Psalm 135 bible reading and devotionals.

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MaxLucado.com: Call Home

I got off my flight with a cramp in my leg, an empty stomach, a bad attitude, and three more hours to go.  And the connecting flight was late!

I set down my bags and called home.  Denalyn answered.  She’s always glad when I call.  We made no decisions.  We solved no problems.  We just talked.  And I felt better.  When we finished, Denalyn said, “I’m glad you called.”  And I hung up happy!   I can handle being a pilgrim as long as I can call home whenever I want.

It occurs to me Jesus needed to call home in the middle of the hassles as much as I did.  He needed a minute with Someone who would understand.  So He chatted with the One He loved; heard the sound of the home He missed.

And He was reminded when all hell breaks loose, all heaven draws near!   Maybe you should call home too!

From In the Eye of the Storm

Psalm 135

1 Praise the Lord.[a]
Praise the name of the Lord;
    praise him, you servants of the Lord,
2 you who minister in the house of the Lord,
    in the courts of the house of our God.
3 Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good;
    sing praise to his name, for that is pleasant.
4 For the Lord has chosen Jacob to be his own,
    Israel to be his treasured possession.
5 I know that the Lord is great,
    that our Lord is greater than all gods.
6 The Lord does whatever pleases him,
    in the heavens and on the earth,
    in the seas and all their depths.
7 He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth;
    he sends lightning with the rain
    and brings out the wind from his storehouses.
8 He struck down the firstborn of Egypt,
    the firstborn of people and animals.
9 He sent his signs and wonders into your midst, Egypt,
    against Pharaoh and all his servants.
10 He struck down many nations
    and killed mighty kings—
11 Sihon king of the Amorites,
    Og king of Bashan,
    and all the kings of Canaan—
12 and he gave their land as an inheritance,
    an inheritance to his people Israel.
13 Your name, Lord, endures forever,
    your renown, Lord, through all generations.
14 For the Lord will vindicate his people
    and have compassion on his servants.
15 The idols of the nations are silver and gold,
    made by human hands.
16 They have mouths, but cannot speak,
    eyes, but cannot see.
17 They have ears, but cannot hear,
    nor is there breath in their mouths.
18 Those who make them will be like them,
    and so will all who trust in them.
19 All you Israelites, praise the Lord;
    house of Aaron, praise the Lord;
20 house of Levi, praise the Lord;
    you who fear him, praise the Lord.
21 Praise be to the Lord from Zion,
    to him who dwells in Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Jacob’s Dream at Bethel

10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it[a] stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.[b] 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

18 Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. 19 He called that place Bethel,[c] though the city used to be called Luz.

20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear 21 so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the Lord[d] will be my God 22 and[e] this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”

Jesus Is Near

October 10, 2012 — by Anne Cetas

Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it. —Genesis 28:16

Samuel, who was 4, had finished eating his dinner and asked if he could be dismissed from the table. He wanted to go outside to play. But he was too young to be out alone, so his mother said, “No. You can’t go outside by yourself. You need to wait for me to finish and go with you.” His quick reply: “But, Mommy, Jesus is with me!”

Samuel had learned well from his parents that the Lord is always by his side. We see in our Bible reading today that Jacob had learned that lesson too. His father Isaac had blessed him and told him to find a wife from among his mother’s family (Gen. 28:1-4). He followed that directive and traveled toward Haran.

As Jacob slept, the Lord came to him in a dream and said, “I am with you and will keep you wherever you go . . . ; for I will not leave you” (v.15). When he awoke, he knew that he had heard from God, and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place” (v.16). Confident of God’s presence, he committed himself to following Him with his life (vv.20-21).

If we have received Jesus as our Savior (John 1:12), we can be confident and take comfort in the truth that He is always present with us (Heb. 13:5). Like Jacob, may our response to His love be wholehearted devotion.

Thank You, Lord, for walking with us every
day. You are our guardian, friend,
and guide. May we sense Your loving presence and always
know that You are close by our side. Amen.
Our loving God is always near—forever by our side.



My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
October 10, 2012

How Will I Know?

Jesus answered and said, ’I thank You, Father . . . that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes’ —Matthew 11:25

We do not grow into a spiritual relationship step by step— we either have a relationship or we do not. God does not continue to cleanse us more and more from sin— “But if we walk in the light,” we are cleansed “from all sin” (1 John 1:7). It is a matter of obedience, and once we obey, the relationship is instantly perfected. But if we turn away from obedience for even one second, darkness and death are immediately at work again.

All of God’s revealed truths are sealed until they are opened to us through obedience. You will never open them through philosophy or thinking. But once you obey, a flash of light comes immediately. Let God’s truth work into you by immersing yourself in it, not by worrying into it. The only way you can get to know the truth of God is to stop trying to find out and by being born again. If you obey God in the first thing He shows you, then He instantly opens up the next truth to you. You could read volumes on the work of the Holy Spirit, when five minutes of total, uncompromising obedience would make things as clear as sunlight. Don’t say, “I suppose I will understand these things someday!” You can understand them now. And it is not study that brings understanding to you, but obedience. Even the smallest bit of obedience opens heaven, and the deepest truths of God immediately become yours. Yet God will never reveal more truth about Himself to you, until you have obeyed what you know already. Beware of becoming one of the “wise and prudent.” “If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know . . .” (John 7:17).


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

The Fire is Not in the Fireworks - #6718

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Well, it was our first weekend after we had moved to the New York area, and it was the fourth of July. So, we thought it would be a good weekend to see New York City. A lot of people will be gone, and it was a good weekend. We didn't get all jammed up in traffic, we got to see a lot of the sights and get familiar with the streets. We kind of braved it. When we headed home, we drove up the West Side Highway, which runs right along the Hudson River headed for the George Washington Bridge.

All of a sudden all the traffic came to a stop. Well, we thought that was a little unusual to have this big traffic jam on a holiday, but what was more unusual was it just didn't move at all. We weren't creeping or inching along; we were totally stopped. It was a long parking lot and no one moved an inch for like half an hour. I couldn't figure out what was going on.

And then I noticed the people getting out of their cars, walking around, sitting on their cars right in the middle of this very busy highway that's not very busy all of a sudden. And then I noticed that everybody was looking across the Hudson River at the fireworks at an old amusement park there. As soon as the fireworks were over, yep, that traffic started to move. Everybody got in their car and started driving again. I thought, "Well, welcome to New York City!" That was a great introduction for us newcomers. Of course, you know, you can always get a crowd for fireworks.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Fire is Not in the Fireworks."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God, 1 Kings 19, and we're looking at a discouraged prophet. Elijah is being chased by Jezebel, who wants him dead. And now with this death penalty on his head, he talks to the Lord and the Lord starts to respond to his need. "The Lord said, 'Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.'"

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord wasn't in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave, and then a voice said to him, 'What are you doing here, Elijah?'"

And from that point on, Elijah receives some of the most important mission assignments God has ever given him. Do you notice that God was not in the spectacular stuff? He was in the quiet. It's often that way.

John Gardner said that there are two words that describe the American culture - wow and now. That's how we like things. We North American Christians, we love spiritual "wow." We tend to see our best spiritual experiences as being in the fireworks; you know, the excitement of that big event, or a powerful retreat, a special speaker we're going to hear, a great concert.

But as you read about the people God uses in the Bible, there's a surprising reality. God usually does His most special things through people who have touched Him in the quiet: no band, no speaker, no choir, no excited crowd, no fireworks. The voice of God is more often in the silence than in the spectacular; in the solo times more than in the multitude.

I think some of us may have become in the spiritual sense fireworks junkies. We're dependant on the next spiritual spectacular. That's a good way to be spiritually immature for the rest of your life. The Bible says, "Be still and know that I am God." See, He wants you one-on-one. He wants your undivided attention. He wants you depending totally on Him, not on the meeting, not on the event, not on the hype.

Maybe it's been too long since you've just called a time out and set aside some non-negotiable time and just grabbed your Bible and a notebook and went to be with God, alone in the quiet, where He can best be heard. Now, you can still enjoy the spiritual fireworks, but just don't depend on them.

When it comes to spiritual power, the fire is usually not in the fireworks.

Psalm 134 bible reading and devotionals.

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MaxLucado.com: Well, What Do You Know!

As I look around, I find more and more things that I’d labeled, “To be expected” that deserve to be labeled, “Well what do you know!

Every day I have the honor of sitting down with a book that contains the words of the One who created me.  Every day I have the opportunity to let Him give me a thought or two on how to live.  If I don’t understand what He says, He doesn’t call me a dummy.  In fact, He calls me “son,” and on a different page explains what I don’t understand!  Remarkable!

I’m discovering many things.  Traffic jams eventually clear up.  Sunsets are for free.   I’m learning that if I look—if I open my eyes and observe, there are many reasons to take off my hat, look at the Source of it all, and just say thanks!

From In the Eye of the Storm

Psalm 133

A song of ascents. Of David.

1 How good and pleasant it is
    when God’s people live together in unity!
2 It is like precious oil poured on the head,
    running down on the beard,
running down on Aaron’s beard,
    down on the collar of his robe.
3 It is as if the dew of Hermon
    were falling on Mount Zion.
For there the Lord bestows his blessing,
    even life forevermore.



Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Job 1:13-22

13 One day when Job’s sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, 14 a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, 15 and the Sabeans attacked and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”

16 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The fire of God fell from the heavens and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”

17 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”

18 While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, “Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, 19 when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”

20 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship 21 and said:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
    and naked I will depart.[a]
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
    may the name of the Lord be praised.”
22 In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

Still In God’s Hands

October 9, 2012 — by Randy Kilgore

In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong. —Job 1:22

During my first year of seminary, I listened as a new friend described her life. Abandoned by her husband, she was raising two small children alone. Earning just over minimum wage, she had little chance of escaping the poverty and dangers she described in her neighborhood.

As a father, I was moved by her concern for her children, and asked, “How do you handle all of this?” She seemed surprised by my question and replied, “We are doing all we can do, and I must leave them in God’s hands.” Her trust in God in the midst of trials reminded me of Job’s trust (1:6-22).

A year later, she phoned and asked if I would come be with her at the funeral home. Her son had been killed in a drive-by shooting. I asked God for words to comfort her and for the wisdom not to try to explain the unexplainable.

Standing with her that day, however, I marveled as again and again she comforted others—her confidence in God unshaken by this terrible blow. Turning to me as we parted, her final words were a poignant reminder of the depth of her faith: “My boy is still in God’s hands.” Like Job, she “did not sin nor charge God with wrong”(v.22).

We too can develop an unshakable faith by daily walking with the Lord.

O the peace I find in Jesus,
Peace no power on earth can shake,
Peace that makes the Lord so precious,
Peace that none from me can take. —Beck
Nothing can shake those who are secure in God’s hands.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
October 9, 2012

Building on the Atonement

. . . present . . . your members as instruments of righteousness to God —Romans 6:13

I cannot save and sanctify myself; I cannot make atonement for sin; I cannot redeem the world; I cannot right what is wrong, purify what is impure, or make holy what is unholy. That is all the sovereign work of God. Do I have faith in what Jesus Christ has done? He has made the perfect atonement for sin. Am I in the habit of constantly realizing it? The greatest need we have is not to do things, but to believe things. The redemption of Christ is not an experience, it is the great act of God which He has performed through Christ, and I have to build my faith on it. If I construct my faith on my own experience, I produce the most unscriptural kind of life— an isolated life, with my eyes focused solely on my own holiness. Beware of that human holiness that is not based on the atonement of the Lord. It has no value for anything except a life of isolation— it is useless to God and a nuisance to man. Measure every kind of experience you have by our Lord Himself. We cannot do anything pleasing to God unless we deliberately build on the foundation of the atonement by the Cross of Christ.

The atonement of Jesus must be exhibited in practical, unassuming ways in my life. Every time I obey, the absolute deity of God is on my side, so that the grace of God and my natural obedience are in perfect agreement. Obedience means that I have completely placed my trust in the atonement, and my obedience is immediately met by the delight of the supernatural grace of God.

Beware of the human holiness that denies the reality of the natural life— it is a fraud. Continually bring yourself to the trial or test of the atonement and ask, “Where is the discernment of the atonement in this, and in that?”



A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Panic in Hell - #6717

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

A lot of what goes into winning a football game is behind the scenes. Oh, we see all the plays and all the action, and all the heroics on the field. But a lot goes on we never see.

Let's take our local high school football team that I worked with for example. Each week someone from the coaching staff was out scouting the other team during the season. And sometimes I'd show up at the locker room and I'd ask, "Well, what are we up against this week? Tell me about the team we're playing this coming weekend." Almost always I'd get a rundown on what that team was good at, who their high scorer was, and what we would have to do to contain them, where their weaknesses were, and what we needed to go after. See, those scouting reports helped our coaches know how to best play that other team. Now, unfortunately, a lot of us are playing as if we haven't heard the scouting report on the other team.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Panic in Hell."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Revelation 12. I'll begin at verse 12: "Woe to the earth! The Devil has gone down to you. He is filled with fury because he knows the time is short." Verse 17 says, "The dragon (that's the Devil) went off to make war."

Now, the book of Revelation talks about the Devil seeing time run out on the game clock. I call it panic in hell. He says, "Wow! There's not much time left." He accelerates his attacks, and I believe he's doing that now because I don't think he has much time left. You're probably on the receiving end of one of these attacks. If you're going to understand what's going on in your life; if you're going to respond in a winning way, you need to hear the scouting report.

Here's attack number one: the Devil is trying to distract unbelievers so they won't look at Jesus. 2 Corinthians 4:4 talks about "the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so they cannot see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ." See, if you don't know Christ, the Devil does this to keep you in his grasp; he does this blinding thing. He's got you too busy impressing other people, or busy building a career, or a family, or studying, or having a good time; believing almost anything spiritual other than being rescued through Jesus Christ. But the longer you wait, the harder it will be for you to ever know Christ. Your heart's getting harder. The Devil wants to distract you so you won't see Jesus.

Attack number two is to dissuade young believers so they won't live for Jesus. That's talked about in Mark 4:15 - "As soon as they hear the Word, Satan comes and takes away the Word that was sown in them." See, if you're a young believer, the Devil's attack as he's feeling his panic in hell, is to get your eyes off of this new Savior before you become a threat; to put in front of you whatever could detour you: a girlfriend, a boyfriend, a job, a temptation, popularity. Do you see what the Devil's trying to do? Don't fall for this! Don't let him draw you away from the person you've spent your whole life looking for.

And then his third attack is to discourage God's warriors so they won't lead for Jesus. These are the people who are making a difference. 1 Peter 5:7 addressed to spiritual leaders says, "Cast all your care on Him, because He cares for you. The Devil goes about like a lion seeking whom he may devour." See, I think he tries to devour them with discouragement. Maybe he's trying to neutralize you because you're one of the few people who's really in the battle. He's using people; he's using circumstances to destroy your motivation and your effectiveness. Listen to Galatians 6:9, "Don't be weary in well doing, for in due time you will reap if you do not faint."

See, the Devil is luring you, he's desperately doing whatever it takes to pull you away from Jesus; to get your focus somewhere else. But if you fight back in Jesus' name, there'll be even more panic in hell.

1 Corinthians 1 bible reading and daily devotionals.

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MaxLucado.com: A Love That Never Fails

You’re under the gun at work?  You’ve got more to do than is humanly possible?

Your teenagers won’t listen?  Your employees give you blank stares when you assign tasks?  Believe me—Jesus knows how you feel!  When you struggle, Jesus listens.  When you question, he hears.  He loves you with a love that never fails.

Have you noticed God doesn’t ask you to prove that you’ll put your salary to good use?  Aren’t you glad that God doesn’t give you only that which you remember to thank him for?  Has it been a while since you thanked God for your spleen?   Me too.  But I still have one!

Matthew writes that Jesus healed the sick.   Not some of the sick.  Not the righteous among the sick. Not the deserving among the sick.  But  “the sick.”   Matthew 14:36 says “People brought all their sick to him and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.”

God loves you.  He values you.  And He paid a great price for you!

From:  In the Eye of the Storm

1 Corinthians 1
New International Version (NIV)
1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:

3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thanksgiving

4 I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5 For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge— 6 God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. 7 Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8 He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

A Church Divided Over Leaders

10 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters,[a] in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. 11 My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 12 What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas[b]”; still another, “I follow Christ.”

13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so no one can say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

Christ Crucified Is God’s Power and Wisdom

18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written:

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
    the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”[c]
20 Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”[d]


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Acts 15:36-41

Disagreement Between Paul and Barnabas

36 Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.” 37 Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, 38 but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. 39 They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord. 41 He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

Helping With Hurdles

October 8, 2012 — by Dennis Fisher

Two are better than one . . . . For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. —Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

When my daughter Debbie was a little girl, she took ballet lessons. One dance exercise involved jumping over a rolled-up gym mat. Debbie’s first attempt resulted in her bouncing off this hurdle. For a moment she sat on the floor stunned, and then she began to cry. Immediately, I darted out to help her up and spoke soothing words to her. Then, holding her hand, I ran with her until she successfully jumped over the rolled-up mat. Debbie needed my encouragement to clear that hurdle.

While working with Paul on his first missionary journey, John Mark faced a major hurdle of his own: Things got tough on the trip, and he quit. When Barnabas tried to re-enlist Mark for Paul’s second journey, it created conflict. Barnabas wanted to give him a second chance, but Paul saw him as a liability. Ultimately, they parted ways, and Barnabas took Mark with him on his journey (Acts 15:36-39).

The Bible is silent about John Mark’s response when Barnabas helped him over his ministry hurdle. However, he must have proven himself, because Paul later wrote that John Mark “is useful to me for ministry” (2 Tim. 4:11).

When we see a believer struggling with an apparent failure, we should provide help. Can you think of someone who needs your help to clear a hurdle?

Lord, I want to show the kindness of Your
heart today. Please show me who I can help
and in what way. I want my words and deeds
to convey Your love. Amen.
Kindness picks others up when troubles weigh them down.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
October 8, 2012

Coming to Jesus

Come to Me . . . —Matthew 11:28

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

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

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


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Parenting in Bite-Sized Chunks - #6716

Monday, October 8, 2012

Man, when I see my grown children eat now, it surprises me they ever needed help! But they did. And, of course, they're doing great now all by themselves. But there was a time when they had to be fed. And then I watched that with my grandchildren. See, sometimes - especially the very little ones - they need help, especially when they have this big piece of meat or chicken placed in front of them.

If you're little and you can barely see over the top of the table, a piece of meat on your plate looks like this pretty daunting challenge! You can imagine as you sit there you might be going, "How do I tackle that?" So, Dads come or Moms come and cut that meat into little pieces that the little guy can handle. That's how you tackle it.

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Parenting in Bite-Sized Chunks."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Psalm 118:24. It's a familiar verse, probably one you've sung or maybe memorized. But let's apply it to life's great challenge called parenting. "This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it." I have repeated here that scriptural impression that life is meant to be handled in days. It comes up over and over again, not just here. David said, "This is the day...I'm going to handle life as days."

But all through the Bible it talks about these 24-hour bite-sized chunks that we're supposed to do. It talks about strength that comes as your days come; picking up your cross daily, getting mercies that are new every morning. The Bible says "our inward man is renewed day by day," and then the Psalmist comes along and says, "I've got this day the Lord made." Not this year, not this month, not this life; I've got this day.

Now, that's really helpful when it comes to the challenge of parenting. Man, you look at all that needs to be done in your child's life. They need to know that they're loved by you. You say, "Oh, there's so much to learn about discipline. They've got weaknesses I really need to work on! They've got strengths they don't believe they have, and I really need to build them up. And they have so much to learn about the Lord. There's so much to learn about life, and I have so much to get done in their life." And you look at all you need to accomplish in their lives and you're overwhelmed; you're paralyzed like a little child looking at this big piece of meat on his plate.

But you've got to cut it into bite-sized chunks called days. Your mission is simply to have a good day with your child. Don't try to put a whole life, or even a whole month together. Have one good day. One day where you show your child demonstrated affection, where you debrief each other's day; one good day where you just have some laughs with each other. One day where you deal with one piece of an issue in your life or their life. One day when you give them a specific compliment. One day where you touch the Lord together and talk to Him together about something.

And then let the Lord stitch those days together into a tapestry that makes a life. See, we tend to be paralyzed by guilt over the past or anxiety over the future. Why not trust the Lord to cover both of those, and you have a good day today. That's how you build a better future.

So, don't be overwhelmed by that whole piece of things you need to do as a parent. Just take it one bite at a time.

Psalm 132 bible reading and devotionals.

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Max Lucado Daily: Simplify Faith

“He who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.” Matthew 10:40, NKJV

How do you simplify faith? ... Simplify your faith by seeking God for yourself. No confusing ceremonies necessary. No mysterious rituals required. No elaborate channels of command or levels of access.

Psalm 132

A song of ascents.

1 Lord, remember David
    and all his self-denial.
2 He swore an oath to the Lord,
    he made a vow to the Mighty One of Jacob:
3 “I will not enter my house
    or go to my bed,
4 I will allow no sleep to my eyes
    or slumber to my eyelids,
5 till I find a place for the Lord,
    a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob.”
6 We heard it in Ephrathah,
    we came upon it in the fields of Jaar:[a]
7 “Let us go to his dwelling place,
    let us worship at his footstool, saying,
8 ‘Arise, Lord, and come to your resting place,
    you and the ark of your might.
9 May your priests be clothed with your righteousness;
    may your faithful people sing for joy.’”
10 For the sake of your servant David,
    do not reject your anointed one.
11 The Lord swore an oath to David,
    a sure oath he will not revoke:
“One of your own descendants
    I will place on your throne.
12 If your sons keep my covenant
    and the statutes I teach them,
then their sons will sit
    on your throne for ever and ever.”
13 For the Lord has chosen Zion,
    he has desired it for his dwelling, saying,
14 “This is my resting place for ever and ever;
    here I will sit enthroned, for I have desired it.
15 I will bless her with abundant provisions;
    her poor I will satisfy with food.
16 I will clothe her priests with salvation,
    and her faithful people will ever sing for joy.
17 “Here I will make a horn[b] grow for David
    and set up a lamp for my anointed one.
18 I will clothe his enemies with shame,
    but his head will be adorned with a radiant crown.”


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: John 15:8-17

8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.

Still Bearing Fruit

October 7, 2012 — by Dave Branon

By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit. —John 15:8

Sometimes the harvest comes late. Sometimes you sow seeds of hope without really knowing it. Sometimes the fruit of your life comes in a way and time you would never expect.

My daughter Melissa had accepted God’s gift of salvation at a young age. But she never saw herself as some great Christian who could change lives. She was just a high school junior trying to cope with a job, school, and sports while balancing friendships—just a kid trying to live as God would want her to.

Yet, in 2002 when He welcomed her into heaven when she was just 17, her faith in Christ and her faithful life stood on their own. No advance warning. No time to make things right with others. No new opportunities to “bear much fruit” (John 15:8).

Melissa tried to live in a way that was pleasing to God—and her life is still bearing fruit. Just recently, I heard of a young person who trusted Jesus as Savior at a sports camp after a coach shared Melissa’s story.

All of us are writing a story with our lives—one that affects others now and in the future. Are we living to please God? We don’t know when the Lord will call us Home. Let’s live every day with an eye on the harvest.

Only the truth that in life we have spoken,
Only the seed that on earth we have sown;
These shall pass onward when we are forgotten,
Fruits of the harvest and what we have done. —Bonar
A fruitful harvest requires a faithful life.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
October 7, 2012

The Nature of Reconciliation

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him —2 Corinthians 5:21

Sin is a fundamental relationship— it is not wrong doing, but wrong being— it is deliberate and determined independence from God. The Christian faith bases everything on the extreme, self-confident nature of sin. Other faiths deal with sins— the Bible alone deals with sin. The first thing Jesus Christ confronted in people was the heredity of sin, and it is because we have ignored this in our presentation of the gospel that the message of the gospel has lost its sting and its explosive power.

The revealed truth of the Bible is not that Jesus Christ took on Himself our fleshly sins, but that He took on Himself the heredity of sin that no man can even touch. God made His own Son “to be sin” that He might make the sinner into a saint. It is revealed throughout the Bible that our Lord took on Himself the sin of the world through identification with us, not through sympathy for us. He deliberately took on His own shoulders, and endured in His own body, the complete, cumulative sin of the human race. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us. . .” and by so doing He placed salvation for the entire human race solely on the basis of redemption. Jesus Christ reconciled the human race, putting it back to where God designed it to be. And now anyone can experience that reconciliation, being brought into oneness with God, on the basis of what our Lord has done on the cross.

A man cannot redeem himself— redemption is the work of God, and is absolutely finished and complete. And its application to individual people is a matter of their own individual action or response to it. A distinction must always be made between the revealed truth of redemption and the actual conscious experience of salvation in a person’s life.

Psalm 131 bible reading and devotionals.

Click to listen or download.

Max Lucado Daily: Heaven Knows Your Heart

“Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot.” Luke 12:15, The Message

Who you are has nothing to do with the clothes you wear or the car you drive . . . Heaven does not know you as the fellow with the nice suit or the woman with the big house or the kid with the new bike. Heaven knows your heart . . .

When God thinks of you, he may see your compassion, your devotion, your tenderness or quick mind, but he doesn’t think of your things . . . And when you think of you, you shouldn’t either.

Psalm 131

A song of ascents. Of David.

1 My heart is not proud, Lord,
    my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
    or things too wonderful for me.
2 But I have calmed and quieted myself,
    I am like a weaned child with its mother;
    like a weaned child I am content.
3 Israel, put your hope in the Lord
    both now and forevermore.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Psalm 46

For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. According to alamoth.[b] A song.

1 God is our refuge and strength,
    an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
    and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
    and the mountains quake with their surging.[c]
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall;
    God will help her at break of day.
6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
    he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
7 The Lord Almighty is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress.
8 Come and see what the Lord has done,
    the desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease
    to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
    he burns the shields[d] with fire.
10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth.”
11 The Lord Almighty is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Drop Your Hands

October 6, 2012 — by Joe Stowell

Be still, and know that I am God. —Psalm 46:10

You’d think I would have my mother’s fingerprints embedded in my knee from all the times she squeezed my leg in church and whispered in no uncertain terms, “Be still.” Like any boy, I had a bad case of the wiggles in places like church. So for years, when I read, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10), I thought of it in terms of not being antsy.

But the Hebrew word for still means “to cease striving.” It’s the concept of putting your hands down and letting God intervene in your situation without your interference. This word picture is interesting, since we often use our hands to push things out of our way, to protect ourselves, or to strike back. When we drop our hands, it makes us feel defenseless and vulnerable—unless we can trust that “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (v.1), and that “the Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge” (v.7). In other words, stop struggling and wait on God to do His work!

In the face of all of life’s circumstances, we can know the peace of trusting the presence and power of God in the midst of trouble as we wait patiently and prayerfully for His deliverance. So drop your hands, for God’s hands are busy on your behalf!

Be still and know that He is God
For pathways steep and rough;
Not what He brings but who He is
Will always be enough. —Anon.
When we put our problems in God’s hands,
He puts His peace in our hearts.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
October 5, 2012

The Nature of Regeneration

When it pleased God . . . to reveal His Son in me . . . —Galatians 1:15-16

If Jesus Christ is going to regenerate me, what is the problem He faces? It is simply this— I have a heredity in which I had no say or decision; I am not holy, nor am I likely to be; and if all Jesus Christ can do is tell me that I must be holy, His teaching only causes me to despair. But if Jesus Christ is truly a regenerator, someone who can put His own heredity of holiness into me, then I can begin to see what He means when He says that I have to be holy. Redemption means that Jesus Christ can put into anyone the hereditary nature that was in Himself, and all the standards He gives us are based on that nature— His teaching is meant to be applied to the life which He puts within us. The proper action on my part is simply to agree with God’s verdict on sin as judged on the Cross of Christ.

The New Testament teaching about regeneration is that when a person is hit by his own sense of need, God will put the Holy Spirit into his spirit, and his personal spirit will be energized by the Spirit of the Son of God— “. . . until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). The moral miracle of redemption is that God can put a new nature into me through which I can live a totally new life. When I finally reach the edge of my need and know my own limitations, then Jesus says, “Blessed are you . . .” (Matthew 5:11). But I must get to that point. God cannot put into me, the responsible moral person that I am, the nature that was in Jesus Christ unless I am aware of my need for it.

Just as the nature of sin entered into the human race through one man, the Holy Spirit entered into the human race through another Man (see Romans 5:12-19). And redemption means that I can be delivered from the heredity of sin, and that through Jesus Christ I can receive a pure and spotless heredity, namely, the Holy Spirit.

Psalm 130 bible reading and devotionals.

Click to listen and download.

MaxLucado.com: The Piranha Hour

We used to call 5:00 p.m. the “piranha hour.”  It was that time of day when our girl s all wanted a piece of mom at the same time.  And I, the ever-loving, ever-sensitive husband, wanted Denalyn to drop everything and talk to me about my day.  When is your piranha hour?  When do people in your world demand much and offer little?

Jesus teaches us how to live through them successfully.  When hands extended and voices demanded, Jesus responded with love.  He did so because the code within him disarmed the clock.

The code is worth noting:  “People are precious.”  He gave sight to eyes that would lust.  He healed hands that would kill.  Many of those he healed would never say “thank you” but he healed them anyway.

God’s goodness is spurred by His nature—not by our worthiness.  He knows the value of people!

“…but the crowds learned about [what Jesus was doing] and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing. Luke 9:11?

From In the Eye of the Storm

Psalm 130

A song of ascents.

1 Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord;
2     Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
    to my cry for mercy.
3 If you, Lord, kept a record of sins,
    Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness,
    so that we can, with reverence, serve you.
5 I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
    and in his word I put my hope.
6 I wait for the Lord
    more than watchmen wait for the morning,
    more than watchmen wait for the morning.
7 Israel, put your hope in the Lord,
    for with the Lord is unfailing love
    and with him is full redemption.
8 He himself will redeem Israel
    from all their sins.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion


READ: 1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Warnings From Israel’s History

10 For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

6 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.”[a] 8 We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. 9 We should not test Christ,[b] as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. 10 And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.

11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. 12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! 13 No temptation[c] has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted[d] beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted,[e] he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

Least Powerful People

Our Daily Bread is hosted by Les Lamborn

Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. —1 Corinthians 10:12

An unusual list called The 100 Least Powerful People in the World appeared in the online publication 24/7 Wall St. Among those selected were corporate executives, sports figures, politicians, and celebrities who shared one common characteristic—­they used to be powerful. Some were victims of circumstances, others made poor business decisions, while others lost their influence because of moral failure.

In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul draws a somber lesson from Old Testament history. The people Moses led from slavery in Egypt toward freedom in the Promised Land kept turning their backs on God who had delivered them (vv.1-5). Idolatry, immorality, and grumbling were among the things that brought them down (vv.6-10). Paul points to their collapse as an example to us, and sounds this warning: “Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (v.12).

Every follower of Jesus can stand firm on God’s promise: “He will see to it that every temptation has a way out, so that it will never be impossible for you to bear it” (v.13 Phillips). All of us have power to influence others in their faith. How tragic to squander it by yielding to a temptation that God has empowered us to resist. —David McCasland

Lord, there are temptations to sin everywhere. Help me
not to give in. Make me sensitive to see the ways out
that You provide. I want my love for You to be real and
to encourage others in their faith journey.

The best way to escape temptation is to run to God.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
October 5, 2012

The Nature of Degeneration

Just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned . . . —Romans 5:12

The Bible does not say that God punished the human race for one man’s sin, but that the nature of sin, namely, my claim to my right to myself, entered into the human race through one man. But it also says that another Man took upon Himself the sin of the human race and put it away— an infinitely more profound revelation (see Hebrews 9:26). The nature of sin is not immorality and wrongdoing, but the nature of self-realization which leads us to say, “I am my own god.” This nature may exhibit itself in proper morality or in improper immorality, but it always has a common basis— my claim to my right to myself. When our Lord faced either people with all the forces of evil in them, or people who were clean-living, moral, and upright, He paid no attention to the moral degradation of one, nor any attention to the moral attainment of the other. He looked at something we do not see, namely, the nature of man (see John 2:25).

Sin is something I am born with and cannot touch— only God touches sin through redemption. It is through the Cross of Christ that God redeemed the entire human race from the possibility of damnation through the heredity of sin. God nowhere holds a person responsible for having the heredity of sin, and does not condemn anyone because of it. Condemnation comes when I realize that Jesus Christ came to deliver me from this heredity of sin, and yet I refuse to let Him do so. From that moment I begin to get the seal of damnation. “This is the condemnation [and the critical moment], that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light . . . ” (John 3:19).


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Positioned to Make a Difference - #6715

Friday, October 5, 2012

It is almost as if God had sent us an angel. We were coming back from a Christmas party years ago. All five members of the Hutchcraft family together with the families of the youth ministry I worked for had been there for the annual Christmas party.

Now, Joe, one of our dearest friends - our greatest helpers, helped us load up all of our equipment into the back of the car and we headed home. Well, we had only driven just a few miles when a drunk driver crossed the center line, plowed into our car and totaled it! Well, here we were sitting there dazed with the kids crying. I couldn't even see the car that had hit us! It had spun off behind me. I just sat there going, "What happened? What happened?"

Well it became an even longer night with police reports, x-rays, emergency room vigils, and trying to rearrange schedules for the next few days. As we sat there in this total confusion in our totaled car, I suddenly saw a familiar face at the window. There was Joe, our dear friend. He had decided (without telling us) that he would follow us to help us unload when we got home. There he was, right there when the accident happened; right there to bring us comfort and to bring us help all night long. On one of the toughest, longest nights we'd ever had, Joe was the angel we needed. He was just the right man at just the right place at just the right time. So are you.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Positioned to Make a Difference."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from the book of Esther 4:14. Let me review for you the life of Esther up to the point where we'll begin reading. She was a young, Jewish maiden. She was approached to be the new queen of Persia. Nobody knew she was Jewish. Well, after all of the possibilities that could have become queen, she is selected to become the new Queen of Persia. And now we are at a point where an evil man named Haman was plotting and prodding the king to give a decree that will cause the deaths of all of the Jews.

Now, if Esther reveals herself and goes before the king, she may lose her life. But if she doesn't, it may cost the lives of her people. She's in a position to talk to the King Xerxes. And here's a statement from God's Word, "Who knows whether you have come into the kingdom for such a time as this." In other words, "Esther, it's no accident you are where you are. God put you here to be the right person at just the right place at just the right time."

You know, God is very good at this business of positioning people to make a difference. He's done it with you. You say, "Well, I just go to this school. I just play on that team. I just work at this office. I'm involved in this club. I just work at that plant. I just live in this neighborhood." Oh, come on! You know what? You are divinely, uniquely positioned by God. There is someone near you that God knows you can help with what you know; with who you are; with your biographical credentials. Maybe you're in a position where you can open a door for some ministry need.

There was such a man like that in a key position to dispose of the vans his company was getting rid of, and he saw our need in our ministry at just the point when we desperately needed them. He came into the job at just the right moment and provided those vans. See, just an example of divine positioning.

Above all else, God knows who around you needs to hear about your Jesus. He's divinely positioned you like He did Esther; to be in a spot where you can save lives because of the influence He's given you; because of the common experiences He's given you with the people there. They will listen to you, because you're one of them.

Wherever God has positioned you, you can be sure it is to accomplish His divine purposes. God has a mission for you where you are. Be the best you can be, so you'll have people's respect, and know that you're where God wants you to assist Him at this place, at this time.

Who knows? Maybe God has you there for such a time as this. So, use what He's given you to make a difference.

Acts 18 bible reading and devotionals.

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MaxLucado.com: God Sees Value

Alicia only weighs 22 pounds and is much shorter than children her age.  She suffers from progeria—a genetic aging disease that strikes one child in 8-million.  She’s bald.  Her hearing is bad.  Her stamina is that of an old person.  And she’s only ten.

Mostly, she’s patient with the constant curiosity.  But at times it gets to be too much for her mother and she lashes out.  Who could blame her?  Such is the nature of parental love—a love regardless of imperfections.  Not because the parent is blind.  Just the opposite.  They see vividly.  She sees Alicia’s inability as clearly as anyone.  But she also sees Alicia’s value.

So does God!   God sees us with the eyes of a Father.  He sees our defects, errors, and blemishes.  But He also sees our value.  Each human being is a treasure.  A source of joy!

“When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things. Mark 6:34?

From In the Eye of the Storm

Acts 18
New International Version (NIV)
In Corinth

18 After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 2 There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, 3 and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. 4 Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.

5 When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. 6 But when they opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

7 Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. 8 Crispus, the synagogue leader, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard Paul believed and were baptized.

9 One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. 10 For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” 11 So Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.

12 While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews of Corinth made a united attack on Paul and brought him to the place of judgment. 13 “This man,” they charged, “is persuading the people to worship God in ways contrary to the law.”

14 Just as Paul was about to speak, Gallio said to them, “If you Jews were making a complaint about some misdemeanor or serious crime, it would be reasonable for me to listen to you. 15 But since it involves questions about words and names and your own law—settle the matter yourselves. I will not be a judge of such things.” 16 So he drove them off. 17 Then the crowd there turned on Sosthenes the synagogue leader and beat him in front of the proconsul; and Gallio showed no concern whatever.

Priscilla, Aquila and Apollos

18 Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time. Then he left the brothers and sisters and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. Before he sailed, he had his hair cut off at Cenchreae because of a vow he had taken. 19 They arrived at Ephesus, where Paul left Priscilla and Aquila. He himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. 20 When they asked him to spend more time with them, he declined. 21 But as he left, he promised, “I will come back if it is God’s will.” Then he set sail from Ephesus. 22 When he landed at Caesarea, he went up to Jerusalem and greeted the church and then went down to Antioch.

23 After spending some time in Antioch, Paul set out from there and traveled from place to place throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.

24 Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor[a] and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.

27 When Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers and sisters encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. When he arrived, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed. 28 For he vigorously refuted his Jewish opponents in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Psalm 37:3-11

3 Trust in the Lord and do good;
    dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
4 Take delight in the Lord,
    and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the Lord;
    trust in him and he will do this:
6 He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,
    your vindication like the noonday sun.
7 Be still before the Lord
    and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when people succeed in their ways,
    when they carry out their wicked schemes.
8 Refrain from anger and turn from wrath;
    do not fret—it leads only to evil.
9 For those who are evil will be destroyed,
    but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land.
10 A little while, and the wicked will be no more;
    though you look for them, they will not be found.
11 But the meek will inherit the land
    and enjoy peace and prosperity.

Timing Is Everything

October 4, 2012 — by Cindy Hess Kasper

All things work together for good to those . . . who are the called according to His purpose. —Romans 8:28

It was quite a few months before I realized that what I thought was a coincidental meeting had been good timing on my future husband’s part.

From the balcony of the church, he had seen me, deduced which exit I might be using, raced down two flights of stairs, and arrived seconds before I did. As he casually held the door and struck up a conversation, I was oblivious to the fact that his “impromptu” dinner invitation had been premeditated. It was perfect timing.

Perfect timing is rare—at least where humans are concerned. But God has specific purposes and plans for us, and His timing is always perfect.

We see that timing in the life of these Bible characters: Abraham’s servant prayed for a wife for Isaac. God answered his prayer by bringing the young woman to him (Gen. 24). Joseph was sold as a slave, falsely accused, and thrown into prison. But eventually God used him to preserve many people’s lives during a famine (45:5-8; 50:20). And we marvel at Esther’s courage as Mordecai reminded her, “Who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Est. 4:14).

Are you disappointed in the pace of God’s plans? “Trust in the Lord” (Ps. 37:3). God will open doors when the timing is perfect.

Have faith in God, the sun will shine
Though dark the clouds may be today;
His heart has planned your path and mine,
Have faith in God, have faith alway. —Agnew
God’s timing is perfect—every time!


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
October 4, 2012

The Vision and The Reality

. . . to those who are . . . called to be saints . . . —1 Corinthians 1:2

Thank God for being able to see all that you have not yet been. You have had the vision, but you are not yet to the reality of it by any means. It is when we are in the valley, where we prove whether we will be the choice ones, that most of us turn back. We are not quite prepared for the bumps and bruises that must come if we are going to be turned into the shape of the vision. We have seen what we are not, and what God wants us to be, but are we willing to be battered into the shape of the vision to be used by God? The beatings will always come in the most common, everyday ways and through common, everyday people.

There are times when we do know what God’s purpose is; whether we will let the vision be turned into actual character depends on us, not on God. If we prefer to relax on the mountaintop and live in the memory of the vision, then we will be of no real use in the ordinary things of which human life is made. We have to learn to live in reliance upon what we saw in the vision, not simply live in ecstatic delight and conscious reflection upon God. This means living the realities of our lives in the light of the vision until the truth of the vision is actually realized in us. Every bit of our training is in that direction. Learn to thank God for making His demands known.

Our little “I am” always sulks and pouts when God says do. Let your little “I am” be shriveled up in God’s wrath and indignation–”I AM WHO I AM . . . has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14). He must dominate. Isn’t it piercing to realize that God not only knows where we live, but also knows the gutters into which we crawl! He will hunt us down as fast as a flash of lightning. No human being knows human beings as God does.



A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Get There-itis - #6714

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Well, somehow I ended up speaking for the FAA Pilot Safety program. Now, you really wouldn't want to fly in a plane that I taught anyone to fly; I don't know nothing about it. But I think they invited me because of a book I wrote called "Peaceful Living In a Stressful World." Stress is a real issue to pilots, so they kind of sneaked me in for one of the programs.

The director for flight safety for the entire New York area took me to lunch one day to brief me on what to expect. In the process, he told me that over 80% of the crashes that involve private pilots are because of pilot error. Then he told me about a disease that has killed many pilots. He called it "get there-itis." "I've got to get there!" So, they don't adequately evaluate the weather, or the plane, or their own condition. They make a short-sighted choice that often leads to disastrous consequences. Of course you don't have to be a pilot to be in danger of that disease.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Get There-itis."

Now, there's a biblical case of "get there-itis" in Genesis 15:4. God made this awesome promise to Abraham, "There will be a son coming from your own body who will be your heir." Well, a lot of years passed; Abraham had a lot of birthdays, so did Sarah. The baby didn't come. Remember? They panicked. On to chapter 16. "Now, Sarai, Abram's wife had born him no children, but she had an Egyptian maidservant in Hagar. So she said to Abram, 'The Lord has kept me from having children. Go sleep with my maidservant...'" And if I might just insert here, "Duh! That wasn't very smart." "'...perhaps I can build a family through her.' Abram agreed with what Sarai said."

And as they say, "The rest is history." Here was a decision that did bring about a son, but it was the wrong son. It was Ishmael. Thirteen years later Isaac would come; the one that God had promised. But this decision to try to make it happen brought terrible conflict in Abraham's family and, honestly, even to our world 4,000 years later as the descendants of Ishmael, the Arabs, and the descendants of Isaac, the Jews, continue to fight it out.

Now, look, Abraham and Sarah had a worthy goal, the one God had promised, but God was taking longer than Abraham expected. So Abraham sinned the sin of "get there-itis." He made a disastrous choice because he had to get there. Well, maybe you could look back on some choices like that in your past. I know I can. You couldn't wait, you took off, and you caused a crash. Or maybe you're about to sin a sin of "get there-itis." Maybe it's a good goal. Maybe it's something you want to accomplish for ministry. Maybe you want to get married, or something to help your child, or to help other people. But God hasn't made it come to pass naturally. You're starting to push, to scheme, to arrange, to make it happen.

I like Warren Wiersbe's definition of faith. He said, "Faith is the absence of scheming." Are you about to make something happen where you should be waiting for it to happen? The time isn't right yet even though it seems late to you. You're about to pull a Hagar; a tragic hurry-up of God's plans.

Maybe God wanted me to say to you today, "Don't take off yet. Don't panic and die of terminal 'get there-itis.'" Would you leave this in God's hands? Would you let it be His time? You'll have a great flight if you do. If you force it, you'll probably crash.

Psalm 129 Bible reading and daily devotionals

Click to listen and download.

MaxLucado.com: Completely Human

When a bookstore owner told me a woman had stomped into his shop, angry, slamming one of my books on the counter, I knew exactly what he was talking about.  I wrote that Jesus may have had pimples.  He may have had bony knees.  But I said, “One thing’s for sure, he was, while completely divine, completely human.”

There’s something safe about a God who never had calluses. There’s something majestic about a God who never scraped his elbow.  But there’s also something cold about a God who cannot relate to what you and I feel.

Rejection?  He felt it.  Temptation?  He knew it.  Loneliness?  He experienced it.  Death?  He tasted it.  And stress?  He could write a best-selling book about it.

Why did he do it?  One reason.  So that when you hurt, you’ll go to him and let him heal you!

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Hebrews 4:15.”

From In the Eye of the Storm
Check out Max’s guest blog at Ministry Matters!

Psalm 129

A song of ascents.

1 “They have greatly oppressed me from my youth,”
    let Israel say;
2 “they have greatly oppressed me from my youth,
    but they have not gained the victory over me.
3 Plowmen have plowed my back
    and made their furrows long.
4 But the Lord is righteous;
    he has cut me free from the cords of the wicked.”
5 May all who hate Zion
    be turned back in shame.
6 May they be like grass on the roof,
    which withers before it can grow;
7 a reaper cannot fill his hands with it,
    nor one who gathers fill his arms.
8 May those who pass by not say to them,
    “The blessing of the Lord be on you;
    we bless you in the name of the Lord.”


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Deuteronomy 30:15-20
15 “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. 16 If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God[a] that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules,[b] then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 17 But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, 20 loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”

The High Cost Of Living

October 3, 2012 — by Julie Ackerman Link

Love the Lord your God, . . . obey His voice, . . . that you may dwell in the land. —Deuteronomy 30:20

When I was young, I thought the cost of living in my parents’ home was too high. Looking back, I laugh at how ridiculous it was to complain. My parents never charged me a cent for living at home. The only “cost” was obedience. I simply had to obey rules like clean up after myself, be polite, tell the truth, and go to church. The rules weren’t difficult, but I still had trouble obeying them. My parents didn’t kick me out for my disobedience, however. They just kept reminding me that the rules were to protect me, not harm me, and sometimes they made the rules stricter to protect me from myself.

The cost of living in the Promised Land was the same: obedience. In his final address to the nation, Moses reminded the people that the blessings God wanted to give them depended on their obedience (Deut. 30:16). Earlier he had told them that a good life would be determined by obedience: “Observe and obey . . . that it may go well with you” (12:28).

Some people think the Bible has too many rules. I wish they could see that God’s commands are for our good; they allow us to live in peace with one another. Obedience is simply the “cost” of being part of God’s family on this glorious globe He created and allows us to call home.

Heavenly Father, may we not see obedience as a
burden but as a privilege. Help us to be grateful
for Jesus, who shows us how to live, and for
the Holy Spirit, who empowers us to obey.
The Bible is not a burden but a guide to joy-filled living.



My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
October 3, 2012

The Place of Ministry

He said to them, ’This kind [of unclean spirit] can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting’ —Mark 9:29

His disciples asked Him privately, ’Why could we not cast it out?’ ” (Mark 9:28). The answer lies in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. “This kind can come out by nothing but” concentrating on Him, and then doubling and redoubling that concentration on Him. We can remain powerless forever, as the disciples were in this situation, by trying to do God’s work without concentrating on His power, and by following instead the ideas that we draw from our own nature. We actually slander and dishonor God by our very eagerness to serve Him without knowing Him.

When you are brought face to face with a difficult situation and nothing happens externally, you can still know that freedom and release will be given because of your continued concentration on Jesus Christ. Your duty in service and ministry is to see that there is nothing between Jesus and yourself. Is there anything between you and Jesus even now? If there is, you must get through it, not by ignoring it as an irritation, or by going up and over it, but by facing it and getting through it into the presence of Jesus Christ. Then that very problem itself, and all that you have been through in connection with it, will glorify Jesus Christ in a way that you will never know until you see Him face to face.

We must be able to “mount up with wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:31), but we must also know how to come down. The power of the saint lies in the coming down and in the living that is done in the valley. Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13) and what he was referring to were mostly humiliating things. And yet it is in our power to refuse to be humiliated and to say, “No, thank you, I much prefer to be on the mountaintop with God.” Can I face things as they actually are in the light of the reality of Jesus Christ, or do things as they really are destroy my faith in Him, and put me into a panic?

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Extraordinary Ordinary - #6713
Wednesday, October 3, 2012

The occasion was a silver anniversary buffet for our 25th class reunion from college. Of course I was much younger than any of those mid-life folks that I graduated with. What happened to them? But anyway, the location was our alma mater, Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. That was a great training place; it was founded and named after the outstanding evangelist of the 19th century, D. L. Moody.

Now, we met for breakfast in one of several private dining rooms off of the main dining room; they kind of reserve these for special occasions. And as you might expect, each one is named after a person who prominently figured in the founding of the school or the leadership of the school. But we were in the Kimball Room. So, I surveyed our group of distinguished alumni and I said, "Who was Kimball? We're in his room. Who was Kimball?" No one knew. But none of us would have been there if it hadn't been for him. Who knows, maybe you're a Kimble.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Extraordinary Ordinary."

Our word for today from the Word of God - Acts 4:13. Peter and John are in big trouble. They have been preaching about Jesus in the temple, they have attracted quite a crowd, and as a result the Sanhedrin calls them before them for a private hearing. They are not pleased with the preaching of Peter and John. However, it says, "When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus." The Jewish leaders were astonished that such ordinary men could be living such extraordinary lives.

Now back to the question we began with, "Who was Edward Kimball?" Well, he was a Sunday School teacher in Boston many years ago, teaching this small, little class of teenage boys. One of those boys in particular was biblically illiterate. He was out-of-step with everybody else in the class; he couldn't find anything in his Bible; didn't know anything in the Bible.

One day Edward Kimball felt led by the Lord to go where this lost young man worked at a shoe store. He felt led to go there and speak to him about accepting Christ, and the young man did. That shoe salesman prayed to give his heart to Jesus in the back room of that shoe store. Now, hardly anyone has ever heard of Edward Kimball the Sunday School teacher, but everyone in the Christian world has heard of D. L. Moody. Because it was Dwight Moody, that powerful evangelist, the founder of a place that has trained thousands of people for Christian work, that gave his heart to Christ that day. There never would have been a D. L. Moody if it hadn't been for the faithfulness of one of God's ordinary people.

Is that an encouragement to you? I hope so. Maybe you consider yourself very ordinary, but God loves to do extraordinary things through ordinary people. That's what Acts 4:13 is all about. But they weren't ordinary anymore, because they had been with Jesus. Daily contact with Jesus leads to a total control by Jesus, and it leads to power being released in your life through which you can really make a difference.

You say, "Oh, I'm just a Sunday School teacher. I'm just a helper. I'm just a choir member. I'm just an untrained, simple person who loves Jesus." You're not a "just a..." Stop it! Don't keep saying you're "just a..." You're not that if you open yourself up to letting the Holy Spirit make your ordinary extraordinary. Did Edward Kimball know how extraordinary that little conversation would turn out to be? No, we never do. We do these little things for Jesus that turn out to be big things.

You can count on the Lord to take an ordinary person, doing ordinary things, and if you obey Him, He will make ordinary extraordinary.

Psalm 128 bible reading and Devotionals

Click to download and listen.

MaxLucado.com: Jesus Knows How You Feel

Remember when you sought a night’s rest and got a colicky baby?  When you sought to catch up at the office and got even further behind?  Or that leisurely Saturday when you ended up fixing the sink?  Take comfort, friend.  Jesus knows how you feel!

You may have trouble believing that.  Can God relate to the hassles and headaches of my life?  Of your life?

Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin.”

When you tell God that you’ve reached your limit, He knows what you mean. When you shake your head at impossible deadlines; when your plans are interrupted by people who have other plans; he nods in sympathy.  He’s been there!

Jesus knows how you feel!

From In the Eye of the Storm
Please remember 40 Days of Prayer!

Dear Heavenly Father,

You have given us this promise: ”…if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)

So, we pray to you. We turn from evil and look to you, our God. Please:

Unite us, Strengthen us, Appoint and anoint our next president
In the name of Christ we pray, Amen

Psalm 128

A song of ascents.

1 Blessed are all who fear the Lord,
    who walk in obedience to him.
2 You will eat the fruit of your labor;
    blessings and prosperity will be yours.
3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
    within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
    around your table.
4 Yes, this will be the blessing
    for the man who fears the Lord.
5 May the Lord bless you from Zion;
    may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
    all the days of your life.
6 May you live to see your children’s children—
    peace be on Israel.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Philippians 4:10-20

God's Provision

10 I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. 11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

14 Yet it was kind of you to share[a] my trouble. 15 And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only. 16 Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again. 17 Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit.[b] 18 I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. 19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. 20 To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Be Content

October 2, 2012 — by C. P. Hia

I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content. —Philippians 4:11

Contentment is hard to attain. Even the apostle Paul, a hero of the faith, had to learn to be content (Phil. 4:11). It was not a natural character trait for him.

For Paul to write that he was content in every situation is truly amazing. At the time of this writing, he was in jail in Rome. Charged with sedition, treason, and other serious crimes, he had appealed to the highest court: Caesar himself. Without other legal recourse and friends in high places, he had to wait for his case to be heard. It seems as if Paul had the right to be an impatient and unhappy person. Instead, he wrote to the Philippians to say that he had learned to be content.

How did he learn this? One step at a time until he could be satisfied even in uncomfortable environments. He learned to accept whatever came his way (v.12) and to receive with thanks whatever help fellow Christians could give (vv.14-18). And most important, he recognized that God was supplying all he needed (v.19).

Contentment is not natural for any of us. The competitive spirit in us drives us to compare, to complain, and to covet. Few of us are in a predicament such as Paul’s, but we all face difficulties in which we can learn to trust God and be content.

O Lord, give me the grace to be
Content with what You give to me.
No, more than that, let me rejoice
In all You send, for it’s Your choice! —Anon.
Contentment is not possessing everything but giving thanks for everything you possess.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
October 2, 2012

The Place of Humiliation

If You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us —Mark 9:22

After every time of exaltation, we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they really are, where it is neither beautiful, poetic, nor thrilling. The height of the mountaintop is measured by the dismal drudgery of the valley, but it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God. We see His glory on the mountain, but we never live for His glory there. It is in the place of humiliation that we find our true worth to God— that is where our faithfulness is revealed. Most of us can do things if we are always at some heroic level of intensity, simply because of the natural selfishness of our own hearts. But God wants us to be at the drab everyday level, where we live in the valley according to our personal relationship with Him. Peter thought it would be a wonderful thing for them to remain on the mountain, but Jesus Christ took the disciples down from the mountain and into the valley, where the true meaning of the vision was explained (see Mark 9:5-6 , Mark 14-23).

“If you can do anything . . . .” It takes the valley of humiliation to remove the skepticism from us. Look back at your own experience and you will find that until you learned who Jesus really was, you were a skillful skeptic about His power. When you were on the mountaintop you could believe anything, but what about when you were faced with the facts of the valley? You may be able to give a testimony regarding your sanctification, but what about the thing that is a humiliation to you right now? The last time you were on the mountain with God, you saw that all the power in heaven and on earth belonged to Jesus— will you be skeptical now, simply because you are in the valley of humiliation?



A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Love Through a Telephoto Lens - #6712

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

We were shooting some video footage of a group of teenagers and they were kind of surprised when they saw the result on a TV screen. We were seated in a little cluster on the floor discussing various youth issues, and what surprised them was the fact that when they saw it on the screen they realized we had focused close-up on each individual as they were commenting. Of course, they went, "Oh, no! Look at me!" See, they thought it was going to be this big group shot. We didn't want the viewers to be distracted by anyone else, so most of the time we would zoom our telephoto lens in a real tight close-up, so you would only see one person. The telephoto effect actually makes a big difference.

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Love Through a Telephoto Lens."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Proverbs 5:15, and it's talking about married love. It speaks about it in symbolic terms and then gets pretty direct. "Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well. Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares? Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers. May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth."

And then God expresses here as the Inventor of sex that He is, some of the joy that He intended married couples to have, "A loving doe," it says, "a graceful deer - may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be captivated by her love."

This is really a passage about focused love. It's about a man who has eyes for only one woman and doesn't let his springs overflow anywhere else, who really has decided there's only one place for his love. As a result he enjoys a fulfilling and exciting relationship with her. Now, whether you're a husband or a wife, this secret of happiness is still the same. Marital and sexual fulfillment is the byproduct of focused love.

Notice here it says, "Let your ability to express love be yours alone" in so many words. And then in the King James Version, I like the way it says, "Rejoice with the wife of your youth. Let her satisfy you always." In other words there's a choice here. Let her/let him be enough. I choose to focus my telephoto lens on one person; there's no one else in my picture. As soon as you widen your focus, the discontentment, the dissatisfaction begins. Maybe you've been allowing other fantasies into your heart; a heart where you should be focusing all your fantasies on your husband or your wife. Those sexually oriented pictures, the ads, the videos, the movies, the websites; they let other women and other men into a place that should be reserved for just one person.

Maybe you joke about having a wandering eye. That's no joke! It dilutes your focus on that one man and that one woman. The soap opera love affairs, the flirtations with that other person, all those mental wanderings erode the excitement of focused love. Don't betray your lifetime partner in your fantasies. You'll both lose.

Decide to let her or let him be enough. Ask for Christ's strength to narrow your focus and you'll see just a close-up on one person. The best of married love is for those who choose love through that telephoto lens.

Psalm 127 bible reading and devotionals.

Click to download and listen:

MaxLucado.com: In a Storm

Chippie the parakeet never saw it coming!  One second perched peacefully.  The next—whoosh—sucked into the vacuum cleaner hose!  The bird owner turned off the vacuum, opened the bag. There was Chippie—still alive, but stunned!   Chippie doesn’t sing much anymore.  Blown over, sucked in, it’s enough to steal the song from the stoutest heart.

Can you relate?   Most of us can. One minute you’re seated in familiar territory, a song on your lips, then. . .the rejection letter arrives.  The doctor calls.  The divorce papers are delivered.   You’re sucked into a black cavern of doubts.  Left with a long night of fear and a long list of questions.  Jesus knows we’re in a storm.  Why doesn’t he come?

The same voice that stilled the rage on the Sea of Galilee can still the storm in your world.   Be assured—He is closer than you’ve ever dreamed!

Psalm 145:18 says “The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.”

From In the Eye of the Storm

Psalm 127

A song of ascents. Of Solomon.

1 Unless the Lord builds the house,
    the builders labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
    the guards stand watch in vain.
2 In vain you rise early
    and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—
    for he grants sleep to[a] those he loves.
3 Children are a heritage from the Lord,
    offspring a reward from him.
4 Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
    are children born in one’s youth.
5 Blessed is the man
    whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
    when they contend with their opponents in court.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Philippians 4:6-9

6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Quaking Aspens

October 1, 2012 — by Bill Crowder

Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way. —2 Thessalonians 3:16

While I was visiting Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, two trees caught my attention. Though the leaves on the surrounding trees were not moving, the leaves of these trees were fluttering with just the slightest hint of a breeze. I pointed them out to my wife, and she told me they were called quaking aspens. I was struck by the visual effect of those shaking leaves. While all the other trees appeared calm and steady, the quaking aspen leaves shook, even with only the faintest breeze.

Sometimes I feel like a quaking aspen. People around me seem to be moving through life without issues or concerns, apparently steady and secure, while even the slightest issue can unsettle my heart. I see others and marvel at their calm and wonder why my own life can so easily be filled with turbulence. Thankfully, the Scriptures remind me that genuine, steadying calm can be found in the presence of God. Paul wrote, “Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with you all” (2 Thess. 3:16). Not only does God offer peace, He Himself is the Lord of peace.

When we enter the disturbing, unsettling seasons of life, it is good to know that real peace is available in the God of all peace.

Prince of Peace, teach me to find in You the
calming power of Your presence. Strengthen
me today with Your peace, and grant me the
stability I need in this turmoil-filled world. Amen.
Peace is more than the absence of conflict; peace is the presence of God.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
October 1, 2012

The Place of Exaltation

. . . Jesus took . . . them up on a high mountain apart by themselves . . . —Mark 9:2

We have all experienced times of exaltation on the mountain, when we have seen things from God’s perspective and have wanted to stay there. But God will never allow us to stay there. The true test of our spiritual life is in exhibiting the power to descend from the mountain. If we only have the power to go up, something is wrong. It is a wonderful thing to be on the mountain with God, but a person only gets there so that he may later go down and lift up the demon-possessed people in the valley (see Mark 9:14-18). We are not made for the mountains, for sunrises, or for the other beautiful attractions in life— those are simply intended to be moments of inspiration. We are made for the valley and the ordinary things of life, and that is where we have to prove our stamina and strength. Yet our spiritual selfishness always wants repeated moments on the mountain. We feel that we could talk and live like perfect angels, if we could only stay on the mountaintop. Those times of exaltation are exceptional and they have their meaning in our life with God, but we must beware to prevent our spiritual selfishness from wanting to make them the only time.

We are inclined to think that everything that happens is to be turned into useful teaching. In actual fact, it is to be turned into something even better than teaching, namely, character. The mountaintop is not meant to teach us anything, it is meant to make us something. There is a terrible trap in always asking, “What’s the use of this experience?” We can never measure spiritual matters in that way. The moments on the mountaintop are rare moments, and they are meant for something in God’s purpose.



A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Which Way in the Wildfire? - #6711

Monday, October 1, 2012

It seems like every spring, every summer we hear about those raging wildfires! It's almost in the news every day. When I hear about it, my ears perk up. I mean, we've had friends who lost their home in one of those wildfires. And we know Native American friends who are sometimes on the front lines fighting those fires. I hate it when we hear about a firefighter who has been lost. There was a young woman in Idaho lost just this year, for example.

Now, when there were some major fires raging in Washington State earlier this year, my mind flashed back to another Washington fire that they called the Thirty-Mile Fire. It was one of those that just exploded suddenly. It forced the firefighters to stop fighting the fire and start fighting for their lives. Most of them deployed those survival tents that can save lives in a sudden emergency like this.

But then there were the four rookie firefighters. Partly because of what were later proven to be supervisory errors, they ended up on a road that they thought would lead them to safety. It was a dead-end road. And four young firefighters, each one outstanding in their own way, lost their lives there that day.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Which Way in the Wildfire?"

I can't recall that tragedy without it bringing to mind an even greater tragedy that costs so many lives...forever. The Bible starkly describes people who will think they're on a road that leads to life - eternal life - only to find out too late that it's a dead-end road.

Our word today from the Word of God puts it this way in Proverbs 16:25: "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death." That's a disturbing verse. There are a lot of things you can be wrong about without paying a horrific price, but eternity is not one of them.

And Jesus said a lot of people are wrong about where they're headed after they die. He said, "Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it" (Matthew 7:13-14).

It's popular today to believe that the road to heaven is so wide that any number of beliefs - believed sincerely enough - will get you there. But sincerity doesn't mean you'll escape the fire, or the fact that it looks like or feels like the right road. Not if it's a dead-end.

Jesus came because, in a sense, every religion is a dead-end road, because it can't erase your sin. And "nothing impure will ever enter" heaven the Bible says (Revelation 21:27). Truth is, we're all "impure." We've all, in the Bible's words, "left God's path to follow our own" (Isaiah 53:6 - NLT). And our sin (again from the Bible) "has separated you from your God" (Isaiah 59:1). God says our hijacking of our own life carries an eternal death penalty that can only be paid one way. Somebody's got to die for my sin to get paid for and to get forgiven. Clearly, I'm the one who deserves to pay that penalty.

But in the greatest act of love in human history, God's Son "personally carried," the Bible says, "our sins in His own body on the cross" (1 Peter 2:24). So I did the sinning, but Jesus did the dying. I still can't get over that.

Only the One who died for our sins can forgive our sins and erase what will keep us out of heaven. It's not about the superiority of the Christian religion. It's not about a religion at all; no religion can die for you. It's about a Rescuer, the only One who can save us from the fire of sin's judgment, because He took that fire for us. To trust in anything else is to learn too late that you've made the greatest mistake a human can make. You chose a dead-end road.

More than anything, Jesus wants you in heaven with Him one day. That's why He paid that awful price on the cross. Maybe you've never put your total trust in Him to rescue you from your sin and you're ready to do that. Would you tell Him that right now, "Jesus, I'm Yours. You are my only hope, because You died for me."

I hope you'll go to our website today as well and find out there how you can be sure you belong to Jesus. Just go to yoursforlife.net. Is there any better day to get this settled than today?