeat this ritual on the seventh day of the month for anyone who sins without knowing it. In this way you make atonement for the Temple.

21  “ ‘On the fourteenth day of the first month, you will observe the Passover, a feast of seven days. During the feast you will eat bread made without yeast.

22–23  “ ‘On Passover, the prince supplies a bull as a sin offering for himself and all the people of the country. Each day for each of the seven days of the feast, he will supply seven bulls and seven rams unblemished as a burnt offering to God, and also each day a male goat.

24  “ ‘He will supply about five and a half gallons of grain offering and a gallon of oil for each bull and each ram.

25  “ ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, and on each of the seven days of the feast, he is to supply the same materials for sin offerings, burnt offerings, grain offerings, and oil.’ ”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Wednesday, October 02, 2024

Today's Scripture

Galatians 5:13-26

  It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?

16–18  My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?

19–21  It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.

This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.

22–23  But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.

23–24  Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified.

25–26  Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.

Insight

In Galatians, Paul warned against the teaching that gentile believers in Jesus needed to obey the law revealed to Moses. This was one of the most contentious issues in early communities of believers; it was difficult for many to fathom gentile believers not being required to adhere to the requirements of the law as inspired by God (such as circumcision; see Galatians 5:6). But Paul argued that the law had a temporary teaching role in God’s plan (3:23-25). It had no power to overcome sin. Christ frees and empowers believers to be “led by the Spirit” (5:18) in a life of love (vv. 22-25). By: Monica La Rose

Christ’s Character

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23

Following a challenging tour in Afghanistan, Scott, a sergeant in the British Army, fell apart. He remembered: “I was in a dark place.” But when he “discovered Jesus and began following Him,” his life changed radically. Now he seeks to share the love of Christ with others, especially veterans with whom he competes in the Invictus Games, an international event for wounded and injured members and veterans of the armed forces.

For Scott, reading the Bible, praying, and listening to worship music grounds him before going to the Games. God then helps him “to reflect the character of Jesus and show kindness, gentleness, and grace” to the fellow veterans competing there.

Scott names here some of the fruit of the Spirit that the apostle Paul wrote about to the believers in Galatia. They struggled under the influence of false teachers, so Paul sought to encourage them to stay true to God and His grace, being “led by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:18). By doing so, they would then produce the Spirit’s fruit—“love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (vv. 22-23).

With God’s Spirit living within us, we too will burst forth with the Spirit’s goodness and love. We too will show gentleness and kindness to those who surround us. By:  Amy Boucher Pye

Reflect & Pray

How can God help you to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit? What practices can help you to stay in tune with Him?

Life-giving God, thank You for Your Spirit. Please produce within me fruit for others to enjoy.

Learn how to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Wednesday, October 02, 2024

The Sphere of Humiliation

“If you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.” — Mark 9:22

After every period of exaltation, we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they are, where it is neither beautiful nor poetic nor thrilling. The height of the mountaintop is measured by the drudgery of the valley—but it’s in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God. When we are on the mountaintop, we see the glory of God, but we cannot live for it. Only in the depths of the valley, in the realm of humiliation, do we discover our true worth to God; only there is our faithfulness revealed.

Most of us can do all sorts of difficult things when we are filled with a sense of heroism. But this is only because of the natural selfishness of our hearts, our desire to be useful and adored. God wants us to relinquish the heroic frame of mind. He wants us to live in the valley according to our personal relationship to him.

“Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain. . . . And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses” (Mark 9:2, 4). After witnessing the vision of Elijah and Moses, Peter wanted to stay up on the mountain. But Jesus took him and the other disciples back down into the valley, the place where the meaning of the vision would be explained.

“‘If you can’? . . .” Look back at your own experience, and you will find that until you learned who Jesus was, you were skeptical of his power. When you were on the mountaintop, you could believe anything. But what about when you were up against facts in the valley? You may be able to give testimony about your miraculous spiritual experiences, but what about the thing that is humiliating you just now? The last time you were on the mountain with God, you saw that all power in heaven and earth belonged to Jesus. Will you see it now in the valley?

Isaiah 14-16; Ephesians 5:1-16

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Jesus Christ reveals, not an embarrassed God, not a confused God, not a God who stands apart from the problems, but One who stands in the thick of the whole thing with man. 

Disciples Indeed, 388 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Wednesday, October 02, 2024

Helene, Heroes and Heaven - #9843

It may turn out to be one of the deadliest, most damaging storms we've ever had - Hurricane Helene. You've seen it all over the news, and it really has been hitting me in the heart because I have a lot of friends along that 500-mile path of destruction. Especially in western North Carolina. I've just watched the heartbreaking news on two different levels actually. First, obviously the layers of just physical tragedy. But my heart also sees a picture that vividly clarifies the most important spiritual issues of our times.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have a word with you today about "Helene, Heroes and Heaven."

Well let me tell you what my heart has seen...

First, their world is suddenly very broken.

Bridges are gone, roads are gone, towns are gone, rivers have been totally rerouted, they have no power, many cases they can't communicate. They can't even find out how they're doing, they can't ask for help. You know that's also a picture of our lives and our world today. I mean look at the news - a world on fire today, brutally divided politics, it's dividing relationships, churches in some cases, and families. there's an epidemic of mental health issues. It just seems like so much is broken - and hope is hard to find. And our roads are even broken, we can't get to an answer.

Second, for many people, their only hope is a rescue from above. There's choppers today flying all over western North Carolina because there are people who can be only can be accessed, only rescued, only helped, with help from above.

Well, the Bible would say that's a picture of our spiritual condition. we're lost, we're spiritually endangered. We got a life without lasting love or meaning, and we're facing an unthinkable eternity. Because we're away from our God. Because we've run our lives instead of Him running them. But hope has a name - His name is Jesus and He's a rescuer.

Here's our Word for today from the Word of God from Galatians 1:4 - "The Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself for our sins to rescue us." Rescue us. You say, what about my religion? Religion is like the roads that are broken - they can't get us out of our spiritual predicament. Only the Rescuer from above can. And if He's come for you, man, grab Him while you can.

Thirdly, people are dropping everything because other peoples' lives are at stake. I mean you see it all over western North Carolina and other areas that have been hit. People know that when lives are at stake, you just drop everything else you've been working on, it's not that important right now.

Proverbs 24 commands us to "Rescue those are who being led away to death." That's every person we know who doesn't know our Jesus. It's all hands on deck. Nothing else really matters when people are dying. Only rescue matters. In our broken world, surrounded by broken lives, more than all our other agendas, more than all our distractions, it's rescue that matters!

Finally, people who've never thought of themselves as rescuers are saving lives.

I just heard today through a friend of a friend that a builder and his crew. Went down to western North Carolina to try to help people. In the process they cam across a house that had been totally buried in mud. It totally collapsed. They, with their bare hands dug through the mud and saved six lives. Pulled six people out who probably would have died otherwise. This guy's a builder, he didn't go there to rescue, but where there are dying people you know what you gotta do. You can't wait for the pros to get there. Every believer knows some lost person who needs rescuing. If you're there, you're responsible.

My friend, it's time to move past our fear, and past our excuses, past our distractions. And waiting for somebody else to do it. There's a spiritual disaster happening right in front of us. And the rescue mission is for all of us.

1 John 1, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: THE GREAT GIVER - October 1, 2024

Scrooge didn’t create the world, God did. Giving characterizes God’s creation. Psalm 104 celebrates this lavish creation with twenty-three verses of blessings: the heavens and the earth, the water and streams and trees and birds and oil and bread. The Scripture says God is the source of “innumerable teeming things, living things both great and small…These all wait for him, that he may give them their food in due season” (Psalm 104:25, 27).

And he does. God is the great giver, the great provider, the fount of every blessing. Absolutely generous, utterly dependable. The resounding and recurring message of Scripture is clear: God owns it all, and God shares it all.

Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear

1 John 1

From the very first day, we were there, taking it all in—we heard it with our own ears, saw it with our own eyes, verified it with our own hands. The Word of Life appeared right before our eyes; we saw it happen! And now we’re telling you in most sober prose that what we witnessed was, incredibly, this: The infinite Life of God himself took shape before us.

3–4  We saw it, we heard it, and now we’re telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double our joy!

Walk in the Light

5  This, in essence, is the message we heard from Christ and are passing on to you: God is light, pure light; there’s not a trace of darkness in him.

6–7  If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we’re obviously lying through our teeth—we’re not living what we claim. But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificed blood of Jesus, God’s Son, purges all our sin.

8–10  If we claim that we’re free of sin, we’re only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins—make a clean breast of them—he won’t let us down; he’ll be true to himself. He’ll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing. If we claim that we’ve never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God—make a liar out of him. A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Tuesday, October 01, 2024

Today's Scripture

Ephesians 6:10-18

A Fight to the Finish

10–12  And that about wraps it up. God is strong, and he wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.

13–18  Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You’ll need them throughout your life. God’s Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.

Insight

In Ephesians 4-6, Paul exhorts believers in Jesus “to live a life worthy of [God’s calling]” (4:1) and not to live like unbelievers (v. 17) whose lives are characterized by “fruitless deeds of darkness” (5:11). Believers are to live a life filled with love as “children of light” (v. 8) because “the days are evil” (v. 16). Concluding his letter, Paul warns his readers of a dangerous, powerful enemy who seeks to destroy them. In combating Satan and his evil forces, believers can stand firm and be victorious if they remain “strong in the Lord and in his mighty power” (6:10). They will be strengthened by God when they “put on the full armor of God” (vv. 11, 13). Most of this armor is defensive, except for “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (v. 17). Christ used the Scriptures to defeat the devil (Matthew 4:1-11).  By: K. T. Sim

God’s Provided Protection

Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand. Ephesians 6:11

My wife and I put hundreds of miles on our bikes each year, pedaling the trails around West Michigan. To enhance the experience, we have some accessories that we’ve attached to our bikes. Sue has a front light, a back light, an odometer, and a bike lock. My bike has a water-bottle holder. In reality, we could ride our route successfully every day and rack up all those miles without the extras. They’re helpful but optional.

In the book of Ephesians, the apostle Paul writes about another set of accessories—but these aren’t optional. He said we must “put on” these things to be successful in living out our faith in Jesus. Our lives aren’t easy rides. We’re in a battle in which we must “stand against the devil’s schemes” (6:11), so we must be well equipped.

Without the wisdom of Scripture, we can be swayed to accept error. Without Jesus helping us live out His “truth,” we’ll give in to lies (v. 14). Without the “gospel,” we’ll have no “peace” (v. 15). Without “faith” shielding us, we’ll succumb to doubt (v. 16). Our “salvation” and the Holy Spirit anchor us to live well for God (v. 17). This is our armor.

How vital that we travel the pathways of life protected from its real dangers. We do that when Christ equips us for the challenges along the way—when we “put on” the armor God provides. By:  Dave Branon

Reflect & Pray

What does it mean for you to “put on” God’s armor? What situations are you facing that require His armor the most?

Dear Father, thank You for reminding me in Scripture how I can stand against Satan’s attacks.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Tuesday, October 01, 2024

The Sphere of Exaltation

After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain. — Mark 9:2

We’ve all had times on the mountain, when we’ve seen from God’s viewpoint and have wanted to stay on high. But God will never allow this. The test of our spiritual life lies in our ability to keep the vision God gives on the mountain in our sights as we descend. If we only have the power to rise, something is wrong.

It’s a great thing to be up on the mountain with our Lord, but he only takes us up with him for one reason—so that we may go down again into the valley and lift up those around us. We aren’t built for the mountains and the dawns and the breathtaking views; they are for moments of inspiration, nothing else. We’re built for the valley, for the ordinary stuff of daily life. That is where we have to prove our mettle.

Spiritual selfishness always wants to get back to the mountaintop. When we are spiritually selfish, we are always claiming that of course we’d live like angels—if we could stay on high. We have to learn that moments of exaltation are exceptional. They have meaning in our life with God, but we have to make sure that spiritual selfishness doesn’t cause us to want them all the time.

We tend to think that everything that happens is meant to teach us something. A mountaintop experience isn’t meant to teach us anything; it’s meant to make us something new. God wants our experiences to develop our character.

When it comes to spiritual matters, there’s a great trap in asking, “What’s the point of this?” It isn’t for us to know the point. The moments on the mountaintop are rare, and they are meant for something in God’s own purpose.

Isaiah 11-13; Ephesians 4

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

It is not what a man does that is of final importance, but what he is in what he does. The atmosphere produced by a man, much more than his activities, has the lasting influence. 

Baffled to Fight Better, 51 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Tuesday, October 01, 2024

Grace for Every Need - #9842

Honestly I dislike shopping for clothes. Looking for a suit would rank right up there with a root canal or something. As far as the pleasure factor is, I'd say. The problem is that they just don't have suits for guys who are shaped like me. Maybe there just aren't many guys who are shaped like me; maybe that's the problem.

See, if the coat looks good on me, then the pants don't. If the waist is a good fit, then they're baggy in the back. If it fits well in the back, then the waist is tight enough to affect my respiration. Now, there is a way to get a perfect fit - it's called custom tailoring, I can't afford that, so I guess I'm just going to have to stick to one size that's supposed to fit all bodies about that shape. There is a perfect fit that you need right now and so do I, and it's yours for free.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Grace for Every Need."

Our word for today from the Word of God, Deuteronomy 33:25 - six words full of encouragement. "Your strength will equal your days." That's just six words, but it says so much about the need, the crisis, the crunch, and the unanswered question that you may be facing right now. God promises strength that is custom tailored for what that day requires; no more strength than you'll need for that day, and no less strength than you'll need for that day.

It's the same kind of promise that He gave in 2 Corinthians 12:9 where He says, "My grace is sufficient for you." Sufficient grace - always grace enough. We've sung the hymn many times about God's amazing grace, and it is amazing. It reaches down, forgives every sin, and gives me a royal place in God's family. But His grace is the gift that keeps on giving.

Gary's company was on the edge of bankruptcy. I called him and I said, "How are you holding up with everything that you've built at risk?" He said, "You know what? God's peace is making it." I talked to some friends not long ago who lost a loved one in a tragic auto accident, and here was their report, "God's promises are holding us up. He is enough." Yeah, He is.

The wonderful truth in scripture is this, that God gives grace customized for every experience that He sends or He allows in your life. There is dying grace - you say, "I don't know how I would ever handle dying." Well, of course, you're not doing it now; you don't need it now. But haven't you seen people with dying grace? You get it when you need it.

There's suffering grace. For whatever suffering may be ahead, God will give you grace to meet that challenge. There's lonely grace for lonely times in your life. There's heartbreak grace. You don't have it now unless you need it, but at the time the heartbreak comes, the grace comes. There's waiting grace if you're having to wait for God to act in your life. You don't have it until you need it. When you need it, you've got it.

Maybe you fear your ability to handle some situation right now, but just when you need it, grace will fill your heart - grace that's designed just to fit that moment. Grace may come in the form of a person, or surprising inner strength, a Bible verse, an ability to release something you've held for so long, but the grace is there if you go get it. Boldly, the Bible says, go to the throne of grace and obtain it there.

God has measured the situation like a spiritual tailor, and He has fitted His grace exactly to your need - custom-tailored designer grace to cover you.

Ezekiel 44, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: VICTORY IS SECURE - September 30, 2024

Some years ago I attended a San Antonio Spurs basketball game. It was the final game of the regular season, and it was unique because it did not matter. The Spurs had already won their division. The game had no bearing on their standings.

The game intrigued this preacher. I saw a sermon illustration waiting to happen. Christians occupy the same spot that the Spurs did. According to the Bible, we’ve already won. According to prophecy, victory is secure. According to the message of grace and the death of Christ on the cross, no one can snatch us from our Father’s hand.

So how do we behave in the meantime? Well the Spurs were a good example. They were relaxed, confident, and happy, and they won the game. In these last days show up, play hard, and be happy. After all, the victory is secure.

What Happens Next

Ezekiel 44

Sanctuary Rules

1  44 Then the man brought me back to the outside gate complex of the Sanctuary that faces east. But it was shut.

2–3  God spoke to me: “This gate is shut and it’s to stay shut. No one is to go through it because God, the God of Israel, has gone through it. It stays shut. Only the prince, because he’s the prince, may sit there to eat in the presence of God. He is to enter the gate complex through the porch and leave by the same way.”

4  The man led me through the north gate to the front of the Temple. I looked, and—oh!—the bright Glory of God filling the Temple of God! I fell on my face in worship.

5  God said to me, “Son of man, get a grip on yourself. Use your eyes, use your ears, pay careful attention to everything I tell you about the ordinances of this Temple of God, the way all the laws work, instructions regarding it and all the entrances and exits of the Sanctuary.

6–9  “Tell this bunch of rebels, this family Israel, ‘Message of God, the Master: No more of these vile obscenities, Israel, dragging irreverent and unrepentant outsiders, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, into my Sanctuary, feeding them the sacrificial offerings as if it were the food for a neighborhood picnic. With all your vile obscenities, you’ve broken trust with me, the solemn covenant I made with you. You haven’t taken care of my holy things. You’ve hired out the work to foreigners who care nothing for this place, my Sanctuary. No irreverent and unrepentant aliens, uncircumcised in heart or flesh, not even the ones who live among Israelites, are to enter my Sanctuary.’

10–14  “The Levites who walked off and left me, along with everyone else—all Israel—who took up with all the no-god idols, will pay for everything they did wrong. From now on they’ll do only the menial work in the Sanctuary: guard the gates and help out with the Temple chores—and also kill the sacrificial animals for the people and serve them. Because they acted as priests to the no-god idols and made my people Israel stumble and fall, I’ve taken an oath to punish them. Decree of God, the Master. Yes, they’ll pay for what they’ve done. They’re fired from the priesthood. No longer will they come into my presence and take care of my holy things. No more access to The Holy Place! They’ll have to live with what they’ve done, carry the shame of their vile and obscene lives. From now on, their job is to sweep up and run errands. That’s it.

15–16  “But the Levitical priests who descend from Zadok, who faithfully took care of my Sanctuary when everyone else went off and left me, are going to come into my presence and serve me. They are going to carry out the priestly work of offering the solemn sacrifices of worship. Decree of God, the Master. They’re the only ones permitted to enter my Sanctuary. They’re the only ones to approach my table and serve me, accompanying me in my work.

17–19  “When they enter the gate complex of the inside courtyard, they are to dress in linen. No woolens are to be worn while serving at the gate complex of the inside courtyard or inside the Temple itself. They’re to wear linen turbans on their heads and linen underclothes—nothing that makes them sweat. When they go out into the outside courtyard where the people gather, they must first change out of the clothes they have been serving in, leaving them in the sacred rooms where they change to their everyday clothes, so that they don’t trivialize their holy work by the way they dress.

20  “They are to neither shave their heads nor let their hair become unkempt, but must keep their hair trimmed and neat.

21  “No priest is to drink on the job—no wine while in the inside courtyard.

22  “Priests are not to marry widows or divorcees, but only Israelite virgins or widows of priests.

23  “Their job is to teach my people the difference between the holy and the common, to show them how to discern between unclean and clean.

24  “When there’s a difference of opinion, the priests will arbitrate. They’ll decide on the basis of my judgments, laws, and statutes. They are in charge of making sure the appointed feasts are honored and my Sabbaths kept holy in the ways I’ve commanded.

25–27  “A priest must not contaminate himself by going near a corpse. But when the dead person is his father or mother, son or daughter, brother or unmarried sister, he can approach the dead. But after he has been purified, he must wait another seven days. Then, when he returns to the inside courtyard of the Sanctuary to do his priestly work in the Sanctuary, he must first offer a sin offering for himself. Decree of God, the Master.

28–30  “As to priests owning land, I am their inheritance. Don’t give any land in Israel to them. I am their ‘land,’ their inheritance. They’ll take their meals from the grain offerings, the sin offerings, and the guilt offerings. Everything in Israel offered to God in worship is theirs. The best of everything grown, plus all special gifts, comes to the priests. All that is given in worship to God goes to them. Serve them first. Serve from your best and your home will be blessed.

31  “Priests are not to eat any meat from bird or animal unfit for ordinary human consumption, such as carcasses found dead on the road or in the field.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Monday, September 30, 2024

Today's Scripture

Zechariah 4:6-10

“This is God’s Message to Zerubbabel: ‘You can’t force these things. They only come about through my Spirit,’ says God-of-the-Angel-Armies. ‘So, big mountain, who do you think you are? Next to Zerubbabel you’re nothing but a molehill. He’ll proceed to set the Cornerstone in place, accompanied by cheers: Yes! Yes! Do it!’ ”

8–10  After that, the Word of God came to me: “Zerubbabel started rebuilding this Temple and he will complete it. That will be your confirmation that God-of-the-Angel-Armies sent me to you. Does anyone dare despise this day of small beginnings? They’ll change their tune when they see Zerubbabel setting the last stone in place!”

Going back to the vision, the Messenger-Angel said, “The seven lamps are the eyes of God probing the dark corners of the world like searchlights.”

Insight

Zechariah was one of Israel’s post-exilic prophets. This means his ministry took place after some of the people returned following their seventy years of captivity in Babylon. The Talmud—a written rabbinical commentary on Jewish history and law—says that Zechariah, along with Ezra and Nehemiah, was of the Great Synagogue. This was an assembly of 120 of the leading rabbis and scholars of the day. Zechariah was a Levite born in Babylon and is referred to in Ezra 5:1 and 6:14 as well as in Nehemiah 12:16. Like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, he was both a prophet and a priest. The book of Zechariah contains a significant amount of messianic prophecy. The prophet uses messages of encouragement to call the people to repentance and, having physically returned to the land, to spiritually return to God. We too can be challenged spiritually as we consider how wonderful God is.  By: Bill Crowder

“Small” Miracles

Do not despise these small beginnings. Zechariah 4:10 nlt

At our wedding shower, our shy friend Dave stood in a corner clutching an oblong, tissue-wrapped object. When his turn came to present his gift, he brought it forward. Evan and I unwrapped it to discover a hand-carved piece of wood containing perfect oblong concentric woodgrain circles and the engraved sentence, “Some of God’s miracles are small.” The plaque has hung in our home for forty-five years, reminding us again and again that God is at work even in the small things. Paying a bill. Providing a meal. Healing a cold. All tallying up to an impressive record of God’s provision.

Through the prophet Zechariah, the governor of Judah, Zerubbabel received a similar message from God regarding the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple. After returning from their Babylonian captivity, a season of slow progress began, and the Israelites grew discouraged. “Do not despise these small beginnings,” God declared (Zechariah 4:10 nlt). He accomplishes His desires through us and sometimes in spite of us. “ ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty” (v. 6).

When we grow weary at the apparent smallness of God’s work in and around us, may we remember that some of His miracles may be “small.” He uses the small things to build toward His greater purposes.  By:  Elisa Morgan

Reflect & Pray

Where have you seen God’s small miracles in your life? How has He used small things to provide for your needs and the needs of those around you?

Dear God, thank You for working Your small miracles in my life. Please help me to notice all Your works!

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Monday, September 30, 2024

The Commission of the Call

I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions. — Colossians 1:24

The call of God is utterly unique. We think we are answering God’s call when we devote ourselves to spiritual service, but once we get into a right relationship with him, we see how wrong we’ve been. When God calls, he calls us to something we’ve never dreamed of before. In one radiant, flashing moment, we see what he wants us to do—to “fill up” in our flesh “what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions”—and we are riveted with a terrific pain.

The call of God has nothing to do with personal holiness. It’s about being made broken bread and poured-out wine. If we are ever going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed; you cannot drink whole grapes. But God can never crush those who resist the fingers he uses to do it. Those fingers may belong to someone we dislike, or to some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit. We think, “If only God would use his own fingers to crush me, and do it in some special, heavenly way!” We have to learn that we cannot choose the scene or the means of our martyrdom.

I wonder what kind of fingers God has been using to squeeze you. Have you been hard as a marble and escaped? If God had persisted in squeezing you while you were still unripe, the wine would have been remarkably bitter. If you wish to be a person whom God can easily crush, you must allow his presence to govern every element of your natural life and to break those elements in his service.

We have to be rightly related to God before we can be broken in his hands. Keep right with him, let him do with you as he likes, and you will find that he is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit his other children.

Isaiah 9-10; Ephesians 3

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Wherever the providence of God may dump us down, in a slum, in a shop, in the desert, we have to labour along the line of His direction. Never allow this thought—“I am of no use where I am,” because you certainly can be of no use where you are not! Wherever He has engineered your circumstances, pray.

So Send I You, 1325 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Monday, September 30, 2024

YOUR MUSIC AND YOUR MASTER - #9841

It was one of the great showdowns of my life - over a jar of peanut butter. Yeah. See, I was in love with who would become my "bride" for two and a half years before we got married, and because I loved her I began to change some things before we got married. I lost some weight; I changed my schedule to make sure there was a little time for her in there. I changed my after shave because there was one she liked. I became interested in her friends. My love was steadily changing one area after another in my life, until the day we went grocery shopping together for the first time.

Yeah. See, there was tension over whether to buy the expensive name brand of various items which I wanted to do, or the less expensive store brand which she had been raised to do. Since it was going to be "our" money when we got married, it got to be pretty tense. It came to a head over uh... yeah, a jar of peanut butter. My name brand versus her store brand. Suddenly I had hit a wall in how far this love thing was going to go, and the line was what I wanted in my favorite foods. Fortunately, I ended up deciding that she was more important than peanut butter or soft drinks. Good choice huh? But every important love reaches a test point, and it's surprising what the issue often is.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Music and Your Master."

Well, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Psalm 40, and I'll begin reading at verse 1. It's David's personal testimony, "I waited patiently for the Lord" he says. "He turned to me; He heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire. He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God."

Now, David indicates here a very personal, very practical thing that the Lord changed when the Lord took over his life. David says He changed my music. "He put a new song in my mouth; a hymn of praise to our God." Interestingly enough, that area of music is for many a major test of how much they love their Lord. Will I let Jesus affect my music... what I listen to?

Honestly, for many followers of Christ, that's the equivalent of the peanut butter test in my love for my, then to become, wife. Do I love Jesus enough to let Him affect this - to let Him change my music? You say, "Come on, that's a teenage issue, right, that music stuff?" Not exclusively.

Music is one of the most powerful influences in our lives. It can make us feel romantic, or patriotic, or religious, sad. Music just drives in ideas. As one great composer said, "I loved music from being a young boy, because it bypasses the brain. It goes straight to the heart." That's true! Commercials use music all the time to drive messages into our head. See, if I'm going to live right, I've got to think right. And if I'm going to have to think right, I've got to get right input, which means I need to submit my music - this most powerful input - to the lordship of Christ. It doesn't matter if its country music, easy listening music, rock music, or rap music, whatever. The devil has planted his values and his messages in many styles of music. And honestly, it's often a separate compartment in many of our lives where we've put up a "No Trespassing" sign for Jesus. We say, "Well, that's just my entertainment." No! No, it's an important part of who you are. So important you won't let Jesus touch it.

He's looking at that locked closet and He's asking, "May I go in there? Didn't I die for that too?" Will you open up to the Lord this huge area of the music you listen to, who your music heroes are? Don't let it be an idol that He can't touch. Jesus is saying, "Let Me into your music."

Only you can answer the question that this raises: "Do I love Him this much?"

Ezekiel 43, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: You Matter to God

What matters to you—matters to God! You probably think that’s true when it comes to the big stuff like death, disease, sin, and disaster. But what about the smaller things?  What about grouchy bosses or flat tires?  What about broken dishes, late flights, toothaches, or a crashed hard drive? Do these matter to God?

Let me tell you who you are! In fact, let me proclaim who you are. The Bible says you are an “heir of God and a co-heir with Christ” (Romans 8:17). You have “a crown that will last forever” (1 Cor. 9:25). You were “chosen before the creation of the world” (Eph. 1:4).

But more than anything else is the simple fact—you are God’s child. 1 John 3:1 says “we are called children of God.  And we really are His children.” I love that:  we really are His children!

If something is important to you—it’s important to God!

From Lucado Inspirational Reader

Ezekiel 43

The Meaning of the Temple

1–3  43 The man brought me to the east gate. Oh! The bright Glory of the God of Israel rivered out of the east sounding like the roar of floodwaters, and the earth itself glowed with the bright Glory. It looked just like what I had seen when he came to destroy the city, exactly like what I had seen earlier at the Kebar River. And again I fell, face to the ground.

4–5  The bright Glory of God poured into the Temple through the east gate. The Spirit put me on my feet and led me to the inside courtyard and—oh! the bright Glory of God filled the Temple!

6–9  I heard someone speaking to me from inside the Temple while the man stood beside me. He said, “Son of man, this is the place for my throne, the place I’ll plant my feet. This is the place where I’ll live with the Israelites forever. Neither the people of Israel nor their kings will ever again drag my holy name through the mud with their whoring and the no-god idols their kings set up at all the wayside shrines. When they set up their worship shrines right alongside mine with only a thin wall between them, they dragged my holy name through the mud with their obscene and vile worship. Is it any wonder that I destroyed them in anger? So let them get rid of their whoring ways and the stinking no-god idols introduced by their kings and I’ll move in and live with them forever.

10–11  “Son of man, tell the people of Israel all about the Temple so they’ll be dismayed by their wayward lives. Get them to go over the layout. That will bring them up short. Show them the whole plan of the Temple, its ins and outs, the proportions, the regulations, and the laws. Draw a picture so they can see the design and meaning and live by its design and intent.

12  “This is the law of the Temple: As it radiates from the top of the mountain, everything around it becomes holy ground. Yes, this is law, the meaning, of the Temple.

13–14  “These are the dimensions of the altar, using the long (twenty-one-inch) ruler. The gutter at its base is twenty-one inches deep and twenty-one inches wide, with a four-inch lip around its edge.

14–15  “The height of the altar is three and a half feet from the base to the first ledge and twenty inches wide. From the first ledge to the second ledge it is seven feet high and twenty-one inches wide. The altar hearth is another seven feet high. Four horns stick upward from the hearth twenty-one inches high.

16–17  “The top of the altar, the hearth, is square, twenty-one by twenty-one feet. The upper ledge is also square, twenty-four and a half feet on each side, with a ten-and-a-half-inch lip and a twenty-one-inch-wide gutter all the way around.

“The steps of the altar ascend from the east.”

18  Then the man said to me, “Son of man, God, the Master, says: ‘These are the ordinances for conduct at the altar when it is built, for sacrificing burnt offerings and sprinkling blood on it.

19–21  “ ‘For a sin offering, give a bull to the priests, the Levitical priests who are from the family of Zadok who come into my presence to serve me. Take some of its blood and smear it on the four horns of the altar that project from the four corners of the top ledge and all around the lip. That’s to purify the altar and make it fit for the sacrifice. Then take the bull for the sin offerings and burn it in the place set aside for this in the courtyard outside the Sanctuary.

22–24  “ ‘On the second day, offer a male goat without blemish for a sin offering. Purify the altar the same as you purified it for the bull. Then, when you have purified it, offer a bull without blemish and a ram without blemish from the flock. Present them before God. Sprinkle salt on them and offer them as a burnt offering to God.

25–26  “ ‘For seven days, prepare a goat for a sin offering daily, and also a bull and a ram from the flock, animals without blemish. For seven days the priests are to get the altar ready for its work, purifying it. This is how you dedicate it.

27  “ ‘After these seven days of dedication, from the eighth day on, the priests will present your burnt offerings and your peace offerings. And I’ll accept you with pleasure, with delight! Decree of God, the Master.’ ”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Sunday, September 29, 2024

Today's Scripture

Proverbs 4:20-27

Learn It by Heart

20–22  Dear friend, listen well to my words;

tune your ears to my voice.

Keep my message in plain view at all times.

Concentrate! Learn it by heart!

Those who discover these words live, really live;

body and soul, they’re bursting with health.

23–27  Keep vigilant watch over your heart;

that’s where life starts.

Don’t talk out of both sides of your mouth;

avoid careless banter, white lies, and gossip.

Keep your eyes straight ahead;

ignore all sideshow distractions.

Watch your step,

and the road will stretch out smooth before you.

Look neither right nor left; leave evil in the dust.

Insight

Proverbs 4 paints a picture of a life guided and nourished by “the way of wisdom” (v. 11). To be a disciple of wisdom means to let “one’s whole body” (v. 22) be transformed by it—our ears (v. 20), eyes (vv. 21, 25), feet (vv. 26-27), and, most importantly, our heart (v. 23). We’re to cling with unswerving devotion to the way of wisdom, to “guard it well, for it is [our] life” (v. 13).

Along with the prophet Ezekiel’s vision of a river of life (Ezekiel 47:1-12), Jesus may have had in mind the imagery of Proverbs 4:23, of all life flowing from our hearts, when He said: “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them” (John 7:38). Christ is God’s wisdom made human (1 Corinthians 1:24, 30).  By: Monica La Rose

Heart Healthy

Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Proverbs 4:23

The human heart is an amazing organ. This fist-sized pumping station weighs between 7 and 15 ounces. Daily it beats around 100,000 times and pumps 2,000 gallons of blood through the 60,000 miles of blood vessels in our bodies! With such a strategic assignment and heavy workload, it’s understandable why heart health is central to the well-being of the entire body. Medical science encourages us to pursue healthy habits because the condition of our heart and the quality of our health go together.

While medical science speaks authoritatively about our physical hearts, God speaks with even greater authority about a “heart” of another kind. He addresses the mental, emotional, spiritual, and moral “center” of our being. Because the heart is the central processing unit of life, it must be protected: “Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Proverbs 4:23). Safeguarding our hearts will help us with our speech (v. 24), compel us to be discerning with our eyes (v. 25), and choose the best paths for our feet (v. 27). Regardless of age or stage of life, when our hearts are guarded, our lives are preserved, our relationships are protected, and God is honored. By:  Arthur Jackson

Reflect & Pray

What do your lifestyle and habits reveal about the condition of your heart? If you haven’t prayed to God for a change of heart, what’s keeping you from doing that today?

Search me, dear God, and know my heart; create in me a clean heart. Let me hide Your truth in my heart that I might not sin against You.

For further study, read Grace: Accepting God’s Gift to You.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Sunday, September 29, 2024

The Consciousness of the Call

I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! — 1 Corinthians 9:16

We are prone to forgetting the mystical, supernatural quality of the touch of God. If you can tell others where and when you received the call of God and all about what it was like, I question whether you’ve ever truly received it. The call to preach doesn’t come in a way that’s easy to describe; it’s much more supernatural. The call may come with a sudden thunderclap or with a gradual dawning, but however it comes, it comes with the undercurrent of the supernatural, something that cannot be put into words. It’s always accompanied by a glow.

“I chose you and appointed you” (John 15:16). At any moment, you may break into a sudden conscious awareness of this surprising, supernatural call that has taken hold of your life. The call of God has nothing to do with salvation and sanctification; it isn’t because you are saved and sanctified that you’ve been called to preach. The call to preach is entirely different. Paul describes it as a necessity, a compulsion, placed upon him: “I am compelled to preach.”

If you’ve been obliterating the great supernatural call of God in your life, review your circumstances and see where you’ve failed to put God first. Have you placed him after your idea of Christian service or your desire to use your natural abilities? God had no competition for first place in Paul’s life. Paul realized the call of God and devoted all his strength to answering it.

When someone is called by God, it doesn’t matter how difficult their circumstances are. Every circumstantial force that has been at work will serve God’s purposes in the end. Once you agree to answer the call, God will bring not only your conscious life but also the deeper regions of your life into harmony with his purposes.

Isaiah 7-8; Ephesians 2

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

It is not what a man does that is of final importance, but what he is in what he does. The atmosphere produced by a man, much more than his activities, has the lasting influence. 

Baffled to Fight Better, 51 L

Ezekiel 42, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Come to Me

How does a person get relief from shame, embarrassment, anger?

In Matthew 11:28, Jesus said, "Come to Me, all of you who are tired and have heavy loads, and I will give you rest.  Accept my teachings and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit, and you will find rest for your lives. . ."

I can see you shaking your head.  I've tried that.  I've read the Bible.  I've sat on the pew-but I've never received relief. Could it be you went to religion and you didn't go to God? Could it be you went to a church, but never saw Christ?

"Come to Me" the verse reads. Jesus is the solution for weariness of the soul. Go to Him. Admit you have soul secrets you've never dealt with. He already knows what they are.

Go to Him! He's just waiting for you to ask Him to help!

 From When God Whispers Your Name

Ezekiel 42

The man led me north into the outside courtyard and brought me to the rooms that are in front of the open space and the house facing north. The length of the house on the north was one hundred seventy-five feet, and its width eighty-seven and a half feet. Across the thirty-five feet that separated the inside courtyard from the paved walkway at the edge of the outside courtyard, the rooms rose level by level for three stories. In front of the rooms on the inside was a hallway seventeen and a half feet wide and one hundred seventy-five feet long. Its entrances were from the north. The upper rooms themselves were narrower, their galleries being wider than on the first and second floors of the building. The rooms on the third floor had no pillars like the pillars in the outside courtyard and were smaller than the rooms on the first and second floors. There was an outside wall parallel to the rooms and the outside courtyard. It fronted the rooms for eighty-seven and a half feet. The row of rooms facing the outside courtyard was eighty-seven and a half feet long. The row on the side nearest the Sanctuary was one hundred seventy-five feet long. The first-floor rooms had their entrance from the east, coming in from the outside courtyard.

10–12  On the south side along the length of the courtyard’s outside wall and fronting on the Temple courtyard were rooms with a walkway in front of them. These were just like the rooms on the north—same exits and dimensions—with the main entrance from the east leading to the hallway and the doors to the rooms the same as those on the north side. The design on the south was a mirror image of that on the north.

13–14  Then he said to me, “The north and south rooms adjacent to the open area are holy rooms where the priests who come before God eat the holy offerings. There they place the holy offerings—grain offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings. These are set-apart rooms, holy space. After the priests have entered the Sanctuary, they must not return to the outside courtyard and mingle among the people until they change the sacred garments in which they minister and put on their regular clothes.”

15–16  After he had finished measuring what was inside the Temple area, he took me out the east gate and measured it from the outside. Using his measuring stick, he measured the east side: eight hundred seventy-five feet.

17  He measured the north side: eight hundred seventy-five feet.

18  He measured the south side: eight hundred seventy-five feet.

19  Last of all he went to the west side and measured it: eight hundred seventy-five feet.

20  He measured the wall on all four sides. Each wall was eight hundred seventy-five feet. The walls separated the holy from the ordinary.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Saturday, September 28, 2024

Today's Scripture

Galatians 1:1-5

 I, Paul, and my companions in faith here, send greetings to the Galatian churches. My authority for writing to you does not come from any popular vote of the people, nor does it come through the appointment of some human higher-up. It comes directly from Jesus the Messiah and God the Father, who raised him from the dead. I’m God-commissioned. So I greet you with the great words, grace and peace! We know the meaning of those words because Jesus Christ rescued us from this evil world we’re in by offering himself as a sacrifice for our sins. God’s plan is that we all experience that rescue. Glory to God forever! Oh, yes!

Insight

In Galatians, Paul refers to Jesus as our rescuer (1:3-5) and deliverer (5:1). The apostle uses a variety of terms in his other writings to describe what Christ accomplished in His rescue mission. He provides “peace with God” (Romans 5:1); He’s “our Passover lamb” (1 Corinthians 5:7), our “Savior” (Ephesians 5:23), and redeemer (Titus 2:14). The author of Hebrews describes Him as our “great high priest” (Hebrews 4:14). The common thread of these images and metaphors is that Jesus rectifies something that’s wrong. The parables that He told in Luke 15 of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son (more commonly known as the prodigal son) have a similar theme of rescue. Christ described His own work by saying, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (19:10).  By: J.R. Hudberg

Search and Rescue

[Jesus] gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age. Galatians 1:4

Some friends went boating in the English Channel, hoping the forecast for stormy weather would change. But the winds rose, and the waves became choppy, threatening the safety of their vessel, so they radioed for help to the RNLI (the Royal National Lifeboat Institution). After some tense moments, they spotted their rescuers in the distance and realized with relief they’d soon be safe. As my friend reflected gratefully afterward, “Whether or not people ignore the rules of the sea, the RNLI still comes to the rescue.”

As he recounted the story, I thought about how Jesus leads God’s search-and-rescue mission. He came to earth to become a man, living as one of us. Through His death and resurrection, He provided us with a rescue plan when our sin and disobedience separated us from God. This truth is emphasized by Paul, when writing to the church at Galatia: “The Lord Jesus Christ . . . gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age” (Galatians 1:3-4). Paul reminded the Galatians of the gift of new life they received through Jesus’ death so that they would honor God day by day.

Jesus, our rescuer, willingly died to save us from being lost. Because He did, we have life in the kingdom of God, and in gratitude we can share the life-saving news with those in our community. By:  Amy Boucher Pye

Reflect & Pray

How do you express thanks for your rescue? With whom can you share the good news?

Dear Jesus, You give the gift of life and salvation. Please help me to receive Your love and give it to others.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Saturday, September 28, 2024

The “Go” of Unconditional Identification

“One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” — Mark 10:21

The rich young ruler in this verse was driven by a passion to be perfect. When he saw the personal holiness of Jesus Christ, the ruler wanted to be like him. But personal holiness is never what our Lord puts first when he calls a disciple. What he puts first is the absolute annihilation of my right to myself in favor of my identification with him. Jesus Christ wants me to be in a relationship with him in which there is no other relationship. That is why he says, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother . . . such a person cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). Discipleship has nothing to do with perfection, nothing to do with salvation and sanctification. It has everything to do with unconditional identification with Jesus Christ. This is what our Lord was expressing when he told the ruler to go and sell everything. Very few of us understand this absolute “go” of abandonment.

“Jesus looked at him and loved him” (Mark 10:21). To receive the look of Jesus is to have a heart broken forever from allegiance to anyone or anything else. Has Jesus ever looked at you? His look transforms and transfixes. Where I am soft with God is where the Lord has looked at me. If instead I am hard and vindictive, insistent on my own way, certain that the other person is in the wrong, it’s a sign that whole regions of my nature have never been transformed by his gaze.

“One thing you lack . . .” The only good thing, from Jesus Christ’s point of view, is union with himself, and nothing in between.

“Sell everything you have.” I must reduce myself until I’m a mere conscious being. I must renounce possessions of all kinds. I do this not to save my soul (only one thing saves me: absolute reliance on Jesus Christ), but to follow my Lord.

“Come, follow me.”

Isaiah 5-6; Ephesians 1

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

The great point of Abraham’s faith in God was that he was prepared to do anything for God. 

Not Knowing Whither, 903 R