Thank You!
By Max Lucado
Thank the Lord because
he is good. His love continues forever.
Psalm 106:1
Unfortunately, saying “thank you” isn’t all that common.
And yet, it’s what worship is all about.
Worship is when you’re aware that what you’ve been given is far greater than what you can give. Worship is that awareness that were it not for his touch, you’d still be hurting, bitter and broken. Worship is the half-glazed expression on the parched face of a desert pilgrim as he discovers that the oasis is not a mirage.
When we try to make a science out of worship—we can’t do it. No more than we can “sell love” or “negotiate peace.”
Worship is a voluntary act of gratitude offered by the saved to the Savior, by the healed to the Healer, and by the delivered to the Deliverer.
Worship is the “thank you” that refuses to be silenced.
John 7
Jesus Goes to the Festival of Tabernacles
1 After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want[a] to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him. 2 But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, 3 Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. 4 No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 For even his own brothers did not believe in him.
6 Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. 8 You go to the festival. I am not[b] going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.” 9 After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee.
10 However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. 11 Now at the festival the Jewish leaders were watching for Jesus and asking, “Where is he?”
12 Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, “He is a good man.”
Others replied, “No, he deceives the people.” 13 But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the leaders.
Jesus Teaches at the Festival
14 Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. 15 The Jews there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught?”
16 Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. 17 Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. 18 Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. 19 Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”
20 “You are demon-possessed,” the crowd answered. “Who is trying to kill you?”
21 Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed. 22 Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath. 23 Now if a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing a man’s whole body on the Sabbath? 24 Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.”
Division Over Who Jesus Is
25 At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? 26 Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Messiah? 27 But we know where this man is from; when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Galatians 6:1-10
Doing Good to All
1 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. 2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3 If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. 4 Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, 5 for each one should carry their own load. 6 Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.
7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
Choices And Consequences
December 28, 2011 — by Bill Crowder
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. —Galatians 6:7
In the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool, England, the devastation of generations of enslaved men, women, and children is remembered. The price innocent people have paid for the greed of others is horrific—but theirs is not the only cost. Engraved in a wall of the museum is a profound observation made by Frederick Douglass, former slave and crusader for human rights, which reads, “No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.” In the act of dehumanizing others, we dehumanize ourselves.
The apostle Paul put it another way when he wrote, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Gal. 6:7). Paul’s words form a stark reminder to us that our choices have consequences—and that includes how we choose to treat others. When we choose to hate, that hate can return to us in the form of consequences that we can never fully prepare for. We can find ourselves alienated from others, angry with ourselves, and hamstrung in our ability to serve Christ effectively.
Instead, let’s choose “not [to] grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap . . . . As we have opportunity, let us do good to all” (vv.9-10).
Sowing seeds of greed and hatred
Reaps corruption, loss, and pain;
But if we sow love and kindness,
We will reap eternal gain. —Sper
The seeds we sow today
determine the kind of fruit we’ll reap tomorrow.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Continuous Conversion
. . . unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven —Matthew 18:3
These words of our Lord refer to our initial conversion, but we should continue to turn to God as children, being continuously converted every day of our lives. If we trust in our own abilities, instead of God’s, we produce consequences for which God will hold us responsible. When God through His sovereignty brings us into new situations, we should immediately make sure that our natural life submits to the spiritual, obeying the orders of the Spirit of God. Just because we have responded properly in the past is no guarantee that we will do so again. The response of the natural to the spiritual should be continuous conversion, but this is where we so often refuse to be obedient. No matter what our situation is, the Spirit of God remains unchanged and His salvation unaltered. But we must “put on the new man . . .” (Ephesians 4:24). God holds us accountable every time we refuse to convert ourselves, and He sees our refusal as willful disobedience. Our natural life must not rule— God must rule in us.
To refuse to be continuously converted puts a stumbling block in the growth of our spiritual life. There are areas of self-will in our lives where our pride pours contempt on the throne of God and says, “I won’t submit.” We deify our independence and self-will and call them by the wrong name. What God sees as stubborn weakness, we call strength. There are whole areas of our lives that have not yet been brought into submission, and this can only be done by this continuous conversion. Slowly but surely we can claim the whole territory for the Spirit of God.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Gospel According To the Birds - #6513
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
So who needs an alarm clock in our neighborhood? We've got ravens! Yeah, those big black birds discovered our backyard. Now, ravens apparently are early risers, a little earlier than most people are. And they are also, shall we say, active conversationalists. Which makes them wonderful alarm clocks for those early morning hours whether you want them or not! Frankly I don't mind it. It's great to have all the birds singing their little spring concert in our yard. Actually, they do more than sing, they preach!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Gospel According To the Birds."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Luke 12 , where we find the Gospel from the birds. The Gospel's not for the birds, no, it's from the birds. The subject of their sermon is security. And that might be an issue that you have reason to be concerned about right now.
Well, Jesus has just told this in this passage about a man whose idea of security echoes that of almost everyone around us. He has a lot of crops to take care of, and he says in Luke 12:18 , "I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to myself, 'You have plenty of good things laid up for many years.'" Well, that's pretty much our world's concept of security. "What have you got in your storeroom, man? What have you got to fall back on? What have you got in your IRA? What have you got for retirement? What have you got in case medical emergencies come up?"
Then here comes the message from that bird passage in the Bible as Jesus talks to us beginning at verse 22, "Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body what you will wear. Life is more than food and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens...'" Well, I have no choice. They make sure I consider them every morning. Jesus said, "Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap. They have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable are you than birds!"
I love these simple words, "They have no storeroom, yet God feeds them." And then He says, "If He'll do that for the ravens, He'll surely do that for you." Now, we live in a world that says surplus equals security. The Gospel according to the birds is simple but eloquent. It says, "Our security is this: We have a Father who is a great provider. That's where your security is; not what you have in your storeroom."
Jesus goes on to talk about how the pagans are chasing after things and after material security. But He says, "You seek His kingdom, and then sell what you have and give to the poor, and pass on the kingdom to other people." You're secure. Not because you can see where it's going to come from, but because of who your Father is. In fact, I wonder if some day Jesus isn't going to return and say to a lot of us, "What are you doing sitting on all of that? Why do you have so much in your storeroom?"
See, we are Father-fed people. We don't need big reserves. We're to feed others with the gifts that He's given to us. You don't ever have to worry about having enough. In fact, one day those ravens proved that God will always find a way to meet your need. When every other source of security and supply was cut off from Elijah, the ravens brought it. God will always find a way, even if you have to keep your window open for the ravens to come in with it.
If the usual means of supply are cut off, God doesn't need those. It's been God that's been the source all along. He'll deliver it another way. He will feed you from His storeroom. If you don't believe me, just ask the birds.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Psalm 6, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals (Click to listen to God’s teaching)
Max Lucado Daily: He Understands
And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Matthew 10:30
God cares for you! So much so, he’s got the hairs on your head numbered.
Why did he grow weary in Samaria (John 4:6), disturbed in Nazareth (Mark 6:6), and angry in the Temple (John 2:15)? Why was he sleepy in the boat on the Sea of Galilee (Mark 4:38), sad at the tomb of Lazarus (John 11:35), and hungry in the wilderness (Matt. 4:2)?
Why? Why did he endure all these feelings? Because he knew you would feel them too.
He knew you would be weary, disturbed, and angry. He knew you’d be sleepy, grief-stricken, and hungry. He knew you’d face pain. If not the pain of the body, the pain of the soul … pain too sharp for any drug. He knew you’d face thirst—a thirst for truth. And the truth we glean from the image of a thirsty Christ is—he understands.
And because he understands, you can come to him.
Psalm 6[f]
For the director of music. With stringed instruments. According to sheminith.[g] A psalm of David.
1 LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger
or discipline me in your wrath.
2 Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am faint;
heal me, LORD, for my bones are in agony.
3 My soul is in deep anguish.
How long, LORD, how long?
4 Turn, LORD, and deliver me;
save me because of your unfailing love.
5 Among the dead no one proclaims your name.
Who praises you from the grave?
6 I am worn out from my groaning.
All night long I flood my bed with weeping
and drench my couch with tears.
7 My eyes grow weak with sorrow;
they fail because of all my foes.
8 Away from me, all you who do evil,
for the LORD has heard my weeping.
9 The LORD has heard my cry for mercy;
the LORD accepts my prayer.
10 All my enemies will be overwhelmed with shame and anguish;
they will turn back and suddenly be put to shame.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: 2 Corinthians 4:7-18
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
13 It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.”[a] Since we have that same spirit of[b] faith, we also believe and therefore speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. 15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Grace-Filled Waiting
December 27, 2011 — by Anne Cetas
We do not lose heart. —2 Corinthians 4:16
Roger lost his job due to the company being downsized. For months he searched, applied for jobs, prayed, asked others to pray, and trusted God. Roger and his wife Jerrie’s emotions fluctuated though. They saw God provide for them in unexpected ways and experienced His grace, but sometimes they worried that a job would never come. For 15 long months, they waited.
Then Roger had three interviews with a company, and a week later the employment agency called and said, “Have you heard the saying, ‘Sometimes clouds have a silver lining’? Well, you’ve got the job!” Jerrie told me later, “We wouldn’t trade this hard experience for anything. It brought us closer together and closer to the Lord.” Friends who had prayed rejoiced and gave thanks to God.
Paul wanted the Corinthian church to see the grace of God at work in his life, which could cause “thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God” (2 Cor. 4:15). His trials were so severe that he was “hard pressed on every side,” “perplexed,” “persecuted,” and “struck down” (vv.8-9). Yet he encouraged the people not to lose heart in troubles (v.16) but to trust God. During our difficulties, we can be drawn nearer to God and others, as Roger and Jerrie experienced, and praise will go to the Lord for His grace.
Thank the Lord when trouble comes,
His love and grace expressing;
Grateful praise releases faith,
Turns trials into blessing. —Egner
There’s no better time to praise God than right now.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Where the Battle is Won or Lost
’If you will return, O Israel,’ says the Lord . . . —Jeremiah 4:1
Our battles are first won or lost in the secret places of our will in God’s presence, never in full view of the world. The Spirit of God seizes me and I am compelled to get alone with God and fight the battle before Him. Until I do this, I will lose every time. The battle may take one minute or one year, but that will depend on me, not God. However long it takes, I must wrestle with it alone before God, and I must resolve to go through the hell of renunciation or rejection before Him. Nothing has any power over someone who has fought the battle before God and won there.
I should never say, “I will wait until I get into difficult circumstances and then I’ll put God to the test.” Trying to do that will not work. I must first get the issue settled between God and myself in the secret places of my soul, where no one else can interfere. Then I can go ahead, knowing with certainty that the battle is won. Lose it there, and calamity, disaster, and defeat before the world are as sure as the laws of God. The reason the battle is lost is that I fight it first in the external world. Get alone with God, do battle before Him, and settle the matter once and for all.
In dealing with other people, our stance should always be to drive them toward making a decision of their will. That is how surrendering to God begins. Not often, but every once in a while, God brings us to a major turning point— a great crossroads in our life. From that point we either go toward a more and more slow, lazy, and useless Christian life, or we become more and more on fire, giving our utmost for His highest— our best for His glory.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Resigning the Air Band, Joining the Symphony - #6512
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
An air band - that's probably the only kind of band I'll ever play in. Now, if you're around teenagers for a while, you might have the thrill of seeing an air band in action. What will happen is they'll turn on a favorite song, and then they go through all the motions of banging it out of the guitar, beating it out on the drums, belting it out as the lead singer, but there's no guitar, there's no drum. Since they have no instruments, you know what they're playing. They're playing the air - thus air band. It's a lot of activity, but there's nothing coming out.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Resigning the Air Band, Joining the Symphony."
Yeah. We're looking at a life-changing passage out of the Bible today. In fact, if you look at the writings of some of the great spiritual giants of the church, over and over again they will tell you that they read this passage and it changed their lives. The issue in this passage is whether or not your life is bearing fruit; whether anything is really coming out of your life or are you just going through the motions. Remember that air band? It's similar to a lot of Christian activity that just, well, doesn't really produce much result.
Our word for today from the Word of God is in this life-changing passage from John 15. It says, "I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit. While every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes so it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I've spoken to you. Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Well, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, well then you will ask what you wish and it will be given you." He goes on to say, "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command."
Now, if your life in Christ is a little flat right now, there are four questions that come out of this passage that can help restore the life. Get beyond the spiritual air band of just going through the motions like a branch that is still there looking like part of the vine, but nothing's coming off of it. Why don't you get into the symphony? See, that's where the real music comes out of your life again.
Here are the four questions. Number one: "Am I clean?" If it seems like something's wrong spiritually, first of all He says, "Now you are clean." Am I clean? Have I cooperated with the Lord as He's been trying to cut out that trait in me that's holding back His blessing, that action, that habit of mine, that dark way of thinking, of treating people? Am I clean, or am I holding back?
Question Number two: "Am I clinging?" "Remain in Me," Jesus said. You see, one of the great secrets of spiritual victory is to learn that it's not me working for Him, which I have done for so many years of my life. But it's when you relax, and trust, and you draw on Him, and realize it is Him working through you daily. Moment by moment you rest in His resources or else you run on your own.
The third question is: "Am I asking?" He says, "Ask whatever you wish." Asking in faith. Once you know you're clean and you're depending totally on Him for it to happen, you get beyond your own boundaries and you get into Jesus' power when you ask for something that's so big that only God can do it.
Oh yeah, and finally: "Am I sacrificing?" He says, "Am I loving in a self-sacrificing way?" He talks about laying down your life here. "Am I loving in a self-sacrificing way, or am I serving myself?" See, serving Christ becomes just going through the motions when we start just cranking it out instead of following the four secrets of fruit bearing: staying clean, clinging, asking, and sacrificing for others. That creates a natural flow of Christ through you, not a busy, but empty performance.
So quit trying to act like the music comes from you. Let Christ play His symphony through you.
And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Matthew 10:30
God cares for you! So much so, he’s got the hairs on your head numbered.
Why did he grow weary in Samaria (John 4:6), disturbed in Nazareth (Mark 6:6), and angry in the Temple (John 2:15)? Why was he sleepy in the boat on the Sea of Galilee (Mark 4:38), sad at the tomb of Lazarus (John 11:35), and hungry in the wilderness (Matt. 4:2)?
Why? Why did he endure all these feelings? Because he knew you would feel them too.
He knew you would be weary, disturbed, and angry. He knew you’d be sleepy, grief-stricken, and hungry. He knew you’d face pain. If not the pain of the body, the pain of the soul … pain too sharp for any drug. He knew you’d face thirst—a thirst for truth. And the truth we glean from the image of a thirsty Christ is—he understands.
And because he understands, you can come to him.
Psalm 6[f]
For the director of music. With stringed instruments. According to sheminith.[g] A psalm of David.
1 LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger
or discipline me in your wrath.
2 Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am faint;
heal me, LORD, for my bones are in agony.
3 My soul is in deep anguish.
How long, LORD, how long?
4 Turn, LORD, and deliver me;
save me because of your unfailing love.
5 Among the dead no one proclaims your name.
Who praises you from the grave?
6 I am worn out from my groaning.
All night long I flood my bed with weeping
and drench my couch with tears.
7 My eyes grow weak with sorrow;
they fail because of all my foes.
8 Away from me, all you who do evil,
for the LORD has heard my weeping.
9 The LORD has heard my cry for mercy;
the LORD accepts my prayer.
10 All my enemies will be overwhelmed with shame and anguish;
they will turn back and suddenly be put to shame.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: 2 Corinthians 4:7-18
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
13 It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.”[a] Since we have that same spirit of[b] faith, we also believe and therefore speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. 15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Grace-Filled Waiting
December 27, 2011 — by Anne Cetas
We do not lose heart. —2 Corinthians 4:16
Roger lost his job due to the company being downsized. For months he searched, applied for jobs, prayed, asked others to pray, and trusted God. Roger and his wife Jerrie’s emotions fluctuated though. They saw God provide for them in unexpected ways and experienced His grace, but sometimes they worried that a job would never come. For 15 long months, they waited.
Then Roger had three interviews with a company, and a week later the employment agency called and said, “Have you heard the saying, ‘Sometimes clouds have a silver lining’? Well, you’ve got the job!” Jerrie told me later, “We wouldn’t trade this hard experience for anything. It brought us closer together and closer to the Lord.” Friends who had prayed rejoiced and gave thanks to God.
Paul wanted the Corinthian church to see the grace of God at work in his life, which could cause “thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God” (2 Cor. 4:15). His trials were so severe that he was “hard pressed on every side,” “perplexed,” “persecuted,” and “struck down” (vv.8-9). Yet he encouraged the people not to lose heart in troubles (v.16) but to trust God. During our difficulties, we can be drawn nearer to God and others, as Roger and Jerrie experienced, and praise will go to the Lord for His grace.
Thank the Lord when trouble comes,
His love and grace expressing;
Grateful praise releases faith,
Turns trials into blessing. —Egner
There’s no better time to praise God than right now.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Where the Battle is Won or Lost
’If you will return, O Israel,’ says the Lord . . . —Jeremiah 4:1
Our battles are first won or lost in the secret places of our will in God’s presence, never in full view of the world. The Spirit of God seizes me and I am compelled to get alone with God and fight the battle before Him. Until I do this, I will lose every time. The battle may take one minute or one year, but that will depend on me, not God. However long it takes, I must wrestle with it alone before God, and I must resolve to go through the hell of renunciation or rejection before Him. Nothing has any power over someone who has fought the battle before God and won there.
I should never say, “I will wait until I get into difficult circumstances and then I’ll put God to the test.” Trying to do that will not work. I must first get the issue settled between God and myself in the secret places of my soul, where no one else can interfere. Then I can go ahead, knowing with certainty that the battle is won. Lose it there, and calamity, disaster, and defeat before the world are as sure as the laws of God. The reason the battle is lost is that I fight it first in the external world. Get alone with God, do battle before Him, and settle the matter once and for all.
In dealing with other people, our stance should always be to drive them toward making a decision of their will. That is how surrendering to God begins. Not often, but every once in a while, God brings us to a major turning point— a great crossroads in our life. From that point we either go toward a more and more slow, lazy, and useless Christian life, or we become more and more on fire, giving our utmost for His highest— our best for His glory.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Resigning the Air Band, Joining the Symphony - #6512
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
An air band - that's probably the only kind of band I'll ever play in. Now, if you're around teenagers for a while, you might have the thrill of seeing an air band in action. What will happen is they'll turn on a favorite song, and then they go through all the motions of banging it out of the guitar, beating it out on the drums, belting it out as the lead singer, but there's no guitar, there's no drum. Since they have no instruments, you know what they're playing. They're playing the air - thus air band. It's a lot of activity, but there's nothing coming out.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Resigning the Air Band, Joining the Symphony."
Yeah. We're looking at a life-changing passage out of the Bible today. In fact, if you look at the writings of some of the great spiritual giants of the church, over and over again they will tell you that they read this passage and it changed their lives. The issue in this passage is whether or not your life is bearing fruit; whether anything is really coming out of your life or are you just going through the motions. Remember that air band? It's similar to a lot of Christian activity that just, well, doesn't really produce much result.
Our word for today from the Word of God is in this life-changing passage from John 15. It says, "I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit. While every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes so it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I've spoken to you. Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Well, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, well then you will ask what you wish and it will be given you." He goes on to say, "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command."
Now, if your life in Christ is a little flat right now, there are four questions that come out of this passage that can help restore the life. Get beyond the spiritual air band of just going through the motions like a branch that is still there looking like part of the vine, but nothing's coming off of it. Why don't you get into the symphony? See, that's where the real music comes out of your life again.
Here are the four questions. Number one: "Am I clean?" If it seems like something's wrong spiritually, first of all He says, "Now you are clean." Am I clean? Have I cooperated with the Lord as He's been trying to cut out that trait in me that's holding back His blessing, that action, that habit of mine, that dark way of thinking, of treating people? Am I clean, or am I holding back?
Question Number two: "Am I clinging?" "Remain in Me," Jesus said. You see, one of the great secrets of spiritual victory is to learn that it's not me working for Him, which I have done for so many years of my life. But it's when you relax, and trust, and you draw on Him, and realize it is Him working through you daily. Moment by moment you rest in His resources or else you run on your own.
The third question is: "Am I asking?" He says, "Ask whatever you wish." Asking in faith. Once you know you're clean and you're depending totally on Him for it to happen, you get beyond your own boundaries and you get into Jesus' power when you ask for something that's so big that only God can do it.
Oh yeah, and finally: "Am I sacrificing?" He says, "Am I loving in a self-sacrificing way?" He talks about laying down your life here. "Am I loving in a self-sacrificing way, or am I serving myself?" See, serving Christ becomes just going through the motions when we start just cranking it out instead of following the four secrets of fruit bearing: staying clean, clinging, asking, and sacrificing for others. That creates a natural flow of Christ through you, not a busy, but empty performance.
So quit trying to act like the music comes from you. Let Christ play His symphony through you.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Psalm 5, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals (Click to listen to God’s teaching)
Max Lucado Daily: A Compassionate God
He comforts us every time we
have trouble, so when others have trouble,
we can comfort them.
2 Corinthians 1:4
My child’s feelings are hurt. I tell her she’s special.
My child is afraid. I won’t go to sleep until she is secure.
I’m not a hero .… I’m a parent. When a child hurts, a parent does what comes naturally. He helps.…
Why don’t I let my Father do for me what I am more than willing to do for my own children?
I’m learning.
Being a father is teaching me that when I am criticized, injured, or afraid, there is a Father who is ready to comfort me. There is a Father who will hold me until I’m better, help me until I can live with the hurt, and who won’t go to sleep when I’m afraid of waking up and seeing the dark.
Ever.
Psalm 5[e]
For the director of music. For pipes. A psalm of David.
1 Listen to my words, LORD,
consider my lament.
2 Hear my cry for help,
my King and my God,
for to you I pray.
3 In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice;
in the morning I lay my requests before you
and wait expectantly.
4 For you are not a God who is pleased with wickedness;
with you, evil people are not welcome.
5 The arrogant cannot stand
in your presence.
You hate all who do wrong;
6 you destroy those who tell lies.
The bloodthirsty and deceitful
you, LORD, detest.
7 But I, by your great love,
can come into your house;
in reverence I bow down
toward your holy temple.
8 Lead me, LORD, in your righteousness
because of my enemies—
make your way straight before me.
9 Not a word from their mouth can be trusted;
their heart is filled with malice.
Their throat is an open grave;
with their tongues they tell lies.
10 Declare them guilty, O God!
Let their intrigues be their downfall.
Banish them for their many sins,
for they have rebelled against you.
11 But let all who take refuge in you be glad;
let them ever sing for joy.
Spread your protection over them,
that those who love your name may rejoice in you.
12 Surely, LORD, you bless the righteous;
you surround them with your favor as with a shield.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Acts 19:23-41
The Riot in Ephesus
23 About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way. 24 A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in a lot of business for the craftsmen there. 25 He called them together, along with the workers in related trades, and said: “You know, my friends, that we receive a good income from this business. 26 And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that gods made by human hands are no gods at all. 27 There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited; and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty.”
28 When they heard this, they were furious and began shouting: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” 29 Soon the whole city was in an uproar. The people seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia, and all of them rushed into the theater together. 30 Paul wanted to appear before the crowd, but the disciples would not let him. 31 Even some of the officials of the province, friends of Paul, sent him a message begging him not to venture into the theater.
32 The assembly was in confusion: Some were shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there. 33 The Jews in the crowd pushed Alexander to the front, and they shouted instructions to him. He motioned for silence in order to make a defense before the people. 34 But when they realized he was a Jew, they all shouted in unison for about two hours: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
35 The city clerk quieted the crowd and said: “Fellow Ephesians, doesn’t all the world know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of her image, which fell from heaven? 36 Therefore, since these facts are undeniable, you ought to calm down and not do anything rash. 37 You have brought these men here, though they have neither robbed temples nor blasphemed our goddess. 38 If, then, Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a grievance against anybody, the courts are open and there are proconsuls. They can press charges. 39 If there is anything further you want to bring up, it must be settled in a legal assembly. 40 As it is, we are in danger of being charged with rioting because of what happened today. In that case we would not be able to account for this commotion, since there is no reason for it.” 41 After he had said this, he dismissed the assembly.
Wrong Worship
December 26, 2011 — by Dave Branon
This trade of ours [is] in danger of falling into disrepute. —Acts 19:27
If you really want to get folks upset, threaten their economy.
A bad economic picture gets politicians voted out of office, and the threat of a downturn nearly got the apostle Paul kicked out of Ephesus.
Here’s what happened. Paul came to town and started “reasoning and persuading concerning . . . the kingdom of God” (Acts 19:8). For more than 2 years he shared the gospel, and many began following Jesus.
Because Paul was so successful in getting people to see that there is only one true God, many Ephesians stopped worshiping the goddess Diana. This was bad news for the local silversmiths, who made their living creating and selling Diana statuettes. If enough people stopped believing in her, business would dry up. A commotion and an uproar broke out when the craftsmen figured this out.
This Ephesus incident can remind us to evaluate our reasons for worshiping God. The silversmiths wanted to protect their worship as a way of protecting their prosperity, but may that never be said of us. Don’t ever let your worship of God become an avenue to good fortune.
We worship God because of His love for us and because of who He is, not because loving Him can help our bottom line. Let’s worship God the right way.
We worship God for who He is,
And not because of what we’ll get;
When we acknowledge what we owe,
We’ll thank Him that He paid our debt. —Sper
Don’t worship God to gain His benefits— you already have them.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, December 26, 2011
"Walk in the Light"
If we walk in the light as He is in the light . . . the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin —1 John 1:7
To mistake freedom from sin only on the conscious level of our lives for complete deliverance from sin by the atonement through the Cross of Christ is a great error. No one fully knows what sin is until he is born again. Sin is what Jesus Christ faced at Calvary. The evidence that I have been delivered from sin is that I know the real nature of sin in me. For a person to really know what sin is requires the full work and deep touch of the atonement of Jesus Christ, that is, the imparting of His absolute perfection.
The Holy Spirit applies or administers the work of the atonement to us in the deep unconscious realm as well as in the conscious realm. And it is not until we truly perceive the unrivaled power of the Spirit in us that we understand the meaning of 1 John 1:7 , which says, “. . . the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” This verse does not refer only to conscious sin, but also to the tremendously profound understanding of sin which only the Holy Spirit in me can accomplish.
I must “walk in the light as He is in the light . . .”— not in the light of my own conscience, but in God’s light. If I will walk there, with nothing held back or hidden, then this amazing truth is revealed to me: “. . . the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses [me] from all sin” so that God Almighty can see nothing to rebuke in me. On the conscious level it produces a keen, sorrowful knowledge of what sin really is. The love of God working in me causes me to hate, with the Holy Spirit’s hatred for sin, anything that is not in keeping with God’s holiness. To “walk in the light” means that everything that is of the darkness actually drives me closer to the center of the light.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
What I Found Hiding in the Christmas Story - #6511
Monday, December 26, 2011
Well, I know Christmas is over. I can tell by looking in my wallet. And by looking in the room where our whole clan had our Christmas. I heard there are some great sales after Christmas. Well, I'm looking for a bargain on trash bags, not wrapping paper.
Actually we had a very blessed Christmas together. And besides some very thoughtful gifts I received, and some memories I'll treasure, I came away from Christmas with a gold nugget I found. Well, actually, it was in the Bible. It was in the Luke 2 account of Jesus' birth. That's a passage of Scripture I've traveled many a time. But there was a nugget there.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "What I Found Hiding in the Christmas Story."
Here's what hit me during this Christmas celebration. In those warm but familiar words, the angel said, "Behold, I bring you good news," you know, "of great joy which shall be for all people." Okay, stop right there. From the first moments of Jesus' arrival on earth, heaven made clear that the good news about Jesus wasn't just for a few people in the club. It was for "all people."
Thirty-three years later, Jesus would give His final orders before returning to the heaven that He came from that first Christmas. Our word for today from the Word of God - Mark 16:15 - and it tells us this: "Go and tell the Good News to everybody, everywhere!" I'm going to do that one again, "Go and tell the Good News to everybody, everywhere!"
It was there when He came. It was there when He left. A mandate to get the Good News about Him to "all people." The shepherds got it. The Bible says that as soon as they saw Him, "they spread the word."
Now, let's fast forward 2,000 years. When a church becomes a club, made for its members, focusing on the clubhouse, collecting dues from the members, it has gone deaf to the orders. When believers don't tell the people they know about the Savior they have, the Good News dies with their silence. And the lost folks they know will die without hope.
So, the whole message that came that first Christmas, the whole command of Jesus before He left, was to be aware of the people who don't have Jesus yet. How can we continue to just focus on ourselves and have meetings that are just for us, in words that only we understand? How can we be content to be the people who are in essence "in a lifeboat" that have been rescued surrounded by people who are dying without hope, and not turn our lifeboat around and rescue them? We can't just be the folks in the lifeboat who are singing our lifeboat songs, and going to our lifeboat committee meetings, and building a bigger and better more comfortable lifeboat for the people who are already in it. We're surrounded by dying people.
Jesus said this isn't just for the people who are already in the boat. It's for the people who are dying right now who need to be saved. And people die because the people who are already saved do nothing about the people who are dying.
And so, as we look at Christmas now increasingly in the rearview mirror and look at the prospect of a brand new year, let's commit ourselves to the commission for which Jesus came. Which wasn't to start the Jesus Club, but was to start a rescue mission that would spread across this planet. Let's put our influence, and our time, and our prayer, and our church budgets, and our church meetings, and our lives, and our money into that for which Jesus came - the rescuing of the dying whatever it takes.
The Great Commission of Jesus came with His birth. It was His final word before He left. Whatever the years before have been, let's let 2012 be, as never before, the "Year of our Lord" 2012. The year each of us fulfills our destiny, fulfills our Lord's orders to make sure the News about Jesus gets to "all the people" we know.
He comforts us every time we
have trouble, so when others have trouble,
we can comfort them.
2 Corinthians 1:4
My child’s feelings are hurt. I tell her she’s special.
My child is afraid. I won’t go to sleep until she is secure.
I’m not a hero .… I’m a parent. When a child hurts, a parent does what comes naturally. He helps.…
Why don’t I let my Father do for me what I am more than willing to do for my own children?
I’m learning.
Being a father is teaching me that when I am criticized, injured, or afraid, there is a Father who is ready to comfort me. There is a Father who will hold me until I’m better, help me until I can live with the hurt, and who won’t go to sleep when I’m afraid of waking up and seeing the dark.
Ever.
Psalm 5[e]
For the director of music. For pipes. A psalm of David.
1 Listen to my words, LORD,
consider my lament.
2 Hear my cry for help,
my King and my God,
for to you I pray.
3 In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice;
in the morning I lay my requests before you
and wait expectantly.
4 For you are not a God who is pleased with wickedness;
with you, evil people are not welcome.
5 The arrogant cannot stand
in your presence.
You hate all who do wrong;
6 you destroy those who tell lies.
The bloodthirsty and deceitful
you, LORD, detest.
7 But I, by your great love,
can come into your house;
in reverence I bow down
toward your holy temple.
8 Lead me, LORD, in your righteousness
because of my enemies—
make your way straight before me.
9 Not a word from their mouth can be trusted;
their heart is filled with malice.
Their throat is an open grave;
with their tongues they tell lies.
10 Declare them guilty, O God!
Let their intrigues be their downfall.
Banish them for their many sins,
for they have rebelled against you.
11 But let all who take refuge in you be glad;
let them ever sing for joy.
Spread your protection over them,
that those who love your name may rejoice in you.
12 Surely, LORD, you bless the righteous;
you surround them with your favor as with a shield.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Acts 19:23-41
The Riot in Ephesus
23 About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way. 24 A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in a lot of business for the craftsmen there. 25 He called them together, along with the workers in related trades, and said: “You know, my friends, that we receive a good income from this business. 26 And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that gods made by human hands are no gods at all. 27 There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited; and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty.”
28 When they heard this, they were furious and began shouting: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” 29 Soon the whole city was in an uproar. The people seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia, and all of them rushed into the theater together. 30 Paul wanted to appear before the crowd, but the disciples would not let him. 31 Even some of the officials of the province, friends of Paul, sent him a message begging him not to venture into the theater.
32 The assembly was in confusion: Some were shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there. 33 The Jews in the crowd pushed Alexander to the front, and they shouted instructions to him. He motioned for silence in order to make a defense before the people. 34 But when they realized he was a Jew, they all shouted in unison for about two hours: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
35 The city clerk quieted the crowd and said: “Fellow Ephesians, doesn’t all the world know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of her image, which fell from heaven? 36 Therefore, since these facts are undeniable, you ought to calm down and not do anything rash. 37 You have brought these men here, though they have neither robbed temples nor blasphemed our goddess. 38 If, then, Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a grievance against anybody, the courts are open and there are proconsuls. They can press charges. 39 If there is anything further you want to bring up, it must be settled in a legal assembly. 40 As it is, we are in danger of being charged with rioting because of what happened today. In that case we would not be able to account for this commotion, since there is no reason for it.” 41 After he had said this, he dismissed the assembly.
Wrong Worship
December 26, 2011 — by Dave Branon
This trade of ours [is] in danger of falling into disrepute. —Acts 19:27
If you really want to get folks upset, threaten their economy.
A bad economic picture gets politicians voted out of office, and the threat of a downturn nearly got the apostle Paul kicked out of Ephesus.
Here’s what happened. Paul came to town and started “reasoning and persuading concerning . . . the kingdom of God” (Acts 19:8). For more than 2 years he shared the gospel, and many began following Jesus.
Because Paul was so successful in getting people to see that there is only one true God, many Ephesians stopped worshiping the goddess Diana. This was bad news for the local silversmiths, who made their living creating and selling Diana statuettes. If enough people stopped believing in her, business would dry up. A commotion and an uproar broke out when the craftsmen figured this out.
This Ephesus incident can remind us to evaluate our reasons for worshiping God. The silversmiths wanted to protect their worship as a way of protecting their prosperity, but may that never be said of us. Don’t ever let your worship of God become an avenue to good fortune.
We worship God because of His love for us and because of who He is, not because loving Him can help our bottom line. Let’s worship God the right way.
We worship God for who He is,
And not because of what we’ll get;
When we acknowledge what we owe,
We’ll thank Him that He paid our debt. —Sper
Don’t worship God to gain His benefits— you already have them.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, December 26, 2011
"Walk in the Light"
If we walk in the light as He is in the light . . . the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin —1 John 1:7
To mistake freedom from sin only on the conscious level of our lives for complete deliverance from sin by the atonement through the Cross of Christ is a great error. No one fully knows what sin is until he is born again. Sin is what Jesus Christ faced at Calvary. The evidence that I have been delivered from sin is that I know the real nature of sin in me. For a person to really know what sin is requires the full work and deep touch of the atonement of Jesus Christ, that is, the imparting of His absolute perfection.
The Holy Spirit applies or administers the work of the atonement to us in the deep unconscious realm as well as in the conscious realm. And it is not until we truly perceive the unrivaled power of the Spirit in us that we understand the meaning of 1 John 1:7 , which says, “. . . the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” This verse does not refer only to conscious sin, but also to the tremendously profound understanding of sin which only the Holy Spirit in me can accomplish.
I must “walk in the light as He is in the light . . .”— not in the light of my own conscience, but in God’s light. If I will walk there, with nothing held back or hidden, then this amazing truth is revealed to me: “. . . the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses [me] from all sin” so that God Almighty can see nothing to rebuke in me. On the conscious level it produces a keen, sorrowful knowledge of what sin really is. The love of God working in me causes me to hate, with the Holy Spirit’s hatred for sin, anything that is not in keeping with God’s holiness. To “walk in the light” means that everything that is of the darkness actually drives me closer to the center of the light.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
What I Found Hiding in the Christmas Story - #6511
Monday, December 26, 2011
Well, I know Christmas is over. I can tell by looking in my wallet. And by looking in the room where our whole clan had our Christmas. I heard there are some great sales after Christmas. Well, I'm looking for a bargain on trash bags, not wrapping paper.
Actually we had a very blessed Christmas together. And besides some very thoughtful gifts I received, and some memories I'll treasure, I came away from Christmas with a gold nugget I found. Well, actually, it was in the Bible. It was in the Luke 2 account of Jesus' birth. That's a passage of Scripture I've traveled many a time. But there was a nugget there.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "What I Found Hiding in the Christmas Story."
Here's what hit me during this Christmas celebration. In those warm but familiar words, the angel said, "Behold, I bring you good news," you know, "of great joy which shall be for all people." Okay, stop right there. From the first moments of Jesus' arrival on earth, heaven made clear that the good news about Jesus wasn't just for a few people in the club. It was for "all people."
Thirty-three years later, Jesus would give His final orders before returning to the heaven that He came from that first Christmas. Our word for today from the Word of God - Mark 16:15 - and it tells us this: "Go and tell the Good News to everybody, everywhere!" I'm going to do that one again, "Go and tell the Good News to everybody, everywhere!"
It was there when He came. It was there when He left. A mandate to get the Good News about Him to "all people." The shepherds got it. The Bible says that as soon as they saw Him, "they spread the word."
Now, let's fast forward 2,000 years. When a church becomes a club, made for its members, focusing on the clubhouse, collecting dues from the members, it has gone deaf to the orders. When believers don't tell the people they know about the Savior they have, the Good News dies with their silence. And the lost folks they know will die without hope.
So, the whole message that came that first Christmas, the whole command of Jesus before He left, was to be aware of the people who don't have Jesus yet. How can we continue to just focus on ourselves and have meetings that are just for us, in words that only we understand? How can we be content to be the people who are in essence "in a lifeboat" that have been rescued surrounded by people who are dying without hope, and not turn our lifeboat around and rescue them? We can't just be the folks in the lifeboat who are singing our lifeboat songs, and going to our lifeboat committee meetings, and building a bigger and better more comfortable lifeboat for the people who are already in it. We're surrounded by dying people.
Jesus said this isn't just for the people who are already in the boat. It's for the people who are dying right now who need to be saved. And people die because the people who are already saved do nothing about the people who are dying.
And so, as we look at Christmas now increasingly in the rearview mirror and look at the prospect of a brand new year, let's commit ourselves to the commission for which Jesus came. Which wasn't to start the Jesus Club, but was to start a rescue mission that would spread across this planet. Let's put our influence, and our time, and our prayer, and our church budgets, and our church meetings, and our lives, and our money into that for which Jesus came - the rescuing of the dying whatever it takes.
The Great Commission of Jesus came with His birth. It was His final word before He left. Whatever the years before have been, let's let 2012 be, as never before, the "Year of our Lord" 2012. The year each of us fulfills our destiny, fulfills our Lord's orders to make sure the News about Jesus gets to "all the people" we know.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Psalm 4, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals (Click to listen to God’s teaching)
Max Lucado Daily: God Came Near
“His kingdom will never end.” Luke 1:33
She looks into the face of the baby. Her son. Her Lord. His Majesty. At this point in history, the human being who best understands who God is and what he is doing is a teenage girl in a smelly stable. She can’t take her eyes off him. Somehow Mary knows she is holding God. So this is he. She remembers the words of the angel. “His kingdom will never end.”
He looks like anything but a king. His face is prunish and red. His cry, though strong and healthy, is still the helpless and piercing cry of a baby. And he is absolutely dependent upon Mary for his well-being.
Majesty in the midst of the mundane. Holiness in the filth of sheep manure and sweat. Divinity entering the world on the floor of a stable, through the womb of a teenager and in the presence of a carpenter.
She touches the face of the infant-God.
Psalm 4[a]
For the director of music. With stringed instruments. A psalm of David.
1 Answer me when I call to you,
my righteous God.
Give me relief from my distress;
have mercy on me and hear my prayer.
2 How long will you people turn my glory into shame?
How long will you love delusions and seek false gods[b]?[c]
3 Know that the LORD has set apart his faithful servant for himself;
the LORD hears when I call to him.
4 Tremble and[d] do not sin;
when you are on your beds,
search your hearts and be silent.
5 Offer the sacrifices of the righteous
and trust in the LORD.
6 Many, LORD, are asking, “Who will bring us prosperity?”
Let the light of your face shine on us.
7 Fill my heart with joy
when their grain and new wine abound.
8 In peace I will lie down and sleep,
for you alone, LORD,
make me dwell in safety.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Luke 2:8-20
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
Now Is The Time
December 25, 2011 — by Jennifer Benson Schuldt
Glory to God in the highest! —Luke 2:14
During our church’s Christmas celebration, I watched the choir members assemble in front of the congregation while the music director rifled through papers on a slim black stand. The instruments began, and the singers launched into a well-known song that started with these words: “Come, now is the time to worship.”
Although I expected to hear a time-honored Christmas carol, I smiled at the appropriate choice of music. Earlier that week I had been reading Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth, and I noticed that the first Christmas lacked our modern-day parties, gifts, and feasting—but it did include worship.
After the angel announced Jesus’ birth to some wide-eyed shepherds, a chorus of angels began “praising God and saying: ‘Glory to God in the highest!’” (Luke 2:13-14). The shepherds responded by running to Bethlehem where they found the newborn King lying in a barnyard bassinet. They returned to their fields “glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen” (v.20). Coming face to face with the Son inspired the shepherds to worship the Father.
Today, consider your response to Jesus’ arrival on earth. Is there room for worship in your heart on this day that celebrates His birth?
Grant us, Father, hearts of worship
At this time of Jesus’ birth;
We would see anew His glory
Shine throughout this sin-cursed earth. —D. De Haan
Heaven’s choir came down to sing
when heaven’s King came down to save.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, December 25, 2011
His Birth and Our New Birth
Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which is translated, ’God with us’ —Matthew 1:23
His Birth in History. “. . . that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from it. He did not emerge out of history; He came into history from the outside. Jesus Christ is not the best human being the human race can boast of— He is a Being for whom the human race can take no credit at all. He is not man becoming God, but God Incarnate— God coming into human flesh from outside it. His life is the highest and the holiest entering through the most humble of doors. Our Lord’s birth was an advent— the appearance of God in human form.
His Birth in Me. “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you . . .” (Galatians 4:19). Just as our Lord came into human history from outside it, He must also come into me from outside. Have I allowed my personal human life to become a “Bethlehem” for the Son of God? I cannot enter the realm of the kingdom of God unless I am born again from above by a birth totally unlike physical birth. “You must be born again” (John 3:7). This is not a command, but a fact based on the authority of God. The evidence of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that “Christ is formed” in me. And once “Christ is formed” in me, His nature immediately begins to work through me.
God Evident in the Flesh. This is what is made so profoundly possible for you and for me through the redemption of man by Jesus Christ.
“His kingdom will never end.” Luke 1:33
She looks into the face of the baby. Her son. Her Lord. His Majesty. At this point in history, the human being who best understands who God is and what he is doing is a teenage girl in a smelly stable. She can’t take her eyes off him. Somehow Mary knows she is holding God. So this is he. She remembers the words of the angel. “His kingdom will never end.”
He looks like anything but a king. His face is prunish and red. His cry, though strong and healthy, is still the helpless and piercing cry of a baby. And he is absolutely dependent upon Mary for his well-being.
Majesty in the midst of the mundane. Holiness in the filth of sheep manure and sweat. Divinity entering the world on the floor of a stable, through the womb of a teenager and in the presence of a carpenter.
She touches the face of the infant-God.
Psalm 4[a]
For the director of music. With stringed instruments. A psalm of David.
1 Answer me when I call to you,
my righteous God.
Give me relief from my distress;
have mercy on me and hear my prayer.
2 How long will you people turn my glory into shame?
How long will you love delusions and seek false gods[b]?[c]
3 Know that the LORD has set apart his faithful servant for himself;
the LORD hears when I call to him.
4 Tremble and[d] do not sin;
when you are on your beds,
search your hearts and be silent.
5 Offer the sacrifices of the righteous
and trust in the LORD.
6 Many, LORD, are asking, “Who will bring us prosperity?”
Let the light of your face shine on us.
7 Fill my heart with joy
when their grain and new wine abound.
8 In peace I will lie down and sleep,
for you alone, LORD,
make me dwell in safety.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Luke 2:8-20
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
Now Is The Time
December 25, 2011 — by Jennifer Benson Schuldt
Glory to God in the highest! —Luke 2:14
During our church’s Christmas celebration, I watched the choir members assemble in front of the congregation while the music director rifled through papers on a slim black stand. The instruments began, and the singers launched into a well-known song that started with these words: “Come, now is the time to worship.”
Although I expected to hear a time-honored Christmas carol, I smiled at the appropriate choice of music. Earlier that week I had been reading Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth, and I noticed that the first Christmas lacked our modern-day parties, gifts, and feasting—but it did include worship.
After the angel announced Jesus’ birth to some wide-eyed shepherds, a chorus of angels began “praising God and saying: ‘Glory to God in the highest!’” (Luke 2:13-14). The shepherds responded by running to Bethlehem where they found the newborn King lying in a barnyard bassinet. They returned to their fields “glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen” (v.20). Coming face to face with the Son inspired the shepherds to worship the Father.
Today, consider your response to Jesus’ arrival on earth. Is there room for worship in your heart on this day that celebrates His birth?
Grant us, Father, hearts of worship
At this time of Jesus’ birth;
We would see anew His glory
Shine throughout this sin-cursed earth. —D. De Haan
Heaven’s choir came down to sing
when heaven’s King came down to save.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, December 25, 2011
His Birth and Our New Birth
Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which is translated, ’God with us’ —Matthew 1:23
His Birth in History. “. . . that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from it. He did not emerge out of history; He came into history from the outside. Jesus Christ is not the best human being the human race can boast of— He is a Being for whom the human race can take no credit at all. He is not man becoming God, but God Incarnate— God coming into human flesh from outside it. His life is the highest and the holiest entering through the most humble of doors. Our Lord’s birth was an advent— the appearance of God in human form.
His Birth in Me. “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you . . .” (Galatians 4:19). Just as our Lord came into human history from outside it, He must also come into me from outside. Have I allowed my personal human life to become a “Bethlehem” for the Son of God? I cannot enter the realm of the kingdom of God unless I am born again from above by a birth totally unlike physical birth. “You must be born again” (John 3:7). This is not a command, but a fact based on the authority of God. The evidence of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that “Christ is formed” in me. And once “Christ is formed” in me, His nature immediately begins to work through me.
God Evident in the Flesh. This is what is made so profoundly possible for you and for me through the redemption of man by Jesus Christ.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
John 6, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals (Click to listen to God’s teaching)
Max Lucado Daily: His Name is Jesus
“Joseph…took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus.” Matthew 1:24-25 NKJV
Joseph tanked his reputation. He swapped his tsadiq diploma for a pregnant fiancée and an illegitimate son and made the big decision of discipleship. He placed God’s plan ahead of his own.
Rather than make a name for himself, he made a home for Christ. And because he did, a great reward came his way. “He called His name Jesus.”
Queue up the millions who have spoken the name of Jesus, and look at the person selected to stand at the front to the line. Joseph. Of all the saints, sinners, prodigals, and preachers who have spoken the name, Joseph, a blue-collar, small-town construction worker said it first. He cradled the wrinkle-faced prince of heaven and with an audience of angels and pigs, whispered, “Jesus…You’ll be called Jesus.”
John 6:41-71
New International Version (NIV)
41 At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
43 “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. 44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’[a] Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
Many Disciples Desert Jesus
60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”
61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit[b] and life. 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65 He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”
66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
70 Then Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” 71 (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: 1 Corinthians 15:50-58
50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”[a]
55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”[b]
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
Death Destroyed!
December 24, 2011 — by David C. McCasland
O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? —1 Corinthians 15:55
Medical researchers are working tirelessly to find a cure for cancer, a clue to the mystery of Alzheimer’s, and ways to conquer a host of other debilitating diseases. But what if you awoke to headlines saying DEATH DESTROYED! Would you believe it? Could you believe it?
The New Testament proclaims that for the believer in Christ, death has been destroyed—reduced to inactivity—rendered incapable of doing what it once did. “So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory’” (1 Cor. 15:54).
This good news is for everyone who will receive it—just as the angel told the shepherds when Jesus was born, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11).
The birth of Jesus was the beginning of the end for death. “The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:56-57).
That is why we celebrate Christmas!
Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die.
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth. —Wesley
The birth of Christ brought God to man;
the cross of Christ brings man to God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, December 24, 2011
The Hidden Life
. . . your life is hidden with Christ in God —Colossians 3:3
The Spirit of God testifies to and confirms the simple, but almighty, security of the life that “is hidden with Christ in God.” Paul continually brought this out in his New Testament letters. We talk as if living a sanctified life were the most uncertain and insecure thing we could do. Yet it is the most secure thing possible, because it has Almighty God in and behind it. The most dangerous and unsure thing is to try to live without God. For one who is born again, it is easier to live in a right-standing relationship with God than it is to go wrong, provided we heed God’s warnings and “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7).
When we think of being delivered from sin, being “filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18), and “walk[ing] in the light,” we picture the peak of a great mountain. We see it as very high and wonderful, but we say, “Oh, I could never live up there!” However, when we do get there through God’s grace, we find it is not a mountain peak at all, but a plateau with plenty of room to live and to grow. “You enlarged my path under me, so my feet did not slip” (Psalm 18:36).
When you really see Jesus, I defy you to doubt Him. If you see Him when He says, “Let not your heart be troubled . . .” (John 14:27), I defy you to worry. It is virtually impossible to doubt when He is there. Every time you are in personal contact with Jesus, His words are real to you. “My peace I give to you . . .” (John 14:27)— a peace which brings an unconstrained confidence and covers you completely, from the top of your head to the soles of your feet. “. . . your life is hidden with Christ in God,” and the peace of Jesus Christ that cannot be disturbed has been imparted to you.
“Joseph…took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus.” Matthew 1:24-25 NKJV
Joseph tanked his reputation. He swapped his tsadiq diploma for a pregnant fiancée and an illegitimate son and made the big decision of discipleship. He placed God’s plan ahead of his own.
Rather than make a name for himself, he made a home for Christ. And because he did, a great reward came his way. “He called His name Jesus.”
Queue up the millions who have spoken the name of Jesus, and look at the person selected to stand at the front to the line. Joseph. Of all the saints, sinners, prodigals, and preachers who have spoken the name, Joseph, a blue-collar, small-town construction worker said it first. He cradled the wrinkle-faced prince of heaven and with an audience of angels and pigs, whispered, “Jesus…You’ll be called Jesus.”
John 6:41-71
New International Version (NIV)
41 At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
43 “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. 44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’[a] Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
Many Disciples Desert Jesus
60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”
61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit[b] and life. 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65 He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”
66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
70 Then Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” 71 (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: 1 Corinthians 15:50-58
50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”[a]
55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”[b]
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
Death Destroyed!
December 24, 2011 — by David C. McCasland
O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? —1 Corinthians 15:55
Medical researchers are working tirelessly to find a cure for cancer, a clue to the mystery of Alzheimer’s, and ways to conquer a host of other debilitating diseases. But what if you awoke to headlines saying DEATH DESTROYED! Would you believe it? Could you believe it?
The New Testament proclaims that for the believer in Christ, death has been destroyed—reduced to inactivity—rendered incapable of doing what it once did. “So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory’” (1 Cor. 15:54).
This good news is for everyone who will receive it—just as the angel told the shepherds when Jesus was born, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11).
The birth of Jesus was the beginning of the end for death. “The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:56-57).
That is why we celebrate Christmas!
Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die.
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth. —Wesley
The birth of Christ brought God to man;
the cross of Christ brings man to God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, December 24, 2011
The Hidden Life
. . . your life is hidden with Christ in God —Colossians 3:3
The Spirit of God testifies to and confirms the simple, but almighty, security of the life that “is hidden with Christ in God.” Paul continually brought this out in his New Testament letters. We talk as if living a sanctified life were the most uncertain and insecure thing we could do. Yet it is the most secure thing possible, because it has Almighty God in and behind it. The most dangerous and unsure thing is to try to live without God. For one who is born again, it is easier to live in a right-standing relationship with God than it is to go wrong, provided we heed God’s warnings and “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7).
When we think of being delivered from sin, being “filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18), and “walk[ing] in the light,” we picture the peak of a great mountain. We see it as very high and wonderful, but we say, “Oh, I could never live up there!” However, when we do get there through God’s grace, we find it is not a mountain peak at all, but a plateau with plenty of room to live and to grow. “You enlarged my path under me, so my feet did not slip” (Psalm 18:36).
When you really see Jesus, I defy you to doubt Him. If you see Him when He says, “Let not your heart be troubled . . .” (John 14:27), I defy you to worry. It is virtually impossible to doubt when He is there. Every time you are in personal contact with Jesus, His words are real to you. “My peace I give to you . . .” (John 14:27)— a peace which brings an unconstrained confidence and covers you completely, from the top of your head to the soles of your feet. “. . . your life is hidden with Christ in God,” and the peace of Jesus Christ that cannot be disturbed has been imparted to you.
Friday, December 23, 2011
2 Samuel 24, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals (Click to listen to God’s teaching)
Max Lucado Daily: Ordinary No More
Today your Savior was
born in the town of David.
He is Christ, the Lord.
Luke 2:11
It was an ordinary night with ordinary sheep and ordinary shepherds.
Then the black sky exploded with brightness. Trees that had been shadows jumped into clarity. Sheep that had been silent became a chorus of curiosity. One minute the shepherd was dead asleep, the next he was rubbing his eyes and staring into the face of an alien.
The night was ordinary no more.
The angel came in the night because that is when lights are best seen and when they are most needed.
It all happened in a most remarkable moment—a moment like no other.
God became a man. Divinity arrived. Heaven opened and place her most precious one in a human womb. God had come near!
In the mystery of Christmas, we find its majesty. The mystery of how God became flesh, why he chose to come, and how much he must love his people.
2 Samuel 24
David Enrolls the Fighting Men
1 Again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.”
2 So the king said to Joab and the army commanders[l] with him, “Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and enroll the fighting men, so that I may know how many there are.”
3 But Joab replied to the king, “May the LORD your God multiply the troops a hundred times over, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?”
4 The king’s word, however, overruled Joab and the army commanders; so they left the presence of the king to enroll the fighting men of Israel.
5 After crossing the Jordan, they camped near Aroer, south of the town in the gorge, and then went through Gad and on to Jazer. 6 They went to Gilead and the region of Tahtim Hodshi, and on to Dan Jaan and around toward Sidon. 7 Then they went toward the fortress of Tyre and all the towns of the Hivites and Canaanites. Finally, they went on to Beersheba in the Negev of Judah.
8 After they had gone through the entire land, they came back to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.
9 Joab reported the number of the fighting men to the king: In Israel there were eight hundred thousand able-bodied men who could handle a sword, and in Judah five hundred thousand.
10 David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, LORD, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.”
11 Before David got up the next morning, the word of the LORD had come to Gad the prophet, David’s seer: 12 “Go and tell David, ‘This is what the LORD says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.’”
13 So Gad went to David and said to him, “Shall there come on you three[m] years of famine in your land? Or three months of fleeing from your enemies while they pursue you? Or three days of plague in your land? Now then, think it over and decide how I should answer the one who sent me.”
14 David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the LORD, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”
15 So the LORD sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. 16 When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the LORD relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the LORD was then at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
17 When David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he said to the LORD, “I have sinned; I, the shepherd,[n] have done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Let your hand fall on me and my family.”
David Builds an Altar
18 On that day Gad went to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” 19 So David went up, as the LORD had commanded through Gad. 20 When Araunah looked and saw the king and his officials coming toward him, he went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground.
21 Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?”
“To buy your threshing floor,” David answered, “so I can build an altar to the LORD, that the plague on the people may be stopped.”
22 Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take whatever he wishes and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood. 23 Your Majesty, Araunah[o] gives all this to the king.” Araunah also said to him, “May the LORD your God accept you.”
24 But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”
So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels[p] of silver for them. 25 David built an altar to the LORD there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the LORD answered his prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Galatians 4:1-7
1 What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2 The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3 So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces[a] of the world. 4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.[b] 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba,[c] Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.
The Pursuing God
December 23, 2011 — by Joe Stowell
God sent forth His Son, born of a woman . . . to redeem those who were under the law. —Galatians 4:4-5
Pastor Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan rightly observes that Christianity is unique among all religions for it is about God’s pursuit of us to draw us to Himself. In every other religious system, people pursue their god, hoping that through good behavior, keeping of rituals, good works, or other efforts they will be accepted by the god they pursue.
The British poet Francis Thompson catches the profound nature of this reality when he writes of the relentless pursuit of God in his life. In his work titled “The Hound of Heaven,” he writes that as he fled from God he couldn’t outrun “those strong feet that followed . . . with unhurrying chase and unperturbed pace.” But God’s untiring pursuit of the wayward is not just Thompson’s story. At the heart of the Christmas message is the wonderful truth of God’s pursuit of every one of us. As Paul affirms, “God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law” (Gal. 4:4-5).
And it’s not just the Christmas story. It’s the story of God’s pursuit of Adam and Eve after the fall. His pursuit of me! His pursuit of you! Where would we be today if God weren’t the “Hound of Heaven”?
Died He for me, who caused His pain?
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? —Wesley
God’s undying desire for you will never cease.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, December 23, 2011
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
Christmas Far From Home - #6510
Friday, December 23, 2011
Well, on the TV news shows during the Christmas season, it's kind of heart warming to see those men and women in their combat fatigues sending Christmas greetings home from wherever they've deployed in this world this season. It's one of the hard things about Christmas really, and it's been true every Christmas for a long time; soldiers who won't be able to be home this Christmas, men and women for whom "I'll Be Home for Christmas" is just a song.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Christmas Far From Home."
You know, at Christmas, many people are on a mission that has taken them far from home. Ironically, the Christ of Christmas knows that feeling all too well. The baby born that first Christmas was very far from home. Listen to our word for today from the Word of God, and it's from the first chapter of John, and several verses beginning with verse 1.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God." And that's referring to the Son of God, Jesus. "Through Him all things were made, without Him nothing was made that has been made." And then as you go on later in the chapter, it says, "He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God."
Now the angels who brought His first birth announcement didn't want us to miss who this was in that stable, "A Savior," they said. "He is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11). The "Savior" is God's Rescuer, sent to save you and me. "Christ" - that's the Messiah God promised. "The Lord" - the word means the Controller, the One who runs everything. And what we just read from John makes it clear that He literally created everything that is, but came to this little speck of dust called the earth in the middle of all these galaxies He created.
But this Son of God had to leave heaven and come to a world in rebellion against Him; a long way from home. He came on the most important mission in history - to give the people He had created a chance to get right with the God that we hijacked our lives from. Like a person trapped in the rubble of a violent earthquake or in a burning building, we're going to die unless a rescuer comes. We can't dig ourselves out. If any religion, or any good thing that we do could ever pay our sin-bill with God, believe me, Jesus would have never left home. He would have never carried His rescue mission all the way to that brutal death on a cross.
His mission is described in 25 of the most important words in the Bible, including John 3:16. You may have heard these words a thousand times. You may have never heard them. Would you listen to them this time as if your life depends on them? Because it does.
"God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). It's a verse you need to put your name in, in the blanks that I'll leave here. Listen... "God so loved _________ (there's your name) that He gave His one and only Son, that if _________ will believe in Him, then __________ shall not perish but have eternal life." You're the reason He left home. You're the reason He went all the way to a cross. He loves you. You were His mission.
He was far from home in that manger that first Christmas. He was even farther from home on Good Friday. The Bible says He actually "carried our sins in His body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24). He was actually cut off from God His Father so you would never have to be; so you could have heaven. Our sin is why our heart has been searching for home all these years, because home is the love relationship with God that only Jesus can give us.
That stirring you feel in your heart? That's the Man who died for you, drawing you to Him. You can't come to Jesus when you feel like it. You come when God's drawing you or you don't come. And this season when we celebrate His coming to earth for us, He's working in your heart to open your life to Him.
This Christmas season can be the celebration, not only of Jesus' coming to earth, but of Him coming into your life today. Tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours."
Listen, if you want to begin this incredible love relationship with Him, I encourage you to go to our website. It's YoursForLife.net. You can read, or watch, or listen to exactly how to get started with Jesus this very day.
Wherever you are this Christmas, your heart can finally be home, because you finally belong to Jesus. See, He left home so you could find home.
Today your Savior was
born in the town of David.
He is Christ, the Lord.
Luke 2:11
It was an ordinary night with ordinary sheep and ordinary shepherds.
Then the black sky exploded with brightness. Trees that had been shadows jumped into clarity. Sheep that had been silent became a chorus of curiosity. One minute the shepherd was dead asleep, the next he was rubbing his eyes and staring into the face of an alien.
The night was ordinary no more.
The angel came in the night because that is when lights are best seen and when they are most needed.
It all happened in a most remarkable moment—a moment like no other.
God became a man. Divinity arrived. Heaven opened and place her most precious one in a human womb. God had come near!
In the mystery of Christmas, we find its majesty. The mystery of how God became flesh, why he chose to come, and how much he must love his people.
2 Samuel 24
David Enrolls the Fighting Men
1 Again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.”
2 So the king said to Joab and the army commanders[l] with him, “Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and enroll the fighting men, so that I may know how many there are.”
3 But Joab replied to the king, “May the LORD your God multiply the troops a hundred times over, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?”
4 The king’s word, however, overruled Joab and the army commanders; so they left the presence of the king to enroll the fighting men of Israel.
5 After crossing the Jordan, they camped near Aroer, south of the town in the gorge, and then went through Gad and on to Jazer. 6 They went to Gilead and the region of Tahtim Hodshi, and on to Dan Jaan and around toward Sidon. 7 Then they went toward the fortress of Tyre and all the towns of the Hivites and Canaanites. Finally, they went on to Beersheba in the Negev of Judah.
8 After they had gone through the entire land, they came back to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.
9 Joab reported the number of the fighting men to the king: In Israel there were eight hundred thousand able-bodied men who could handle a sword, and in Judah five hundred thousand.
10 David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, LORD, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.”
11 Before David got up the next morning, the word of the LORD had come to Gad the prophet, David’s seer: 12 “Go and tell David, ‘This is what the LORD says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.’”
13 So Gad went to David and said to him, “Shall there come on you three[m] years of famine in your land? Or three months of fleeing from your enemies while they pursue you? Or three days of plague in your land? Now then, think it over and decide how I should answer the one who sent me.”
14 David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the LORD, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”
15 So the LORD sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. 16 When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the LORD relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the LORD was then at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
17 When David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he said to the LORD, “I have sinned; I, the shepherd,[n] have done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Let your hand fall on me and my family.”
David Builds an Altar
18 On that day Gad went to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” 19 So David went up, as the LORD had commanded through Gad. 20 When Araunah looked and saw the king and his officials coming toward him, he went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground.
21 Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?”
“To buy your threshing floor,” David answered, “so I can build an altar to the LORD, that the plague on the people may be stopped.”
22 Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take whatever he wishes and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood. 23 Your Majesty, Araunah[o] gives all this to the king.” Araunah also said to him, “May the LORD your God accept you.”
24 But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”
So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels[p] of silver for them. 25 David built an altar to the LORD there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the LORD answered his prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Galatians 4:1-7
1 What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2 The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3 So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces[a] of the world. 4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.[b] 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba,[c] Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.
The Pursuing God
December 23, 2011 — by Joe Stowell
God sent forth His Son, born of a woman . . . to redeem those who were under the law. —Galatians 4:4-5
Pastor Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan rightly observes that Christianity is unique among all religions for it is about God’s pursuit of us to draw us to Himself. In every other religious system, people pursue their god, hoping that through good behavior, keeping of rituals, good works, or other efforts they will be accepted by the god they pursue.
The British poet Francis Thompson catches the profound nature of this reality when he writes of the relentless pursuit of God in his life. In his work titled “The Hound of Heaven,” he writes that as he fled from God he couldn’t outrun “those strong feet that followed . . . with unhurrying chase and unperturbed pace.” But God’s untiring pursuit of the wayward is not just Thompson’s story. At the heart of the Christmas message is the wonderful truth of God’s pursuit of every one of us. As Paul affirms, “God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law” (Gal. 4:4-5).
And it’s not just the Christmas story. It’s the story of God’s pursuit of Adam and Eve after the fall. His pursuit of me! His pursuit of you! Where would we be today if God weren’t the “Hound of Heaven”?
Died He for me, who caused His pain?
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? —Wesley
God’s undying desire for you will never cease.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, December 23, 2011
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
Christmas Far From Home - #6510
Friday, December 23, 2011
Well, on the TV news shows during the Christmas season, it's kind of heart warming to see those men and women in their combat fatigues sending Christmas greetings home from wherever they've deployed in this world this season. It's one of the hard things about Christmas really, and it's been true every Christmas for a long time; soldiers who won't be able to be home this Christmas, men and women for whom "I'll Be Home for Christmas" is just a song.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Christmas Far From Home."
You know, at Christmas, many people are on a mission that has taken them far from home. Ironically, the Christ of Christmas knows that feeling all too well. The baby born that first Christmas was very far from home. Listen to our word for today from the Word of God, and it's from the first chapter of John, and several verses beginning with verse 1.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God." And that's referring to the Son of God, Jesus. "Through Him all things were made, without Him nothing was made that has been made." And then as you go on later in the chapter, it says, "He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God."
Now the angels who brought His first birth announcement didn't want us to miss who this was in that stable, "A Savior," they said. "He is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11). The "Savior" is God's Rescuer, sent to save you and me. "Christ" - that's the Messiah God promised. "The Lord" - the word means the Controller, the One who runs everything. And what we just read from John makes it clear that He literally created everything that is, but came to this little speck of dust called the earth in the middle of all these galaxies He created.
But this Son of God had to leave heaven and come to a world in rebellion against Him; a long way from home. He came on the most important mission in history - to give the people He had created a chance to get right with the God that we hijacked our lives from. Like a person trapped in the rubble of a violent earthquake or in a burning building, we're going to die unless a rescuer comes. We can't dig ourselves out. If any religion, or any good thing that we do could ever pay our sin-bill with God, believe me, Jesus would have never left home. He would have never carried His rescue mission all the way to that brutal death on a cross.
His mission is described in 25 of the most important words in the Bible, including John 3:16. You may have heard these words a thousand times. You may have never heard them. Would you listen to them this time as if your life depends on them? Because it does.
"God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). It's a verse you need to put your name in, in the blanks that I'll leave here. Listen... "God so loved _________ (there's your name) that He gave His one and only Son, that if _________ will believe in Him, then __________ shall not perish but have eternal life." You're the reason He left home. You're the reason He went all the way to a cross. He loves you. You were His mission.
He was far from home in that manger that first Christmas. He was even farther from home on Good Friday. The Bible says He actually "carried our sins in His body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24). He was actually cut off from God His Father so you would never have to be; so you could have heaven. Our sin is why our heart has been searching for home all these years, because home is the love relationship with God that only Jesus can give us.
That stirring you feel in your heart? That's the Man who died for you, drawing you to Him. You can't come to Jesus when you feel like it. You come when God's drawing you or you don't come. And this season when we celebrate His coming to earth for us, He's working in your heart to open your life to Him.
This Christmas season can be the celebration, not only of Jesus' coming to earth, but of Him coming into your life today. Tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours."
Listen, if you want to begin this incredible love relationship with Him, I encourage you to go to our website. It's YoursForLife.net. You can read, or watch, or listen to exactly how to get started with Jesus this very day.
Wherever you are this Christmas, your heart can finally be home, because you finally belong to Jesus. See, He left home so you could find home.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
2 Samuel 23, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals (Click to listen to God’s teaching)
Max Lucado Daily: His Kingdom Will Never End
His kingdom will never end. Luke 1:33
In Bethlehem, the human being who best understood who God was and what he was doing, is the teenage girl in the smelly stable.
As Mary looks into the face of the baby. Her son. Her Lord. His Majesty—she can’t take her eyes off him. Somehow Mary knows she is holding God.
So this is he. She remembers the words of the angel. “His kingdom will never end.” (Luke 1:33)
He looks like anything but a king. His cry, though strong and healthy, is still the helpless and piercing cry of a baby.
Majesty in the midst of the mundane. Holiness in the filth of sheep manure and sweat. Divinity entering the world on the floor of a stable, through the womb of a teenager and in the presence of a carpenter.
God came near!
And Luke 1:33 says, “His kingdom will never end.”
2 Samuel 23
David’s Last Words
1 These are the last words of David:
“The inspired utterance of David son of Jesse,
the utterance of the man exalted by the Most High,
the man anointed by the God of Jacob,
the hero of Israel’s songs:
2 “The Spirit of the LORD spoke through me;
his word was on my tongue.
3 The God of Israel spoke,
the Rock of Israel said to me:
‘When one rules over people in righteousness,
when he rules in the fear of God,
4 he is like the light of morning at sunrise
on a cloudless morning,
like the brightness after rain
that brings grass from the earth.’
5 “If my house were not right with God,
surely he would not have made with me an everlasting covenant,
arranged and secured in every part;
surely he would not bring to fruition my salvation
and grant me my every desire.
6 But evil men are all to be cast aside like thorns,
which are not gathered with the hand.
7 Whoever touches thorns
uses a tool of iron or the shaft of a spear;
they are burned up where they lie.”
David’s Mighty Warriors
8 These are the names of David’s mighty warriors:
Josheb-Basshebeth,[a] a Tahkemonite,[b] was chief of the Three; he raised his spear against eight hundred men, whom he killed[c] in one encounter.
9 Next to him was Eleazar son of Dodai the Ahohite. As one of the three mighty warriors, he was with David when they taunted the Philistines gathered at Pas Dammim[d] for battle. Then the Israelites retreated, 10 but Eleazar stood his ground and struck down the Philistines till his hand grew tired and froze to the sword. The LORD brought about a great victory that day. The troops returned to Eleazar, but only to strip the dead.
11 Next to him was Shammah son of Agee the Hararite. When the Philistines banded together at a place where there was a field full of lentils, Israel’s troops fled from them. 12 But Shammah took his stand in the middle of the field. He defended it and struck the Philistines down, and the LORD brought about a great victory.
13 During harvest time, three of the thirty chief warriors came down to David at the cave of Adullam, while a band of Philistines was encamped in the Valley of Rephaim. 14 At that time David was in the stronghold, and the Philistine garrison was at Bethlehem. 15 David longed for water and said, “Oh, that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem!” 16 So the three mighty warriors broke through the Philistine lines, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem and carried it back to David. But he refused to drink it; instead, he poured it out before the LORD. 17 “Far be it from me, LORD, to do this!” he said. “Is it not the blood of men who went at the risk of their lives?” And David would not drink it.
Such were the exploits of the three mighty warriors.
18 Abishai the brother of Joab son of Zeruiah was chief of the Three.[e] He raised his spear against three hundred men, whom he killed, and so he became as famous as the Three. 19 Was he not held in greater honor than the Three? He became their commander, even though he was not included among them.
20 Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, performed great exploits. He struck down Moab’s two mightiest warriors. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion. 21 And he struck down a huge Egyptian. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club. He snatched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear. 22 Such were the exploits of Benaiah son of Jehoiada; he too was as famous as the three mighty warriors. 23 He was held in greater honor than any of the Thirty, but he was not included among the Three. And David put him in charge of his bodyguard.
24 Among the Thirty were:
Asahel the brother of Joab,
Elhanan son of Dodo from Bethlehem,
25 Shammah the Harodite,
Elika the Harodite,
26 Helez the Paltite,
Ira son of Ikkesh from Tekoa,
27 Abiezer from Anathoth,
Sibbekai[f] the Hushathite,
28 Zalmon the Ahohite,
Maharai the Netophathite,
29 Heled[g] son of Baanah the Netophathite,
Ithai son of Ribai from Gibeah in Benjamin,
30 Benaiah the Pirathonite,
Hiddai[h] from the ravines of Gaash,
31 Abi-Albon the Arbathite,
Azmaveth the Barhumite,
32 Eliahba the Shaalbonite,
the sons of Jashen,
Jonathan 33 son of[i] Shammah the Hararite,
Ahiam son of Sharar[j] the Hararite,
34 Eliphelet son of Ahasbai the Maakathite,
Eliam son of Ahithophel the Gilonite,
35 Hezro the Carmelite,
Paarai the Arbite,
36 Igal son of Nathan from Zobah,
the son of Hagri,[k]
37 Zelek the Ammonite,
Naharai the Beerothite, the armor-bearer of Joab son of Zeruiah,
38 Ira the Ithrite,
Gareb the Ithrite
39 and Uriah the Hittite.
There were thirty-seven in all.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Colossians 1:27–2:3
27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
28 He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. 29 To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.
Colossians 2
1 I want you to know how hard I am contending for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally. 2 My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Hidden Treasure
December 22, 2011 — by Dennis Fisher
In [Christ] are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. —Colossians 2:3
A British treasure hunter discovered a huge stash of Roman coins buried in a field in southwest England. Using a metal detector, Dave Crisp located a large pot holding 52,000 coins. These ancient silver and bronze coins, which date from the third century AD and weigh more than 350 pounds, are valued at $5 million.
While Crisp’s treasure may cause us to dream about somehow finding similar riches, we as Christians should be on a different kind of treasure hunt. What we seek does not consist of silver and gold. Rather our quest is to gather the precious gems of insight so that we might gain the “full assurance of understanding . . . , both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:2-3). The hidden treasure of knowing the Lord more completely is found in the Bible. The psalmist said, “I rejoice at Your Word as one who finds great treasure” (Ps. 119:162).
If we read the Word of God hurriedly or carelessly, we will miss its deep insights. These truths must be sought earnestly with all the attention of someone seeking hidden treasure.
Are you eager to find the treasures stored in Scripture? Start digging!
When reading God’s Word, take special care,
To find the rich treasures hidden there;
Give thought to each line, each precept hear,
Then practice it well with godly fear. —Anon.
The treasures of truth in God’s Word are best mined with the spade of meditation.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, December 22, 2011
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
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.
His kingdom will never end. Luke 1:33
In Bethlehem, the human being who best understood who God was and what he was doing, is the teenage girl in the smelly stable.
As Mary looks into the face of the baby. Her son. Her Lord. His Majesty—she can’t take her eyes off him. Somehow Mary knows she is holding God.
So this is he. She remembers the words of the angel. “His kingdom will never end.” (Luke 1:33)
He looks like anything but a king. His cry, though strong and healthy, is still the helpless and piercing cry of a baby.
Majesty in the midst of the mundane. Holiness in the filth of sheep manure and sweat. Divinity entering the world on the floor of a stable, through the womb of a teenager and in the presence of a carpenter.
God came near!
And Luke 1:33 says, “His kingdom will never end.”
2 Samuel 23
David’s Last Words
1 These are the last words of David:
“The inspired utterance of David son of Jesse,
the utterance of the man exalted by the Most High,
the man anointed by the God of Jacob,
the hero of Israel’s songs:
2 “The Spirit of the LORD spoke through me;
his word was on my tongue.
3 The God of Israel spoke,
the Rock of Israel said to me:
‘When one rules over people in righteousness,
when he rules in the fear of God,
4 he is like the light of morning at sunrise
on a cloudless morning,
like the brightness after rain
that brings grass from the earth.’
5 “If my house were not right with God,
surely he would not have made with me an everlasting covenant,
arranged and secured in every part;
surely he would not bring to fruition my salvation
and grant me my every desire.
6 But evil men are all to be cast aside like thorns,
which are not gathered with the hand.
7 Whoever touches thorns
uses a tool of iron or the shaft of a spear;
they are burned up where they lie.”
David’s Mighty Warriors
8 These are the names of David’s mighty warriors:
Josheb-Basshebeth,[a] a Tahkemonite,[b] was chief of the Three; he raised his spear against eight hundred men, whom he killed[c] in one encounter.
9 Next to him was Eleazar son of Dodai the Ahohite. As one of the three mighty warriors, he was with David when they taunted the Philistines gathered at Pas Dammim[d] for battle. Then the Israelites retreated, 10 but Eleazar stood his ground and struck down the Philistines till his hand grew tired and froze to the sword. The LORD brought about a great victory that day. The troops returned to Eleazar, but only to strip the dead.
11 Next to him was Shammah son of Agee the Hararite. When the Philistines banded together at a place where there was a field full of lentils, Israel’s troops fled from them. 12 But Shammah took his stand in the middle of the field. He defended it and struck the Philistines down, and the LORD brought about a great victory.
13 During harvest time, three of the thirty chief warriors came down to David at the cave of Adullam, while a band of Philistines was encamped in the Valley of Rephaim. 14 At that time David was in the stronghold, and the Philistine garrison was at Bethlehem. 15 David longed for water and said, “Oh, that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem!” 16 So the three mighty warriors broke through the Philistine lines, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem and carried it back to David. But he refused to drink it; instead, he poured it out before the LORD. 17 “Far be it from me, LORD, to do this!” he said. “Is it not the blood of men who went at the risk of their lives?” And David would not drink it.
Such were the exploits of the three mighty warriors.
18 Abishai the brother of Joab son of Zeruiah was chief of the Three.[e] He raised his spear against three hundred men, whom he killed, and so he became as famous as the Three. 19 Was he not held in greater honor than the Three? He became their commander, even though he was not included among them.
20 Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, performed great exploits. He struck down Moab’s two mightiest warriors. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion. 21 And he struck down a huge Egyptian. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club. He snatched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear. 22 Such were the exploits of Benaiah son of Jehoiada; he too was as famous as the three mighty warriors. 23 He was held in greater honor than any of the Thirty, but he was not included among the Three. And David put him in charge of his bodyguard.
24 Among the Thirty were:
Asahel the brother of Joab,
Elhanan son of Dodo from Bethlehem,
25 Shammah the Harodite,
Elika the Harodite,
26 Helez the Paltite,
Ira son of Ikkesh from Tekoa,
27 Abiezer from Anathoth,
Sibbekai[f] the Hushathite,
28 Zalmon the Ahohite,
Maharai the Netophathite,
29 Heled[g] son of Baanah the Netophathite,
Ithai son of Ribai from Gibeah in Benjamin,
30 Benaiah the Pirathonite,
Hiddai[h] from the ravines of Gaash,
31 Abi-Albon the Arbathite,
Azmaveth the Barhumite,
32 Eliahba the Shaalbonite,
the sons of Jashen,
Jonathan 33 son of[i] Shammah the Hararite,
Ahiam son of Sharar[j] the Hararite,
34 Eliphelet son of Ahasbai the Maakathite,
Eliam son of Ahithophel the Gilonite,
35 Hezro the Carmelite,
Paarai the Arbite,
36 Igal son of Nathan from Zobah,
the son of Hagri,[k]
37 Zelek the Ammonite,
Naharai the Beerothite, the armor-bearer of Joab son of Zeruiah,
38 Ira the Ithrite,
Gareb the Ithrite
39 and Uriah the Hittite.
There were thirty-seven in all.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Colossians 1:27–2:3
27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
28 He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. 29 To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.
Colossians 2
1 I want you to know how hard I am contending for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally. 2 My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Hidden Treasure
December 22, 2011 — by Dennis Fisher
In [Christ] are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. —Colossians 2:3
A British treasure hunter discovered a huge stash of Roman coins buried in a field in southwest England. Using a metal detector, Dave Crisp located a large pot holding 52,000 coins. These ancient silver and bronze coins, which date from the third century AD and weigh more than 350 pounds, are valued at $5 million.
While Crisp’s treasure may cause us to dream about somehow finding similar riches, we as Christians should be on a different kind of treasure hunt. What we seek does not consist of silver and gold. Rather our quest is to gather the precious gems of insight so that we might gain the “full assurance of understanding . . . , both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:2-3). The hidden treasure of knowing the Lord more completely is found in the Bible. The psalmist said, “I rejoice at Your Word as one who finds great treasure” (Ps. 119:162).
If we read the Word of God hurriedly or carelessly, we will miss its deep insights. These truths must be sought earnestly with all the attention of someone seeking hidden treasure.
Are you eager to find the treasures stored in Scripture? Start digging!
When reading God’s Word, take special care,
To find the rich treasures hidden there;
Give thought to each line, each precept hear,
Then practice it well with godly fear. —Anon.
The treasures of truth in God’s Word are best mined with the spade of meditation.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, December 22, 2011
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
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.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
John 6, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals (Click to listen to God’s teaching)
Max Lucado Daily: He Called His Name Jesus
Joseph … took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus. Matthew 1:24–25
When was the last time you placed God’s plan ahead of your own?
“Joseph … took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus” (Matt. 1:24–25).
Joseph was literally willing to tank his reputation. And he did. He traded it in for a pregnant fiancée and an illegitimate son and made the big decision of discipleship. He placed God’s plan ahead of his own.
Rather than making a name for himself, he made a home for Christ. And because he did, a great reward came his way. “He called His name Jesus.”
Of all the saints, sinners, prodigals, and preachers who’ve spoken the name, Joseph—a blue-collar, small-town construction worker said it first.
Joseph cradled the wrinkled-faced prince of heaven, and with an audience of angels and pigs, whispered, “Jesus—You’ll be called Jesus.”
John 6:22-40
New International Version (NIV)
22 The next day the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake realized that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples, but that they had gone away alone. 23 Then some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.
Jesus the Bread of Life
25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
26 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
28 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
30 So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’[a]”
32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”
35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: John 12:35-46
35 Then Jesus told them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going. 36 Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of light.” When he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them.
Belief and Unbelief Among the Jews
37 Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. 38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet:
“Lord, who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”[a]
39 For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:
40 “He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their hearts,
so they can neither see with their eyes,
nor understand with their hearts,
nor turn—and I would heal them.”[b]
41 Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.
42 Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved human praise more than praise from God.
44 Then Jesus cried out, “Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. 45 The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me. 46 I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.
Rejected Light
December 21, 2011 — by David C. McCasland
I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. —John 12:46
In the early hours of December 21, 2010, I witnessed an event that last occurred in 1638—a total lunar eclipse on the winter solstice. Slowly the shadow of the earth slipped across the bright full moon and made it appear a dark red. It was a remarkable and beautiful event. Yet it reminded me that while physical darkness is part of God’s created design, spiritual darkness is not.
Scottish pastor Alexander MacLaren said: “Rejected light is the parent of the densest darkness, and the man who, having the light, does not trust it, piles around himself thick clouds of obscurity and gloom.” Jesus described this self-imposed spiritual eclipse of heart and mind when He said, “If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matt. 6:23).
The great invitation of Christmas is to open our hearts to the Savior who came to end our darkness. Jesus said, “While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light. . . . I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness” (John 12:36,46).
The way out of our spiritual night is to walk in the light with Him.
Come to the Light, ’tis shining for thee,
Sweetly the Light has dawned upon me;
Once I was blind, but now I can see—
The Light of the world is Jesus. —Bliss
When we walk in the Light, we won’t stumble in the darkness.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
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
Something Broken at Christmas - #6508
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Having had two teenage boys who loved football, there was one Christmas gift that was a sure hit - a new leather football. And seeing how it was a rare 60-degree Christmas morning, do you think we were going to just sit around the Christmas tree and admire that ball? No! They went right outside and did what you're supposed to do with a football.
So here we were - the three men of the house - running quickly out of the house, out into the middle of the street, passing that football back and forth. See, I went back for a long one; the pass was right to me! And I caught it! Right on the end of my little finger, like the Christmas klutz. The emergency room? Yeah, that's not where you want to spend a chunk of your Christmas, but that's where I was with a special souvenir of that Christmas - a broken finger.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Something Broken at Christmas."
Hey, take it from me; it is no fun having something broken during Christmas. Especially if what's broken is a relationship you really care about, or your family is broken, or your heart is broken. All the "joy to the world" around you just seems to make the hurt even worse. And often the Christmas season brings painful reminders of the things that have hurt us the most.
You need to know that the One whose birthday we're celebrating knows about what's broken and He knows how much it hurts. He cares about that pain, He cares about your loneliness, and He really understands. Remember, this Jesus who came that first Christmas was, in the words of the Bible, a "man of sorrows and familiar with suffering" (Isaiah 53:3). He was misunderstood, He was abandoned, He was betrayed, falsely accused, and put to death.
So while everyone around you may be celebrating and totally unaware of how you're hurting, you've got to know that Jesus is moving close to you today, and He wants to do something very powerful for you this Christmas. That's why I think He's led me to talk about this today. His Word says, "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit" (Psalm 34:18).
In Isaiah 61:1, our word for today from the Word of God, the Son of God says, "The Lord has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted." He really is the fixer of broken hearts, and broken lives, and broken people. Because He came to do something about what's at the root of all our brokenness. There's a reason we use each other, hurt each other, and let each other down. Something's very wrong in our world; something's very wrong in us. It goes back to our living with our back to the God who put us here. We simply aren't living as we were made to live, which is God's way. We have this deadly disease of me called sin. It's ignored God over and over again. And sin is a killer of everything beautiful - everything that matters.
In fact, sin killed Jesus. He absorbed our death penalty for our sin to remove that wall between us and the God whose love we need so much. And the broken things in your life are a painful reminder of your deep heart need for a love and a security that you can't lose. Only God can give you that.
So the body of Jesus was broken to repair the broken relationship between you and God, so He can move in and fix and forgive what's broken inside you. In fact, this very day, the one who came on Christmas is coming to you, offering you this opportunity for Him to come into your life with His love. But you have to open the door to let Him in.
And this could be the day that happens, the day you finally experience what it is to belong to the one who loved you enough to die for you and then was powerful enough to conquer death. Just tell Him right where you are, "Jesus, I've lived without you long enough. You died for me. I can trust you. I'm yours." And please go check out our website as soon as you can today - YoursForLife.net. It will help you know that you really belong to Him.
What a Christmas this could be. What a new beginning! Being broken can actually drive you into the loving arms of Jesus Christ where you can finally be whole.
Joseph … took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus. Matthew 1:24–25
When was the last time you placed God’s plan ahead of your own?
“Joseph … took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus” (Matt. 1:24–25).
Joseph was literally willing to tank his reputation. And he did. He traded it in for a pregnant fiancée and an illegitimate son and made the big decision of discipleship. He placed God’s plan ahead of his own.
Rather than making a name for himself, he made a home for Christ. And because he did, a great reward came his way. “He called His name Jesus.”
Of all the saints, sinners, prodigals, and preachers who’ve spoken the name, Joseph—a blue-collar, small-town construction worker said it first.
Joseph cradled the wrinkled-faced prince of heaven, and with an audience of angels and pigs, whispered, “Jesus—You’ll be called Jesus.”
John 6:22-40
New International Version (NIV)
22 The next day the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake realized that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples, but that they had gone away alone. 23 Then some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.
Jesus the Bread of Life
25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
26 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
28 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
30 So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’[a]”
32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”
35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: John 12:35-46
35 Then Jesus told them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going. 36 Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of light.” When he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them.
Belief and Unbelief Among the Jews
37 Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. 38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet:
“Lord, who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”[a]
39 For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:
40 “He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their hearts,
so they can neither see with their eyes,
nor understand with their hearts,
nor turn—and I would heal them.”[b]
41 Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.
42 Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved human praise more than praise from God.
44 Then Jesus cried out, “Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. 45 The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me. 46 I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.
Rejected Light
December 21, 2011 — by David C. McCasland
I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. —John 12:46
In the early hours of December 21, 2010, I witnessed an event that last occurred in 1638—a total lunar eclipse on the winter solstice. Slowly the shadow of the earth slipped across the bright full moon and made it appear a dark red. It was a remarkable and beautiful event. Yet it reminded me that while physical darkness is part of God’s created design, spiritual darkness is not.
Scottish pastor Alexander MacLaren said: “Rejected light is the parent of the densest darkness, and the man who, having the light, does not trust it, piles around himself thick clouds of obscurity and gloom.” Jesus described this self-imposed spiritual eclipse of heart and mind when He said, “If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matt. 6:23).
The great invitation of Christmas is to open our hearts to the Savior who came to end our darkness. Jesus said, “While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light. . . . I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness” (John 12:36,46).
The way out of our spiritual night is to walk in the light with Him.
Come to the Light, ’tis shining for thee,
Sweetly the Light has dawned upon me;
Once I was blind, but now I can see—
The Light of the world is Jesus. —Bliss
When we walk in the Light, we won’t stumble in the darkness.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
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
Something Broken at Christmas - #6508
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Having had two teenage boys who loved football, there was one Christmas gift that was a sure hit - a new leather football. And seeing how it was a rare 60-degree Christmas morning, do you think we were going to just sit around the Christmas tree and admire that ball? No! They went right outside and did what you're supposed to do with a football.
So here we were - the three men of the house - running quickly out of the house, out into the middle of the street, passing that football back and forth. See, I went back for a long one; the pass was right to me! And I caught it! Right on the end of my little finger, like the Christmas klutz. The emergency room? Yeah, that's not where you want to spend a chunk of your Christmas, but that's where I was with a special souvenir of that Christmas - a broken finger.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Something Broken at Christmas."
Hey, take it from me; it is no fun having something broken during Christmas. Especially if what's broken is a relationship you really care about, or your family is broken, or your heart is broken. All the "joy to the world" around you just seems to make the hurt even worse. And often the Christmas season brings painful reminders of the things that have hurt us the most.
You need to know that the One whose birthday we're celebrating knows about what's broken and He knows how much it hurts. He cares about that pain, He cares about your loneliness, and He really understands. Remember, this Jesus who came that first Christmas was, in the words of the Bible, a "man of sorrows and familiar with suffering" (Isaiah 53:3). He was misunderstood, He was abandoned, He was betrayed, falsely accused, and put to death.
So while everyone around you may be celebrating and totally unaware of how you're hurting, you've got to know that Jesus is moving close to you today, and He wants to do something very powerful for you this Christmas. That's why I think He's led me to talk about this today. His Word says, "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit" (Psalm 34:18).
In Isaiah 61:1, our word for today from the Word of God, the Son of God says, "The Lord has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted." He really is the fixer of broken hearts, and broken lives, and broken people. Because He came to do something about what's at the root of all our brokenness. There's a reason we use each other, hurt each other, and let each other down. Something's very wrong in our world; something's very wrong in us. It goes back to our living with our back to the God who put us here. We simply aren't living as we were made to live, which is God's way. We have this deadly disease of me called sin. It's ignored God over and over again. And sin is a killer of everything beautiful - everything that matters.
In fact, sin killed Jesus. He absorbed our death penalty for our sin to remove that wall between us and the God whose love we need so much. And the broken things in your life are a painful reminder of your deep heart need for a love and a security that you can't lose. Only God can give you that.
So the body of Jesus was broken to repair the broken relationship between you and God, so He can move in and fix and forgive what's broken inside you. In fact, this very day, the one who came on Christmas is coming to you, offering you this opportunity for Him to come into your life with His love. But you have to open the door to let Him in.
And this could be the day that happens, the day you finally experience what it is to belong to the one who loved you enough to die for you and then was powerful enough to conquer death. Just tell Him right where you are, "Jesus, I've lived without you long enough. You died for me. I can trust you. I'm yours." And please go check out our website as soon as you can today - YoursForLife.net. It will help you know that you really belong to Him.
What a Christmas this could be. What a new beginning! Being broken can actually drive you into the loving arms of Jesus Christ where you can finally be whole.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Psalm 18, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals (Click to listen to God’s teaching)
Max Lucado Daily: No Room
Here I am! I stand
at the door and knock.
Revelation 3:20
Some of the saddest words on earth are: “We don’t have room for you.”
Jesus knew the sound of those words. He was still in Mary’s womb when the innkeeper said, “We don’t have room for you.” …
And when he was hung on the cross, wasn’t the message one of utter rejection? “We don’t have room for you in this world.”
Even today Jesus is given the same treatment. He goes from heart to heart, asking if he might enter.…
Every so often, he is welcomed. Someone throws open the door of his or her heart and invites him to stay. And to that person Jesus gives this great promise: … “In my father’s house are many rooms.” …
What a delightful promise he makes us! We make room for him in our hearts, and he makes room for us in his house.
Psalm 18[a]
For the director of music. Of David the servant of the LORD. He sang to the LORD the words of this song when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said:
1 I love you, LORD, my strength.
2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield[b] and the horn[c] of my salvation, my stronghold.
3 I called to the LORD, who is worthy of praise,
and I have been saved from my enemies.
4 The cords of death entangled me;
the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
5 The cords of the grave coiled around me;
the snares of death confronted me.
6 In my distress I called to the LORD;
I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice;
my cry came before him, into his ears.
7 The earth trembled and quaked,
and the foundations of the mountains shook;
they trembled because he was angry.
8 Smoke rose from his nostrils;
consuming fire came from his mouth,
burning coals blazed out of it.
9 He parted the heavens and came down;
dark clouds were under his feet.
10 He mounted the cherubim and flew;
he soared on the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him—
the dark rain clouds of the sky.
12 Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced,
with hailstones and bolts of lightning.
13 The LORD thundered from heaven;
the voice of the Most High resounded.[d]
14 He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy,
with great bolts of lightning he routed them.
15 The valleys of the sea were exposed
and the foundations of the earth laid bare
at your rebuke, LORD,
at the blast of breath from your nostrils.
16 He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
he drew me out of deep waters.
17 He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me.
18 They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
but the LORD was my support.
19 He brought me out into a spacious place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me.
20 The LORD has dealt with me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me.
21 For I have kept the ways of the LORD;
I am not guilty of turning from my God.
22 All his laws are before me;
I have not turned away from his decrees.
23 I have been blameless before him
and have kept myself from sin.
24 The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
25 To the faithful you show yourself faithful,
to the blameless you show yourself blameless,
26 to the pure you show yourself pure,
but to the devious you show yourself shrewd.
27 You save the humble
but bring low those whose eyes are haughty.
28 You, LORD, keep my lamp burning;
my God turns my darkness into light.
29 With your help I can advance against a troop[e];
with my God I can scale a wall.
30 As for God, his way is perfect:
The LORD’s word is flawless;
he shields all who take refuge in him.
31 For who is God besides the LORD?
And who is the Rock except our God?
32 It is God who arms me with strength
and keeps my way secure.
33 He makes my feet like the feet of a deer;
he causes me to stand on the heights.
34 He trains my hands for battle;
my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
35 You make your saving help my shield,
and your right hand sustains me;
your help has made me great.
36 You provide a broad path for my feet,
so that my ankles do not give way.
37 I pursued my enemies and overtook them;
I did not turn back till they were destroyed.
38 I crushed them so that they could not rise;
they fell beneath my feet.
39 You armed me with strength for battle;
you humbled my adversaries before me.
40 You made my enemies turn their backs in flight,
and I destroyed my foes.
41 They cried for help, but there was no one to save them—
to the LORD, but he did not answer.
42 I beat them as fine as windblown dust;
I trampled them[f] like mud in the streets.
43 You have delivered me from the attacks of the people;
you have made me the head of nations.
People I did not know now serve me,
44 foreigners cower before me;
as soon as they hear of me, they obey me.
45 They all lose heart;
they come trembling from their strongholds.
46 The LORD lives! Praise be to my Rock!
Exalted be God my Savior!
47 He is the God who avenges me,
who subdues nations under me,
48 who saves me from my enemies.
You exalted me above my foes;
from a violent man you rescued me.
49 Therefore I will praise you, LORD, among the nations;
I will sing the praises of your name.
50 He gives his king great victories;
he shows unfailing love to his anointed,
to David and to his descendants forever.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Acts 20:22-32
22 “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.
25 “Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. 26 Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you. 27 For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. 28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God,[a] which he bought with his own blood.[b] 29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31 So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.
32 “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
Always On Duty
December 20, 2011 — by Marvin Williams
Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. —Hebrews 13:17
As my kids were discarding their trash at the local mall food court, my oldest son was almost run into by a man who was clearly on a mission. My younger son jokingly remarked, “Maybe he stole something.” Thinking I might be able to use this as a teachable moment, I said, “That’s what the Bible calls judging.” He then asked with a smile: “Why are you always ‘pastoring’ me?” After I finished laughing, I told my sons that I could never take a vacation from shepherding them.
The apostle Paul told the Ephesian elders that they too could never take a vacation from shepherding God’s people (Acts 20). He was convinced that false teachers would try to ravage the church (v.29), and the elders needed to protect the group from them. Caring for God’s people includes feeding them spiritually, leading them gently, and warning them firmly. Leaders in the church are to be motivated by the incalculable price Christ paid on the cross (v.28).
Church leaders have a big responsibility to watch over our souls, for one day they will give an account to the Lord for their work among us. Let’s bring them joy now by responding to their faithful, godly leadership with obedience and submission (Heb. 13:17).
We join our hearts and hands together
Faithful to the Lord’s command:
We hold each other to God’s standards—
All that truth and love demand. —D. De Haan
After we hear the Word of God,
we should then take up the work of God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
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
Packing Up Christmas - #6507
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Right after Thanksgiving, I make my annual pilgrimage to the Christmas corner of our garage. I did it last year, and I brought out Christmas. Now, we've been accumulating ornaments and decorations for a lot of years now, and it's always a big deal for the family when they make their annual re-entry; all those decorations come back into our life again. You know, the house is actually alive with Christmas right now. Well, I mean for a while. But before very long, I will reverse that exercise, re-pack everything in their aging boxes, and put them back in storage for another year.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Packing up Christmas."
Now, we unpack Christmas when we want it and we put Christmas away when we don't want it. You can do that with Christmas. You can't do that with Christ, although a lot of people try to. See, we haul out Jesus when we'd like to have Him be a part of things: on Sundays, for Christmas, when we're in a jam, when we want to be religious. But, to be honest, we keep Him largely at the edges of our life, mostly in our head, not really in our heart.
Well, you just can't do it that way. That's clear even from the angels' birth announcement that first Christmas. It's recorded in Luke 2:10-11, our word for today from the Word of God. "The angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord.'"
See, you and I don't get to decide how we relate to the Son of God. He has announced the terms of having Him in your life. First, He's the Savior. Today, we would call that a rescuer, like those brave police and firefighters who went right into the holocaust at Ground Zero to try to bring people out. When the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center collapsed, the only hope for people trapped in that rubble was a rescuer. Often we don't realize that our spiritual situation is just that deadly.
The Bible says we're trapped in the rubble of our choice to run our own life our way - instead of God's way. This rebellion against our Creator...well, it can't be redeemed by any religion in the world; only by Jesus, the only Rescuer God ever sent to pay for our sins with His life. Sin's death penalty can only be paid by someone dying, and Jesus did that so you don't have to. But you have to grab Him with all the faith you've got like a dying person would grab a rescuer.
Now, the angels also announced that Jesus was "Christ the Lord." Now, that word means He's the One who controls everything. Maybe you've been trying to have Jesus be a passenger in your life; a life that actually you are driving. No deal. He's Christ the Lord. He doesn't ride, He drives. And maybe today is your day to finally move out of that driver's seat and turn it over to the One it was made for in the first place.
I'm praying that this Christmas may be for someone who's listening right now your first real Christmas - your first Christmas with Christ in your heart. Not just in your head, in your heart. Not just on the edges, but in the center of your life. Don't you want to belong to this Jesus? He loves you so much! Then tell Him right now, "Jesus, I am Yours from this moment on. You came here to pay for people's sins, and I have sin that needed to be paid for. Thank You for paying the price so I don't have to. I want to belong to You today, Jesus. I want to belong to You forever."
See, because He's alive, because He wanted out of His grave after He died for you, He can walk right into your life upon your invitation. What a day this would be right here in the season we celebrate His coming to this world He could come into your life. Tell Him that today; pray that way to Him today.
Let me invite you to our website today. Go there as soon as you can check it out, because I've tried to put there as simply as I could, a way for you to be sure that you have begun your relationship with Jesus. It's YoursForLife.net.
You've known a lot about Jesus. Well, beginning this very day, you can finally know Jesus for real. This can be your personal Jesus-day.
Here I am! I stand
at the door and knock.
Revelation 3:20
Some of the saddest words on earth are: “We don’t have room for you.”
Jesus knew the sound of those words. He was still in Mary’s womb when the innkeeper said, “We don’t have room for you.” …
And when he was hung on the cross, wasn’t the message one of utter rejection? “We don’t have room for you in this world.”
Even today Jesus is given the same treatment. He goes from heart to heart, asking if he might enter.…
Every so often, he is welcomed. Someone throws open the door of his or her heart and invites him to stay. And to that person Jesus gives this great promise: … “In my father’s house are many rooms.” …
What a delightful promise he makes us! We make room for him in our hearts, and he makes room for us in his house.
Psalm 18[a]
For the director of music. Of David the servant of the LORD. He sang to the LORD the words of this song when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said:
1 I love you, LORD, my strength.
2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield[b] and the horn[c] of my salvation, my stronghold.
3 I called to the LORD, who is worthy of praise,
and I have been saved from my enemies.
4 The cords of death entangled me;
the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
5 The cords of the grave coiled around me;
the snares of death confronted me.
6 In my distress I called to the LORD;
I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice;
my cry came before him, into his ears.
7 The earth trembled and quaked,
and the foundations of the mountains shook;
they trembled because he was angry.
8 Smoke rose from his nostrils;
consuming fire came from his mouth,
burning coals blazed out of it.
9 He parted the heavens and came down;
dark clouds were under his feet.
10 He mounted the cherubim and flew;
he soared on the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him—
the dark rain clouds of the sky.
12 Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced,
with hailstones and bolts of lightning.
13 The LORD thundered from heaven;
the voice of the Most High resounded.[d]
14 He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy,
with great bolts of lightning he routed them.
15 The valleys of the sea were exposed
and the foundations of the earth laid bare
at your rebuke, LORD,
at the blast of breath from your nostrils.
16 He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
he drew me out of deep waters.
17 He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me.
18 They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
but the LORD was my support.
19 He brought me out into a spacious place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me.
20 The LORD has dealt with me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me.
21 For I have kept the ways of the LORD;
I am not guilty of turning from my God.
22 All his laws are before me;
I have not turned away from his decrees.
23 I have been blameless before him
and have kept myself from sin.
24 The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
25 To the faithful you show yourself faithful,
to the blameless you show yourself blameless,
26 to the pure you show yourself pure,
but to the devious you show yourself shrewd.
27 You save the humble
but bring low those whose eyes are haughty.
28 You, LORD, keep my lamp burning;
my God turns my darkness into light.
29 With your help I can advance against a troop[e];
with my God I can scale a wall.
30 As for God, his way is perfect:
The LORD’s word is flawless;
he shields all who take refuge in him.
31 For who is God besides the LORD?
And who is the Rock except our God?
32 It is God who arms me with strength
and keeps my way secure.
33 He makes my feet like the feet of a deer;
he causes me to stand on the heights.
34 He trains my hands for battle;
my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
35 You make your saving help my shield,
and your right hand sustains me;
your help has made me great.
36 You provide a broad path for my feet,
so that my ankles do not give way.
37 I pursued my enemies and overtook them;
I did not turn back till they were destroyed.
38 I crushed them so that they could not rise;
they fell beneath my feet.
39 You armed me with strength for battle;
you humbled my adversaries before me.
40 You made my enemies turn their backs in flight,
and I destroyed my foes.
41 They cried for help, but there was no one to save them—
to the LORD, but he did not answer.
42 I beat them as fine as windblown dust;
I trampled them[f] like mud in the streets.
43 You have delivered me from the attacks of the people;
you have made me the head of nations.
People I did not know now serve me,
44 foreigners cower before me;
as soon as they hear of me, they obey me.
45 They all lose heart;
they come trembling from their strongholds.
46 The LORD lives! Praise be to my Rock!
Exalted be God my Savior!
47 He is the God who avenges me,
who subdues nations under me,
48 who saves me from my enemies.
You exalted me above my foes;
from a violent man you rescued me.
49 Therefore I will praise you, LORD, among the nations;
I will sing the praises of your name.
50 He gives his king great victories;
he shows unfailing love to his anointed,
to David and to his descendants forever.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Acts 20:22-32
22 “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.
25 “Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. 26 Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you. 27 For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. 28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God,[a] which he bought with his own blood.[b] 29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31 So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.
32 “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
Always On Duty
December 20, 2011 — by Marvin Williams
Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. —Hebrews 13:17
As my kids were discarding their trash at the local mall food court, my oldest son was almost run into by a man who was clearly on a mission. My younger son jokingly remarked, “Maybe he stole something.” Thinking I might be able to use this as a teachable moment, I said, “That’s what the Bible calls judging.” He then asked with a smile: “Why are you always ‘pastoring’ me?” After I finished laughing, I told my sons that I could never take a vacation from shepherding them.
The apostle Paul told the Ephesian elders that they too could never take a vacation from shepherding God’s people (Acts 20). He was convinced that false teachers would try to ravage the church (v.29), and the elders needed to protect the group from them. Caring for God’s people includes feeding them spiritually, leading them gently, and warning them firmly. Leaders in the church are to be motivated by the incalculable price Christ paid on the cross (v.28).
Church leaders have a big responsibility to watch over our souls, for one day they will give an account to the Lord for their work among us. Let’s bring them joy now by responding to their faithful, godly leadership with obedience and submission (Heb. 13:17).
We join our hearts and hands together
Faithful to the Lord’s command:
We hold each other to God’s standards—
All that truth and love demand. —D. De Haan
After we hear the Word of God,
we should then take up the work of God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
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
Packing Up Christmas - #6507
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Right after Thanksgiving, I make my annual pilgrimage to the Christmas corner of our garage. I did it last year, and I brought out Christmas. Now, we've been accumulating ornaments and decorations for a lot of years now, and it's always a big deal for the family when they make their annual re-entry; all those decorations come back into our life again. You know, the house is actually alive with Christmas right now. Well, I mean for a while. But before very long, I will reverse that exercise, re-pack everything in their aging boxes, and put them back in storage for another year.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Packing up Christmas."
Now, we unpack Christmas when we want it and we put Christmas away when we don't want it. You can do that with Christmas. You can't do that with Christ, although a lot of people try to. See, we haul out Jesus when we'd like to have Him be a part of things: on Sundays, for Christmas, when we're in a jam, when we want to be religious. But, to be honest, we keep Him largely at the edges of our life, mostly in our head, not really in our heart.
Well, you just can't do it that way. That's clear even from the angels' birth announcement that first Christmas. It's recorded in Luke 2:10-11, our word for today from the Word of God. "The angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord.'"
See, you and I don't get to decide how we relate to the Son of God. He has announced the terms of having Him in your life. First, He's the Savior. Today, we would call that a rescuer, like those brave police and firefighters who went right into the holocaust at Ground Zero to try to bring people out. When the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center collapsed, the only hope for people trapped in that rubble was a rescuer. Often we don't realize that our spiritual situation is just that deadly.
The Bible says we're trapped in the rubble of our choice to run our own life our way - instead of God's way. This rebellion against our Creator...well, it can't be redeemed by any religion in the world; only by Jesus, the only Rescuer God ever sent to pay for our sins with His life. Sin's death penalty can only be paid by someone dying, and Jesus did that so you don't have to. But you have to grab Him with all the faith you've got like a dying person would grab a rescuer.
Now, the angels also announced that Jesus was "Christ the Lord." Now, that word means He's the One who controls everything. Maybe you've been trying to have Jesus be a passenger in your life; a life that actually you are driving. No deal. He's Christ the Lord. He doesn't ride, He drives. And maybe today is your day to finally move out of that driver's seat and turn it over to the One it was made for in the first place.
I'm praying that this Christmas may be for someone who's listening right now your first real Christmas - your first Christmas with Christ in your heart. Not just in your head, in your heart. Not just on the edges, but in the center of your life. Don't you want to belong to this Jesus? He loves you so much! Then tell Him right now, "Jesus, I am Yours from this moment on. You came here to pay for people's sins, and I have sin that needed to be paid for. Thank You for paying the price so I don't have to. I want to belong to You today, Jesus. I want to belong to You forever."
See, because He's alive, because He wanted out of His grave after He died for you, He can walk right into your life upon your invitation. What a day this would be right here in the season we celebrate His coming to this world He could come into your life. Tell Him that today; pray that way to Him today.
Let me invite you to our website today. Go there as soon as you can check it out, because I've tried to put there as simply as I could, a way for you to be sure that you have begun your relationship with Jesus. It's YoursForLife.net.
You've known a lot about Jesus. Well, beginning this very day, you can finally know Jesus for real. This can be your personal Jesus-day.
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