Max Lucado: Doubt—An Unwanted Visitor
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. Hebrews 10:23
Doubt. He’s a lousy neighbor. An unwanted visitor. An obnoxious guest. And he’ll pester you. He’ll irritate you. He’ll criticize your judgment.
His aim is not to convince you, but to confuse you. He doesn’t offer solutions. Doubt only raises questions.
Had any visit from this fellow lately? If you find yourself going to church in order to be saved and not because you’re saved, then you’ve been listening to him.
If you find yourself doubting that God could forgive you again for that, you’ve been sold some snake oil.
If you’re more cynical about Christians than sincere about Christ, then guess who came to dinner?
I suggest you put a lock on your gate. I suggest you post a “Do not enter” sign on your door! Say no to doubt.
Revelation 4
The Throne in Heaven
After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2 At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. 3 And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne. 4 Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. 5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits[c] of God. 6 Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.
In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. 7 The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. 8 Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying:
“‘Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God Almighty,’[d]
who was, and is, and is to come.”
9 Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:
11 “You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being.”
Footnotes:
Revelation 4:5 That is, the sevenfold Spirit
Revelation 4:8 Isaiah 6:3
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Ephesians 1:3-12
Praise for Spiritual Blessings in Christ
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he[a] predestined us for adoption to sonship[b] through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he[c] made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
11 In him we were also chosen,[d] having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.
Footnotes:
Ephesians 1:5 Or sight in love. 5 He
Ephesians 1:5 The Greek word for adoption to sonship is a legal term referring to the full legal standing of an adopted male heir in Roman culture.
Ephesians 1:9 Or us with all wisdom and understanding. 9 And he
Ephesians 1:11 Or were made heirs
Adoption
January 5, 2014 — by Bill Crowder
He chose us in Him . . . having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself. —Ephesians 1:4-5
My wife, Marlene, and I have been married for over 35 years. When we were first dating, we had a conversation I have never forgotten. She told me that at 6 months old she had been adopted. When I asked her if she ever wondered about who her real parents were, she responded, “My mom and dad could have selected any of a number of other babies that day, but they chose me. They adopted me. They are my real parents.”
That strong sense of identification and gratitude she has for her adoptive parents should also mark our relationship with God. As followers of Christ, we have been born from above through faith in Him and have been adopted into the family of God. Paul wrote, “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will” (Eph. 1:4-5).
Notice the nature of this transaction. We have been chosen by God and adopted as His sons and daughters. Through adoption, we have a radically new relationship with God. He is our beloved Father!
May this relationship stir our hearts to worship Him—our Father—with gratitude.
Loving Father, thank You for making me
Your child and giving me a place in
Your family. With a grateful heart, I
thank You for making me Yours.
God loves each of us as if there were only one of us. —Augustine
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
January 5, 2014
The Life of Power to Follow
Jesus answered him, ’Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward’ —John 13:36
“And when He had spoken this, He said to him, ’Follow Me’ ” (John 21:19). Three years earlier Jesus had said, “Follow Me” (Matthew 4:19), and Peter followed with no hesitation. The irresistible attraction of Jesus was upon him and he did not need the Holy Spirit to help him do it. Later he came to the place where he denied Jesus, and his heart broke. Then he received the Holy Spirit and Jesus said again, “Follow Me” (John 21:19). Now no one is in front of Peter except the Lord Jesus Christ. The first “Follow Me” was nothing mysterious; it was an external following. Jesus is now asking for an internal sacrifice and yielding (see John 21:18).
Between these two times Peter denied Jesus with oaths and curses (see Matthew 26:69-75). But then he came completely to the end of himself and all of his self-sufficiency. There was no part of himself he would ever rely on again. In his state of destitution, he was finally ready to receive all that the risen Lord had for him. “. . . He breathed on them, and said to them, ’Receive the Holy Spirit’ ” (John 20:22). No matter what changes God has performed in you, never rely on them. Build only on a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, and on the Spirit He gives.
All our promises and resolutions end in denial because we have no power to accomplish them. When we come to the end of ourselves, not just mentally but completely, we are able to “receive the Holy Spirit.” “Receive the Holy Spirit “— the idea is that of invasion. There is now only One who directs the course of your life, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Saturday, January 4, 2014
Revelation 3, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado: God’s Best Idea
Grace is God’s best idea. Rather than tell us to change, he creates the change! Do we clean up so God can accept us? No, he accepts us and begins cleaning us up. His dream isn’t just to get you into heaven, but to get heaven into you. Can’t forgive your enemy? Can’t face tomorrow? Can’t forgive your past? Christ can. Forgiven people, forgive people. Deep sighs of relief happen when grace happens. We still stumble aplenty, but we despair seldom. Grace changes everything! To be saved by grace is to be saved by Christ—not by an idea, doctrine, or church membership, but by Jesus Himself. I have no tips on how to get grace. Truth is, we don’t get grace. But it sure can get us! If you wonder whether God can do something with the mess of your life, then grace is what you need.
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:20?
From GRACE
Revelation 3
To the Church in Sardis
“To the angel[a] of the church in Sardis write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits[b] of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.
4 Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. 6 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
To the Church in Philadelphia
7 “To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:
These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. 8 I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. 9 I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars—I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you. 10 Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.
11 I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. 12 The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name. 13 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
To the Church in Laodicea
14 “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:
These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
21 To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Philippians 1:3-14
Thanksgiving and Prayer
3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
Paul’s Chains Advance the Gospel
12 Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters,[a] that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. 13 As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard[b] and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. 14 And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.
Footnotes:
Philippians 1:12 The Greek word for brothers and sisters (adelphoi) refers here to believers, both men and women, as part of God’s family; also in verse 14; and in 3:1, 13, 17; 4:1, 8, 21.
Philippians 1:13 Or whole palace
Situation Excellent
January 4, 2014 — by Dennis Fisher
The things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel. —Philippians 1:12
At the First Battle of the Marne during World War I, French lieutenant general Ferdinand Foch sent out this communiqué: “My center is giving way, my right is retreating. Situation excellent. I am attacking.” His willingness to see hope in a tough situation eventually led to victory for his troops.
Sometimes in life’s battles we can feel as if we are losing on every front. Family discord, business setbacks, financial woes, or a decline in health can put a pessimistic spin on the way we look at life. But the believer in Christ can always find a way to conclude: “Situation excellent.”
Look at Paul. When he was thrown in prison for preaching the gospel, he had an unusually upbeat attitude. To the church at Philippi he wrote, “I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel” (Phil. 1:12).
Paul saw his prison situation as a new platform from which to evangelize the Roman palace guard. In addition, other Christians became emboldened by his situation to preach the gospel more fearlessly (vv.13-14).
God can use our trials to work good in spite of the pain they bring (Rom. 8:28). That’s just one more way He can be honored.
Comfort us, Lord, when life’s trials assail—
we fail and stumble so often. Renew us, and
help us to grow so that others may also
know Your goodness and comfort.
Trials can be God’s road to triumph.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
January 4, 2014
Why Can I Not Follow You Now?
Peter said to Him, ’Lord, why can I not follow You now?’ —John 13:37
There are times when you can’t understand why you cannot do what you want to do. When God brings a time of waiting, and appears to be unresponsive, don’t fill it with busyness, just wait. The time of waiting may come to teach you the meaning of sanctification— to be set apart from sin and made holy— or it may come after the process of sanctification has begun to teach you what service means. Never run before God gives you His direction. If you have the slightest doubt, then He is not guiding. Whenever there is doubt— wait.
At first you may see clearly what God’s will is— the severance of a friendship, the breaking off of a business relationship, or something else you feel is distinctly God’s will for you to do. But never act on the impulse of that feeling. If you do, you will cause difficult situations to arise which will take years to untangle. Wait for God’s timing and He will do it without any heartache or disappointment. When it is a question of the providential will of God, wait for God to move.
Peter did not wait for God. He predicted in his own mind where the test would come, and it came where he did not expect it. “I will lay down my life for Your sake.” Peter’s statement was honest but ignorant. “Jesus answered him, ’ . . . the rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times’ ” (John 13:38). This was said with a deeper knowledge of Peter than Peter had of himself. He could not follow Jesus because he did not know himself or his own capabilities well enough. Natural devotion may be enough to attract us to Jesus, to make us feel His irresistible charm, but it will never make us disciples. Natural devotion will deny Jesus, always falling short of what it means to truly follow Him.
Grace is God’s best idea. Rather than tell us to change, he creates the change! Do we clean up so God can accept us? No, he accepts us and begins cleaning us up. His dream isn’t just to get you into heaven, but to get heaven into you. Can’t forgive your enemy? Can’t face tomorrow? Can’t forgive your past? Christ can. Forgiven people, forgive people. Deep sighs of relief happen when grace happens. We still stumble aplenty, but we despair seldom. Grace changes everything! To be saved by grace is to be saved by Christ—not by an idea, doctrine, or church membership, but by Jesus Himself. I have no tips on how to get grace. Truth is, we don’t get grace. But it sure can get us! If you wonder whether God can do something with the mess of your life, then grace is what you need.
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:20?
From GRACE
Revelation 3
To the Church in Sardis
“To the angel[a] of the church in Sardis write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits[b] of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.
4 Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. 6 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
To the Church in Philadelphia
7 “To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:
These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. 8 I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. 9 I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars—I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you. 10 Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.
11 I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. 12 The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name. 13 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
To the Church in Laodicea
14 “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:
These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
21 To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Philippians 1:3-14
Thanksgiving and Prayer
3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
Paul’s Chains Advance the Gospel
12 Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters,[a] that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. 13 As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard[b] and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. 14 And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.
Footnotes:
Philippians 1:12 The Greek word for brothers and sisters (adelphoi) refers here to believers, both men and women, as part of God’s family; also in verse 14; and in 3:1, 13, 17; 4:1, 8, 21.
Philippians 1:13 Or whole palace
Situation Excellent
January 4, 2014 — by Dennis Fisher
The things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel. —Philippians 1:12
At the First Battle of the Marne during World War I, French lieutenant general Ferdinand Foch sent out this communiqué: “My center is giving way, my right is retreating. Situation excellent. I am attacking.” His willingness to see hope in a tough situation eventually led to victory for his troops.
Sometimes in life’s battles we can feel as if we are losing on every front. Family discord, business setbacks, financial woes, or a decline in health can put a pessimistic spin on the way we look at life. But the believer in Christ can always find a way to conclude: “Situation excellent.”
Look at Paul. When he was thrown in prison for preaching the gospel, he had an unusually upbeat attitude. To the church at Philippi he wrote, “I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel” (Phil. 1:12).
Paul saw his prison situation as a new platform from which to evangelize the Roman palace guard. In addition, other Christians became emboldened by his situation to preach the gospel more fearlessly (vv.13-14).
God can use our trials to work good in spite of the pain they bring (Rom. 8:28). That’s just one more way He can be honored.
Comfort us, Lord, when life’s trials assail—
we fail and stumble so often. Renew us, and
help us to grow so that others may also
know Your goodness and comfort.
Trials can be God’s road to triumph.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
January 4, 2014
Why Can I Not Follow You Now?
Peter said to Him, ’Lord, why can I not follow You now?’ —John 13:37
There are times when you can’t understand why you cannot do what you want to do. When God brings a time of waiting, and appears to be unresponsive, don’t fill it with busyness, just wait. The time of waiting may come to teach you the meaning of sanctification— to be set apart from sin and made holy— or it may come after the process of sanctification has begun to teach you what service means. Never run before God gives you His direction. If you have the slightest doubt, then He is not guiding. Whenever there is doubt— wait.
At first you may see clearly what God’s will is— the severance of a friendship, the breaking off of a business relationship, or something else you feel is distinctly God’s will for you to do. But never act on the impulse of that feeling. If you do, you will cause difficult situations to arise which will take years to untangle. Wait for God’s timing and He will do it without any heartache or disappointment. When it is a question of the providential will of God, wait for God to move.
Peter did not wait for God. He predicted in his own mind where the test would come, and it came where he did not expect it. “I will lay down my life for Your sake.” Peter’s statement was honest but ignorant. “Jesus answered him, ’ . . . the rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times’ ” (John 13:38). This was said with a deeper knowledge of Peter than Peter had of himself. He could not follow Jesus because he did not know himself or his own capabilities well enough. Natural devotion may be enough to attract us to Jesus, to make us feel His irresistible charm, but it will never make us disciples. Natural devotion will deny Jesus, always falling short of what it means to truly follow Him.
Friday, January 3, 2014
Zechariah 14, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: To Be Seen
If we're not looking up at God, we're looking inward at ourselves and outward at each other. The result? Quarreling families. Restless leaders. Fence-building. No trespassing signs.
If we see only ourselves, our tombstones will have the same epitaph Paul used to describe enemies of Christ: "Their god is their own appetite, they glory in their shame, and this world is the limit of their horizon" (Philippians 3:19).
It's why God came near. To be seen. It's why those who saw Him were never the same. Christianity, in its purest form, is nothing more than seeing Jesus. And Christian service is nothing more than imitating Him whom we see. The Bible says, "Unless a man is born again, He cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3).
God came near. There is no truth more worthy of your time.
From God Came Near
Zechariah 14
The Lord Comes and Reigns
A day of the Lord is coming, Jerusalem, when your possessions will be plundered and divided up within your very walls.
2 I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city. 3 Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights on a day of battle. 4 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. 5 You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake[c] in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.
6 On that day there will be neither sunlight nor cold, frosty darkness. 7 It will be a unique day—a day known only to the Lord—with no distinction between day and night. When evening comes, there will be light.
8 On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it east to the Dead Sea and half of it west to the Mediterranean Sea, in summer and in winter.
9 The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, and his name the only name.
10 The whole land, from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem, will become like the Arabah. But Jerusalem will be raised up high from the Benjamin Gate to the site of the First Gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal winepresses, and will remain in its place. 11 It will be inhabited; never again will it be destroyed. Jerusalem will be secure.
12 This is the plague with which the Lord will strike all the nations that fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths. 13 On that day people will be stricken by the Lord with great panic. They will seize each other by the hand and attack one another. 14 Judah too will fight at Jerusalem. The wealth of all the surrounding nations will be collected—great quantities of gold and silver and clothing. 15 A similar plague will strike the horses and mules, the camels and donkeys, and all the animals in those camps.
16 Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles. 17 If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, they will have no rain. 18 If the Egyptian people do not go up and take part, they will have no rain. The Lord[d] will bring on them the plague he inflicts on the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles. 19 This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles.
20 On that day holy to the Lord will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots in the Lord’s house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar. 21 Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the Lord Almighty, and all who come to sacrifice will take some of the pots and cook in them. And on that day there will no longer be a Canaanite[e] in the house of the Lord Almighty.
Zechariah 14:5 Or 5 My mountain valley will be blocked and will extend to Azel. It will be blocked as it was blocked because of the earthquake
Zechariah 14:18 Or part, then the Lord
Zechariah 14:21 Or merchant
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Micah 6:3-8
“My people, what have I done to you?
How have I burdened you? Answer me.
4 I brought you up out of Egypt
and redeemed you from the land of slavery.
I sent Moses to lead you,
also Aaron and Miriam.
5 My people, remember
what Balak king of Moab plotted
and what Balaam son of Beor answered.
Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal,
that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.”
6 With what shall I come before the Lord
and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly[a] with your God.
Footnotes:
Micah 6:8 Or prudently
Help From His Spirit
January 3, 2014 — by Jennifer Benson Schuldt
What does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? —Micah 6:8
Many of us make promises to ourselves to mark the beginning of a new year. We make pledges such as I’m going to save more, exercise more, or spend less time on the Internet. We begin the year with good intentions, but before long old habits tempt us to take up our old ways. We slip up occasionally, then more frequently, and then all the time. Finally, it’s as if our resolution never existed.
Instead of choosing our own self-improvement goals, a better approach might be to ask ourselves: “What does the Lord desire of me?” Through the prophet Micah, God has revealed that He wants us to do what is right, to be merciful, and to walk humbly with Him (Mic. 6:8). All of these things relate to soul-improvement rather than self-improvement.
Thankfully, we don’t have to rely on our own strength. The Holy Spirit has the power to help us as believers in our spiritual growth. God’s Word says, He is able to “strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being” (Eph. 3:16 niv).
So as we begin a new year, let’s resolve to be more Christlike. The Spirit will help us as we seek to walk humbly with God.
Truthful Spirit, dwell with me;
I myself would truthful be;
And with wisdom kind and clear
Let Thy life in mine appear. —Lynch
He who has the Holy Spirit as his resource has already won the victory.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
January 3, 2014
Clouds and Darkness
Clouds and darkness surround Him . . . —Psalm 97:2
A person who has not been born again by the Spirit of God will tell you that the teachings of Jesus are simple. But when he is baptized by the Holy Spirit, he finds that “clouds and darkness surround Him . . . .” When we come into close contact with the teachings of Jesus Christ we have our first realization of this. The only possible way to have full understanding of the teachings of Jesus is through the light of the Spirit of God shining inside us. If we have never had the experience of taking our casual, religious shoes off our casual, religious feet— getting rid of all the excessive informality with which we approach God— it is questionable whether we have ever stood in His presence. The people who are flippant and disrespectful in their approach to God are those who have never been introduced to Jesus Christ. Only after the amazing delight and liberty of realizing what Jesus Christ does, comes the impenetrable “darkness” of realizing who He is.
Jesus said, “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). Once, the Bible was just so many words to us — “clouds and darkness”— then, suddenly, the words become spirit and life because Jesus re-speaks them to us when our circumstances make the words new. That is the way God speaks to us; not by visions and dreams, but by words. When a man gets to God, it is by the most simple way— words.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Unexplained Orders - #7040
Friday, January 3, 2014
There are some advantages to living where it's cold in the winter, especially if you're a child in school. You know, it's those two great words, "Snow Day!" I remember on one particular overnight snow when the guys were real small. We heard our sled calling us from the garage. I said, "Snow Day! Let's play!" So there's this hill near us, and when we got there half the town was there. So, we got on our sleigh; my oldest son and I were on it this one time. We started down the hill and we were almost to the bottom when I looked behind us. I didn't like what I saw. There was this big sled speeding straight at us. He didn't see us. I had time for one word, "Jump!" My son responded instantly. We both jumped off and I think we might have missed some injury by inches. I was really glad he didn't take time to ask, "Why, Daddy?"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Unexplained Orders."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Acts 8. It says, "Philip went down to a city in Samaria, and proclaimed Christ there. When the crowd heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said." The Bible goes on to say, "There were wonderful miracles. There was great joy in the city." Now, boy, if I'm Philip, I'm going to stay there for a while, because God's really working and this is awesome!
In lieu of all this, though, "An angel of the Lord said to Philip, 'Go south to the road - the desert road - that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.' So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home he was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, 'Go to that chariot and stay near it.'"
Well it goes on to lead to the conversion of this man and ultimately the planting of Christianity in Africa, all because Philip does what he's told. Honestly, I'm not sure the orders made much sense. God didn't give any orders except "Go to the desert." And Philip was in the middle of these great meetings going on. So why am I going to leave these and go to the desert?
I think my son felt the same way when he got unexplained orders that day, "Hey, it's going great! We're having fun! Why would we jump?" God sends orders for Philip to quit what he is doing, go to the desert, and it leads to this powerful result. But he doesn't tell Philip what's going to happen. Philip doesn't say, "Why, Daddy?" He was obedient without explanation. He's told to go to the desert without explanation. Then he's told to go stand next to this chariot without explanation. But he obeyed.
See, God is preparing something supernatural, but it depends on your obeying without explanation. Notice, Philip's only given the first step, and God leaves it that way; it's kind of take a step, see a step. Seldom do we know where the step is going. He asks us to obey in faith, walking by faith not by sight, and if we obey like that, we will live a life that's full of supernatural encounters and divine matchups, and destiny events. See, powerful lives go one step beyond obedience without explanation; it's obedience without hesitation.
Maybe you're disobeying something God is speaking to you about because you want more details. But maybe God is saying, "Leave," or "Go," or "Go for it," "Talk to that person," "Change this," "Try that." This is the crossroads of faith and obedience. Will you obey without explanation? If not, you'll probably miss God's best. That day in the snow I really praised my son for his quick obedience. He didn't need an explanation. He just trusted his father, and he was rewarded for it.
Now, God is your Father, and He has certainly proved you can trust Him at the cross where His Son gave everything for you. Can't you trust Him enough to obey Him without question? It's like the old song says, "Trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey."
If we're not looking up at God, we're looking inward at ourselves and outward at each other. The result? Quarreling families. Restless leaders. Fence-building. No trespassing signs.
If we see only ourselves, our tombstones will have the same epitaph Paul used to describe enemies of Christ: "Their god is their own appetite, they glory in their shame, and this world is the limit of their horizon" (Philippians 3:19).
It's why God came near. To be seen. It's why those who saw Him were never the same. Christianity, in its purest form, is nothing more than seeing Jesus. And Christian service is nothing more than imitating Him whom we see. The Bible says, "Unless a man is born again, He cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3).
God came near. There is no truth more worthy of your time.
From God Came Near
Zechariah 14
The Lord Comes and Reigns
A day of the Lord is coming, Jerusalem, when your possessions will be plundered and divided up within your very walls.
2 I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city. 3 Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights on a day of battle. 4 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. 5 You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake[c] in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.
6 On that day there will be neither sunlight nor cold, frosty darkness. 7 It will be a unique day—a day known only to the Lord—with no distinction between day and night. When evening comes, there will be light.
8 On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it east to the Dead Sea and half of it west to the Mediterranean Sea, in summer and in winter.
9 The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, and his name the only name.
10 The whole land, from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem, will become like the Arabah. But Jerusalem will be raised up high from the Benjamin Gate to the site of the First Gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal winepresses, and will remain in its place. 11 It will be inhabited; never again will it be destroyed. Jerusalem will be secure.
12 This is the plague with which the Lord will strike all the nations that fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths. 13 On that day people will be stricken by the Lord with great panic. They will seize each other by the hand and attack one another. 14 Judah too will fight at Jerusalem. The wealth of all the surrounding nations will be collected—great quantities of gold and silver and clothing. 15 A similar plague will strike the horses and mules, the camels and donkeys, and all the animals in those camps.
16 Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles. 17 If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, they will have no rain. 18 If the Egyptian people do not go up and take part, they will have no rain. The Lord[d] will bring on them the plague he inflicts on the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles. 19 This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles.
20 On that day holy to the Lord will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots in the Lord’s house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar. 21 Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the Lord Almighty, and all who come to sacrifice will take some of the pots and cook in them. And on that day there will no longer be a Canaanite[e] in the house of the Lord Almighty.
Zechariah 14:5 Or 5 My mountain valley will be blocked and will extend to Azel. It will be blocked as it was blocked because of the earthquake
Zechariah 14:18 Or part, then the Lord
Zechariah 14:21 Or merchant
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Micah 6:3-8
“My people, what have I done to you?
How have I burdened you? Answer me.
4 I brought you up out of Egypt
and redeemed you from the land of slavery.
I sent Moses to lead you,
also Aaron and Miriam.
5 My people, remember
what Balak king of Moab plotted
and what Balaam son of Beor answered.
Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal,
that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.”
6 With what shall I come before the Lord
and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly[a] with your God.
Footnotes:
Micah 6:8 Or prudently
Help From His Spirit
January 3, 2014 — by Jennifer Benson Schuldt
What does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? —Micah 6:8
Many of us make promises to ourselves to mark the beginning of a new year. We make pledges such as I’m going to save more, exercise more, or spend less time on the Internet. We begin the year with good intentions, but before long old habits tempt us to take up our old ways. We slip up occasionally, then more frequently, and then all the time. Finally, it’s as if our resolution never existed.
Instead of choosing our own self-improvement goals, a better approach might be to ask ourselves: “What does the Lord desire of me?” Through the prophet Micah, God has revealed that He wants us to do what is right, to be merciful, and to walk humbly with Him (Mic. 6:8). All of these things relate to soul-improvement rather than self-improvement.
Thankfully, we don’t have to rely on our own strength. The Holy Spirit has the power to help us as believers in our spiritual growth. God’s Word says, He is able to “strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being” (Eph. 3:16 niv).
So as we begin a new year, let’s resolve to be more Christlike. The Spirit will help us as we seek to walk humbly with God.
Truthful Spirit, dwell with me;
I myself would truthful be;
And with wisdom kind and clear
Let Thy life in mine appear. —Lynch
He who has the Holy Spirit as his resource has already won the victory.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
January 3, 2014
Clouds and Darkness
Clouds and darkness surround Him . . . —Psalm 97:2
A person who has not been born again by the Spirit of God will tell you that the teachings of Jesus are simple. But when he is baptized by the Holy Spirit, he finds that “clouds and darkness surround Him . . . .” When we come into close contact with the teachings of Jesus Christ we have our first realization of this. The only possible way to have full understanding of the teachings of Jesus is through the light of the Spirit of God shining inside us. If we have never had the experience of taking our casual, religious shoes off our casual, religious feet— getting rid of all the excessive informality with which we approach God— it is questionable whether we have ever stood in His presence. The people who are flippant and disrespectful in their approach to God are those who have never been introduced to Jesus Christ. Only after the amazing delight and liberty of realizing what Jesus Christ does, comes the impenetrable “darkness” of realizing who He is.
Jesus said, “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). Once, the Bible was just so many words to us — “clouds and darkness”— then, suddenly, the words become spirit and life because Jesus re-speaks them to us when our circumstances make the words new. That is the way God speaks to us; not by visions and dreams, but by words. When a man gets to God, it is by the most simple way— words.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Unexplained Orders - #7040
Friday, January 3, 2014
There are some advantages to living where it's cold in the winter, especially if you're a child in school. You know, it's those two great words, "Snow Day!" I remember on one particular overnight snow when the guys were real small. We heard our sled calling us from the garage. I said, "Snow Day! Let's play!" So there's this hill near us, and when we got there half the town was there. So, we got on our sleigh; my oldest son and I were on it this one time. We started down the hill and we were almost to the bottom when I looked behind us. I didn't like what I saw. There was this big sled speeding straight at us. He didn't see us. I had time for one word, "Jump!" My son responded instantly. We both jumped off and I think we might have missed some injury by inches. I was really glad he didn't take time to ask, "Why, Daddy?"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Unexplained Orders."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Acts 8. It says, "Philip went down to a city in Samaria, and proclaimed Christ there. When the crowd heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said." The Bible goes on to say, "There were wonderful miracles. There was great joy in the city." Now, boy, if I'm Philip, I'm going to stay there for a while, because God's really working and this is awesome!
In lieu of all this, though, "An angel of the Lord said to Philip, 'Go south to the road - the desert road - that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.' So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home he was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, 'Go to that chariot and stay near it.'"
Well it goes on to lead to the conversion of this man and ultimately the planting of Christianity in Africa, all because Philip does what he's told. Honestly, I'm not sure the orders made much sense. God didn't give any orders except "Go to the desert." And Philip was in the middle of these great meetings going on. So why am I going to leave these and go to the desert?
I think my son felt the same way when he got unexplained orders that day, "Hey, it's going great! We're having fun! Why would we jump?" God sends orders for Philip to quit what he is doing, go to the desert, and it leads to this powerful result. But he doesn't tell Philip what's going to happen. Philip doesn't say, "Why, Daddy?" He was obedient without explanation. He's told to go to the desert without explanation. Then he's told to go stand next to this chariot without explanation. But he obeyed.
See, God is preparing something supernatural, but it depends on your obeying without explanation. Notice, Philip's only given the first step, and God leaves it that way; it's kind of take a step, see a step. Seldom do we know where the step is going. He asks us to obey in faith, walking by faith not by sight, and if we obey like that, we will live a life that's full of supernatural encounters and divine matchups, and destiny events. See, powerful lives go one step beyond obedience without explanation; it's obedience without hesitation.
Maybe you're disobeying something God is speaking to you about because you want more details. But maybe God is saying, "Leave," or "Go," or "Go for it," "Talk to that person," "Change this," "Try that." This is the crossroads of faith and obedience. Will you obey without explanation? If not, you'll probably miss God's best. That day in the snow I really praised my son for his quick obedience. He didn't need an explanation. He just trusted his father, and he was rewarded for it.
Now, God is your Father, and He has certainly proved you can trust Him at the cross where His Son gave everything for you. Can't you trust Him enough to obey Him without question? It's like the old song says, "Trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey."
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Zechariah 13, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Face to Face With Our Past
All of us at one time or another come face to face with our past. And it's always an awkward encounter. When our sins catch up with us we can do one of two things: run or wrestle.
Many choose to run. They brush it off with a shrug of rationalization. "I was a victim of circumstances." Or, "It was his fault." The problem with this escape is it's no escape at all. It's only a shallow camouflage.
The best way to deal with our past is to roll up our sleeves, and face it head on. No more buck-passing or scapegoating. No more glossing over or covering up. No more games.
We need a confrontation with our Master, eyeball to eyeball, and be reminded that left alone we fall. If you wonder if you've gone too long to change, take courage. No man is too bad for God!
From God Came Near
Zechariah 13
Cleansing From Sin
“On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.
2 “On that day, I will banish the names of the idols from the land, and they will be remembered no more,” declares the Lord Almighty. “I will remove both the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land. 3 And if anyone still prophesies, their father and mother, to whom they were born, will say to them, ‘You must die, because you have told lies in the Lord’s name.’ Then their own parents will stab the one who prophesies.
4 “On that day every prophet will be ashamed of their prophetic vision. They will not put on a prophet’s garment of hair in order to deceive. 5 Each will say, ‘I am not a prophet. I am a farmer; the land has been my livelihood since my youth.[a]’ 6 If someone asks, ‘What are these wounds on your body[b]?’ they will answer, ‘The wounds I was given at the house of my friends.’
The Shepherd Struck, the Sheep Scattered
7 “Awake, sword, against my shepherd,
against the man who is close to me!”
declares the Lord Almighty.
“Strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be scattered,
and I will turn my hand against the little ones.
8 In the whole land,” declares the Lord,
“two-thirds will be struck down and perish;
yet one-third will be left in it.
9 This third I will put into the fire;
I will refine them like silver
and test them like gold.
They will call on my name
and I will answer them;
I will say, ‘They are my people,’
and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Nehemiah 8:1-12
all the people came together as one in the square before the Water Gate. They told Ezra the teacher of the Law to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded for Israel.
2 So on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand. 3 He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law.
4 Ezra the teacher of the Law stood on a high wooden platform built for the occasion. Beside him on his right stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah and Maaseiah; and on his left were Pedaiah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah and Meshullam.
5 Ezra opened the book. All the people could see him because he was standing above them; and as he opened it, the people all stood up. 6 Ezra praised the Lord, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, “Amen! Amen!” Then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.
7 The Levites—Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan and Pelaiah—instructed the people in the Law while the people were standing there. 8 They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear[a] and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read.
9 Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and teacher of the Law, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, “This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law.
10 Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
11 The Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be still, for this is a holy day. Do not grieve.”
12 Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them.
Footnotes:
Nehemiah 8:8 Or God, translating it
No Appetite
January 2, 2014 — by poh fang chia
As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby. —1 Peter 2:2
When I was battling a bad cold recently, I lost my appetite. I could go through an entire day without eating much food. Water would suffice. But I knew I couldn’t survive long on water alone. I needed to regain my appetite because my body needed nourishment.
When the people of Israel came back from exile in Babylon, their spiritual appetite was weak. They had departed from God and His ways. To get the people back to spiritual health, Nehemiah organized a Bible seminar, and Ezra was the teacher.
Ezra read from the book of the law of Moses from morning until midday, feeding the people with the truth of God (Neh. 8:3). And the people listened attentively. In fact, their appetite for God’s Word was so stirred that the family leaders and the priests and Levites met with Ezra the following day to study the law in greater detail because they wanted to understand it (v.13).
When we feel estranged from God or spiritually weak, we can find spiritual nourishment from God’s Word. “As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2). Ask God to give you a renewed desire for relationship with Him, and begin feeding your heart, soul, and mind with His Word.
Break Thou the Bread of life, dear Lord, to me,
As Thou didst break the loaves beside the sea;
Beyond the sacred page I seek Thee, Lord,
My spirit pants for Thee, O living Word. —Lathbury
Feeding on God’s Word keeps us strong and healthy in the Lord.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
January 2, 2014
Will You Go Out Without Knowing?
He went out, not knowing where he was going —Hebrews 11:8
Have you ever “gone out” in this way? If so, there is no logical answer possible when anyone asks you what you are doing. One of the most difficult questions to answer in Christian work is, “What do you expect to do?”You don’t know what you are going to do. The only thing you know is that God knows what He is doing. Continually examine your attitude toward God to see if you are willing to “go out” in every area of your life, trusting in God entirely. It is this attitude that keeps you in constant wonder, because you don’t know what God is going to do next. Each morning as you wake, there is a new opportunity to “go out,” building your confidence in God. “. . . do not worry about your life . . . nor about the body . . .” (Luke 12:22). In other words, don’t worry about the things that concerned you before you did “go out.”
Have you been asking God what He is going to do? He will never tell you. God does not tell you what He is going to do— He reveals to you who He is. Do you believe in a miracle-working God, and will you “go out” in complete surrender to Him until you are not surprised one iota by anything He does?
Believe God is always the God you know Him to be when you are nearest to Him. Then think how unnecessary and disrespectful worry is! Let the attitude of your life be a continual willingness to “go out” in dependence upon God, and your life will have a sacred and inexpressible charm about it that is very satisfying to Jesus. You must learn to “go out” through your convictions, creeds, or experiences until you come to the point in your faith where there is nothing between yourself and God.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
A Light in the Tornado - #7039
Thursday, January 2, 2014
It was November, and we were thinking turkey, not tornadoes. Right before Thanksgiving there were some 68 tornadoes that didn't consult the calendar. From EF-2s to EF-4s, they left a swath of erased homes and devastated communities across the middle of America. Washington, Illinois was clearly one of the epicenters of the violence from the skies. And the pictures from there are all too familiar; splintered neighborhoods, and residents trying to figure out which pile of rubble used to be their home, and what one reporter called "the good stuff." Like Steve Bucher, who has no home address as of the night the tornado hit. He told CNN that his attitude was "in the next minute and a half, we're either gonna be in heaven or we're going to be in the hospital, or we're going to walk out of here." Thankfully, they walked out safe. But minus pretty much everything else they had.
His next comment caused an anchorman to say, "Now that's character. That's strength." Bucher said his wallet - with about a hundred dollars in it - had been upstairs when the twister hit. He knew it was gone. Later, a man came by and saw Bucher sifting through the rubble. When he asked if there was anything he could help look for, he said, "Well, yeah. The wallet." Which the neighbor managed to find! Bucher said when he opened it, he knew "God has a sense of humor." There was one dollar left in his wallet! He said, "The Lord left me one dollar!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Light in the Tornado."
Believe it or not, he saw a message in that missing money: that the material stuff isn't what's important. It's the people; the lives and the faith that sustains them. There's something about a storm, whether it's meteorological or medical, or marital, or money that revalues everything.
When the drunk driver totaled our car and almost our family, when a sudden medical emergency almost took a loved one, when there was no money, I realized again that life is ultimately two lists: the things that really matter and the things that really don't. There can be "good stuff" in the bad stuff. If the loss of some "earth stuff" that ultimately doesn't really matter can cause us to "re-treasure" the lives that really do matter. Because our lists get mixed up, with the less important migrating to that "important" column and pushing out what really lasts.
Of course, sometimes the storm takes one of our human treasures. A deep grief that a few were feeling in those tornado tracks that day - and so many were feeling in the wake of the Philippines typhoon recently. I've been by the side of those who've said goodbye to someone they love. I've been the one saying goodbye. But even there, you can recommit your heart and your time to those you have left. Having lost, you realize anew the "preciousness" of the ones you still have. Having grieved, you can offer yourself to be a channel of comfort to others who grieve. Having stood at the edge of this life, you can choose to live for what will matter beyond it.
The faith and resilience of tornado and typhoon survivors brought me back to the first Thanksgiving actually. H. U. Westermayer observed: "The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these, who, nevertheless, set aside a day of Thanksgiving."
Giving thanks in the rubble. "Now that's character. That's strength." It's obvious from that survivor's comments where a lot of that strength comes from. With an EF-4 monster bearing down on his house, he knew that if he died he was "gonna be in heaven" he said. I suppose that could be seen as a wishful hope or spiritually arrogant. But I'm familiar with that kind of confidence about my life after my death. Not some fingers-crossed hope, and certainly nothing based on me being good enough for a perfect God.
No, I'm only ready to face death's storm for one reason, and in a word, that's Jesus, because He died to remove what would keep me from God's heaven. The Bible says, "Nothing impure will ever enter" heaven (Revelation 21:27). That's me. That's all of us, because the Bible says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
I can't get into heaven with my sin. And "no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law" the Bible says (Romans 3:20). There's nothing I can do that will get rid of my sin. But there was something Jesus could do. And He did. The Bible says, "When we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). He erases our sins from His book. They will not be there on Judgment Day.
And He walked out of His grave to prove He can give eternal life. And in our word for today from the Word of God, in 1 John 5:12 it says, "He who has the Son has life." Do you have the Son? Have you begun your personal relationship with Him? If you're not sure you're going to heaven when your moment comes, would you join me today at ANewStory.com? If you're ready to live, be ready to die.
All of us at one time or another come face to face with our past. And it's always an awkward encounter. When our sins catch up with us we can do one of two things: run or wrestle.
Many choose to run. They brush it off with a shrug of rationalization. "I was a victim of circumstances." Or, "It was his fault." The problem with this escape is it's no escape at all. It's only a shallow camouflage.
The best way to deal with our past is to roll up our sleeves, and face it head on. No more buck-passing or scapegoating. No more glossing over or covering up. No more games.
We need a confrontation with our Master, eyeball to eyeball, and be reminded that left alone we fall. If you wonder if you've gone too long to change, take courage. No man is too bad for God!
From God Came Near
Zechariah 13
Cleansing From Sin
“On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.
2 “On that day, I will banish the names of the idols from the land, and they will be remembered no more,” declares the Lord Almighty. “I will remove both the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land. 3 And if anyone still prophesies, their father and mother, to whom they were born, will say to them, ‘You must die, because you have told lies in the Lord’s name.’ Then their own parents will stab the one who prophesies.
4 “On that day every prophet will be ashamed of their prophetic vision. They will not put on a prophet’s garment of hair in order to deceive. 5 Each will say, ‘I am not a prophet. I am a farmer; the land has been my livelihood since my youth.[a]’ 6 If someone asks, ‘What are these wounds on your body[b]?’ they will answer, ‘The wounds I was given at the house of my friends.’
The Shepherd Struck, the Sheep Scattered
7 “Awake, sword, against my shepherd,
against the man who is close to me!”
declares the Lord Almighty.
“Strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be scattered,
and I will turn my hand against the little ones.
8 In the whole land,” declares the Lord,
“two-thirds will be struck down and perish;
yet one-third will be left in it.
9 This third I will put into the fire;
I will refine them like silver
and test them like gold.
They will call on my name
and I will answer them;
I will say, ‘They are my people,’
and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Nehemiah 8:1-12
all the people came together as one in the square before the Water Gate. They told Ezra the teacher of the Law to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded for Israel.
2 So on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand. 3 He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law.
4 Ezra the teacher of the Law stood on a high wooden platform built for the occasion. Beside him on his right stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah and Maaseiah; and on his left were Pedaiah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah and Meshullam.
5 Ezra opened the book. All the people could see him because he was standing above them; and as he opened it, the people all stood up. 6 Ezra praised the Lord, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, “Amen! Amen!” Then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.
7 The Levites—Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan and Pelaiah—instructed the people in the Law while the people were standing there. 8 They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear[a] and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read.
9 Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and teacher of the Law, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, “This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law.
10 Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
11 The Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be still, for this is a holy day. Do not grieve.”
12 Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them.
Footnotes:
Nehemiah 8:8 Or God, translating it
No Appetite
January 2, 2014 — by poh fang chia
As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby. —1 Peter 2:2
When I was battling a bad cold recently, I lost my appetite. I could go through an entire day without eating much food. Water would suffice. But I knew I couldn’t survive long on water alone. I needed to regain my appetite because my body needed nourishment.
When the people of Israel came back from exile in Babylon, their spiritual appetite was weak. They had departed from God and His ways. To get the people back to spiritual health, Nehemiah organized a Bible seminar, and Ezra was the teacher.
Ezra read from the book of the law of Moses from morning until midday, feeding the people with the truth of God (Neh. 8:3). And the people listened attentively. In fact, their appetite for God’s Word was so stirred that the family leaders and the priests and Levites met with Ezra the following day to study the law in greater detail because they wanted to understand it (v.13).
When we feel estranged from God or spiritually weak, we can find spiritual nourishment from God’s Word. “As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2). Ask God to give you a renewed desire for relationship with Him, and begin feeding your heart, soul, and mind with His Word.
Break Thou the Bread of life, dear Lord, to me,
As Thou didst break the loaves beside the sea;
Beyond the sacred page I seek Thee, Lord,
My spirit pants for Thee, O living Word. —Lathbury
Feeding on God’s Word keeps us strong and healthy in the Lord.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
January 2, 2014
Will You Go Out Without Knowing?
He went out, not knowing where he was going —Hebrews 11:8
Have you ever “gone out” in this way? If so, there is no logical answer possible when anyone asks you what you are doing. One of the most difficult questions to answer in Christian work is, “What do you expect to do?”You don’t know what you are going to do. The only thing you know is that God knows what He is doing. Continually examine your attitude toward God to see if you are willing to “go out” in every area of your life, trusting in God entirely. It is this attitude that keeps you in constant wonder, because you don’t know what God is going to do next. Each morning as you wake, there is a new opportunity to “go out,” building your confidence in God. “. . . do not worry about your life . . . nor about the body . . .” (Luke 12:22). In other words, don’t worry about the things that concerned you before you did “go out.”
Have you been asking God what He is going to do? He will never tell you. God does not tell you what He is going to do— He reveals to you who He is. Do you believe in a miracle-working God, and will you “go out” in complete surrender to Him until you are not surprised one iota by anything He does?
Believe God is always the God you know Him to be when you are nearest to Him. Then think how unnecessary and disrespectful worry is! Let the attitude of your life be a continual willingness to “go out” in dependence upon God, and your life will have a sacred and inexpressible charm about it that is very satisfying to Jesus. You must learn to “go out” through your convictions, creeds, or experiences until you come to the point in your faith where there is nothing between yourself and God.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
A Light in the Tornado - #7039
Thursday, January 2, 2014
It was November, and we were thinking turkey, not tornadoes. Right before Thanksgiving there were some 68 tornadoes that didn't consult the calendar. From EF-2s to EF-4s, they left a swath of erased homes and devastated communities across the middle of America. Washington, Illinois was clearly one of the epicenters of the violence from the skies. And the pictures from there are all too familiar; splintered neighborhoods, and residents trying to figure out which pile of rubble used to be their home, and what one reporter called "the good stuff." Like Steve Bucher, who has no home address as of the night the tornado hit. He told CNN that his attitude was "in the next minute and a half, we're either gonna be in heaven or we're going to be in the hospital, or we're going to walk out of here." Thankfully, they walked out safe. But minus pretty much everything else they had.
His next comment caused an anchorman to say, "Now that's character. That's strength." Bucher said his wallet - with about a hundred dollars in it - had been upstairs when the twister hit. He knew it was gone. Later, a man came by and saw Bucher sifting through the rubble. When he asked if there was anything he could help look for, he said, "Well, yeah. The wallet." Which the neighbor managed to find! Bucher said when he opened it, he knew "God has a sense of humor." There was one dollar left in his wallet! He said, "The Lord left me one dollar!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Light in the Tornado."
Believe it or not, he saw a message in that missing money: that the material stuff isn't what's important. It's the people; the lives and the faith that sustains them. There's something about a storm, whether it's meteorological or medical, or marital, or money that revalues everything.
When the drunk driver totaled our car and almost our family, when a sudden medical emergency almost took a loved one, when there was no money, I realized again that life is ultimately two lists: the things that really matter and the things that really don't. There can be "good stuff" in the bad stuff. If the loss of some "earth stuff" that ultimately doesn't really matter can cause us to "re-treasure" the lives that really do matter. Because our lists get mixed up, with the less important migrating to that "important" column and pushing out what really lasts.
Of course, sometimes the storm takes one of our human treasures. A deep grief that a few were feeling in those tornado tracks that day - and so many were feeling in the wake of the Philippines typhoon recently. I've been by the side of those who've said goodbye to someone they love. I've been the one saying goodbye. But even there, you can recommit your heart and your time to those you have left. Having lost, you realize anew the "preciousness" of the ones you still have. Having grieved, you can offer yourself to be a channel of comfort to others who grieve. Having stood at the edge of this life, you can choose to live for what will matter beyond it.
The faith and resilience of tornado and typhoon survivors brought me back to the first Thanksgiving actually. H. U. Westermayer observed: "The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these, who, nevertheless, set aside a day of Thanksgiving."
Giving thanks in the rubble. "Now that's character. That's strength." It's obvious from that survivor's comments where a lot of that strength comes from. With an EF-4 monster bearing down on his house, he knew that if he died he was "gonna be in heaven" he said. I suppose that could be seen as a wishful hope or spiritually arrogant. But I'm familiar with that kind of confidence about my life after my death. Not some fingers-crossed hope, and certainly nothing based on me being good enough for a perfect God.
No, I'm only ready to face death's storm for one reason, and in a word, that's Jesus, because He died to remove what would keep me from God's heaven. The Bible says, "Nothing impure will ever enter" heaven (Revelation 21:27). That's me. That's all of us, because the Bible says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
I can't get into heaven with my sin. And "no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law" the Bible says (Romans 3:20). There's nothing I can do that will get rid of my sin. But there was something Jesus could do. And He did. The Bible says, "When we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). He erases our sins from His book. They will not be there on Judgment Day.
And He walked out of His grave to prove He can give eternal life. And in our word for today from the Word of God, in 1 John 5:12 it says, "He who has the Son has life." Do you have the Son? Have you begun your personal relationship with Him? If you're not sure you're going to heaven when your moment comes, would you join me today at ANewStory.com? If you're ready to live, be ready to die.
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Revelation 2, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: The Truth About Life
Hair transplants, surgery, color in a bottle. All to hide what everyone already knows—we’re getting older.
If you ever want to stall a conversation at a party just say, “How’re you feeling about your approaching death?” It won’t put much life into the conversation.
I have a friend who has cancer. He’s in remission. A nurse unaware of his condition was asking a question for his medical record. “Are you presently ill?” “Well yes, I have cancer,” he said. She looked at him and asked, “Are you terminal?” He responded, “Yes, aren’t we all?”
You’d think we weren’t, the way the subject is kept hush-hush. Jesus does His best work at such moments. Just when the truth about life sinks in, His truth starts to surface.
The next time you find yourself facing the undeniables of life, whisper His name. He is nearer than you think!
From God Came Near
Revelation 2
To the Church in Ephesus
2 “To the angel[a] of the church in Ephesus write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. 2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. 5 Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. 6 But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
7 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
To the Church in Smyrna
8 “To the angel of the church in Smyrna write:
These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. 9 I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10 Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.
11 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.
To the Church in Pergamum
12 “To the angel of the church in Pergamum write:
These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. 13 I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives.
14 Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality. 15 Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
17 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.
To the Church in Thyatira
18 “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:
These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. 19 I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.
20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. 21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22 So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23 I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.
24 Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, 25 except to hold on to what you have until I come.’
26 To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— 27 that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’[b]—just as I have received authority from my Father. 28 I will also give that one the morning star. 29 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Footnotes:
Revelation 2:1 Or messenger; also in verses 8, 12 and 18
Revelation 2:27 Psalm 2:9
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Psalm 136:1-16,26
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
His love endures forever.
2 Give thanks to the God of gods.
His love endures forever.
3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords:
His love endures forever.
4 to him who alone does great wonders,
His love endures forever.
5 who by his understanding made the heavens,
His love endures forever.
6 who spread out the earth upon the waters,
His love endures forever.
7 who made the great lights—
His love endures forever.
8 the sun to govern the day,
His love endures forever.
9 the moon and stars to govern the night;
His love endures forever.
10 to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt
His love endures forever.
11 and brought Israel out from among them
His love endures forever.
12 with a mighty hand and outstretched arm;
His love endures forever.
13 to him who divided the Red Sea[a] asunder
His love endures forever.
14 and brought Israel through the midst of it,
His love endures forever.
15 but swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea;
His love endures forever.
16 to him who led his people through the wilderness;
His love endures forever.
Footnotes:
Psalm 136:13 Or the Sea of Reeds; also in verse 15
26 Give thanks to the God of heaven.
His love endures forever.
31 Days Of Thanks
January 1, 2014 — by Dave Branon
Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords! —Psalm 136:3
January, according to many US calendars, is National Thank You Month. This, of course, is easily transferable everywhere, so perhaps it should be Global Thank You Month.
In order to make the best use of this celebration of gratitude, let’s begin by seeing what Scripture says about thankfulness.
One place to start is Psalm 136, which begins and ends with the words, “Oh, give thanks” (vv.1,26). Again and again in this chapter we are reminded of a single, overriding reason to bestow our gratitude on our great God: “His mercy endures forever.” We could spend the whole month learning about gratitude from Psalm 136.
The psalmist reminds us of God’s “great wonders” (v.4). He tells us of God’s creative work brought on by His wisdom (v.5). He moves on to rehearse the great exodus of His people (vv.10-22). As we think through these pictures of creation and deliverance found in Psalm 136, we can easily find something to thank God for every day of this Thank You Month.
What better way to start off a new year than to concentrate on conveying gratitude to our Lord! “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever” (v.1).
How good it is to thank the Lord,
And praise to Thee, Most High, accord,
To show Thy love with morning light,
And tell Thy faithfulness each night! —Psalter
When you think of all that’s good, give thanks to God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
January 1, 2014
Let Us Keep to the Point
". . . my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death" —Philippians 1:20
My Utmost for His Highest. “. . . my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed . . . .” We will all feel very much ashamed if we do not yield to Jesus the areas of our lives He has asked us to yield to Him. It’s as if Paul were saying, “My determined purpose is to be my utmost for His highest— my best for His glory.” To reach that level of determination is a matter of the will, not of debate or of reasoning. It is absolute and irrevocable surrender of the will at that point. An undue amount of thought and consideration for ourselves is what keeps us from making that decision, although we cover it up with the pretense that it is others we are considering. When we think seriously about what it will cost others if we obey the call of Jesus, we tell God He doesn’t know what our obedience will mean. Keep to the point— He does know. Shut out every other thought and keep yourself before God in this one thing only— my utmost for His highest. I am determined to be absolutely and entirely for Him and Him alone.
My Unstoppable Determination for His Holiness. “Whether it means life or death-it makes no difference!” (see Philippians 1:21). Paul was determined that nothing would stop him from doing exactly what God wanted. But before we choose to follow God’s will, a crisis must develop in our lives. This happens because we tend to be unresponsive to God’s gentler nudges. He brings us to the place where He asks us to be our utmost for Him and we begin to debate. He then providentially produces a crisis where we have to decide— for or against. That moment becomes a great crossroads in our lives. If a crisis has come to you on any front, surrender your will to Jesus absolutely and irrevocably.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Running Hard in the Wrong Direction - #7038
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
I guess every athlete would like to do something immortal; you know, something that will be remembered for a long time. Well, Roy Riegels did it - in a way. He played center in the 1929 Rose Bowl game in Pasadena, California. No, I was not there! But, the game was almost over, the score was really close, and both teams knew that any score could well decide the game. And then on one play, Roy Riegels suddenly found himself with a ball in his hands. Now, centers only know what to do with the ball when they're snapping it to the quarterback. But Roy Riegels had it whether he liked it or not.
He started running as fast as he could, or at least as fast as a center can go, right for the goal line. He glanced back over his shoulder and he saw a very strange sight. He was being frantically pursued by his own teammates. See, his instincts told him to just keep running, and he did till he was tackled just short of the goal by one of his own teammates. See, Roy Riegels was running toward the other team's goal! Yeah, and shortly the other team went on to score and win the game. And he did achieve athletic immortality. He went down in football history as Wrong Way Riegels.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Running Hard in the Wrong Direction."
That was that center's mistake. He was running as hard as he could; it just didn't count. Someone listening right now may be making that same mistake. Our word for today from the Word of God is from Matthew 6:32-33 . Jesus has just been talking about a lot of the concerns that occupy our everyday lives; having enough for our basic necessities, our body, our appearance, all the earth stuff. And He says, "The pagans run after all these things." Well, those who think that earth is all there is? Well, of course, they're chasing after all the earth stuff they can get.
But He goes on to say, "And your Heavenly Father knows that you need them." Message: You don't need to pursue those things. You need to trust your Heavenly Father for them. He'll take care of them. Then Jesus goes on to say, "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given you as well."
Message: Put your best energy into the things that matter to God that will matter in eternity; the interests, the agenda of the work of God on earth, a lifestyle that majors on doing the right thing.
Now, we're wired to be runners. We're wired to be people who run hard toward a goal, but it's supposed to be an eternal goal. The problem is some of us are running hard, but we're running in the wrong direction. After all our hard running is done, it will turn out to be for a goal that just didn't count.
It may be that you've been running so hard that you haven't thought about whether the goal was really worth it. Maybe the goal that gets the most of you is job advancement, or more money, or it could be that you're running very hard to please a certain group of people, or to have some security, or to get a boyfriend or a girlfriend, to get a husband or a wife, or to own something you really want. But after all is said and done, it is earth stuff; stuff the Lord wants to give you if and when it's best for you. But could it be that some earth stuff has become the central pursuit of your life? See, that's not what you were created to pursue.
And as we enter into a brand new year right now, it might be a good gut check to see, if in fact, you're running for the things that will last. Right now Jesus is pursuing you; trying to intercept you maybe as you're running toward a goal that doesn't count. He's trying to get you turned around, running in the right direction to "seek first His kingdom."
He doesn't want the epitaph that goes with your name to be those two hollow words - wrong way.
Hair transplants, surgery, color in a bottle. All to hide what everyone already knows—we’re getting older.
If you ever want to stall a conversation at a party just say, “How’re you feeling about your approaching death?” It won’t put much life into the conversation.
I have a friend who has cancer. He’s in remission. A nurse unaware of his condition was asking a question for his medical record. “Are you presently ill?” “Well yes, I have cancer,” he said. She looked at him and asked, “Are you terminal?” He responded, “Yes, aren’t we all?”
You’d think we weren’t, the way the subject is kept hush-hush. Jesus does His best work at such moments. Just when the truth about life sinks in, His truth starts to surface.
The next time you find yourself facing the undeniables of life, whisper His name. He is nearer than you think!
From God Came Near
Revelation 2
To the Church in Ephesus
2 “To the angel[a] of the church in Ephesus write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. 2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. 5 Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. 6 But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
7 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
To the Church in Smyrna
8 “To the angel of the church in Smyrna write:
These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. 9 I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10 Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.
11 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.
To the Church in Pergamum
12 “To the angel of the church in Pergamum write:
These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. 13 I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives.
14 Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality. 15 Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
17 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.
To the Church in Thyatira
18 “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:
These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. 19 I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.
20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. 21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22 So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23 I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.
24 Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, 25 except to hold on to what you have until I come.’
26 To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— 27 that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’[b]—just as I have received authority from my Father. 28 I will also give that one the morning star. 29 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Footnotes:
Revelation 2:1 Or messenger; also in verses 8, 12 and 18
Revelation 2:27 Psalm 2:9
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Psalm 136:1-16,26
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
His love endures forever.
2 Give thanks to the God of gods.
His love endures forever.
3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords:
His love endures forever.
4 to him who alone does great wonders,
His love endures forever.
5 who by his understanding made the heavens,
His love endures forever.
6 who spread out the earth upon the waters,
His love endures forever.
7 who made the great lights—
His love endures forever.
8 the sun to govern the day,
His love endures forever.
9 the moon and stars to govern the night;
His love endures forever.
10 to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt
His love endures forever.
11 and brought Israel out from among them
His love endures forever.
12 with a mighty hand and outstretched arm;
His love endures forever.
13 to him who divided the Red Sea[a] asunder
His love endures forever.
14 and brought Israel through the midst of it,
His love endures forever.
15 but swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea;
His love endures forever.
16 to him who led his people through the wilderness;
His love endures forever.
Footnotes:
Psalm 136:13 Or the Sea of Reeds; also in verse 15
26 Give thanks to the God of heaven.
His love endures forever.
31 Days Of Thanks
January 1, 2014 — by Dave Branon
Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords! —Psalm 136:3
January, according to many US calendars, is National Thank You Month. This, of course, is easily transferable everywhere, so perhaps it should be Global Thank You Month.
In order to make the best use of this celebration of gratitude, let’s begin by seeing what Scripture says about thankfulness.
One place to start is Psalm 136, which begins and ends with the words, “Oh, give thanks” (vv.1,26). Again and again in this chapter we are reminded of a single, overriding reason to bestow our gratitude on our great God: “His mercy endures forever.” We could spend the whole month learning about gratitude from Psalm 136.
The psalmist reminds us of God’s “great wonders” (v.4). He tells us of God’s creative work brought on by His wisdom (v.5). He moves on to rehearse the great exodus of His people (vv.10-22). As we think through these pictures of creation and deliverance found in Psalm 136, we can easily find something to thank God for every day of this Thank You Month.
What better way to start off a new year than to concentrate on conveying gratitude to our Lord! “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever” (v.1).
How good it is to thank the Lord,
And praise to Thee, Most High, accord,
To show Thy love with morning light,
And tell Thy faithfulness each night! —Psalter
When you think of all that’s good, give thanks to God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
January 1, 2014
Let Us Keep to the Point
". . . my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death" —Philippians 1:20
My Utmost for His Highest. “. . . my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed . . . .” We will all feel very much ashamed if we do not yield to Jesus the areas of our lives He has asked us to yield to Him. It’s as if Paul were saying, “My determined purpose is to be my utmost for His highest— my best for His glory.” To reach that level of determination is a matter of the will, not of debate or of reasoning. It is absolute and irrevocable surrender of the will at that point. An undue amount of thought and consideration for ourselves is what keeps us from making that decision, although we cover it up with the pretense that it is others we are considering. When we think seriously about what it will cost others if we obey the call of Jesus, we tell God He doesn’t know what our obedience will mean. Keep to the point— He does know. Shut out every other thought and keep yourself before God in this one thing only— my utmost for His highest. I am determined to be absolutely and entirely for Him and Him alone.
My Unstoppable Determination for His Holiness. “Whether it means life or death-it makes no difference!” (see Philippians 1:21). Paul was determined that nothing would stop him from doing exactly what God wanted. But before we choose to follow God’s will, a crisis must develop in our lives. This happens because we tend to be unresponsive to God’s gentler nudges. He brings us to the place where He asks us to be our utmost for Him and we begin to debate. He then providentially produces a crisis where we have to decide— for or against. That moment becomes a great crossroads in our lives. If a crisis has come to you on any front, surrender your will to Jesus absolutely and irrevocably.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Running Hard in the Wrong Direction - #7038
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
I guess every athlete would like to do something immortal; you know, something that will be remembered for a long time. Well, Roy Riegels did it - in a way. He played center in the 1929 Rose Bowl game in Pasadena, California. No, I was not there! But, the game was almost over, the score was really close, and both teams knew that any score could well decide the game. And then on one play, Roy Riegels suddenly found himself with a ball in his hands. Now, centers only know what to do with the ball when they're snapping it to the quarterback. But Roy Riegels had it whether he liked it or not.
He started running as fast as he could, or at least as fast as a center can go, right for the goal line. He glanced back over his shoulder and he saw a very strange sight. He was being frantically pursued by his own teammates. See, his instincts told him to just keep running, and he did till he was tackled just short of the goal by one of his own teammates. See, Roy Riegels was running toward the other team's goal! Yeah, and shortly the other team went on to score and win the game. And he did achieve athletic immortality. He went down in football history as Wrong Way Riegels.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Running Hard in the Wrong Direction."
That was that center's mistake. He was running as hard as he could; it just didn't count. Someone listening right now may be making that same mistake. Our word for today from the Word of God is from Matthew 6:32-33 . Jesus has just been talking about a lot of the concerns that occupy our everyday lives; having enough for our basic necessities, our body, our appearance, all the earth stuff. And He says, "The pagans run after all these things." Well, those who think that earth is all there is? Well, of course, they're chasing after all the earth stuff they can get.
But He goes on to say, "And your Heavenly Father knows that you need them." Message: You don't need to pursue those things. You need to trust your Heavenly Father for them. He'll take care of them. Then Jesus goes on to say, "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given you as well."
Message: Put your best energy into the things that matter to God that will matter in eternity; the interests, the agenda of the work of God on earth, a lifestyle that majors on doing the right thing.
Now, we're wired to be runners. We're wired to be people who run hard toward a goal, but it's supposed to be an eternal goal. The problem is some of us are running hard, but we're running in the wrong direction. After all our hard running is done, it will turn out to be for a goal that just didn't count.
It may be that you've been running so hard that you haven't thought about whether the goal was really worth it. Maybe the goal that gets the most of you is job advancement, or more money, or it could be that you're running very hard to please a certain group of people, or to have some security, or to get a boyfriend or a girlfriend, to get a husband or a wife, or to own something you really want. But after all is said and done, it is earth stuff; stuff the Lord wants to give you if and when it's best for you. But could it be that some earth stuff has become the central pursuit of your life? See, that's not what you were created to pursue.
And as we enter into a brand new year right now, it might be a good gut check to see, if in fact, you're running for the things that will last. Right now Jesus is pursuing you; trying to intercept you maybe as you're running toward a goal that doesn't count. He's trying to get you turned around, running in the right direction to "seek first His kingdom."
He doesn't want the epitaph that goes with your name to be those two hollow words - wrong way.
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Zechariah 12 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: No Harm Done
Insensitivity makes a wound that heals slowly!
Words like, "Whoa-she's put on some weight!" Or a question carelessly asked, "Trish, is it true you and Brian are separated?"
If you were to tell the one who threw these thoughtless darts about the pain they caused, the response would be, "Oh, but I had no intention. . . it was just a slip of the tongue." No one's at fault. No harm done.
But as the innocent attackers go on their way excusing themselves, a wounded soul is left in the dust. God says, "He who guards his lips guards his life, but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin" (Proverbs 13:3).
The message is clear. Excuses are shallow when they come from those who claim to be followers and imitators of God. Insensitive slurs may be accidental-but they're not excusable!
From God Came Near
Zechariah 12
Jerusalem’s Enemies to Be Destroyed
A prophecy: The word of the Lord concerning Israel.
The Lord, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the human spirit within a person, declares: 2 “I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. 3 On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves. 4 On that day I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness,” declares the Lord. “I will keep a watchful eye over Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations. 5 Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the Lord Almighty is their God.’
6 “On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume all the surrounding peoples right and left, but Jerusalem will remain intact in her place.
7 “The Lord will save the dwellings of Judah first, so that the honor of the house of David and of Jerusalem’s inhabitants may not be greater than that of Judah. 8 On that day the Lord will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the Lord going before them. 9 On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.
Mourning for the One They Pierced
10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit[a] of grace and supplication. They will look on[b] me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. 11 On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be as great as the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 The land will mourn, each clan by itself, with their wives by themselves: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, 13 the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, 14 and all the rest of the clans and their wives.
Footnotes:
Zechariah 12:10 Or the Spirit
Zechariah 12:10 Or to
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Romans 8:31-39
More Than Conquerors
31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”[a]
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[b] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Footnotes:
Romans 8:36 Psalm 44:22
Romans 8:38 Or nor heavenly rulers
In His Grip
December 31, 2013 — by David H. Roper
I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. —Philippians 3:12
When we cross a busy street with small children in tow, we put out our hand and say, “Hold on tight,” and our little ones grasp our hand as tightly as they can. But we would never depend on their grasp. It is our grip on their hand that holds them and keeps them secure. So Paul insists, “Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me” (Phil. 3:12). Or more exactly, “Christ has a grip on me!”
One thing is certain: It is not our grip on God that keeps us safe, but the power of Jesus’ grasp. No one can take us out of His grasp—not the devil, not even ourselves. Once we’re in His hands, He will not let go.
We have this assurance: “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand” (John 10:28-29).
Doubly safe: Our Father on one side and our Lord and Savior on the other, clasping us in a viselike grip. These are the hands that shaped the mountains and oceans and flung the stars into space. Nothing in this life or the next “shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:39).
Father, I thank You for the nail-pierced hands
that reached out in love and took me by my hand.
You have led me by Your right hand throughout life.
I trust You to hold me and keep me safe to the end.
The One who saved us is the One who keeps us.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 31, 2013
Yesterday
You shall not go out with haste, . . . for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard —Isaiah 52:12
Security from Yesterday. “. . . God requires an account of what is past” (Ecclesiastes 3:15). At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise when we remember our yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace tends to be lessened by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future. God reminds us of the past to protect us from a very shallow security in the present.
Security for Tomorrow. “. . . the Lord will go before you . . . .” This is a gracious revelation— that God will send His forces out where we have failed to do so. He will keep watch so that we will not be tripped up again by the same failures, as would undoubtedly happen if He were not our “rear guard.” And God’s hand reaches back to the past, settling all the claims against our conscience.
Security for Today. “You shall not go out with haste . . . .” As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, forgetful delight, nor with the quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ.
Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
More-Itis - #7037
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
My son and I were trying to remember those basic food groups the other day. And we decided that there's one more than we learned in school. Haven't they added junk food as a basic food group? The problem with all that stuff, you know, the chips, candies, and cookies. They're habit forming! A long time ago, before you could actually skip the commercials, there was one that showed a well-known comedian reaching into a bag for one chip, then he got another and another. And he finally says, "You can't eat just one."
Frankly, I can eat just one of those chips, but just don't put a bag of chocolate covered peanuts in front of me. I'll eat the bag too. My desire for just one, "Sure, I'll have just one right now. I'll save the rest for later. I'll spread them over several days." Then I'll spread them over my body permanently, because my desire for one leads to one more and one more. Don't be too quick to judge me. I'll bet you have your weakness too. You know, you get a little, and you can never get enough.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "More-Itis."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Philippians 4. You need to remember that Paul writes this from a prison cell, chained to a Roman guard. "I am not saying this (He says) because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength."
Some missionary friends of ours were recently asked to house sit for some friends of theirs, and they're having a great time. It's a refreshing change to be out of their apartment for a week and they're enjoying a well-furnished home. I said to them, "Hey, don't get spoiled." They said, "I'm afraid we will." I said, "Did you ever notice when God gives us a special gift, it's hard to just enjoy it and then move on. We want more." Like those chips; we can't have just one.
Paul's attitude is one of wonderful emotional freedom. He sees God as his provider, his trainer, and he's learned the secret of personal peace. It's called contentment. Someone has said that contentment is not getting everything you always wanted; it's realizing how much you already have. You know, that's a good thing to think about on the edge of a brand new year isn't it?
Unfortunately you and I are easily afflicted with that growing restlessness I call "more-itis". We get a little; we've got to have more. God answers your prayer or just surprises you with some material goodies, and instead of gratitude we move to grabitude-I've got to grab more of this. He gives you that opportunity you always wanted. Briefly celebrate it, and then we're hankering for another opportunity-a bigger one. God gives us a little more house, a little more money, or a car. And instead of feeding our contentment, it fuels the monster of more.
What more has you restless today: Got to have more recognition, more glory, more money, more position, more people? Why can't we just say, "Thank you for the gift" and leave it there? Our eyes always seem to be on what we don't have. You have so much more than your Master did. So do I.
The contented child of God doesn't compare, doesn't compete, and doesn't complain. Contentment simply trusts God to give the gifts as you need them and then to trust Him in between gifts. So, celebrate today and each gift that God gave you yesterday, and then be glad for what's already in your hand.
Let God turn your appetite for more into contentment with enough, and it will be a much happier new year.
Insensitivity makes a wound that heals slowly!
Words like, "Whoa-she's put on some weight!" Or a question carelessly asked, "Trish, is it true you and Brian are separated?"
If you were to tell the one who threw these thoughtless darts about the pain they caused, the response would be, "Oh, but I had no intention. . . it was just a slip of the tongue." No one's at fault. No harm done.
But as the innocent attackers go on their way excusing themselves, a wounded soul is left in the dust. God says, "He who guards his lips guards his life, but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin" (Proverbs 13:3).
The message is clear. Excuses are shallow when they come from those who claim to be followers and imitators of God. Insensitive slurs may be accidental-but they're not excusable!
From God Came Near
Zechariah 12
Jerusalem’s Enemies to Be Destroyed
A prophecy: The word of the Lord concerning Israel.
The Lord, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the human spirit within a person, declares: 2 “I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. 3 On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves. 4 On that day I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness,” declares the Lord. “I will keep a watchful eye over Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations. 5 Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the Lord Almighty is their God.’
6 “On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume all the surrounding peoples right and left, but Jerusalem will remain intact in her place.
7 “The Lord will save the dwellings of Judah first, so that the honor of the house of David and of Jerusalem’s inhabitants may not be greater than that of Judah. 8 On that day the Lord will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the Lord going before them. 9 On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.
Mourning for the One They Pierced
10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit[a] of grace and supplication. They will look on[b] me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. 11 On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be as great as the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 The land will mourn, each clan by itself, with their wives by themselves: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, 13 the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, 14 and all the rest of the clans and their wives.
Footnotes:
Zechariah 12:10 Or the Spirit
Zechariah 12:10 Or to
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Romans 8:31-39
More Than Conquerors
31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”[a]
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[b] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Footnotes:
Romans 8:36 Psalm 44:22
Romans 8:38 Or nor heavenly rulers
In His Grip
December 31, 2013 — by David H. Roper
I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. —Philippians 3:12
When we cross a busy street with small children in tow, we put out our hand and say, “Hold on tight,” and our little ones grasp our hand as tightly as they can. But we would never depend on their grasp. It is our grip on their hand that holds them and keeps them secure. So Paul insists, “Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me” (Phil. 3:12). Or more exactly, “Christ has a grip on me!”
One thing is certain: It is not our grip on God that keeps us safe, but the power of Jesus’ grasp. No one can take us out of His grasp—not the devil, not even ourselves. Once we’re in His hands, He will not let go.
We have this assurance: “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand” (John 10:28-29).
Doubly safe: Our Father on one side and our Lord and Savior on the other, clasping us in a viselike grip. These are the hands that shaped the mountains and oceans and flung the stars into space. Nothing in this life or the next “shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:39).
Father, I thank You for the nail-pierced hands
that reached out in love and took me by my hand.
You have led me by Your right hand throughout life.
I trust You to hold me and keep me safe to the end.
The One who saved us is the One who keeps us.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 31, 2013
Yesterday
You shall not go out with haste, . . . for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard —Isaiah 52:12
Security from Yesterday. “. . . God requires an account of what is past” (Ecclesiastes 3:15). At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise when we remember our yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace tends to be lessened by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future. God reminds us of the past to protect us from a very shallow security in the present.
Security for Tomorrow. “. . . the Lord will go before you . . . .” This is a gracious revelation— that God will send His forces out where we have failed to do so. He will keep watch so that we will not be tripped up again by the same failures, as would undoubtedly happen if He were not our “rear guard.” And God’s hand reaches back to the past, settling all the claims against our conscience.
Security for Today. “You shall not go out with haste . . . .” As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, forgetful delight, nor with the quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ.
Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
More-Itis - #7037
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
My son and I were trying to remember those basic food groups the other day. And we decided that there's one more than we learned in school. Haven't they added junk food as a basic food group? The problem with all that stuff, you know, the chips, candies, and cookies. They're habit forming! A long time ago, before you could actually skip the commercials, there was one that showed a well-known comedian reaching into a bag for one chip, then he got another and another. And he finally says, "You can't eat just one."
Frankly, I can eat just one of those chips, but just don't put a bag of chocolate covered peanuts in front of me. I'll eat the bag too. My desire for just one, "Sure, I'll have just one right now. I'll save the rest for later. I'll spread them over several days." Then I'll spread them over my body permanently, because my desire for one leads to one more and one more. Don't be too quick to judge me. I'll bet you have your weakness too. You know, you get a little, and you can never get enough.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "More-Itis."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Philippians 4. You need to remember that Paul writes this from a prison cell, chained to a Roman guard. "I am not saying this (He says) because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength."
Some missionary friends of ours were recently asked to house sit for some friends of theirs, and they're having a great time. It's a refreshing change to be out of their apartment for a week and they're enjoying a well-furnished home. I said to them, "Hey, don't get spoiled." They said, "I'm afraid we will." I said, "Did you ever notice when God gives us a special gift, it's hard to just enjoy it and then move on. We want more." Like those chips; we can't have just one.
Paul's attitude is one of wonderful emotional freedom. He sees God as his provider, his trainer, and he's learned the secret of personal peace. It's called contentment. Someone has said that contentment is not getting everything you always wanted; it's realizing how much you already have. You know, that's a good thing to think about on the edge of a brand new year isn't it?
Unfortunately you and I are easily afflicted with that growing restlessness I call "more-itis". We get a little; we've got to have more. God answers your prayer or just surprises you with some material goodies, and instead of gratitude we move to grabitude-I've got to grab more of this. He gives you that opportunity you always wanted. Briefly celebrate it, and then we're hankering for another opportunity-a bigger one. God gives us a little more house, a little more money, or a car. And instead of feeding our contentment, it fuels the monster of more.
What more has you restless today: Got to have more recognition, more glory, more money, more position, more people? Why can't we just say, "Thank you for the gift" and leave it there? Our eyes always seem to be on what we don't have. You have so much more than your Master did. So do I.
The contented child of God doesn't compare, doesn't compete, and doesn't complain. Contentment simply trusts God to give the gifts as you need them and then to trust Him in between gifts. So, celebrate today and each gift that God gave you yesterday, and then be glad for what's already in your hand.
Let God turn your appetite for more into contentment with enough, and it will be a much happier new year.
Monday, December 30, 2013
Zechariah 11, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Reliable
Reliable! Liable means responsible. Re means over and over again.
I’m wondering if someone’s listening who’s a saint of re-liability? If you are, I can’t resist the chance to say two things. The first? Thank you!
Thank you teachers for the countless Sunday school lessons prepared and delivered with tenderness. Thank you senior saints for a generation of prayer. Thank you missionaries for your bravery in sharing the timeless truth. Thank you preachers. You thought we weren’t listening, but we were.
Thanks to all of you who practice on Monday what you hear on Sunday. It’s on the back of your fidelity that the Gospel rides. You are reliable! You get the job done.
I said I had two things to say. What’s the second? Keep pitching! Your Hall of Fame award is just around the corner.
From God Came Near
Zechariah 11
Open your doors, Lebanon,
so that fire may devour your cedars!
2 Wail, you juniper, for the cedar has fallen;
the stately trees are ruined!
Wail, oaks of Bashan;
the dense forest has been cut down!
3 Listen to the wail of the shepherds;
their rich pastures are destroyed!
Listen to the roar of the lions;
the lush thicket of the Jordan is ruined!
Two Shepherds
4 This is what the Lord my God says: “Shepherd the flock marked for slaughter. 5 Their buyers slaughter them and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, ‘Praise the Lord, I am rich!’ Their own shepherds do not spare them. 6 For I will no longer have pity on the people of the land,” declares the Lord. “I will give everyone into the hands of their neighbors and their king. They will devastate the land, and I will not rescue anyone from their hands.”
7 So I shepherded the flock marked for slaughter, particularly the oppressed of the flock. Then I took two staffs and called one Favor and the other Union, and I shepherded the flock. 8 In one month I got rid of the three shepherds.
The flock detested me, and I grew weary of them 9 and said, “I will not be your shepherd. Let the dying die, and the perishing perish. Let those who are left eat one another’s flesh.”
10 Then I took my staff called Favor and broke it, revoking the covenant I had made with all the nations. 11 It was revoked on that day, and so the oppressed of the flock who were watching me knew it was the word of the Lord.
12 I told them, “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver.
13 And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the handsome price at which they valued me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the house of the Lord.
14 Then I broke my second staff called Union, breaking the family bond between Judah and Israel.
15 Then the Lord said to me, “Take again the equipment of a foolish shepherd. 16 For I am going to raise up a shepherd over the land who will not care for the lost, or seek the young, or heal the injured, or feed the healthy, but will eat the meat of the choice sheep, tearing off their hooves.
17 “Woe to the worthless shepherd,
who deserts the flock!
May the sword strike his arm and his right eye!
May his arm be completely withered,
his right eye totally blinded!”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
A New Heaven and a New Earth
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”[a] for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’[b] or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.
Footnotes:
Revelation 21:1 Isaiah 65:17
Revelation 21:4 Isaiah 25:8
Mixed Emotions
December 30, 2013 — by Bill Crowder
Even in laughter the heart may sorrow, and the end of mirth may be grief. —Proverbs 14:13
For Marlene and me, “mixed emotions” precisely describes our wedding. Don’t take that the wrong way. It was a wonderful event that we continue to celebrate more than 35 years later. The wedding celebration, however, was dampened because Marlene’s mom died of cancer just weeks before. Marlene’s aunt was a wonderful stand-in as the “mother of the bride,” but, in the midst of our happiness, something clearly wasn’t right. Mom was missing, and that affected everything.
That experience typifies life in a broken world. Our experiences here are a mixed bag of good and bad, joy and pain—a reality that Solomon expressed when he wrote, “Even in laughter the heart may sorrow, and the end of mirth may be grief” (Prov. 14:13). The merry heart often does grieve, for that is what this life sometimes demands.
Thankfully, however, this life is not all there is. And in the life that is to come, those who know Christ have a promise: “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4). In that great day, there will be no mixed emotions—only hearts filled with the presence of God!
Peace! peace! wonderful peace,
Coming down from the Father above,
Sweep over my spirit forever, I pray,
In fathomless billows of love. —Cornell
For the Christian, the dark sorrows of earth will one day be changed into the bright songs of heaven.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 30, 2013
“And Every Virtue We Possess”
. . . All my springs are in you —Psalm 87:7
Our Lord never “patches up” our natural virtues, that is, our natural traits, qualities, or characteristics. He completely remakes a person on the inside— “. . . put on the new man . . .” (Ephesians 4:24). In other words, see that your natural human life is putting on all that is in keeping with the new life. The life God places within us develops its own new virtues, not the virtues of the seed of Adam, but of Jesus Christ. Once God has begun the process of sanctification in your life, watch and see how God causes your confidence in your own natural virtues and power to wither away. He will continue until you learn to draw your life from the reservoir of the resurrection life of Jesus. Thank God if you are going through this drying-up experience!
The sign that God is at work in us is that He is destroying our confidence in the natural virtues, because they are not promises of what we are going to be, but only a wasted reminder of what God created man to be. We want to cling to our natural virtues, while all the time God is trying to get us in contact with the life of Jesus Christ— a life that can never be described in terms of natural virtues. It is the saddest thing to see people who are trying to serve God depending on that which the grace of God never gave them. They are depending solely on what they have by virtue of heredity. God does not take our natural virtues and transform them, because our natural virtues could never even come close to what Jesus Christ wants. No natural love, no natural patience, no natural purity can ever come up to His demands. But as we bring every part of our natural bodily life into harmony with the new life God has placed within us, He will exhibit in us the virtues that were characteristic of the Lord Jesus.
And every virtue we possess
Is His alone.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Everything's Moving - #7036
Monday, December 30, 2013
It's a good thing our oldest son could outrun his sister when they were kids, especially after one of our "earthquake drills." Oh, the earth wasn't really shaking. It started after we returned from a trip to California where we heard a lot about earthquakes. So - for no intelligent reason I can think of - I would occasionally yell randomly, "Earthquake drill!" And the ensuing script went something like this. Brother would run to his sister and hold her tightly. Father: "What are you doing, son?" Brother: "You said if there was an earthquake, we should hang onto something heavy!" This is when speed saved his young life.
Actually, that is pretty good advice when things are moving that never moved before. Hang onto something heavy.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Everything's Moving."
Lately, I've been getting that shifting landscape feeling a lot. Believers feeling comfortable watching things they would have never watched ten years ago; accepting behaviors and ideas that would have been unthinkable only a short time ago. Feeling free to wear less and show more. Letting their kids do what the culture calls cool; dissolving marriages that were, until recently, thought to be something that "no man" should "put asunder." And all this among growing questions about what marriage even is. Yes, the ground's been moving under our feet a lot lately, and it's more important than ever to "hang onto something heavy."
God's not surprised by all this. He described the tectonic shifts that would happen as human history was winding down and the return of His Son was approaching. In 2 Timothy 4:3-4 He says, "For the time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths."
There's a phenomenon at work here that I call the equal distance syndrome. There's always an equal distance between what the culture accepts and what Christians accept. And that distance can make church folks feel like they're doing pretty well morally compared to everyone else.
Problem: as the culture moves, believers move with it. So, we end up being where folks without the Manufacturer's instructions were just a few years ago. Still different, but drifting inexorably away from the unmoving standards of Almighty God. The culture moves. The polls move. Public opinion moves. God's people move. God doesn't.
In that same Bible passage that foretold the moral drift from the truth, God directs us to hang onto something heavy. So heavy, and so true that it is forever anchored in place. Our word for today from the Word of God, 2 Timothy 3:14-15 , "They will be deceived, but you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true. You have been taught the Holy Scriptures from childhood. All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives."
No opinion poll, no majority vote, no societal shift can change God's mind or God's Word. His word on every moral issue is final - non-negotiable and the only way to make life work. To live as we're wired by our Creator to live, to avoid emotional and spiritual disaster, and to avoid the judgment of the God who drew the boundaries that we feel so free to question.
There's a classic story about a ship captain who realizes there's a light out there in the fog, and whatever's out there is on a collision course with his vessel. He radios that they need to adjust their course. A voice comes back telling him to adjust his. The captain again orders the man on the other end to change course, this time reminding him he's a captain. Only to be answered by a "seaman second class" demanding that the captain change course. Then came the final exchange. "I'm a battleship! Change course now." "I'm a lighthouse. Change your course."
The Lighthouse of God's Word won't be moving. It's there to show us where it's safe and to keep us from going down. Our drift from that Light leads to one destination - the rocks.
Reliable! Liable means responsible. Re means over and over again.
I’m wondering if someone’s listening who’s a saint of re-liability? If you are, I can’t resist the chance to say two things. The first? Thank you!
Thank you teachers for the countless Sunday school lessons prepared and delivered with tenderness. Thank you senior saints for a generation of prayer. Thank you missionaries for your bravery in sharing the timeless truth. Thank you preachers. You thought we weren’t listening, but we were.
Thanks to all of you who practice on Monday what you hear on Sunday. It’s on the back of your fidelity that the Gospel rides. You are reliable! You get the job done.
I said I had two things to say. What’s the second? Keep pitching! Your Hall of Fame award is just around the corner.
From God Came Near
Zechariah 11
Open your doors, Lebanon,
so that fire may devour your cedars!
2 Wail, you juniper, for the cedar has fallen;
the stately trees are ruined!
Wail, oaks of Bashan;
the dense forest has been cut down!
3 Listen to the wail of the shepherds;
their rich pastures are destroyed!
Listen to the roar of the lions;
the lush thicket of the Jordan is ruined!
Two Shepherds
4 This is what the Lord my God says: “Shepherd the flock marked for slaughter. 5 Their buyers slaughter them and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, ‘Praise the Lord, I am rich!’ Their own shepherds do not spare them. 6 For I will no longer have pity on the people of the land,” declares the Lord. “I will give everyone into the hands of their neighbors and their king. They will devastate the land, and I will not rescue anyone from their hands.”
7 So I shepherded the flock marked for slaughter, particularly the oppressed of the flock. Then I took two staffs and called one Favor and the other Union, and I shepherded the flock. 8 In one month I got rid of the three shepherds.
The flock detested me, and I grew weary of them 9 and said, “I will not be your shepherd. Let the dying die, and the perishing perish. Let those who are left eat one another’s flesh.”
10 Then I took my staff called Favor and broke it, revoking the covenant I had made with all the nations. 11 It was revoked on that day, and so the oppressed of the flock who were watching me knew it was the word of the Lord.
12 I told them, “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver.
13 And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the handsome price at which they valued me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the house of the Lord.
14 Then I broke my second staff called Union, breaking the family bond between Judah and Israel.
15 Then the Lord said to me, “Take again the equipment of a foolish shepherd. 16 For I am going to raise up a shepherd over the land who will not care for the lost, or seek the young, or heal the injured, or feed the healthy, but will eat the meat of the choice sheep, tearing off their hooves.
17 “Woe to the worthless shepherd,
who deserts the flock!
May the sword strike his arm and his right eye!
May his arm be completely withered,
his right eye totally blinded!”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
A New Heaven and a New Earth
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”[a] for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’[b] or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.
Footnotes:
Revelation 21:1 Isaiah 65:17
Revelation 21:4 Isaiah 25:8
Mixed Emotions
December 30, 2013 — by Bill Crowder
Even in laughter the heart may sorrow, and the end of mirth may be grief. —Proverbs 14:13
For Marlene and me, “mixed emotions” precisely describes our wedding. Don’t take that the wrong way. It was a wonderful event that we continue to celebrate more than 35 years later. The wedding celebration, however, was dampened because Marlene’s mom died of cancer just weeks before. Marlene’s aunt was a wonderful stand-in as the “mother of the bride,” but, in the midst of our happiness, something clearly wasn’t right. Mom was missing, and that affected everything.
That experience typifies life in a broken world. Our experiences here are a mixed bag of good and bad, joy and pain—a reality that Solomon expressed when he wrote, “Even in laughter the heart may sorrow, and the end of mirth may be grief” (Prov. 14:13). The merry heart often does grieve, for that is what this life sometimes demands.
Thankfully, however, this life is not all there is. And in the life that is to come, those who know Christ have a promise: “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4). In that great day, there will be no mixed emotions—only hearts filled with the presence of God!
Peace! peace! wonderful peace,
Coming down from the Father above,
Sweep over my spirit forever, I pray,
In fathomless billows of love. —Cornell
For the Christian, the dark sorrows of earth will one day be changed into the bright songs of heaven.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 30, 2013
“And Every Virtue We Possess”
. . . All my springs are in you —Psalm 87:7
Our Lord never “patches up” our natural virtues, that is, our natural traits, qualities, or characteristics. He completely remakes a person on the inside— “. . . put on the new man . . .” (Ephesians 4:24). In other words, see that your natural human life is putting on all that is in keeping with the new life. The life God places within us develops its own new virtues, not the virtues of the seed of Adam, but of Jesus Christ. Once God has begun the process of sanctification in your life, watch and see how God causes your confidence in your own natural virtues and power to wither away. He will continue until you learn to draw your life from the reservoir of the resurrection life of Jesus. Thank God if you are going through this drying-up experience!
The sign that God is at work in us is that He is destroying our confidence in the natural virtues, because they are not promises of what we are going to be, but only a wasted reminder of what God created man to be. We want to cling to our natural virtues, while all the time God is trying to get us in contact with the life of Jesus Christ— a life that can never be described in terms of natural virtues. It is the saddest thing to see people who are trying to serve God depending on that which the grace of God never gave them. They are depending solely on what they have by virtue of heredity. God does not take our natural virtues and transform them, because our natural virtues could never even come close to what Jesus Christ wants. No natural love, no natural patience, no natural purity can ever come up to His demands. But as we bring every part of our natural bodily life into harmony with the new life God has placed within us, He will exhibit in us the virtues that were characteristic of the Lord Jesus.
And every virtue we possess
Is His alone.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Everything's Moving - #7036
Monday, December 30, 2013
It's a good thing our oldest son could outrun his sister when they were kids, especially after one of our "earthquake drills." Oh, the earth wasn't really shaking. It started after we returned from a trip to California where we heard a lot about earthquakes. So - for no intelligent reason I can think of - I would occasionally yell randomly, "Earthquake drill!" And the ensuing script went something like this. Brother would run to his sister and hold her tightly. Father: "What are you doing, son?" Brother: "You said if there was an earthquake, we should hang onto something heavy!" This is when speed saved his young life.
Actually, that is pretty good advice when things are moving that never moved before. Hang onto something heavy.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Everything's Moving."
Lately, I've been getting that shifting landscape feeling a lot. Believers feeling comfortable watching things they would have never watched ten years ago; accepting behaviors and ideas that would have been unthinkable only a short time ago. Feeling free to wear less and show more. Letting their kids do what the culture calls cool; dissolving marriages that were, until recently, thought to be something that "no man" should "put asunder." And all this among growing questions about what marriage even is. Yes, the ground's been moving under our feet a lot lately, and it's more important than ever to "hang onto something heavy."
God's not surprised by all this. He described the tectonic shifts that would happen as human history was winding down and the return of His Son was approaching. In 2 Timothy 4:3-4 He says, "For the time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths."
There's a phenomenon at work here that I call the equal distance syndrome. There's always an equal distance between what the culture accepts and what Christians accept. And that distance can make church folks feel like they're doing pretty well morally compared to everyone else.
Problem: as the culture moves, believers move with it. So, we end up being where folks without the Manufacturer's instructions were just a few years ago. Still different, but drifting inexorably away from the unmoving standards of Almighty God. The culture moves. The polls move. Public opinion moves. God's people move. God doesn't.
In that same Bible passage that foretold the moral drift from the truth, God directs us to hang onto something heavy. So heavy, and so true that it is forever anchored in place. Our word for today from the Word of God, 2 Timothy 3:14-15 , "They will be deceived, but you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true. You have been taught the Holy Scriptures from childhood. All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives."
No opinion poll, no majority vote, no societal shift can change God's mind or God's Word. His word on every moral issue is final - non-negotiable and the only way to make life work. To live as we're wired by our Creator to live, to avoid emotional and spiritual disaster, and to avoid the judgment of the God who drew the boundaries that we feel so free to question.
There's a classic story about a ship captain who realizes there's a light out there in the fog, and whatever's out there is on a collision course with his vessel. He radios that they need to adjust their course. A voice comes back telling him to adjust his. The captain again orders the man on the other end to change course, this time reminding him he's a captain. Only to be answered by a "seaman second class" demanding that the captain change course. Then came the final exchange. "I'm a battleship! Change course now." "I'm a lighthouse. Change your course."
The Lighthouse of God's Word won't be moving. It's there to show us where it's safe and to keep us from going down. Our drift from that Light leads to one destination - the rocks.
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Revelation 1 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado: Majority Rules?
May the Lord lead your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s patience. 2 Thessalonians 3:5
Where do we get these ideas? The majority is not always right. In fact, it’s rarely right.
If the majority had ruled, the children of Israel never would have left Egypt. They would have voted to stay in bondage. If the majority had ruled, David never would have fought Goliath. His brothers would have voted for him to stay with the sheep. What’s the point?
You must listen to your own heart.
God says you’re on your way to becoming a disciple when you can keep a clear head and a pure heart.
Do you ever try to do something right and yet nothing seems to turn out like you planned?
Take heart. When you do what is right—God remembers.
Revelation 1
New International Version (NIV)
Prologue
1 The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.
Greetings and Doxology
4 John,
To the seven churches in the province of Asia:
Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits[a] before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.
7 “Look, he is coming with the clouds,”[b]
and “every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him”;
and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”[c]
So shall it be! Amen.
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”
John’s Vision of Christ
9 I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, 11 which said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.”
12 I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man,[d] dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. 15 His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.
17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.
19 “Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later. 20 The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels[e] of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
Footnotes:
Revelation 1:4 That is, the sevenfold Spirit
Revelation 1:7 Daniel 7:13
Revelation 1:7 Zech. 12:10
Revelation 1:13 See Daniel 7:13.
Revelation 1:20 Or messengers
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: 3 John
The elder,
To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth.
2 Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. 3 It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
5 Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers and sisters,[a] even though they are strangers to you. 6 They have told the church about your love. Please send them on their way in a manner that honors God. 7 It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. 8 We ought therefore to show hospitality to such people so that we may work together for the truth.
9 I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not welcome us. 10 So when I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, spreading malicious nonsense about us. Not satisfied with that, he even refuses to welcome other believers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.
11 Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God. 12 Demetrius is well spoken of by everyone—and even by the truth itself. We also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true.
13 I have much to write you, but I do not want to do so with pen and ink. 14 I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.
Peace to you. The friends here send their greetings. Greet the friends there by name.
Footnotes:
3 John 1:5 The Greek word for brothers and sisters (adelphoi) refers here to believers, both men and women, as part of God’s family.
Letter To A Child
December 29, 2013 — by Dennis Fisher
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. —3 John 4
Even at the end of his life, C. S. Lewis showed an interest in the spiritual nurture of younger believers. Although in ill health, he took time to respond to the letter of a child named Philip. Complimenting the boy’s fine written expression, Lewis said he was delighted that Philip understood that in the Narnia Chronicles the lion Aslan represented Jesus Christ. The next day, Lewis died at his home in the Kilns, Oxford, England, one week before his 65th birthday.
The apostle John, in his later years, sent a letter to his spiritual children. In it we see the joy of a mature believer encouraging his spiritually younger disciples to keep walking in the truth and following Christ.
John wrote, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth” (3 John 1:4). Short by New Testament standards, John’s letter demonstrates the joy that comes in nurturing and watching the next generation’s spiritual growth.
Encouraging spiritual understanding in the next generation should be the pursuit of mature believers. Sending a note of appreciation, giving a word of encouragement, praying, or offering sound advice can all be ways of helping others on their spiritual journey with God.
To help another in Christ to grow
You have to pay a price
It takes the giving of yourself
And that means sacrifice. —D. DeHaan
The journey is better with someone who knows the way.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 29, 2013
Deserter or Disciple?
From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more —John 6:66
When God, by His Spirit through His Word, gives you a clear vision of His will, you must “walk in the light” of that vision (1 John 1:7). Even though your mind and soul may be thrilled by it, if you don’t “walk in the light” of it you will sink to a level of bondage never envisioned by our Lord. Mentally disobeying the “heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19) will make you a slave to ideas and views that are completely foreign to Jesus Christ. Don’t look at someone else and say, “Well, if he can have those views and prosper, why can’t I?” You have to “walk in the light” of the vision that has been given to you. Don’t compare yourself with others or judge them— that is between God and them. When you find that one of your favorite and strongly held views clashes with the “heavenly vision,” do not begin to debate it. If you do, a sense of property and personal right will emerge in you— things on which Jesus placed no value. He was against these things as being the root of everything foreign to Himself— “. . . for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses” (Luke 12:15). If we don’t see and understand this, it is because we are ignoring the underlying principles of our Lord’s teaching.
Our tendency is to lie back and bask in the memory of the wonderful experience we had when God revealed His will to us. But if a New Testament standard is revealed to us by the light of God, and we don’t try to measure up, or even feel inclined to do so, then we begin to backslide. It means your conscience does not respond to the truth. You can never be the same after the unveiling of a truth. That moment marks you as one who either continues on with even more devotion as a disciple of Jesus Christ, or as one who turns to go back as a deserter.
May the Lord lead your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s patience. 2 Thessalonians 3:5
Where do we get these ideas? The majority is not always right. In fact, it’s rarely right.
If the majority had ruled, the children of Israel never would have left Egypt. They would have voted to stay in bondage. If the majority had ruled, David never would have fought Goliath. His brothers would have voted for him to stay with the sheep. What’s the point?
You must listen to your own heart.
God says you’re on your way to becoming a disciple when you can keep a clear head and a pure heart.
Do you ever try to do something right and yet nothing seems to turn out like you planned?
Take heart. When you do what is right—God remembers.
Revelation 1
New International Version (NIV)
Prologue
1 The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.
Greetings and Doxology
4 John,
To the seven churches in the province of Asia:
Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits[a] before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.
7 “Look, he is coming with the clouds,”[b]
and “every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him”;
and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”[c]
So shall it be! Amen.
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”
John’s Vision of Christ
9 I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, 11 which said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.”
12 I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man,[d] dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. 15 His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.
17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.
19 “Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later. 20 The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels[e] of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
Footnotes:
Revelation 1:4 That is, the sevenfold Spirit
Revelation 1:7 Daniel 7:13
Revelation 1:7 Zech. 12:10
Revelation 1:13 See Daniel 7:13.
Revelation 1:20 Or messengers
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: 3 John
The elder,
To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth.
2 Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. 3 It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
5 Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers and sisters,[a] even though they are strangers to you. 6 They have told the church about your love. Please send them on their way in a manner that honors God. 7 It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. 8 We ought therefore to show hospitality to such people so that we may work together for the truth.
9 I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not welcome us. 10 So when I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, spreading malicious nonsense about us. Not satisfied with that, he even refuses to welcome other believers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.
11 Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God. 12 Demetrius is well spoken of by everyone—and even by the truth itself. We also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true.
13 I have much to write you, but I do not want to do so with pen and ink. 14 I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.
Peace to you. The friends here send their greetings. Greet the friends there by name.
Footnotes:
3 John 1:5 The Greek word for brothers and sisters (adelphoi) refers here to believers, both men and women, as part of God’s family.
Letter To A Child
December 29, 2013 — by Dennis Fisher
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. —3 John 4
Even at the end of his life, C. S. Lewis showed an interest in the spiritual nurture of younger believers. Although in ill health, he took time to respond to the letter of a child named Philip. Complimenting the boy’s fine written expression, Lewis said he was delighted that Philip understood that in the Narnia Chronicles the lion Aslan represented Jesus Christ. The next day, Lewis died at his home in the Kilns, Oxford, England, one week before his 65th birthday.
The apostle John, in his later years, sent a letter to his spiritual children. In it we see the joy of a mature believer encouraging his spiritually younger disciples to keep walking in the truth and following Christ.
John wrote, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth” (3 John 1:4). Short by New Testament standards, John’s letter demonstrates the joy that comes in nurturing and watching the next generation’s spiritual growth.
Encouraging spiritual understanding in the next generation should be the pursuit of mature believers. Sending a note of appreciation, giving a word of encouragement, praying, or offering sound advice can all be ways of helping others on their spiritual journey with God.
To help another in Christ to grow
You have to pay a price
It takes the giving of yourself
And that means sacrifice. —D. DeHaan
The journey is better with someone who knows the way.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 29, 2013
Deserter or Disciple?
From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more —John 6:66
When God, by His Spirit through His Word, gives you a clear vision of His will, you must “walk in the light” of that vision (1 John 1:7). Even though your mind and soul may be thrilled by it, if you don’t “walk in the light” of it you will sink to a level of bondage never envisioned by our Lord. Mentally disobeying the “heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19) will make you a slave to ideas and views that are completely foreign to Jesus Christ. Don’t look at someone else and say, “Well, if he can have those views and prosper, why can’t I?” You have to “walk in the light” of the vision that has been given to you. Don’t compare yourself with others or judge them— that is between God and them. When you find that one of your favorite and strongly held views clashes with the “heavenly vision,” do not begin to debate it. If you do, a sense of property and personal right will emerge in you— things on which Jesus placed no value. He was against these things as being the root of everything foreign to Himself— “. . . for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses” (Luke 12:15). If we don’t see and understand this, it is because we are ignoring the underlying principles of our Lord’s teaching.
Our tendency is to lie back and bask in the memory of the wonderful experience we had when God revealed His will to us. But if a New Testament standard is revealed to us by the light of God, and we don’t try to measure up, or even feel inclined to do so, then we begin to backslide. It means your conscience does not respond to the truth. You can never be the same after the unveiling of a truth. That moment marks you as one who either continues on with even more devotion as a disciple of Jesus Christ, or as one who turns to go back as a deserter.
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Zechariah 10, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado: Jesus is the Gift
Little Carol with the pigtails, freckles, and shiny back shoes. Don’t let her sweet description fool you. She broke my heart! On the day of the great gift exchange in my fourth-grade class, I ripped the wrapping paper off the box to find—stationery. Stationery! Brown envelopes and folded note cards with a picture of a cowboy lassoing a horse. What ten-year-old boy uses stationery? There’s a term for this kind of gift: obligatory!
I know we shouldn’t complain, but don’t you detect a lack of originality? And when a person gives a genuine gift, don’t you cherish the presence of a gift just for you? Have you ever received such a gift? Yes, you have. You’ve been given a perfect personal gift. One just for you. God says to anyone who’ll listen: ”There has been born for you…a Savior…. ” Jesus is the gift!
“There has been born for you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:11”
From GRACE
Zechariah 10
The Lord Will Care for Judah
Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime;
it is the Lord who sends the thunderstorms.
He gives showers of rain to all people,
and plants of the field to everyone.
2 The idols speak deceitfully,
diviners see visions that lie;
they tell dreams that are false,
they give comfort in vain.
Therefore the people wander like sheep
oppressed for lack of a shepherd.
3 “My anger burns against the shepherds,
and I will punish the leaders;
for the Lord Almighty will care
for his flock, the people of Judah,
and make them like a proud horse in battle.
4 From Judah will come the cornerstone,
from him the tent peg,
from him the battle bow,
from him every ruler.
5 Together they[d] will be like warriors in battle
trampling their enemy into the mud of the streets.
They will fight because the Lord is with them,
and they will put the enemy horsemen to shame.
6 “I will strengthen Judah
and save the tribes of Joseph.
I will restore them
because I have compassion on them.
They will be as though
I had not rejected them,
for I am the Lord their God
and I will answer them.
7 The Ephraimites will become like warriors,
and their hearts will be glad as with wine.
Their children will see it and be joyful;
their hearts will rejoice in the Lord.
8 I will signal for them
and gather them in.
Surely I will redeem them;
they will be as numerous as before.
9 Though I scatter them among the peoples,
yet in distant lands they will remember me.
They and their children will survive,
and they will return.
10 I will bring them back from Egypt
and gather them from Assyria.
I will bring them to Gilead and Lebanon,
and there will not be room enough for them.
11 They will pass through the sea of trouble;
the surging sea will be subdued
and all the depths of the Nile will dry up.
Assyria’s pride will be brought down
and Egypt’s scepter will pass away.
12 I will strengthen them in the Lord
and in his name they will live securely,”
declares the Lord.
Zechariah 10:5 Or ruler, all of them together. / 5 They
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Colossians 1:21-23
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of[a] your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
Footnotes:
Colossians 1:21 Or minds, as shown by
The Presentation
December 28, 2013 — by Joe Stowell
He has reconciled . . . to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight. —Colossians 1:21-22
My wife, Martie, is a great cook. After a long day I often look forward to the smell of spicy aromas that promise a tasty feast. Not only does she know how to prepare a meal, but she is also a master at the presentation. The colors of the food on the plate, beautifully arranged in a harmony of meat, white puffy rice, and vegetables welcome me to pull up my chair and enjoy her handiwork. But the food was not so attractive before she got her hands on it. The meat was raw and squishy, the rice was hard and brittle, and the vegetables needed to be scrubbed and trimmed.
It reminds me of the gracious work Jesus has done for me. I am well aware of my frailty and propensity to sin. I know that in and of myself I am not presentable to God. Yet when I’m saved, Jesus makes me a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). He takes me just as I am and makes me just as I should be—“holy, and blameless, and above reproach” (Col. 1:22). He presents me to our Father as a thing of beauty worthy to be in His presence.
May His transforming work on our behalf stimulate us to live up to the presentation and to be humbly grateful to Christ for His finishing work in our lives!
Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me—
All His wonderful passion and purity!
O Thou Spirit divine, all my nature refine,
Till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me. —Orsborn
Jesus takes us as we are and makes us what we should be.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 28, 2013
Continuous Conversion
. . . unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven —Matthew 18:3
These words of our Lord refer to our initial conversion, but we should continue to turn to God as children, being continuously converted every day of our lives. If we trust in our own abilities, instead of God’s, we produce consequences for which God will hold us responsible. When God through His sovereignty brings us into new situations, we should immediately make sure that our natural life submits to the spiritual, obeying the orders of the Spirit of God. Just because we have responded properly in the past is no guarantee that we will do so again. The response of the natural to the spiritual should be continuous conversion, but this is where we so often refuse to be obedient. No matter what our situation is, the Spirit of God remains unchanged and His salvation unaltered. But we must “put on the new man . . .” (Ephesians 4:24). God holds us accountable every time we refuse to convert ourselves, and He sees our refusal as willful disobedience. Our natural life must not rule— God must rule in us.
To refuse to be continuously converted puts a stumbling block in the growth of our spiritual life. There are areas of self-will in our lives where our pride pours contempt on the throne of God and says, “I won’t submit.” We deify our independence and self-will and call them by the wrong name. What God sees as stubborn weakness, we call strength. There are whole areas of our lives that have not yet been brought into submission, and this can only be done by this continuous conversion. Slowly but surely we can claim the whole territory for the Spirit of God.
Little Carol with the pigtails, freckles, and shiny back shoes. Don’t let her sweet description fool you. She broke my heart! On the day of the great gift exchange in my fourth-grade class, I ripped the wrapping paper off the box to find—stationery. Stationery! Brown envelopes and folded note cards with a picture of a cowboy lassoing a horse. What ten-year-old boy uses stationery? There’s a term for this kind of gift: obligatory!
I know we shouldn’t complain, but don’t you detect a lack of originality? And when a person gives a genuine gift, don’t you cherish the presence of a gift just for you? Have you ever received such a gift? Yes, you have. You’ve been given a perfect personal gift. One just for you. God says to anyone who’ll listen: ”There has been born for you…a Savior…. ” Jesus is the gift!
“There has been born for you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:11”
From GRACE
Zechariah 10
The Lord Will Care for Judah
Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime;
it is the Lord who sends the thunderstorms.
He gives showers of rain to all people,
and plants of the field to everyone.
2 The idols speak deceitfully,
diviners see visions that lie;
they tell dreams that are false,
they give comfort in vain.
Therefore the people wander like sheep
oppressed for lack of a shepherd.
3 “My anger burns against the shepherds,
and I will punish the leaders;
for the Lord Almighty will care
for his flock, the people of Judah,
and make them like a proud horse in battle.
4 From Judah will come the cornerstone,
from him the tent peg,
from him the battle bow,
from him every ruler.
5 Together they[d] will be like warriors in battle
trampling their enemy into the mud of the streets.
They will fight because the Lord is with them,
and they will put the enemy horsemen to shame.
6 “I will strengthen Judah
and save the tribes of Joseph.
I will restore them
because I have compassion on them.
They will be as though
I had not rejected them,
for I am the Lord their God
and I will answer them.
7 The Ephraimites will become like warriors,
and their hearts will be glad as with wine.
Their children will see it and be joyful;
their hearts will rejoice in the Lord.
8 I will signal for them
and gather them in.
Surely I will redeem them;
they will be as numerous as before.
9 Though I scatter them among the peoples,
yet in distant lands they will remember me.
They and their children will survive,
and they will return.
10 I will bring them back from Egypt
and gather them from Assyria.
I will bring them to Gilead and Lebanon,
and there will not be room enough for them.
11 They will pass through the sea of trouble;
the surging sea will be subdued
and all the depths of the Nile will dry up.
Assyria’s pride will be brought down
and Egypt’s scepter will pass away.
12 I will strengthen them in the Lord
and in his name they will live securely,”
declares the Lord.
Zechariah 10:5 Or ruler, all of them together. / 5 They
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Colossians 1:21-23
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of[a] your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
Footnotes:
Colossians 1:21 Or minds, as shown by
The Presentation
December 28, 2013 — by Joe Stowell
He has reconciled . . . to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight. —Colossians 1:21-22
My wife, Martie, is a great cook. After a long day I often look forward to the smell of spicy aromas that promise a tasty feast. Not only does she know how to prepare a meal, but she is also a master at the presentation. The colors of the food on the plate, beautifully arranged in a harmony of meat, white puffy rice, and vegetables welcome me to pull up my chair and enjoy her handiwork. But the food was not so attractive before she got her hands on it. The meat was raw and squishy, the rice was hard and brittle, and the vegetables needed to be scrubbed and trimmed.
It reminds me of the gracious work Jesus has done for me. I am well aware of my frailty and propensity to sin. I know that in and of myself I am not presentable to God. Yet when I’m saved, Jesus makes me a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). He takes me just as I am and makes me just as I should be—“holy, and blameless, and above reproach” (Col. 1:22). He presents me to our Father as a thing of beauty worthy to be in His presence.
May His transforming work on our behalf stimulate us to live up to the presentation and to be humbly grateful to Christ for His finishing work in our lives!
Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me—
All His wonderful passion and purity!
O Thou Spirit divine, all my nature refine,
Till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me. —Orsborn
Jesus takes us as we are and makes us what we should be.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 28, 2013
Continuous Conversion
. . . unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven —Matthew 18:3
These words of our Lord refer to our initial conversion, but we should continue to turn to God as children, being continuously converted every day of our lives. If we trust in our own abilities, instead of God’s, we produce consequences for which God will hold us responsible. When God through His sovereignty brings us into new situations, we should immediately make sure that our natural life submits to the spiritual, obeying the orders of the Spirit of God. Just because we have responded properly in the past is no guarantee that we will do so again. The response of the natural to the spiritual should be continuous conversion, but this is where we so often refuse to be obedient. No matter what our situation is, the Spirit of God remains unchanged and His salvation unaltered. But we must “put on the new man . . .” (Ephesians 4:24). God holds us accountable every time we refuse to convert ourselves, and He sees our refusal as willful disobedience. Our natural life must not rule— God must rule in us.
To refuse to be continuously converted puts a stumbling block in the growth of our spiritual life. There are areas of self-will in our lives where our pride pours contempt on the throne of God and says, “I won’t submit.” We deify our independence and self-will and call them by the wrong name. What God sees as stubborn weakness, we call strength. There are whole areas of our lives that have not yet been brought into submission, and this can only be done by this continuous conversion. Slowly but surely we can claim the whole territory for the Spirit of God.
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