Max Lucado Daily: Grace Happened
We are incarcerated by our past. We have been found guilty! Our executioner's footsteps echo against the stone walls. We sit on the floor of the dusty cell, awaiting our final moment. We don't look up as he opens the door. We know what he's going to say. "Time to pay for your sins." But we hear something else! "You're free to go. They took Jesus instead of you!"
The door swings open, the guard barks, "Get out!" And we find ourselves shackles gone, crimes pardoned, wondering, what just happened? Grace just happened! Christ took away your sins.
Romans 3 says that God, in his gracious kindness, declares us not guilty. For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us.
What happened? Grace happened!
From GRACE
Genesis 4
Cain and Abel
4 Adam[a] made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain.[b] She said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth[c] a man.” 2 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.
Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. 4 And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.
6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.”[d] While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
10 The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. 11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”
13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear. 14 Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”
15 But the Lord said to him, “Not so[e]; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. 16 So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod,[f] east of Eden.
17 Cain made love to his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch. 18 To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael was the father of Methushael, and Methushael was the father of Lamech.
19 Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah. 20 Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock. 21 His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play stringed instruments and pipes. 22 Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of[g] bronze and iron. Tubal-Cain’s sister was Naamah.
23 Lamech said to his wives,
“Adah and Zillah, listen to me;
wives of Lamech, hear my words.
I have killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for injuring me.
24 If Cain is avenged seven times,
then Lamech seventy-seven times.”
25 Adam made love to his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth,[h] saying, “God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.” 26 Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh.
At that time people began to call on[i] the name of the Lord.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Job 3:3-5; 42:5-6
“May the day of my birth perish,
and the night that said, ‘A boy is conceived!’
4 That day—may it turn to darkness;
may God above not care about it;
may no light shine on it.
5 May gloom and utter darkness claim it once more;
may a cloud settle over it;
may blackness overwhelm it.
My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
6 Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes.”
Insight
In Job 3:3-5, we have what many Bible scholars call Job’s soliloquy. After a time of quiet agony, the great Old Testament saint breaks his silence and lets out his anguish. He calls for darkness and then destruction to overwhelm him. Instead of seeing God’s light-filled and good creation, Job feels he is living in a world of darkness. But in Job 42:5-6, we see the resolution to Job’s conflict. Out of the whirlwind, God challenges Job and points to creation as a witness to His reality. Although he is never told that his sufferings are the result of spiritual warfare from the devil, Job submits to the sovereignty of God and experiences restoration.
Perspective From The Clouds
By Dennis Fisher
I have heard of You . . . but now my eye sees You. —Job 42:5
In 1927 the silent film Wings, a World War I film about two American aviators, won the first Academy Award for Best Picture. When it was being filmed, production stopped for several days. Frustrated producers asked the director why. He responded: “All we have is blue sky. The conflict in the air will not be as visible without clouds. Clouds bring perspective.” He was right. Only by seeing aerial combat with clouds as a backdrop could the viewer see what was really going on.
We often wish for blue skies instead of storm clouds. But cloudy skies may reveal God’s faithfulness. We gain perspective on how God has been faithful in our trials as we look back on the clouds.
At the beginning of his terrible suffering, Job lamented: “May the day perish on which I was born . . . . May a cloud settle on it” (Job 3:3-5). His experience of despair continued for a long time until God spoke. Then Job exclaimed, “I have heard of You . . . but now my eye sees You” (42:5). Job had encountered the sovereign Creator, and that changed his perspective on God’s purposes.
Do clouds of trouble fill your skies today? Sooner than you think, God may use these clouds to help you gain perspective on His faithfulness.
God, give us wings to rise above
The clouds of trial that block the sun,
To soar above gray skies and see
The love and goodness of Your Son. —Sper
Often the clouds of sorrow reveal the sunshine of His face. —Jasper
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, March 17, 2014
The Servant’s Primary Goal
We make it our aim . . . to be well pleasing to Him —2 Corinthians 5:9
We make it our aim. . . .” It requires a conscious decision and effort to keep our primary goal constantly in front of us. It means holding ourselves to the highest priority year in and year out; not making our first priority to win souls, or to establish churches, or to have revivals, but seeking only “to be well pleasing to Him.” It is not a lack of spiritual experience that leads to failure, but a lack of working to keep our eyes focused and on the right goal. At least once a week examine yourself before God to see if your life is measuring up to the standard He has for you. Paul was like a musician who gives no thought to audience approval, if he can only catch a look of approval from his Conductor.
Any goal we have that diverts us even to the slightest degree from the central goal of being “approved to God” (2 Timothy 2:15) may result in our rejection from further service for Him. When you discern where the goal leads, you will understand why it is so necessary to keep “looking unto Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2). Paul spoke of the importance of controlling his own body so that it would not take him in the wrong direction. He said, “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest . . . I myself should become disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:27).
I must learn to relate everything to the primary goal, maintaining it without interruption. My worth to God publicly is measured by what I really am in my private life. Is my primary goal in life to please Him and to be acceptable to Him, or is it something less, no matter how lofty it may sound?
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Treasure in the Trash - #7091
Monday, March 17, 2014
My wife and I were driving through a nearby town with some of our friends, and all of a sudden my wife says, "Stop!" She saw something, but what was it? Well, there was a gas station, there was a trash dumpster; you know, the sights that we would always want to stop and tour with our friends. She saw the top leaves of a plant sticking out of this dumpster. So we stopped and my friend who was driving got out with her. My wife said, "Hey! That would be great for our office." I said, "The dumpster?" She said, "No, the plant."
The next thing you know, my friend is pulling this enormous plant out; pot and all. And they came back to the car with it. I couldn't get out of there fast enough; I was so embarrassed. And to announce my embarrassment, I put my handkerchief over my head. But today, I have to tell you, once that plant was all cleaned up, it nicely decorated our office lunch area, and it made an otherwise drab corner pretty nice.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Treasure in the Trash."
Our word for today from the Word of God is in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, beginning at verse 7. Actually, what led me to it was this ability that my wife has; where others see trash, she sees treasure. It's happened many times in our neighborhood as we've driven past things that others have thrown away. Here's the difference that kind of perspective can make when you're going through the garbage in your life.
Paul says, "...to keep me from becoming conceited, because of these surpassingly great revelations, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
Well, one thing is clear about the thorn in the flesh, Paul didn't like it. It was garbage. Paul said, "If I didn't have it, I would have become conceited. I would have never tasted God's power like this, because I never would have needed Him so much." See, those who touch God's power most deeply are those who have needed Him most desperately.
Paul shows us how to look for God in life's garbage; for good in life's garbage. Though we don't get to choose whether we go through this painful time, we do get to choose what we focus on. If you belong to God through faith in Jesus Christ, there's always something beautiful in the ugly stuff or He would not allow you to go through it.
Maybe this is a time for you to learn God's patience, or God's peace, or God's power. Maybe it's a time to let other people have the joy of serving you as you have served them. Maybe it's time to find out how much people love you; how much God loves you. Or to develop a new inner strength that you have never touched before. Maybe there are people who have never listened to what you have to say about your Jesus, but this might just get their attention. This hard time? This might be the best opportunity, the best platform, you have ever had to show what a real difference Jesus makes, because He recycles garbage into something useful and beautiful.
You know, because of what you're going through you have what I call "crudentials." You've got the credentials that come from just the ugly stuff of life. And if they see that Jesus gives you a peace and a power and an endurance and a joy in the midst of that, you may never have a better opportunity to prove the reality of your Savior.
My wife's amazing! I mean, I look at trash; I see dirty, I see useless. She looks at that same garbage and sees the valuable things that could come from it. When it comes to life's garbage, that's what Jesus does. Maybe Satan sent it, maybe God allowed it, and you probably don't like it. But God can use it for something beautiful if you will just ask Him to show you the treasure in the garbage.
Monday, March 17, 2014
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Matthew 1 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Courage
“And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. And do not be afraid of their threats nor be troubled. I Peter 3:13-14”
On April 18, 2007, three Christians in Turkey were killed for their beliefs. Necati Aydin, a 35 year-old pastor was one of them.
He nearly didn’t go the office that morning. He’d been traveling and his wife, Semse, wanted him to stay home and rest. He admitted his weariness, but went on to work. There was much to be done. Semse recalls, “As my dear husband walked out the door, he smiled at me one last time. I didn’t know that was the last smile.”
Later that morning, attackers came to Necati Aydin’s office insisting he pray: “There is no God except Allah!” When Necati refused, the torture began. The last word from the office was the cry of an unswerving Christian: Messiah! Messiah!
I ponder the martyrs of Malatya and wonder, Would I make the sacrifice? Would I cry out, “Messiah! Messiah! Would I give my life?
How do we prepare? Linger long and often in the presence of Christ. Meditate on his grace. Ponder his love. Memorize his words.
Courage comes as we live with Jesus!
Matthew 1
New International Version (NIV)
The Genealogy of Jesus the Messiah
1 This is the genealogy[a] of Jesus the Messiah[b] the son of David, the son of Abraham:
2 Abraham was the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
3 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,
Perez the father of Hezron,
Hezron the father of Ram,
4 Ram the father of Amminadab,
Amminadab the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,
5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,
Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth,
Obed the father of Jesse,
6 and Jesse the father of King David.
David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife,
7 Solomon the father of Rehoboam,
Rehoboam the father of Abijah,
Abijah the father of Asa,
8 Asa the father of Jehoshaphat,
Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram,
Jehoram the father of Uzziah,
9 Uzziah the father of Jotham,
Jotham the father of Ahaz,
Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,
10 Hezekiah the father of Manasseh,
Manasseh the father of Amon,
Amon the father of Josiah,
11 and Josiah the father of Jeconiah[c] and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.
12 After the exile to Babylon:
Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel,
Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
13 Zerubbabel the father of Abihud,
Abihud the father of Eliakim,
Eliakim the father of Azor,
14 Azor the father of Zadok,
Zadok the father of Akim,
Akim the father of Elihud,
15 Elihud the father of Eleazar,
Eleazar the father of Matthan,
Matthan the father of Jacob,
16 and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.
17 Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.
Joseph Accepts Jesus as His Son
18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about[d]: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet[e] did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,[f] because he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”[g] (which means “God with us”).
24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
Footnotes:
Matthew 1:1 Or is an account of the origin
Matthew 1:1 Or Jesus Christ. Messiah (Hebrew) and Christ (Greek) both mean Anointed One; also in verse 18.
Matthew 1:11 That is, Jehoiachin; also in verse 12
Matthew 1:18 Or The origin of Jesus the Messiah was like this
Matthew 1:19 Or was a righteous man and
Matthew 1:21 Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, which means the Lord saves.
Matthew 1:23 Isaiah 7:14
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Jeremiah 15:15-21
Lord, you understand;
remember me and care for me.
Avenge me on my persecutors.
You are long-suffering—do not take me away;
think of how I suffer reproach for your sake.
16 When your words came, I ate them;
they were my joy and my heart’s delight,
for I bear your name,
Lord God Almighty.
17 I never sat in the company of revelers,
never made merry with them;
I sat alone because your hand was on me
and you had filled me with indignation.
18 Why is my pain unending
and my wound grievous and incurable?
You are to me like a deceptive brook,
like a spring that fails.
19 Therefore this is what the Lord says:
“If you repent, I will restore you
that you may serve me;
if you utter worthy, not worthless, words,
you will be my spokesman.
Let this people turn to you,
but you must not turn to them.
20 I will make you a wall to this people,
a fortified wall of bronze;
they will fight against you
but will not overcome you,
for I am with you
to rescue and save you,”
declares the Lord.
21 “I will save you from the hands of the wicked
and deliver you from the grasp of the cruel.”
Insight
Righteous living will eventually meet with opposition and persecution. Indeed, “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3:12). In Jeremiah 15, we see how Jeremiah lamented the unjust treatment he experienced as a true prophet of God. Yet in his anguish he received the assurance that God would stand by him.
Heart Food
By Joe Stowell
Your words were found, and I ate them. —Jeremiah 15:16
I love food! I love to see it beautifully presented, and I love to savor the taste. If it were up to me, I would eat more often than I should—although it wouldn’t help my waistline! So, it’s a good thing my wife, Martie, knows when to lovingly remind me to eat healthful foods in the right amount.
Reading Jeremiah’s interesting thought—that when he found the words of God (even the words of God’s judgment) he “ate them” (Jer. 15:16)—makes me wonder if I ingest God’s Word as eagerly, as lovingly, and as often.
Clearly, Jeremiah did not actually eat God’s Word. It was his way of saying that he read and savored it in his innermost being. And that’s exactly where God’s Word is intended to go. The Word is heart food! When we ingest it, the Holy Spirit provides the power to help us grow to be more like Jesus. His Word transforms how we think about God, money, enemies, careers, and family. In other words, it’s really good for us.
So, “eat” God’s Word to your heart’s content! No doubt you will find yourself agreeing with the prophet Jeremiah when he said: “Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart” (15:16).
Lord, cultivate in me an appetite for Your Word.
Thank You that the Bible is food for my soul. Lead
me to read it, to savor it, to ingest it, and to know
the strength that Your words can give to my often-failing heart.
The more you feast on God’s Word, the healthier you will become.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, March 16, 2014
The Master Will Judge
We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ . . . —2 Corinthians 5:10
Paul says that we must all, preachers and other people alike, “appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” But if you will learn here and now to live under the scrutiny of Christ’s pure light, your final judgment will bring you only delight in seeing the work God has done in you. Live constantly reminding yourself of the judgment seat of Christ, and walk in the knowledge of the holiness He has given you. Tolerating a wrong attitude toward another person causes you to follow the spirit of the devil, no matter how saintly you are. One carnal judgment of another person only serves the purposes of hell in you. Bring it immediately into the light and confess, “Oh, Lord, I have been guilty there.” If you don’t, your heart will become hardened through and through. One of the penalties of sin is our acceptance of it. It is not only God who punishes for sin, but sin establishes itself in the sinner and takes its toll. No struggling or praying will enable you to stop doing certain things, and the penalty of sin is that you gradually get used to it, until you finally come to the place where you no longer even realize that it is sin. No power, except the power that comes from being filled with the Holy Spirit, can change or prevent the inherent consequences of sin.
“If we walk in the light as He is in the light. . .” (1 John 1:7). For many of us, walking in the light means walking according to the standard we have set up for another person. The deadliest attitude of the Pharisees that we exhibit today is not hypocrisy but that which comes from unconsciously living a lie.
“And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. And do not be afraid of their threats nor be troubled. I Peter 3:13-14”
On April 18, 2007, three Christians in Turkey were killed for their beliefs. Necati Aydin, a 35 year-old pastor was one of them.
He nearly didn’t go the office that morning. He’d been traveling and his wife, Semse, wanted him to stay home and rest. He admitted his weariness, but went on to work. There was much to be done. Semse recalls, “As my dear husband walked out the door, he smiled at me one last time. I didn’t know that was the last smile.”
Later that morning, attackers came to Necati Aydin’s office insisting he pray: “There is no God except Allah!” When Necati refused, the torture began. The last word from the office was the cry of an unswerving Christian: Messiah! Messiah!
I ponder the martyrs of Malatya and wonder, Would I make the sacrifice? Would I cry out, “Messiah! Messiah! Would I give my life?
How do we prepare? Linger long and often in the presence of Christ. Meditate on his grace. Ponder his love. Memorize his words.
Courage comes as we live with Jesus!
Matthew 1
New International Version (NIV)
The Genealogy of Jesus the Messiah
1 This is the genealogy[a] of Jesus the Messiah[b] the son of David, the son of Abraham:
2 Abraham was the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
3 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,
Perez the father of Hezron,
Hezron the father of Ram,
4 Ram the father of Amminadab,
Amminadab the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,
5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,
Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth,
Obed the father of Jesse,
6 and Jesse the father of King David.
David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife,
7 Solomon the father of Rehoboam,
Rehoboam the father of Abijah,
Abijah the father of Asa,
8 Asa the father of Jehoshaphat,
Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram,
Jehoram the father of Uzziah,
9 Uzziah the father of Jotham,
Jotham the father of Ahaz,
Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,
10 Hezekiah the father of Manasseh,
Manasseh the father of Amon,
Amon the father of Josiah,
11 and Josiah the father of Jeconiah[c] and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.
12 After the exile to Babylon:
Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel,
Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
13 Zerubbabel the father of Abihud,
Abihud the father of Eliakim,
Eliakim the father of Azor,
14 Azor the father of Zadok,
Zadok the father of Akim,
Akim the father of Elihud,
15 Elihud the father of Eleazar,
Eleazar the father of Matthan,
Matthan the father of Jacob,
16 and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.
17 Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.
Joseph Accepts Jesus as His Son
18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about[d]: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet[e] did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,[f] because he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”[g] (which means “God with us”).
24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
Footnotes:
Matthew 1:1 Or is an account of the origin
Matthew 1:1 Or Jesus Christ. Messiah (Hebrew) and Christ (Greek) both mean Anointed One; also in verse 18.
Matthew 1:11 That is, Jehoiachin; also in verse 12
Matthew 1:18 Or The origin of Jesus the Messiah was like this
Matthew 1:19 Or was a righteous man and
Matthew 1:21 Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, which means the Lord saves.
Matthew 1:23 Isaiah 7:14
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Jeremiah 15:15-21
Lord, you understand;
remember me and care for me.
Avenge me on my persecutors.
You are long-suffering—do not take me away;
think of how I suffer reproach for your sake.
16 When your words came, I ate them;
they were my joy and my heart’s delight,
for I bear your name,
Lord God Almighty.
17 I never sat in the company of revelers,
never made merry with them;
I sat alone because your hand was on me
and you had filled me with indignation.
18 Why is my pain unending
and my wound grievous and incurable?
You are to me like a deceptive brook,
like a spring that fails.
19 Therefore this is what the Lord says:
“If you repent, I will restore you
that you may serve me;
if you utter worthy, not worthless, words,
you will be my spokesman.
Let this people turn to you,
but you must not turn to them.
20 I will make you a wall to this people,
a fortified wall of bronze;
they will fight against you
but will not overcome you,
for I am with you
to rescue and save you,”
declares the Lord.
21 “I will save you from the hands of the wicked
and deliver you from the grasp of the cruel.”
Insight
Righteous living will eventually meet with opposition and persecution. Indeed, “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3:12). In Jeremiah 15, we see how Jeremiah lamented the unjust treatment he experienced as a true prophet of God. Yet in his anguish he received the assurance that God would stand by him.
Heart Food
By Joe Stowell
Your words were found, and I ate them. —Jeremiah 15:16
I love food! I love to see it beautifully presented, and I love to savor the taste. If it were up to me, I would eat more often than I should—although it wouldn’t help my waistline! So, it’s a good thing my wife, Martie, knows when to lovingly remind me to eat healthful foods in the right amount.
Reading Jeremiah’s interesting thought—that when he found the words of God (even the words of God’s judgment) he “ate them” (Jer. 15:16)—makes me wonder if I ingest God’s Word as eagerly, as lovingly, and as often.
Clearly, Jeremiah did not actually eat God’s Word. It was his way of saying that he read and savored it in his innermost being. And that’s exactly where God’s Word is intended to go. The Word is heart food! When we ingest it, the Holy Spirit provides the power to help us grow to be more like Jesus. His Word transforms how we think about God, money, enemies, careers, and family. In other words, it’s really good for us.
So, “eat” God’s Word to your heart’s content! No doubt you will find yourself agreeing with the prophet Jeremiah when he said: “Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart” (15:16).
Lord, cultivate in me an appetite for Your Word.
Thank You that the Bible is food for my soul. Lead
me to read it, to savor it, to ingest it, and to know
the strength that Your words can give to my often-failing heart.
The more you feast on God’s Word, the healthier you will become.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, March 16, 2014
The Master Will Judge
We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ . . . —2 Corinthians 5:10
Paul says that we must all, preachers and other people alike, “appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” But if you will learn here and now to live under the scrutiny of Christ’s pure light, your final judgment will bring you only delight in seeing the work God has done in you. Live constantly reminding yourself of the judgment seat of Christ, and walk in the knowledge of the holiness He has given you. Tolerating a wrong attitude toward another person causes you to follow the spirit of the devil, no matter how saintly you are. One carnal judgment of another person only serves the purposes of hell in you. Bring it immediately into the light and confess, “Oh, Lord, I have been guilty there.” If you don’t, your heart will become hardened through and through. One of the penalties of sin is our acceptance of it. It is not only God who punishes for sin, but sin establishes itself in the sinner and takes its toll. No struggling or praying will enable you to stop doing certain things, and the penalty of sin is that you gradually get used to it, until you finally come to the place where you no longer even realize that it is sin. No power, except the power that comes from being filled with the Holy Spirit, can change or prevent the inherent consequences of sin.
“If we walk in the light as He is in the light. . .” (1 John 1:7). For many of us, walking in the light means walking according to the standard we have set up for another person. The deadliest attitude of the Pharisees that we exhibit today is not hypocrisy but that which comes from unconsciously living a lie.
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Genesis 3 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: What’s Done is Done
What do you do with your failures? Could you do it all over again, you’d do it differently. You’d be more patient. You’d control your tongue. You’d finish what you started. You’d get married first. But as many times as you tell yourself, “What’s done is done,” what you did can’t be undone.
That’s part of what the apostle Paul meant when he said, “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23). He didn’t say, “The wages of sin is a bad mood.” Or “The wages of sin is a hard day.” Read it again. “The wages of sin is death.” Sin is fatal.
What do you do? Don’t we all long for a father who will love us? A father who cares for us in spite of our failures? We have that kind of a father. A father whose grace is strongest when our devotion is weakest. Your failures are not fatal, my friend!
from Six Hours One Friday
Genesis 3
The Fall
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,
“Cursed are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring[j] and hers;
he will crush[k] your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
16 To the woman he said,
“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
20 Adam[l] named his wife Eve,[m] because she would become the mother of all the living.
21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side[n] of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
Genesis 3:15 Or seed
Genesis 3:15 Or strike
Genesis 3:20 Or The man
Genesis 3:20 Eve probably means living.
Genesis 3:24 Or placed in front
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Ephesians 4:11-16
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Insight
Today’s reading records Christ giving spiritual gifts to the church, the body of Christ. These gifts include: apostles, those who open up new mission territories to the gospel; prophets, who apply the Word in spiritually compelling ways; evangelists, who have a special ability to share the gospel that often brings a positive response; and pastors/teachers, who communicate the Word so that believers are built up in their faith. The goal of the use of these gifts is that Christians will be “perfected” in their faith and move on to maturity. The effective use of gifts creates a unity that bears witness to the reality of Christ (John 13:35).
Job Titles
By C. P. Hia
For the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith. —Ephesians 4:12-13
When the British Broadcasting Corporation asked for examples of important-sounding, obscure, and even bizarre job titles, one writer offered hers: Underwater Ceramic Technician. She was a dishwasher at a restaurant. Sometimes titles are used to make a job sound more important.
When the apostle Paul listed some of God’s gifts to the church in Ephesians 4:11, he did not intend for these to be understood as high-sounding job titles. All the parts of the body are necessary for the body to function properly. No one part is better than another.
What was of primary importance was the purpose of these gifts. They were “for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to . . . the stature of the fullness of Christ” (vv.12-13).
It matters little what title we hold. What is important is that we strengthen the faith of God’s people. When we gauge our effectiveness by the standard that the Bible gives us, it will not matter when we are moved to another role or no longer hold a specific title. Out of love for God, we serve to build up fellow believers, and we let God give His commendation in heaven as He sees fit (Matt. 25:21).
Lord, please use me as Your instrument to touch
others’ lives. Help me not to be concerned
about what title I hold but instead that my
life might show others Your grace.
God’s gifts to us are not for us but for others.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 15, 2014
The Discipline of Dismay
As they followed they were afraid —Mark 10:32
At the beginning of our life with Jesus Christ, we were sure we knew all there was to know about following Him. It was a delight to forsake everything else and to throw ourselves before Him in a fearless statement of love. But now we are not quite so sure. Jesus is far ahead of us and is beginning to seem different and unfamiliar— “Jesus was going before them; and they were amazed” (Mark 10:32).
There is an aspect of Jesus that chills even a disciple’s heart to its depth and makes his entire spiritual life gasp for air. This unusual Person with His face set “like a flint” (Isaiah 50:7) is walking with great determination ahead of me, and He strikes terror right through me. He no longer seems to be my Counselor and Friend and has a point of view about which I know nothing. All I can do is stand and stare at Him in amazement. At first I was confident that I understood Him, but now I am not so sure. I begin to realize that there is a distance between Jesus and me and I can no longer be intimate with Him. I have no idea where He is going, and the goal has become strangely distant.
Jesus Christ had to understand fully every sin and sorrow that human beings could experience, and that is what makes Him seem unfamiliar. When we see this aspect of Him, we realize we really don’t know Him. We don’t recognize even one characteristic of His life, and we don’t know how to begin to follow Him. He is far ahead of us, a Leader who seems totally unfamiliar, and we have no friendship with Him.
The discipline of dismay is an essential lesson which a disciple must learn. The danger is that we tend to look back on our times of obedience and on our past sacrifices to God in an effort to keep our enthusiasm for Him strong (see Isaiah 50:10-11). But when the darkness of dismay comes, endure until it is over, because out of it will come the ability to follow Jesus truly, which brings inexpressibly wonderful joy.
What do you do with your failures? Could you do it all over again, you’d do it differently. You’d be more patient. You’d control your tongue. You’d finish what you started. You’d get married first. But as many times as you tell yourself, “What’s done is done,” what you did can’t be undone.
That’s part of what the apostle Paul meant when he said, “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23). He didn’t say, “The wages of sin is a bad mood.” Or “The wages of sin is a hard day.” Read it again. “The wages of sin is death.” Sin is fatal.
What do you do? Don’t we all long for a father who will love us? A father who cares for us in spite of our failures? We have that kind of a father. A father whose grace is strongest when our devotion is weakest. Your failures are not fatal, my friend!
from Six Hours One Friday
Genesis 3
The Fall
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,
“Cursed are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring[j] and hers;
he will crush[k] your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
16 To the woman he said,
“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
20 Adam[l] named his wife Eve,[m] because she would become the mother of all the living.
21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side[n] of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
Genesis 3:15 Or seed
Genesis 3:15 Or strike
Genesis 3:20 Or The man
Genesis 3:20 Eve probably means living.
Genesis 3:24 Or placed in front
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Ephesians 4:11-16
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Insight
Today’s reading records Christ giving spiritual gifts to the church, the body of Christ. These gifts include: apostles, those who open up new mission territories to the gospel; prophets, who apply the Word in spiritually compelling ways; evangelists, who have a special ability to share the gospel that often brings a positive response; and pastors/teachers, who communicate the Word so that believers are built up in their faith. The goal of the use of these gifts is that Christians will be “perfected” in their faith and move on to maturity. The effective use of gifts creates a unity that bears witness to the reality of Christ (John 13:35).
Job Titles
By C. P. Hia
For the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith. —Ephesians 4:12-13
When the British Broadcasting Corporation asked for examples of important-sounding, obscure, and even bizarre job titles, one writer offered hers: Underwater Ceramic Technician. She was a dishwasher at a restaurant. Sometimes titles are used to make a job sound more important.
When the apostle Paul listed some of God’s gifts to the church in Ephesians 4:11, he did not intend for these to be understood as high-sounding job titles. All the parts of the body are necessary for the body to function properly. No one part is better than another.
What was of primary importance was the purpose of these gifts. They were “for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to . . . the stature of the fullness of Christ” (vv.12-13).
It matters little what title we hold. What is important is that we strengthen the faith of God’s people. When we gauge our effectiveness by the standard that the Bible gives us, it will not matter when we are moved to another role or no longer hold a specific title. Out of love for God, we serve to build up fellow believers, and we let God give His commendation in heaven as He sees fit (Matt. 25:21).
Lord, please use me as Your instrument to touch
others’ lives. Help me not to be concerned
about what title I hold but instead that my
life might show others Your grace.
God’s gifts to us are not for us but for others.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 15, 2014
The Discipline of Dismay
As they followed they were afraid —Mark 10:32
At the beginning of our life with Jesus Christ, we were sure we knew all there was to know about following Him. It was a delight to forsake everything else and to throw ourselves before Him in a fearless statement of love. But now we are not quite so sure. Jesus is far ahead of us and is beginning to seem different and unfamiliar— “Jesus was going before them; and they were amazed” (Mark 10:32).
There is an aspect of Jesus that chills even a disciple’s heart to its depth and makes his entire spiritual life gasp for air. This unusual Person with His face set “like a flint” (Isaiah 50:7) is walking with great determination ahead of me, and He strikes terror right through me. He no longer seems to be my Counselor and Friend and has a point of view about which I know nothing. All I can do is stand and stare at Him in amazement. At first I was confident that I understood Him, but now I am not so sure. I begin to realize that there is a distance between Jesus and me and I can no longer be intimate with Him. I have no idea where He is going, and the goal has become strangely distant.
Jesus Christ had to understand fully every sin and sorrow that human beings could experience, and that is what makes Him seem unfamiliar. When we see this aspect of Him, we realize we really don’t know Him. We don’t recognize even one characteristic of His life, and we don’t know how to begin to follow Him. He is far ahead of us, a Leader who seems totally unfamiliar, and we have no friendship with Him.
The discipline of dismay is an essential lesson which a disciple must learn. The danger is that we tend to look back on our times of obedience and on our past sacrifices to God in an effort to keep our enthusiasm for Him strong (see Isaiah 50:10-11). But when the darkness of dismay comes, endure until it is over, because out of it will come the ability to follow Jesus truly, which brings inexpressibly wonderful joy.
Friday, March 14, 2014
Genesis 2 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: An Advocate
Not all guilt is bad. God uses appropriate doses of guilt to awaken us to sin! God's guilt brings enough regret to change us! Satan's guilt, on the other hand, brings enough regret to enslave us. Don't let Satan lock his shackles on you!
Colossians 3:3 reminds us, "your life is hidden with Christ in God." When God looks at you, he sees Jesus first. In the Chinese language the word for "righteousness" is a combination of two characters, the figure of a lamb and a person. The lamb is on top, covering the person. Whenever God looks down at you, this is what he sees: The perfect Lamb of God covering you.
So, do you trust your Advocate, Jesus, or do you trust your Accuser-Satan? Give no heed to Satan's voice! You have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous! (I John 2:1).
From GRACE
Genesis 2
Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
Adam and Eve
4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
5 Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth[b] and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, 6 but streams[c] came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. 7 Then the Lord God formed a man[d] from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin[e] and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush.[f] 14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
But for Adam[g] no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs[h] and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib[i] he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
23 The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”
24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Psalm 119:9-16
Beth
9 How can a young person stay on the path of purity?
By living according to your word.
10 I seek you with all my heart;
do not let me stray from your commands.
11 I have hidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin against you.
12 Praise be to you, Lord;
teach me your decrees.
13 With my lips I recount
all the laws that come from your mouth.
14 I rejoice in following your statutes
as one rejoices in great riches.
15 I meditate on your precepts
and consider your ways.
16 I delight in your decrees;
I will not neglect your word.
Insight
Although high-tech media has multiplied the ways we can be tempted, the issues of the heart remain the same. The question of how we can keep ourselves pure is still related to the Word of God. Our minds are to become preoccupied with Scripture (v.9). Committing the Word to memory makes it accessible in all circumstances (v.11). By meditating on Scripture, we discover its meaning and how to apply spiritual principles (v.15). In addition, sharing with others what we learn can edify them.
Prone To Wander
By Bill Crowder
With my whole heart I have sought You; oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! —Psalm 119:10
One of my favorite classic hymns is “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” which was written in 1757 by 22-year-old Robert Robinson. In the hymn’s lyrics is a line that always captures my attention and forces me to do some self-evaluation. The line says, “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.” I feel that way sometimes. Too often I find myself distracted and drifting, instead of having my heart and mind focused on the Savior who loves me and gave Himself for me. Robert Robinson and I are not alone in this.
In those seasons of wandering, our heart of hearts doesn’t want to drift from God—but, like Paul, we often do what we don’t want to do (Rom. 7:19), and we desperately need to turn back to the Shepherd of our heart who can draw us to Himself. David wrote of this struggle in His great anthem to the Scriptures, Psalm 119, saying, “With my whole heart I have sought You; oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!” (v.10).
Sometimes, even when our hearts long to seek God, the distractions of life can draw us away from Him and His Word. How grateful we can be for a patient, compassionate heavenly Father whose grace is always sufficient—even when we are prone to wander!
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above. —Robinson
Our tendency to wander is matched by God’s willingness to pursue.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, March 14, 2014
Yielding
. . . you are that one’s slaves whom you obey . . . —Romans 6:16
The first thing I must be willing to admit when I begin to examine what controls and dominates me is that I am the one responsible for having yielded myself to whatever it may be. If I am a slave to myself, I am to blame because somewhere in the past I yielded to myself. Likewise, if I obey God I do so because at some point in my life I yielded myself to Him.
If a child gives in to selfishness, he will find it to be the most enslaving tyranny on earth. There is no power within the human soul itself that is capable of breaking the bondage of the nature created by yielding. For example, yield for one second to anything in the nature of lust, and although you may hate yourself for having yielded, you become enslaved to that thing. (Remember what lust is— “I must have it now,” whether it is the lust of the flesh or the lust of the mind.) No release or escape from it will ever come from any human power, but only through the power of redemption. You must yield yourself in utter humiliation to the only One who can break the dominating power in your life, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ. “. . . He has anointed Me . . . to proclaim liberty to the captives . . .” (Luke 4:18 and Isaiah 61:1).
When you yield to something, you will soon realize the tremendous control it has over you. Even though you say, “Oh, I can give up that habit whenever I like,” you will know you can’t. You will find that the habit absolutely dominates you because you willingly yielded to it. It is easy to sing, “He will break every fetter,” while at the same time living a life of obvious slavery to yourself. But yielding to Jesus will break every kind of slavery in any person’s life.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Bigger than God Illusion - #7090
Friday, March 14, 2014
The world looks a little different through three-year-old eyes. Peter was three and he was the grandson of one of our ministry team. Little Peter was out with his Mom, and they drove past this construction site and saw one of those giant cranes. Well, Peter got all wide-eyed, and he's watching this mechanized monster moving things around. Finally, in total amazement, he tried to find a way to express how big that crane looked to him. Here's what he said: "Mommy, it's bigger than God!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Bigger than God Illusion."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Samuel 17:33, and we are watching the army of Israel being totally intimidated by Goliath, the Philistine giant. David, this little guy-teenage guy probably-wants to go out and fight him. But Saul, the king, replies in verse 33, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth." And then in Verse 37, David says, "The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine."
So by the time we get to verse 45, David charges the giant. David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin. But I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands." Now, the Israeli army looked at Goliath and said, "He's bigger than God!" And they retreated.
David seemed like the least likely person to take on the giant, but he was the only person there who believed that God was bigger than the giant. So David, it says, "ran quickly toward the battle lines to meet him." The Jews of Moses' day and Joshua's day? Well, they made the same mistake when they measuring the challenge in front of them. They looked at the Promised Land and they saw walls, and cities, and warriors that were bigger than they were. And Joshua said, "Hey, God's bigger than they are." But unbelief won the day, and so the people got to spend 40 years wandering in the wilderness as a result.
"It's bigger than God!" That's what unbelief really is saying. It's what worry is saying. We don't really believe that theologically, but practically we seem to. We get beaten by the walls, beaten by the giants and the obstacles, because we think, "This one's pretty big, maybe too big for God."
So what's the big thing that's making you afraid, making you discouraged? "These bills are bigger than God." Really? "This crisis is bigger than God." Is it? Really? "This pain, this illness, this family problem; it's bigger than...." Oh, forget it! It's nowhere near bigger than God! Nothing is! Compared to you, the challenge or the obstacle is huge. But what are you going to do with God, who created a hundred billion galaxies; who controls a hundred billion galaxies and everything in them? Why don't you measure your monster next to Him? You'll find your fear turning to faith and your stress melting into peace.
It's just this awesome God we serve! You walk by faith. You measure the giant by the size of your God, not your God by the size of the giant. Are you encountering something really big right now? Well, be awed, but not by what's big, but by your God who's bigger. That's what our little friend saw, something that was bigger than he was so he thought it was bigger than God is.
And, remember, worry and unbelief always make that mistake. If you're making that mistake right now, don't miss a miracle because you let something loom larger in your heart than the awesome God of the creation, the awesome God of the cross, the awesome God of an empty tomb, the God of the second chances; the God of the universe.
Not all guilt is bad. God uses appropriate doses of guilt to awaken us to sin! God's guilt brings enough regret to change us! Satan's guilt, on the other hand, brings enough regret to enslave us. Don't let Satan lock his shackles on you!
Colossians 3:3 reminds us, "your life is hidden with Christ in God." When God looks at you, he sees Jesus first. In the Chinese language the word for "righteousness" is a combination of two characters, the figure of a lamb and a person. The lamb is on top, covering the person. Whenever God looks down at you, this is what he sees: The perfect Lamb of God covering you.
So, do you trust your Advocate, Jesus, or do you trust your Accuser-Satan? Give no heed to Satan's voice! You have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous! (I John 2:1).
From GRACE
Genesis 2
Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
Adam and Eve
4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
5 Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth[b] and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, 6 but streams[c] came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. 7 Then the Lord God formed a man[d] from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin[e] and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush.[f] 14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
But for Adam[g] no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs[h] and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib[i] he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
23 The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”
24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Psalm 119:9-16
Beth
9 How can a young person stay on the path of purity?
By living according to your word.
10 I seek you with all my heart;
do not let me stray from your commands.
11 I have hidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin against you.
12 Praise be to you, Lord;
teach me your decrees.
13 With my lips I recount
all the laws that come from your mouth.
14 I rejoice in following your statutes
as one rejoices in great riches.
15 I meditate on your precepts
and consider your ways.
16 I delight in your decrees;
I will not neglect your word.
Insight
Although high-tech media has multiplied the ways we can be tempted, the issues of the heart remain the same. The question of how we can keep ourselves pure is still related to the Word of God. Our minds are to become preoccupied with Scripture (v.9). Committing the Word to memory makes it accessible in all circumstances (v.11). By meditating on Scripture, we discover its meaning and how to apply spiritual principles (v.15). In addition, sharing with others what we learn can edify them.
Prone To Wander
By Bill Crowder
With my whole heart I have sought You; oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! —Psalm 119:10
One of my favorite classic hymns is “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” which was written in 1757 by 22-year-old Robert Robinson. In the hymn’s lyrics is a line that always captures my attention and forces me to do some self-evaluation. The line says, “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.” I feel that way sometimes. Too often I find myself distracted and drifting, instead of having my heart and mind focused on the Savior who loves me and gave Himself for me. Robert Robinson and I are not alone in this.
In those seasons of wandering, our heart of hearts doesn’t want to drift from God—but, like Paul, we often do what we don’t want to do (Rom. 7:19), and we desperately need to turn back to the Shepherd of our heart who can draw us to Himself. David wrote of this struggle in His great anthem to the Scriptures, Psalm 119, saying, “With my whole heart I have sought You; oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!” (v.10).
Sometimes, even when our hearts long to seek God, the distractions of life can draw us away from Him and His Word. How grateful we can be for a patient, compassionate heavenly Father whose grace is always sufficient—even when we are prone to wander!
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above. —Robinson
Our tendency to wander is matched by God’s willingness to pursue.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, March 14, 2014
Yielding
. . . you are that one’s slaves whom you obey . . . —Romans 6:16
The first thing I must be willing to admit when I begin to examine what controls and dominates me is that I am the one responsible for having yielded myself to whatever it may be. If I am a slave to myself, I am to blame because somewhere in the past I yielded to myself. Likewise, if I obey God I do so because at some point in my life I yielded myself to Him.
If a child gives in to selfishness, he will find it to be the most enslaving tyranny on earth. There is no power within the human soul itself that is capable of breaking the bondage of the nature created by yielding. For example, yield for one second to anything in the nature of lust, and although you may hate yourself for having yielded, you become enslaved to that thing. (Remember what lust is— “I must have it now,” whether it is the lust of the flesh or the lust of the mind.) No release or escape from it will ever come from any human power, but only through the power of redemption. You must yield yourself in utter humiliation to the only One who can break the dominating power in your life, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ. “. . . He has anointed Me . . . to proclaim liberty to the captives . . .” (Luke 4:18 and Isaiah 61:1).
When you yield to something, you will soon realize the tremendous control it has over you. Even though you say, “Oh, I can give up that habit whenever I like,” you will know you can’t. You will find that the habit absolutely dominates you because you willingly yielded to it. It is easy to sing, “He will break every fetter,” while at the same time living a life of obvious slavery to yourself. But yielding to Jesus will break every kind of slavery in any person’s life.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Bigger than God Illusion - #7090
Friday, March 14, 2014
The world looks a little different through three-year-old eyes. Peter was three and he was the grandson of one of our ministry team. Little Peter was out with his Mom, and they drove past this construction site and saw one of those giant cranes. Well, Peter got all wide-eyed, and he's watching this mechanized monster moving things around. Finally, in total amazement, he tried to find a way to express how big that crane looked to him. Here's what he said: "Mommy, it's bigger than God!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Bigger than God Illusion."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Samuel 17:33, and we are watching the army of Israel being totally intimidated by Goliath, the Philistine giant. David, this little guy-teenage guy probably-wants to go out and fight him. But Saul, the king, replies in verse 33, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth." And then in Verse 37, David says, "The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine."
So by the time we get to verse 45, David charges the giant. David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin. But I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands." Now, the Israeli army looked at Goliath and said, "He's bigger than God!" And they retreated.
David seemed like the least likely person to take on the giant, but he was the only person there who believed that God was bigger than the giant. So David, it says, "ran quickly toward the battle lines to meet him." The Jews of Moses' day and Joshua's day? Well, they made the same mistake when they measuring the challenge in front of them. They looked at the Promised Land and they saw walls, and cities, and warriors that were bigger than they were. And Joshua said, "Hey, God's bigger than they are." But unbelief won the day, and so the people got to spend 40 years wandering in the wilderness as a result.
"It's bigger than God!" That's what unbelief really is saying. It's what worry is saying. We don't really believe that theologically, but practically we seem to. We get beaten by the walls, beaten by the giants and the obstacles, because we think, "This one's pretty big, maybe too big for God."
So what's the big thing that's making you afraid, making you discouraged? "These bills are bigger than God." Really? "This crisis is bigger than God." Is it? Really? "This pain, this illness, this family problem; it's bigger than...." Oh, forget it! It's nowhere near bigger than God! Nothing is! Compared to you, the challenge or the obstacle is huge. But what are you going to do with God, who created a hundred billion galaxies; who controls a hundred billion galaxies and everything in them? Why don't you measure your monster next to Him? You'll find your fear turning to faith and your stress melting into peace.
It's just this awesome God we serve! You walk by faith. You measure the giant by the size of your God, not your God by the size of the giant. Are you encountering something really big right now? Well, be awed, but not by what's big, but by your God who's bigger. That's what our little friend saw, something that was bigger than he was so he thought it was bigger than God is.
And, remember, worry and unbelief always make that mistake. If you're making that mistake right now, don't miss a miracle because you let something loom larger in your heart than the awesome God of the creation, the awesome God of the cross, the awesome God of an empty tomb, the God of the second chances; the God of the universe.
Thursday, March 13, 2014
Genesis 1 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Satan’s Condemnation
Satan’s condemnation brings no repentance or resolve, just regret! Satan has come to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). To steal your peace, kill your dreams, and destroy your future. Satan has deputized people to peddle his poison. Friends dredge up your past. Preachers proclaim all guilt and no grace. And parents, oh, your parents. “Why can’t you grow up?” they say. “When are you going to make me proud?” they say. But your accusers will not have the last word! Jesus has acted on your behalf. Jesus Christ has risen to your defense.
Hebrews 10:22 urges “. . .let us come near to God with a sincere heart and a sure faith, because we have been made free from a guilty conscience.”
Not just for our past mistakes but also for our future ones. Behold the fruit of grace: saved by God, raised by God, seated with God! Gifted, equipped, and commissioned!
From GRACE
Genesis 1
The Beginning
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
6 And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.
14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.
20 And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.
24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Isaiah 40:27-31; 41:10
Why do you complain, Jacob?
Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord;
my cause is disregarded by my God”?
28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Insight
To say the least, coping with life’s many demands can be fatiguing at times. But the reading for today uses wonderful poetic imagery to describe the buoyancy that faith can provide. The believer who depends upon the Lord can “mount up with wings like eagles” (40:31). The text also mentions the supernatural staying power and stamina that only God can provide. In contrast to the strength that youth and health provide, the person of faith can persevere long after others have given up on the race of life. Finally, Isaiah 41:10 extends a wonderful promise of protection and care through life’s threats and troubles.
Without Power
By David C. McCasland
He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. —Isaiah 40:29
In late October 2012, a hurricane-spawned superstorm struck the heavily populated northeastern US, leaving massive flooding and destruction in its wake. During the storm, more than 8 million customers lost electricity. Power outages alone caused shortages of food, fuel, and water, along with the chaos of gridlocked transportation. The howling winds and surging waters left many neighborhoods crushed, flooded, and choked with mountains of sand. Media coverage of the event reported: “Millions Without Power.”
Like a storm of nature, a personal tragedy can often leave us feeling powerless and in the dark. During such times, God’s Word assures us of His help: “He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength” (Isa. 40:29).
At our lowest point, drained of emotional resources, we can place our hope in the Lord and find our strength in Him. He promises us that, for each new day, “Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” (v.31).
God is our spiritual power source in every storm of life.
O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home! —Watts
It takes the storm to prove the real shelter.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, March 13, 2014
God’s Total Surrender to Us
For God so loved the world that He gave . . . —John 3:16
Salvation does not mean merely deliverance from sin or the experience of personal holiness. The salvation which comes from God means being completely delivered from myself, and being placed into perfect union with Him. When I think of my salvation experience, I think of being delivered from sin and gaining personal holiness. But salvation is so much more! It means that the Spirit of God has brought me into intimate contact with the true Person of God Himself. And as I am caught up into total surrender to God, I become thrilled with something infinitely greater than myself.
To say that we are called to preach holiness or sanctification is to miss the main point. We are called to proclaim Jesus Christ (see 1 Corinthians 2:2). The fact that He saves from sin and makes us holy is actually part of the effect of His wonderful and total surrender to us.
If we are truly surrendered, we will never be aware of our own efforts to remain surrendered. Our entire life will be consumed with the One to whom we surrender. Beware of talking about surrender if you know nothing about it. In fact, you will never know anything about it until you understand that John 3:16 means that God completely and absolutely gave Himself to us. In our surrender, we must give ourselves to God in the same way He gave Himself for us— totally, unconditionally, and without reservation. The consequences and circumstances resulting from our surrender will never even enter our mind, because our life will be totally consumed with Him.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Knocking Out the Light - #7089
Thursday, March 13, 2014
It was about noon when I heard the news. Fortunately, I was safe in my office. All the power was out at Newark Airport. Now, I had used that airport so many times I could very well have been one of those poor travelers who I saw on the evening news groping their way through a totally darkened terminal. There was no electricity to the terminal for an entire day. What a mess! No lights, no computers, no baggage equipment. It was a good day to be in my office. And the reason there were no lights? A pile driver that was being used on an airport construction project somehow punched right through the main power line. With the power and lights out, it was just a very dark day.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Knocking Out the Light."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Luke 22:31-32 , where Jesus says to Simon Peter, "Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers." Okay, now here's Peter, perhaps the brightest light of the disciples. And basically Jesus is saying, "Satan wants to knock you out, man." And he wants to do that to anyone who is a light in a dark spot-like you maybe.
See, if it's dark where you work, and you're Jesus' light there if you belong to Him. And the enemy wants the light out so it's totally dark. Maybe it's dark in your school, your area, your family, but God has installed a light there-you. And Satan's trying to knock out the light. He wants to sift you as wheat, and God may be preparing you to spread the light to an even larger circle of people. Don't be surprised if you're suddenly taking a pounding from hell's pile driver. The enemy's only hope of keeping his prisoners in the dark is to knock out the light. So does this explain maybe some of what's been hitting you? You're making a difference, or you're about to. And the forces of darkness want to destroy or at least dim your light.
One wise old preacher gave a young evangelist this advice. He said, "The ferocity of Satan's attack upon you will increase in direct proportion to your potential usefulness for Jesus Christ." So the difficulties and feelings and temptations you've been dealing with lately may not mean there's anything wrong at all. In fact, there may be something wonderfully right. You're starting to make an impact for Jesus. You've attracted attention in hell. You're not wrestling with flesh and blood but against principalities and powers-spiritual forces. There's no reason to be afraid. There's no reason to be discouraged. According to Colossians 2:15 , Jesus has "disarmed the powers and authorities. He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by His cross." Wow!
Remember the simple principles of winning against any attack from the dark side. Number one; depend on spiritual weapons to win spiritual battles. That means prayer and fasting. You need to recruit a team of prayer warriors to cover you now with daily prayer as you're becoming a make-a-difference person. You're a target now, and God's people praying for you will cover you with the blood of Jesus and a hedge of His protection.
Number two, regularly put on the spiritual armor of God. Read-memorize if you can-Ephesians 6:10-18 . Thirdly, don't give the devil a foothold. Remove any sin, any compromise that your enemy can use to get into your life. And number four; keep your power lines strong. Don't miss a day of being with Jesus through His Word.
Yes, Satan may desire to have you. But Jesus says, "I prayed for you." Your enemy wants the people around you to spend this life and forever like those people at the airport that day. He wants them stumbling in the dark. He has only one way to make this happen-knock out the light.
If you wander away from Jesus, they'll go there with you. You're either going to be a reason for somebody to be attracted to Jesus or say, "He doesn't really work." There's a lot riding on you keeping the light on. So stay close to the awesome power of the Lord Jesus Christ, who Himself is the light of the world.
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Revelation 22 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Voices in our Head
Voices of 'failure' in our world. Voices of 'not good enough' in our head. Who is this morality patrolman who issues a citation at every stumble? Does he ever shut up? No. Because Satan never shuts up!
Revelation 12:9-10 says, "For the Accuser has been thrown down to earth, the one who accused our brothers and sisters before God day and night."
Satan is relentless, tireless. The Accuser makes a career out of accusing. But he will not have the last word. Jesus has acted on our behalf. He stooped…low enough to be spat upon, nailed, and speared. Low…low enough to be buried. And then he stood…he stood up!
Romans 8:34 promises that Christ is in the presence of God at this very moment standing up for us. We have a clean record. It's by his grace!
From GRACE
Revelation 22
New International Version (NIV)
Eden Restored
22 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.
John and the Angel
6 The angel said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God who inspires the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place.”
7 “Look, I am coming soon! Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy written in this scroll.”
8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me. 9 But he said to me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your fellow prophets and with all who keep the words of this scroll. Worship God!”
10 Then he told me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this scroll, because the time is near. 11 Let the one who does wrong continue to do wrong; let the vile person continue to be vile; let the one who does right continue to do right; and let the holy person continue to be holy.”
Epilogue: Invitation and Warning
12 “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
14 “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. 15 Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
16 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you[a] this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”
17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.
18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. 19 And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.
20 He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.
Footnotes:
Revelation 22:16 The Greek is plural.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Matthew 7:7-12
Ask, Seek, Knock
7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
Insight
In the reading today, we see how our Lord emphasized the importance of persistence in prayer. The actual Greek grammar might be better translated as “Seek and keep on seeking. Knock and keep on knocking. Ask and keep on asking.” Sometimes sincere believers may believe that a sign of faith is to ask God once for a request and never repeat it. But the teachings of the New Testament do not support such a concept. In the parable of the judge and the widow who repeatedly asked him to hear her case, the idea of persistence is central (Luke 18:1-8). As is the case with Job, King David, and other biblical characters, faith is often expressed through repeated prayers and pleading.
The Golden Rule
By David H. Roper
Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them. —Matthew 7:12
The concept of The Golden Rule—treat others as you would like to be treated—appears in many religions. So what makes Jesus’ version of the saying so exceptional?
Its uniqueness lies in a single word, “therefore,” that signals the generosity of our heavenly Father. Here is what Jesus said: “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them” (Matt. 7:11-12 italics added).
All of us fall short of what we know to be true: We do not love others the way God loves us. Jesus lived out that admirable ethic with perfect love by living and dying for all our sins.
We have a loving, giving Father who set aside His own self-interest to reveal the full measure of His love through His Son Jesus. God’s generosity is the dynamic by which we treat others as we would like to be treated. We love and give to others because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).
Our heavenly Father asks us to live up to His commands, but He also gives us His power and love to carry it out. We need only to ask Him for it.
Heavenly Father, I know that I lack Your
patience and mercy and love. Please show
Your perfect love through me in some small
way today. In Your Son Jesus’ name I pray.
We have committed The Golden Rule to memory; now let us commit it to life. —E. Markham
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Total Surrender
Peter began to say to Him, ’See, we have left all and followed You’ —Mark 10:28
Our Lord replies to this statement of Peter by saying that this surrender is “for My sake and the gospel’s” (10:29). It was not for the purpose of what the disciples themselves would get out of it. Beware of surrender that is motivated by personal benefits that may result. For example, “I’m going to give myself to God because I want to be delivered from sin, because I want to be made holy.” Being delivered from sin and being made holy are the result of being right with God, but surrender resulting from this kind of thinking is certainly not the true nature of Christianity. Our motive for surrender should not be for any personal gain at all. We have become so self-centered that we go to God only for something from Him, and not for God Himself. It is like saying, “No, Lord, I don’t want you; I want myself. But I do want You to clean me and fill me with Your Holy Spirit. I want to be on display in Your showcase so I can say, ’This is what God has done for me.’ ” Gaining heaven, being delivered from sin, and being made useful to God are things that should never even be a consideration in real surrender. Genuine total surrender is a personal sovereign preference for Jesus Christ Himself.
Where does Jesus Christ figure in when we have a concern about our natural relationships? Most of us will desert Him with this excuse—”Yes, Lord, I heard you call me, but my family needs me and I have my own interests. I just can’t go any further” (see Luke 9:57-62). “Then,” Jesus says, “you ’cannot be My disciple’ ” (see Luke 14:26-33).
True surrender will always go beyond natural devotion. If we will only give up, God will surrender Himself to embrace all those around us and will meet their needs, which were created by our surrender. Beware of stopping anywhere short of total surrender to God. Most of us have only a vision of what this really means, but have never truly experienced it.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Volcanoes All Around - #7088
Violence in a movie theater? That's not news. I mean, there's a lot of it on the screen. But, this time, there was violence in the seats of a Florida theatre. A man actually killed a man in front of him. Shot him! Apparently because the victim was texting during the previews. Turns out he was texting daycare to check on his three-year-old daughter.
It's a disturbing reminder of a troubling reality of our time. We're surrounded by angry people who are one provocation away from an explosion. I mean, you can tell by how they're enraged about seemingly small things. You know they already had to have a very full glass for a single drop to make them spill all over everybody. Our easily-triggered and quickly-provoked anger should scare us. Because rage crushes reason and makes us blind to the expensive of consequences of our eruption.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Volcanoes All Around."
When I was in Quito, Ecuador, I was surprised to learn that the city is virtually ringed by volcanic mountains. Dormant, I hoped. The locals pointed out one in particular-Antisana. "It's 18,000 feet," they said, and I was impressed. "They believe it used to be 28,000 feet." I was curious. Turns out that it just blew its top one day. The eruption didn't really last all that long, but the damage was forever. What was lost was lost for good.
Anger's like that. Just ask the spouses, the children who bear the permanent scars from a human volcano near them. Or the countless people who are forever diminished by the angry words, names, and accusations heaped on them. Probably by someone who supposedly loves them.
The "molten lava" of rage often comes from a lot of junk we stuffed inside: wounds, disappointments and perceived injustices. I've found you have just two choices with life's bad stuff. You can let it go or you'll let it grow. Bitterness, grudges, unforgiveness; they don't stay the same size. They morph from deal-withable grassfires into uncontrollable infernos unless you deal with them when they're small.
I found this simple defusing technique in the ancient wisdom of the world's best-selling book. It says, "Do not let the sun go down while you're angry." In other words, deal with it while it's small - manageable. Talk it through. Forgive, if necessary. Get some distance. Just don't stuff it.
Our hair-trigger temper should scare us enough to seek out a place to dump the build-up of years. Someone we can pour it all out to. Someone who can help us work through it. Even to trace our rage back to those original wounds we never dealt with; wounds that became the foundation for what is now a volcanic backlog of angry "sundowns." Unconfronted anger is a ticking time bomb. It's sure to explode, carrying us to consequences we could never imagine. If we're honest, we've all got a dark side. Some of us are better at concealing it than others, but it's still a defining part of who we are.
One teenage guy summed it up pretty well when he told me, "Ron, there's a darkness inside me that scares me." Me, too. Rage, passion, greed, self-destruction, selfishness: they're all symptoms, the Bible explains, of a much deeper cancer. Our rebellion against God. Hijackers; that's what we are. While we were "created by Him and for Him," the Bible says. It also says, "Each of us has turned to His own way" (Colossians 1:16; Isaiah 53:6).
We've left the Sun we were made for and drifted into ever-darker corners of ourselves. In our word for today from the Word of God, Romans chapter 7 beginning in verse 24, one Bible writer describes himself as a "prisoner of sin," and he cried out, "Who will rescue me?" Then the answer. "Thank God! Jesus Christ our Lord!"
The Bible reveals that Jesus turned the full wrath of the beast of sin on Himself when He absorbed all our darkness, all the hell, dying on the cross. He has beaten the monster that has always beaten me. The darkness doesn't have to win any more.
There is a Liberator, a Savior. A Savior I want you to know as I've come to know Him. I ask you to join me at our website and find there the road to begin a relationship with Him that is so transforming. Go to ANewStory.com. I hope you'll check it out today, and let this be your new beginning.
Voices of 'failure' in our world. Voices of 'not good enough' in our head. Who is this morality patrolman who issues a citation at every stumble? Does he ever shut up? No. Because Satan never shuts up!
Revelation 12:9-10 says, "For the Accuser has been thrown down to earth, the one who accused our brothers and sisters before God day and night."
Satan is relentless, tireless. The Accuser makes a career out of accusing. But he will not have the last word. Jesus has acted on our behalf. He stooped…low enough to be spat upon, nailed, and speared. Low…low enough to be buried. And then he stood…he stood up!
Romans 8:34 promises that Christ is in the presence of God at this very moment standing up for us. We have a clean record. It's by his grace!
From GRACE
Revelation 22
New International Version (NIV)
Eden Restored
22 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.
John and the Angel
6 The angel said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God who inspires the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place.”
7 “Look, I am coming soon! Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy written in this scroll.”
8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me. 9 But he said to me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your fellow prophets and with all who keep the words of this scroll. Worship God!”
10 Then he told me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this scroll, because the time is near. 11 Let the one who does wrong continue to do wrong; let the vile person continue to be vile; let the one who does right continue to do right; and let the holy person continue to be holy.”
Epilogue: Invitation and Warning
12 “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
14 “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. 15 Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
16 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you[a] this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”
17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.
18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. 19 And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.
20 He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.
Footnotes:
Revelation 22:16 The Greek is plural.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Matthew 7:7-12
Ask, Seek, Knock
7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
Insight
In the reading today, we see how our Lord emphasized the importance of persistence in prayer. The actual Greek grammar might be better translated as “Seek and keep on seeking. Knock and keep on knocking. Ask and keep on asking.” Sometimes sincere believers may believe that a sign of faith is to ask God once for a request and never repeat it. But the teachings of the New Testament do not support such a concept. In the parable of the judge and the widow who repeatedly asked him to hear her case, the idea of persistence is central (Luke 18:1-8). As is the case with Job, King David, and other biblical characters, faith is often expressed through repeated prayers and pleading.
The Golden Rule
By David H. Roper
Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them. —Matthew 7:12
The concept of The Golden Rule—treat others as you would like to be treated—appears in many religions. So what makes Jesus’ version of the saying so exceptional?
Its uniqueness lies in a single word, “therefore,” that signals the generosity of our heavenly Father. Here is what Jesus said: “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them” (Matt. 7:11-12 italics added).
All of us fall short of what we know to be true: We do not love others the way God loves us. Jesus lived out that admirable ethic with perfect love by living and dying for all our sins.
We have a loving, giving Father who set aside His own self-interest to reveal the full measure of His love through His Son Jesus. God’s generosity is the dynamic by which we treat others as we would like to be treated. We love and give to others because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).
Our heavenly Father asks us to live up to His commands, but He also gives us His power and love to carry it out. We need only to ask Him for it.
Heavenly Father, I know that I lack Your
patience and mercy and love. Please show
Your perfect love through me in some small
way today. In Your Son Jesus’ name I pray.
We have committed The Golden Rule to memory; now let us commit it to life. —E. Markham
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Total Surrender
Peter began to say to Him, ’See, we have left all and followed You’ —Mark 10:28
Our Lord replies to this statement of Peter by saying that this surrender is “for My sake and the gospel’s” (10:29). It was not for the purpose of what the disciples themselves would get out of it. Beware of surrender that is motivated by personal benefits that may result. For example, “I’m going to give myself to God because I want to be delivered from sin, because I want to be made holy.” Being delivered from sin and being made holy are the result of being right with God, but surrender resulting from this kind of thinking is certainly not the true nature of Christianity. Our motive for surrender should not be for any personal gain at all. We have become so self-centered that we go to God only for something from Him, and not for God Himself. It is like saying, “No, Lord, I don’t want you; I want myself. But I do want You to clean me and fill me with Your Holy Spirit. I want to be on display in Your showcase so I can say, ’This is what God has done for me.’ ” Gaining heaven, being delivered from sin, and being made useful to God are things that should never even be a consideration in real surrender. Genuine total surrender is a personal sovereign preference for Jesus Christ Himself.
Where does Jesus Christ figure in when we have a concern about our natural relationships? Most of us will desert Him with this excuse—”Yes, Lord, I heard you call me, but my family needs me and I have my own interests. I just can’t go any further” (see Luke 9:57-62). “Then,” Jesus says, “you ’cannot be My disciple’ ” (see Luke 14:26-33).
True surrender will always go beyond natural devotion. If we will only give up, God will surrender Himself to embrace all those around us and will meet their needs, which were created by our surrender. Beware of stopping anywhere short of total surrender to God. Most of us have only a vision of what this really means, but have never truly experienced it.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Volcanoes All Around - #7088
Violence in a movie theater? That's not news. I mean, there's a lot of it on the screen. But, this time, there was violence in the seats of a Florida theatre. A man actually killed a man in front of him. Shot him! Apparently because the victim was texting during the previews. Turns out he was texting daycare to check on his three-year-old daughter.
It's a disturbing reminder of a troubling reality of our time. We're surrounded by angry people who are one provocation away from an explosion. I mean, you can tell by how they're enraged about seemingly small things. You know they already had to have a very full glass for a single drop to make them spill all over everybody. Our easily-triggered and quickly-provoked anger should scare us. Because rage crushes reason and makes us blind to the expensive of consequences of our eruption.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Volcanoes All Around."
When I was in Quito, Ecuador, I was surprised to learn that the city is virtually ringed by volcanic mountains. Dormant, I hoped. The locals pointed out one in particular-Antisana. "It's 18,000 feet," they said, and I was impressed. "They believe it used to be 28,000 feet." I was curious. Turns out that it just blew its top one day. The eruption didn't really last all that long, but the damage was forever. What was lost was lost for good.
Anger's like that. Just ask the spouses, the children who bear the permanent scars from a human volcano near them. Or the countless people who are forever diminished by the angry words, names, and accusations heaped on them. Probably by someone who supposedly loves them.
The "molten lava" of rage often comes from a lot of junk we stuffed inside: wounds, disappointments and perceived injustices. I've found you have just two choices with life's bad stuff. You can let it go or you'll let it grow. Bitterness, grudges, unforgiveness; they don't stay the same size. They morph from deal-withable grassfires into uncontrollable infernos unless you deal with them when they're small.
I found this simple defusing technique in the ancient wisdom of the world's best-selling book. It says, "Do not let the sun go down while you're angry." In other words, deal with it while it's small - manageable. Talk it through. Forgive, if necessary. Get some distance. Just don't stuff it.
Our hair-trigger temper should scare us enough to seek out a place to dump the build-up of years. Someone we can pour it all out to. Someone who can help us work through it. Even to trace our rage back to those original wounds we never dealt with; wounds that became the foundation for what is now a volcanic backlog of angry "sundowns." Unconfronted anger is a ticking time bomb. It's sure to explode, carrying us to consequences we could never imagine. If we're honest, we've all got a dark side. Some of us are better at concealing it than others, but it's still a defining part of who we are.
One teenage guy summed it up pretty well when he told me, "Ron, there's a darkness inside me that scares me." Me, too. Rage, passion, greed, self-destruction, selfishness: they're all symptoms, the Bible explains, of a much deeper cancer. Our rebellion against God. Hijackers; that's what we are. While we were "created by Him and for Him," the Bible says. It also says, "Each of us has turned to His own way" (Colossians 1:16; Isaiah 53:6).
We've left the Sun we were made for and drifted into ever-darker corners of ourselves. In our word for today from the Word of God, Romans chapter 7 beginning in verse 24, one Bible writer describes himself as a "prisoner of sin," and he cried out, "Who will rescue me?" Then the answer. "Thank God! Jesus Christ our Lord!"
The Bible reveals that Jesus turned the full wrath of the beast of sin on Himself when He absorbed all our darkness, all the hell, dying on the cross. He has beaten the monster that has always beaten me. The darkness doesn't have to win any more.
There is a Liberator, a Savior. A Savior I want you to know as I've come to know Him. I ask you to join me at our website and find there the road to begin a relationship with Him that is so transforming. Go to ANewStory.com. I hope you'll check it out today, and let this be your new beginning.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Malachi 4, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: A Second Chance
She was only five years old when you took the photo. Cheeks freckled by the summer sun, hair in pigtails. That was twenty years ago. Three marriages ago. A million flight miles and e-mails ago. Today she walks down the aisle on the arm of another father. You left your family bobbing in the wake of your high-speed career. Now that you have what you wanted, you don't want it at all. Oh, to have a second chance.
1 John 4:15 says, "Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God."
He re-purposes bad decisions and squalid choices. Saved by grace is to be saved by Him. He placed a term limit on sin and danced a victory jig in a graveyard. God can do something with the mess of your life. Grace is what you need!
From GRACE
Malachi 4
Judgment and Covenant Renewal
“Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. 2 But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves. 3 Then you will trample on the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty.
4 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel.
5 “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”
Footnotes:
Malachi 4:1 In Hebrew texts 4:1-6 is numbered 3:19-24.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: James 3:1-12
Taming the Tongue
Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2 We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.
3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5 Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. 11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.
Insight
In today’s passage, James writes about Christian maturity. One of the characteristics of maturity is self-control, particularly control of the tongue. Fortunately, we are not responsible for developing it by willpower alone. It is one of the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:23).
The Silent Pen
By Randy Kilgore
The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. —James 3:18
Former US President Harry Truman had a rule: Any letters written in anger had to sit on his desk for 24 hours before they could be mailed. If at the end of that “cooling off” period, he still felt the same sentiments, he would send the letter. By the end of his life, Truman’s unmailed letters filled a large desk drawer.
How often in this age of immediate communication would even 24 minutes of wise restraint spare us embarrassment! In his epistle, James addressed a universal theme in human history when he wrote about the damage an uncontrolled tongue can bring. “No man can tame the tongue,” he wrote. “It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison” (3:8).
When we’re gossiping or speaking in anger, we find ourselves outside the lines of what God desires. Our tongues, our pens, and even our keyboards should more often fall silent with thanks in our hearts for the restraint God provides. All too often, when we speak we remind everyone of our brokenness as human beings.
When we want to surprise others with the difference Christ makes, we may need to look no further than restraining our tongue. Others can’t help but notice when we honor God with what we say—or don’t say.
Help me, Lord, to use my words not to
tear down others or build up my own reputation,
but to seek the good of others first, and in so doing
to serve You and Your kingdom.
Whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles. —Proverbs 21:23
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Obedience to the “Heavenly Vision”
I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision —Acts 26:19
If we lose “the heavenly vision” God has given us, we alone are responsible— not God. We lose the vision because of our own lack of spiritual growth. If we do not apply our beliefs about God to the issues of everyday life, the vision God has given us will never be fulfilled. The only way to be obedient to “the heavenly vision” is to give our utmost for His highest— our best for His glory. This can be accomplished only when we make a determination to continually remember God’s vision. But the acid test is obedience to the vision in the details of our everyday life— sixty seconds out of every minute, and sixty minutes out of every hour, not just during times of personal prayer or public meetings.
“Though it tarries, wait for it . . .” (Habakkuk 2:3). We cannot bring the vision to fulfillment through our own efforts, but must live under its inspiration until it fulfills itself. We try to be so practical that we forget the vision. At the very beginning we saw the vision but did not wait for it. We rushed off to do our practical work, and once the vision was fulfilled we could no longer even see it. Waiting for a vision that “tarries” is the true test of our faithfulness to God. It is at the risk of our own soul’s welfare that we get caught up in practical busy-work, only to miss the fulfillment of the vision.
Watch for the storms of God. The only way God plants His saints is through the whirlwind of His storms. Will you be proven to be an empty pod with no seed inside? That will depend on whether or not you are actually living in the light of the vision you have seen. Let God send you out through His storm, and don’t go until He does. If you select your own spot to be planted, you will prove yourself to be an unproductive, empty pod. However, if you allow God to plant you, you will “bear much fruit” (John 15:8).
It is essential that we live and “walk in the light” of God’s vision for us (1 John 1:7).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
When Power is Abused - #7087
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
We'll put up with a lot from our politicians, but not everything. See, we really don't like it when someone in power abuses that power for personal gain, personal revenge, covering up wrongdoing, and exploiting other people.
In news just a few weeks ago, a former governor was allegedly using his position to feather his own financial nest. At least that's the accusations. And accusations have been flying about another governor who some say used his power to punish or intimidate. But accusations sometimes are all it takes to turn public opinion.
On the other hand, the press can abuse its power, right? Editing, arranging, and slanting the news to serve their view of how the world should be.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When Power is Abused."
My first brush with the abuse of power was Boomer. He was our neighborhood bully. I'm not sure if his mother predestined his "bullyness" by naming him Boomer or if he just plain earned it. He was the biggest kid on the block. So he intimidated and threatened and ripped off all of us little kids, and he got away with it just because he was big. We hated it. You know, we still do...all of us.
I find it very easy to see power being abused when it's someone else, but not so much when it's me. Because, in one way or another, most of us have some kind of position that gives us some power in people's lives. I'm a husband and I have the power to elevate my wife or push her down. I'm a parent which gives me all kinds of power to make my children feel very special or very small.
I'm an employer, and that puts me in a driver's seat where I can dominate or develop people. There are men who use their power to use and abuse and diminish women. Thus exposing what small men they are. There are women who use their power to manipulate and control, thus forfeiting the tenderness and selflessness that makes a woman really beautiful.
There are parents who use the incalculable power they have to crush, to criticize, to belittle their children. Or to use a son or daughter to fulfill what they once were or what they never were and want to be and birthing a robot or a rebel in the process. There are leaders who feel position entitles them to ignore the rules and treat people as things. Thus failing as humans no matter how high they rise, and guaranteeing that one day the bill will come and be more than they can pay. Power is a trust, not a weapon, not a platform for your personal agenda, not a license to live for yourself.
In my lifetime, there have been people I had to follow only because they were in the power position. Then there have been those that I wanted to follow whether they had the position or not because of their character; leading, not using. Leaving you encouraged, not diminished. They empowered, not erased us. Forgiving, not punishing. Making other people feel important instead of acting like they were important.
That's power. Not being a control freak, which is often why we covet power; to be in control. Must be first. Must call the shots. Must get you to do what I want you to do. Must get my way. Tragically, that's put us in the danger zone with the very One who has all the power there is. That would be God. We've decided that we will take charge of a life that God created; hijacking what is His to do with it what we want instead of what He planned.
But defying God has a high price tag. In our word for today from the Word of God, Isaiah 59:2 it says, "Your sins have separated you from your God." I've felt that wall between me and God. I'll bet we all have. Living with that wall means never knowing the purpose and the love I was made for. Dying with that wall there means it will be there forever.
My power grab of my life would have cost me everything except the amazing intervention of the very God I've rebelled against. The Bible says, "He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:10). The One with all the power set it aside to rescue me. And when I surrendered the wheel to Him, He moved into my life with all that power that raised Him from the dead. Plus, He's bigger than any "Boomer" I'll ever face!
I want to help you begin a relationship with this Jesus. I hope you'll go to ANewStory.com to find out how. There's no reason to live one more day without the One who loves you the most.
She was only five years old when you took the photo. Cheeks freckled by the summer sun, hair in pigtails. That was twenty years ago. Three marriages ago. A million flight miles and e-mails ago. Today she walks down the aisle on the arm of another father. You left your family bobbing in the wake of your high-speed career. Now that you have what you wanted, you don't want it at all. Oh, to have a second chance.
1 John 4:15 says, "Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God."
He re-purposes bad decisions and squalid choices. Saved by grace is to be saved by Him. He placed a term limit on sin and danced a victory jig in a graveyard. God can do something with the mess of your life. Grace is what you need!
From GRACE
Malachi 4
Judgment and Covenant Renewal
“Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. 2 But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves. 3 Then you will trample on the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty.
4 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel.
5 “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”
Footnotes:
Malachi 4:1 In Hebrew texts 4:1-6 is numbered 3:19-24.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: James 3:1-12
Taming the Tongue
Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2 We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.
3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5 Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. 11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.
Insight
In today’s passage, James writes about Christian maturity. One of the characteristics of maturity is self-control, particularly control of the tongue. Fortunately, we are not responsible for developing it by willpower alone. It is one of the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:23).
The Silent Pen
By Randy Kilgore
The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. —James 3:18
Former US President Harry Truman had a rule: Any letters written in anger had to sit on his desk for 24 hours before they could be mailed. If at the end of that “cooling off” period, he still felt the same sentiments, he would send the letter. By the end of his life, Truman’s unmailed letters filled a large desk drawer.
How often in this age of immediate communication would even 24 minutes of wise restraint spare us embarrassment! In his epistle, James addressed a universal theme in human history when he wrote about the damage an uncontrolled tongue can bring. “No man can tame the tongue,” he wrote. “It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison” (3:8).
When we’re gossiping or speaking in anger, we find ourselves outside the lines of what God desires. Our tongues, our pens, and even our keyboards should more often fall silent with thanks in our hearts for the restraint God provides. All too often, when we speak we remind everyone of our brokenness as human beings.
When we want to surprise others with the difference Christ makes, we may need to look no further than restraining our tongue. Others can’t help but notice when we honor God with what we say—or don’t say.
Help me, Lord, to use my words not to
tear down others or build up my own reputation,
but to seek the good of others first, and in so doing
to serve You and Your kingdom.
Whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles. —Proverbs 21:23
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Obedience to the “Heavenly Vision”
I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision —Acts 26:19
If we lose “the heavenly vision” God has given us, we alone are responsible— not God. We lose the vision because of our own lack of spiritual growth. If we do not apply our beliefs about God to the issues of everyday life, the vision God has given us will never be fulfilled. The only way to be obedient to “the heavenly vision” is to give our utmost for His highest— our best for His glory. This can be accomplished only when we make a determination to continually remember God’s vision. But the acid test is obedience to the vision in the details of our everyday life— sixty seconds out of every minute, and sixty minutes out of every hour, not just during times of personal prayer or public meetings.
“Though it tarries, wait for it . . .” (Habakkuk 2:3). We cannot bring the vision to fulfillment through our own efforts, but must live under its inspiration until it fulfills itself. We try to be so practical that we forget the vision. At the very beginning we saw the vision but did not wait for it. We rushed off to do our practical work, and once the vision was fulfilled we could no longer even see it. Waiting for a vision that “tarries” is the true test of our faithfulness to God. It is at the risk of our own soul’s welfare that we get caught up in practical busy-work, only to miss the fulfillment of the vision.
Watch for the storms of God. The only way God plants His saints is through the whirlwind of His storms. Will you be proven to be an empty pod with no seed inside? That will depend on whether or not you are actually living in the light of the vision you have seen. Let God send you out through His storm, and don’t go until He does. If you select your own spot to be planted, you will prove yourself to be an unproductive, empty pod. However, if you allow God to plant you, you will “bear much fruit” (John 15:8).
It is essential that we live and “walk in the light” of God’s vision for us (1 John 1:7).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
When Power is Abused - #7087
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
We'll put up with a lot from our politicians, but not everything. See, we really don't like it when someone in power abuses that power for personal gain, personal revenge, covering up wrongdoing, and exploiting other people.
In news just a few weeks ago, a former governor was allegedly using his position to feather his own financial nest. At least that's the accusations. And accusations have been flying about another governor who some say used his power to punish or intimidate. But accusations sometimes are all it takes to turn public opinion.
On the other hand, the press can abuse its power, right? Editing, arranging, and slanting the news to serve their view of how the world should be.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When Power is Abused."
My first brush with the abuse of power was Boomer. He was our neighborhood bully. I'm not sure if his mother predestined his "bullyness" by naming him Boomer or if he just plain earned it. He was the biggest kid on the block. So he intimidated and threatened and ripped off all of us little kids, and he got away with it just because he was big. We hated it. You know, we still do...all of us.
I find it very easy to see power being abused when it's someone else, but not so much when it's me. Because, in one way or another, most of us have some kind of position that gives us some power in people's lives. I'm a husband and I have the power to elevate my wife or push her down. I'm a parent which gives me all kinds of power to make my children feel very special or very small.
I'm an employer, and that puts me in a driver's seat where I can dominate or develop people. There are men who use their power to use and abuse and diminish women. Thus exposing what small men they are. There are women who use their power to manipulate and control, thus forfeiting the tenderness and selflessness that makes a woman really beautiful.
There are parents who use the incalculable power they have to crush, to criticize, to belittle their children. Or to use a son or daughter to fulfill what they once were or what they never were and want to be and birthing a robot or a rebel in the process. There are leaders who feel position entitles them to ignore the rules and treat people as things. Thus failing as humans no matter how high they rise, and guaranteeing that one day the bill will come and be more than they can pay. Power is a trust, not a weapon, not a platform for your personal agenda, not a license to live for yourself.
In my lifetime, there have been people I had to follow only because they were in the power position. Then there have been those that I wanted to follow whether they had the position or not because of their character; leading, not using. Leaving you encouraged, not diminished. They empowered, not erased us. Forgiving, not punishing. Making other people feel important instead of acting like they were important.
That's power. Not being a control freak, which is often why we covet power; to be in control. Must be first. Must call the shots. Must get you to do what I want you to do. Must get my way. Tragically, that's put us in the danger zone with the very One who has all the power there is. That would be God. We've decided that we will take charge of a life that God created; hijacking what is His to do with it what we want instead of what He planned.
But defying God has a high price tag. In our word for today from the Word of God, Isaiah 59:2 it says, "Your sins have separated you from your God." I've felt that wall between me and God. I'll bet we all have. Living with that wall means never knowing the purpose and the love I was made for. Dying with that wall there means it will be there forever.
My power grab of my life would have cost me everything except the amazing intervention of the very God I've rebelled against. The Bible says, "He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:10). The One with all the power set it aside to rescue me. And when I surrendered the wheel to Him, He moved into my life with all that power that raised Him from the dead. Plus, He's bigger than any "Boomer" I'll ever face!
I want to help you begin a relationship with this Jesus. I hope you'll go to ANewStory.com to find out how. There's no reason to live one more day without the One who loves you the most.
Monday, March 10, 2014
Malachi 3, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Christ in You
When grace happens, Christ enters. Christ in you, the hope of glory! For many years, I missed this truth. I believed all the other prepositions: Christ for me, with me, ahead of me. But I never imagined that Christ was in me.
I can't blame my deficiency on Scripture. Paul refers to the indwelling Christ 216 times. John mentions his presence 26 times. No other religion or philosophy makes such a claim. No other movement implies the living presence of its founder in his followers.
Muhammad does not indwell Muslims. Buddha does not inhabit Buddhists. Influence? Instruct? Yes. But occupy? No!
The mystery of Christianity is summarized in Colossians 1:27, "Christ is in you!" The Christian is a person in whom Christ is happening! Little by little a new image emerges! All because of God's Grace!
From GRACE
Malachi 3
“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.
2 But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, 4 and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years.
5 “So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the Lord Almighty.
Breaking Covenant by Withholding Tithes
6 “I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. 7 Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty.
“But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’
8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’
“In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty. 12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.
Israel Speaks Arrogantly Against God
13 “You have spoken arrogantly against me,” says the Lord.
“Yet you ask, ‘What have we said against you?’
14 “You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty? 15 But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it.’”
The Faithful Remnant
16 Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name.
17 “On the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty, “they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. 18 And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: 2 Chronicles 24:1-2,15-22
Joash Repairs the Temple
Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem forty years. His mother’s name was Zibiah; she was from Beersheba. 2 Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the years of Jehoiada the priest.
Now Jehoiada was old and full of years, and he died at the age of a hundred and thirty. 16 He was buried with the kings in the City of David, because of the good he had done in Israel for God and his temple.
The Wickedness of Joash
17 After the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah came and paid homage to the king, and he listened to them. 18 They abandoned the temple of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and worshiped Asherah poles and idols. Because of their guilt, God’s anger came on Judah and Jerusalem. 19 Although the Lord sent prophets to the people to bring them back to him, and though they testified against them, they would not listen.
20 Then the Spirit of God came on Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood before the people and said, “This is what God says: ‘Why do you disobey the Lord’s commands? You will not prosper. Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has forsaken you.’”
21 But they plotted against him, and by order of the king they stoned him to death in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple. 22 King Joash did not remember the kindness Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had shown him but killed his son, who said as he lay dying, “May the Lord see this and call you to account.”
Insight
Joash was the youngest king to reign in Jerusalem. Because he was 7 years old when his reign began, he was in special need of guidance. In the New Testament, Paul highlights the importance of mentors when he says, “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1).
Make It Personal
By Dave Branon
Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. —Galatians 5:16
During my days as a teacher and coach at a Christian high school, I thoroughly enjoyed interacting with teenagers, trying to guide them to a purposeful, Christlike life—characterized by love for God and love for others. My goal was to prepare them to live for God throughout life. That would happen only as they made their faith a vital part of life through the help of the Holy Spirit. Those who didn’t follow Christ floundered after they left the influence of Christian teachers and parents.
This is demonstrated in the story of King Joash of Judah and his uncle Jehoiada. Jehoiada, a wise counselor, influenced Joash to live a God-honoring life (2 Chron. 24:11,14).
The problem was that Joash did not embrace an honorable life as his own. After Jehoiada died, King Joash “left the house of the LORD” (v.18) and began to worship in a pagan way. He turned and became so evil that he had Jehoiada’s son murdered (vv.20–22).
Having someone in our lives to guide us toward faith and Christlikeness can be good and helpful. Even better is getting to know the Lord ourselves and learning to rely on the Holy Spirit to be our guide (Gal. 5:16). That is making our faith personal.
Lord, thank You for the people in my life who
influence me toward following You. Help
me not to depend on them primarily—but to
depend on Your Holy Spirit to guide me.
The faith of others encourages; a faith of our own transforms.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, March 10, 2014
Being an Example of His Message
Preach the word! —2 Timothy 4:2
We are not saved only to be instruments for God, but to be His sons and daughters. He does not turn us into spiritual agents but into spiritual messengers, and the message must be a part of us. The Son of God was His own message— “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). As His disciples, our lives must be a holy example of the reality of our message. Even the natural heart of the unsaved will serve if called upon to do so, but it takes a heart broken by conviction of sin, baptized by the Holy Spirit, and crushed into submission to God’s purpose to make a person’s life a holy example of God’s message.
There is a difference between giving a testimony and preaching. A preacher is someone who has received the call of God and is determined to use all his energy to proclaim God’s truth. God takes us beyond our own aspirations and ideas for our lives, and molds and shapes us for His purpose, just as He worked in the disciples’ lives after Pentecost. The purpose of Pentecost was not to teach the disciples something, but to make them the incarnation of what they preached so that they would literally become God’s message in the flesh. “. . . you shall be witnesses to Me . . .” (Acts 1:8).
Allow God to have complete liberty in your life when you speak. Before God’s message can liberate other people, His liberation must first be real in you. Gather your material carefully, and then allow God to “set your words on fire” for His glory.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Single Difference That Makes a Hero - #7086
Monday, March 10, 2014
Tyler's story really touched me and he showed me what makes someone a hero. In this case-an eight-year-old hero. Since he didn't have school on Martin Luther King Day, Tyler went to stay at his grandpa's trailer for the night. He wasn't the only one. Nine people slept that night in that little trailer.
Tyler woke up with a fire next to him. The blanket covering his four-year-old cousin was in flames. Tyler worked fast to get his loved ones out of that trailer. He and six of his relatives made it outside. His grandfather and uncle didn't. And his disabled grandpa needed a wheelchair to get around. Well, with Tyler's sister trying unsuccessfully to grab his hand, the little guy ran back into the house now engulfed in flames. He was not going to let his loved ones die in those flames.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Single Difference That Makes a Hero."
Tyler's body was found next to his grandfather's and his uncle's in the next room. The boy's mom said through her tears, "It looked like he had his arms around his grandpa, trying to find a way to carry him."
The superintendent of the district where Tyler was a 4th-grader summed it up pretty well. "According to emergency personnel, Tyler was the person who discovered the fire and tried to wake the eight other people in the residence at the time. In bravely and selflessly giving his own life, he was able to save the lives of six others and he is truly a hero."
At sporting events, very common in our country, we hear the word "hero" bandied around a lot. But little Tyler truly shows us what the word really means-self-abandonment. From Tyler's trailer fire to the collapsing Twin Towers of September 11 and virtually every rescue we've ever heard of, that's the difference that makes a person a life-saving hero-caring so much about not letting people die that you forget about yourself. It's not about me; it's all about the people in danger.
Not just people in a burning building but people we know. Who are today one day closer to an unthinkable eternity because they're one heartbeat away from having to pay the eternal death penalty for their sin. Which Jesus already paid! The Bible says, "The Lord Jesus gave Himself for our sins to rescue us..." (Galatians 1:4). Hanging on a cross, He paid for our sin so we can trade the hell we deserve for the heaven we could never deserve.
But somebody has to tell them they're in need of rescue; that God's only Son loves them enough to die for them, that Jesus is reaching out His hand for them, that they only have to grab Him as their only hope. In our word for today from the Word of God in Jude 23, God summons us this way: "snatch others from the fire and save them."
But sometimes we're with doomed people we know for years and we never tell them about our Jesus. They stay lost because we don't tell them the way home. And they'll be lost forever if we remain silent. It's because we're afraid; afraid they won't like us anymore, afraid of what they'll think, afraid we'll mess it up, afraid they might laugh at us or reject us. Did you notice all the fears that keep us from going in for the rescue have one thing in common? They're all about "me"; what might happen to me if I try to rescue them.
And that's where the hero difference can be the difference between heaven and hell for someone we care about. Self-abandonment; caring so much about not letting them die that you forget about yourself. Because you're more concerned about what will happen to them than what it might cost you.
I've stood by the casket of someone I never told. It's one of the most awful feelings in the world. I can't have that back. But there are people around me who still have a chance. They just need to know what Jesus did for them.
Our orders from God are so clear. "Rescue those being led away to death" (Proverbs 24:11). The consequences of holding back are awful: "He will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood" (Ezekiel 3:18).
There's still time, though, if I will just forget about myself like my Savior did.
When grace happens, Christ enters. Christ in you, the hope of glory! For many years, I missed this truth. I believed all the other prepositions: Christ for me, with me, ahead of me. But I never imagined that Christ was in me.
I can't blame my deficiency on Scripture. Paul refers to the indwelling Christ 216 times. John mentions his presence 26 times. No other religion or philosophy makes such a claim. No other movement implies the living presence of its founder in his followers.
Muhammad does not indwell Muslims. Buddha does not inhabit Buddhists. Influence? Instruct? Yes. But occupy? No!
The mystery of Christianity is summarized in Colossians 1:27, "Christ is in you!" The Christian is a person in whom Christ is happening! Little by little a new image emerges! All because of God's Grace!
From GRACE
Malachi 3
“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.
2 But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, 4 and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years.
5 “So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the Lord Almighty.
Breaking Covenant by Withholding Tithes
6 “I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. 7 Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty.
“But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’
8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’
“In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty. 12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.
Israel Speaks Arrogantly Against God
13 “You have spoken arrogantly against me,” says the Lord.
“Yet you ask, ‘What have we said against you?’
14 “You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty? 15 But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it.’”
The Faithful Remnant
16 Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name.
17 “On the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty, “they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. 18 And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: 2 Chronicles 24:1-2,15-22
Joash Repairs the Temple
Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem forty years. His mother’s name was Zibiah; she was from Beersheba. 2 Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the years of Jehoiada the priest.
Now Jehoiada was old and full of years, and he died at the age of a hundred and thirty. 16 He was buried with the kings in the City of David, because of the good he had done in Israel for God and his temple.
The Wickedness of Joash
17 After the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah came and paid homage to the king, and he listened to them. 18 They abandoned the temple of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and worshiped Asherah poles and idols. Because of their guilt, God’s anger came on Judah and Jerusalem. 19 Although the Lord sent prophets to the people to bring them back to him, and though they testified against them, they would not listen.
20 Then the Spirit of God came on Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood before the people and said, “This is what God says: ‘Why do you disobey the Lord’s commands? You will not prosper. Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has forsaken you.’”
21 But they plotted against him, and by order of the king they stoned him to death in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple. 22 King Joash did not remember the kindness Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had shown him but killed his son, who said as he lay dying, “May the Lord see this and call you to account.”
Insight
Joash was the youngest king to reign in Jerusalem. Because he was 7 years old when his reign began, he was in special need of guidance. In the New Testament, Paul highlights the importance of mentors when he says, “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1).
Make It Personal
By Dave Branon
Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. —Galatians 5:16
During my days as a teacher and coach at a Christian high school, I thoroughly enjoyed interacting with teenagers, trying to guide them to a purposeful, Christlike life—characterized by love for God and love for others. My goal was to prepare them to live for God throughout life. That would happen only as they made their faith a vital part of life through the help of the Holy Spirit. Those who didn’t follow Christ floundered after they left the influence of Christian teachers and parents.
This is demonstrated in the story of King Joash of Judah and his uncle Jehoiada. Jehoiada, a wise counselor, influenced Joash to live a God-honoring life (2 Chron. 24:11,14).
The problem was that Joash did not embrace an honorable life as his own. After Jehoiada died, King Joash “left the house of the LORD” (v.18) and began to worship in a pagan way. He turned and became so evil that he had Jehoiada’s son murdered (vv.20–22).
Having someone in our lives to guide us toward faith and Christlikeness can be good and helpful. Even better is getting to know the Lord ourselves and learning to rely on the Holy Spirit to be our guide (Gal. 5:16). That is making our faith personal.
Lord, thank You for the people in my life who
influence me toward following You. Help
me not to depend on them primarily—but to
depend on Your Holy Spirit to guide me.
The faith of others encourages; a faith of our own transforms.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, March 10, 2014
Being an Example of His Message
Preach the word! —2 Timothy 4:2
We are not saved only to be instruments for God, but to be His sons and daughters. He does not turn us into spiritual agents but into spiritual messengers, and the message must be a part of us. The Son of God was His own message— “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). As His disciples, our lives must be a holy example of the reality of our message. Even the natural heart of the unsaved will serve if called upon to do so, but it takes a heart broken by conviction of sin, baptized by the Holy Spirit, and crushed into submission to God’s purpose to make a person’s life a holy example of God’s message.
There is a difference between giving a testimony and preaching. A preacher is someone who has received the call of God and is determined to use all his energy to proclaim God’s truth. God takes us beyond our own aspirations and ideas for our lives, and molds and shapes us for His purpose, just as He worked in the disciples’ lives after Pentecost. The purpose of Pentecost was not to teach the disciples something, but to make them the incarnation of what they preached so that they would literally become God’s message in the flesh. “. . . you shall be witnesses to Me . . .” (Acts 1:8).
Allow God to have complete liberty in your life when you speak. Before God’s message can liberate other people, His liberation must first be real in you. Gather your material carefully, and then allow God to “set your words on fire” for His glory.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Single Difference That Makes a Hero - #7086
Monday, March 10, 2014
Tyler's story really touched me and he showed me what makes someone a hero. In this case-an eight-year-old hero. Since he didn't have school on Martin Luther King Day, Tyler went to stay at his grandpa's trailer for the night. He wasn't the only one. Nine people slept that night in that little trailer.
Tyler woke up with a fire next to him. The blanket covering his four-year-old cousin was in flames. Tyler worked fast to get his loved ones out of that trailer. He and six of his relatives made it outside. His grandfather and uncle didn't. And his disabled grandpa needed a wheelchair to get around. Well, with Tyler's sister trying unsuccessfully to grab his hand, the little guy ran back into the house now engulfed in flames. He was not going to let his loved ones die in those flames.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Single Difference That Makes a Hero."
Tyler's body was found next to his grandfather's and his uncle's in the next room. The boy's mom said through her tears, "It looked like he had his arms around his grandpa, trying to find a way to carry him."
The superintendent of the district where Tyler was a 4th-grader summed it up pretty well. "According to emergency personnel, Tyler was the person who discovered the fire and tried to wake the eight other people in the residence at the time. In bravely and selflessly giving his own life, he was able to save the lives of six others and he is truly a hero."
At sporting events, very common in our country, we hear the word "hero" bandied around a lot. But little Tyler truly shows us what the word really means-self-abandonment. From Tyler's trailer fire to the collapsing Twin Towers of September 11 and virtually every rescue we've ever heard of, that's the difference that makes a person a life-saving hero-caring so much about not letting people die that you forget about yourself. It's not about me; it's all about the people in danger.
Not just people in a burning building but people we know. Who are today one day closer to an unthinkable eternity because they're one heartbeat away from having to pay the eternal death penalty for their sin. Which Jesus already paid! The Bible says, "The Lord Jesus gave Himself for our sins to rescue us..." (Galatians 1:4). Hanging on a cross, He paid for our sin so we can trade the hell we deserve for the heaven we could never deserve.
But somebody has to tell them they're in need of rescue; that God's only Son loves them enough to die for them, that Jesus is reaching out His hand for them, that they only have to grab Him as their only hope. In our word for today from the Word of God in Jude 23, God summons us this way: "snatch others from the fire and save them."
But sometimes we're with doomed people we know for years and we never tell them about our Jesus. They stay lost because we don't tell them the way home. And they'll be lost forever if we remain silent. It's because we're afraid; afraid they won't like us anymore, afraid of what they'll think, afraid we'll mess it up, afraid they might laugh at us or reject us. Did you notice all the fears that keep us from going in for the rescue have one thing in common? They're all about "me"; what might happen to me if I try to rescue them.
And that's where the hero difference can be the difference between heaven and hell for someone we care about. Self-abandonment; caring so much about not letting them die that you forget about yourself. Because you're more concerned about what will happen to them than what it might cost you.
I've stood by the casket of someone I never told. It's one of the most awful feelings in the world. I can't have that back. But there are people around me who still have a chance. They just need to know what Jesus did for them.
Our orders from God are so clear. "Rescue those being led away to death" (Proverbs 24:11). The consequences of holding back are awful: "He will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood" (Ezekiel 3:18).
There's still time, though, if I will just forget about myself like my Savior did.
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