Ezekiel 44
The Prince, the Levites, the Priests 1 Then the man brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, the one facing east, and it was shut. 2 The LORD said to me, "This gate is to remain shut. It must not be opened; no one may enter through it. It is to remain shut because the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered through it. 3 The prince himself is the only one who may sit inside the gateway to eat in the presence of the LORD. He is to enter by way of the portico of the gateway and go out the same way." 4 Then the man brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple. I looked and saw the glory of the LORD filling the temple of the LORD, and I fell facedown.
5 The LORD said to me, "Son of man, look carefully, listen closely and give attention to everything I tell you concerning all the regulations regarding the temple of the LORD. Give attention to the entrance of the temple and all the exits of the sanctuary. 6 Say to the rebellious house of Israel, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Enough of your detestable practices, O house of Israel! 7 In addition to all your other detestable practices, you brought foreigners uncircumcised in heart and flesh into my sanctuary, desecrating my temple while you offered me food, fat and blood, and you broke my covenant. 8 Instead of carrying out your duty in regard to my holy things, you put others in charge of my sanctuary. 9 This is what the Sovereign LORD says: No foreigner uncircumcised in heart and flesh is to enter my sanctuary, not even the foreigners who live among the Israelites.
10 " 'The Levites who went far from me when Israel went astray and who wandered from me after their idols must bear the consequences of their sin. 11 They may serve in my sanctuary, having charge of the gates of the temple and serving in it; they may slaughter the burnt offerings and sacrifices for the people and stand before the people and serve them. 12 But because they served them in the presence of their idols and made the house of Israel fall into sin, therefore I have sworn with uplifted hand that they must bear the consequences of their sin, declares the Sovereign LORD. 13 They are not to come near to serve me as priests or come near any of my holy things or my most holy offerings; they must bear the shame of their detestable practices. 14 Yet I will put them in charge of the duties of the temple and all the work that is to be done in it.
15 " 'But the priests, who are Levites and descendants of Zadok and who faithfully carried out the duties of my sanctuary when the Israelites went astray from me, are to come near to minister before me; they are to stand before me to offer sacrifices of fat and blood, declares the Sovereign LORD. 16 They alone are to enter my sanctuary; they alone are to come near my table to minister before me and perform my service.
17 " 'When they enter the gates of the inner court, they are to wear linen clothes; they must not wear any woolen garment while ministering at the gates of the inner court or inside the temple. 18 They are to wear linen turbans on their heads and linen undergarments around their waists. They must not wear anything that makes them perspire. 19 When they go out into the outer court where the people are, they are to take off the clothes they have been ministering in and are to leave them in the sacred rooms, and put on other clothes, so that they do not consecrate the people by means of their garments.
20 " 'They must not shave their heads or let their hair grow long, but they are to keep the hair of their heads trimmed. 21 No priest is to drink wine when he enters the inner court. 22 They must not marry widows or divorced women; they may marry only virgins of Israelite descent or widows of priests. 23 They are to teach my people the difference between the holy and the common and show them how to distinguish between the unclean and the clean.
24 " 'In any dispute, the priests are to serve as judges and decide it according to my ordinances. They are to keep my laws and my decrees for all my appointed feasts, and they are to keep my Sabbaths holy.
25 " 'A priest must not defile himself by going near a dead person; however, if the dead person was his father or mother, son or daughter, brother or unmarried sister, then he may defile himself. 26 After he is cleansed, he must wait seven days. 27 On the day he goes into the inner court of the sanctuary to minister in the sanctuary, he is to offer a sin offering for himself, declares the Sovereign LORD.
28 " 'I am to be the only inheritance the priests have. You are to give them no possession in Israel; I will be their possession. 29 They will eat the grain offerings, the sin offerings and the guilt offerings; and everything in Israel devoted [a] to the LORD will belong to them. 30 The best of all the firstfruits and of all your special gifts will belong to the priests. You are to give them the first portion of your ground meal so that a blessing may rest on your household. 31 The priests must not eat anything, bird or animal, found dead or torn by wild animals.
My Utmost for My Highest:
November 21st.
IT IS FINISHED
"I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do." John 17:4
The Death of Jesus Christ is the performance in history of the very Mind of God. There is no room for looking on Jesus Christ as a martyr; His death was not something that happened to Him which might have been prevented: His death was the very reason why He came.
Never build your preaching of forgiveness on the fact that God is our Father and He will forgive us because He loves us. It is untrue to Jesus Christ's revelation of God; it makes the Cross unnecessary, and the Redemption "much ado about nothing." If God does forgive sin, it is because of the Death of Christ. God could forgive men in no other way than by the death of His Son, and Jesus is exalted to be Saviour because of His death. "We see Jesus because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour." The greatest note of triumph that ever sounded in the ears of a startled universe was that sounded on the Cross of Christ - "It is finished." That is the last word in the Redemption of man.
Anything that belittles or obliterates the holiness of God by a false view of the love of God, is untrue to the revelation of God given by Jesus Christ. Never allow the thought that Jesus Christ stands with us against God out of pity and compassion; that He became a curse for us out of sympathy with us. Jesus Christ became a curse for us by the Divine decree. Our portion of realizing the terrific meaning of the curse is conviction of sin, the gift of shame and penitence is given us - this is the great mercy of God. Jesus Christ hates the wrong in man, and Calvary is the estimate of His hatred. Do You Truly Know God's Calling On Your Life? A new experience is available to help you discover the strengths, interests, gifts, and skills God wired into you to fulfill your calling. Also excellent for young adults and teens. Learn MoreA Business Problem
TGIF Devotion:
Leads to a Call
by Os Hillman
Now the donkeys belonging to Saul's father Kish were lost, and Kish said to his son Saul, "Take one of the servants with you and go and look for the donkeys." - 1 Samuel 9:3
The people of Israel wanted a king. God finally agreed. Samuel was the prophet of Israel who was to anoint the man God had chosen. God selected a young man to be the first king of Israel-his name was Saul.
It is interesting to look at the circumstances in which God called Saul into his new vocation. It seems that Saul's father had a business that used donkeys. During these times, donkeys were often used for commerce. It was obviously important to the father to find these lost donkeys, so he sent Saul and his servant out to find them.
They went from region to region, unable to find the donkeys. Finally, Saul told his servant that they should go back. He thought that his father would be worried.
But the servant replied, "Look, in this town there is a man of God; he is highly respected, and everything he says comes true. Let's go there now. Perhaps he will tell us what way to take" (1 Samuel 9:6).
Saul took his advice. Near the town they met some young girls who told them that Samuel had just come to their town that day.
When they arrived, they met Samuel who told them that the donkeys were safe and he would also tell Saul the next morning all that was in his heart. He then informed Saul of his new calling to be the next king of Israel.
Can you see what circumstances led to Saul's receiving his call? It started with a business problem - lost donkeys. It led to connecting Saul with Samuel through a number of divine appointments and circumstances. God still does this today.
God will provide the necessary circumstances to accomplish His purposes in your life. You must realize that a business problem may lead to a new calling for your life. Saul had no idea lost donkeys would be the instrument used to change his life. So, too, we must realize God's ways are not our ways.
A Word with You, Ron Hutchcraft:
Unplugging the Vending Machine - #5443 Wednesday, November 21, 2007
When I travel - which seems to be most of the time - I always try to carry some quarters. I think it started when the kids were growing up. It says in the Dad's Job Description, "must have quarters at all times." Now I carry them partially because you never know when you're going to be needing a vending machine - actually, you're going to want a vending machine. I'm in a hotel, I'm working late, and I want a snack, I want a cold drink, I want today's newspaper. I go through the familiar ritual: put the quarters in, hit the selection button, something good comes out. At least it better. It's pretty annoying if you put your money in and don't get anything back. Why, I probably won't put any more money in that machine!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Unplugging the Vending Machine."
A report came out recently on the giving of American Christians, and it was very revealing. The survey discovered, the report says, that American Christians expect to get something back when they give. Sounds like that vending machine, doesn't it? For example, the survey found that when they give to their church, they expect to get it back in things like new drapes, new hymnbooks, a better choir, better parking. Put something in - get something out. And don't put any money into a machine that doesn't give you anything back. The researchers call that consumer giving. They could call it vending machine giving.
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Mark 12:41. "Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and He watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling His disciples to Him, Jesus said, 'I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything - all she had to live on."
So what kind of giving did Jesus honor? Sacrificial giving. He's far more interested in the size of the sacrifice than the size of the gift. nd what kind of giving did Jesus model? Sacrificial giving. Aren't you glad Jesus wasn't a consumer giver? We would all still be headed for eternal death. But He gave everything with no thought of return.
So maybe consumer giving is an oxymoron. Someone might say, "OK, so we like to give to things where we get something back - where it does something for us. So what?" Maybe that's why it's taking missionaries, now, two or three years to get their support raised, while people keep dying without Christ on their mission field. Or why the missions conference is fighting for its' life in many churches. Or one reason why the American missionary force in the world dropped by 20% in five years - the lowest point since World War II. After all, what's in it for me to give to some missionary out there?
Is it any wonder that so many ministries are struggling financially as never before; especially those who are called to evangelism? After all, the lost are those people, not my people. But those people are why Jesus came! In many cases, Satan's attempts to stop Jesus' warriors have failed - so have his attempts to stop their attacks on His kingdom. But when all else fails, stop their supplies! A soldier without bullets can't wage much of a war.
It's time for each of us to examine our own priorities before the Lord, because He's the one we answer to and see if we're giving to get. The holy work of Jesus Christ is not a vending machine. It's an eternal investment that may not pay off now, but will reap incalculable dividends forever!
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Ezekiel 43 and more
Ezekiel 43
The Glory Returns to the Temple 1 Then the man brought me to the gate facing east, 2 and I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of rushing waters, and the land was radiant with his glory. 3 The vision I saw was like the vision I had seen when he [a] came to destroy the city and like the visions I had seen by the Kebar River, and I fell facedown. 4 The glory of the LORD entered the temple through the gate facing east. 5 Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. 6 While the man was standing beside me, I heard someone speaking to me from inside the temple. 7 He said: "Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet. This is where I will live among the Israelites forever. The house of Israel will never again defile my holy name—neither they nor their kings—by their prostitution [b] and the lifeless idols [c] of their kings at their high places. 8 When they placed their threshold next to my threshold and their doorposts beside my doorposts, with only a wall between me and them, they defiled my holy name by their detestable practices. So I destroyed them in my anger. 9 Now let them put away from me their prostitution and the lifeless idols of their kings, and I will live among them forever.
10 "Son of man, describe the temple to the people of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their sins. Let them consider the plan, 11 and if they are ashamed of all they have done, make known to them the design of the temple—its arrangement, its exits and entrances—its whole design and all its regulations [d] and laws. Write these down before them so that they may be faithful to its design and follow all its regulations.
12 "This is the law of the temple: All the surrounding area on top of the mountain will be most holy. Such is the law of the temple.
The Altar 13 "These are the measurements of the altar in long cubits, that cubit being a cubit [e] and a handbreadth [f] : Its gutter is a cubit deep and a cubit wide, with a rim of one span [g] around the edge. And this is the height of the altar: 14 From the gutter on the ground up to the lower ledge it is two cubits high and a cubit wide, and from the smaller ledge up to the larger ledge it is four cubits high and a cubit wide. 15 The altar hearth is four cubits high, and four horns project upward from the hearth. 16 The altar hearth is square, twelve cubits long and twelve cubits wide. 17 The upper ledge also is square, fourteen cubits long and fourteen cubits wide, with a rim of half a cubit and a gutter of a cubit all around. The steps of the altar face east." 18 Then he said to me, "Son of man, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: These will be the regulations for sacrificing burnt offerings and sprinkling blood upon the altar when it is built: 19 You are to give a young bull as a sin offering to the priests, who are Levites, of the family of Zadok, who come near to minister before me, declares the Sovereign LORD. 20 You are to take some of its blood and put it on the four horns of the altar and on the four corners of the upper ledge and all around the rim, and so purify the altar and make atonement for it. 21 You are to take the bull for the sin offering and burn it in the designated part of the temple area outside the sanctuary.
22 "On the second day you are to offer a male goat without defect for a sin offering, and the altar is to be purified as it was purified with the bull. 23 When you have finished purifying it, you are to offer a young bull and a ram from the flock, both without defect. 24 You are to offer them before the LORD, and the priests are to sprinkle salt on them and sacrifice them as a burnt offering to the LORD.
25 "For seven days you are to provide a male goat daily for a sin offering; you are also to provide a young bull and a ram from the flock, both without defect. 26 For seven days they are to make atonement for the altar and cleanse it; thus they will dedicate it. 27 At the end of these days, from the eighth day on, the priests are to present your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings [h] on the altar. Then I will accept you, declares the Sovereign LORD."
Utmost for My Highest
November 20th.
THE FORGIVENESS OF GOD
"In whom we have . . . the forgiveness of sins." Ephesians 1:7
Beware of the pleasant view of the Fatherhood of God - God is so kind and loving that of course He will forgive us. That sentiment has no place whatever in the New Testament. The only ground on which God can forgive us is the tremendous tragedy of the Cross of Christ; to put forgiveness on any other ground is unconscious blasphemy. The only ground on which God can forgive sin and reinstate us in His favour is through the Cross of Christ, and in no other way. Forgiveness, which is so easy for us to accept, cost the agony of Calvary. It is possible to take the forgiveness of sin, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and our sanctification with the simplicity of faith, and to forget at what enormous cost to God it was all made ours.
Forgiveness is the divine miracle of grace; it cost God the Cross of Jesus Christ before He could forgive sin and remain a holy God. Never accept a view of the Fatherhood of God if it blots out the Atonement. The revelation of God is that He cannot forgive; He would contradict His nature if He did. The only way we can be forgiven is by being brought back to God by the Atonement. God's forgiveness is only natural in the supernatural domain.
Compared with the miracle of the forgiveness of sin, the experience of sanctification is slight. Sanctification is simply the marvellous expression of the forgiveness of sins in a human life, but the thing that awakens the deepest well of gratitude in a human being is that God has forgiven sin. Paul never got away from this. When once you realize all that it cost God to forgive you, you will be held as in a vice, constrained by the love of God.
TGIF devotion
Starting Over
by Os Hillman
The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. - James 1:9
Do you find yourself in humble circumstances? If so, James tells us that we are to take pride in this "high" position. These two things would seem to be an oxymoron. Most of us would not consider humble circumstances a high position. Successful business tells us that being on top means being wealthy, attaining favor and status, or having power to influence. However, Jesus influenced not from power, but from weakness.
J.C. Penney is a name synonymous with department store. He first launched his chain of "The Golden Rule" stores in 1907. In 1910 his first wife died. Three years later, he incorporated as the J.C. Penney company. In 1923 his second wife died giving birth to his son. In 1929 the stock market crashed and he lost $40 million.
By 1932, he had to sell out to satisfy...creditors. This left [Penney] virtually broke. ...Crushed in spirit from his loss and his health suddenly failing, Penney wound up in a Battle Creek, Michigan sanitarium. One morning he heard the distant singing of employees who gathered to start the day with God: Be not dismayed, whate'er betide, God will take care of you.... Penney followed the music to its source and slipped into a back row. He left a short time later a changed man, his health and spirit renewed, and ready to start the long climb back at age fifty-six.
By 1951 there was a J.C. Penney store in every state, and for the first time sales surpassed $1 billion a year. [John Woodbridge, ed., More Than Conquerors (Chicago, Illinois: Moody Press, 1992), 340-343.]
The success of J.C. Penney can be traced to God's mercy in his life to bring him out of his humble circumstance. Do you find yourself in a humble circumstance? God is the only one who can help you see your humble circumstance from His viewpoint--a high position. It is a high position because of what God is going to teach you in this place. He does not intend you to stay there; it is merely a stopping place to learn some important things you would not learn otherwise. Press into God and trust Him for the outcome to your circumstances.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft:
The Big Little People - #5442 Tuesday, November 20, 2007
I was in my office, trying to crawl out of an avalanche of papers on my desk. Suddenly, there was a knock on my door - and in came one of our team members with his wife and their bright-eyed eight-month-old little boy, Zachary. My wife then joined our little Zachary party and proceeded to plop this animated little bundle right in the middle of my desk - in the middle of a mountain of paper work - right where I couldn't ignore him. And you know something, I didn't mind one bit. Little Zachary and I had a great conversation. That means I did all the talking. We played, we laughed, and Zachary creatively reorganized (shall we say) the project I was working on. It was one of the best things that happened that day. It took me a while to reconstruct my project, but it was fun having that little guy right in the middle of everything!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Big Little People."
Jesus had a pretty radical view of who the VIPs in the world are. Our word for today from the Word of God, Matthew 19:13-14 - "Then little children were brought to Jesus for Him to place His hands on them and pray for them." Now, Jesus didn't have a desk, but this is sort of the equivalent of plopping the children right down in the middle of Jesus' work. Another account suggests that Jesus was meeting with some of the "big shots" from Jerusalem at this time. So, it's no wonder that "the disciples rebuked those who had brought them." Don't bother Jesus! He's with the important people.
Then, "Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.' When He had placed His hands on them, He went on from there." You see, Jesus drops everything for the children. We should too. Children don't have money, they don't have votes, they don't have influence to give you, but they are numero uno to Jesus.
That day in my office, little Zachary was right in the middle, where I couldn't ignore him. That's exactly where God intends for us to put the children in our world - right in the middle. It could be that a child in your world has been pushed to the edge by all your work, when all your work should be pushed to the edge for that child. Churches need to focus on the children and the young people. After all, three-fourths of the people who ever come to Jesus Christ do it by the age of 18. We don't have anything more important to do than to reach them. But too many churches allow the kids to be pushed to the back for the "important" people - the adults. Jesus would probably put the children right back in the middle of everything.
Maybe some child or some children in your world have become more of a nuisance to you, an interruption, a problem. Interestingly enough, if you do not put a child where he or she belongs - where they are not ignored - that child will do whatever it takes to not be ignored by you; even if it drives you crazy or breaks your heart. They shouldn't have to fight for your attention. A Jesus-heart puts the children and the young people first. They are His little big people. Do you notice that whenever a child came to Jesus they were blessed by being in His presence? Whenever a child or a young person is in your presence, if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, I hope you'll have that same impact. I hope that they'll be blessed by being with you.
One grandmother summed it up in a prayer that she has on a plaque on her wall. It really emphasizes why the children must be where we do not ignore them in our lives. Here's the prayer. I think you'll like it. "It is my greatest prayer that on that resurrection day, I may stand before my Savior and say, 'Here am I ... and the children You gave me.'"
The Glory Returns to the Temple 1 Then the man brought me to the gate facing east, 2 and I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of rushing waters, and the land was radiant with his glory. 3 The vision I saw was like the vision I had seen when he [a] came to destroy the city and like the visions I had seen by the Kebar River, and I fell facedown. 4 The glory of the LORD entered the temple through the gate facing east. 5 Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. 6 While the man was standing beside me, I heard someone speaking to me from inside the temple. 7 He said: "Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet. This is where I will live among the Israelites forever. The house of Israel will never again defile my holy name—neither they nor their kings—by their prostitution [b] and the lifeless idols [c] of their kings at their high places. 8 When they placed their threshold next to my threshold and their doorposts beside my doorposts, with only a wall between me and them, they defiled my holy name by their detestable practices. So I destroyed them in my anger. 9 Now let them put away from me their prostitution and the lifeless idols of their kings, and I will live among them forever.
10 "Son of man, describe the temple to the people of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their sins. Let them consider the plan, 11 and if they are ashamed of all they have done, make known to them the design of the temple—its arrangement, its exits and entrances—its whole design and all its regulations [d] and laws. Write these down before them so that they may be faithful to its design and follow all its regulations.
12 "This is the law of the temple: All the surrounding area on top of the mountain will be most holy. Such is the law of the temple.
The Altar 13 "These are the measurements of the altar in long cubits, that cubit being a cubit [e] and a handbreadth [f] : Its gutter is a cubit deep and a cubit wide, with a rim of one span [g] around the edge. And this is the height of the altar: 14 From the gutter on the ground up to the lower ledge it is two cubits high and a cubit wide, and from the smaller ledge up to the larger ledge it is four cubits high and a cubit wide. 15 The altar hearth is four cubits high, and four horns project upward from the hearth. 16 The altar hearth is square, twelve cubits long and twelve cubits wide. 17 The upper ledge also is square, fourteen cubits long and fourteen cubits wide, with a rim of half a cubit and a gutter of a cubit all around. The steps of the altar face east." 18 Then he said to me, "Son of man, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: These will be the regulations for sacrificing burnt offerings and sprinkling blood upon the altar when it is built: 19 You are to give a young bull as a sin offering to the priests, who are Levites, of the family of Zadok, who come near to minister before me, declares the Sovereign LORD. 20 You are to take some of its blood and put it on the four horns of the altar and on the four corners of the upper ledge and all around the rim, and so purify the altar and make atonement for it. 21 You are to take the bull for the sin offering and burn it in the designated part of the temple area outside the sanctuary.
22 "On the second day you are to offer a male goat without defect for a sin offering, and the altar is to be purified as it was purified with the bull. 23 When you have finished purifying it, you are to offer a young bull and a ram from the flock, both without defect. 24 You are to offer them before the LORD, and the priests are to sprinkle salt on them and sacrifice them as a burnt offering to the LORD.
25 "For seven days you are to provide a male goat daily for a sin offering; you are also to provide a young bull and a ram from the flock, both without defect. 26 For seven days they are to make atonement for the altar and cleanse it; thus they will dedicate it. 27 At the end of these days, from the eighth day on, the priests are to present your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings [h] on the altar. Then I will accept you, declares the Sovereign LORD."
Utmost for My Highest
November 20th.
THE FORGIVENESS OF GOD
"In whom we have . . . the forgiveness of sins." Ephesians 1:7
Beware of the pleasant view of the Fatherhood of God - God is so kind and loving that of course He will forgive us. That sentiment has no place whatever in the New Testament. The only ground on which God can forgive us is the tremendous tragedy of the Cross of Christ; to put forgiveness on any other ground is unconscious blasphemy. The only ground on which God can forgive sin and reinstate us in His favour is through the Cross of Christ, and in no other way. Forgiveness, which is so easy for us to accept, cost the agony of Calvary. It is possible to take the forgiveness of sin, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and our sanctification with the simplicity of faith, and to forget at what enormous cost to God it was all made ours.
Forgiveness is the divine miracle of grace; it cost God the Cross of Jesus Christ before He could forgive sin and remain a holy God. Never accept a view of the Fatherhood of God if it blots out the Atonement. The revelation of God is that He cannot forgive; He would contradict His nature if He did. The only way we can be forgiven is by being brought back to God by the Atonement. God's forgiveness is only natural in the supernatural domain.
Compared with the miracle of the forgiveness of sin, the experience of sanctification is slight. Sanctification is simply the marvellous expression of the forgiveness of sins in a human life, but the thing that awakens the deepest well of gratitude in a human being is that God has forgiven sin. Paul never got away from this. When once you realize all that it cost God to forgive you, you will be held as in a vice, constrained by the love of God.
TGIF devotion
Starting Over
by Os Hillman
The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. - James 1:9
Do you find yourself in humble circumstances? If so, James tells us that we are to take pride in this "high" position. These two things would seem to be an oxymoron. Most of us would not consider humble circumstances a high position. Successful business tells us that being on top means being wealthy, attaining favor and status, or having power to influence. However, Jesus influenced not from power, but from weakness.
J.C. Penney is a name synonymous with department store. He first launched his chain of "The Golden Rule" stores in 1907. In 1910 his first wife died. Three years later, he incorporated as the J.C. Penney company. In 1923 his second wife died giving birth to his son. In 1929 the stock market crashed and he lost $40 million.
By 1932, he had to sell out to satisfy...creditors. This left [Penney] virtually broke. ...Crushed in spirit from his loss and his health suddenly failing, Penney wound up in a Battle Creek, Michigan sanitarium. One morning he heard the distant singing of employees who gathered to start the day with God: Be not dismayed, whate'er betide, God will take care of you.... Penney followed the music to its source and slipped into a back row. He left a short time later a changed man, his health and spirit renewed, and ready to start the long climb back at age fifty-six.
By 1951 there was a J.C. Penney store in every state, and for the first time sales surpassed $1 billion a year. [John Woodbridge, ed., More Than Conquerors (Chicago, Illinois: Moody Press, 1992), 340-343.]
The success of J.C. Penney can be traced to God's mercy in his life to bring him out of his humble circumstance. Do you find yourself in a humble circumstance? God is the only one who can help you see your humble circumstance from His viewpoint--a high position. It is a high position because of what God is going to teach you in this place. He does not intend you to stay there; it is merely a stopping place to learn some important things you would not learn otherwise. Press into God and trust Him for the outcome to your circumstances.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft:
The Big Little People - #5442 Tuesday, November 20, 2007
I was in my office, trying to crawl out of an avalanche of papers on my desk. Suddenly, there was a knock on my door - and in came one of our team members with his wife and their bright-eyed eight-month-old little boy, Zachary. My wife then joined our little Zachary party and proceeded to plop this animated little bundle right in the middle of my desk - in the middle of a mountain of paper work - right where I couldn't ignore him. And you know something, I didn't mind one bit. Little Zachary and I had a great conversation. That means I did all the talking. We played, we laughed, and Zachary creatively reorganized (shall we say) the project I was working on. It was one of the best things that happened that day. It took me a while to reconstruct my project, but it was fun having that little guy right in the middle of everything!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Big Little People."
Jesus had a pretty radical view of who the VIPs in the world are. Our word for today from the Word of God, Matthew 19:13-14 - "Then little children were brought to Jesus for Him to place His hands on them and pray for them." Now, Jesus didn't have a desk, but this is sort of the equivalent of plopping the children right down in the middle of Jesus' work. Another account suggests that Jesus was meeting with some of the "big shots" from Jerusalem at this time. So, it's no wonder that "the disciples rebuked those who had brought them." Don't bother Jesus! He's with the important people.
Then, "Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.' When He had placed His hands on them, He went on from there." You see, Jesus drops everything for the children. We should too. Children don't have money, they don't have votes, they don't have influence to give you, but they are numero uno to Jesus.
That day in my office, little Zachary was right in the middle, where I couldn't ignore him. That's exactly where God intends for us to put the children in our world - right in the middle. It could be that a child in your world has been pushed to the edge by all your work, when all your work should be pushed to the edge for that child. Churches need to focus on the children and the young people. After all, three-fourths of the people who ever come to Jesus Christ do it by the age of 18. We don't have anything more important to do than to reach them. But too many churches allow the kids to be pushed to the back for the "important" people - the adults. Jesus would probably put the children right back in the middle of everything.
Maybe some child or some children in your world have become more of a nuisance to you, an interruption, a problem. Interestingly enough, if you do not put a child where he or she belongs - where they are not ignored - that child will do whatever it takes to not be ignored by you; even if it drives you crazy or breaks your heart. They shouldn't have to fight for your attention. A Jesus-heart puts the children and the young people first. They are His little big people. Do you notice that whenever a child came to Jesus they were blessed by being in His presence? Whenever a child or a young person is in your presence, if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, I hope you'll have that same impact. I hope that they'll be blessed by being with you.
One grandmother summed it up in a prayer that she has on a plaque on her wall. It really emphasizes why the children must be where we do not ignore them in our lives. Here's the prayer. I think you'll like it. "It is my greatest prayer that on that resurrection day, I may stand before my Savior and say, 'Here am I ... and the children You gave me.'"
Monday, November 19, 2007
Ezekiel 42
Ezekiel 42
Rooms for the Priests 1 Then the man led me northward into the outer court and brought me to the rooms opposite the temple courtyard and opposite the outer wall on the north side. 2 The building whose door faced north was a hundred cubits [a] long and fifty cubits wide. 3 Both in the section twenty cubits from the inner court and in the section opposite the pavement of the outer court, gallery faced gallery at the three levels. 4 In front of the rooms was an inner passageway ten cubits wide and a hundred cubits [b] long. Their doors were on the north. 5 Now the upper rooms were narrower, for the galleries took more space from them than from the rooms on the lower and middle floors of the building. 6 The rooms on the third floor had no pillars, as the courts had; so they were smaller in floor space than those on the lower and middle floors. 7 There was an outer wall parallel to the rooms and the outer court; it extended in front of the rooms for fifty cubits. 8 While the row of rooms on the side next to the outer court was fifty cubits long, the row on the side nearest the sanctuary was a hundred cubits long. 9 The lower rooms had an entrance on the east side as one enters them from the outer court. 10 On the south side [c] along the length of the wall of the outer court, adjoining the temple courtyard and opposite the outer wall, were rooms 11 with a passageway in front of them. These were like the rooms on the north; they had the same length and width, with similar exits and dimensions. Similar to the doorways on the north 12 were the doorways of the rooms on the south. There was a doorway at the beginning of the passageway that was parallel to the corresponding wall extending eastward, by which one enters the rooms.
13 Then he said to me, "The north and south rooms facing the temple courtyard are the priests' rooms, where the priests who approach the LORD will eat the most holy offerings. There they will put the most holy offerings—the grain offerings, the sin offerings and the guilt offerings—for the place is holy. 14 Once the priests enter the holy precincts, they are not to go into the outer court until they leave behind the garments in which they minister, for these are holy. They are to put on other clothes before they go near the places that are for the people."
15 When he had finished measuring what was inside the temple area, he led me out by the east gate and measured the area all around: 16 He measured the east side with the measuring rod; it was five hundred cubits. [d] 17 He measured the north side; it was five hundred cubits [e] by the measuring rod. 18 He measured the south side; it was five hundred cubits by the measuring rod. 19 Then he turned to the west side and measured; it was five hundred cubits by the measuring rod. 20 So he measured the area on all four sides. It had a wall around it, five hundred cubits long and five hundred cubits wide, to separate the holy from the common.
Matthew 6:25-34 (New International Version)New International Version (NIV)Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
Do Not Worry 25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life[a]? 28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
November 19, 2007
Don’t Worry
ODB RADIO: Listen Now Download
READ: Matthew 6:25-34
Do not worry . . . . Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. —Matthew 6:31-32 About this cover My nephew’s job was soon to be eliminated, so I was glad to hear from his wife that he had just accepted an offer for a new position.
“We prayed, I worried, and Eric was determined to get another job,” Angie wrote in an e-mail, explaining the journey they’d been on for the last few months.
It’s easy for us to panic when we face serious concerns—the loss of a job, a family member with cancer, a wayward child.
So we pray. And we get busy. We start doing everything we can think of to move forward in a positive way.
And we worry. We know it’s a waste of time. Yet a lot of us find ourselves in this dilemma—we know we should trust God, but we wonder just what He’s going to do.
That’s when we turn to His Word—to remind us that He is walking with us and inviting us to hand over to Him our worries and burdens. Scripture tells us, “[Cast] all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7), and “God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19).
When your mind turns to anxious thoughts about the future, remember that “your heavenly Father knows” (Matt. 6:32) and will give you what you need. —Cindy Hess Kasper
I don’t know about tomorrow,It may bring me poverty;But the One who feeds the sparrowIs the One who stands by me. —Stanphill© 1950 by Ira Stanphill
Worry is a burden God never intended us to bear.
November 19th.
WHEN HE IS COME
"And when He is come, He will convict the world of sin. . . ." John 16:8 (R.V.)
Very few of us know anything about conviction of sin; we know the experience of being disturbed because of having done wrong things; but conviction of sin by the Holy Ghost blots out every relationship on earth and leaves one relationship only - "Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned!" When a man is convicted of sin in this way, he knows with every power of his conscience that God dare not forgive him; if God did forgive him, the man would have a stronger sense of justice than God. God does forgive, but it cost the rending of His heart in the Death of Christ to enable Him to do so. The great miracle of the grace of God is that He forgives sin, and it is the death of Jesus Christ alone that enables the Divine nature to forgive and to remain true to itself in doing so. It is shallow nonsense to say that God forgives us because He is love. When we have been convicted of sin we will never say this again. The love of God means Calvary, and nothing less; the love of God is spelt on the Cross and nowhere else. The only ground on which God can forgive me is through the Cross of my Lord. There, His conscience is satisfied.
Forgiveness means not merely that I am saved from hell and made right for heaven (no man would accept forgiveness on such a level); forgiveness means that I am forgiven into a recreated relationship, into identification with God in Christ. The miracle of Redemption is that God turns me, the unholy one, into the standard of Himself, the Holy One, by putting into me a new disposition, the disposition of Jesus Christ.
Your Opportunity to Live Forever - #5441 Monday, November 19, 2007
"Please help us." That's what the people stranded on the roof of their house had written on the sign that they waved over their heads. They represented so many thousands of New Orleans residents who were left stranded and in deadly danger by the floods of Hurricane Katrina. The wind and the rain of that category four hurricane were bad enough - but it was when the levees broke that suddenly major parts of the city were underwater, literally up to the rooftops. Harrowing stories began to unfold of how people had moved from a first floor to a second floor to escape the toxic waters. Then, as the second floor filled with water, how they moved to their last point of refuge - the roof. And many were stranded there, without food, without water, and increasingly without hope. And then hope showed up - in the shape of a Coast Guard helicopter, hovering over their rooftop refuge. Hope was a man coming down a cable to where they were; a man who secured their rescue and saved their lives.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Opportunity to Live Forever."
There was no way those folks could save themselves. Literally, their only hope was a rescuer. That's our only hope, too - spiritually, that is. Because whether we realize it or not, whether or not we want to admit it, we are that man or woman who is facing certain death unless a rescuer comes and does for us what we could never do for ourselves.
Now we may like to think of ourselves as being in pretty good shape spiritually. After all, we're religious, we live better than most folks, and we may even know a lot about the Bible. We even listen to Christian radio sometimes! But here's how God sees our spiritual condition: "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" (Psalm 40:2). The Bible clearly spells out that our sin has placed us in an inescapable pit, in mud and mire that we can't get ourselves out of. Our only hope, like the desperate people on those New Orleans rooftops, is if He "lifts me out."
I wonder if you've ever asked Him to do that. God has shown us in His book how deadly our situation is. All of us - including the most religious of us - have essentially hijacked our life from the One who gave it to us and insisted on running it our way instead of His way. We are spiritual rebels, defying by our lives the God of the universe. And the Bible makes it very clear that "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23) - eternal death, separated from God - separated from His love. But then here comes the hope in our word for today from the Word of God in Romans 5:6, 8. "At just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
Jesus literally poured out His love for you by dying for you - by taking your place, taking all your punishment for all your sin when He died on the cross. And this very day, the Rescuer from above is coming to you, extending His hand, offering you a chance to live forever instead of perishing in your sin. John 3:16 in the Bible promises that "whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." But you have to grab Jesus as your only hope - just as those people on the rooftops grabbed the one who had come to rescue them. Jesus wants to bring you out of the pit and the penalty of your sin and to bring you into a never-ending love relationship with the God who made you.
But you have to grab the Rescuer. That's what "believing in Him" is all about. You can do that right where you are because He's coming to you right where you are. You tell Him, "Jesus, You really are my only hope of having my sins forgiven, of being right with God, of going to heaven when I die. So with all the faith I've got, Lord, I'm yours."
If you're ready to belong to Jesus, if you're ready to be rescued by Jesus, I've got something I'd like to send you that I think will help you really understand this life-saving relationship. It's a little booklet called Yours For Life and I'll send it to you without any obligation if you'll just let me know you want it. Just go to our website at yoursforlife.net or call us toll free at 877-741-1200.
Your rescue cost the Rescuer His life. And now He's come to you, His hand is reaching for you. Grab it - while there's time.
To find out how you can begin a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, please visit: yoursforlife.net or call 1-888-966-7325.
Rooms for the Priests 1 Then the man led me northward into the outer court and brought me to the rooms opposite the temple courtyard and opposite the outer wall on the north side. 2 The building whose door faced north was a hundred cubits [a] long and fifty cubits wide. 3 Both in the section twenty cubits from the inner court and in the section opposite the pavement of the outer court, gallery faced gallery at the three levels. 4 In front of the rooms was an inner passageway ten cubits wide and a hundred cubits [b] long. Their doors were on the north. 5 Now the upper rooms were narrower, for the galleries took more space from them than from the rooms on the lower and middle floors of the building. 6 The rooms on the third floor had no pillars, as the courts had; so they were smaller in floor space than those on the lower and middle floors. 7 There was an outer wall parallel to the rooms and the outer court; it extended in front of the rooms for fifty cubits. 8 While the row of rooms on the side next to the outer court was fifty cubits long, the row on the side nearest the sanctuary was a hundred cubits long. 9 The lower rooms had an entrance on the east side as one enters them from the outer court. 10 On the south side [c] along the length of the wall of the outer court, adjoining the temple courtyard and opposite the outer wall, were rooms 11 with a passageway in front of them. These were like the rooms on the north; they had the same length and width, with similar exits and dimensions. Similar to the doorways on the north 12 were the doorways of the rooms on the south. There was a doorway at the beginning of the passageway that was parallel to the corresponding wall extending eastward, by which one enters the rooms.
13 Then he said to me, "The north and south rooms facing the temple courtyard are the priests' rooms, where the priests who approach the LORD will eat the most holy offerings. There they will put the most holy offerings—the grain offerings, the sin offerings and the guilt offerings—for the place is holy. 14 Once the priests enter the holy precincts, they are not to go into the outer court until they leave behind the garments in which they minister, for these are holy. They are to put on other clothes before they go near the places that are for the people."
15 When he had finished measuring what was inside the temple area, he led me out by the east gate and measured the area all around: 16 He measured the east side with the measuring rod; it was five hundred cubits. [d] 17 He measured the north side; it was five hundred cubits [e] by the measuring rod. 18 He measured the south side; it was five hundred cubits by the measuring rod. 19 Then he turned to the west side and measured; it was five hundred cubits by the measuring rod. 20 So he measured the area on all four sides. It had a wall around it, five hundred cubits long and five hundred cubits wide, to separate the holy from the common.
Matthew 6:25-34 (New International Version)New International Version (NIV)Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
Do Not Worry 25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life[a]? 28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
November 19, 2007
Don’t Worry
ODB RADIO: Listen Now Download
READ: Matthew 6:25-34
Do not worry . . . . Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. —Matthew 6:31-32 About this cover My nephew’s job was soon to be eliminated, so I was glad to hear from his wife that he had just accepted an offer for a new position.
“We prayed, I worried, and Eric was determined to get another job,” Angie wrote in an e-mail, explaining the journey they’d been on for the last few months.
It’s easy for us to panic when we face serious concerns—the loss of a job, a family member with cancer, a wayward child.
So we pray. And we get busy. We start doing everything we can think of to move forward in a positive way.
And we worry. We know it’s a waste of time. Yet a lot of us find ourselves in this dilemma—we know we should trust God, but we wonder just what He’s going to do.
That’s when we turn to His Word—to remind us that He is walking with us and inviting us to hand over to Him our worries and burdens. Scripture tells us, “[Cast] all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7), and “God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19).
When your mind turns to anxious thoughts about the future, remember that “your heavenly Father knows” (Matt. 6:32) and will give you what you need. —Cindy Hess Kasper
I don’t know about tomorrow,It may bring me poverty;But the One who feeds the sparrowIs the One who stands by me. —Stanphill© 1950 by Ira Stanphill
Worry is a burden God never intended us to bear.
November 19th.
WHEN HE IS COME
"And when He is come, He will convict the world of sin. . . ." John 16:8 (R.V.)
Very few of us know anything about conviction of sin; we know the experience of being disturbed because of having done wrong things; but conviction of sin by the Holy Ghost blots out every relationship on earth and leaves one relationship only - "Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned!" When a man is convicted of sin in this way, he knows with every power of his conscience that God dare not forgive him; if God did forgive him, the man would have a stronger sense of justice than God. God does forgive, but it cost the rending of His heart in the Death of Christ to enable Him to do so. The great miracle of the grace of God is that He forgives sin, and it is the death of Jesus Christ alone that enables the Divine nature to forgive and to remain true to itself in doing so. It is shallow nonsense to say that God forgives us because He is love. When we have been convicted of sin we will never say this again. The love of God means Calvary, and nothing less; the love of God is spelt on the Cross and nowhere else. The only ground on which God can forgive me is through the Cross of my Lord. There, His conscience is satisfied.
Forgiveness means not merely that I am saved from hell and made right for heaven (no man would accept forgiveness on such a level); forgiveness means that I am forgiven into a recreated relationship, into identification with God in Christ. The miracle of Redemption is that God turns me, the unholy one, into the standard of Himself, the Holy One, by putting into me a new disposition, the disposition of Jesus Christ.
Your Opportunity to Live Forever - #5441 Monday, November 19, 2007
"Please help us." That's what the people stranded on the roof of their house had written on the sign that they waved over their heads. They represented so many thousands of New Orleans residents who were left stranded and in deadly danger by the floods of Hurricane Katrina. The wind and the rain of that category four hurricane were bad enough - but it was when the levees broke that suddenly major parts of the city were underwater, literally up to the rooftops. Harrowing stories began to unfold of how people had moved from a first floor to a second floor to escape the toxic waters. Then, as the second floor filled with water, how they moved to their last point of refuge - the roof. And many were stranded there, without food, without water, and increasingly without hope. And then hope showed up - in the shape of a Coast Guard helicopter, hovering over their rooftop refuge. Hope was a man coming down a cable to where they were; a man who secured their rescue and saved their lives.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Opportunity to Live Forever."
There was no way those folks could save themselves. Literally, their only hope was a rescuer. That's our only hope, too - spiritually, that is. Because whether we realize it or not, whether or not we want to admit it, we are that man or woman who is facing certain death unless a rescuer comes and does for us what we could never do for ourselves.
Now we may like to think of ourselves as being in pretty good shape spiritually. After all, we're religious, we live better than most folks, and we may even know a lot about the Bible. We even listen to Christian radio sometimes! But here's how God sees our spiritual condition: "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" (Psalm 40:2). The Bible clearly spells out that our sin has placed us in an inescapable pit, in mud and mire that we can't get ourselves out of. Our only hope, like the desperate people on those New Orleans rooftops, is if He "lifts me out."
I wonder if you've ever asked Him to do that. God has shown us in His book how deadly our situation is. All of us - including the most religious of us - have essentially hijacked our life from the One who gave it to us and insisted on running it our way instead of His way. We are spiritual rebels, defying by our lives the God of the universe. And the Bible makes it very clear that "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23) - eternal death, separated from God - separated from His love. But then here comes the hope in our word for today from the Word of God in Romans 5:6, 8. "At just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
Jesus literally poured out His love for you by dying for you - by taking your place, taking all your punishment for all your sin when He died on the cross. And this very day, the Rescuer from above is coming to you, extending His hand, offering you a chance to live forever instead of perishing in your sin. John 3:16 in the Bible promises that "whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." But you have to grab Jesus as your only hope - just as those people on the rooftops grabbed the one who had come to rescue them. Jesus wants to bring you out of the pit and the penalty of your sin and to bring you into a never-ending love relationship with the God who made you.
But you have to grab the Rescuer. That's what "believing in Him" is all about. You can do that right where you are because He's coming to you right where you are. You tell Him, "Jesus, You really are my only hope of having my sins forgiven, of being right with God, of going to heaven when I die. So with all the faith I've got, Lord, I'm yours."
If you're ready to belong to Jesus, if you're ready to be rescued by Jesus, I've got something I'd like to send you that I think will help you really understand this life-saving relationship. It's a little booklet called Yours For Life and I'll send it to you without any obligation if you'll just let me know you want it. Just go to our website at yoursforlife.net or call us toll free at 877-741-1200.
Your rescue cost the Rescuer His life. And now He's come to you, His hand is reaching for you. Grab it - while there's time.
To find out how you can begin a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, please visit: yoursforlife.net or call 1-888-966-7325.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Ezekiel 41, Our Daily Bread and TGIF, Devotional (Utmost unavailable)
Ezekiel 41
1 Then the man brought me to the outer sanctuary and measured the jambs; the width of the jambs was six cubits [a] on each side. [b] 2 The entrance was ten cubits wide, and the projecting walls on each side of it were five cubits wide. He also measured the outer sanctuary; it was forty cubits long and twenty cubits wide.
3 Then he went into the inner sanctuary and measured the jambs of the entrance; each was two cubits wide. The entrance was six cubits wide, and the projecting walls on each side of it were seven cubits wide. 4 And he measured the length of the inner sanctuary; it was twenty cubits, and its width was twenty cubits across the end of the outer sanctuary. He said to me, "This is the Most Holy Place."
5 Then he measured the wall of the temple; it was six cubits thick, and each side room around the temple was four cubits wide. 6 The side rooms were on three levels, one above another, thirty on each level. There were ledges all around the wall of the temple to serve as supports for the side rooms, so that the supports were not inserted into the wall of the temple. 7 The side rooms all around the temple were wider at each successive level. The structure surrounding the temple was built in ascending stages, so that the rooms widened as one went upward. A stairway went up from the lowest floor to the top floor through the middle floor.
8 I saw that the temple had a raised base all around it, forming the foundation of the side rooms. It was the length of the rod, six long cubits. 9 The outer wall of the side rooms was five cubits thick. The open area between the side rooms of the temple 10 and the priests' rooms was twenty cubits wide all around the temple. 11 There were entrances to the side rooms from the open area, one on the north and another on the south; and the base adjoining the open area was five cubits wide all around.
12 The building facing the temple courtyard on the west side was seventy cubits wide. The wall of the building was five cubits thick all around, and its length was ninety cubits.
13 Then he measured the temple; it was a hundred cubits long, and the temple courtyard and the building with its walls were also a hundred cubits long. 14 The width of the temple courtyard on the east, including the front of the temple, was a hundred cubits.
15 Then he measured the length of the building facing the courtyard at the rear of the temple, including its galleries on each side; it was a hundred cubits. The outer sanctuary, the inner sanctuary and the portico facing the court, 16 as well as the thresholds and the narrow windows and galleries around the three of them—everything beyond and including the threshold was covered with wood. The floor, the wall up to the windows, and the windows were covered. 17 In the space above the outside of the entrance to the inner sanctuary and on the walls at regular intervals all around the inner and outer sanctuary 18 were carved cherubim and palm trees. Palm trees alternated with cherubim. Each cherub had two faces: 19 the face of a man toward the palm tree on one side and the face of a lion toward the palm tree on the other. They were carved all around the whole temple. 20 From the floor to the area above the entrance, cherubim and palm trees were carved on the wall of the outer sanctuary.
21 The outer sanctuary had a rectangular doorframe, and the one at the front of the Most Holy Place was similar. 22 There was a wooden altar three cubits high and two cubits square [c] ; its corners, its base [d] and its sides were of wood. The man said to me, "This is the table that is before the LORD." 23 Both the outer sanctuary and the Most Holy Place had double doors. 24 Each door had two leaves—two hinged leaves for each door. 25 And on the doors of the outer sanctuary were carved cherubim and palm trees like those carved on the walls, and there was a wooden overhang on the front of the portico. 26 On the sidewalls of the portico were narrow windows with palm trees carved on each side. The side rooms of the temple also had overhangs.
Our Daily Bread reading
John 3
Jesus Teaches Nicodemus
1Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him." 3In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.[a]"
4"How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"
5Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit[b] gives birth to spirit. 7You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You[c] must be born again.' 8The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."
November 18, 2007
Straight To HeavenREAD: John 3:1-8
Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name . . . by which we must be saved. —Acts 4:12
About this cover An old spiritual warns, “Everybody talkin’ ’bout heaven ain’t goin’ there.” Since heaven is God’s dwelling place where His presence and glory are manifested in all their splendor, He has the sovereign right to determine who will be admitted and under what conditions. Any other beliefs about the how and why of admission into heaven are sadly mistaken.
Take, for example, the confidence expressed by a well-known actress. Questioned about her faith, she replied, “I pray. I read the Bible. It’s the most beautiful book ever written. I should go to heaven; otherwise it’s not nice. I haven’t done anything wrong. My conscience is very clean. My soul is as white as those orchids over there, and I should go straight, straight to heaven.”
God alone determines who goes straight to heaven. In the Bible, God’s holy Word, He tells us that only those who have trusted in Jesus Christ as their personal Savior will be admitted. The apostle Peter said, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
Self-judgment regarding the purity of one’s soul and one’s heaven-deserving character is not the criterion. Only God’s Word gives us the standard for admission. —Vernon C Grounds
I must needs go home by the way of the cross,There’s no other way but this;I shall ne’er get sight of the gates of light,If the way of the cross I miss. —Pounds
Christ believed is salvation received and heaven gained.
TGIF Devotional
Fulfilling Vows
by Os Hillman
When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. - Ecclesiastes 5:4
Have you ever had a business relationship with someone who made a commitment but later said, "Well, things changed, so I cannot honor our original agreement.”? Sometimes this may be the case, but often it is simply an opportunity to avoid fulfilling an agreement. God is big on fulfilling vows. God's nature is righteousness and truth. You will always see God honor His Word. He expects the same of His people.
God says there are consequences when we do not fulfill our vows. Subsequent Scripture verses reveal the following:
It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it. Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. And do not protest to the temple messenger, "My vow was a mistake." Why should God be angry with what you say and destroy the work of your hands? Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore stand in awe of God” (Ecclesiastes 5:5-7).
God tells us that He will destroy the work of our hands for failure to fulfill vows. That's pretty strong language. It gives us an indication of how important fulfilling vows is to God. He will not prosper our work if there are unfulfilled vows in our lives
Are there any unfulfilled vows in your life that may be hindering your projects? Vows show up in many areas of our lives - marriages, businesses, personal friendships. Unfulfilled vows in any one of these could be the reason your work may be hindered.
Ask God today if there are any unfulfilled vows in your life. If so, begin today to make them right so that you may be successful in whatever God calls you to do.
1 Then the man brought me to the outer sanctuary and measured the jambs; the width of the jambs was six cubits [a] on each side. [b] 2 The entrance was ten cubits wide, and the projecting walls on each side of it were five cubits wide. He also measured the outer sanctuary; it was forty cubits long and twenty cubits wide.
3 Then he went into the inner sanctuary and measured the jambs of the entrance; each was two cubits wide. The entrance was six cubits wide, and the projecting walls on each side of it were seven cubits wide. 4 And he measured the length of the inner sanctuary; it was twenty cubits, and its width was twenty cubits across the end of the outer sanctuary. He said to me, "This is the Most Holy Place."
5 Then he measured the wall of the temple; it was six cubits thick, and each side room around the temple was four cubits wide. 6 The side rooms were on three levels, one above another, thirty on each level. There were ledges all around the wall of the temple to serve as supports for the side rooms, so that the supports were not inserted into the wall of the temple. 7 The side rooms all around the temple were wider at each successive level. The structure surrounding the temple was built in ascending stages, so that the rooms widened as one went upward. A stairway went up from the lowest floor to the top floor through the middle floor.
8 I saw that the temple had a raised base all around it, forming the foundation of the side rooms. It was the length of the rod, six long cubits. 9 The outer wall of the side rooms was five cubits thick. The open area between the side rooms of the temple 10 and the priests' rooms was twenty cubits wide all around the temple. 11 There were entrances to the side rooms from the open area, one on the north and another on the south; and the base adjoining the open area was five cubits wide all around.
12 The building facing the temple courtyard on the west side was seventy cubits wide. The wall of the building was five cubits thick all around, and its length was ninety cubits.
13 Then he measured the temple; it was a hundred cubits long, and the temple courtyard and the building with its walls were also a hundred cubits long. 14 The width of the temple courtyard on the east, including the front of the temple, was a hundred cubits.
15 Then he measured the length of the building facing the courtyard at the rear of the temple, including its galleries on each side; it was a hundred cubits. The outer sanctuary, the inner sanctuary and the portico facing the court, 16 as well as the thresholds and the narrow windows and galleries around the three of them—everything beyond and including the threshold was covered with wood. The floor, the wall up to the windows, and the windows were covered. 17 In the space above the outside of the entrance to the inner sanctuary and on the walls at regular intervals all around the inner and outer sanctuary 18 were carved cherubim and palm trees. Palm trees alternated with cherubim. Each cherub had two faces: 19 the face of a man toward the palm tree on one side and the face of a lion toward the palm tree on the other. They were carved all around the whole temple. 20 From the floor to the area above the entrance, cherubim and palm trees were carved on the wall of the outer sanctuary.
21 The outer sanctuary had a rectangular doorframe, and the one at the front of the Most Holy Place was similar. 22 There was a wooden altar three cubits high and two cubits square [c] ; its corners, its base [d] and its sides were of wood. The man said to me, "This is the table that is before the LORD." 23 Both the outer sanctuary and the Most Holy Place had double doors. 24 Each door had two leaves—two hinged leaves for each door. 25 And on the doors of the outer sanctuary were carved cherubim and palm trees like those carved on the walls, and there was a wooden overhang on the front of the portico. 26 On the sidewalls of the portico were narrow windows with palm trees carved on each side. The side rooms of the temple also had overhangs.
Our Daily Bread reading
John 3
Jesus Teaches Nicodemus
1Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him." 3In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.[a]"
4"How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"
5Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit[b] gives birth to spirit. 7You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You[c] must be born again.' 8The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."
November 18, 2007
Straight To HeavenREAD: John 3:1-8
Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name . . . by which we must be saved. —Acts 4:12
About this cover An old spiritual warns, “Everybody talkin’ ’bout heaven ain’t goin’ there.” Since heaven is God’s dwelling place where His presence and glory are manifested in all their splendor, He has the sovereign right to determine who will be admitted and under what conditions. Any other beliefs about the how and why of admission into heaven are sadly mistaken.
Take, for example, the confidence expressed by a well-known actress. Questioned about her faith, she replied, “I pray. I read the Bible. It’s the most beautiful book ever written. I should go to heaven; otherwise it’s not nice. I haven’t done anything wrong. My conscience is very clean. My soul is as white as those orchids over there, and I should go straight, straight to heaven.”
God alone determines who goes straight to heaven. In the Bible, God’s holy Word, He tells us that only those who have trusted in Jesus Christ as their personal Savior will be admitted. The apostle Peter said, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
Self-judgment regarding the purity of one’s soul and one’s heaven-deserving character is not the criterion. Only God’s Word gives us the standard for admission. —Vernon C Grounds
I must needs go home by the way of the cross,There’s no other way but this;I shall ne’er get sight of the gates of light,If the way of the cross I miss. —Pounds
Christ believed is salvation received and heaven gained.
TGIF Devotional
Fulfilling Vows
by Os Hillman
When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. - Ecclesiastes 5:4
Have you ever had a business relationship with someone who made a commitment but later said, "Well, things changed, so I cannot honor our original agreement.”? Sometimes this may be the case, but often it is simply an opportunity to avoid fulfilling an agreement. God is big on fulfilling vows. God's nature is righteousness and truth. You will always see God honor His Word. He expects the same of His people.
God says there are consequences when we do not fulfill our vows. Subsequent Scripture verses reveal the following:
It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it. Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. And do not protest to the temple messenger, "My vow was a mistake." Why should God be angry with what you say and destroy the work of your hands? Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore stand in awe of God” (Ecclesiastes 5:5-7).
God tells us that He will destroy the work of our hands for failure to fulfill vows. That's pretty strong language. It gives us an indication of how important fulfilling vows is to God. He will not prosper our work if there are unfulfilled vows in our lives
Are there any unfulfilled vows in your life that may be hindering your projects? Vows show up in many areas of our lives - marriages, businesses, personal friendships. Unfulfilled vows in any one of these could be the reason your work may be hindered.
Ask God today if there are any unfulfilled vows in your life. If so, begin today to make them right so that you may be successful in whatever God calls you to do.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Ezekiel 40, Our Daily Bread and TGIF, Devotional (Utmost unavailable)
Ezekiel 40
The New Temple Area 1 In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth of the month, in the fourteenth year after the fall of the city—on that very day the hand of the LORD was upon me and he took me there. 2 In visions of God he took me to the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain, on whose south side were some buildings that looked like a city. 3 He took me there, and I saw a man whose appearance was like bronze; he was standing in the gateway with a linen cord and a measuring rod in his hand. 4 The man said to me, "Son of man, look with your eyes and hear with your ears and pay attention to everything I am going to show you, for that is why you have been brought here. Tell the house of Israel everything you see."The East Gate to the Outer Court 5 I saw a wall completely surrounding the temple area. The length of the measuring rod in the man's hand was six long cubits, each of which was a cubit [a] and a handbreadth. [b] He measured the wall; it was one measuring rod thick and one rod high. 6 Then he went to the gate facing east. He climbed its steps and measured the threshold of the gate; it was one rod deep. [c] 7 The alcoves for the guards were one rod long and one rod wide, and the projecting walls between the alcoves were five cubits thick. And the threshold of the gate next to the portico facing the temple was one rod deep.
8 Then he measured the portico of the gateway; 9 it [d] was eight cubits deep and its jambs were two cubits thick. The portico of the gateway faced the temple.
10 Inside the east gate were three alcoves on each side; the three had the same measurements, and the faces of the projecting walls on each side had the same measurements. 11 Then he measured the width of the entrance to the gateway; it was ten cubits and its length was thirteen cubits. 12 In front of each alcove was a wall one cubit high, and the alcoves were six cubits square. 13 Then he measured the gateway from the top of the rear wall of one alcove to the top of the opposite one; the distance was twenty-five cubits from one parapet opening to the opposite one. 14 He measured along the faces of the projecting walls all around the inside of the gateway—sixty cubits. The measurement was up to the portico [e] facing the courtyard. [f] 15 The distance from the entrance of the gateway to the far end of its portico was fifty cubits. 16 The alcoves and the projecting walls inside the gateway were surmounted by narrow parapet openings all around, as was the portico; the openings all around faced inward. The faces of the projecting walls were decorated with palm trees.
The Outer Court 17 Then he brought me into the outer court. There I saw some rooms and a pavement that had been constructed all around the court; there were thirty rooms along the pavement. 18 It abutted the sides of the gateways and was as wide as they were long; this was the lower pavement. 19 Then he measured the distance from the inside of the lower gateway to the outside of the inner court; it was a hundred cubits on the east side as well as on the north.The North Gate 20 Then he measured the length and width of the gate facing north, leading into the outer court. 21 Its alcoves—three on each side—its projecting walls and its portico had the same measurements as those of the first gateway. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 22 Its openings, its portico and its palm tree decorations had the same measurements as those of the gate facing east. Seven steps led up to it, with its portico opposite them. 23 There was a gate to the inner court facing the north gate, just as there was on the east. He measured from one gate to the opposite one; it was a hundred cubits.The South Gate 24 Then he led me to the south side and I saw a gate facing south. He measured its jambs and its portico, and they had the same measurements as the others. 25 The gateway and its portico had narrow openings all around, like the openings of the others. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 26 Seven steps led up to it, with its portico opposite them; it had palm tree decorations on the faces of the projecting walls on each side. 27 The inner court also had a gate facing south, and he measured from this gate to the outer gate on the south side; it was a hundred cubits.Gates to the Inner Court 28 Then he brought me into the inner court through the south gate, and he measured the south gate; it had the same measurements as the others. 29 Its alcoves, its projecting walls and its portico had the same measurements as the others. The gateway and its portico had openings all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 30 (The porticoes of the gateways around the inner court were twenty-five cubits wide and five cubits deep.) 31 Its portico faced the outer court; palm trees decorated its jambs, and eight steps led up to it. 32 Then he brought me to the inner court on the east side, and he measured the gateway; it had the same measurements as the others. 33 Its alcoves, its projecting walls and its portico had the same measurements as the others. The gateway and its portico had openings all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 34 Its portico faced the outer court; palm trees decorated the jambs on either side, and eight steps led up to it.
35 Then he brought me to the north gate and measured it. It had the same measurements as the others, 36 as did its alcoves, its projecting walls and its portico, and it had openings all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 37 Its portico [g] faced the outer court; palm trees decorated the jambs on either side, and eight steps led up to it.
The Rooms for Preparing Sacrifices 38 A room with a doorway was by the portico in each of the inner gateways, where the burnt offerings were washed. 39 In the portico of the gateway were two tables on each side, on which the burnt offerings, sin offerings and guilt offerings were slaughtered. 40 By the outside wall of the portico of the gateway, near the steps at the entrance to the north gateway were two tables, and on the other side of the steps were two tables. 41 So there were four tables on one side of the gateway and four on the other—eight tables in all—on which the sacrifices were slaughtered. 42 There were also four tables of dressed stone for the burnt offerings, each a cubit and a half long, a cubit and a half wide and a cubit high. On them were placed the utensils for slaughtering the burnt offerings and the other sacrifices. 43 And double-pronged hooks, each a handbreadth long, were attached to the wall all around. The tables were for the flesh of the offerings.Rooms for the Priests 44 Outside the inner gate, within the inner court, were two rooms, one [h] at the side of the north gate and facing south, and another at the side of the south [i] gate and facing north. 45 He said to me, "The room facing south is for the priests who have charge of the temple, 46 and the room facing north is for the priests who have charge of the altar. These are the sons of Zadok, who are the only Levites who may draw near to the LORD to minister before him." 47 Then he measured the court: It was square—a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits wide. And the altar was in front of the temple.
The Temple 48 He brought me to the portico of the temple and measured the jambs of the portico; they were five cubits wide on either side. The width of the entrance was fourteen cubits and its projecting walls were [j] three cubits wide on either side. 49 The portico was twenty cubits wide, and twelve [k] cubits from front to back. It was reached by a flight of stairs, [l] and there were pillars on each side of the jambs.
Ezekiel 40The New Temple Area 1 In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth of the month, in the fourteenth year after the fall of the city—on that very day the hand of the LORD was upon me and he took me there. 2 In visions of God he took me to the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain, on whose south side were some buildings that looked like a city. 3 He took me there, and I saw a man whose appearance was like bronze; he was standing in the gateway with a linen cord and a measuring rod in his hand. 4 The man said to me, "Son of man, look with your eyes and hear with your ears and pay attention to everything I am going to show you, for that is why you have been brought here. Tell the house of Israel everything you see."The East Gate to the Outer Court 5 I saw a wall completely surrounding the temple area. The length of the measuring rod in the man's hand was six long cubits, each of which was a cubit [a] and a handbreadth. [b] He measured the wall; it was one measuring rod thick and one rod high. 6 Then he went to the gate facing east. He climbed its steps and measured the threshold of the gate; it was one rod deep. [c] 7 The alcoves for the guards were one rod long and one rod wide, and the projecting walls between the alcoves were five cubits thick. And the threshold of the gate next to the portico facing the temple was one rod deep.
8 Then he measured the portico of the gateway; 9 it [d] was eight cubits deep and its jambs were two cubits thick. The portico of the gateway faced the temple.
10 Inside the east gate were three alcoves on each side; the three had the same measurements, and the faces of the projecting walls on each side had the same measurements. 11 Then he measured the width of the entrance to the gateway; it was ten cubits and its length was thirteen cubits. 12 In front of each alcove was a wall one cubit high, and the alcoves were six cubits square. 13 Then he measured the gateway from the top of the rear wall of one alcove to the top of the opposite one; the distance was twenty-five cubits from one parapet opening to the opposite one. 14 He measured along the faces of the projecting walls all around the inside of the gateway—sixty cubits. The measurement was up to the portico [e] facing the courtyard. [f] 15 The distance from the entrance of the gateway to the far end of its portico was fifty cubits. 16 The alcoves and the projecting walls inside the gateway were surmounted by narrow parapet openings all around, as was the portico; the openings all around faced inward. The faces of the projecting walls were decorated with palm trees.
The Outer Court 17 Then he brought me into the outer court. There I saw some rooms and a pavement that had been constructed all around the court; there were thirty rooms along the pavement. 18 It abutted the sides of the gateways and was as wide as they were long; this was the lower pavement. 19 Then he measured the distance from the inside of the lower gateway to the outside of the inner court; it was a hundred cubits on the east side as well as on the north.The North Gate 20 Then he measured the length and width of the gate facing north, leading into the outer court. 21 Its alcoves—three on each side—its projecting walls and its portico had the same measurements as those of the first gateway. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 22 Its openings, its portico and its palm tree decorations had the same measurements as those of the gate facing east. Seven steps led up to it, with its portico opposite them. 23 There was a gate to the inner court facing the north gate, just as there was on the east. He measured from one gate to the opposite one; it was a hundred cubits.The South Gate 24 Then he led me to the south side and I saw a gate facing south. He measured its jambs and its portico, and they had the same measurements as the others. 25 The gateway and its portico had narrow openings all around, like the openings of the others. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 26 Seven steps led up to it, with its portico opposite them; it had palm tree decorations on the faces of the projecting walls on each side. 27 The inner court also had a gate facing south, and he measured from this gate to the outer gate on the south side; it was a hundred cubits.Gates to the Inner Court 28 Then he brought me into the inner court through the south gate, and he measured the south gate; it had the same measurements as the others. 29 Its alcoves, its projecting walls and its portico had the same measurements as the others. The gateway and its portico had openings all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 30 (The porticoes of the gateways around the inner court were twenty-five cubits wide and five cubits deep.) 31 Its portico faced the outer court; palm trees decorated its jambs, and eight steps led up to it. 32 Then he brought me to the inner court on the east side, and he measured the gateway; it had the same measurements as the others. 33 Its alcoves, its projecting walls and its portico had the same measurements as the others. The gateway and its portico had openings all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 34 Its portico faced the outer court; palm trees decorated the jambs on either side, and eight steps led up to it.
35 Then he brought me to the north gate and measured it. It had the same measurements as the others, 36 as did its alcoves, its projecting walls and its portico, and it had openings all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 37 Its portico [g] faced the outer court; palm trees decorated the jambs on either side, and eight steps led up to it.
The Rooms for Preparing Sacrifices 38 A room with a doorway was by the portico in each of the inner gateways, where the burnt offerings were washed. 39 In the portico of the gateway were two tables on each side, on which the burnt offerings, sin offerings and guilt offerings were slaughtered. 40 By the outside wall of the portico of the gateway, near the steps at the entrance to the north gateway were two tables, and on the other side of the steps were two tables. 41 So there were four tables on one side of the gateway and four on the other—eight tables in all—on which the sacrifices were slaughtered. 42 There were also four tables of dressed stone for the burnt offerings, each a cubit and a half long, a cubit and a half wide and a cubit high. On them were placed the utensils for slaughtering the burnt offerings and the other sacrifices. 43 And double-pronged hooks, each a handbreadth long, were attached to the wall all around. The tables were for the flesh of the offerings.Rooms for the Priests 44 Outside the inner gate, within the inner court, were two rooms, one [h] at the side of the north gate and facing south, and another at the side of the south [i] gate and facing north. 45 He said to me, "The room facing south is for the priests who have charge of the temple, 46 and the room facing north is for the priests who have charge of the altar. These are the sons of Zadok, who are the only Levites who may draw near to the LORD to minister before him." 47 Then he measured the court: It was square—a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits wide. And the altar was in front of the temple.
The Temple 48 He brought me to the portico of the temple and measured the jambs of the portico; they were five cubits wide on either side. The width of the entrance was fourteen cubits and its projecting walls were [j] three cubits wide on either side. 49 The portico was twenty cubits wide, and twelve [k] cubits from front to back. It was reached by a flight of stairs, [l] and there were pillars on each side of the jambs.
1 Corinthians 15:42-49 (New International Version)New International Version (NIV)Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
42So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"[a]; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. 48As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we[b] bear the likeness of the man from heaven.
November 17, 2007
New BodiesREAD: 1 Corinthians 15:42-49
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross. —Hebrews 12:2 About this cover In 1728, a young Ben Franklin composed his own tombstone epitaph:
The body of B. Franklin, printer, like the cover of an old book, its contents worn out, and stript of its lettering and gilding, lies here, food for worms. Yet the work shall not be lost; for it will as he believ’d appear once more, in a new & more beautiful edition, corrected and amended by the Author.
In this epitaph, the wry wit of Franklin, the colonial Renaissance man, rings true to the biblical view of resurrection. The bodies we now possess are prone to aging, physical decline, and ultimately death. But the resurrection of Jesus Christ holds within it the promise of a new supernatural body raised in glory. The apostle Paul tells us, “The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power” (1 Cor. 15:42-43).
As life takes its course in the aging process, we have the hope of a new body that will far outshine the original. Despite our aches and pains, our destiny belongs safely in the hands of “Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:2). —Dennis Fisher
New bodies will be ours somedayAccording to God’s grand design,Forever with the Lord to reign—Praise God for the promise divine! —Hess
In the twinkling of an eye . . . we shall be changed. —The Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 15:52)
Product Testing
by Os Hillman
His master replied, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!" - Matthew 25:21
Testing allows one to discover how well a product is made when placed under extreme stress. Increasing the pulling pressure between two objects reveals the amount of tension that can be withstood in a chain link. Eventually, the "choking" point occurs. In sports, we ascertain the "choking" point for athletes by putting them into a pressure situation. At what point will the athlete lose concentration and collapse under the pressure? It is under these stressful times that we discover how well we have been trained to withstand the pressure and make right decisions regardless of outside influences.
In my younger days I played sports. I came to observe that we fail under pressure usually because we reach a point where our ability to focus on execution yields to concern about outcome. This worry about outcome forces us to lose our concentration. The fear of failure begins to rule our emotions and actions, which ultimately results in our failure. What we fear has come upon us. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
In life, we see giving in to pressure in the form of compulsive behavior, withdrawal, anger, abuse, moral failure, and dishonesty, to name just a few manifestations.
Jesus never yielded to pressure. He never made decisions based on outcome. He always made the right decision. He always performed the same no matter what the circumstance. He lived a life based on absolutes, not circumstances. He never gave in to "situational ethics."
As God entrusts us with more and more responsibility, He brings more and more pressures into our lives to "test the product," to make sure that He can give even more responsibility to us. This process helps us see where we are in our maturity and determines our level of future responsibility.
Are you a product that can withstand the product test? Will you perform as the Maker designed no matter what outside pressures come? Know that you cannot perform well unless you are continually in relationship with and obedient to the one who made you. Trust the product developer today. He has made you to perform well under pressure.
The New Temple Area 1 In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth of the month, in the fourteenth year after the fall of the city—on that very day the hand of the LORD was upon me and he took me there. 2 In visions of God he took me to the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain, on whose south side were some buildings that looked like a city. 3 He took me there, and I saw a man whose appearance was like bronze; he was standing in the gateway with a linen cord and a measuring rod in his hand. 4 The man said to me, "Son of man, look with your eyes and hear with your ears and pay attention to everything I am going to show you, for that is why you have been brought here. Tell the house of Israel everything you see."The East Gate to the Outer Court 5 I saw a wall completely surrounding the temple area. The length of the measuring rod in the man's hand was six long cubits, each of which was a cubit [a] and a handbreadth. [b] He measured the wall; it was one measuring rod thick and one rod high. 6 Then he went to the gate facing east. He climbed its steps and measured the threshold of the gate; it was one rod deep. [c] 7 The alcoves for the guards were one rod long and one rod wide, and the projecting walls between the alcoves were five cubits thick. And the threshold of the gate next to the portico facing the temple was one rod deep.
8 Then he measured the portico of the gateway; 9 it [d] was eight cubits deep and its jambs were two cubits thick. The portico of the gateway faced the temple.
10 Inside the east gate were three alcoves on each side; the three had the same measurements, and the faces of the projecting walls on each side had the same measurements. 11 Then he measured the width of the entrance to the gateway; it was ten cubits and its length was thirteen cubits. 12 In front of each alcove was a wall one cubit high, and the alcoves were six cubits square. 13 Then he measured the gateway from the top of the rear wall of one alcove to the top of the opposite one; the distance was twenty-five cubits from one parapet opening to the opposite one. 14 He measured along the faces of the projecting walls all around the inside of the gateway—sixty cubits. The measurement was up to the portico [e] facing the courtyard. [f] 15 The distance from the entrance of the gateway to the far end of its portico was fifty cubits. 16 The alcoves and the projecting walls inside the gateway were surmounted by narrow parapet openings all around, as was the portico; the openings all around faced inward. The faces of the projecting walls were decorated with palm trees.
The Outer Court 17 Then he brought me into the outer court. There I saw some rooms and a pavement that had been constructed all around the court; there were thirty rooms along the pavement. 18 It abutted the sides of the gateways and was as wide as they were long; this was the lower pavement. 19 Then he measured the distance from the inside of the lower gateway to the outside of the inner court; it was a hundred cubits on the east side as well as on the north.The North Gate 20 Then he measured the length and width of the gate facing north, leading into the outer court. 21 Its alcoves—three on each side—its projecting walls and its portico had the same measurements as those of the first gateway. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 22 Its openings, its portico and its palm tree decorations had the same measurements as those of the gate facing east. Seven steps led up to it, with its portico opposite them. 23 There was a gate to the inner court facing the north gate, just as there was on the east. He measured from one gate to the opposite one; it was a hundred cubits.The South Gate 24 Then he led me to the south side and I saw a gate facing south. He measured its jambs and its portico, and they had the same measurements as the others. 25 The gateway and its portico had narrow openings all around, like the openings of the others. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 26 Seven steps led up to it, with its portico opposite them; it had palm tree decorations on the faces of the projecting walls on each side. 27 The inner court also had a gate facing south, and he measured from this gate to the outer gate on the south side; it was a hundred cubits.Gates to the Inner Court 28 Then he brought me into the inner court through the south gate, and he measured the south gate; it had the same measurements as the others. 29 Its alcoves, its projecting walls and its portico had the same measurements as the others. The gateway and its portico had openings all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 30 (The porticoes of the gateways around the inner court were twenty-five cubits wide and five cubits deep.) 31 Its portico faced the outer court; palm trees decorated its jambs, and eight steps led up to it. 32 Then he brought me to the inner court on the east side, and he measured the gateway; it had the same measurements as the others. 33 Its alcoves, its projecting walls and its portico had the same measurements as the others. The gateway and its portico had openings all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 34 Its portico faced the outer court; palm trees decorated the jambs on either side, and eight steps led up to it.
35 Then he brought me to the north gate and measured it. It had the same measurements as the others, 36 as did its alcoves, its projecting walls and its portico, and it had openings all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 37 Its portico [g] faced the outer court; palm trees decorated the jambs on either side, and eight steps led up to it.
The Rooms for Preparing Sacrifices 38 A room with a doorway was by the portico in each of the inner gateways, where the burnt offerings were washed. 39 In the portico of the gateway were two tables on each side, on which the burnt offerings, sin offerings and guilt offerings were slaughtered. 40 By the outside wall of the portico of the gateway, near the steps at the entrance to the north gateway were two tables, and on the other side of the steps were two tables. 41 So there were four tables on one side of the gateway and four on the other—eight tables in all—on which the sacrifices were slaughtered. 42 There were also four tables of dressed stone for the burnt offerings, each a cubit and a half long, a cubit and a half wide and a cubit high. On them were placed the utensils for slaughtering the burnt offerings and the other sacrifices. 43 And double-pronged hooks, each a handbreadth long, were attached to the wall all around. The tables were for the flesh of the offerings.Rooms for the Priests 44 Outside the inner gate, within the inner court, were two rooms, one [h] at the side of the north gate and facing south, and another at the side of the south [i] gate and facing north. 45 He said to me, "The room facing south is for the priests who have charge of the temple, 46 and the room facing north is for the priests who have charge of the altar. These are the sons of Zadok, who are the only Levites who may draw near to the LORD to minister before him." 47 Then he measured the court: It was square—a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits wide. And the altar was in front of the temple.
The Temple 48 He brought me to the portico of the temple and measured the jambs of the portico; they were five cubits wide on either side. The width of the entrance was fourteen cubits and its projecting walls were [j] three cubits wide on either side. 49 The portico was twenty cubits wide, and twelve [k] cubits from front to back. It was reached by a flight of stairs, [l] and there were pillars on each side of the jambs.
Ezekiel 40The New Temple Area 1 In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth of the month, in the fourteenth year after the fall of the city—on that very day the hand of the LORD was upon me and he took me there. 2 In visions of God he took me to the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain, on whose south side were some buildings that looked like a city. 3 He took me there, and I saw a man whose appearance was like bronze; he was standing in the gateway with a linen cord and a measuring rod in his hand. 4 The man said to me, "Son of man, look with your eyes and hear with your ears and pay attention to everything I am going to show you, for that is why you have been brought here. Tell the house of Israel everything you see."The East Gate to the Outer Court 5 I saw a wall completely surrounding the temple area. The length of the measuring rod in the man's hand was six long cubits, each of which was a cubit [a] and a handbreadth. [b] He measured the wall; it was one measuring rod thick and one rod high. 6 Then he went to the gate facing east. He climbed its steps and measured the threshold of the gate; it was one rod deep. [c] 7 The alcoves for the guards were one rod long and one rod wide, and the projecting walls between the alcoves were five cubits thick. And the threshold of the gate next to the portico facing the temple was one rod deep.
8 Then he measured the portico of the gateway; 9 it [d] was eight cubits deep and its jambs were two cubits thick. The portico of the gateway faced the temple.
10 Inside the east gate were three alcoves on each side; the three had the same measurements, and the faces of the projecting walls on each side had the same measurements. 11 Then he measured the width of the entrance to the gateway; it was ten cubits and its length was thirteen cubits. 12 In front of each alcove was a wall one cubit high, and the alcoves were six cubits square. 13 Then he measured the gateway from the top of the rear wall of one alcove to the top of the opposite one; the distance was twenty-five cubits from one parapet opening to the opposite one. 14 He measured along the faces of the projecting walls all around the inside of the gateway—sixty cubits. The measurement was up to the portico [e] facing the courtyard. [f] 15 The distance from the entrance of the gateway to the far end of its portico was fifty cubits. 16 The alcoves and the projecting walls inside the gateway were surmounted by narrow parapet openings all around, as was the portico; the openings all around faced inward. The faces of the projecting walls were decorated with palm trees.
The Outer Court 17 Then he brought me into the outer court. There I saw some rooms and a pavement that had been constructed all around the court; there were thirty rooms along the pavement. 18 It abutted the sides of the gateways and was as wide as they were long; this was the lower pavement. 19 Then he measured the distance from the inside of the lower gateway to the outside of the inner court; it was a hundred cubits on the east side as well as on the north.The North Gate 20 Then he measured the length and width of the gate facing north, leading into the outer court. 21 Its alcoves—three on each side—its projecting walls and its portico had the same measurements as those of the first gateway. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 22 Its openings, its portico and its palm tree decorations had the same measurements as those of the gate facing east. Seven steps led up to it, with its portico opposite them. 23 There was a gate to the inner court facing the north gate, just as there was on the east. He measured from one gate to the opposite one; it was a hundred cubits.The South Gate 24 Then he led me to the south side and I saw a gate facing south. He measured its jambs and its portico, and they had the same measurements as the others. 25 The gateway and its portico had narrow openings all around, like the openings of the others. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 26 Seven steps led up to it, with its portico opposite them; it had palm tree decorations on the faces of the projecting walls on each side. 27 The inner court also had a gate facing south, and he measured from this gate to the outer gate on the south side; it was a hundred cubits.Gates to the Inner Court 28 Then he brought me into the inner court through the south gate, and he measured the south gate; it had the same measurements as the others. 29 Its alcoves, its projecting walls and its portico had the same measurements as the others. The gateway and its portico had openings all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 30 (The porticoes of the gateways around the inner court were twenty-five cubits wide and five cubits deep.) 31 Its portico faced the outer court; palm trees decorated its jambs, and eight steps led up to it. 32 Then he brought me to the inner court on the east side, and he measured the gateway; it had the same measurements as the others. 33 Its alcoves, its projecting walls and its portico had the same measurements as the others. The gateway and its portico had openings all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 34 Its portico faced the outer court; palm trees decorated the jambs on either side, and eight steps led up to it.
35 Then he brought me to the north gate and measured it. It had the same measurements as the others, 36 as did its alcoves, its projecting walls and its portico, and it had openings all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 37 Its portico [g] faced the outer court; palm trees decorated the jambs on either side, and eight steps led up to it.
The Rooms for Preparing Sacrifices 38 A room with a doorway was by the portico in each of the inner gateways, where the burnt offerings were washed. 39 In the portico of the gateway were two tables on each side, on which the burnt offerings, sin offerings and guilt offerings were slaughtered. 40 By the outside wall of the portico of the gateway, near the steps at the entrance to the north gateway were two tables, and on the other side of the steps were two tables. 41 So there were four tables on one side of the gateway and four on the other—eight tables in all—on which the sacrifices were slaughtered. 42 There were also four tables of dressed stone for the burnt offerings, each a cubit and a half long, a cubit and a half wide and a cubit high. On them were placed the utensils for slaughtering the burnt offerings and the other sacrifices. 43 And double-pronged hooks, each a handbreadth long, were attached to the wall all around. The tables were for the flesh of the offerings.Rooms for the Priests 44 Outside the inner gate, within the inner court, were two rooms, one [h] at the side of the north gate and facing south, and another at the side of the south [i] gate and facing north. 45 He said to me, "The room facing south is for the priests who have charge of the temple, 46 and the room facing north is for the priests who have charge of the altar. These are the sons of Zadok, who are the only Levites who may draw near to the LORD to minister before him." 47 Then he measured the court: It was square—a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits wide. And the altar was in front of the temple.
The Temple 48 He brought me to the portico of the temple and measured the jambs of the portico; they were five cubits wide on either side. The width of the entrance was fourteen cubits and its projecting walls were [j] three cubits wide on either side. 49 The portico was twenty cubits wide, and twelve [k] cubits from front to back. It was reached by a flight of stairs, [l] and there were pillars on each side of the jambs.
1 Corinthians 15:42-49 (New International Version)New International Version (NIV)Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
42So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"[a]; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. 48As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we[b] bear the likeness of the man from heaven.
November 17, 2007
New BodiesREAD: 1 Corinthians 15:42-49
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross. —Hebrews 12:2 About this cover In 1728, a young Ben Franklin composed his own tombstone epitaph:
The body of B. Franklin, printer, like the cover of an old book, its contents worn out, and stript of its lettering and gilding, lies here, food for worms. Yet the work shall not be lost; for it will as he believ’d appear once more, in a new & more beautiful edition, corrected and amended by the Author.
In this epitaph, the wry wit of Franklin, the colonial Renaissance man, rings true to the biblical view of resurrection. The bodies we now possess are prone to aging, physical decline, and ultimately death. But the resurrection of Jesus Christ holds within it the promise of a new supernatural body raised in glory. The apostle Paul tells us, “The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power” (1 Cor. 15:42-43).
As life takes its course in the aging process, we have the hope of a new body that will far outshine the original. Despite our aches and pains, our destiny belongs safely in the hands of “Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:2). —Dennis Fisher
New bodies will be ours somedayAccording to God’s grand design,Forever with the Lord to reign—Praise God for the promise divine! —Hess
In the twinkling of an eye . . . we shall be changed. —The Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 15:52)
Product Testing
by Os Hillman
His master replied, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!" - Matthew 25:21
Testing allows one to discover how well a product is made when placed under extreme stress. Increasing the pulling pressure between two objects reveals the amount of tension that can be withstood in a chain link. Eventually, the "choking" point occurs. In sports, we ascertain the "choking" point for athletes by putting them into a pressure situation. At what point will the athlete lose concentration and collapse under the pressure? It is under these stressful times that we discover how well we have been trained to withstand the pressure and make right decisions regardless of outside influences.
In my younger days I played sports. I came to observe that we fail under pressure usually because we reach a point where our ability to focus on execution yields to concern about outcome. This worry about outcome forces us to lose our concentration. The fear of failure begins to rule our emotions and actions, which ultimately results in our failure. What we fear has come upon us. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
In life, we see giving in to pressure in the form of compulsive behavior, withdrawal, anger, abuse, moral failure, and dishonesty, to name just a few manifestations.
Jesus never yielded to pressure. He never made decisions based on outcome. He always made the right decision. He always performed the same no matter what the circumstance. He lived a life based on absolutes, not circumstances. He never gave in to "situational ethics."
As God entrusts us with more and more responsibility, He brings more and more pressures into our lives to "test the product," to make sure that He can give even more responsibility to us. This process helps us see where we are in our maturity and determines our level of future responsibility.
Are you a product that can withstand the product test? Will you perform as the Maker designed no matter what outside pressures come? Know that you cannot perform well unless you are continually in relationship with and obedient to the one who made you. Trust the product developer today. He has made you to perform well under pressure.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Ezekiel 39 and others
Ezekiel 39
Ezekiel 39 1 "Son of man, prophesy against Gog and say: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of [a] Meshech and Tubal. 2 I will turn you around and drag you along. I will bring you from the far north and send you against the mountains of Israel. 3 Then I will strike your bow from your left hand and make your arrows drop from your right hand. 4 On the mountains of Israel you will fall, you and all your troops and the nations with you. I will give you as food to all kinds of carrion birds and to the wild animals. 5 You will fall in the open field, for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign LORD. 6 I will send fire on Magog and on those who live in safety in the coastlands, and they will know that I am the LORD.
7 " 'I will make known my holy name among my people Israel. I will no longer let my holy name be profaned, and the nations will know that I the LORD am the Holy One in Israel. 8 It is coming! It will surely take place, declares the Sovereign LORD. This is the day I have spoken of.
9 " 'Then those who live in the towns of Israel will go out and use the weapons for fuel and burn them up—the small and large shields, the bows and arrows, the war clubs and spears. For seven years they will use them for fuel. 10 They will not need to gather wood from the fields or cut it from the forests, because they will use the weapons for fuel. And they will plunder those who plundered them and loot those who looted them, declares the Sovereign LORD.
11 " 'On that day I will give Gog a burial place in Israel, in the valley of those who travel east toward [b] the Sea. [c] It will block the way of travelers, because Gog and all his hordes will be buried there. So it will be called the Valley of Hamon Gog. [d]
12 " 'For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land. 13 All the people of the land will bury them, and the day I am glorified will be a memorable day for them, declares the Sovereign LORD.
14 " 'Men will be regularly employed to cleanse the land. Some will go throughout the land and, in addition to them, others will bury those that remain on the ground. At the end of the seven months they will begin their search. 15 As they go through the land and one of them sees a human bone, he will set up a marker beside it until the gravediggers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon Gog. 16 (Also a town called Hamonah [e] will be there.) And so they will cleanse the land.'
17 "Son of man, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Call out to every kind of bird and all the wild animals: 'Assemble and come together from all around to the sacrifice I am preparing for you, the great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel. There you will eat flesh and drink blood. 18 You will eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes of the earth as if they were rams and lambs, goats and bulls—all of them fattened animals from Bashan. 19 At the sacrifice I am preparing for you, you will eat fat till you are glutted and drink blood till you are drunk. 20 At my table you will eat your fill of horses and riders, mighty men and soldiers of every kind,' declares the Sovereign LORD.
21 "I will display my glory among the nations, and all the nations will see the punishment I inflict and the hand I lay upon them. 22 From that day forward the house of Israel will know that I am the LORD their God. 23 And the nations will know that the people of Israel went into exile for their sin, because they were unfaithful to me. So I hid my face from them and handed them over to their enemies, and they all fell by the sword. 24 I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their offenses, and I hid my face from them.
25 "Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will now bring Jacob back from captivity [f] and will have compassion on all the people of Israel, and I will be zealous for my holy name. 26 They will forget their shame and all the unfaithfulness they showed toward me when they lived in safety in their land with no one to make them afraid. 27 When I have brought them back from the nations and have gathered them from the countries of their enemies, I will show myself holy through them in the sight of many nations. 28 Then they will know that I am the LORD their God, for though I sent them into exile among the nations, I will gather them to their own land, not leaving any behind. 29 I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel, declares the Sovereign LORD."
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion:
Psalm 92:12-15
12 The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;
13 planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God.
14 They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green,
15 proclaiming, "The LORD is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him."2,000-Year-Old Sprout
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READ: Psalm 92:12-15
The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree. . . . They shall still bear fruit in old age. —Psalm 92:12,14
About this cover In June of 2006, Israeli doctors and scientists successfully germinated a 2,000-year-old date palm seed. Found at the Herodian fortress of Masada on the west bank of the Dead Sea, the seed was tagged “Methuselah” for the man with the oldest recorded age in the Bible (Gen. 5:27). In addition to the challenge of awakening a long-dormant seed, the team also wanted to learn more about the tree praised in Scripture for its shade, food, beauty, and medicinal qualities.
The date palm has an important role in the Bible. In the Old Testament, the tree is linked to the temple and presence of God. The New Testament describes excited crowds praising God and throwing palm branches at the feet of Jesus as He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.
God’s promise to bless the world through a descendant of Abraham also lay dormant for 2,000 years (see Gen. 12:1-3). Finally, the Seed of promise sprouted. That Seed was Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah. Soon the story of His resurrected life would go out to every nation on earth.
The miracle is now ours to experience. Time is not a factor. Neither is the barren ground of circumstance. All that matters is that we allow our hearts to be the soil in which Christ is welcomed and worshiped. —Mart De Haan
God’s promise like a tiny seedMay seem to be an empty thing,But hidden in that tiny seedIs life that waits the warmth of spring. —D. De Haan
God never makes a promise that He will not keep.
Utmost for My Highest
November 16, 2007
Still Human!LISTEN: READ:
. . . whatever you do, do all to the glory of God —1 Corinthians 10:31 About this cover In the Scriptures, the great miracle of the incarnation slips into the ordinary life of a child; the great miracle of the transfiguration fades into the demon-possessed valley below; the glory of the resurrection descends into a breakfast on the seashore. This is not an anticlimax, but a great revelation of God.
We have a tendency to look for wonder in our experience, and we mistake heroic actions for real heroes. It’s one thing to go through a crisis grandly, yet quite another to go through every day glorifying God when there is no witness, no limelight, and no one paying even the remotest attention to us. If we are not looking for halos, we at least want something that will make people say, "What a wonderful man of prayer he is!" or, "What a great woman of devotion she is!" If you are properly devoted to the Lord Jesus, you have reached the lofty height where no one would ever notice you personally. All that is noticed is the power of God coming through you all the time.
We want to be able to say, "Oh, I have had a wonderful call from God!" But to do even the most humbling tasks to the glory of God takes the Almighty God Incarnate working in us. To be utterly unnoticeable requires God’s Spirit in us making us absolutely humanly His. The true test of a saint’s life is not successfulness but faithfulness on the human level of life. We tend to set up success in Christian work as our purpose, but our purpose should be to display the glory of God in human life, to live a life "hidden with Christ in God" in our everyday human conditions ( Colossians 3:3 ). Our human relationships are the very conditions in which the ideal life of God should be exhibited.
Ron Hutchcraft, A Word With You
Getting Rid of What You've Hung Onto So Long - #5440 Friday, November 16, 2007
Our friend Joy has become a bit of an expert on moving. Her husband is a career Air Force officer, and that means seeing a lot of different places, having a lot of different addresses, and seeing a lot of moving vans in your life. We were talking the other day about their last move and what she considered one of the greatest gifts she's ever been given. It didn't have beautiful wrapping paper or bows on it. In fact, it was a dumpster! That might not sound all that exciting to you, but it was to her! She and her family had so much stuff to move, and everything they could get rid of, they didn't have to move. Someone said to her, "I've got this dumpster I'd like to loan to you for your move." Joy said she was overjoyed! She said there was something so exciting about the first thud of the first thing they threw into that dumpster. Then it was all about lots of thuds as they threw away mountains of stuff. They couldn't wait to go get more.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Getting Rid of What You've Hung Onto So Long."
When I asked our friend what was so exciting about having that dumpster, she said, "It was so great getting rid of so much stuff that we'd been hanging onto so long." That's the very feeling that so many people over so many years have experienced when they surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ. They came to the dumpster of God and unloaded so much stuff that they'd been hanging onto so long. It's an experience God wants you to have - even today.
It's an experience vividly described in our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. It begins with bad news about some of the dirty and useless stuff we hang onto. It says, "Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters (that's anyone who lets anything be more important than God in their life) nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers (that's anyone who speaks destructively about another person) nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." Now that is bad news. Our sin leaves us with no human chance of heaven.
OK, fasten your seat belt. Here comes the dumpster of God. "And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified (that means you were made special), you were justified (that means you were made right with God) in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." Because of what Jesus did when He died on the cross, you don't have to be dirty inside for one more day. You can be clean from now on. You don't have to be away from God. You can belong to God if you'll bring all your sin, all your selfishness, all the junk of a life that you've run to the dumpster of God - which is the cross of Jesus Christ! That's where every wrong thing you've ever done was paid for in full by the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
It's stuff you've hung onto so long - including the guilt of it all, the shame, the regrets of what you wish you had done differently. But Jesus took all that on Himself when He died on the cross, and He's waiting to take it from you at the moment you put your total trust in Him to be your personal Savior from your personal sin. It happens the moment you give yourself to Him, turning from that sin and placing your life in His hands. How does it feel? Our friend described the feeling of getting rid of all that junk with one word. She said, "It was so cleansing." That's it. You can be cleansed today!
If that's what you want, please let me send you the little booklet I wrote about beginning this life-saving relationship with Jesus Christ. It's called Yours For Life. I'll send it to you if you'll just let me know you want it. You can go to our website at yoursforlife.net or you can call us toll free at 877-741-1200.
This can be the day that Jesus Christ enters your life; the day that you experience the wonderful relief of getting rid of so much that you've been hanging onto for so long.
To find out how you can begin a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, please visit: yoursforlife.net or call 1-888-966-7325.
Ezekiel 39 1 "Son of man, prophesy against Gog and say: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of [a] Meshech and Tubal. 2 I will turn you around and drag you along. I will bring you from the far north and send you against the mountains of Israel. 3 Then I will strike your bow from your left hand and make your arrows drop from your right hand. 4 On the mountains of Israel you will fall, you and all your troops and the nations with you. I will give you as food to all kinds of carrion birds and to the wild animals. 5 You will fall in the open field, for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign LORD. 6 I will send fire on Magog and on those who live in safety in the coastlands, and they will know that I am the LORD.
7 " 'I will make known my holy name among my people Israel. I will no longer let my holy name be profaned, and the nations will know that I the LORD am the Holy One in Israel. 8 It is coming! It will surely take place, declares the Sovereign LORD. This is the day I have spoken of.
9 " 'Then those who live in the towns of Israel will go out and use the weapons for fuel and burn them up—the small and large shields, the bows and arrows, the war clubs and spears. For seven years they will use them for fuel. 10 They will not need to gather wood from the fields or cut it from the forests, because they will use the weapons for fuel. And they will plunder those who plundered them and loot those who looted them, declares the Sovereign LORD.
11 " 'On that day I will give Gog a burial place in Israel, in the valley of those who travel east toward [b] the Sea. [c] It will block the way of travelers, because Gog and all his hordes will be buried there. So it will be called the Valley of Hamon Gog. [d]
12 " 'For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land. 13 All the people of the land will bury them, and the day I am glorified will be a memorable day for them, declares the Sovereign LORD.
14 " 'Men will be regularly employed to cleanse the land. Some will go throughout the land and, in addition to them, others will bury those that remain on the ground. At the end of the seven months they will begin their search. 15 As they go through the land and one of them sees a human bone, he will set up a marker beside it until the gravediggers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon Gog. 16 (Also a town called Hamonah [e] will be there.) And so they will cleanse the land.'
17 "Son of man, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Call out to every kind of bird and all the wild animals: 'Assemble and come together from all around to the sacrifice I am preparing for you, the great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel. There you will eat flesh and drink blood. 18 You will eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes of the earth as if they were rams and lambs, goats and bulls—all of them fattened animals from Bashan. 19 At the sacrifice I am preparing for you, you will eat fat till you are glutted and drink blood till you are drunk. 20 At my table you will eat your fill of horses and riders, mighty men and soldiers of every kind,' declares the Sovereign LORD.
21 "I will display my glory among the nations, and all the nations will see the punishment I inflict and the hand I lay upon them. 22 From that day forward the house of Israel will know that I am the LORD their God. 23 And the nations will know that the people of Israel went into exile for their sin, because they were unfaithful to me. So I hid my face from them and handed them over to their enemies, and they all fell by the sword. 24 I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their offenses, and I hid my face from them.
25 "Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will now bring Jacob back from captivity [f] and will have compassion on all the people of Israel, and I will be zealous for my holy name. 26 They will forget their shame and all the unfaithfulness they showed toward me when they lived in safety in their land with no one to make them afraid. 27 When I have brought them back from the nations and have gathered them from the countries of their enemies, I will show myself holy through them in the sight of many nations. 28 Then they will know that I am the LORD their God, for though I sent them into exile among the nations, I will gather them to their own land, not leaving any behind. 29 I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel, declares the Sovereign LORD."
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion:
Psalm 92:12-15
12 The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;
13 planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God.
14 They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green,
15 proclaiming, "The LORD is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him."2,000-Year-Old Sprout
ODB RADIO: Listen Now Download
READ: Psalm 92:12-15
The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree. . . . They shall still bear fruit in old age. —Psalm 92:12,14
About this cover In June of 2006, Israeli doctors and scientists successfully germinated a 2,000-year-old date palm seed. Found at the Herodian fortress of Masada on the west bank of the Dead Sea, the seed was tagged “Methuselah” for the man with the oldest recorded age in the Bible (Gen. 5:27). In addition to the challenge of awakening a long-dormant seed, the team also wanted to learn more about the tree praised in Scripture for its shade, food, beauty, and medicinal qualities.
The date palm has an important role in the Bible. In the Old Testament, the tree is linked to the temple and presence of God. The New Testament describes excited crowds praising God and throwing palm branches at the feet of Jesus as He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.
God’s promise to bless the world through a descendant of Abraham also lay dormant for 2,000 years (see Gen. 12:1-3). Finally, the Seed of promise sprouted. That Seed was Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah. Soon the story of His resurrected life would go out to every nation on earth.
The miracle is now ours to experience. Time is not a factor. Neither is the barren ground of circumstance. All that matters is that we allow our hearts to be the soil in which Christ is welcomed and worshiped. —Mart De Haan
God’s promise like a tiny seedMay seem to be an empty thing,But hidden in that tiny seedIs life that waits the warmth of spring. —D. De Haan
God never makes a promise that He will not keep.
Utmost for My Highest
November 16, 2007
Still Human!LISTEN: READ:
. . . whatever you do, do all to the glory of God —1 Corinthians 10:31 About this cover In the Scriptures, the great miracle of the incarnation slips into the ordinary life of a child; the great miracle of the transfiguration fades into the demon-possessed valley below; the glory of the resurrection descends into a breakfast on the seashore. This is not an anticlimax, but a great revelation of God.
We have a tendency to look for wonder in our experience, and we mistake heroic actions for real heroes. It’s one thing to go through a crisis grandly, yet quite another to go through every day glorifying God when there is no witness, no limelight, and no one paying even the remotest attention to us. If we are not looking for halos, we at least want something that will make people say, "What a wonderful man of prayer he is!" or, "What a great woman of devotion she is!" If you are properly devoted to the Lord Jesus, you have reached the lofty height where no one would ever notice you personally. All that is noticed is the power of God coming through you all the time.
We want to be able to say, "Oh, I have had a wonderful call from God!" But to do even the most humbling tasks to the glory of God takes the Almighty God Incarnate working in us. To be utterly unnoticeable requires God’s Spirit in us making us absolutely humanly His. The true test of a saint’s life is not successfulness but faithfulness on the human level of life. We tend to set up success in Christian work as our purpose, but our purpose should be to display the glory of God in human life, to live a life "hidden with Christ in God" in our everyday human conditions ( Colossians 3:3 ). Our human relationships are the very conditions in which the ideal life of God should be exhibited.
Ron Hutchcraft, A Word With You
Getting Rid of What You've Hung Onto So Long - #5440 Friday, November 16, 2007
Our friend Joy has become a bit of an expert on moving. Her husband is a career Air Force officer, and that means seeing a lot of different places, having a lot of different addresses, and seeing a lot of moving vans in your life. We were talking the other day about their last move and what she considered one of the greatest gifts she's ever been given. It didn't have beautiful wrapping paper or bows on it. In fact, it was a dumpster! That might not sound all that exciting to you, but it was to her! She and her family had so much stuff to move, and everything they could get rid of, they didn't have to move. Someone said to her, "I've got this dumpster I'd like to loan to you for your move." Joy said she was overjoyed! She said there was something so exciting about the first thud of the first thing they threw into that dumpster. Then it was all about lots of thuds as they threw away mountains of stuff. They couldn't wait to go get more.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Getting Rid of What You've Hung Onto So Long."
When I asked our friend what was so exciting about having that dumpster, she said, "It was so great getting rid of so much stuff that we'd been hanging onto so long." That's the very feeling that so many people over so many years have experienced when they surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ. They came to the dumpster of God and unloaded so much stuff that they'd been hanging onto so long. It's an experience God wants you to have - even today.
It's an experience vividly described in our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. It begins with bad news about some of the dirty and useless stuff we hang onto. It says, "Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters (that's anyone who lets anything be more important than God in their life) nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers (that's anyone who speaks destructively about another person) nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." Now that is bad news. Our sin leaves us with no human chance of heaven.
OK, fasten your seat belt. Here comes the dumpster of God. "And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified (that means you were made special), you were justified (that means you were made right with God) in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." Because of what Jesus did when He died on the cross, you don't have to be dirty inside for one more day. You can be clean from now on. You don't have to be away from God. You can belong to God if you'll bring all your sin, all your selfishness, all the junk of a life that you've run to the dumpster of God - which is the cross of Jesus Christ! That's where every wrong thing you've ever done was paid for in full by the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
It's stuff you've hung onto so long - including the guilt of it all, the shame, the regrets of what you wish you had done differently. But Jesus took all that on Himself when He died on the cross, and He's waiting to take it from you at the moment you put your total trust in Him to be your personal Savior from your personal sin. It happens the moment you give yourself to Him, turning from that sin and placing your life in His hands. How does it feel? Our friend described the feeling of getting rid of all that junk with one word. She said, "It was so cleansing." That's it. You can be cleansed today!
If that's what you want, please let me send you the little booklet I wrote about beginning this life-saving relationship with Jesus Christ. It's called Yours For Life. I'll send it to you if you'll just let me know you want it. You can go to our website at yoursforlife.net or you can call us toll free at 877-741-1200.
This can be the day that Jesus Christ enters your life; the day that you experience the wonderful relief of getting rid of so much that you've been hanging onto for so long.
To find out how you can begin a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, please visit: yoursforlife.net or call 1-888-966-7325.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Ezekiel 38 and devotions
Ezekiel 38A Prophecy Against Gog 1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 "Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of [a] Meshech and Tubal; prophesy against him 3 and say: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of [b] Meshech and Tubal. 4 I will turn you around, put hooks in your jaws and bring you out with your whole army—your horses, your horsemen fully armed, and a great horde with large and small shields, all of them brandishing their swords. 5 Persia, Cush [c] and Put will be with them, all with shields and helmets, 6 also Gomer with all its troops, and Beth Togarmah from the far north with all its troops—the many nations with you. 7 " 'Get ready; be prepared, you and all the hordes gathered about you, and take command of them. 8 After many days you will be called to arms. In future years you will invade a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate. They had been brought out from the nations, and now all of them live in safety. 9 You and all your troops and the many nations with you will go up, advancing like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land.
10 " 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: On that day thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil scheme. 11 You will say, "I will invade a land of unwalled villages; I will attack a peaceful and unsuspecting people—all of them living without walls and without gates and bars. 12 I will plunder and loot and turn my hand against the resettled ruins and the people gathered from the nations, rich in livestock and goods, living at the center of the land." 13 Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all her villages [d] will say to you, "Have you come to plunder? Have you gathered your hordes to loot, to carry off silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods and to seize much plunder?" '
14 "Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: In that day, when my people Israel are living in safety, will you not take notice of it? 15 You will come from your place in the far north, you and many nations with you, all of them riding on horses, a great horde, a mighty army. 16 You will advance against my people Israel like a cloud that covers the land. In days to come, O Gog, I will bring you against my land, so that the nations may know me when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.
17 " 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Are you not the one I spoke of in former days by my servants the prophets of Israel? At that time they prophesied for years that I would bring you against them. 18 This is what will happen in that day: When Gog attacks the land of Israel, my hot anger will be aroused, declares the Sovereign LORD. 19 In my zeal and fiery wrath I declare that at that time there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. 20 The fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, every creature that moves along the ground, and all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at my presence. The mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will crumble and every wall will fall to the ground. 21 I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Sovereign LORD. Every man's sword will be against his brother. 22 I will execute judgment upon him with plague and bloodshed; I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him. 23 And so I will show my greatness and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.'
Our Daily Bread reading:
Jeremiah 17 1 "Judah's sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars.
2 Even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles [a] beside the spreading trees and on the high hills.
3 My mountain in the land and your [b] wealth and all your treasures I will give away as plunder, together with your high places, because of sin throughout your country.
4 Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know, for you have kindled my anger, and it will burn forever."
5 This is what the LORD says: "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD.
6 He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.
7 "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him.
8 He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."
November 15, 2007
Say No To Self-Help
ODB RADIO: Listen Now Download
READ: Jeremiah 17:1-8
The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped. —Psalm 28:7 About this cover Early in my editorial career in religious publishing, I was responsible for a line of books referred to as “self-help.” The label troubled me because it seemed contrary to everything Christian.
The idea of self-help is popular because it supports the notion that we are in control. In the words of the poem “Invictus”: “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.”
But we’re not! Eventually something happens that reminds us how out-of-control life is, and no self-help book can help us make it right.
Thankfully, Christians are not in the business of self-help. Quite the opposite! To become a Christian requires that we admit our helplessness and acknowledge our total dependence on God. “Without Me, you can do nothing,” said Jesus (John 15:5).
The ancient Israelites were always getting in trouble for trusting human strength rather than God’s (Jer. 17:5). Yet even after their failures, the Lord said, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord” (v.7).
When especially difficult circumstances or strong temptations invade our lives and remind us of our powerlessness, we have an all-powerful God who works on behalf of those who trust Him. —Julie Ackerman Link
No strength of our own, nor goodness we claim;Our trust is all thrown on Jesus’ name:In this our strong tower for safety we hide;The Lord is our power, “The Lord will provide.” —Newton
Whatever does not begin with God will end in failure.
Utmost for my Highest:
November 15, 2007
"What Is That to You?"LISTEN: READ:
Peter . . . said to Jesus, ’But Lord, what about this man?’ Jesus said to him, ’. . . what is that to you? You follow Me’ —John 21:21-22 About this cover One of the hardest lessons to learn comes from our stubborn refusal to refrain from interfering in other people’s lives. It takes a long time to realize the danger of being an amateur providence, that is, interfering with God’s plan for others. You see someone suffering and say, "He will not suffer, and I will make sure that he doesn’t." You put your hand right in front of God’s permissive will to stop it, and then God says, "What is that to you?" Is there stagnation in your spiritual life? Don’t allow it to continue, but get into God’s presence and find out the reason for it. You will possibly find it is because you have been interfering in the life of another— proposing things you had no right to propose, or advising when you had no right to advise. When you do have to give advice to another person, God will advise through you with the direct understanding of His Spirit. Your part is to maintain the right relationship with God so that His discernment can come through you continually for the purpose of blessing someone else.
Most of us live only within the level of consciousness— consciously serving and consciously devoted to God. This shows immaturity and the fact that we’re not yet living the real Christian life. Maturity is produced in the life of a child of God on the unconscious level, until we become so totally surrendered to God that we are not even aware of being used by Him. When we are consciously aware of being used as broken bread and poured-out wine, we have yet another level to reach— a level where all awareness of ourselves and of what God is doing through us is completely eliminated. A saint is never consciously a saint— a saint is consciously dependent on God.
'A Word with You', Ron Hutchcraft:
Emptying the Cage - #5439 Thursday, November 15, 2007
Some years ago I heard about an unusual experiment that some scientists conducted. The scientists wired a cage with low level voltage in the bottom of the cage, they put dogs in it and then they closed the door. They sent a current through. It wasn't enough to harm the dogs but it was enough to inflict some mild pain. You can guess the dog's reaction. They jumped, they barked, they howled. Well, they kept this up several times a day, but the reaction eventually changed. After a while the dogs barely twitched when the current went through the floor of that cage. They had gotten conditioned to it. In fact, the scientists then opened the cage door, sent the current through the floor and not one dog even tried to leave. It's as if they'd given up ever getting away from the pain. One last step in the experiment: they put a dog in the cage who had not been conditioned to the current and they left the door open. Well, they turned on the juice and the new dog knew exactly what to do. He ran right out of the cage followed by all the other dogs!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Emptying the Cage."
One dog knew what it was to be free; he knew where the hope was. But the one who had become conditioned to a hopeless situation didn't even try to leave when he could - until one of his own came into that cage and showed him the way out.
And so it is with some of the people around you. They've been hurt by bad relationships, broken relationships, selfishness, loneliness, betrayal, but they look around and they see everyone else living in the same stress and confusion and emotional hollowness. And they decide this must be the way it is and the way it always will be. Just like those dogs in that cage.
The only way they'll find hope in real life is if one of their own comes into their cage and shows them the way out. Well, that's what Jesus did when He left the shock-free environment of heaven to enter our dirty, pain-wracked cage down here. He came and said, "I am the way, I am the door ... He that follows Me shall never walk in darkness." And we followed Him into the wonderful world outside the cage. Unfortunately, many of us have forgotten the people who are still in there. We work with them, we live around them, and we meet them every day.
When Jesus was on earth, He invaded the lostness of a place called Samaria through a Samaritan woman He met at a well one day. Our word for today from the Word of God, John 4:28, says, "Then leaving her water jar the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 'Come see a man who told me everything I ever did.' Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Jesus because of the woman's testimony." That's the awesome power of one changed life; someone who will go back to his or her own people with the good news that Jesus is the way out.
God's plan for bringing life and hope to the people around you is still the same - a simple message, "Come see a man." Not come see a church, or a religion, or a set of beliefs. It's Jesus - the only one who loved them enough to die for them. And then the other part of the plan is a natural ambassador - one of their own. How is a Samaritan most likely to come to Christ? Through another Samaritan! A teacher through a teacher, a machinist through a machinist, a mother is most likely to come to Christ through another mother, a student through a student. Jesus has assigned you where you are to be His personal representative to that group of people. You're one of them. They'll listen to you. "We are Christ’s ambassadors," the Bible says.
The people you know are accepting a level of life they should never accept. It's more lonely, it's more empty, it's more disappointing, it's more fatal than it was ever meant to be. And Jesus has opened a door that leads out. But they haven't gone through it yet, maybe because no one has come into their cage to lead them out. They don't know it, but they're waiting for you.
10 " 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: On that day thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil scheme. 11 You will say, "I will invade a land of unwalled villages; I will attack a peaceful and unsuspecting people—all of them living without walls and without gates and bars. 12 I will plunder and loot and turn my hand against the resettled ruins and the people gathered from the nations, rich in livestock and goods, living at the center of the land." 13 Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all her villages [d] will say to you, "Have you come to plunder? Have you gathered your hordes to loot, to carry off silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods and to seize much plunder?" '
14 "Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: In that day, when my people Israel are living in safety, will you not take notice of it? 15 You will come from your place in the far north, you and many nations with you, all of them riding on horses, a great horde, a mighty army. 16 You will advance against my people Israel like a cloud that covers the land. In days to come, O Gog, I will bring you against my land, so that the nations may know me when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.
17 " 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Are you not the one I spoke of in former days by my servants the prophets of Israel? At that time they prophesied for years that I would bring you against them. 18 This is what will happen in that day: When Gog attacks the land of Israel, my hot anger will be aroused, declares the Sovereign LORD. 19 In my zeal and fiery wrath I declare that at that time there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. 20 The fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, every creature that moves along the ground, and all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at my presence. The mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will crumble and every wall will fall to the ground. 21 I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Sovereign LORD. Every man's sword will be against his brother. 22 I will execute judgment upon him with plague and bloodshed; I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him. 23 And so I will show my greatness and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.'
Our Daily Bread reading:
Jeremiah 17 1 "Judah's sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars.
2 Even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles [a] beside the spreading trees and on the high hills.
3 My mountain in the land and your [b] wealth and all your treasures I will give away as plunder, together with your high places, because of sin throughout your country.
4 Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know, for you have kindled my anger, and it will burn forever."
5 This is what the LORD says: "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD.
6 He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.
7 "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him.
8 He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."
November 15, 2007
Say No To Self-Help
ODB RADIO: Listen Now Download
READ: Jeremiah 17:1-8
The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped. —Psalm 28:7 About this cover Early in my editorial career in religious publishing, I was responsible for a line of books referred to as “self-help.” The label troubled me because it seemed contrary to everything Christian.
The idea of self-help is popular because it supports the notion that we are in control. In the words of the poem “Invictus”: “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.”
But we’re not! Eventually something happens that reminds us how out-of-control life is, and no self-help book can help us make it right.
Thankfully, Christians are not in the business of self-help. Quite the opposite! To become a Christian requires that we admit our helplessness and acknowledge our total dependence on God. “Without Me, you can do nothing,” said Jesus (John 15:5).
The ancient Israelites were always getting in trouble for trusting human strength rather than God’s (Jer. 17:5). Yet even after their failures, the Lord said, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord” (v.7).
When especially difficult circumstances or strong temptations invade our lives and remind us of our powerlessness, we have an all-powerful God who works on behalf of those who trust Him. —Julie Ackerman Link
No strength of our own, nor goodness we claim;Our trust is all thrown on Jesus’ name:In this our strong tower for safety we hide;The Lord is our power, “The Lord will provide.” —Newton
Whatever does not begin with God will end in failure.
Utmost for my Highest:
November 15, 2007
"What Is That to You?"LISTEN: READ:
Peter . . . said to Jesus, ’But Lord, what about this man?’ Jesus said to him, ’. . . what is that to you? You follow Me’ —John 21:21-22 About this cover One of the hardest lessons to learn comes from our stubborn refusal to refrain from interfering in other people’s lives. It takes a long time to realize the danger of being an amateur providence, that is, interfering with God’s plan for others. You see someone suffering and say, "He will not suffer, and I will make sure that he doesn’t." You put your hand right in front of God’s permissive will to stop it, and then God says, "What is that to you?" Is there stagnation in your spiritual life? Don’t allow it to continue, but get into God’s presence and find out the reason for it. You will possibly find it is because you have been interfering in the life of another— proposing things you had no right to propose, or advising when you had no right to advise. When you do have to give advice to another person, God will advise through you with the direct understanding of His Spirit. Your part is to maintain the right relationship with God so that His discernment can come through you continually for the purpose of blessing someone else.
Most of us live only within the level of consciousness— consciously serving and consciously devoted to God. This shows immaturity and the fact that we’re not yet living the real Christian life. Maturity is produced in the life of a child of God on the unconscious level, until we become so totally surrendered to God that we are not even aware of being used by Him. When we are consciously aware of being used as broken bread and poured-out wine, we have yet another level to reach— a level where all awareness of ourselves and of what God is doing through us is completely eliminated. A saint is never consciously a saint— a saint is consciously dependent on God.
'A Word with You', Ron Hutchcraft:
Emptying the Cage - #5439 Thursday, November 15, 2007
Some years ago I heard about an unusual experiment that some scientists conducted. The scientists wired a cage with low level voltage in the bottom of the cage, they put dogs in it and then they closed the door. They sent a current through. It wasn't enough to harm the dogs but it was enough to inflict some mild pain. You can guess the dog's reaction. They jumped, they barked, they howled. Well, they kept this up several times a day, but the reaction eventually changed. After a while the dogs barely twitched when the current went through the floor of that cage. They had gotten conditioned to it. In fact, the scientists then opened the cage door, sent the current through the floor and not one dog even tried to leave. It's as if they'd given up ever getting away from the pain. One last step in the experiment: they put a dog in the cage who had not been conditioned to the current and they left the door open. Well, they turned on the juice and the new dog knew exactly what to do. He ran right out of the cage followed by all the other dogs!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Emptying the Cage."
One dog knew what it was to be free; he knew where the hope was. But the one who had become conditioned to a hopeless situation didn't even try to leave when he could - until one of his own came into that cage and showed him the way out.
And so it is with some of the people around you. They've been hurt by bad relationships, broken relationships, selfishness, loneliness, betrayal, but they look around and they see everyone else living in the same stress and confusion and emotional hollowness. And they decide this must be the way it is and the way it always will be. Just like those dogs in that cage.
The only way they'll find hope in real life is if one of their own comes into their cage and shows them the way out. Well, that's what Jesus did when He left the shock-free environment of heaven to enter our dirty, pain-wracked cage down here. He came and said, "I am the way, I am the door ... He that follows Me shall never walk in darkness." And we followed Him into the wonderful world outside the cage. Unfortunately, many of us have forgotten the people who are still in there. We work with them, we live around them, and we meet them every day.
When Jesus was on earth, He invaded the lostness of a place called Samaria through a Samaritan woman He met at a well one day. Our word for today from the Word of God, John 4:28, says, "Then leaving her water jar the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 'Come see a man who told me everything I ever did.' Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Jesus because of the woman's testimony." That's the awesome power of one changed life; someone who will go back to his or her own people with the good news that Jesus is the way out.
God's plan for bringing life and hope to the people around you is still the same - a simple message, "Come see a man." Not come see a church, or a religion, or a set of beliefs. It's Jesus - the only one who loved them enough to die for them. And then the other part of the plan is a natural ambassador - one of their own. How is a Samaritan most likely to come to Christ? Through another Samaritan! A teacher through a teacher, a machinist through a machinist, a mother is most likely to come to Christ through another mother, a student through a student. Jesus has assigned you where you are to be His personal representative to that group of people. You're one of them. They'll listen to you. "We are Christ’s ambassadors," the Bible says.
The people you know are accepting a level of life they should never accept. It's more lonely, it's more empty, it's more disappointing, it's more fatal than it was ever meant to be. And Jesus has opened a door that leads out. But they haven't gone through it yet, maybe because no one has come into their cage to lead them out. They don't know it, but they're waiting for you.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Ezekiel 37 and more
Ezekiel 37
The Valley of Dry Bones 1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know." 4 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath [a] enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.' "
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
9 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.' " 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
11 Then he said to me: "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.' 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.' "
One Nation Under One King 15 The word of the LORD came to me: 16 "Son of man, take a stick of wood and write on it, 'Belonging to Judah and the Israelites associated with him.' Then take another stick of wood, and write on it, 'Ephraim's stick, belonging to Joseph and all the house of Israel associated with him.' 17 Join them together into one stick so that they will become one in your hand. 18 "When your countrymen ask you, 'Won't you tell us what you mean by this?' 19 say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am going to take the stick of Joseph—which is in Ephraim's hand—and of the Israelite tribes associated with him, and join it to Judah's stick, making them a single stick of wood, and they will become one in my hand.' 20 Hold before their eyes the sticks you have written on 21 and say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land. 22 I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. There will be one king over all of them and they will never again be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms. 23 They will no longer defile themselves with their idols and vile images or with any of their offenses, for I will save them from all their sinful backsliding, [b] and I will cleanse them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.
24 " 'My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd. They will follow my laws and be careful to keep my decrees. 25 They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children's children will live there forever, and David my servant will be their prince forever. 26 I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put my sanctuary among them forever. 27 My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. 28 Then the nations will know that I the LORD make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them forever.' "
Lamentations 3:19-29
(New International Version)New International Version (NIV)Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
19 I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.
20 I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.
21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
22 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."
25 The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;
26 it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.
28 Let him sit alone in silence, for the LORD has laid it on him.
29 Let him bury his face in the dust— there may yet be hope.
November 14, 2007
Losing A Friend
ODB RADIO: Listen Now Download
READ: Lamentations 3:19-29
Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. —Lamentations 3:22 About this cover When London’s red double-decker Routemaster buses were withdrawn from regular service in December 2005, many people felt they had lost a friend. The Routemasters had provided reliable service for 51 years, and they were popular with Londoners and tourists alike because of their easy jump-on, jump-off rear access. A few of the old buses still run on two Heritage tourist routes, but in the rest of the sprawling city, they’re gone.
Many changes in our lives represent loss, whether as small as the cherished memory of a bus or as large as a destroyed family home, a thwarted dream of success, or the death of a person we’ve deeply loved. In every loss we long for a touch of healing and hope.
The book of Lamentations has been called “the funeral of a city.” In it, Jeremiah mourned the captivity of his people and the destruction of Jerusalem. Yet in the midst of sorrow, there is a celebration of God’s faithfulness: “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I hope in Him!’” (Lam. 3:22-24).
When our hearts hurt because of loss, we can find hope in our Lord, who never changes. —David C. McCasland
Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side;Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;Leave to thy God to order and provide;In every change He faithful will remain. —von Schlegel
When the sunshine of God’s love meets the showers of our sorrow, the rainbow of promise appears.
November 14, 2007
Discovering Divine DesignLISTEN: READ:
As for me, being on the way, the Lord led me . . . —Genesis 24:27 About this cover We should be so one with God that we don’t need to ask continually for guidance. Sanctification means that we are made the children of God. A child’s life is normally obedient, until he chooses disobedience. But as soon as he chooses to disobey, an inherent inner conflict is produced. On the spiritual level, inner conflict is the warning of the Spirit of God. When He warns us in this way, we must stop at once and be renewed in the spirit of our mind to discern God’s will (see Romans 12:2 ). If we are born again by the Spirit of God, our devotion to Him is hindered, or even stopped, by continually asking Him to guide us here and there. ". . . the Lord led me . . ." and on looking back we see the presence of an amazing design. If we are born of God we will see His guiding hand and give Him the credit.
We can all see God in exceptional things, but it requires the growth of spiritual discipline to see God in every detail. Never believe that the so-called random events of life are anything less than God’s appointed order. Be ready to discover His divine designs anywhere and everywhere.
Beware of being obsessed with consistency to your own convictions instead of being devoted to God. If you are a saint and say, "I will never do this or that," in all probability this will be exactly what God will require of you. There was never a more inconsistent being on this earth than our Lord, but He was never inconsistent with His Father. The important consistency in a saint is not to a principle but to the divine life. It is the divine life that continually makes more and more discoveries about the divine mind. It is easier to be an excessive fanatic than it is to be consistently faithful, because God causes an amazing humbling of our religious conceit when we are faithful to Him.
Handling the Overwhelming - #5438 Wednesday, November 14, 2007
When five-year-old Jeremy started school, it was more than he bargained for. It was the second morning of his kindergarten experience. Mom got Jeremy up and started helping him get ready. Then came his question, "Do I have to go back?" Oops! He wasn't counting on an encore. His rationale, "Well, I already went yesterday." His mother told us, "I didn't have the heart to tell him there's twelve more years of this!" Well, he went off to day two, of year one, of twelve more years!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Handling the Overwhelming."
I think Jeremy was feeling overwhelmed, and he sure would have sunk if his mother had tried to explain the educational marathon he has ahead. He has no idea. But Jeremy's going to make it. Hey, look, you did. I did. Not by thinking about twelve years, but by doing that school thing one day at a time.
You've probably gotten over the idea of school being overwhelming, but little Jeremy could never guess that life is a series of challenges that seem overwhelming. School's the least of it. Maybe you're facing one of those right now and it looks huge; a bombardment of responsibilities and it's too much; stressful deadlines, trying to raise your child, trying to make your marriage work, facing a long medical marathon, digging out of that financial pit, or even trying to live your life for Jesus Christ.
Our word for today from the Word of God is from Deuteronomy 7:17. I think it will help. To God's ancient people He says, "You may say to yourselves, these nations are stronger than we are. How can we drive them out? But do not be afraid." They're facing, as they entered the Promised Land, huge walled cities and barbaric tribes - overwhelming obstacles, overwhelming challenges. Verse 22 says, "Do not be terrified by them for the Lord your God is among you, and He's a great and awesome God. The Lord your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little." What hope-giving words! God will win this one with you and for you, but not in one great victory. Jeremy won't be able to get his education cared for in one day, or in one week. It's going to be little by little. And that's God's plan for you to handle the overwhelming - little by little.
Break it into daily chunks - manageable pieces. Have a good day. Let Jesus be the Lord of the undone at the end of that day. Remember, daily is how He promised He would give you His strength. He said, "Your strength will equal your days." There is no strength for Friday when it's Thursday. You've only got Thursday's strength. You run ahead of your strength and you'll sink.
Maybe you've been wondering how you'll ever beat some sin that's been beating you, or how you can carry out your desire to dedicate your whole life to Jesus. Win for one day. You let Jesus be the Lord of that weakness for this one day. Tomorrow you have another twenty-four hour victory. And don't try to dedicate your life to Jesus unless you do it by dedicating each new day. You give Him a day, and then another day, and then the day after that. He'll make a life out of it. The Christian life is the sum total of a thousand little victories a day at a time.
Just like little Jeremy going to school. He doesn't have to worry, and you don't have to worry about all those months and all those years ahead. The secret of handling the overwhelming is to do it little by little. Remember, this is the day the Lord has made!
The Valley of Dry Bones 1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know." 4 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath [a] enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.' "
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
9 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.' " 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
11 Then he said to me: "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.' 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.' "
One Nation Under One King 15 The word of the LORD came to me: 16 "Son of man, take a stick of wood and write on it, 'Belonging to Judah and the Israelites associated with him.' Then take another stick of wood, and write on it, 'Ephraim's stick, belonging to Joseph and all the house of Israel associated with him.' 17 Join them together into one stick so that they will become one in your hand. 18 "When your countrymen ask you, 'Won't you tell us what you mean by this?' 19 say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am going to take the stick of Joseph—which is in Ephraim's hand—and of the Israelite tribes associated with him, and join it to Judah's stick, making them a single stick of wood, and they will become one in my hand.' 20 Hold before their eyes the sticks you have written on 21 and say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land. 22 I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. There will be one king over all of them and they will never again be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms. 23 They will no longer defile themselves with their idols and vile images or with any of their offenses, for I will save them from all their sinful backsliding, [b] and I will cleanse them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.
24 " 'My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd. They will follow my laws and be careful to keep my decrees. 25 They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children's children will live there forever, and David my servant will be their prince forever. 26 I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put my sanctuary among them forever. 27 My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. 28 Then the nations will know that I the LORD make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them forever.' "
Lamentations 3:19-29
(New International Version)New International Version (NIV)Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
19 I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.
20 I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.
21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
22 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."
25 The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;
26 it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.
28 Let him sit alone in silence, for the LORD has laid it on him.
29 Let him bury his face in the dust— there may yet be hope.
November 14, 2007
Losing A Friend
ODB RADIO: Listen Now Download
READ: Lamentations 3:19-29
Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. —Lamentations 3:22 About this cover When London’s red double-decker Routemaster buses were withdrawn from regular service in December 2005, many people felt they had lost a friend. The Routemasters had provided reliable service for 51 years, and they were popular with Londoners and tourists alike because of their easy jump-on, jump-off rear access. A few of the old buses still run on two Heritage tourist routes, but in the rest of the sprawling city, they’re gone.
Many changes in our lives represent loss, whether as small as the cherished memory of a bus or as large as a destroyed family home, a thwarted dream of success, or the death of a person we’ve deeply loved. In every loss we long for a touch of healing and hope.
The book of Lamentations has been called “the funeral of a city.” In it, Jeremiah mourned the captivity of his people and the destruction of Jerusalem. Yet in the midst of sorrow, there is a celebration of God’s faithfulness: “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I hope in Him!’” (Lam. 3:22-24).
When our hearts hurt because of loss, we can find hope in our Lord, who never changes. —David C. McCasland
Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side;Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;Leave to thy God to order and provide;In every change He faithful will remain. —von Schlegel
When the sunshine of God’s love meets the showers of our sorrow, the rainbow of promise appears.
November 14, 2007
Discovering Divine DesignLISTEN: READ:
As for me, being on the way, the Lord led me . . . —Genesis 24:27 About this cover We should be so one with God that we don’t need to ask continually for guidance. Sanctification means that we are made the children of God. A child’s life is normally obedient, until he chooses disobedience. But as soon as he chooses to disobey, an inherent inner conflict is produced. On the spiritual level, inner conflict is the warning of the Spirit of God. When He warns us in this way, we must stop at once and be renewed in the spirit of our mind to discern God’s will (see Romans 12:2 ). If we are born again by the Spirit of God, our devotion to Him is hindered, or even stopped, by continually asking Him to guide us here and there. ". . . the Lord led me . . ." and on looking back we see the presence of an amazing design. If we are born of God we will see His guiding hand and give Him the credit.
We can all see God in exceptional things, but it requires the growth of spiritual discipline to see God in every detail. Never believe that the so-called random events of life are anything less than God’s appointed order. Be ready to discover His divine designs anywhere and everywhere.
Beware of being obsessed with consistency to your own convictions instead of being devoted to God. If you are a saint and say, "I will never do this or that," in all probability this will be exactly what God will require of you. There was never a more inconsistent being on this earth than our Lord, but He was never inconsistent with His Father. The important consistency in a saint is not to a principle but to the divine life. It is the divine life that continually makes more and more discoveries about the divine mind. It is easier to be an excessive fanatic than it is to be consistently faithful, because God causes an amazing humbling of our religious conceit when we are faithful to Him.
Handling the Overwhelming - #5438 Wednesday, November 14, 2007
When five-year-old Jeremy started school, it was more than he bargained for. It was the second morning of his kindergarten experience. Mom got Jeremy up and started helping him get ready. Then came his question, "Do I have to go back?" Oops! He wasn't counting on an encore. His rationale, "Well, I already went yesterday." His mother told us, "I didn't have the heart to tell him there's twelve more years of this!" Well, he went off to day two, of year one, of twelve more years!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Handling the Overwhelming."
I think Jeremy was feeling overwhelmed, and he sure would have sunk if his mother had tried to explain the educational marathon he has ahead. He has no idea. But Jeremy's going to make it. Hey, look, you did. I did. Not by thinking about twelve years, but by doing that school thing one day at a time.
You've probably gotten over the idea of school being overwhelming, but little Jeremy could never guess that life is a series of challenges that seem overwhelming. School's the least of it. Maybe you're facing one of those right now and it looks huge; a bombardment of responsibilities and it's too much; stressful deadlines, trying to raise your child, trying to make your marriage work, facing a long medical marathon, digging out of that financial pit, or even trying to live your life for Jesus Christ.
Our word for today from the Word of God is from Deuteronomy 7:17. I think it will help. To God's ancient people He says, "You may say to yourselves, these nations are stronger than we are. How can we drive them out? But do not be afraid." They're facing, as they entered the Promised Land, huge walled cities and barbaric tribes - overwhelming obstacles, overwhelming challenges. Verse 22 says, "Do not be terrified by them for the Lord your God is among you, and He's a great and awesome God. The Lord your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little." What hope-giving words! God will win this one with you and for you, but not in one great victory. Jeremy won't be able to get his education cared for in one day, or in one week. It's going to be little by little. And that's God's plan for you to handle the overwhelming - little by little.
Break it into daily chunks - manageable pieces. Have a good day. Let Jesus be the Lord of the undone at the end of that day. Remember, daily is how He promised He would give you His strength. He said, "Your strength will equal your days." There is no strength for Friday when it's Thursday. You've only got Thursday's strength. You run ahead of your strength and you'll sink.
Maybe you've been wondering how you'll ever beat some sin that's been beating you, or how you can carry out your desire to dedicate your whole life to Jesus. Win for one day. You let Jesus be the Lord of that weakness for this one day. Tomorrow you have another twenty-four hour victory. And don't try to dedicate your life to Jesus unless you do it by dedicating each new day. You give Him a day, and then another day, and then the day after that. He'll make a life out of it. The Christian life is the sum total of a thousand little victories a day at a time.
Just like little Jeremy going to school. He doesn't have to worry, and you don't have to worry about all those months and all those years ahead. The secret of handling the overwhelming is to do it little by little. Remember, this is the day the Lord has made!
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