Max Lucado Daily: God’s Love
God’s Love
Posted: 22 Dec 2010 10:01 PM PST
Nothing..in the whole world will ever be able to separate us from the love of God. Romans 5:39
Even after generations of people had spit in His face, God still loved them. After a nation of chosen ones had stripped Him naked and ripped His incarnated flesh, He still died for them. And even today, after billions have chosen to prostitute themselves before the pimps of power, fame, and wealth, He still waits for them…
Only God could love like that.
Genesis 48
Manasseh and Ephraim
1 Some time later Joseph was told, “Your father is ill.” So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim along with him. 2 When Jacob was told, “Your son Joseph has come to you,” Israel rallied his strength and sat up on the bed.
3 Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed me 4 and said to me, ‘I am going to make you fruitful and increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you.’
5 “Now then, your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here will be reckoned as mine; Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine. 6 Any children born to you after them will be yours; in the territory they inherit they will be reckoned under the names of their brothers. 7 As I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan while we were still on the way, a little distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem).
8 When Israel saw the sons of Joseph, he asked, “Who are these?”
9 “They are the sons God has given me here,” Joseph said to his father.
Then Israel said, “Bring them to me so I may bless them.”
10 Now Israel’s eyes were failing because of old age, and he could hardly see. So Joseph brought his sons close to him, and his father kissed them and embraced them.
11 Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your children too.”
12 Then Joseph removed them from Israel’s knees and bowed down with his face to the ground. 13 And Joseph took both of them, Ephraim on his right toward Israel’s left hand and Manasseh on his left toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them close to him. 14 But Israel reached out his right hand and put it on Ephraim’s head, though he was the younger, and crossing his arms, he put his left hand on Manasseh’s head, even though Manasseh was the firstborn.
15 Then he blessed Joseph and said,
“May the God before whom my fathers
Abraham and Isaac walked faithfully,
the God who has been my shepherd
all my life to this day,
16 the Angel who has delivered me from all harm
—may he bless these boys.
May they be called by my name
and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac,
and may they increase greatly
on the earth.”
17 When Joseph saw his father placing his right hand on Ephraim’s head he was displeased; so he took hold of his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. 18 Joseph said to him, “No, my father, this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.”
19 But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He too will become a people, and he too will become great. Nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become a group of nations.” 20 He blessed them that day and said,
“In your name will Israel pronounce this blessing:
‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’”
So he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh.
21 Then Israel said to Joseph, “I am about to die, but God will be with you and take you back to the land of your fathers. 22 And to you I give one more ridge of land than to your brothers, the ridge I took from the Amorites with my sword and my bow.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: John 1:10-18
John 1:10-18 (NIV)Jn 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-- 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.'" 16 From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.
Christmas—God’s Cure
December 23, 2010 — by C. P. Hia
Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. —John 1:17
If your physician called you and in a serious voice said, “Please come in as soon as you can. I have something to discuss with you,” you would know he has bad news! Your first response might be, “No, I don’t want to know.” But you go because it is only when you know the diagnosis that you can learn the cure.
God, our Great Physician, also has some bad news—about man’s spiritual condition. When against His expressed warning Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, God told Adam that all mankind would die spiritually and physically. That’s the bad news.
But He also gave the solution. He promised a Savior (Gen. 3:15). The apostle John tells us, “Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). But how does that help? Jesus came that first Christmas to bring God’s grace, something that none of us deserve because like Adam we have all sinned. But Jesus also came to reverse what sin brought. He came to be the truth (John 14:6) that would bring us back to God. He came to “save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21).
Listen to what the Great Physician has to say in the Bible about your spiritual condition. Then accept the cure He has provided—the gift of salvation through Christ.
Life is uncertain,
Death is sure;
Sin the cause,
Christ the cure. —Anon.
Spiritual blindness can be cured only by the Great Physician.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 23rd, 2010
Sharing in the Atonement
God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . —Galatians 6:14
The gospel of Jesus Christ always forces a decision of our will. Have I accepted God’s verdict on sin as judged on the Cross of Christ? Do I have even the slightest interest in the death of Jesus? Do I want to be identified with His death— to be completely dead to all interest in sin, worldliness, and self? Do I long to be so closely identified with Jesus that I am of no value for anything except Him and His purposes? The great privilege of discipleship is that I can commit myself under the banner of His Cross, and that means death to sin. You must get alone with Jesus and either decide to tell Him that you do not want sin to die out in you, or that at any cost you want to be identified with His death. When you act in confident faith in what our Lord did on the cross, a supernatural identification with His death takes place immediately. And you will come to know through a higher knowledge that your old life was “crucified with Him” (Romans 6:6). The proof that your old life is dead, having been “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20), is the amazing ease with which the life of God in you now enables you to obey the voice of Jesus Christ.
Every once in a while our Lord gives us a glimpse of what we would be like if it were not for Him. This is a confirmation of what He said— “. . . without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). That is why the underlying foundation of Christianity is personal, passionate devotion to the Lord Jesus. We mistake the joy of our first introduction into God’s kingdom as His purpose for getting us there. Yet God’s purpose in getting us into His kingdom is that we may realize all that identification with Jesus Christ means.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Radical Christmas Victory Plan - #6249
Thursday, December 23, 2010
There's something very special about having a new baby in the family at Christmastime - since it's really all about a baby. And this past Christmas, we had the joy of celebrating with our brand new granddaughter. Well, she didn't actually do much celebrating - she really didn't do much of anything except lie there and look irresistible. Now, in my head, I know that babies are helpless, but being around one for a little while really brings that home. Our little darlin' couldn't eat unless Mommy fed her. She couldn't burp unless someone burped her (that's something that some of us grew up and learned to be quite good at). Our baby couldn't move unless someone moved her; her little hands sort of flailed around - absolutely no ability to control what they did. Helpless.
Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Radical Christmas Victory Plan."
Now try to get your mind around this: the helpless hands of that little Jewish baby Mary was holding in the manger were the hands that created the galaxies! The Son of God, the second Person of the Godhead, the One of whom the Bible says, "Through Him all things were made" (John 1:3 ). He comes to our planet in a helpless little package that basically can do nothing for Himself. Omnipotence becomes helpless to rescue a world full of dying people. As one song says, "What a strange way to save the world."
Get used to it. It seems to be God's favorite modus operandi. And this radical victory plan - use the weak to do amazing things - can be both an encouragement to you and an explanation for some of your recent struggles. Let's go to our word for today from the Word of God to see the story of that first Christmas from heaven's viewpoint. Philippians 2 , beginning with verse 5, tells us that our attitude "should be the same as that of Christ Jesus."
God goes on to explain that, though Jesus was "in very nature God," He "made Himself nothing" - now picture that helpless, little infant in a cattle stall - "taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness...He humbled Himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!" The great plan of God to redeem our world starts with Jesus as a helpless baby in a cattle stall and culminates with Him nailed to a criminal's cross. But Colossians 2:15 announces the crushing triumph won by that "weakness" - it says Jesus disarmed the princes of hell and "made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross!" And Michael Card says, "His most awesome work was done through the frailty of His Son!" God loves to win through weakness. Then it's a whole lot of God, and hardly any of us.
That's why He chooses unlikely candidates and does mighty things through them - which means your inadequacy and ordinariness may be exactly what qualifies you to be a spiritual hero. According to Jesus, who is it that will "inherit the earth?" The mighty? No - the meek (Matthew 5:3 ). And about the struggles you've been going through recently. God will do whatever it takes to help us realize our weakness - to break our death grip on the steering wheel and to finally let Him drive - to break that stubborn pride of ours, the self-reliance, our need to control. All so we can finally surrender and let His strength come flooding in. Maybe the battles you've been going through have been to take you beyond yourself and beyond things you can fix, you can solve, or you can figure out - so you'll get out of the way and let God do what only He can do.
A baby wrapped in rags - a bloodied man, hanging on a cross. Vivid pictures of God's radical plan for victory - winning through weakness so everyone will know that the Lord is God!
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Genesis 47, Bible reading and Daily Devotions
Max Lucado Daily: Don’t Miss the Messiah
Don’t Miss the Messiah
Posted: 21 Dec 2010 10:01 PM PST
Happy are the people…who walk, O Lord, in the light of your countenance. Psalm 89:15, NRSV
Jesus didn’t fit the Jews’ notion of a Messiah, and so, rather than change their notion, they dismissed him…
They expected lights and kings and chariots from heaven. What they got was sandals and sermons and a Galilean accent.
And so, some missed him. And so, some miss him still.
Genesis 47
1 Joseph went and told Pharaoh, “My father and brothers, with their flocks and herds and everything they own, have come from the land of Canaan and are now in Goshen.” 2 He chose five of his brothers and presented them before Pharaoh.
3 Pharaoh asked the brothers, “What is your occupation?”
“Your servants are shepherds,” they replied to Pharaoh, “just as our fathers were.” 4 They also said to him, “We have come to live here for a while, because the famine is severe in Canaan and your servants’ flocks have no pasture. So now, please let your servants settle in Goshen.”
5 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you, 6 and the land of Egypt is before you; settle your father and your brothers in the best part of the land. Let them live in Goshen. And if you know of any among them with special ability, put them in charge of my own livestock.”
7 Then Joseph brought his father Jacob in and presented him before Pharaoh. After Jacob blessed Pharaoh, 8 Pharaoh asked him, “How old are you?”
9 And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty. My years have been few and difficult, and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers.” 10 Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from his presence.
11 So Joseph settled his father and his brothers in Egypt and gave them property in the best part of the land, the district of Rameses, as Pharaoh directed. 12 Joseph also provided his father and his brothers and all his father’s household with food, according to the number of their children.
Joseph and the Famine
13 There was no food, however, in the whole region because the famine was severe; both Egypt and Canaan wasted away because of the famine. 14 Joseph collected all the money that was to be found in Egypt and Canaan in payment for the grain they were buying, and he brought it to Pharaoh’s palace. 15 When the money of the people of Egypt and Canaan was gone, all Egypt came to Joseph and said, “Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? Our money is all gone.”
16 “Then bring your livestock,” said Joseph. “I will sell you food in exchange for your livestock, since your money is gone.” 17 So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for their horses, their sheep and goats, their cattle and donkeys. And he brought them through that year with food in exchange for all their livestock.
18 When that year was over, they came to him the following year and said, “We cannot hide from our lord the fact that since our money is gone and our livestock belongs to you, there is nothing left for our lord except our bodies and our land. 19 Why should we perish before your eyes—we and our land as well? Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we with our land will be in bondage to Pharaoh. Give us seed so that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become desolate.”
20 So Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh. The Egyptians, one and all, sold their fields, because the famine was too severe for them. The land became Pharaoh’s, 21 and Joseph reduced the people to servitude, from one end of Egypt to the other. 22 However, he did not buy the land of the priests, because they received a regular allotment from Pharaoh and had food enough from the allotment Pharaoh gave them. That is why they did not sell their land.
23 Joseph said to the people, “Now that I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh, here is seed for you so you can plant the ground. 24 But when the crop comes in, give a fifth of it to Pharaoh. The other four-fifths you may keep as seed for the fields and as food for yourselves and your households and your children.”
25 “You have saved our lives,” they said. “May we find favor in the eyes of our lord; we will be in bondage to Pharaoh.”
26 So Joseph established it as a law concerning land in Egypt—still in force today—that a fifth of the produce belongs to Pharaoh. It was only the land of the priests that did not become Pharaoh’s.
27 Now the Israelites settled in Egypt in the region of Goshen. They acquired property there and were fruitful and increased greatly in number.
28 Jacob lived in Egypt seventeen years, and the years of his life were a hundred and forty-seven. 29 When the time drew near for Israel to die, he called for his son Joseph and said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise that you will show me kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt, 30 but when I rest with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me where they are buried.”
“I will do as you say,” he said.
31 “Swear to me,” he said. Then Joseph swore to him, and Israel worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Isaiah 42:1-7
1 "Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations.
2 He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets.
3 A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
4 he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his law the islands will put their hope."
5 This is what God the Lord says-- he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it:
6 "I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles,
7 to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.
Eye Level To A Bulldog
December 22, 2010 — by Mart De Haan
I, the Lord, have called You . . . to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house. —Isaiah 42:6-7
My son and his wife have a 120- pound American bulldog with a powerful body and fearsome face. Yet until we became friends, “Buddy” wasn’t sure he could trust me. As long as I was on my feet, he’d keep his distance and wouldn’t look me in the eye. Then one day I learned that if I’d get down on the ground, the mood of Buddy’s big-jowled face would change. Sensing I was no longer a threat, he’d playfully come running like a freight train, pounce on me with his big feet, and want me to scratch his muscular neck.
Maybe what Buddy needed from me is a glimmer of what our God gave us by coming down to our level and living among us in the person of Christ. From the day that our first parents sinned and hid from the presence of the Lord, our tendency has been to be afraid of coming to a high and holy God on His terms (John 3:20).
So, as Isaiah predicted, God showed how low He was willing to go to bring us to Himself. By adopting the form of a lowly servant, our Creator lived and died to disarm our wrongs. Even now He is coaxing us from the cover of our spiritual darkness (Isa. 42:7) to call us friends (John 15:15). How can we still be afraid to trust Him?
Lord, thank You that You stepped out of heaven
and came down to this earth, that You clothed Yourself
in human flesh. We’re grateful that we can now draw
near to You, even though we’re sinful. Amen.
The high and holy One became the meek and lowly One.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 22nd, 2010
The Drawing of the Father
No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him . . . —John 6:44
When God begins to draw me to Himself, the problem of my will comes in immediately. Will I react positively to the truth that God has revealed? Will I come to Him? To discuss or deliberate over spiritual matters when God calls is inappropriate and disrespectful to Him. When God speaks, never discuss it with anyone as if to decide what your response may be (see Galatians 1:15-16). Belief is not the result of an intellectual act, but the result of an act of my will whereby I deliberately commit myself. But will I commit, placing myself completely and absolutely on God, and be willing to act solely on what He says? If I will, I will find that I am grounded on reality as certain as God’s throne.
In preaching the gospel, always focus on the matter of the will. Belief must come from the will to believe. There must be a surrender of the will, not a surrender to a persuasive or powerful argument. I must deliberately step out, placing my faith in God and in His truth. And I must place no confidence in my own works, but only in God. Trusting in my own mental understanding becomes a hindrance to complete trust in God. I must be willing to ignore and leave my feelings behind. I must will to believe. But this can never be accomplished without my forceful, determined effort to separate myself from my old ways of looking at things. I must surrender myself completely to God.
Everyone has been created with the ability to reach out beyond his own grasp. But it is God who draws me, and my relationship to Him in the first place is an inner, personal one, not an intellectual one. I come into the relationship through the miracle of God and through my own will to believe. Then I begin to get an intelligent appreciation and understanding of the wonder of the transformation in my life.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Gift You Don't Want to Ruin - #6248
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Our friend told us that her youngest child, Ralphie, was like "Mr. Christmas" at their house. Very early every Christmas morning, he was everyone's alarm clock to get up and get going on those presents. That's what made this one Christmas so strange. Two weeks earlier, Ralphie was doing a little exploring in the closets while his parents were gone, and he found where they had hidden their presents! He couldn't resist. He opened this one bag and he saw the major gift they had bought him. And then came Christmas. Everyone slept later than they ever had on a Christmas morning because Ralphie didn't get up. Everyone was waiting impatiently around the Christmas tree, so Dad called up the stairs, "Ralphie, are you coming?" "Yeah," Ralphie replied. All the other kids were psyched as they opened their gifts. Not Ralphie. He opened his with little emotion, sort of a halfhearted thanks. Dad took him aside and said, "Ralphie, are you sick, man? You're always Mr. Christmas around here!" Ralphie explained why his "joy to the world" had gone. "Dad, the problem is I opened my gift early, and I ruined Christmas."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Gift You Don't Want to Ruin."
Poor Ralphie! He opened his gift before he should have and he ruined Christmas. It's that kind of heartache that God is trying to protect us from when He tells us to wait to open one of the most beautiful gifts He's given us - the gift of our sexual love to the person we love enough to spend our life with. He tells us to wait for marriage, to keep it inside marriage, not to keep us from enjoying it, but to keep us from ruining it.
God, who invented sex, says, "Marriage is to be honored by all and the marriage bed kept pure" (Hebrews 13:4 ). Your wedding night and all your nights of married love, are meant to be the "Christmas" when you open your gift for one person and only one person. That's where the passion, the fulfillment, the excitement comes from; an exclusive gift that you've saved for only one person...the person you love enough to spend your life with. Anything you do with anyone else costs you the excitement of that exclusivity.
In our word for today from the Word of God, He gives us a clear blueprint for sex and love at its best. In 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4 , He says, "It is God's will that you should be sanctified (that means 'kept special'); that you should avoid sexual immorality (now, that's sex outside the divine fence of marriage); that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable." Okay, now notice the two-step action plan for not ruining your gift.
First, you avoid every wrong use of sex. Don't allow yourself to get in situations or to the point where you might be tempted to give it away. Avoid it, don't flirt with it.
Secondly, control your body; don't let it control you. That means pacing yourself physically, not letting your passions start running fast and then suddenly trying to throw on the brakes. Control the desires that could carry you over the edge of an irreversible sexual mistake.
See, God really cares about what you do with your love. He cares that you experience all the love He's planned for you; most of all, His love. If you've given away sexually what never should have been given, God has two hope-giving words for you: "clean" and "renewed." The Bible says, "The blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin." (1 John 1:7 ) The sin you're most ashamed of, even the sin you think He won't forgive, was paid for when Jesus died on the cross. The day you bring your sin to Him and trust Him to be your Forgiver, your Savior, He erases every sin you've ever done from God's Book. And He begins to renew your emotional and spiritual purity.
Don't let your sin keep you from Jesus. Let it drive you to Jesus, who died to forgive that sin and change you. Look, if you want to know Him in this kind of love relationship, tell Him that today. And if you'd like to be sure just how to get started with Jesus, go to our website, check out my brief explanation there, of how to begin that relationship. The website is yoursforlife.net.
God wants to make you clean, wants to make you new, and He wants you to have His very best. When you give Him your life, you get love without strings and you get love without regrets.
Don’t Miss the Messiah
Posted: 21 Dec 2010 10:01 PM PST
Happy are the people…who walk, O Lord, in the light of your countenance. Psalm 89:15, NRSV
Jesus didn’t fit the Jews’ notion of a Messiah, and so, rather than change their notion, they dismissed him…
They expected lights and kings and chariots from heaven. What they got was sandals and sermons and a Galilean accent.
And so, some missed him. And so, some miss him still.
Genesis 47
1 Joseph went and told Pharaoh, “My father and brothers, with their flocks and herds and everything they own, have come from the land of Canaan and are now in Goshen.” 2 He chose five of his brothers and presented them before Pharaoh.
3 Pharaoh asked the brothers, “What is your occupation?”
“Your servants are shepherds,” they replied to Pharaoh, “just as our fathers were.” 4 They also said to him, “We have come to live here for a while, because the famine is severe in Canaan and your servants’ flocks have no pasture. So now, please let your servants settle in Goshen.”
5 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you, 6 and the land of Egypt is before you; settle your father and your brothers in the best part of the land. Let them live in Goshen. And if you know of any among them with special ability, put them in charge of my own livestock.”
7 Then Joseph brought his father Jacob in and presented him before Pharaoh. After Jacob blessed Pharaoh, 8 Pharaoh asked him, “How old are you?”
9 And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty. My years have been few and difficult, and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers.” 10 Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from his presence.
11 So Joseph settled his father and his brothers in Egypt and gave them property in the best part of the land, the district of Rameses, as Pharaoh directed. 12 Joseph also provided his father and his brothers and all his father’s household with food, according to the number of their children.
Joseph and the Famine
13 There was no food, however, in the whole region because the famine was severe; both Egypt and Canaan wasted away because of the famine. 14 Joseph collected all the money that was to be found in Egypt and Canaan in payment for the grain they were buying, and he brought it to Pharaoh’s palace. 15 When the money of the people of Egypt and Canaan was gone, all Egypt came to Joseph and said, “Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? Our money is all gone.”
16 “Then bring your livestock,” said Joseph. “I will sell you food in exchange for your livestock, since your money is gone.” 17 So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for their horses, their sheep and goats, their cattle and donkeys. And he brought them through that year with food in exchange for all their livestock.
18 When that year was over, they came to him the following year and said, “We cannot hide from our lord the fact that since our money is gone and our livestock belongs to you, there is nothing left for our lord except our bodies and our land. 19 Why should we perish before your eyes—we and our land as well? Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we with our land will be in bondage to Pharaoh. Give us seed so that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become desolate.”
20 So Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh. The Egyptians, one and all, sold their fields, because the famine was too severe for them. The land became Pharaoh’s, 21 and Joseph reduced the people to servitude, from one end of Egypt to the other. 22 However, he did not buy the land of the priests, because they received a regular allotment from Pharaoh and had food enough from the allotment Pharaoh gave them. That is why they did not sell their land.
23 Joseph said to the people, “Now that I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh, here is seed for you so you can plant the ground. 24 But when the crop comes in, give a fifth of it to Pharaoh. The other four-fifths you may keep as seed for the fields and as food for yourselves and your households and your children.”
25 “You have saved our lives,” they said. “May we find favor in the eyes of our lord; we will be in bondage to Pharaoh.”
26 So Joseph established it as a law concerning land in Egypt—still in force today—that a fifth of the produce belongs to Pharaoh. It was only the land of the priests that did not become Pharaoh’s.
27 Now the Israelites settled in Egypt in the region of Goshen. They acquired property there and were fruitful and increased greatly in number.
28 Jacob lived in Egypt seventeen years, and the years of his life were a hundred and forty-seven. 29 When the time drew near for Israel to die, he called for his son Joseph and said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise that you will show me kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt, 30 but when I rest with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me where they are buried.”
“I will do as you say,” he said.
31 “Swear to me,” he said. Then Joseph swore to him, and Israel worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Isaiah 42:1-7
1 "Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations.
2 He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets.
3 A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
4 he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his law the islands will put their hope."
5 This is what God the Lord says-- he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it:
6 "I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles,
7 to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.
Eye Level To A Bulldog
December 22, 2010 — by Mart De Haan
I, the Lord, have called You . . . to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house. —Isaiah 42:6-7
My son and his wife have a 120- pound American bulldog with a powerful body and fearsome face. Yet until we became friends, “Buddy” wasn’t sure he could trust me. As long as I was on my feet, he’d keep his distance and wouldn’t look me in the eye. Then one day I learned that if I’d get down on the ground, the mood of Buddy’s big-jowled face would change. Sensing I was no longer a threat, he’d playfully come running like a freight train, pounce on me with his big feet, and want me to scratch his muscular neck.
Maybe what Buddy needed from me is a glimmer of what our God gave us by coming down to our level and living among us in the person of Christ. From the day that our first parents sinned and hid from the presence of the Lord, our tendency has been to be afraid of coming to a high and holy God on His terms (John 3:20).
So, as Isaiah predicted, God showed how low He was willing to go to bring us to Himself. By adopting the form of a lowly servant, our Creator lived and died to disarm our wrongs. Even now He is coaxing us from the cover of our spiritual darkness (Isa. 42:7) to call us friends (John 15:15). How can we still be afraid to trust Him?
Lord, thank You that You stepped out of heaven
and came down to this earth, that You clothed Yourself
in human flesh. We’re grateful that we can now draw
near to You, even though we’re sinful. Amen.
The high and holy One became the meek and lowly One.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 22nd, 2010
The Drawing of the Father
No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him . . . —John 6:44
When God begins to draw me to Himself, the problem of my will comes in immediately. Will I react positively to the truth that God has revealed? Will I come to Him? To discuss or deliberate over spiritual matters when God calls is inappropriate and disrespectful to Him. When God speaks, never discuss it with anyone as if to decide what your response may be (see Galatians 1:15-16). Belief is not the result of an intellectual act, but the result of an act of my will whereby I deliberately commit myself. But will I commit, placing myself completely and absolutely on God, and be willing to act solely on what He says? If I will, I will find that I am grounded on reality as certain as God’s throne.
In preaching the gospel, always focus on the matter of the will. Belief must come from the will to believe. There must be a surrender of the will, not a surrender to a persuasive or powerful argument. I must deliberately step out, placing my faith in God and in His truth. And I must place no confidence in my own works, but only in God. Trusting in my own mental understanding becomes a hindrance to complete trust in God. I must be willing to ignore and leave my feelings behind. I must will to believe. But this can never be accomplished without my forceful, determined effort to separate myself from my old ways of looking at things. I must surrender myself completely to God.
Everyone has been created with the ability to reach out beyond his own grasp. But it is God who draws me, and my relationship to Him in the first place is an inner, personal one, not an intellectual one. I come into the relationship through the miracle of God and through my own will to believe. Then I begin to get an intelligent appreciation and understanding of the wonder of the transformation in my life.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Gift You Don't Want to Ruin - #6248
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Our friend told us that her youngest child, Ralphie, was like "Mr. Christmas" at their house. Very early every Christmas morning, he was everyone's alarm clock to get up and get going on those presents. That's what made this one Christmas so strange. Two weeks earlier, Ralphie was doing a little exploring in the closets while his parents were gone, and he found where they had hidden their presents! He couldn't resist. He opened this one bag and he saw the major gift they had bought him. And then came Christmas. Everyone slept later than they ever had on a Christmas morning because Ralphie didn't get up. Everyone was waiting impatiently around the Christmas tree, so Dad called up the stairs, "Ralphie, are you coming?" "Yeah," Ralphie replied. All the other kids were psyched as they opened their gifts. Not Ralphie. He opened his with little emotion, sort of a halfhearted thanks. Dad took him aside and said, "Ralphie, are you sick, man? You're always Mr. Christmas around here!" Ralphie explained why his "joy to the world" had gone. "Dad, the problem is I opened my gift early, and I ruined Christmas."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Gift You Don't Want to Ruin."
Poor Ralphie! He opened his gift before he should have and he ruined Christmas. It's that kind of heartache that God is trying to protect us from when He tells us to wait to open one of the most beautiful gifts He's given us - the gift of our sexual love to the person we love enough to spend our life with. He tells us to wait for marriage, to keep it inside marriage, not to keep us from enjoying it, but to keep us from ruining it.
God, who invented sex, says, "Marriage is to be honored by all and the marriage bed kept pure" (Hebrews 13:4 ). Your wedding night and all your nights of married love, are meant to be the "Christmas" when you open your gift for one person and only one person. That's where the passion, the fulfillment, the excitement comes from; an exclusive gift that you've saved for only one person...the person you love enough to spend your life with. Anything you do with anyone else costs you the excitement of that exclusivity.
In our word for today from the Word of God, He gives us a clear blueprint for sex and love at its best. In 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4 , He says, "It is God's will that you should be sanctified (that means 'kept special'); that you should avoid sexual immorality (now, that's sex outside the divine fence of marriage); that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable." Okay, now notice the two-step action plan for not ruining your gift.
First, you avoid every wrong use of sex. Don't allow yourself to get in situations or to the point where you might be tempted to give it away. Avoid it, don't flirt with it.
Secondly, control your body; don't let it control you. That means pacing yourself physically, not letting your passions start running fast and then suddenly trying to throw on the brakes. Control the desires that could carry you over the edge of an irreversible sexual mistake.
See, God really cares about what you do with your love. He cares that you experience all the love He's planned for you; most of all, His love. If you've given away sexually what never should have been given, God has two hope-giving words for you: "clean" and "renewed." The Bible says, "The blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin." (1 John 1:7 ) The sin you're most ashamed of, even the sin you think He won't forgive, was paid for when Jesus died on the cross. The day you bring your sin to Him and trust Him to be your Forgiver, your Savior, He erases every sin you've ever done from God's Book. And He begins to renew your emotional and spiritual purity.
Don't let your sin keep you from Jesus. Let it drive you to Jesus, who died to forgive that sin and change you. Look, if you want to know Him in this kind of love relationship, tell Him that today. And if you'd like to be sure just how to get started with Jesus, go to our website, check out my brief explanation there, of how to begin that relationship. The website is yoursforlife.net.
God wants to make you clean, wants to make you new, and He wants you to have His very best. When you give Him your life, you get love without strings and you get love without regrets.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Genesis 46, Bible reading and Daily Devotions
Max Lucado Daily: Have Faith
Have Faith
Posted: 20 Dec 2010 10:01 PM PST
If your faith is as big as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move. Matthew 17:20
Don’t measure the size of the mountain; talk to the One who can move it. Instead of carrying the world on your shoulders, talk to the One who holds the universe on his.
Hope is a look away.
Genesis 46
Jacob Goes to Egypt
1 So Israel set out with all that was his, and when he reached Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.
2 And God spoke to Israel in a vision at night and said, “Jacob! Jacob!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
3 “I am God, the God of your father,” he said. “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. 4 I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again. And Joseph’s own hand will close your eyes.”
5 Then Jacob left Beersheba, and Israel’s sons took their father Jacob and their children and their wives in the carts that Pharaoh had sent to transport him. 6 So Jacob and all his offspring went to Egypt, taking with them their livestock and the possessions they had acquired in Canaan. 7 Jacob brought with him to Egypt his sons and grandsons and his daughters and granddaughters—all his offspring.
8 These are the names of the sons of Israel (Jacob and his descendants) who went to Egypt:
Reuben the firstborn of Jacob.
9 The sons of Reuben:
Hanok, Pallu, Hezron and Karmi.
10 The sons of Simeon:
Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jakin, Zohar and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman.
11 The sons of Levi:
Gershon, Kohath and Merari.
12 The sons of Judah:
Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez and Zerah (but Er and Onan had died in the land of Canaan).
The sons of Perez:
Hezron and Hamul.
13 The sons of Issachar:
Tola, Puah, Jashub and Shimron.
14 The sons of Zebulun:
Sered, Elon and Jahleel.
15 These were the sons Leah bore to Jacob in Paddan Aram, besides his daughter Dinah. These sons and daughters of his were thirty-three in all.
16 The sons of Gad:
Zephon, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi and Areli.
17 The sons of Asher:
Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi and Beriah.
Their sister was Serah.
The sons of Beriah:
Heber and Malkiel.
18 These were the children born to Jacob by Zilpah, whom Laban had given to his daughter Leah—sixteen in all.
19 The sons of Jacob’s wife Rachel:
Joseph and Benjamin. 20 In Egypt, Manasseh and Ephraim were born to Joseph by Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On.
21 The sons of Benjamin:
Bela, Beker, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim and Ard.
22 These were the sons of Rachel who were born to Jacob—fourteen in all.
23 The son of Dan:
Hushim.
24 The sons of Naphtali:
Jahziel, Guni, Jezer and Shillem.
25 These were the sons born to Jacob by Bilhah, whom Laban had given to his daughter Rachel—seven in all.
26 All those who went to Egypt with Jacob—those who were his direct descendants, not counting his sons’ wives—numbered sixty-six persons. 27 With the two sons who had been born to Joseph in Egypt, the members of Jacob’s family, which went to Egypt, were seventy in all.
28 Now Jacob sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to get directions to Goshen. When they arrived in the region of Goshen, 29 Joseph had his chariot made ready and went to Goshen to meet his father Israel. As soon as Joseph appeared before him, he threw his arms around his father and wept for a long time.
30 Israel said to Joseph, “Now I am ready to die, since I have seen for myself that you are still alive.”
31 Then Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household, “I will go up and speak to Pharaoh and will say to him, ‘My brothers and my father’s household, who were living in the land of Canaan, have come to me. 32 The men are shepherds; they tend livestock, and they have brought along their flocks and herds and everything they own.’ 33 When Pharaoh calls you in and asks, ‘What is your occupation?’ 34 you should answer, ‘Your servants have tended livestock from our boyhood on, just as our fathers did.’ Then you will be allowed to settle in the region of Goshen, for all shepherds are detestable to the Egyptians.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Luke 2:1-7
Luke 2:1-7 (NIV)Lk 1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to his own town to register. 4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Parallel Universes
December 21, 2010 — by Philip Yancey
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men! —Luke 2:14
Every so often I catch myself wondering about the whole grand scheme of faith. I stand in an airport, for example, watching important-looking people in business suits, briefcases clutched to their sides, as they pause at an espresso bar before scurrying off to another concourse. Do any of them ever think about God? I wonder.
Christians share an odd belief in parallel universes. One universe consists of glass and steel and wool clothes and leather briefcases and the smell of freshly ground coffee. The other consists of angels and spiritual forces and somewhere-out-there places called heaven and hell. We palpably inhabit the material world; it takes faith to consider oneself a citizen of the other, invisible world.
Christmas turns the tables and hints at the struggle involved when the Lord of both worlds descends to live by the rules of the one. In Bethlehem, the two worlds came together, realigned. What Jesus went on to accomplish on planet Earth made it possible for God someday to resolve all disharmonies in both worlds. No wonder a choir of angels broke out in spontaneous song, disturbing not only a few shepherds but the entire universe (Luke 2:13-14).
Once from the realms of infinite glory,
Down to the depths of our ruin and loss,
Jesus came, seeking—O Love’s sweet story—
Came to the manger, the shame, and the cross. —Strickland
The key word of Christmas is “Immanuel”— God with us!
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 21st, 2010
Experience or God’s Revealed Truth?
We have received . . . the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God —1 Corinthians 2:12
My experience is not what makes redemption real— redemption is reality. Redemption has no real meaning for me until it is worked out through my conscious life. When I am born again, the Spirit of God takes me beyond myself and my experiences, and identifies me with Jesus Christ. If I am left only with my personal experiences, I am left with something not produced by redemption. But experiences produced by redemption prove themselves by leading me beyond myself, to the point of no longer paying any attention to experiences as the basis of reality. Instead, I see that only the reality itself produced the experiences. My experiences are not worth anything unless they keep me at the Source of truth— Jesus Christ.
If you try to hold back the Holy Spirit within you, with the desire of producing more inner spiritual experiences, you will find that He will break the hold and take you again to the historic Christ. Never support an experience which does not have God as its Source and faith in God as its result. If you do, your experience is anti-Christian, no matter what visions or insights you may have had. Is Jesus Christ Lord of your experiences, or do you place your experiences above Him? Is any experience dearer to you than your Lord? You must allow Him to be Lord over you, and pay no attention to any experience over which He is not Lord. Then there will come a time when God will make you impatient with your own experience, and you can truthfully say, “I do not care what I experience— I am sure of Him!”
Be relentless and hard on yourself if you are in the habit of talking about the experiences you have had. Faith based on experience is not faith; faith based on God’s revealed truth is the only faith there is.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Homeless No More - #6247
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Over the years, we've always tried to keep the real mission and meaning of Christmas in front of our children. Taking food and clothes into New York City to give to homeless people there put a whole new face on Christmas. Only a few miles from our home we were face-to-face with the tragedy of people without anyplace to call home. I remember the time when I went into the city to talk with some homeless people for my youth broadcast - to try to open my listeners to a needy world. One man was living on the street, near a major bus terminal. His house was a large, tattered cardboard box. He actually allowed me to crawl inside that box with him, and it was heartbreaking that a box was home. At Christmastime - well, at any time - it's a tragic thing to be without a home.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Homeless No More."
You know it's possible to be living in a mansion this Christmas, and still be homeless - in your heart. You see, in our hearts, there is this homing instinct that keeps us looking for a love that will fill the hole in our heart, a relationship that will give us one safe and secure place in this lonely, disappointing world. But our lives are littered with the temporary "boxes" that we hoped would give our heart a home but never did.
But Christmas is so very much about finally finding home. It's only possible because the Son of God, in the words of the Bible, "became flesh and lived among us" (John 1:14 ). When He came, there was "no room" for Him to be born. In a sense, Jesus entered the little "box" we live in - for one incredible reason. He left His home to bring us home. First, to the relationship we were made for, that we've been looking for all these years. As the Bible says, you were "created by Him and for Him." We're homeless because He's our home and we're away from Him.
In reality, we are spiritually homeless by our own choice - we've chosen to live our lives our own way instead of His way. Maybe you've tried to find shelter where you could, but every other "home" has let you down - whether it's a relationship, an experience, an accomplishment - even a religion. It took the greatest act of love and sacrifice in history to make it possible for you and me to find home - including our eternal home in heaven when we die.
It's described in 1 Peter 3:18 , our word for today from the Word of God: "Christ died for sin...the righteous (that's Jesus) for the unrighteous (that's you and me), to bring you to God." Home at last, because Jesus died to pay for every sin of our life, the sins that have cut us off from home and left us homeless in our heart. But, oh, what it cost Him. He loves you too much to lose you. He wants you to be with Him forever. So He gave everything He had to bring you home to God.
Jesus didn't leave His home just to relate to you or me, or even to reach us - He came here to rescue you. To save us all from a spiritually homeless life and a spiritually hopeless eternity. And this Christmas season, you can finally be home if you'll respond to what Jesus did to rescue you by putting all your trust in Him to be your own personal Savior from your own personal sin. He died for you. Isn't it time you gave Him what He died for? Isn't it time you stopped looking for home and finally found the home that your heart is starved for?
Reach out to Jesus - tell Him, "Jesus, it's Your way, not my way, from now on. I'm grabbing You as my rescuer from my sin with all the faith I've got." If that's what you want, I hope you'll check out our website as soon as you can today. You'll find there some special Christmas messages, and most importantly, you will find there a description of how you can be sure you belong to Jesus Christ. Or I'll be glad to send you my booklet, "Yours For Life." You can call the toll-free number and ask for the free booklet. The number is 877-741-1200.
Now, you may have been very far from Jesus all these years - or you may have been very close, full of Christianity, but missing Christ. But at Christmastime - the time He left home to bring you home - you can finally experience the love you were made for. And finally, you will be homeless no more.
Have Faith
Posted: 20 Dec 2010 10:01 PM PST
If your faith is as big as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move. Matthew 17:20
Don’t measure the size of the mountain; talk to the One who can move it. Instead of carrying the world on your shoulders, talk to the One who holds the universe on his.
Hope is a look away.
Genesis 46
Jacob Goes to Egypt
1 So Israel set out with all that was his, and when he reached Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.
2 And God spoke to Israel in a vision at night and said, “Jacob! Jacob!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
3 “I am God, the God of your father,” he said. “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. 4 I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again. And Joseph’s own hand will close your eyes.”
5 Then Jacob left Beersheba, and Israel’s sons took their father Jacob and their children and their wives in the carts that Pharaoh had sent to transport him. 6 So Jacob and all his offspring went to Egypt, taking with them their livestock and the possessions they had acquired in Canaan. 7 Jacob brought with him to Egypt his sons and grandsons and his daughters and granddaughters—all his offspring.
8 These are the names of the sons of Israel (Jacob and his descendants) who went to Egypt:
Reuben the firstborn of Jacob.
9 The sons of Reuben:
Hanok, Pallu, Hezron and Karmi.
10 The sons of Simeon:
Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jakin, Zohar and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman.
11 The sons of Levi:
Gershon, Kohath and Merari.
12 The sons of Judah:
Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez and Zerah (but Er and Onan had died in the land of Canaan).
The sons of Perez:
Hezron and Hamul.
13 The sons of Issachar:
Tola, Puah, Jashub and Shimron.
14 The sons of Zebulun:
Sered, Elon and Jahleel.
15 These were the sons Leah bore to Jacob in Paddan Aram, besides his daughter Dinah. These sons and daughters of his were thirty-three in all.
16 The sons of Gad:
Zephon, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi and Areli.
17 The sons of Asher:
Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi and Beriah.
Their sister was Serah.
The sons of Beriah:
Heber and Malkiel.
18 These were the children born to Jacob by Zilpah, whom Laban had given to his daughter Leah—sixteen in all.
19 The sons of Jacob’s wife Rachel:
Joseph and Benjamin. 20 In Egypt, Manasseh and Ephraim were born to Joseph by Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On.
21 The sons of Benjamin:
Bela, Beker, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim and Ard.
22 These were the sons of Rachel who were born to Jacob—fourteen in all.
23 The son of Dan:
Hushim.
24 The sons of Naphtali:
Jahziel, Guni, Jezer and Shillem.
25 These were the sons born to Jacob by Bilhah, whom Laban had given to his daughter Rachel—seven in all.
26 All those who went to Egypt with Jacob—those who were his direct descendants, not counting his sons’ wives—numbered sixty-six persons. 27 With the two sons who had been born to Joseph in Egypt, the members of Jacob’s family, which went to Egypt, were seventy in all.
28 Now Jacob sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to get directions to Goshen. When they arrived in the region of Goshen, 29 Joseph had his chariot made ready and went to Goshen to meet his father Israel. As soon as Joseph appeared before him, he threw his arms around his father and wept for a long time.
30 Israel said to Joseph, “Now I am ready to die, since I have seen for myself that you are still alive.”
31 Then Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household, “I will go up and speak to Pharaoh and will say to him, ‘My brothers and my father’s household, who were living in the land of Canaan, have come to me. 32 The men are shepherds; they tend livestock, and they have brought along their flocks and herds and everything they own.’ 33 When Pharaoh calls you in and asks, ‘What is your occupation?’ 34 you should answer, ‘Your servants have tended livestock from our boyhood on, just as our fathers did.’ Then you will be allowed to settle in the region of Goshen, for all shepherds are detestable to the Egyptians.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Luke 2:1-7
Luke 2:1-7 (NIV)Lk 1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to his own town to register. 4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Parallel Universes
December 21, 2010 — by Philip Yancey
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men! —Luke 2:14
Every so often I catch myself wondering about the whole grand scheme of faith. I stand in an airport, for example, watching important-looking people in business suits, briefcases clutched to their sides, as they pause at an espresso bar before scurrying off to another concourse. Do any of them ever think about God? I wonder.
Christians share an odd belief in parallel universes. One universe consists of glass and steel and wool clothes and leather briefcases and the smell of freshly ground coffee. The other consists of angels and spiritual forces and somewhere-out-there places called heaven and hell. We palpably inhabit the material world; it takes faith to consider oneself a citizen of the other, invisible world.
Christmas turns the tables and hints at the struggle involved when the Lord of both worlds descends to live by the rules of the one. In Bethlehem, the two worlds came together, realigned. What Jesus went on to accomplish on planet Earth made it possible for God someday to resolve all disharmonies in both worlds. No wonder a choir of angels broke out in spontaneous song, disturbing not only a few shepherds but the entire universe (Luke 2:13-14).
Once from the realms of infinite glory,
Down to the depths of our ruin and loss,
Jesus came, seeking—O Love’s sweet story—
Came to the manger, the shame, and the cross. —Strickland
The key word of Christmas is “Immanuel”— God with us!
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 21st, 2010
Experience or God’s Revealed Truth?
We have received . . . the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God —1 Corinthians 2:12
My experience is not what makes redemption real— redemption is reality. Redemption has no real meaning for me until it is worked out through my conscious life. When I am born again, the Spirit of God takes me beyond myself and my experiences, and identifies me with Jesus Christ. If I am left only with my personal experiences, I am left with something not produced by redemption. But experiences produced by redemption prove themselves by leading me beyond myself, to the point of no longer paying any attention to experiences as the basis of reality. Instead, I see that only the reality itself produced the experiences. My experiences are not worth anything unless they keep me at the Source of truth— Jesus Christ.
If you try to hold back the Holy Spirit within you, with the desire of producing more inner spiritual experiences, you will find that He will break the hold and take you again to the historic Christ. Never support an experience which does not have God as its Source and faith in God as its result. If you do, your experience is anti-Christian, no matter what visions or insights you may have had. Is Jesus Christ Lord of your experiences, or do you place your experiences above Him? Is any experience dearer to you than your Lord? You must allow Him to be Lord over you, and pay no attention to any experience over which He is not Lord. Then there will come a time when God will make you impatient with your own experience, and you can truthfully say, “I do not care what I experience— I am sure of Him!”
Be relentless and hard on yourself if you are in the habit of talking about the experiences you have had. Faith based on experience is not faith; faith based on God’s revealed truth is the only faith there is.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Homeless No More - #6247
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Over the years, we've always tried to keep the real mission and meaning of Christmas in front of our children. Taking food and clothes into New York City to give to homeless people there put a whole new face on Christmas. Only a few miles from our home we were face-to-face with the tragedy of people without anyplace to call home. I remember the time when I went into the city to talk with some homeless people for my youth broadcast - to try to open my listeners to a needy world. One man was living on the street, near a major bus terminal. His house was a large, tattered cardboard box. He actually allowed me to crawl inside that box with him, and it was heartbreaking that a box was home. At Christmastime - well, at any time - it's a tragic thing to be without a home.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Homeless No More."
You know it's possible to be living in a mansion this Christmas, and still be homeless - in your heart. You see, in our hearts, there is this homing instinct that keeps us looking for a love that will fill the hole in our heart, a relationship that will give us one safe and secure place in this lonely, disappointing world. But our lives are littered with the temporary "boxes" that we hoped would give our heart a home but never did.
But Christmas is so very much about finally finding home. It's only possible because the Son of God, in the words of the Bible, "became flesh and lived among us" (John 1:14 ). When He came, there was "no room" for Him to be born. In a sense, Jesus entered the little "box" we live in - for one incredible reason. He left His home to bring us home. First, to the relationship we were made for, that we've been looking for all these years. As the Bible says, you were "created by Him and for Him." We're homeless because He's our home and we're away from Him.
In reality, we are spiritually homeless by our own choice - we've chosen to live our lives our own way instead of His way. Maybe you've tried to find shelter where you could, but every other "home" has let you down - whether it's a relationship, an experience, an accomplishment - even a religion. It took the greatest act of love and sacrifice in history to make it possible for you and me to find home - including our eternal home in heaven when we die.
It's described in 1 Peter 3:18 , our word for today from the Word of God: "Christ died for sin...the righteous (that's Jesus) for the unrighteous (that's you and me), to bring you to God." Home at last, because Jesus died to pay for every sin of our life, the sins that have cut us off from home and left us homeless in our heart. But, oh, what it cost Him. He loves you too much to lose you. He wants you to be with Him forever. So He gave everything He had to bring you home to God.
Jesus didn't leave His home just to relate to you or me, or even to reach us - He came here to rescue you. To save us all from a spiritually homeless life and a spiritually hopeless eternity. And this Christmas season, you can finally be home if you'll respond to what Jesus did to rescue you by putting all your trust in Him to be your own personal Savior from your own personal sin. He died for you. Isn't it time you gave Him what He died for? Isn't it time you stopped looking for home and finally found the home that your heart is starved for?
Reach out to Jesus - tell Him, "Jesus, it's Your way, not my way, from now on. I'm grabbing You as my rescuer from my sin with all the faith I've got." If that's what you want, I hope you'll check out our website as soon as you can today. You'll find there some special Christmas messages, and most importantly, you will find there a description of how you can be sure you belong to Jesus Christ. Or I'll be glad to send you my booklet, "Yours For Life." You can call the toll-free number and ask for the free booklet. The number is 877-741-1200.
Now, you may have been very far from Jesus all these years - or you may have been very close, full of Christianity, but missing Christ. But at Christmastime - the time He left home to bring you home - you can finally experience the love you were made for. And finally, you will be homeless no more.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Matthew 22, Bible reading and Daily Devotions
Max Lucado Daily: The Hope of Christ
The Hope of Christ
Posted: 19 Dec 2010 10:01 PM PST
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. Lamentations 3:22, NRSV
Our God is not aloof—he’s not so far above us that he can’t see and understand our problems. Jesus isn’t a God who stayed on the mountaintop—he’s a Savior who came down and lived and worked with the people. Everywhere he went, the crowds followed, drawn together by the magnet that was—and is—the Savior.
The life of Jesus Christ is a message of hope.
Matthew 22:23-46 (New International Version, ©2010)
Marriage at the Resurrection
23 That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 24 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him. 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. 26 The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. 27 Finally, the woman died. 28 Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”
29 Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 31 But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”
33 When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.
The Greatest Commandment
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Whose Son Is the Messiah?
41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”
“The son of David,” they replied.
43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says,
44 “‘The Lord said to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand
until I put your enemies
under your feet.”’
45 If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” 46 No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Luke 1:26-38
Luke 1:26-38 (NIV)Lk 26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." 34 "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" 35 The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. 37 For nothing is impossible with God." 38 "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her.
Significant Surrender
December 20, 2010 — by Joe Stowell
Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. —1 Peter 5:6
Throughout history, Mary the mother of Jesus has been held in high esteem. And rightly so! She was singled out by God to deliver the long-awaited Messiah.
But before we get lost in the significance of her life, let’s take a look at what it meant for her to surrender to the assignment. Living in a small backwater Galilean village where everyone knew everyone else’s business, she would have to live with the perceived shame of her premarital pregnancy. Explaining to her mother the visits of the angel and the Holy Spirit probably didn’t calm things down. To say nothing of the devastating interruption that her pregnancy would bring to her plans to marry Joseph. And while we are thinking about Joseph, what would she tell him? Would he believe her?
In light of these personal ramifications, her response to the angel who told her the news about her role as Jesus’ mother is amazing: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38 ESV). Her words remind us that a life of significance is most often preceded by a heart eager to surrender to God’s will regardless of the cost.
What significant experience does God have in store for you? It starts with surrender to Him.
What shall I give You, Master?
You have redeemed my soul;
My gift is small but it is my all—
Surrendered to Your control. —Grimes
Surrender to God precedes His significant work in your life.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 20th, 2010
The Right Kind of Help
And I, if I am lifted up . . . will draw all peoples to Myself —John 12:32
Very few of us have any understanding of the reason why Jesus Christ died. If sympathy is all that human beings need, then the Cross of Christ is an absurdity and there is absolutely no need for it. What the world needs is not “a little bit of love,” but major surgery.
When you find yourself face to face with a person who is spiritually lost, remind yourself of Jesus Christ on the cross. If that person can get to God in any other way, then the Cross of Christ is unnecessary. If you think you are helping lost people with your sympathy and understanding, you are a traitor to Jesus Christ. You must have a right-standing relationship with Him yourself, and pour your life out in helping others in His way— not in a human way that ignores God. The theme of the world’s religion today is to serve in a pleasant, non-confrontational manner.
But our only priority must be to present Jesus Christ crucified— to lift Him up all the time (see 1 Corinthians 2:2). Every belief that is not firmly rooted in the Cross of Christ will lead people astray. If the worker himself believes in Jesus Christ and is trusting in the reality of redemption, his words will be compelling to others. What is extremely important is for the worker’s simple relationship with Jesus Christ to be strong and growing. His usefulness to God depends on that, and that alone.
The calling of a New Testament worker is to expose sin and to reveal Jesus Christ as Savior. Consequently, he cannot always be charming and friendly, but must be willing to be stern to accomplish major surgery. We are sent by God to lift up Jesus Christ, not to give wonderfully beautiful speeches. We must be willing to examine others as deeply as God has examined us. We must also be sharply intent on sensing those Scripture passages that will drive the truth home, and then not be afraid to apply them.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Already Yours - #6246
Monday, December 20, 2010
Our boys used to approach Christmas as methodically as a military campaign. They painstakingly made their Christmas lists sometime about, like October? You know, you must get the jump on anybody who wants to buy you underwear or socks. Right? So, they listed what they wanted in priority order, with what they called "the big one" right on top, circled and surrounded with big stars. One year, our oldest son had the year's hottest toy on top. I knew I would have to break my pattern and do this particular shopping early. So right around Thanksgiving, I bought it before it became virtually "ungettable." But my son must have reminded me about that thing 20 times between then and the day he got it - that very happy Christmas Day. Of course, I just smiled.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Already Yours."
Somewhere along the way, I realized I was looking at a picture of me and God as I looked at what was going on between me and my son. And I learned a powerful lesson about how prayer really works. As you're in the middle of praying for some things that you really need God to do right now, maybe the same lesson will be an encouragement to you.
Jesus laid out some of prayer's exciting dynamics in our word for today from the Word of God. It's recorded in Mark 11:24 . He said, "I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." Now notice the tense of those verbs. "Believe that you have received it" - past tense - "and it will be yours" - future tense. You don't have it yet, but you proceed in faith as if it's done. That's a secret Jesus gave us as to how to get your prayers answered.
My son gave me his request. I responded almost immediately and I secured what he asked for. It was, in essence, already his. But he didn't have it yet. If I had given it to him right away, it would have ruined it; it would have spoiled Christmas. I had answered his request, but it wasn't the right time yet for me to give it to him.
So many times, that's what I believe is going on when you and I pray to God for some things that really matter to us. In fact, you may have a recurring request that's at the top of your list, all circled and starred - it's "the big one." But you don't have an answer yet. Based on what Jesus said, it could very well be that your Heavenly Father has already answered your prayer, but He hasn't given you your answer yet. It's not the right time. If you got it now, it would ruin it. And this waiting time is meant to be a trusting time, where you learn to trust your loving Heavenly Father in ways you've never trusted Him before. You're in "faith school," and you've still got a little more to learn. Then He's going to give you what He's already secured for you.
Your mission is to proceed in faith in the direction of what you've asked God for and believed God for, under the Holy Spirit's leading. You keep putting logs on the fire, acting as if there's going to be a fire; knowing that only God can ignite it. Live in faith as if you "have received it" and it "will be yours."
Like any loving father, God loves to give us what we ask for, unless it's something He knows will hurt us. And if He knows what you've asked for is good, He's already got it for you. You have to keep walking in that direction by faith for now, continuing to remind Him that you're trusting Him for it. You're waiting right now, even wondering why you don't have your answer yet. But hang on - if it's in line with God's will, there's an exciting day coming when you're going to get the gift your Father has had for you since you started asking. And it will be right on time!
The Hope of Christ
Posted: 19 Dec 2010 10:01 PM PST
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. Lamentations 3:22, NRSV
Our God is not aloof—he’s not so far above us that he can’t see and understand our problems. Jesus isn’t a God who stayed on the mountaintop—he’s a Savior who came down and lived and worked with the people. Everywhere he went, the crowds followed, drawn together by the magnet that was—and is—the Savior.
The life of Jesus Christ is a message of hope.
Matthew 22:23-46 (New International Version, ©2010)
Marriage at the Resurrection
23 That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 24 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him. 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. 26 The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. 27 Finally, the woman died. 28 Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”
29 Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 31 But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”
33 When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.
The Greatest Commandment
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Whose Son Is the Messiah?
41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”
“The son of David,” they replied.
43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says,
44 “‘The Lord said to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand
until I put your enemies
under your feet.”’
45 If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” 46 No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Luke 1:26-38
Luke 1:26-38 (NIV)Lk 26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." 34 "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" 35 The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. 37 For nothing is impossible with God." 38 "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her.
Significant Surrender
December 20, 2010 — by Joe Stowell
Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. —1 Peter 5:6
Throughout history, Mary the mother of Jesus has been held in high esteem. And rightly so! She was singled out by God to deliver the long-awaited Messiah.
But before we get lost in the significance of her life, let’s take a look at what it meant for her to surrender to the assignment. Living in a small backwater Galilean village where everyone knew everyone else’s business, she would have to live with the perceived shame of her premarital pregnancy. Explaining to her mother the visits of the angel and the Holy Spirit probably didn’t calm things down. To say nothing of the devastating interruption that her pregnancy would bring to her plans to marry Joseph. And while we are thinking about Joseph, what would she tell him? Would he believe her?
In light of these personal ramifications, her response to the angel who told her the news about her role as Jesus’ mother is amazing: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38 ESV). Her words remind us that a life of significance is most often preceded by a heart eager to surrender to God’s will regardless of the cost.
What significant experience does God have in store for you? It starts with surrender to Him.
What shall I give You, Master?
You have redeemed my soul;
My gift is small but it is my all—
Surrendered to Your control. —Grimes
Surrender to God precedes His significant work in your life.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 20th, 2010
The Right Kind of Help
And I, if I am lifted up . . . will draw all peoples to Myself —John 12:32
Very few of us have any understanding of the reason why Jesus Christ died. If sympathy is all that human beings need, then the Cross of Christ is an absurdity and there is absolutely no need for it. What the world needs is not “a little bit of love,” but major surgery.
When you find yourself face to face with a person who is spiritually lost, remind yourself of Jesus Christ on the cross. If that person can get to God in any other way, then the Cross of Christ is unnecessary. If you think you are helping lost people with your sympathy and understanding, you are a traitor to Jesus Christ. You must have a right-standing relationship with Him yourself, and pour your life out in helping others in His way— not in a human way that ignores God. The theme of the world’s religion today is to serve in a pleasant, non-confrontational manner.
But our only priority must be to present Jesus Christ crucified— to lift Him up all the time (see 1 Corinthians 2:2). Every belief that is not firmly rooted in the Cross of Christ will lead people astray. If the worker himself believes in Jesus Christ and is trusting in the reality of redemption, his words will be compelling to others. What is extremely important is for the worker’s simple relationship with Jesus Christ to be strong and growing. His usefulness to God depends on that, and that alone.
The calling of a New Testament worker is to expose sin and to reveal Jesus Christ as Savior. Consequently, he cannot always be charming and friendly, but must be willing to be stern to accomplish major surgery. We are sent by God to lift up Jesus Christ, not to give wonderfully beautiful speeches. We must be willing to examine others as deeply as God has examined us. We must also be sharply intent on sensing those Scripture passages that will drive the truth home, and then not be afraid to apply them.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Already Yours - #6246
Monday, December 20, 2010
Our boys used to approach Christmas as methodically as a military campaign. They painstakingly made their Christmas lists sometime about, like October? You know, you must get the jump on anybody who wants to buy you underwear or socks. Right? So, they listed what they wanted in priority order, with what they called "the big one" right on top, circled and surrounded with big stars. One year, our oldest son had the year's hottest toy on top. I knew I would have to break my pattern and do this particular shopping early. So right around Thanksgiving, I bought it before it became virtually "ungettable." But my son must have reminded me about that thing 20 times between then and the day he got it - that very happy Christmas Day. Of course, I just smiled.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Already Yours."
Somewhere along the way, I realized I was looking at a picture of me and God as I looked at what was going on between me and my son. And I learned a powerful lesson about how prayer really works. As you're in the middle of praying for some things that you really need God to do right now, maybe the same lesson will be an encouragement to you.
Jesus laid out some of prayer's exciting dynamics in our word for today from the Word of God. It's recorded in Mark 11:24 . He said, "I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." Now notice the tense of those verbs. "Believe that you have received it" - past tense - "and it will be yours" - future tense. You don't have it yet, but you proceed in faith as if it's done. That's a secret Jesus gave us as to how to get your prayers answered.
My son gave me his request. I responded almost immediately and I secured what he asked for. It was, in essence, already his. But he didn't have it yet. If I had given it to him right away, it would have ruined it; it would have spoiled Christmas. I had answered his request, but it wasn't the right time yet for me to give it to him.
So many times, that's what I believe is going on when you and I pray to God for some things that really matter to us. In fact, you may have a recurring request that's at the top of your list, all circled and starred - it's "the big one." But you don't have an answer yet. Based on what Jesus said, it could very well be that your Heavenly Father has already answered your prayer, but He hasn't given you your answer yet. It's not the right time. If you got it now, it would ruin it. And this waiting time is meant to be a trusting time, where you learn to trust your loving Heavenly Father in ways you've never trusted Him before. You're in "faith school," and you've still got a little more to learn. Then He's going to give you what He's already secured for you.
Your mission is to proceed in faith in the direction of what you've asked God for and believed God for, under the Holy Spirit's leading. You keep putting logs on the fire, acting as if there's going to be a fire; knowing that only God can ignite it. Live in faith as if you "have received it" and it "will be yours."
Like any loving father, God loves to give us what we ask for, unless it's something He knows will hurt us. And if He knows what you've asked for is good, He's already got it for you. You have to keep walking in that direction by faith for now, continuing to remind Him that you're trusting Him for it. You're waiting right now, even wondering why you don't have your answer yet. But hang on - if it's in line with God's will, there's an exciting day coming when you're going to get the gift your Father has had for you since you started asking. And it will be right on time!
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Genesis 45, Bible reading and Daily Devotions
Max Lucado Daily: No Ordinary Night
No Ordinary Night
Posted: 18 Dec 2010 10:01 PM PST
I came to give life—-life in all its fullness.
An ordinary night with ordinary sheep and ordinary shepherds. And were it not for a God who loves to hook an “extra” on the front of ordinary, the night would have gone unnoticed. The sheep would have been forgotten, and the shepherds would have slept the night away.
But God dances amidst the common. And that night he did a waltz… The night was ordinary no more.
Genesis 45
Joseph Makes Himself Known
1 Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, “Have everyone leave my presence!” So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. 2 And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh’s household heard about it.
3 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence.
4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. 6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
8 “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt. 9 Now hurry back to my father and say to him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; don’t delay. 10 You shall live in the region of Goshen and be near me—you, your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you have. 11 I will provide for you there, because five years of famine are still to come. Otherwise you and your household and all who belong to you will become destitute.’
12 “You can see for yourselves, and so can my brother Benjamin, that it is really I who am speaking to you. 13 Tell my father about all the honor accorded me in Egypt and about everything you have seen. And bring my father down here quickly.”
14 Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin embraced him, weeping. 15 And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Afterward his brothers talked with him.
16 When the news reached Pharaoh’s palace that Joseph’s brothers had come, Pharaoh and all his officials were pleased. 17 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Tell your brothers, ‘Do this: Load your animals and return to the land of Canaan, 18 and bring your father and your families back to me. I will give you the best of the land of Egypt and you can enjoy the fat of the land.’
19 “You are also directed to tell them, ‘Do this: Take some carts from Egypt for your children and your wives, and get your father and come. 20 Never mind about your belongings, because the best of all Egypt will be yours.’”
21 So the sons of Israel did this. Joseph gave them carts, as Pharaoh had commanded, and he also gave them provisions for their journey. 22 To each of them he gave new clothing, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels of silver and five sets of clothes. 23 And this is what he sent to his father: ten donkeys loaded with the best things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and other provisions for his journey. 24 Then he sent his brothers away, and as they were leaving he said to them, “Don’t quarrel on the way!”
25 So they went up out of Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan. 26 They told him, “Joseph is still alive! In fact, he is ruler of all Egypt.” Jacob was stunned; he did not believe them. 27 But when they told him everything Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the carts Joseph had sent to carry him back, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. 28 And Israel said, “I’m convinced! My son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Romans 5:12-21
Romans 5:12-21 (NIV)Ro 12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned-- 13 for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. 15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16 Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. 18 Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. 20 The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Newgrange
December 19, 2010 — by Bill Crowder
If by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive . . . the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. —Romans 5:17
Newgrange is a 5,000-year-old burial passage tomb in Ireland. Built by the members of a farming community in Ireland’s Boyne Valley, this magnificent structure covers more than an acre of land. It was a place where people went to struggle with the issue of death. It is best known for the beam of sunlight that moves through the chamber for 17 minutes each day from December 19 to 23 during the winter solstice, the shortest days of the year. Some say it serves as a powerful symbol of the victory of life over death.
Ever since death entered the human experience in Genesis 3, it has been life’s one great inevitability, and many people’s chief fear. It need not be so, however. The apostle Paul wrote, “For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:17).
From that moment in the Garden of Eden with the sin of our first parents, sin and death reigned. Yet we need not fear death or its consequences. Because of Christ, we can have confident hope—His victory of life over death has given us eternal life.
Have you received Him?
Thanks be to God for victory,
The grave no terror knows;
Since Christ from death has risen,
He’s conquered all our foes. —Spittal
Christ’s empty tomb guarantees our victory over death.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 19th, 2010
The Focus Of Our Message
I did not come to bring peace but a sword —Matthew 10:34
Never be sympathetic with a person whose situation causes you to conclude that God is dealing harshly with him. God can be more tender than we can conceive, and every once in a while He gives us the opportunity to deal firmly with someone so that He may be viewed as the tender One. If a person cannot go to God, it is because he has something secret which he does not intend to give up— he may admit his sin, but would no more give up that thing than he could fly under his own power. It is impossible to deal sympathetically with people like that. We must reach down deep in their lives to the root of the problem, which will cause hostility and resentment toward the message. People want the blessing of God, but they can’t stand something that pierces right through to the heart of the matter.
If you are sensitive to God’s way, your message as His servant will be merciless and insistent, cutting to the very root. Otherwise, there will be no healing. We must drive the message home so forcefully that a person cannot possibly hide, but must apply its truth. Deal with people where they are, until they begin to realize their true need. Then hold high the standard of Jesus for their lives. Their response may be, “We can never be that.” Then drive it home with, “Jesus Christ says you must.” “But how can we be?” “You can’t, unless you have a new Spirit” (see Luke 11:13).
There must be a sense of need created before your message is of any use. Thousands of people in this world profess to be happy without God. But if we could be truly happy and moral without Jesus, then why did He come? He came because that kind of happiness and peace is only superficial. Jesus Christ came to “bring . . . a sword” through every kind of peace that is not based on a personal relationship with Himself.
No Ordinary Night
Posted: 18 Dec 2010 10:01 PM PST
I came to give life—-life in all its fullness.
An ordinary night with ordinary sheep and ordinary shepherds. And were it not for a God who loves to hook an “extra” on the front of ordinary, the night would have gone unnoticed. The sheep would have been forgotten, and the shepherds would have slept the night away.
But God dances amidst the common. And that night he did a waltz… The night was ordinary no more.
Genesis 45
Joseph Makes Himself Known
1 Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, “Have everyone leave my presence!” So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. 2 And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh’s household heard about it.
3 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence.
4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. 6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
8 “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt. 9 Now hurry back to my father and say to him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; don’t delay. 10 You shall live in the region of Goshen and be near me—you, your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you have. 11 I will provide for you there, because five years of famine are still to come. Otherwise you and your household and all who belong to you will become destitute.’
12 “You can see for yourselves, and so can my brother Benjamin, that it is really I who am speaking to you. 13 Tell my father about all the honor accorded me in Egypt and about everything you have seen. And bring my father down here quickly.”
14 Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin embraced him, weeping. 15 And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Afterward his brothers talked with him.
16 When the news reached Pharaoh’s palace that Joseph’s brothers had come, Pharaoh and all his officials were pleased. 17 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Tell your brothers, ‘Do this: Load your animals and return to the land of Canaan, 18 and bring your father and your families back to me. I will give you the best of the land of Egypt and you can enjoy the fat of the land.’
19 “You are also directed to tell them, ‘Do this: Take some carts from Egypt for your children and your wives, and get your father and come. 20 Never mind about your belongings, because the best of all Egypt will be yours.’”
21 So the sons of Israel did this. Joseph gave them carts, as Pharaoh had commanded, and he also gave them provisions for their journey. 22 To each of them he gave new clothing, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels of silver and five sets of clothes. 23 And this is what he sent to his father: ten donkeys loaded with the best things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and other provisions for his journey. 24 Then he sent his brothers away, and as they were leaving he said to them, “Don’t quarrel on the way!”
25 So they went up out of Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan. 26 They told him, “Joseph is still alive! In fact, he is ruler of all Egypt.” Jacob was stunned; he did not believe them. 27 But when they told him everything Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the carts Joseph had sent to carry him back, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. 28 And Israel said, “I’m convinced! My son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Romans 5:12-21
Romans 5:12-21 (NIV)Ro 12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned-- 13 for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. 15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16 Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. 18 Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. 20 The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Newgrange
December 19, 2010 — by Bill Crowder
If by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive . . . the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. —Romans 5:17
Newgrange is a 5,000-year-old burial passage tomb in Ireland. Built by the members of a farming community in Ireland’s Boyne Valley, this magnificent structure covers more than an acre of land. It was a place where people went to struggle with the issue of death. It is best known for the beam of sunlight that moves through the chamber for 17 minutes each day from December 19 to 23 during the winter solstice, the shortest days of the year. Some say it serves as a powerful symbol of the victory of life over death.
Ever since death entered the human experience in Genesis 3, it has been life’s one great inevitability, and many people’s chief fear. It need not be so, however. The apostle Paul wrote, “For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:17).
From that moment in the Garden of Eden with the sin of our first parents, sin and death reigned. Yet we need not fear death or its consequences. Because of Christ, we can have confident hope—His victory of life over death has given us eternal life.
Have you received Him?
Thanks be to God for victory,
The grave no terror knows;
Since Christ from death has risen,
He’s conquered all our foes. —Spittal
Christ’s empty tomb guarantees our victory over death.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 19th, 2010
The Focus Of Our Message
I did not come to bring peace but a sword —Matthew 10:34
Never be sympathetic with a person whose situation causes you to conclude that God is dealing harshly with him. God can be more tender than we can conceive, and every once in a while He gives us the opportunity to deal firmly with someone so that He may be viewed as the tender One. If a person cannot go to God, it is because he has something secret which he does not intend to give up— he may admit his sin, but would no more give up that thing than he could fly under his own power. It is impossible to deal sympathetically with people like that. We must reach down deep in their lives to the root of the problem, which will cause hostility and resentment toward the message. People want the blessing of God, but they can’t stand something that pierces right through to the heart of the matter.
If you are sensitive to God’s way, your message as His servant will be merciless and insistent, cutting to the very root. Otherwise, there will be no healing. We must drive the message home so forcefully that a person cannot possibly hide, but must apply its truth. Deal with people where they are, until they begin to realize their true need. Then hold high the standard of Jesus for their lives. Their response may be, “We can never be that.” Then drive it home with, “Jesus Christ says you must.” “But how can we be?” “You can’t, unless you have a new Spirit” (see Luke 11:13).
There must be a sense of need created before your message is of any use. Thousands of people in this world profess to be happy without God. But if we could be truly happy and moral without Jesus, then why did He come? He came because that kind of happiness and peace is only superficial. Jesus Christ came to “bring . . . a sword” through every kind of peace that is not based on a personal relationship with Himself.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Genesis 44, Bible reading and Daily Devotions
Max Lucado Daily: Approachable Jesus
Approachable Jesus
Posted: 17 Dec 2010 10:01 PM PST
Everything God does is good and fair; all his orders can be trusted. Psalm 111:7
There is not a hint of one person who was afraid to draw near Jesus. There were those who mocked Him. There were those who were envious of Him. There were those who misunderstood Him. There were those who revered Him. But there was not one person who considered Him too holy, too divine, or too celestial to touch. There was not one person who was reluctant to approach Him for fear of being rejected.
Genesis 44
A Silver Cup in a Sack
1 Now Joseph gave these instructions to the steward of his house: “Fill the men’s sacks with as much food as they can carry, and put each man’s silver in the mouth of his sack. 2 Then put my cup, the silver one, in the mouth of the youngest one’s sack, along with the silver for his grain.” And he did as Joseph said.
3 As morning dawned, the men were sent on their way with their donkeys. 4 They had not gone far from the city when Joseph said to his steward, “Go after those men at once, and when you catch up with them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid good with evil? 5 Isn’t this the cup my master drinks from and also uses for divination? This is a wicked thing you have done.’”
6 When he caught up with them, he repeated these words to them. 7 But they said to him, “Why does my lord say such things? Far be it from your servants to do anything like that! 8 We even brought back to you from the land of Canaan the silver we found inside the mouths of our sacks. So why would we steal silver or gold from your master’s house? 9 If any of your servants is found to have it, he will die; and the rest of us will become my lord’s slaves.”
10 “Very well, then,” he said, “let it be as you say. Whoever is found to have it will become my slave; the rest of you will be free from blame.”
11 Each of them quickly lowered his sack to the ground and opened it. 12 Then the steward proceeded to search, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. 13 At this, they tore their clothes. Then they all loaded their donkeys and returned to the city.
14 Joseph was still in the house when Judah and his brothers came in, and they threw themselves to the ground before him. 15 Joseph said to them, “What is this you have done? Don’t you know that a man like me can find things out by divination?”
16 “What can we say to my lord?” Judah replied. “What can we say? How can we prove our innocence? God has uncovered your servants’ guilt. We are now my lord’s slaves—we ourselves and the one who was found to have the cup.”
17 But Joseph said, “Far be it from me to do such a thing! Only the man who was found to have the cup will become my slave. The rest of you, go back to your father in peace.”
18 Then Judah went up to him and said: “Pardon your servant, my lord, let me speak a word to my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, though you are equal to Pharaoh himself. 19 My lord asked his servants, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’ 20 And we answered, ‘We have an aged father, and there is a young son born to him in his old age. His brother is dead, and he is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and his father loves him.’
21 “Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me so I can see him for myself.’ 22 And we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father; if he leaves him, his father will die.’ 23 But you told your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.’ 24 When we went back to your servant my father, we told him what my lord had said.
25 “Then our father said, ‘Go back and buy a little more food.’ 26 But we said, ‘We cannot go down. Only if our youngest brother is with us will we go. We cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’
27 “Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons. 28 One of them went away from me, and I said, “He has surely been torn to pieces.” And I have not seen him since. 29 If you take this one from me too and harm comes to him, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in misery.’
30 “So now, if the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant my father, and if my father, whose life is closely bound up with the boy’s life, 31 sees that the boy isn’t there, he will die. Your servants will bring the gray head of our father down to the grave in sorrow. 32 Your servant guaranteed the boy’s safety to my father. I said, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before you, my father, all my life!’
33 “Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. 34 How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come on my father.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Zechariah 12:10-14
Zechariah 12:10-14 (NIV)Zec 10 "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. 11 On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be great, like the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 The land will mourn, each clan by itself, with their wives by themselves: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, 13 the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, 14 and all the rest of the clans and their wives.
Jesus At The Center
December 18, 2010 — by Dennis Fisher
Then they will look on Me whom they pierced. —Zechariah 12:10
Have you heard of the “Christocentric Principle” of biblical understanding? Simply put, it means that everything we know about God, angels, Satan, human hopes, and the whole universe is best understood when viewed in relationship to Jesus Christ. He is at the center.
Recently, I discovered that one of the less familiar Old Testament books, Zechariah, is one of the most Christocentric. This book is a good example because it speaks of Christ’s humanity (6:12), His humility (9:9), His betrayal (11:12), His deity (12:8), His crucifixion (12:10), His return (14:4), and His future reign (14:8-21).
One especially meaningful passage is Zechariah 12:10, which says, “Then they will look on Me whom they pierced.” The piercing refers to Israel’s historic rejection of Jesus as Messiah— resulting in His crucifixion. But this verse also predicts a future generation of Jews who will accept Him as their Messiah. At the second coming of Jesus, a remnant of Israel will recognize the crucified One and turn to Him in faith.
This marvelous book should encourage us to look for more Christ-centered truths—both in other parts of the Bible and in all of life. Keep Jesus in the middle of everything. Live a Christocentric life.
Some have read God’s holy Book
But failed to see its glory;
That’s because they didn’t know
It’s really Jesus’ story. —Branon
Jesus Christ is the Key that unlocks the Word of God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 18th, 2010
Test of Faithfulness
We know that all things work together for good to those who love God . . . —Romans 8:28
It is only a faithful person who truly believes that God sovereignly controls his circumstances. We take our circumstances for granted, saying God is in control, but not really believing it. We act as if the things that happen were completely controlled by people. To be faithful in every circumstance means that we have only one loyalty, or object of our faith— the Lord Jesus Christ. God may cause our circumstances to suddenly fall apart, which may bring the realization of our unfaithfulness to Him for not recognizing that He had ordained the situation. We never saw what He was trying to accomplish, and that exact event will never be repeated in our life. This is where the test of our faithfulness comes. If we will just learn to worship God even during the difficult circumstances, He will change them for the better very quickly if He so chooses.
Being faithful to Jesus Christ is the most difficult thing we try to do today. We will be faithful to our work, to serving others, or to anything else; just don’t ask us to be faithful to Jesus Christ. Many Christians become very impatient when we talk about faithfulness to Jesus. Our Lord is dethroned more deliberately by Christian workers than by the world. We treat God as if He were a machine designed only to bless us, and we think of Jesus as just another one of the workers.
The goal of faithfulness is not that we will do work for God, but that He will be free to do His work through us. God calls us to His service and places tremendous responsibilities on us. He expects no complaining on our part and offers no explanation on His part. God wants to use us as He used His own Son.
Approachable Jesus
Posted: 17 Dec 2010 10:01 PM PST
Everything God does is good and fair; all his orders can be trusted. Psalm 111:7
There is not a hint of one person who was afraid to draw near Jesus. There were those who mocked Him. There were those who were envious of Him. There were those who misunderstood Him. There were those who revered Him. But there was not one person who considered Him too holy, too divine, or too celestial to touch. There was not one person who was reluctant to approach Him for fear of being rejected.
Genesis 44
A Silver Cup in a Sack
1 Now Joseph gave these instructions to the steward of his house: “Fill the men’s sacks with as much food as they can carry, and put each man’s silver in the mouth of his sack. 2 Then put my cup, the silver one, in the mouth of the youngest one’s sack, along with the silver for his grain.” And he did as Joseph said.
3 As morning dawned, the men were sent on their way with their donkeys. 4 They had not gone far from the city when Joseph said to his steward, “Go after those men at once, and when you catch up with them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid good with evil? 5 Isn’t this the cup my master drinks from and also uses for divination? This is a wicked thing you have done.’”
6 When he caught up with them, he repeated these words to them. 7 But they said to him, “Why does my lord say such things? Far be it from your servants to do anything like that! 8 We even brought back to you from the land of Canaan the silver we found inside the mouths of our sacks. So why would we steal silver or gold from your master’s house? 9 If any of your servants is found to have it, he will die; and the rest of us will become my lord’s slaves.”
10 “Very well, then,” he said, “let it be as you say. Whoever is found to have it will become my slave; the rest of you will be free from blame.”
11 Each of them quickly lowered his sack to the ground and opened it. 12 Then the steward proceeded to search, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. 13 At this, they tore their clothes. Then they all loaded their donkeys and returned to the city.
14 Joseph was still in the house when Judah and his brothers came in, and they threw themselves to the ground before him. 15 Joseph said to them, “What is this you have done? Don’t you know that a man like me can find things out by divination?”
16 “What can we say to my lord?” Judah replied. “What can we say? How can we prove our innocence? God has uncovered your servants’ guilt. We are now my lord’s slaves—we ourselves and the one who was found to have the cup.”
17 But Joseph said, “Far be it from me to do such a thing! Only the man who was found to have the cup will become my slave. The rest of you, go back to your father in peace.”
18 Then Judah went up to him and said: “Pardon your servant, my lord, let me speak a word to my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, though you are equal to Pharaoh himself. 19 My lord asked his servants, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’ 20 And we answered, ‘We have an aged father, and there is a young son born to him in his old age. His brother is dead, and he is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and his father loves him.’
21 “Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me so I can see him for myself.’ 22 And we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father; if he leaves him, his father will die.’ 23 But you told your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.’ 24 When we went back to your servant my father, we told him what my lord had said.
25 “Then our father said, ‘Go back and buy a little more food.’ 26 But we said, ‘We cannot go down. Only if our youngest brother is with us will we go. We cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’
27 “Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons. 28 One of them went away from me, and I said, “He has surely been torn to pieces.” And I have not seen him since. 29 If you take this one from me too and harm comes to him, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in misery.’
30 “So now, if the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant my father, and if my father, whose life is closely bound up with the boy’s life, 31 sees that the boy isn’t there, he will die. Your servants will bring the gray head of our father down to the grave in sorrow. 32 Your servant guaranteed the boy’s safety to my father. I said, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before you, my father, all my life!’
33 “Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. 34 How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come on my father.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Zechariah 12:10-14
Zechariah 12:10-14 (NIV)Zec 10 "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. 11 On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be great, like the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 The land will mourn, each clan by itself, with their wives by themselves: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, 13 the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, 14 and all the rest of the clans and their wives.
Jesus At The Center
December 18, 2010 — by Dennis Fisher
Then they will look on Me whom they pierced. —Zechariah 12:10
Have you heard of the “Christocentric Principle” of biblical understanding? Simply put, it means that everything we know about God, angels, Satan, human hopes, and the whole universe is best understood when viewed in relationship to Jesus Christ. He is at the center.
Recently, I discovered that one of the less familiar Old Testament books, Zechariah, is one of the most Christocentric. This book is a good example because it speaks of Christ’s humanity (6:12), His humility (9:9), His betrayal (11:12), His deity (12:8), His crucifixion (12:10), His return (14:4), and His future reign (14:8-21).
One especially meaningful passage is Zechariah 12:10, which says, “Then they will look on Me whom they pierced.” The piercing refers to Israel’s historic rejection of Jesus as Messiah— resulting in His crucifixion. But this verse also predicts a future generation of Jews who will accept Him as their Messiah. At the second coming of Jesus, a remnant of Israel will recognize the crucified One and turn to Him in faith.
This marvelous book should encourage us to look for more Christ-centered truths—both in other parts of the Bible and in all of life. Keep Jesus in the middle of everything. Live a Christocentric life.
Some have read God’s holy Book
But failed to see its glory;
That’s because they didn’t know
It’s really Jesus’ story. —Branon
Jesus Christ is the Key that unlocks the Word of God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 18th, 2010
Test of Faithfulness
We know that all things work together for good to those who love God . . . —Romans 8:28
It is only a faithful person who truly believes that God sovereignly controls his circumstances. We take our circumstances for granted, saying God is in control, but not really believing it. We act as if the things that happen were completely controlled by people. To be faithful in every circumstance means that we have only one loyalty, or object of our faith— the Lord Jesus Christ. God may cause our circumstances to suddenly fall apart, which may bring the realization of our unfaithfulness to Him for not recognizing that He had ordained the situation. We never saw what He was trying to accomplish, and that exact event will never be repeated in our life. This is where the test of our faithfulness comes. If we will just learn to worship God even during the difficult circumstances, He will change them for the better very quickly if He so chooses.
Being faithful to Jesus Christ is the most difficult thing we try to do today. We will be faithful to our work, to serving others, or to anything else; just don’t ask us to be faithful to Jesus Christ. Many Christians become very impatient when we talk about faithfulness to Jesus. Our Lord is dethroned more deliberately by Christian workers than by the world. We treat God as if He were a machine designed only to bless us, and we think of Jesus as just another one of the workers.
The goal of faithfulness is not that we will do work for God, but that He will be free to do His work through us. God calls us to His service and places tremendous responsibilities on us. He expects no complaining on our part and offers no explanation on His part. God wants to use us as He used His own Son.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Genesis 43, Bible reading and Daily Devotions
Max Lucado Daily: Rooted in God’s Love
Rooted in God’s Love
Posted: 16 Dec 2010 10:01 PM PST
We know and rely on the love God has for us. I John 4:16 NIV
The secret to loving is living loved…
Does bumping into certain people leave you brittle, breakable, and fruitless?... If so, your love may be grounded in the wrong soil. It may be rooted in their love (which is fickle) or in your resolve to love (which is frail). John urges us to “rely on the love God has for us” (I John 4:16, NIV). He alone is the power source.
Genesis 43
The Second Journey to Egypt
1 Now the famine was still severe in the land. 2 So when they had eaten all the grain they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go back and buy us a little more food.”
3 But Judah said to him, “The man warned us solemnly, ‘You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.’ 4 If you will send our brother along with us, we will go down and buy food for you. 5 But if you will not send him, we will not go down, because the man said to us, ‘You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.’”
6 Israel asked, “Why did you bring this trouble on me by telling the man you had another brother?”
7 They replied, “The man questioned us closely about ourselves and our family. ‘Is your father still living?’ he asked us. ‘Do you have another brother?’ We simply answered his questions. How were we to know he would say, ‘Bring your brother down here’?”
8 Then Judah said to Israel his father, “Send the boy along with me and we will go at once, so that we and you and our children may live and not die. 9 I myself will guarantee his safety; you can hold me personally responsible for him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him here before you, I will bear the blame before you all my life. 10 As it is, if we had not delayed, we could have gone and returned twice.”
11 Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be, then do this: Put some of the best products of the land in your bags and take them down to the man as a gift—a little balm and a little honey, some spices and myrrh, some pistachio nuts and almonds. 12 Take double the amount of silver with you, for you must return the silver that was put back into the mouths of your sacks. Perhaps it was a mistake. 13 Take your brother also and go back to the man at once. 14 And may God Almighty grant you mercy before the man so that he will let your other brother and Benjamin come back with you. As for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved.”
15 So the men took the gifts and double the amount of silver, and Benjamin also. They hurried down to Egypt and presented themselves to Joseph. 16 When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, “Take these men to my house, slaughter an animal and prepare a meal; they are to eat with me at noon.”
17 The man did as Joseph told him and took the men to Joseph’s house. 18 Now the men were frightened when they were taken to his house. They thought, “We were brought here because of the silver that was put back into our sacks the first time. He wants to attack us and overpower us and seize us as slaves and take our donkeys.”
19 So they went up to Joseph’s steward and spoke to him at the entrance to the house. 20 “We beg your pardon, our lord,” they said, “we came down here the first time to buy food. 21 But at the place where we stopped for the night we opened our sacks and each of us found his silver—the exact weight—in the mouth of his sack. So we have brought it back with us. 22 We have also brought additional silver with us to buy food. We don’t know who put our silver in our sacks.”
23 “It’s all right,” he said. “Don’t be afraid. Your God, the God of your father, has given you treasure in your sacks; I received your silver.” Then he brought Simeon out to them.
24 The steward took the men into Joseph’s house, gave them water to wash their feet and provided fodder for their donkeys. 25 They prepared their gifts for Joseph’s arrival at noon, because they had heard that they were to eat there.
26 When Joseph came home, they presented to him the gifts they had brought into the house, and they bowed down before him to the ground. 27 He asked them how they were, and then he said, “How is your aged father you told me about? Is he still living?”
28 They replied, “Your servant our father is still alive and well.” And they bowed down, prostrating themselves before him.
29 As he looked about and saw his brother Benjamin, his own mother’s son, he asked, “Is this your youngest brother, the one you told me about?” And he said, “God be gracious to you, my son.” 30 Deeply moved at the sight of his brother, Joseph hurried out and looked for a place to weep. He went into his private room and wept there.
31 After he had washed his face, he came out and, controlling himself, said, “Serve the food.”
32 They served him by himself, the brothers by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because Egyptians could not eat with Hebrews, for that is detestable to Egyptians. 33 The men had been seated before him in the order of their ages, from the firstborn to the youngest; and they looked at each other in astonishment. 34 When portions were served to them from Joseph’s table, Benjamin’s portion was five times as much as anyone else’s. So they feasted and drank freely with him.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: 1 Corinthians 13
1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (NIV)1Co 1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
God’s Love Through Me
December 17, 2010 — by David C. McCasland
Love never fails. —1 Corinthians 13:8
During a devotional session at a conference, our leader asked us to read aloud 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, and substitute the word “Jesus” for “love.” It seemed so natural to say, “Jesus suffers long and is kind; Jesus does not envy; Jesus does not parade Himself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek His own . . . . Jesus never fails.”
Then our leader said, “Read the passage aloud and say your name instead of Jesus.” We laughed nervously at the suggestion. “I want you to begin now,” the leader said. Quietly, haltingly I said the words that felt so untrue: “David does not seek his own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. David never fails.”
The exercise caused me to ask, “How am I hindering God from expressing His love through me?” Do I think that other expressions of faith are more important? Paul declared that from God’s perspective, eloquent speech, deep spiritual understanding, lavish generosity, and self-sacrifice are worthless when not accompanied by love (vv.1-3).
God longs to express His great heart of love for others through us. Will we allow Him to do it?
To love our neighbors as ourselves
Is not an easy thing to do;
So Lord, please show us how to love
As we attempt to follow You. —Sper
Living like Christ is loving like God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 17th, 2010
Redemption— Creating the Need it Satisfies
The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him . . . —1 Corinthians 2:14
The gospel of God creates the sense of need for the gospel. Is the gospel hidden to those who are servants already? No, Paul said, “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe . . .” (2 Corinthians 4:3-4). The majority of people think of themselves as being completely moral, and have no sense of need for the gospel. It is God who creates this sense of need in a human being, but that person remains totally unaware of his need until God makes Himself evident. Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you . . .” (Matthew 7:7). But God cannot give until a man asks. It is not that He wants to withhold something from us, but that is the plan He has established for the way of redemption. Through our asking, God puts His process in motion, creating something in us that was nonexistent until we asked. The inner reality of redemption is that it creates all the time. And as redemption creates the life of God in us, it also creates the things which belong to that life. The only thing that can possibly satisfy the need is what created the need. This is the meaning of redemption— it creates and it satisfies.
Jesus said, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself” (John 12:32). When we preach our own experiences, people may be interested, but it awakens no real sense of need. But once Jesus Christ is “lifted up,” the Spirit of God creates an awareness of the need for Him. The creative power of the redemption of God works in the souls of men only through the preaching of the gospel. It is never the sharing of personal experiences that saves people, but the truth of redemption. “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
A Tsunami Every Day - #6245
Friday, December 17, 2010
Fifty September 11ths. We'll never forget the horror we felt when we saw nearly 3,000 people die on that single day. But on the day after Christmas 2004, a monster tsunami hit several countries in South Asia and Africa, you remember, and 150,000 died in one day! That's 50 September 11ths! How do you begin to grasp a death toll like that? But, believe it or not, it's a sobering reminder of an even greater tragedy!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Tsunami Every Day."
Every day in this world 150,000 people are swept into eternity. Every 24 hours we lose as many of our fellow humans as were lost on the day of that tsunami. The daily tsunami of death happens quietly, and invisibly for most of us. Eternity begins every day for 150,000 people in our world - many them, if not most of them, totally unready to meet God.
Tragically, many of the people who died in the surging waters of the tsunami did not have to die - if only there had been a warning system in place. Where people did get a warning, they headed for high ground and survived. Now, God has established a worldwide warning system to help people escape the tsunami of His judgment, to help them spend eternity with Him. That warning system is His people. People like us.
In Acts 1:8 , our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus said to His followers, "You will be My witnesse..." That hasn't changed. He's counting on us to represent Him - to, in a sense, stand in for Him and give the warning to a dying world. The warning tells us that "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23 ) and that only Jesus could, only Jesus did die so we don't have to. Sin's death penalty can't be paid by doing good. Somebody has to die. Somebody did - He's the only Son of God. This isn't about Christianity being the only true religion. It's about Jesus being the only Savior there is because no one else even claimed to die for our sin. If there was any other way to God, believe me, Jesus would not have suffered that horrible death on the cross.
When you consider that 150,000 people go into eternity every day and that they have no hope without Jesus, shouldn't that make us look at what we're spending our time on, what we're spending our money on, what we're spending our life on? How can the warning system be silent when the tsunami is coming for more people every day? 2 Corinthians 5:20 rests the responsibility squarely on those who belong to Jesus. It calls us "Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you, on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.'"
We've had a wakeup call, watching so many swept into eternity at one time; reminding us that for 150,000 people every day, it's heaven or hell. Think about your life in light of that reality. How can we be content to live lives that revolve only around ourselves and our little world? How can we be content for our church to be so caught up in keeping all the programs going and just surviving when we lose so many every day without them ever having a chance? And don't we need to broaden the scope of our sometimes myopic prayers and pray as Jesus did "that the world may know" (John 17:23 )? God so loved the world. How can we do less?
You have nothing more important you can do with the rest of your life than to invest it in getting the life-saving news about Jesus to as many people as possible while there's still time. Because we are God's warning system. To know the wave is coming and remain silent is to let people die who otherwise might have lived.
Rooted in God’s Love
Posted: 16 Dec 2010 10:01 PM PST
We know and rely on the love God has for us. I John 4:16 NIV
The secret to loving is living loved…
Does bumping into certain people leave you brittle, breakable, and fruitless?... If so, your love may be grounded in the wrong soil. It may be rooted in their love (which is fickle) or in your resolve to love (which is frail). John urges us to “rely on the love God has for us” (I John 4:16, NIV). He alone is the power source.
Genesis 43
The Second Journey to Egypt
1 Now the famine was still severe in the land. 2 So when they had eaten all the grain they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go back and buy us a little more food.”
3 But Judah said to him, “The man warned us solemnly, ‘You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.’ 4 If you will send our brother along with us, we will go down and buy food for you. 5 But if you will not send him, we will not go down, because the man said to us, ‘You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.’”
6 Israel asked, “Why did you bring this trouble on me by telling the man you had another brother?”
7 They replied, “The man questioned us closely about ourselves and our family. ‘Is your father still living?’ he asked us. ‘Do you have another brother?’ We simply answered his questions. How were we to know he would say, ‘Bring your brother down here’?”
8 Then Judah said to Israel his father, “Send the boy along with me and we will go at once, so that we and you and our children may live and not die. 9 I myself will guarantee his safety; you can hold me personally responsible for him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him here before you, I will bear the blame before you all my life. 10 As it is, if we had not delayed, we could have gone and returned twice.”
11 Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be, then do this: Put some of the best products of the land in your bags and take them down to the man as a gift—a little balm and a little honey, some spices and myrrh, some pistachio nuts and almonds. 12 Take double the amount of silver with you, for you must return the silver that was put back into the mouths of your sacks. Perhaps it was a mistake. 13 Take your brother also and go back to the man at once. 14 And may God Almighty grant you mercy before the man so that he will let your other brother and Benjamin come back with you. As for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved.”
15 So the men took the gifts and double the amount of silver, and Benjamin also. They hurried down to Egypt and presented themselves to Joseph. 16 When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, “Take these men to my house, slaughter an animal and prepare a meal; they are to eat with me at noon.”
17 The man did as Joseph told him and took the men to Joseph’s house. 18 Now the men were frightened when they were taken to his house. They thought, “We were brought here because of the silver that was put back into our sacks the first time. He wants to attack us and overpower us and seize us as slaves and take our donkeys.”
19 So they went up to Joseph’s steward and spoke to him at the entrance to the house. 20 “We beg your pardon, our lord,” they said, “we came down here the first time to buy food. 21 But at the place where we stopped for the night we opened our sacks and each of us found his silver—the exact weight—in the mouth of his sack. So we have brought it back with us. 22 We have also brought additional silver with us to buy food. We don’t know who put our silver in our sacks.”
23 “It’s all right,” he said. “Don’t be afraid. Your God, the God of your father, has given you treasure in your sacks; I received your silver.” Then he brought Simeon out to them.
24 The steward took the men into Joseph’s house, gave them water to wash their feet and provided fodder for their donkeys. 25 They prepared their gifts for Joseph’s arrival at noon, because they had heard that they were to eat there.
26 When Joseph came home, they presented to him the gifts they had brought into the house, and they bowed down before him to the ground. 27 He asked them how they were, and then he said, “How is your aged father you told me about? Is he still living?”
28 They replied, “Your servant our father is still alive and well.” And they bowed down, prostrating themselves before him.
29 As he looked about and saw his brother Benjamin, his own mother’s son, he asked, “Is this your youngest brother, the one you told me about?” And he said, “God be gracious to you, my son.” 30 Deeply moved at the sight of his brother, Joseph hurried out and looked for a place to weep. He went into his private room and wept there.
31 After he had washed his face, he came out and, controlling himself, said, “Serve the food.”
32 They served him by himself, the brothers by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because Egyptians could not eat with Hebrews, for that is detestable to Egyptians. 33 The men had been seated before him in the order of their ages, from the firstborn to the youngest; and they looked at each other in astonishment. 34 When portions were served to them from Joseph’s table, Benjamin’s portion was five times as much as anyone else’s. So they feasted and drank freely with him.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: 1 Corinthians 13
1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (NIV)1Co 1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
God’s Love Through Me
December 17, 2010 — by David C. McCasland
Love never fails. —1 Corinthians 13:8
During a devotional session at a conference, our leader asked us to read aloud 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, and substitute the word “Jesus” for “love.” It seemed so natural to say, “Jesus suffers long and is kind; Jesus does not envy; Jesus does not parade Himself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek His own . . . . Jesus never fails.”
Then our leader said, “Read the passage aloud and say your name instead of Jesus.” We laughed nervously at the suggestion. “I want you to begin now,” the leader said. Quietly, haltingly I said the words that felt so untrue: “David does not seek his own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. David never fails.”
The exercise caused me to ask, “How am I hindering God from expressing His love through me?” Do I think that other expressions of faith are more important? Paul declared that from God’s perspective, eloquent speech, deep spiritual understanding, lavish generosity, and self-sacrifice are worthless when not accompanied by love (vv.1-3).
God longs to express His great heart of love for others through us. Will we allow Him to do it?
To love our neighbors as ourselves
Is not an easy thing to do;
So Lord, please show us how to love
As we attempt to follow You. —Sper
Living like Christ is loving like God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 17th, 2010
Redemption— Creating the Need it Satisfies
The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him . . . —1 Corinthians 2:14
The gospel of God creates the sense of need for the gospel. Is the gospel hidden to those who are servants already? No, Paul said, “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe . . .” (2 Corinthians 4:3-4). The majority of people think of themselves as being completely moral, and have no sense of need for the gospel. It is God who creates this sense of need in a human being, but that person remains totally unaware of his need until God makes Himself evident. Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you . . .” (Matthew 7:7). But God cannot give until a man asks. It is not that He wants to withhold something from us, but that is the plan He has established for the way of redemption. Through our asking, God puts His process in motion, creating something in us that was nonexistent until we asked. The inner reality of redemption is that it creates all the time. And as redemption creates the life of God in us, it also creates the things which belong to that life. The only thing that can possibly satisfy the need is what created the need. This is the meaning of redemption— it creates and it satisfies.
Jesus said, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself” (John 12:32). When we preach our own experiences, people may be interested, but it awakens no real sense of need. But once Jesus Christ is “lifted up,” the Spirit of God creates an awareness of the need for Him. The creative power of the redemption of God works in the souls of men only through the preaching of the gospel. It is never the sharing of personal experiences that saves people, but the truth of redemption. “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
A Tsunami Every Day - #6245
Friday, December 17, 2010
Fifty September 11ths. We'll never forget the horror we felt when we saw nearly 3,000 people die on that single day. But on the day after Christmas 2004, a monster tsunami hit several countries in South Asia and Africa, you remember, and 150,000 died in one day! That's 50 September 11ths! How do you begin to grasp a death toll like that? But, believe it or not, it's a sobering reminder of an even greater tragedy!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Tsunami Every Day."
Every day in this world 150,000 people are swept into eternity. Every 24 hours we lose as many of our fellow humans as were lost on the day of that tsunami. The daily tsunami of death happens quietly, and invisibly for most of us. Eternity begins every day for 150,000 people in our world - many them, if not most of them, totally unready to meet God.
Tragically, many of the people who died in the surging waters of the tsunami did not have to die - if only there had been a warning system in place. Where people did get a warning, they headed for high ground and survived. Now, God has established a worldwide warning system to help people escape the tsunami of His judgment, to help them spend eternity with Him. That warning system is His people. People like us.
In Acts 1:8 , our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus said to His followers, "You will be My witnesse..." That hasn't changed. He's counting on us to represent Him - to, in a sense, stand in for Him and give the warning to a dying world. The warning tells us that "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23 ) and that only Jesus could, only Jesus did die so we don't have to. Sin's death penalty can't be paid by doing good. Somebody has to die. Somebody did - He's the only Son of God. This isn't about Christianity being the only true religion. It's about Jesus being the only Savior there is because no one else even claimed to die for our sin. If there was any other way to God, believe me, Jesus would not have suffered that horrible death on the cross.
When you consider that 150,000 people go into eternity every day and that they have no hope without Jesus, shouldn't that make us look at what we're spending our time on, what we're spending our money on, what we're spending our life on? How can the warning system be silent when the tsunami is coming for more people every day? 2 Corinthians 5:20 rests the responsibility squarely on those who belong to Jesus. It calls us "Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you, on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.'"
We've had a wakeup call, watching so many swept into eternity at one time; reminding us that for 150,000 people every day, it's heaven or hell. Think about your life in light of that reality. How can we be content to live lives that revolve only around ourselves and our little world? How can we be content for our church to be so caught up in keeping all the programs going and just surviving when we lose so many every day without them ever having a chance? And don't we need to broaden the scope of our sometimes myopic prayers and pray as Jesus did "that the world may know" (John 17:23 )? God so loved the world. How can we do less?
You have nothing more important you can do with the rest of your life than to invest it in getting the life-saving news about Jesus to as many people as possible while there's still time. Because we are God's warning system. To know the wave is coming and remain silent is to let people die who otherwise might have lived.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Matthew 22, Bible reading and Daily Devotions
Max Lucado Daily: Oh, to See Jesus
Oh, to See Jesus
Posted: 15 Dec 2010 10:01 PM PST
Glory to God in the highest! Luke 2:14, NKJV
For the shepherds it wasn’t enough to see the angels. You’d think it would have been. Night sky shattered with light. Stillness erupting with song. Simple shepherds roused from their sleep and raised to their feet by a choir of angels: “Glory to God in the highest!” Never had these men seen such splendor.
But it wasn’t enough to see the angels. The shepherds wanted to see the one who sent the angels.
Matthew 22
The Parable of the Wedding Banquet
1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
4 “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
5 “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.
13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
Paying the Imperial Tax to Caesar
15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”
18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
21 “Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Isaiah 6:1-8
Isaiah 6:1-8 (NIV)Isa 1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." 4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty." 6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"
The Great Miracle
December 16, 2010 — by Marvin Williams
He touched my mouth with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.” —Isaiah 6:7
Leonard Ravenhill (1907–1994), a British evangelist, once said, “The greatest miracle God can do today is take an unholy man out of an unholy world, make that man holy, then put him back into that unholy world and keep him holy in it.” This seems to be what God did to Isaiah when He called him to speak to His people.
Around the time of the death of Uzziah, one of Judah’s more successful kings, Isaiah had a vision of God. The prophet saw Him as the true King of the universe, sitting on a lofty throne. In the vision, Isaiah saw seraphim worshiping God with a hymn that praised His holiness, majesty, and glory.
Isaiah’s vision of God led to a true vision of himself as unholy and broken before God. “Woe is me, for I am undone!” Isaiah said (6:5). This recognition of sin led him to a need for and the reception of God’s cleansing grace (v.7). Newly cleansed, Isaiah was commissioned to spread God’s message (v.9). The Lord sent Isaiah into an unholy world, not only to live a holy life but also to tell an unholy people about a holy God.
The Lord wants to show Himself to us, thus giving us a truer vision of ourselves, a deeper need for His grace, and a greater commitment to live and speak for Him. What a miracle!
Upon my life shed forth Thy grace,
Till others seek Thy loving face;
Oh, may no thing be seen in me
To cause a soul to stray from Thee! —Roberts
Amid the darkness of sin, the light of God’s grace shines brightest.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 16th, 2010
Wrestling Before God
Take up the whole armor of God . . . praying always . . . —Ephesians 6:13,18
You must learn to wrestle against the things that hinder your communication with God, and wrestle in prayer for other people; but to wrestle with God in prayer is unscriptural. If you ever do wrestle with God, you will be crippled for the rest of your life. If you grab hold of God and wrestle with Him, as Jacob did, simply because He is working in a way that doesn’t meet with your approval, you force Him to put you out of joint (see Genesis 32:24-25). Don’t become a cripple by wrestling with the ways of God, but be someone who wrestles before God with the things of this world, because “we are more than conquerors through Him . . .” (Romans 8:37). Wrestling before God makes an impact in His kingdom. If you ask me to pray for you, and I am not complete in Christ, my prayer accomplishes nothing. But if I am complete in Christ, my prayer brings victory all the time. Prayer is effective only when there is completeness— “take up the whole armor of God . . . .”
Always make a distinction between God’s perfect will and His permissive will, which He uses to accomplish His divine purpose for our lives. God’s perfect will is unchangeable. It is with His permissive will, or the various things that He allows into our lives, that we must wrestle before Him. It is our reaction to these things allowed by His permissive will that enables us to come to the point of seeing His perfect will for us. “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God . . .” (Romans 8:28)— to those who remain true to God’s perfect will— His calling in Christ Jesus. God’s permissive will is the testing He uses to reveal His true sons and daughters. We should not be spineless and automatically say, “Yes, it is the Lord’s will.” We don’t have to fight or wrestle with God, but we must wrestle before God with things. Beware of lazily giving up. Instead, put up a glorious fight and you will find yourself empowered with His strength.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
How God Makes You a Masterpiece - #6244
Thursday, December 16, 2010
OK, I'm a history buff. So my kids had the opportunity to visit many houses and villages that are historic preservations or restorations. They might put that a little differently. "We got dragged to all this history stuff!" Our two sons especially got to dreading that word "tour." In fact, they made it a much longer word. It went something like this: "Oh, we're not going on another toooooo-urrrrr?" One thing that made the toooo-urrrs a little more interesting, were the craftsmen working their crafts. Like the potter, for example. Even the kids enjoyed stopping to watch him do his work. He'd start with this worthless lump of clay and slowly, painstakingly, he would transform it into something really beautiful and valuable. I could tell that, by the gift shop prices on his pottery.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How God Makes You a Masterpiece."
I'm glad I've had the opportunities to watch the ways of the potter. Because, according to the Bible, when I watch the potter, I'm watching a picture of the ways of my God. And that potter picture might give you some meaning to what's going on in your life right now.
Here's how the ways of God are described in Isaiah 64:8 . It's our word for today from the Word of God. "Yet, O lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand." There it is. Me clay, Lord; You potter.
When God wanted to explain to His people the painful events in their lives, He sent His prophet Jeremiah down to the potter's house for an illustration. Jeremiah said: "I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as it seemed best to him." Then the Lord sent this message: "Like the clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in My hand" (Jeremiah 18:1-6 ).
Since this potter parallel is God's idea, let's consider how the ways of the potter may shed some light on the ways of God in your life, in the past and even in your current circumstances. We're all that shapeless lump of clay until we put ourselves in the hands of the Master Potter. Only the One who gave you your life can shape your life into what it was created to be.
How does He make you into a masterpiece? First, there's the purifying. The Potter works to wash out and work out impurities that keep you from becoming something beautiful. And then, there's the poking and the squeezing - the pain which makes us want to ask the Potter, "Why?"
His answer: "I'm shaping you into something of great value. Trust Me." And then there's the heat - 2,000 degrees in that kiln oven. If the clay could talk, it would probably scream, "You're killin' me in here!" No, see the heat solidifies and makes permanent the beautifying work that the Potter's been doing. Without the heat, you lose what He's made you. The heat makes it last.
So whatever you're going through right now is a tool in the hands of the Master Potter. It's not random, it's not just about the situation you can see in front of you. It's the chosen tool of the Potter who is also your loving Father. Let Him do His wonderful work. Trust His loving hands even when you can't understand what He's doing. He's using what's happening to make you more beautiful and more valuable than you could ever imagine.
Oh, to See Jesus
Posted: 15 Dec 2010 10:01 PM PST
Glory to God in the highest! Luke 2:14, NKJV
For the shepherds it wasn’t enough to see the angels. You’d think it would have been. Night sky shattered with light. Stillness erupting with song. Simple shepherds roused from their sleep and raised to their feet by a choir of angels: “Glory to God in the highest!” Never had these men seen such splendor.
But it wasn’t enough to see the angels. The shepherds wanted to see the one who sent the angels.
Matthew 22
The Parable of the Wedding Banquet
1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
4 “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
5 “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.
13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
Paying the Imperial Tax to Caesar
15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”
18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
21 “Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Isaiah 6:1-8
Isaiah 6:1-8 (NIV)Isa 1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." 4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty." 6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"
The Great Miracle
December 16, 2010 — by Marvin Williams
He touched my mouth with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.” —Isaiah 6:7
Leonard Ravenhill (1907–1994), a British evangelist, once said, “The greatest miracle God can do today is take an unholy man out of an unholy world, make that man holy, then put him back into that unholy world and keep him holy in it.” This seems to be what God did to Isaiah when He called him to speak to His people.
Around the time of the death of Uzziah, one of Judah’s more successful kings, Isaiah had a vision of God. The prophet saw Him as the true King of the universe, sitting on a lofty throne. In the vision, Isaiah saw seraphim worshiping God with a hymn that praised His holiness, majesty, and glory.
Isaiah’s vision of God led to a true vision of himself as unholy and broken before God. “Woe is me, for I am undone!” Isaiah said (6:5). This recognition of sin led him to a need for and the reception of God’s cleansing grace (v.7). Newly cleansed, Isaiah was commissioned to spread God’s message (v.9). The Lord sent Isaiah into an unholy world, not only to live a holy life but also to tell an unholy people about a holy God.
The Lord wants to show Himself to us, thus giving us a truer vision of ourselves, a deeper need for His grace, and a greater commitment to live and speak for Him. What a miracle!
Upon my life shed forth Thy grace,
Till others seek Thy loving face;
Oh, may no thing be seen in me
To cause a soul to stray from Thee! —Roberts
Amid the darkness of sin, the light of God’s grace shines brightest.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 16th, 2010
Wrestling Before God
Take up the whole armor of God . . . praying always . . . —Ephesians 6:13,18
You must learn to wrestle against the things that hinder your communication with God, and wrestle in prayer for other people; but to wrestle with God in prayer is unscriptural. If you ever do wrestle with God, you will be crippled for the rest of your life. If you grab hold of God and wrestle with Him, as Jacob did, simply because He is working in a way that doesn’t meet with your approval, you force Him to put you out of joint (see Genesis 32:24-25). Don’t become a cripple by wrestling with the ways of God, but be someone who wrestles before God with the things of this world, because “we are more than conquerors through Him . . .” (Romans 8:37). Wrestling before God makes an impact in His kingdom. If you ask me to pray for you, and I am not complete in Christ, my prayer accomplishes nothing. But if I am complete in Christ, my prayer brings victory all the time. Prayer is effective only when there is completeness— “take up the whole armor of God . . . .”
Always make a distinction between God’s perfect will and His permissive will, which He uses to accomplish His divine purpose for our lives. God’s perfect will is unchangeable. It is with His permissive will, or the various things that He allows into our lives, that we must wrestle before Him. It is our reaction to these things allowed by His permissive will that enables us to come to the point of seeing His perfect will for us. “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God . . .” (Romans 8:28)— to those who remain true to God’s perfect will— His calling in Christ Jesus. God’s permissive will is the testing He uses to reveal His true sons and daughters. We should not be spineless and automatically say, “Yes, it is the Lord’s will.” We don’t have to fight or wrestle with God, but we must wrestle before God with things. Beware of lazily giving up. Instead, put up a glorious fight and you will find yourself empowered with His strength.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
How God Makes You a Masterpiece - #6244
Thursday, December 16, 2010
OK, I'm a history buff. So my kids had the opportunity to visit many houses and villages that are historic preservations or restorations. They might put that a little differently. "We got dragged to all this history stuff!" Our two sons especially got to dreading that word "tour." In fact, they made it a much longer word. It went something like this: "Oh, we're not going on another toooooo-urrrrr?" One thing that made the toooo-urrrs a little more interesting, were the craftsmen working their crafts. Like the potter, for example. Even the kids enjoyed stopping to watch him do his work. He'd start with this worthless lump of clay and slowly, painstakingly, he would transform it into something really beautiful and valuable. I could tell that, by the gift shop prices on his pottery.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How God Makes You a Masterpiece."
I'm glad I've had the opportunities to watch the ways of the potter. Because, according to the Bible, when I watch the potter, I'm watching a picture of the ways of my God. And that potter picture might give you some meaning to what's going on in your life right now.
Here's how the ways of God are described in Isaiah 64:8 . It's our word for today from the Word of God. "Yet, O lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand." There it is. Me clay, Lord; You potter.
When God wanted to explain to His people the painful events in their lives, He sent His prophet Jeremiah down to the potter's house for an illustration. Jeremiah said: "I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as it seemed best to him." Then the Lord sent this message: "Like the clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in My hand" (Jeremiah 18:1-6 ).
Since this potter parallel is God's idea, let's consider how the ways of the potter may shed some light on the ways of God in your life, in the past and even in your current circumstances. We're all that shapeless lump of clay until we put ourselves in the hands of the Master Potter. Only the One who gave you your life can shape your life into what it was created to be.
How does He make you into a masterpiece? First, there's the purifying. The Potter works to wash out and work out impurities that keep you from becoming something beautiful. And then, there's the poking and the squeezing - the pain which makes us want to ask the Potter, "Why?"
His answer: "I'm shaping you into something of great value. Trust Me." And then there's the heat - 2,000 degrees in that kiln oven. If the clay could talk, it would probably scream, "You're killin' me in here!" No, see the heat solidifies and makes permanent the beautifying work that the Potter's been doing. Without the heat, you lose what He's made you. The heat makes it last.
So whatever you're going through right now is a tool in the hands of the Master Potter. It's not random, it's not just about the situation you can see in front of you. It's the chosen tool of the Potter who is also your loving Father. Let Him do His wonderful work. Trust His loving hands even when you can't understand what He's doing. He's using what's happening to make you more beautiful and more valuable than you could ever imagine.
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