Max Lucado Daily: Don't Be Jealous
Suppose you spotted a flame in your house. How would you react? Would you shrug your shoulders and walk away, saying, "A little fire never hurt any house." Of course not. You would put it out! Why? Because you know left untended, fire consumes all that's consumable. For the sake of your house, you don't play with fire.
For the sake of your heart, the same is true. The name of the fire? Solomon tagged it in Song of Solomon 8:6. "Jealousy is cruel as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire." Do you know what causes jealousy? Distrust. Do you know what is the cure for jealousy? It is trust. Is the flame of jealousy beginning to consume your heart? Are you jealous of someone's success or possessions? Then, ask God for deeper trust. He will help put out the fire.
From A Love Worth Giving
Amos 9
Israel to Be Destroyed
I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and he said:
“Strike the tops of the pillars
so that the thresholds shake.
Bring them down on the heads of all the people;
those who are left I will kill with the sword.
Not one will get away,
none will escape.
2 Though they dig down to the depths below,
from there my hand will take them.
Though they climb up to the heavens above,
from there I will bring them down.
3 Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel,
there I will hunt them down and seize them.
Though they hide from my eyes at the bottom of the sea,
there I will command the serpent to bite them.
4 Though they are driven into exile by their enemies,
there I will command the sword to slay them.
“I will keep my eye on them
for harm and not for good.”
5 The Lord, the Lord Almighty—
he touches the earth and it melts,
and all who live in it mourn;
the whole land rises like the Nile,
then sinks like the river of Egypt;
6 he builds his lofty palace[f] in the heavens
and sets its foundation[g] on the earth;
he calls for the waters of the sea
and pours them out over the face of the land—
the Lord is his name.
7 “Are not you Israelites
the same to me as the Cushites[h]?”
declares the Lord.
“Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt,
the Philistines from Caphtor[i]
and the Arameans from Kir?
8 “Surely the eyes of the Sovereign Lord
are on the sinful kingdom.
I will destroy it
from the face of the earth.
Yet I will not totally destroy
the descendants of Jacob,”
declares the Lord.
9 “For I will give the command,
and I will shake the people of Israel
among all the nations
as grain is shaken in a sieve,
and not a pebble will reach the ground.
10 All the sinners among my people
will die by the sword,
all those who say,
‘Disaster will not overtake or meet us.’
Israel’s Restoration
11 “In that day
“I will restore David’s fallen shelter—
I will repair its broken walls
and restore its ruins—
and will rebuild it as it used to be,
12 so that they may possess the remnant of Edom
and all the nations that bear my name,[j]”
declares the Lord, who will do these things.
13 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman
and the planter by the one treading grapes.
New wine will drip from the mountains
and flow from all the hills,
14 and I will bring my people Israel back from exile.[k]
“They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them.
They will plant vineyards and drink their wine;
they will make gardens and eat their fruit.
15 I will plant Israel in their own land,
never again to be uprooted
from the land I have given them,”
says the Lord your God.
Footnotes:
Amos 9:6 The meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain.
Amos 9:6 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
Amos 9:7 That is, people from the upper Nile region
Amos 9:7 That is, Crete
Amos 9:12 Hebrew; Septuagint so that the remnant of people / and all the nations that bear my name may seek me
Amos 9:14 Or will restore the fortunes of my people Israel
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, February 04, 2016
Read: Proverbs 2:1-5
The Benefits of Wisdom
My child,[a] listen to what I say,
and treasure my commands.
2 Tune your ears to wisdom,
and concentrate on understanding.
3 Cry out for insight,
and ask for understanding.
4 Search for them as you would for silver;
seek them like hidden treasures.
5 Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord,
and you will gain knowledge of God.
Footnotes:
2:1 Hebrew My son.
INSIGHT:
The book of Proverbs shows us how to live wisely. King Solomon, who was the wisest person in his day (1 Kings 4:29–34), wrote most of the proverbs. The New Living Translation Study Bible likens this book to “a compass that helps us navigate the murky waters of life. . . . Proverbs shows us that the source of all wisdom is a right relationship with God.” In the first nine chapters, a father advises his son how to live successfully by pursuing wisdom, understanding, and discernment—which can come only from God and His Word. Solomon desires his son to understand what it means to fear the Lord, for “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (9:10).
Hidden Treasure
By Cindy Hess Kasper
Search for [insight and understanding] as for hidden treasure. Proverbs 2:4
My husband and I read in different ways. Since English is a second language for Tom, he has a tendency to read slowly, word-for-word. I often speed-read by skimming. But Tom retains more than I do. He can easily quote something he read a week ago, while my retention can evaporate seconds after I turn away from the screen or book.
Skimming is also a problem when I’m reading the Bible—and not just the genealogies. I’m tempted to skim familiar passages, stories I’ve heard since I was a child, or a psalm that is part of a familiar chorus.
We come to know God and His wisdom when we search for it with our whole heart.
Proverbs 2 encourages us to make the effort to know God better by carefully seeking a heart of understanding. When we read the Bible carefully and invest time memorizing Scripture, we absorb its truths more deeply (vv. 1-2). Sometimes reading the Word aloud helps us to hear and understand the wisdom of God more fully. And when we pray the words of Scripture back to God and ask Him for “insight and understanding” (v. 3), we enjoy a conversation with the Author.
We come to know God and His wisdom when we search for it with our whole heart. We find understanding when we seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure.
Dear Lord, help me to slow down and listen to what You want to teach me through Your Word so I can be the person You want me to be.
For further study, check out this guide for how to grasp the truths of Scripture: at A Message for All Time
Read the Bible carefully and study it prayerfully.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, February 04, 2016
The Compelling Majesty of His Power
The love of Christ compels us… —2 Corinthians 5:14
Paul said that he was overpowered, subdued, and held as in a vise by “the love of Christ.” Very few of us really know what it means to be held in the grip of the love of God. We tend so often to be controlled simply by our own experience. The one thing that gripped and held Paul, to the exclusion of everything else, was the love of God. “The love of Christ compels us….” When you hear that coming from the life of a man or woman it is unmistakable. You will know that the Spirit of God is completely unhindered in that person’s life.
When we are born again by the Spirit of God, our testimony is based solely on what God has done for us, and rightly so. But that will change and be removed forever once you “receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…” (Acts 1:8). Only then will you begin to realize what Jesus meant when He went on to say, “…you shall be witnesses to Me….” Not witnesses to what Jesus can do— that is basic and understood— but “witnesses to Me….” We will accept everything that happens as if it were happening to Him, whether we receive praise or blame, persecution or reward. No one is able to take this stand for Jesus Christ who is not totally compelled by the majesty of His power. It is the only thing that matters, and yet it is strange that it’s the last thing we as Christian workers realize. Paul said that he was gripped by the love of God and that is why he acted as he did. People could perceive him as mad or sane— he did not care. There was only one thing he lived for— to persuade people of the coming judgment of God and to tell them of “the love of Christ.” This total surrender to “the love of Christ” is the only thing that will bear fruit in your life. And it will always leave the mark of God’s holiness and His power, never drawing attention to your personal holiness.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are all based on a conception of importance, either our own importance, or the importance of someone else; Jesus tells us to go and teach based on the revelation of His importance. “All power is given unto Me.… Go ye therefore ….” So Send I You, 1325 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, February 04, 2016
Gift Wrapped Good News - #7584
I really enjoy picking out gifts for the people I love; thinking what they like and what they need. Well, and then I enjoy giving the gift. I don't enjoy wrapping the gift. In fact, they wouldn't enjoy the gift I wrapped if I wrapped it. In fact, it's tempting just to hand them the present, but it just isn't really special to get a gift in a K-Mart bag, you know. It's nicer to have it wrapped in wrapping paper and bows, right?
There's something about my motor coordination. I guess the lines must be down between my brain and my hands. They can make it to my mouth, but somehow that's as far as it gets, so I usually prevail upon my wife, or if it's for her, my sister-in-law. See, wrapping is extra trouble, but a nice gift should come in a nice package.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Gift Wrapped Good News."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Peter 3:15, "But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect..." Now, here's what God's saying, "You have a message of hope to give to people, and I want you to do that." But it isn't just the message that matters. It's the spirit, the tone in which you deliver the message.
Don't just give them the gift. It needs to be gift wrapped. And what do you wrap it with? Well, according to Peter here, "with gentleness and respect." See, often it is the package that sells the product, and we say we've got the best product in the world. We've got hope, and love, and life eternal in Jesus Christ, but how about the package you present it in? This isn't a debate. This is not an argument for you to win. This is not a notch on your belt.
I saw a debate some years ago between one of the leading atheists in the world and an outstanding Christian leader. The atheist was mean and illogical and I thought, man, if the Christian would be just like a Christian he'll win, but he wasn't. He fell into her trap, her tone. I thought they both lost.
We do that sometimes in our personal witness or our preaching. We bomb people with the Gospel. We condemn people with the Gospel. Sometimes there's a meanness, an edge in our package. There is a tendency to see witness as winning an argument. It's not. It's winning a heart. You can win the argument and lose the heart. You can win the point and lose the person. Maybe it's happened.
Paul prayed for boldness in Colossians 4:6 and then he said, "Let your speech always be seasoned with grace." Boldness, yes, but boldness with grace. Peter said "gentleness and respect." People should not feel attacked by the Gospel. Your approach should make them feel more important, not less important.
When you share Christ with someone it should make them feel big and valued by God, by you, not small. They should feel cared for by you sharing, not belittled by it. They should feel loved, not judged. Listen to their views when you talk to them. Affirm where you can agree with them, affirm where they're right, and assure them that your motive is love and not winning. I like that old saying, "I'm a beggar, you're a beggar. I'm just a beggar who happened to find bread, telling you where I found it."
You have the Good News about the Savior. Don't just thrust it in their face and say, "Here, take it or leave it." No, wrap the gift in love, in grace, in gentleness and respect. In a relationship that gives them the respect that God says they have; that says, "I think you're important."
If lost people are not attracted to the package, they may never take the gift of Eternal Life.
Thursday, February 4, 2016
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Amos 8 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: God's Patience
How infiltrated are you with God's patience? You've heard about it. Read about it. Perhaps underlined Bible passages regarding it. But have you received it? The proof is in your patience. Patience deeply received results in patience freely offered! Remember the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18:34? "Then the angry king sent the man to prison until he had paid every penny." Whew! we sigh. It's a good thing God doesn't imprison the impatient in real life.
Don't be so sure. Impatience still imprisons the soul. But God does more than demand patience from us; he offers it to us. According to Galatians 5:22, patience is a fruit of his Spirit. Have you asked God to give you some fruit? Did you…um…grow impatient? Well, ask him again and again.
From A Love Worth Giving
Amos 8
A Basket of Ripe Fruit
This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: a basket of ripe fruit. 2 “What do you see, Amos?” he asked.
“A basket of ripe fruit,” I answered.
Then the Lord said to me, “The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.
3 “In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “the songs in the temple will turn to wailing.[d] Many, many bodies—flung everywhere! Silence!”
4 Hear this, you who trample the needy
and do away with the poor of the land,
5 saying,
“When will the New Moon be over
that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath be ended
that we may market wheat?”—
skimping on the measure,
boosting the price
and cheating with dishonest scales,
6 buying the poor with silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
selling even the sweepings with the wheat.
7 The Lord has sworn by himself, the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget anything they have done.
8 “Will not the land tremble for this,
and all who live in it mourn?
The whole land will rise like the Nile;
it will be stirred up and then sink
like the river of Egypt.
9 “In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord,
“I will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth in broad daylight.
10 I will turn your religious festivals into mourning
and all your singing into weeping.
I will make all of you wear sackcloth
and shave your heads.
I will make that time like mourning for an only son
and the end of it like a bitter day.
11 “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord,
“when I will send a famine through the land—
not a famine of food or a thirst for water,
but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 People will stagger from sea to sea
and wander from north to east,
searching for the word of the Lord,
but they will not find it.
13 “In that day
“the lovely young women and strong young men
will faint because of thirst.
14 Those who swear by the sin of Samaria—
who say, ‘As surely as your god lives, Dan,’
or, ‘As surely as the god[e] of Beersheba lives’—
they will fall, never to rise again.”
Footnotes:
Amos 8:3 Or “the temple singers will wail
Amos 8:14 Hebrew the way
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, February 03, 2016
Read: 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! 25 All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. 26 So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. 27 I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.
INSIGHT:
Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church emphasizes the distinction between wisdom and folly and how in Christ God accomplishes His redemptive plan in unexpected ways (see 1:18–3:23). This letter also contains practical advice and everyday wisdom, as seen in today’s passage. Through two different metaphors (a runner and a boxer), Paul reminds the Corinthians that doing anything—especially following Christ—without a goal in mind is the height of foolishness. A runner with no destination will simply tire and quit, and a boxer beating the air never puts his training to practical use. We follow Christ to become like Him and receive the prize.
Training for Life
By Amy Boucher Pye
I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest . . . I myself should become disqualified. 1 Corinthians 9:27 nkjv
I recently met a woman who has pushed her body and mind to the limit. She climbed mountains, faced death, and even broke a Guinness world record. Now she’s engaged in a different challenge—that of raising her special-needs child. The courage and faith she employed while ascending the mountains she now pours into motherhood.
In 1 Corinthians, the apostle Paul speaks of a runner competing in a race. After urging a church enamored with their rights to give consideration to one another (ch. 8), he explains how he sees the challenges of love and self-sacrifice to be like a marathon of endurance (ch. 9). As followers of Jesus, they are to relinquish their rights in obedience to Him.
Obedience leads to endurance which leads to the prize that lasts forever.
As athletes train their bodies that they might win the crown, we too train our bodies and minds for our souls to flourish. As we ask the Holy Spirit to transform us, moment by moment, we leave our old selves behind. Empowered by God, we stop ourselves from uttering that cruel word. We put away our electronic device and remain present with our friends. We don’t have to speak the last word in a disagreement.
As we train to run in the Spirit of Christ, how might God want to mold us today?
Lord, let me not demand my rights, but train to win the prize that lasts forever.
Amy Boucher Pye is a writer, editor, and speaker. The author of Finding Myself in Britain: Our Search for Faith, Home, and True Identity, she runs the Woman Alive book club in the UK and enjoys life with her family in their English vicarage.
Training leads to transformation.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, February 03, 2016
Becoming the “Filth of the World”
We have been made as the filth of the world… —1 Corinthians 4:13
These words are not an exaggeration. The only reason they may not be true of us who call ourselves ministers of the gospel is not that Paul forgot or misunderstood the exact truth of them, but that we are too cautious and concerned about our own desires to allow ourselves to become the refuse or “filth of the world.” “Fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ…” (Colossians 1:24) is not the result of the holiness of sanctification, but the evidence of consecration— being “separated to the gospel of God…” (Romans 1:1).
“Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you…” (1 Peter 4:12). If we do think the things we encounter are strange, it is because we are fearful and cowardly. We pay such close attention to our own interests and desires that we stay out of the mire and say, “I won’t submit; I won’t bow or bend.” And you don’t have to— you can be saved by the “skin of your teeth” if you like. You can refuse to let God count you as one who is “separated to the gospel….” Or you can say, “I don’t care if I am treated like ‘the filth of the world’ as long as the gospel is proclaimed.” A true servant of Jesus Christ is one who is willing to experience martyrdom for the reality of the gospel of God. When a moral person is confronted with contempt, immorality, disloyalty, or dishonesty, he is so repulsed by the offense that he turns away and in despair closes his heart to the offender. But the miracle of the redemptive reality of God is that the worst and the vilest offender can never exhaust the depths of His love. Paul did not say that God separated him to show what a wonderful man He could make of him, but “to reveal His Son in me…” (Galatians 1:16).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
No one could have had a more sensitive love in human relationship than Jesus; and yet He says there are times when love to father and mother must be hatred in comparison to our love for Him. So Send I You, 1301 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, February 03, 2016
The Message in the Moose - for the Things We Run Into - #7583
If I was back in elementary school, and they asked me to write a composition on "My Summer," I'd have one word on the paper. Amazing! Because I spent it on Indian reservations with a team of 60 Native American young people who stood on reservation basketball courts, pouring out their Hope Story of how Jesus has rescued them. I had a front row seat on God's awesomeness.
And then there was the moose.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Message in the Moose - for the Things We Run Into."
Our son, who directs all our organization's Native work, was driving his rented RV back to our lodging place after a team outreach. When suddenly, there was the moose crashing head first into the windshield on the driver's side, shattering it completely propelling broken glass way back in the RV.
We raced to the scene, not knowing what to expect. There was our daughter-in-law, standing in front of that disabled RV repeating over and over again, "God is so good! God is so good!" Yes, He is. Even the police were amazed that there was no significant injury. Locals told me grimly, "Things like this don't usually end well." We consider it a miracle. Miracle #1, that is.
Obviously, a lot of repairs were needed, including re-alignment which meant putting the RV up on a rack. And that's when they found it. Loose parts underneath that were not caused by the accident and that almost surely meant disaster down the road. The mechanic explained the real possibility. He said, "Your RV could suddenly pitch forward and roll end-over-end" obviously with potentially deadly consequences.
When my son called to tell me about this disturbing discovery, he began with four words that, at first, seemed a little curious, "God sent a moose." Well, you know what? Yes, He did. To reveal what otherwise might never have been known until it was too late. "God is so good! God is so good!"
The Moose Mess has revealed more than problems with an RV. It sheds a whole new light on many things that I run into, that you run into, all humans run into: medical challenges, painful losses, family conflict, major disappointment, a financial hit, maybe it's a child in trouble, a broken relationship. How about a broken heart? When we hit it, everything stops, and it usually hits suddenly.
But, just as that night of the moose, God is always doing something much bigger than the thing we can see. Don't forget that. God's always doing something much bigger than what we can see. We saw the moose. But the moose was just part of the story. The real story was God was using the moose to prevent a much larger tragedy and showing us how great His power is and His love for us.
There are some very familiar words in the Biblical affirmation that's our word for today from the Word of God. It's in Romans 8:28. It takes on new significance after the night of the moose. "All things work together for good..." "All things work together for good for those who love God and are the called according to His purpose." He didn't say all things are good. But He said, "All things work together for good."
The Cross of Jesus wasn't good. It was awful. But what looked at that time like the greatest tragedy in human history turned out to bring about the greatest good of all; the payment for our sin that makes possible life with God forever.
So when a "moose" suddenly crashes into my life, seemingly wrecking things, I need to remember the God of the "something bigger" who's weaving a beautiful tapestry that sometimes includes some very dark threads. And He's using today's mess to accomplish tomorrow's miracle.
If I can remember that, maybe I, too, will be able to say, "God sent a moose."
How infiltrated are you with God's patience? You've heard about it. Read about it. Perhaps underlined Bible passages regarding it. But have you received it? The proof is in your patience. Patience deeply received results in patience freely offered! Remember the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18:34? "Then the angry king sent the man to prison until he had paid every penny." Whew! we sigh. It's a good thing God doesn't imprison the impatient in real life.
Don't be so sure. Impatience still imprisons the soul. But God does more than demand patience from us; he offers it to us. According to Galatians 5:22, patience is a fruit of his Spirit. Have you asked God to give you some fruit? Did you…um…grow impatient? Well, ask him again and again.
From A Love Worth Giving
Amos 8
A Basket of Ripe Fruit
This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: a basket of ripe fruit. 2 “What do you see, Amos?” he asked.
“A basket of ripe fruit,” I answered.
Then the Lord said to me, “The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.
3 “In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “the songs in the temple will turn to wailing.[d] Many, many bodies—flung everywhere! Silence!”
4 Hear this, you who trample the needy
and do away with the poor of the land,
5 saying,
“When will the New Moon be over
that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath be ended
that we may market wheat?”—
skimping on the measure,
boosting the price
and cheating with dishonest scales,
6 buying the poor with silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
selling even the sweepings with the wheat.
7 The Lord has sworn by himself, the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget anything they have done.
8 “Will not the land tremble for this,
and all who live in it mourn?
The whole land will rise like the Nile;
it will be stirred up and then sink
like the river of Egypt.
9 “In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord,
“I will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth in broad daylight.
10 I will turn your religious festivals into mourning
and all your singing into weeping.
I will make all of you wear sackcloth
and shave your heads.
I will make that time like mourning for an only son
and the end of it like a bitter day.
11 “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord,
“when I will send a famine through the land—
not a famine of food or a thirst for water,
but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 People will stagger from sea to sea
and wander from north to east,
searching for the word of the Lord,
but they will not find it.
13 “In that day
“the lovely young women and strong young men
will faint because of thirst.
14 Those who swear by the sin of Samaria—
who say, ‘As surely as your god lives, Dan,’
or, ‘As surely as the god[e] of Beersheba lives’—
they will fall, never to rise again.”
Footnotes:
Amos 8:3 Or “the temple singers will wail
Amos 8:14 Hebrew the way
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, February 03, 2016
Read: 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! 25 All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. 26 So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. 27 I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.
INSIGHT:
Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church emphasizes the distinction between wisdom and folly and how in Christ God accomplishes His redemptive plan in unexpected ways (see 1:18–3:23). This letter also contains practical advice and everyday wisdom, as seen in today’s passage. Through two different metaphors (a runner and a boxer), Paul reminds the Corinthians that doing anything—especially following Christ—without a goal in mind is the height of foolishness. A runner with no destination will simply tire and quit, and a boxer beating the air never puts his training to practical use. We follow Christ to become like Him and receive the prize.
Training for Life
By Amy Boucher Pye
I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest . . . I myself should become disqualified. 1 Corinthians 9:27 nkjv
I recently met a woman who has pushed her body and mind to the limit. She climbed mountains, faced death, and even broke a Guinness world record. Now she’s engaged in a different challenge—that of raising her special-needs child. The courage and faith she employed while ascending the mountains she now pours into motherhood.
In 1 Corinthians, the apostle Paul speaks of a runner competing in a race. After urging a church enamored with their rights to give consideration to one another (ch. 8), he explains how he sees the challenges of love and self-sacrifice to be like a marathon of endurance (ch. 9). As followers of Jesus, they are to relinquish their rights in obedience to Him.
Obedience leads to endurance which leads to the prize that lasts forever.
As athletes train their bodies that they might win the crown, we too train our bodies and minds for our souls to flourish. As we ask the Holy Spirit to transform us, moment by moment, we leave our old selves behind. Empowered by God, we stop ourselves from uttering that cruel word. We put away our electronic device and remain present with our friends. We don’t have to speak the last word in a disagreement.
As we train to run in the Spirit of Christ, how might God want to mold us today?
Lord, let me not demand my rights, but train to win the prize that lasts forever.
Amy Boucher Pye is a writer, editor, and speaker. The author of Finding Myself in Britain: Our Search for Faith, Home, and True Identity, she runs the Woman Alive book club in the UK and enjoys life with her family in their English vicarage.
Training leads to transformation.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, February 03, 2016
Becoming the “Filth of the World”
We have been made as the filth of the world… —1 Corinthians 4:13
These words are not an exaggeration. The only reason they may not be true of us who call ourselves ministers of the gospel is not that Paul forgot or misunderstood the exact truth of them, but that we are too cautious and concerned about our own desires to allow ourselves to become the refuse or “filth of the world.” “Fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ…” (Colossians 1:24) is not the result of the holiness of sanctification, but the evidence of consecration— being “separated to the gospel of God…” (Romans 1:1).
“Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you…” (1 Peter 4:12). If we do think the things we encounter are strange, it is because we are fearful and cowardly. We pay such close attention to our own interests and desires that we stay out of the mire and say, “I won’t submit; I won’t bow or bend.” And you don’t have to— you can be saved by the “skin of your teeth” if you like. You can refuse to let God count you as one who is “separated to the gospel….” Or you can say, “I don’t care if I am treated like ‘the filth of the world’ as long as the gospel is proclaimed.” A true servant of Jesus Christ is one who is willing to experience martyrdom for the reality of the gospel of God. When a moral person is confronted with contempt, immorality, disloyalty, or dishonesty, he is so repulsed by the offense that he turns away and in despair closes his heart to the offender. But the miracle of the redemptive reality of God is that the worst and the vilest offender can never exhaust the depths of His love. Paul did not say that God separated him to show what a wonderful man He could make of him, but “to reveal His Son in me…” (Galatians 1:16).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
No one could have had a more sensitive love in human relationship than Jesus; and yet He says there are times when love to father and mother must be hatred in comparison to our love for Him. So Send I You, 1301 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, February 03, 2016
The Message in the Moose - for the Things We Run Into - #7583
If I was back in elementary school, and they asked me to write a composition on "My Summer," I'd have one word on the paper. Amazing! Because I spent it on Indian reservations with a team of 60 Native American young people who stood on reservation basketball courts, pouring out their Hope Story of how Jesus has rescued them. I had a front row seat on God's awesomeness.
And then there was the moose.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Message in the Moose - for the Things We Run Into."
Our son, who directs all our organization's Native work, was driving his rented RV back to our lodging place after a team outreach. When suddenly, there was the moose crashing head first into the windshield on the driver's side, shattering it completely propelling broken glass way back in the RV.
We raced to the scene, not knowing what to expect. There was our daughter-in-law, standing in front of that disabled RV repeating over and over again, "God is so good! God is so good!" Yes, He is. Even the police were amazed that there was no significant injury. Locals told me grimly, "Things like this don't usually end well." We consider it a miracle. Miracle #1, that is.
Obviously, a lot of repairs were needed, including re-alignment which meant putting the RV up on a rack. And that's when they found it. Loose parts underneath that were not caused by the accident and that almost surely meant disaster down the road. The mechanic explained the real possibility. He said, "Your RV could suddenly pitch forward and roll end-over-end" obviously with potentially deadly consequences.
When my son called to tell me about this disturbing discovery, he began with four words that, at first, seemed a little curious, "God sent a moose." Well, you know what? Yes, He did. To reveal what otherwise might never have been known until it was too late. "God is so good! God is so good!"
The Moose Mess has revealed more than problems with an RV. It sheds a whole new light on many things that I run into, that you run into, all humans run into: medical challenges, painful losses, family conflict, major disappointment, a financial hit, maybe it's a child in trouble, a broken relationship. How about a broken heart? When we hit it, everything stops, and it usually hits suddenly.
But, just as that night of the moose, God is always doing something much bigger than the thing we can see. Don't forget that. God's always doing something much bigger than what we can see. We saw the moose. But the moose was just part of the story. The real story was God was using the moose to prevent a much larger tragedy and showing us how great His power is and His love for us.
There are some very familiar words in the Biblical affirmation that's our word for today from the Word of God. It's in Romans 8:28. It takes on new significance after the night of the moose. "All things work together for good..." "All things work together for good for those who love God and are the called according to His purpose." He didn't say all things are good. But He said, "All things work together for good."
The Cross of Jesus wasn't good. It was awful. But what looked at that time like the greatest tragedy in human history turned out to bring about the greatest good of all; the payment for our sin that makes possible life with God forever.
So when a "moose" suddenly crashes into my life, seemingly wrecking things, I need to remember the God of the "something bigger" who's weaving a beautiful tapestry that sometimes includes some very dark threads. And He's using today's mess to accomplish tomorrow's miracle.
If I can remember that, maybe I, too, will be able to say, "God sent a moose."
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
Amos 7, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Loving Like God Loves
Need more patience? Is generosity an elusive virtue? Having trouble putting up with ungrateful relatives or cranky neighbors? God puts up with you when you act the same.
Luke 6:35 says, "But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back." Can't we love like this? Not without God's help we can't. Our relationships need more than a social gesture. Some of our friends need a flood of tears. Our children need to be covered in the oil of our love.
But if we haven't received these things ourselves, how can we give them to others? Jeremiah 17:9 reminds us that apart from God, "the heart is deceitful about all things." We need help from an outside source. A transfusion. Would we love as God loves? Then we start by receiving God's love!
From A Love Worth Giving
Amos 7
Locusts, Fire and a Plumb Line
This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts after the king’s share had been harvested and just as the late crops were coming up. 2 When they had stripped the land clean, I cried out, “Sovereign Lord, forgive! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”
3 So the Lord relented.
“This will not happen,” the Lord said.
4 This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: The Sovereign Lord was calling for judgment by fire; it dried up the great deep and devoured the land. 5 Then I cried out, “Sovereign Lord, I beg you, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”
6 So the Lord relented.
“This will not happen either,” the Sovereign Lord said.
7 This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb,[a] with a plumb line[b] in his hand. 8 And the Lord asked me, “What do you see, Amos?”
“A plumb line,” I replied.
Then the Lord said, “Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.
9 “The high places of Isaac will be destroyed
and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined;
with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.”
Amos and Amaziah
10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel: “Amos is raising a conspiracy against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words. 11 For this is what Amos is saying:
“‘Jeroboam will die by the sword,
and Israel will surely go into exile,
away from their native land.’”
12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. 13 Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.”
14 Amos answered Amaziah, “I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. 15 But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ 16 Now then, hear the word of the Lord. You say,
“‘Do not prophesy against Israel,
and stop preaching against the descendants of Isaac.’
17 “Therefore this is what the Lord says:
“‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city,
and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword.
Your land will be measured and divided up,
and you yourself will die in a pagan[c] country.
And Israel will surely go into exile,
away from their native land.’”
Footnotes:
Amos 7:7 The meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain.
Amos 7:7 The meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain; also in verse 8.
Amos 7:17 Hebrew an unclean
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, February 02, 2016
Read: 2 Chronicles 21:4-20
But when Jehoram had become solidly established as king, he killed all his brothers and some of the other leaders of Judah.
5 Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. 6 But Jehoram followed the example of the kings of Israel and was as wicked as King Ahab, for he had married one of Ahab’s daughters. So Jehoram did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. 7 But the Lord did not want to destroy David’s dynasty, for he had made a covenant with David and promised that his descendants would continue to rule, shining like a lamp forever.
8 During Jehoram’s reign, the Edomites revolted against Judah and crowned their own king. 9 So Jehoram went out with his full army and all his chariots. The Edomites surrounded him and his chariot commanders, but he went out at night and attacked them[a] under cover of darkness. 10 Even so, Edom has been independent from Judah to this day. The town of Libnah also revolted about that same time. All this happened because Jehoram had abandoned the Lord, the God of his ancestors. 11 He had built pagan shrines in the hill country of Judah and had led the people of Jerusalem and Judah to give themselves to pagan gods and to go astray.
12 Then Elijah the prophet wrote Jehoram this letter:
“This is what the Lord, the God of your ancestor David, says: You have not followed the good example of your father, Jehoshaphat, or your grandfather King Asa of Judah. 13 Instead, you have been as evil as the kings of Israel. You have led the people of Jerusalem and Judah to worship idols, just as King Ahab did in Israel. And you have even killed your own brothers, men who were better than you. 14 So now the Lord is about to strike you, your people, your children, your wives, and all that is yours with a heavy blow. 15 You yourself will suffer with a severe intestinal disease that will get worse each day until your bowels come out.”
16 Then the Lord stirred up the Philistines and the Arabs, who lived near the Ethiopians,[b] to attack Jehoram. 17 They marched against Judah, broke down its defenses, and carried away everything of value in the royal palace, including the king’s sons and his wives. Only his youngest son, Ahaziah,[c] was spared.
18 After all this, the Lord struck Jehoram with an incurable intestinal disease. 19 The disease grew worse and worse, and at the end of two years it caused his bowels to come out, and he died in agony. His people did not build a great funeral fire to honor him as they had done for his ancestors.
20 Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. No one was sorry when he died. They buried him in the City of David, but not in the royal cemetery.
Footnotes:
21:9 Or he went out and escaped. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
21:16 Hebrew the Cushites.
21:17 Hebrew Jehoahaz, a variant spelling of Ahaziah; compare 22:1.
Leave a Legacy
By Tim Gustafson
Even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve. Mark 10:45
When a road-construction foreman was killed in an accident, the love of this man for his family, co-workers, and community resulted in an overwhelming sense of loss. His country church couldn’t accommodate all the mourners, so planners moved the service to a much larger building. Friends and family packed the auditorium! The message was clear: Tim touched many lives in a way uniquely his. So many would miss his kindness, sense of humor, and enthusiasm for life.
As I returned from the funeral, I thought about the life of King Jehoram. What a contrast! His brief reign of terror is traced in 2 Chronicles 21. To solidify his power, Jehoram killed his own brothers and other leaders (v. 4). Then he led Judah into idol worship. The record tells us, “He passed away, to no one’s regret” (v. 20). Jehoram thought that brute force would ensure his legacy. It did. He is forever commemorated in Scripture as an evil man and a self-centered leader.
Life isn't just about ourselves. It's about Jesus.
Although Jesus also was a king, He came to Earth to be a servant. As He went about doing good, He endured the hatred of those who grasped for power. In the process, this Servant-King gave His life away.
Today, Jesus lives along with His legacy. That legacy includes those who understand that life isn’t just about themselves. It’s about Jesus—the One who longs to wrap His strong, forgiving arms around anyone who turns to Him.
Lord, in Your death as well as in Your life, You did the will of Your Father and served others. In some small way, help us to serve others with our lives today.
A life lived for God leaves a lasting legacy.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, February 02, 2016
The Compelling Force of the Call
Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel! —1 Corinthians 9:16
Beware of refusing to hear the call of God. Everyone who is saved is called to testify to the fact of his salvation. That, however, is not the same as the call to preach, but is merely an illustration which can be used in preaching. In this verse, Paul was referring to the stinging pains produced in him by the compelling force of the call to preach the gospel. Never try to apply what Paul said regarding the call to preach to those souls who are being called to God for salvation. There is nothing easier than getting saved, because it is solely God’s sovereign work— “Look to Me, and be saved…” (Isaiah 45:22). Our Lord never requires the same conditions for discipleship that he requires for salvation. We are condemned to salvation through the Cross of Christ. But discipleship has an option with it— “If anyone…” (Luke 14:26).
Paul’s words have to do with our being made servants of Jesus Christ, and our permission is never asked as to what we will do or where we will go. God makes us as broken bread and poured-out wine to please Himself. To be “separated to the gospel” means being able to hear the call of God (Romans 1:1). Once someone begins to hear that call, a suffering worthy of the name of Christ is produced. Suddenly, every ambition, every desire of life, and every outlook is completely blotted out and extinguished. Only one thing remains— “…separated to the gospel…” Woe be to the soul who tries to head in any other direction once that call has come to him. The Bible Training College exists so that each of you may know whether or not God has a man or woman here who truly cares about proclaiming His gospel and to see if God grips you for this purpose. Beware of competing calls once the call of God grips you.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We can understand the attributes of God in other ways, but we can only understand the Father’s heart in the Cross of Christ. The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption, 558 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, February 02, 2016
A Life That Depends On You - #7582
There are so many stories that put a face on the World Trade Center tragedy of September 11, 2001. I saw a particularly moving first-person story of one woman who miraculously survived the collapse of the North Tower that awful day. She tried to make her way down the long stairwell from her office on the 64th floor, and she got to the 13th floor. That's when the entire tower began to crumble. She fell to the ground as the building continued to collapse around her. She dropped thirteen floors and ended up with her head pinned between two concrete pillars and her legs trapped in a staircase. She said, "I saw that no one came, and I wasn't hearing any noises around me. So I thought, 'I'm doing to die here. I'm going to see myself slowly die here.'"
The young mother prayed, slept, and prayed some more. And at one point, she just asked God for a miracle. That's when she heard noises. She yelled out, and someone answered back. She had been trapped under tons of debris for 27 hours. Here's how she described what happened next: "I took a piece of concrete and I knocked the stair above me. And when they heard the knocking, they started to come closer. And then I put my hands through a little crack in the ceiling, and I felt the person hold my hand. The fireman found my hand and he said, 'I've got you.' And I said, 'Thank God.'" She was the last person pulled alive from the wreckage of the World Trade Center.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Life That Depends On You."
There's no scene more powerful than a rescue. Whether it's a firefighter pulling someone out of tons of debris or a spiritual rescuer leading someone from an eternity without hope into the life that only Jesus can give. Someone will live instead of dying because someone else took the risks to go in for the rescue.
If you've been rescued by Jesus, then your orders couldn't be more clear. Listen to our word for today from the Word of God in Jude 23. "Save others by snatching them from the fire." See, someone snatched you from the fire of God's judgment. Now it's your turn to rescue some folks within your reach who have not yet grabbed the hand of Jesus; who may not even know He's extending His hand.
I'm not saying it's easy to tell someone else about Jesus. When has rescuing someone ever been easy? When has there been a rescue that didn't involve the rescuer taking risks, going beyond where it's safe? So many fears keep us from telling the people we know about Jesus; the fear of being rejected – you know the fears; the fear of messing it up and the fear of not knowing all the answers.
But there needs to be a fear far greater than any of those, and that's the fear of this person we know spending all eternity in hell, forever away from God. It's that fear of losing someone forever that finally says, "I can't hold back any longer. If I don't go in, they may die. If I do go in, they have a chance to live."
The man who rescued that young woman from the World Trade Center debris first had to touch her. You need to be doing whatever it takes to touch the life of someone that you hope to take to heaven with you. Build that relationship. Take time for them. Go out of your way to get to know them. Find ways to serve them, to show love to them in their language. Be there for them in critical moments. Touch them so you can save them.
And ask the Lord, who is ultimately the One who rescues every person, to open up natural opportunities for you to explain your personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Pray that three-open prayer, "Lord, open a door. Lord, open their heart. Lord, open my mouth."
There is someone in your personal world whose life, in a very real way, depends on you every bit as much as a trapped young woman's life depended on that firefighter who risked to save her. And there is no greater thrill, no greater joy than being able to reach out to a lost person and to be able to say "I've got you" and to help them move from death to life.
Need more patience? Is generosity an elusive virtue? Having trouble putting up with ungrateful relatives or cranky neighbors? God puts up with you when you act the same.
Luke 6:35 says, "But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back." Can't we love like this? Not without God's help we can't. Our relationships need more than a social gesture. Some of our friends need a flood of tears. Our children need to be covered in the oil of our love.
But if we haven't received these things ourselves, how can we give them to others? Jeremiah 17:9 reminds us that apart from God, "the heart is deceitful about all things." We need help from an outside source. A transfusion. Would we love as God loves? Then we start by receiving God's love!
From A Love Worth Giving
Amos 7
Locusts, Fire and a Plumb Line
This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts after the king’s share had been harvested and just as the late crops were coming up. 2 When they had stripped the land clean, I cried out, “Sovereign Lord, forgive! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”
3 So the Lord relented.
“This will not happen,” the Lord said.
4 This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: The Sovereign Lord was calling for judgment by fire; it dried up the great deep and devoured the land. 5 Then I cried out, “Sovereign Lord, I beg you, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”
6 So the Lord relented.
“This will not happen either,” the Sovereign Lord said.
7 This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb,[a] with a plumb line[b] in his hand. 8 And the Lord asked me, “What do you see, Amos?”
“A plumb line,” I replied.
Then the Lord said, “Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.
9 “The high places of Isaac will be destroyed
and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined;
with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.”
Amos and Amaziah
10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel: “Amos is raising a conspiracy against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words. 11 For this is what Amos is saying:
“‘Jeroboam will die by the sword,
and Israel will surely go into exile,
away from their native land.’”
12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. 13 Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.”
14 Amos answered Amaziah, “I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. 15 But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ 16 Now then, hear the word of the Lord. You say,
“‘Do not prophesy against Israel,
and stop preaching against the descendants of Isaac.’
17 “Therefore this is what the Lord says:
“‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city,
and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword.
Your land will be measured and divided up,
and you yourself will die in a pagan[c] country.
And Israel will surely go into exile,
away from their native land.’”
Footnotes:
Amos 7:7 The meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain.
Amos 7:7 The meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain; also in verse 8.
Amos 7:17 Hebrew an unclean
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, February 02, 2016
Read: 2 Chronicles 21:4-20
But when Jehoram had become solidly established as king, he killed all his brothers and some of the other leaders of Judah.
5 Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. 6 But Jehoram followed the example of the kings of Israel and was as wicked as King Ahab, for he had married one of Ahab’s daughters. So Jehoram did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. 7 But the Lord did not want to destroy David’s dynasty, for he had made a covenant with David and promised that his descendants would continue to rule, shining like a lamp forever.
8 During Jehoram’s reign, the Edomites revolted against Judah and crowned their own king. 9 So Jehoram went out with his full army and all his chariots. The Edomites surrounded him and his chariot commanders, but he went out at night and attacked them[a] under cover of darkness. 10 Even so, Edom has been independent from Judah to this day. The town of Libnah also revolted about that same time. All this happened because Jehoram had abandoned the Lord, the God of his ancestors. 11 He had built pagan shrines in the hill country of Judah and had led the people of Jerusalem and Judah to give themselves to pagan gods and to go astray.
12 Then Elijah the prophet wrote Jehoram this letter:
“This is what the Lord, the God of your ancestor David, says: You have not followed the good example of your father, Jehoshaphat, or your grandfather King Asa of Judah. 13 Instead, you have been as evil as the kings of Israel. You have led the people of Jerusalem and Judah to worship idols, just as King Ahab did in Israel. And you have even killed your own brothers, men who were better than you. 14 So now the Lord is about to strike you, your people, your children, your wives, and all that is yours with a heavy blow. 15 You yourself will suffer with a severe intestinal disease that will get worse each day until your bowels come out.”
16 Then the Lord stirred up the Philistines and the Arabs, who lived near the Ethiopians,[b] to attack Jehoram. 17 They marched against Judah, broke down its defenses, and carried away everything of value in the royal palace, including the king’s sons and his wives. Only his youngest son, Ahaziah,[c] was spared.
18 After all this, the Lord struck Jehoram with an incurable intestinal disease. 19 The disease grew worse and worse, and at the end of two years it caused his bowels to come out, and he died in agony. His people did not build a great funeral fire to honor him as they had done for his ancestors.
20 Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. No one was sorry when he died. They buried him in the City of David, but not in the royal cemetery.
Footnotes:
21:9 Or he went out and escaped. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
21:16 Hebrew the Cushites.
21:17 Hebrew Jehoahaz, a variant spelling of Ahaziah; compare 22:1.
Leave a Legacy
By Tim Gustafson
Even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve. Mark 10:45
When a road-construction foreman was killed in an accident, the love of this man for his family, co-workers, and community resulted in an overwhelming sense of loss. His country church couldn’t accommodate all the mourners, so planners moved the service to a much larger building. Friends and family packed the auditorium! The message was clear: Tim touched many lives in a way uniquely his. So many would miss his kindness, sense of humor, and enthusiasm for life.
As I returned from the funeral, I thought about the life of King Jehoram. What a contrast! His brief reign of terror is traced in 2 Chronicles 21. To solidify his power, Jehoram killed his own brothers and other leaders (v. 4). Then he led Judah into idol worship. The record tells us, “He passed away, to no one’s regret” (v. 20). Jehoram thought that brute force would ensure his legacy. It did. He is forever commemorated in Scripture as an evil man and a self-centered leader.
Life isn't just about ourselves. It's about Jesus.
Although Jesus also was a king, He came to Earth to be a servant. As He went about doing good, He endured the hatred of those who grasped for power. In the process, this Servant-King gave His life away.
Today, Jesus lives along with His legacy. That legacy includes those who understand that life isn’t just about themselves. It’s about Jesus—the One who longs to wrap His strong, forgiving arms around anyone who turns to Him.
Lord, in Your death as well as in Your life, You did the will of Your Father and served others. In some small way, help us to serve others with our lives today.
A life lived for God leaves a lasting legacy.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, February 02, 2016
The Compelling Force of the Call
Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel! —1 Corinthians 9:16
Beware of refusing to hear the call of God. Everyone who is saved is called to testify to the fact of his salvation. That, however, is not the same as the call to preach, but is merely an illustration which can be used in preaching. In this verse, Paul was referring to the stinging pains produced in him by the compelling force of the call to preach the gospel. Never try to apply what Paul said regarding the call to preach to those souls who are being called to God for salvation. There is nothing easier than getting saved, because it is solely God’s sovereign work— “Look to Me, and be saved…” (Isaiah 45:22). Our Lord never requires the same conditions for discipleship that he requires for salvation. We are condemned to salvation through the Cross of Christ. But discipleship has an option with it— “If anyone…” (Luke 14:26).
Paul’s words have to do with our being made servants of Jesus Christ, and our permission is never asked as to what we will do or where we will go. God makes us as broken bread and poured-out wine to please Himself. To be “separated to the gospel” means being able to hear the call of God (Romans 1:1). Once someone begins to hear that call, a suffering worthy of the name of Christ is produced. Suddenly, every ambition, every desire of life, and every outlook is completely blotted out and extinguished. Only one thing remains— “…separated to the gospel…” Woe be to the soul who tries to head in any other direction once that call has come to him. The Bible Training College exists so that each of you may know whether or not God has a man or woman here who truly cares about proclaiming His gospel and to see if God grips you for this purpose. Beware of competing calls once the call of God grips you.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We can understand the attributes of God in other ways, but we can only understand the Father’s heart in the Cross of Christ. The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption, 558 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, February 02, 2016
A Life That Depends On You - #7582
There are so many stories that put a face on the World Trade Center tragedy of September 11, 2001. I saw a particularly moving first-person story of one woman who miraculously survived the collapse of the North Tower that awful day. She tried to make her way down the long stairwell from her office on the 64th floor, and she got to the 13th floor. That's when the entire tower began to crumble. She fell to the ground as the building continued to collapse around her. She dropped thirteen floors and ended up with her head pinned between two concrete pillars and her legs trapped in a staircase. She said, "I saw that no one came, and I wasn't hearing any noises around me. So I thought, 'I'm doing to die here. I'm going to see myself slowly die here.'"
The young mother prayed, slept, and prayed some more. And at one point, she just asked God for a miracle. That's when she heard noises. She yelled out, and someone answered back. She had been trapped under tons of debris for 27 hours. Here's how she described what happened next: "I took a piece of concrete and I knocked the stair above me. And when they heard the knocking, they started to come closer. And then I put my hands through a little crack in the ceiling, and I felt the person hold my hand. The fireman found my hand and he said, 'I've got you.' And I said, 'Thank God.'" She was the last person pulled alive from the wreckage of the World Trade Center.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Life That Depends On You."
There's no scene more powerful than a rescue. Whether it's a firefighter pulling someone out of tons of debris or a spiritual rescuer leading someone from an eternity without hope into the life that only Jesus can give. Someone will live instead of dying because someone else took the risks to go in for the rescue.
If you've been rescued by Jesus, then your orders couldn't be more clear. Listen to our word for today from the Word of God in Jude 23. "Save others by snatching them from the fire." See, someone snatched you from the fire of God's judgment. Now it's your turn to rescue some folks within your reach who have not yet grabbed the hand of Jesus; who may not even know He's extending His hand.
I'm not saying it's easy to tell someone else about Jesus. When has rescuing someone ever been easy? When has there been a rescue that didn't involve the rescuer taking risks, going beyond where it's safe? So many fears keep us from telling the people we know about Jesus; the fear of being rejected – you know the fears; the fear of messing it up and the fear of not knowing all the answers.
But there needs to be a fear far greater than any of those, and that's the fear of this person we know spending all eternity in hell, forever away from God. It's that fear of losing someone forever that finally says, "I can't hold back any longer. If I don't go in, they may die. If I do go in, they have a chance to live."
The man who rescued that young woman from the World Trade Center debris first had to touch her. You need to be doing whatever it takes to touch the life of someone that you hope to take to heaven with you. Build that relationship. Take time for them. Go out of your way to get to know them. Find ways to serve them, to show love to them in their language. Be there for them in critical moments. Touch them so you can save them.
And ask the Lord, who is ultimately the One who rescues every person, to open up natural opportunities for you to explain your personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Pray that three-open prayer, "Lord, open a door. Lord, open their heart. Lord, open my mouth."
There is someone in your personal world whose life, in a very real way, depends on you every bit as much as a trapped young woman's life depended on that firefighter who risked to save her. And there is no greater thrill, no greater joy than being able to reach out to a lost person and to be able to say "I've got you" and to help them move from death to life.
Monday, February 1, 2016
Galatians 1, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: RECEIVE FIRST, LOVE SECOND
If you’ve never received love—how can you love others? In other words, we can’t give what we’ve never received. But oh how we try! Our typical strategy? Try harder. I don’t care how much it hurts, I’m going to be nice to that bum. So we try. Teeth clinched. Jaw firm.
Could it be we’re missing a step? Could it be that the first step of love is not toward them but toward Christ? In 1 John 4:19 it says, “We love, because he first loved us.” Long to be more loving? Then consider how you’ve been forgiven. Paul said in Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
We want to. We long to. But how can we? By living loved. By following the principle: Receive first, love second!
From A Love Worth Giving
Galatians 1
Greetings from Paul
This letter is from Paul, an apostle. I was not appointed by any group of people or any human authority, but by Jesus Christ himself and by God the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead.
2 All the brothers and sisters[a] here join me in sending this letter to the churches of Galatia.
3 May God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ[b] give you grace and peace. 4 Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. 5 All glory to God forever and ever! Amen.
There Is Only One Good News
6 I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ.[c] You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News 7 but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ.
8 Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you. 9 I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other Good News than the one you welcomed, let that person be cursed.
10 Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.
Paul’s Message Comes from Christ
11 Dear brothers and sisters, I want you to understand that the gospel message I preach is not based on mere human reasoning. 12 I received my message from no human source, and no one taught me. Instead, I received it by direct revelation from Jesus Christ.[d]
13 You know what I was like when I followed the Jewish religion—how I violently persecuted God’s church. I did my best to destroy it. 14 I was far ahead of my fellow Jews in my zeal for the traditions of my ancestors.
15 But even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace. Then it pleased him 16 to reveal his Son to me[e] so that I would proclaim the Good News about Jesus to the Gentiles.
When this happened, I did not rush out to consult with any human being.[f] 17 Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to consult with those who were apostles before I was. Instead, I went away into Arabia, and later I returned to the city of Damascus.
18 Then three years later I went to Jerusalem to get to know Peter,[g] and I stayed with him for fifteen days. 19 The only other apostle I met at that time was James, the Lord’s brother. 20 I declare before God that what I am writing to you is not a lie.
21 After that visit I went north into the provinces of Syria and Cilicia. 22 And still the churches in Christ that are in Judea didn’t know me personally. 23 All they knew was that people were saying, “The one who used to persecute us is now preaching the very faith he tried to destroy!” 24 And they praised God because of me.
Footnotes:
1:2 Greek brothers; also in 1:11.
1:3 Some manuscripts read God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
1:6 Some manuscripts read through loving mercy.
1:12 Or by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
1:16a Or in me.
1:16b Greek with flesh and blood.
1:18 Greek Cephas.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, February 01, 2016
Read: Luke 18:1-8
Parable of the Persistent Widow
One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. 2 “There was a judge in a certain city,” he said, “who neither feared God nor cared about people. 3 A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ 4 The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, 5 but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’”
6 Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. 7 Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man[a] returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?”
Footnotes:
18:8 “Son of Man” is a title Jesus used for himself.
INSIGHT:
The parable of the judge and the persistent widow is one of the most challenging parables to interpret. The judge represents God, yet the judge is described as uncaring and unjust. Those terms certainly do not describe our heavenly Father. So how is this to be read? Most parables are intended to communicate one big idea rather than have meaning in every detail. In today’s passage the big idea is not the character of the God to whom we pray, but the value of persevering in prayer. When considering a parable, the simple guideline of looking for the one central idea can be helpful.
Always Pray and Don’t Give Up
By David McCasland
Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. Luke 18:1
Are you going through one of those times when it seems every attempt to resolve a problem is met with a new difficulty? You thank the Lord at night that it’s taken care of but awake to find that something else has gone wrong and the problem remains.
During an experience like that, I was reading the gospel of Luke and was astounded by the opening words of chapter 18: “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up” (v. 1). I had read the story of the persistent widow many times but never grasped why Jesus told it (vv. 2-8). Now I connected those opening words with the story. The lesson to His followers was very clear: “Always pray and never give up.”
Prayer is a process of recognizing God's power and plan for our lives.
Prayer is not a means of coercing God to do what we want. It is a process of recognizing His power and plan for our lives. In prayer we yield our lives and circumstances to the Lord and trust Him to act in His time and in His way.
As we rely on God’s grace not only for the outcome of our requests but for the process as well, we can keep coming to the Lord in prayer, trusting His wisdom and care for us.
Our Lord’s encouragement to us is clear: Always pray and don’t give up!
Lord, in the difficulty I face today, guard my heart, guide my words, and show Your grace. May I always turn to You in prayer.
Prayer changes everything.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, February 01, 2016
The Call of God
Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel… —1 Corinthians 1:17
Paul states here that the call of God is to preach the gospel. But remember what Paul means by “the gospel,” namely, the reality of redemption in our Lord Jesus Christ. We are inclined to make sanctification the goal of our preaching. Paul refers to personal experiences only by way of illustration, never as the end of the matter. We are not commissioned to preach salvation or sanctification— we are commissioned to lift up Jesus Christ (see John 12:32). It is an injustice to say that Jesus Christ labored in redemption to make me a saint. Jesus Christ labored in redemption to redeem the whole world and to place it perfectly whole and restored before the throne of God. The fact that we can experience redemption illustrates the power of its reality, but that experience is a byproduct and not the goal of redemption. If God were human, how sick and tired He would be of the constant requests we make for our salvation and for our sanctification. We burden His energies from morning till night asking for things for ourselves or for something from which we want to be delivered! When we finally touch the underlying foundation of the reality of the gospel of God, we will never bother Him anymore with little personal complaints.
The one passion of Paul’s life was to proclaim the gospel of God. He welcomed heartbreak, disillusionment, and tribulation for only one reason— these things kept him unmovable in his devotion to the gospel of God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Much of the misery in our Christian life comes not because the devil tackles us, but because we have never understood the simple laws of our make-up. We have to treat the body as the servant of Jesus Christ: when the body says “Sit,” and He says “Go,” go! When the body says “Eat,” and He says “Fast,” fast! When the body says “Yawn,” and He says “Pray,” pray! Biblical Ethics, 107 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, February 01, 2016
The Storm the Ship Can't Handle - #7581
I've been in three hurricanes, but always on land. I can't imagine what it would be like to face it out on the water.
The crew of the container ship El Faro were on pace to be well ahead of Hurricane Joaquin, until they suddenly found themselves with no propulsion system directly in the path of a Category 4 Hurricane: fifty-foot waves, 140-mile-an-hour winds, zero visibility. The crew's families asked for people to pray for them and for their missing loved ones.
A Coast Guard officer said, "No matter how big the ship is, when you're disabled and you're at sea, and you're in the middle of a storm, the size and strength of that storm is just enough to overcome just about anything."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Storm the Ship Can't Handle."
I've never been in a ship in a storm. But in a more personal way, I kind of get what he's saying. Because storms - the physical and emotional kind - are part of everyone's story. I've felt the blows of medical crises that threatened the lives of people I cherish. I've experienced the pain of someone I love being here one day, and then suddenly gone. I've had trust betrayed. And there are the consequences of choices that I made and I wish I could have back.
And, like most people, I want to think I'm smart enough and strong enough to navigate the brutal winds and the surging waves. But, truth be told, it's like the Coast Guard captain said, "Sometimes the size and strength of that storm is just enough to overcome just about anything." And that's when people go under. Marriages break apart. Panic drives us to choices that will even sink us more. Fear, despair, and desperation take us down.
I'd like to think I'm pretty strong emotionally, but not strong enough to hold things together when I'm blindsided by a really brutal storm. But, thank God, I belong to Someone who is.
When Jesus was here, the team He built included some seasoned fishermen who had weathered many a storm, until the night that all their experience and strength wasn't enough to keep their boat from starting to go under. That's when Captain Jesus stepped to the stern, raised His hand and shouted a command, "Peace! Be still!" The Bible says, "The wind died down and it was completely calm." Because whatever storm is bigger than we are, Jesus is bigger than it is. After all, He had the power to walk out of His grave three days after He died on a cross to pay for our sin.
Jesus hasn't always stopped the storm around me. But He's calmed the storm inside me, beginning with the turbulence in my soul from battling with God for the control of my life. But, thanks to Jesus' life-giving love, I have, as it says in our word for today from the Word of God in Romans 5:1, "...peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." That peace is my unshakeable anchor and that anchor has always held. The storm we can't handle finally confronts us with a truth we've never wanted to face. We were never meant to be at the helm in the first place.
This may be the day when you finally surrender your heart and life and the control of your life to the One who gave it to you in the first place. The Bible says, "You were created by Him and for Him." Jesus had to die on a cross to pay for our rebellion against God. But today He's ready to bring you home into that relationship you were made for. And that peace with God that comes through Jesus; you can go to sleep with that in your heart tonight and every night for the rest of your life.
There's some wonderful information I'd love to give you at our website so you can be sure you've begun this relationship with the only One who can rescue you from your sin. I want to invite you to go to ANewStory.com. Will you remember that and check it out?
Maybe the storm that you've been in has been for an ultimately eternal purpose. Because for many of us, the storm that almost sank us was the storm that finally blew us Home.
If you’ve never received love—how can you love others? In other words, we can’t give what we’ve never received. But oh how we try! Our typical strategy? Try harder. I don’t care how much it hurts, I’m going to be nice to that bum. So we try. Teeth clinched. Jaw firm.
Could it be we’re missing a step? Could it be that the first step of love is not toward them but toward Christ? In 1 John 4:19 it says, “We love, because he first loved us.” Long to be more loving? Then consider how you’ve been forgiven. Paul said in Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
We want to. We long to. But how can we? By living loved. By following the principle: Receive first, love second!
From A Love Worth Giving
Galatians 1
Greetings from Paul
This letter is from Paul, an apostle. I was not appointed by any group of people or any human authority, but by Jesus Christ himself and by God the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead.
2 All the brothers and sisters[a] here join me in sending this letter to the churches of Galatia.
3 May God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ[b] give you grace and peace. 4 Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. 5 All glory to God forever and ever! Amen.
There Is Only One Good News
6 I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ.[c] You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News 7 but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ.
8 Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you. 9 I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other Good News than the one you welcomed, let that person be cursed.
10 Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.
Paul’s Message Comes from Christ
11 Dear brothers and sisters, I want you to understand that the gospel message I preach is not based on mere human reasoning. 12 I received my message from no human source, and no one taught me. Instead, I received it by direct revelation from Jesus Christ.[d]
13 You know what I was like when I followed the Jewish religion—how I violently persecuted God’s church. I did my best to destroy it. 14 I was far ahead of my fellow Jews in my zeal for the traditions of my ancestors.
15 But even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace. Then it pleased him 16 to reveal his Son to me[e] so that I would proclaim the Good News about Jesus to the Gentiles.
When this happened, I did not rush out to consult with any human being.[f] 17 Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to consult with those who were apostles before I was. Instead, I went away into Arabia, and later I returned to the city of Damascus.
18 Then three years later I went to Jerusalem to get to know Peter,[g] and I stayed with him for fifteen days. 19 The only other apostle I met at that time was James, the Lord’s brother. 20 I declare before God that what I am writing to you is not a lie.
21 After that visit I went north into the provinces of Syria and Cilicia. 22 And still the churches in Christ that are in Judea didn’t know me personally. 23 All they knew was that people were saying, “The one who used to persecute us is now preaching the very faith he tried to destroy!” 24 And they praised God because of me.
Footnotes:
1:2 Greek brothers; also in 1:11.
1:3 Some manuscripts read God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
1:6 Some manuscripts read through loving mercy.
1:12 Or by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
1:16a Or in me.
1:16b Greek with flesh and blood.
1:18 Greek Cephas.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, February 01, 2016
Read: Luke 18:1-8
Parable of the Persistent Widow
One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. 2 “There was a judge in a certain city,” he said, “who neither feared God nor cared about people. 3 A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ 4 The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, 5 but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’”
6 Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. 7 Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man[a] returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?”
Footnotes:
18:8 “Son of Man” is a title Jesus used for himself.
INSIGHT:
The parable of the judge and the persistent widow is one of the most challenging parables to interpret. The judge represents God, yet the judge is described as uncaring and unjust. Those terms certainly do not describe our heavenly Father. So how is this to be read? Most parables are intended to communicate one big idea rather than have meaning in every detail. In today’s passage the big idea is not the character of the God to whom we pray, but the value of persevering in prayer. When considering a parable, the simple guideline of looking for the one central idea can be helpful.
Always Pray and Don’t Give Up
By David McCasland
Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. Luke 18:1
Are you going through one of those times when it seems every attempt to resolve a problem is met with a new difficulty? You thank the Lord at night that it’s taken care of but awake to find that something else has gone wrong and the problem remains.
During an experience like that, I was reading the gospel of Luke and was astounded by the opening words of chapter 18: “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up” (v. 1). I had read the story of the persistent widow many times but never grasped why Jesus told it (vv. 2-8). Now I connected those opening words with the story. The lesson to His followers was very clear: “Always pray and never give up.”
Prayer is a process of recognizing God's power and plan for our lives.
Prayer is not a means of coercing God to do what we want. It is a process of recognizing His power and plan for our lives. In prayer we yield our lives and circumstances to the Lord and trust Him to act in His time and in His way.
As we rely on God’s grace not only for the outcome of our requests but for the process as well, we can keep coming to the Lord in prayer, trusting His wisdom and care for us.
Our Lord’s encouragement to us is clear: Always pray and don’t give up!
Lord, in the difficulty I face today, guard my heart, guide my words, and show Your grace. May I always turn to You in prayer.
Prayer changes everything.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, February 01, 2016
The Call of God
Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel… —1 Corinthians 1:17
Paul states here that the call of God is to preach the gospel. But remember what Paul means by “the gospel,” namely, the reality of redemption in our Lord Jesus Christ. We are inclined to make sanctification the goal of our preaching. Paul refers to personal experiences only by way of illustration, never as the end of the matter. We are not commissioned to preach salvation or sanctification— we are commissioned to lift up Jesus Christ (see John 12:32). It is an injustice to say that Jesus Christ labored in redemption to make me a saint. Jesus Christ labored in redemption to redeem the whole world and to place it perfectly whole and restored before the throne of God. The fact that we can experience redemption illustrates the power of its reality, but that experience is a byproduct and not the goal of redemption. If God were human, how sick and tired He would be of the constant requests we make for our salvation and for our sanctification. We burden His energies from morning till night asking for things for ourselves or for something from which we want to be delivered! When we finally touch the underlying foundation of the reality of the gospel of God, we will never bother Him anymore with little personal complaints.
The one passion of Paul’s life was to proclaim the gospel of God. He welcomed heartbreak, disillusionment, and tribulation for only one reason— these things kept him unmovable in his devotion to the gospel of God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Much of the misery in our Christian life comes not because the devil tackles us, but because we have never understood the simple laws of our make-up. We have to treat the body as the servant of Jesus Christ: when the body says “Sit,” and He says “Go,” go! When the body says “Eat,” and He says “Fast,” fast! When the body says “Yawn,” and He says “Pray,” pray! Biblical Ethics, 107 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, February 01, 2016
The Storm the Ship Can't Handle - #7581
I've been in three hurricanes, but always on land. I can't imagine what it would be like to face it out on the water.
The crew of the container ship El Faro were on pace to be well ahead of Hurricane Joaquin, until they suddenly found themselves with no propulsion system directly in the path of a Category 4 Hurricane: fifty-foot waves, 140-mile-an-hour winds, zero visibility. The crew's families asked for people to pray for them and for their missing loved ones.
A Coast Guard officer said, "No matter how big the ship is, when you're disabled and you're at sea, and you're in the middle of a storm, the size and strength of that storm is just enough to overcome just about anything."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Storm the Ship Can't Handle."
I've never been in a ship in a storm. But in a more personal way, I kind of get what he's saying. Because storms - the physical and emotional kind - are part of everyone's story. I've felt the blows of medical crises that threatened the lives of people I cherish. I've experienced the pain of someone I love being here one day, and then suddenly gone. I've had trust betrayed. And there are the consequences of choices that I made and I wish I could have back.
And, like most people, I want to think I'm smart enough and strong enough to navigate the brutal winds and the surging waves. But, truth be told, it's like the Coast Guard captain said, "Sometimes the size and strength of that storm is just enough to overcome just about anything." And that's when people go under. Marriages break apart. Panic drives us to choices that will even sink us more. Fear, despair, and desperation take us down.
I'd like to think I'm pretty strong emotionally, but not strong enough to hold things together when I'm blindsided by a really brutal storm. But, thank God, I belong to Someone who is.
When Jesus was here, the team He built included some seasoned fishermen who had weathered many a storm, until the night that all their experience and strength wasn't enough to keep their boat from starting to go under. That's when Captain Jesus stepped to the stern, raised His hand and shouted a command, "Peace! Be still!" The Bible says, "The wind died down and it was completely calm." Because whatever storm is bigger than we are, Jesus is bigger than it is. After all, He had the power to walk out of His grave three days after He died on a cross to pay for our sin.
Jesus hasn't always stopped the storm around me. But He's calmed the storm inside me, beginning with the turbulence in my soul from battling with God for the control of my life. But, thanks to Jesus' life-giving love, I have, as it says in our word for today from the Word of God in Romans 5:1, "...peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." That peace is my unshakeable anchor and that anchor has always held. The storm we can't handle finally confronts us with a truth we've never wanted to face. We were never meant to be at the helm in the first place.
This may be the day when you finally surrender your heart and life and the control of your life to the One who gave it to you in the first place. The Bible says, "You were created by Him and for Him." Jesus had to die on a cross to pay for our rebellion against God. But today He's ready to bring you home into that relationship you were made for. And that peace with God that comes through Jesus; you can go to sleep with that in your heart tonight and every night for the rest of your life.
There's some wonderful information I'd love to give you at our website so you can be sure you've begun this relationship with the only One who can rescue you from your sin. I want to invite you to go to ANewStory.com. Will you remember that and check it out?
Maybe the storm that you've been in has been for an ultimately eternal purpose. Because for many of us, the storm that almost sank us was the storm that finally blew us Home.
Sunday, January 31, 2016
Amos 6, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: The Big News
The big news of the Bible is not that you love God, but that God loves you; not that you can know God, but that God already knows you!
God tattooed your name on the palm of his hand. You never leave his mind, escape his sight, flee his thoughts. He sees the worst of you and loves you still. Your sins of tomorrow and failings of the future will not surprise him, he sees them now. Every day and deed of your life has passed before his eyes and been calculated in his decision. He knows you better than you know you and reached his verdict: He loves you still!
No discovery will disillusion him, no rebellion will dissuade him. You need not win his love. You already have it. And since you can't win it, you can't lose it! He loves you with an everlasting love!
From The Lucado Inspirational Reader
Amos 6
Woe to the Complacent
Woe to you who are complacent in Zion,
and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria,
you notable men of the foremost nation,
to whom the people of Israel come!
2 Go to Kalneh and look at it;
go from there to great Hamath,
and then go down to Gath in Philistia.
Are they better off than your two kingdoms?
Is their land larger than yours?
3 You put off the day of disaster
and bring near a reign of terror.
4 You lie on beds adorned with ivory
and lounge on your couches.
You dine on choice lambs
and fattened calves.
5 You strum away on your harps like David
and improvise on musical instruments.
6 You drink wine by the bowlful
and use the finest lotions,
but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.
7 Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile;
your feasting and lounging will end.
The Lord Abhors the Pride of Israel
8 The Sovereign Lord has sworn by himself—the Lord God Almighty declares:
“I abhor the pride of Jacob
and detest his fortresses;
I will deliver up the city
and everything in it.”
9 If ten people are left in one house, they too will die. 10 And if the relative who comes to carry the bodies out of the house to burn them[f] asks anyone who might be hiding there, “Is anyone else with you?” and he says, “No,” then he will go on to say, “Hush! We must not mention the name of the Lord.”
11 For the Lord has given the command,
and he will smash the great house into pieces
and the small house into bits.
12 Do horses run on the rocky crags?
Does one plow the sea[g] with oxen?
But you have turned justice into poison
and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness—
13 you who rejoice in the conquest of Lo Debar[h]
and say, “Did we not take Karnaim[i] by our own strength?”
14 For the Lord God Almighty declares,
“I will stir up a nation against you, Israel,
that will oppress you all the way
from Lebo Hamath to the valley of the Arabah.”
Footnotes:
Amos 6:10 Or to make a funeral fire in honor of the dead
Amos 6:12 With a different word division of the Hebrew; Masoretic Text plow there
Amos 6:13 Lo Debar means nothing.
Amos 6:13 Karnaim means horns; horn here symbolizes strength.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, January 31, 2016
Read: Luke 4:14-21
Jesus Rejected at Nazareth
Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region. 15 He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
16 When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. 17 The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
19 and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.[a]”
20 He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. 21 Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”
Footnotes:
4:18-19 Or and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Isa 61:1-2 (Greek version); 58:6.
INSIGHT:
Luke 4 provides a classic portrait of how a prophet is without honor in his own country (see Matt. 13:53–57; John 4:44). In the synagogue Jesus made His formal announcement of His role as the promised Messiah, quoting Isaiah’s great messianic prophecy (Luke 4:16–21; Isa. 61:1–2). The people immediately responded with amazement and “spoke well of Him” (v. 22). But when Jesus responded by challenging the hardness of their hearts, they tried to kill Him (vv. 23–30). In the midst of His challenge to them Jesus pointed to the reality of being rejected by those of His own hometown (v. 24).
He Came for You
By Bill Crowder
The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. Luke 4:18
In his novels The Trial and The Castle, Franz Kafka (1883–1924) portrays life as a dehumanizing existence that turns people into a sea of empty faces without identity or worth. Kafka said, “The conveyer belt of life carries you on, no one knows where. One is more of an object, a thing, than a living creature.”
Early in His ministry, Jesus went to a synagogue in Nazareth, stood up in front of the crowd, and read from Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19).
The Lord's mercy extends to all people.
Then Christ sat down and declared, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (v. 21). Centuries earlier, the prophet Isaiah had proclaimed these words (Isa. 61:1-2). Now Jesus announced that He was the fulfillment of that promise.
Notice who Jesus came to rescue—the poor, brokenhearted, captive, blind, and oppressed. He came for people dehumanized by sin and suffering, by brokenness and sorrow. He came for us!
For those who sin and those who suffer. For those who suffer because of sin. For those who sin to alleviate suffering. Lord, have mercy on us. Robert Gelinas, The Mercy Prayer
No matter how impersonal the world may seem, Jesus loves each of us as if we were His only child.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, January 31, 2016
Do You See Your Calling?
…separated to the gospel of God… —Romans 1:1
Our calling is not primarily to be holy men and women, but to be proclaimers of the gospel of God. The one all-important thing is that the gospel of God should be recognized as the abiding reality. Reality is not human goodness, or holiness, or heaven, or hell— it is redemption. The need to perceive this is the most vital need of the Christian worker today. As workers, we have to get used to the revelation that redemption is the only reality. Personal holiness is an effect of redemption, not the cause of it. If we place our faith in human goodness we will go under when testing comes.
Paul did not say that he separated himself, but “when it pleased God, who separated me…” (Galatians 1:15). Paul was not overly interested in his own character. And as long as our eyes are focused on our own personal holiness, we will never even get close to the full reality of redemption. Christian workers fail because they place their desire for their own holiness above their desire to know God. “Don’t ask me to be confronted with the strong reality of redemption on behalf of the filth of human life surrounding me today; what I want is anything God can do for me to make me more desirable in my own eyes.” To talk that way is a sign that the reality of the gospel of God has not begun to touch me. There is no reckless abandon to God in that. God cannot deliver me while my interest is merely in my own character. Paul was not conscious of himself. He was recklessly abandoned, totally surrendered, and separated by God for one purpose— to proclaim the gospel of God (see Romans 9:3).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
To those who have had no agony Jesus says, “I have nothing for you; stand on your own feet, square your own shoulders. I have come for the man who knows he has a bigger handful than he can cope with, who knows there are forces he cannot touch; I will do everything for him if he will let Me. Only let a man grant he needs it, and I will do it for him.”
The Shadow of an Agony
The big news of the Bible is not that you love God, but that God loves you; not that you can know God, but that God already knows you!
God tattooed your name on the palm of his hand. You never leave his mind, escape his sight, flee his thoughts. He sees the worst of you and loves you still. Your sins of tomorrow and failings of the future will not surprise him, he sees them now. Every day and deed of your life has passed before his eyes and been calculated in his decision. He knows you better than you know you and reached his verdict: He loves you still!
No discovery will disillusion him, no rebellion will dissuade him. You need not win his love. You already have it. And since you can't win it, you can't lose it! He loves you with an everlasting love!
From The Lucado Inspirational Reader
Amos 6
Woe to the Complacent
Woe to you who are complacent in Zion,
and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria,
you notable men of the foremost nation,
to whom the people of Israel come!
2 Go to Kalneh and look at it;
go from there to great Hamath,
and then go down to Gath in Philistia.
Are they better off than your two kingdoms?
Is their land larger than yours?
3 You put off the day of disaster
and bring near a reign of terror.
4 You lie on beds adorned with ivory
and lounge on your couches.
You dine on choice lambs
and fattened calves.
5 You strum away on your harps like David
and improvise on musical instruments.
6 You drink wine by the bowlful
and use the finest lotions,
but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.
7 Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile;
your feasting and lounging will end.
The Lord Abhors the Pride of Israel
8 The Sovereign Lord has sworn by himself—the Lord God Almighty declares:
“I abhor the pride of Jacob
and detest his fortresses;
I will deliver up the city
and everything in it.”
9 If ten people are left in one house, they too will die. 10 And if the relative who comes to carry the bodies out of the house to burn them[f] asks anyone who might be hiding there, “Is anyone else with you?” and he says, “No,” then he will go on to say, “Hush! We must not mention the name of the Lord.”
11 For the Lord has given the command,
and he will smash the great house into pieces
and the small house into bits.
12 Do horses run on the rocky crags?
Does one plow the sea[g] with oxen?
But you have turned justice into poison
and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness—
13 you who rejoice in the conquest of Lo Debar[h]
and say, “Did we not take Karnaim[i] by our own strength?”
14 For the Lord God Almighty declares,
“I will stir up a nation against you, Israel,
that will oppress you all the way
from Lebo Hamath to the valley of the Arabah.”
Footnotes:
Amos 6:10 Or to make a funeral fire in honor of the dead
Amos 6:12 With a different word division of the Hebrew; Masoretic Text plow there
Amos 6:13 Lo Debar means nothing.
Amos 6:13 Karnaim means horns; horn here symbolizes strength.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, January 31, 2016
Read: Luke 4:14-21
Jesus Rejected at Nazareth
Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region. 15 He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
16 When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. 17 The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
19 and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.[a]”
20 He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. 21 Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”
Footnotes:
4:18-19 Or and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Isa 61:1-2 (Greek version); 58:6.
INSIGHT:
Luke 4 provides a classic portrait of how a prophet is without honor in his own country (see Matt. 13:53–57; John 4:44). In the synagogue Jesus made His formal announcement of His role as the promised Messiah, quoting Isaiah’s great messianic prophecy (Luke 4:16–21; Isa. 61:1–2). The people immediately responded with amazement and “spoke well of Him” (v. 22). But when Jesus responded by challenging the hardness of their hearts, they tried to kill Him (vv. 23–30). In the midst of His challenge to them Jesus pointed to the reality of being rejected by those of His own hometown (v. 24).
He Came for You
By Bill Crowder
The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. Luke 4:18
In his novels The Trial and The Castle, Franz Kafka (1883–1924) portrays life as a dehumanizing existence that turns people into a sea of empty faces without identity or worth. Kafka said, “The conveyer belt of life carries you on, no one knows where. One is more of an object, a thing, than a living creature.”
Early in His ministry, Jesus went to a synagogue in Nazareth, stood up in front of the crowd, and read from Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19).
The Lord's mercy extends to all people.
Then Christ sat down and declared, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (v. 21). Centuries earlier, the prophet Isaiah had proclaimed these words (Isa. 61:1-2). Now Jesus announced that He was the fulfillment of that promise.
Notice who Jesus came to rescue—the poor, brokenhearted, captive, blind, and oppressed. He came for people dehumanized by sin and suffering, by brokenness and sorrow. He came for us!
For those who sin and those who suffer. For those who suffer because of sin. For those who sin to alleviate suffering. Lord, have mercy on us. Robert Gelinas, The Mercy Prayer
No matter how impersonal the world may seem, Jesus loves each of us as if we were His only child.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, January 31, 2016
Do You See Your Calling?
…separated to the gospel of God… —Romans 1:1
Our calling is not primarily to be holy men and women, but to be proclaimers of the gospel of God. The one all-important thing is that the gospel of God should be recognized as the abiding reality. Reality is not human goodness, or holiness, or heaven, or hell— it is redemption. The need to perceive this is the most vital need of the Christian worker today. As workers, we have to get used to the revelation that redemption is the only reality. Personal holiness is an effect of redemption, not the cause of it. If we place our faith in human goodness we will go under when testing comes.
Paul did not say that he separated himself, but “when it pleased God, who separated me…” (Galatians 1:15). Paul was not overly interested in his own character. And as long as our eyes are focused on our own personal holiness, we will never even get close to the full reality of redemption. Christian workers fail because they place their desire for their own holiness above their desire to know God. “Don’t ask me to be confronted with the strong reality of redemption on behalf of the filth of human life surrounding me today; what I want is anything God can do for me to make me more desirable in my own eyes.” To talk that way is a sign that the reality of the gospel of God has not begun to touch me. There is no reckless abandon to God in that. God cannot deliver me while my interest is merely in my own character. Paul was not conscious of himself. He was recklessly abandoned, totally surrendered, and separated by God for one purpose— to proclaim the gospel of God (see Romans 9:3).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
To those who have had no agony Jesus says, “I have nothing for you; stand on your own feet, square your own shoulders. I have come for the man who knows he has a bigger handful than he can cope with, who knows there are forces he cannot touch; I will do everything for him if he will let Me. Only let a man grant he needs it, and I will do it for him.”
The Shadow of an Agony
Saturday, January 30, 2016
Amos 5, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Better to be Quiet
When you sense the volume increasing and the heat rising, close your mouth. It’s better to be quiet and keep a brother than be loud and lose one. Romans 14:4 makes it clear… “they are God’s servants, not yours. They are responsible to him, not to you. Let him tell them whether they are right or wrong.”
We judge others when we stop addressing the controversy and start attacking the character. Example? “You’d expect such an opinion out of a person who never studies the Bible!” If we disagree, let us disagree agreeably. Unity demands that we discuss the issues, not the person. Paul said, “Let us try to do what makes peace and helps one another” (Rom. 14:19).
1 Peter 4:8 says, “Love shall cover the multitude of sins.” So, if love covers a multitude of sins, can it not cover a multitude of opinions?
From Max on Life
Amos 5
A Call to Repentance
Listen, you people of Israel! Listen to this funeral song I am singing:
2 “The virgin Israel has fallen,
never to rise again!
She lies abandoned on the ground,
with no one to help her up.”
3 The Sovereign Lord says:
“When a city sends a thousand men to battle,
only a hundred will return.
When a town sends a hundred,
only ten will come back alive.”
4 Now this is what the Lord says to the family of Israel:
“Come back to me and live!
5 Don’t worship at the pagan altars at Bethel;
don’t go to the shrines at Gilgal or Beersheba.
For the people of Gilgal will be dragged off into exile,
and the people of Bethel will be reduced to nothing.”
6 Come back to the Lord and live!
Otherwise, he will roar through Israel[e] like a fire,
devouring you completely.
Your gods in Bethel
won’t be able to quench the flames.
7 You twist justice, making it a bitter pill for the oppressed.
You treat the righteous like dirt.
8 It is the Lord who created the stars,
the Pleiades and Orion.
He turns darkness into morning
and day into night.
He draws up water from the oceans
and pours it down as rain on the land.
The Lord is his name!
9 With blinding speed and power he destroys the strong,
crushing all their defenses.
10 How you hate honest judges!
How you despise people who tell the truth!
11 You trample the poor,
stealing their grain through taxes and unfair rent.
Therefore, though you build beautiful stone houses,
you will never live in them.
Though you plant lush vineyards,
you will never drink wine from them.
12 For I know the vast number of your sins
and the depth of your rebellions.
You oppress good people by taking bribes
and deprive the poor of justice in the courts.
13 So those who are smart keep their mouths shut,
for it is an evil time.
14 Do what is good and run from evil
so that you may live!
Then the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will be your helper,
just as you have claimed.
15 Hate evil and love what is good;
turn your courts into true halls of justice.
Perhaps even yet the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies
will have mercy on the remnant of his people.[f]
16 Therefore, this is what the Lord, the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, says:
“There will be crying in all the public squares
and mourning in every street.
Call for the farmers to weep with you,
and summon professional mourners to wail.
17 There will be wailing in every vineyard,
for I will destroy them all,”
says the Lord.
Warning of Coming Judgment
18 What sorrow awaits you who say,
“If only the day of the Lord were here!”
You have no idea what you are wishing for.
That day will bring darkness, not light.
19 In that day you will be like a man who runs from a lion—
only to meet a bear.
Escaping from the bear, he leans his hand against a wall in his house—
and he’s bitten by a snake.
20 Yes, the day of the Lord will be dark and hopeless,
without a ray of joy or hope.
21 “I hate all your show and pretense—
the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies.
22 I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings.
I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings.
23 Away with your noisy hymns of praise!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24 Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice,
an endless river of righteous living.
25 “Was it to me you were bringing sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, Israel? 26 No, you served your pagan gods—Sakkuth your king god and Kaiwan your star god—the images you made for yourselves. 27 So I will send you into exile, to a land east of Damascus,[g]” says the Lord, whose name is the God of Heaven’s Armies.
Footnotes:
5:6 Hebrew the house of Joseph.
5:15 Hebrew the remnant of Joseph.
5:26-27 Greek version reads No, you carried your pagan gods—the shrine of Molech, the star of your god Rephan, and the images you made for yourselves. So I will send you into exile, to a land east of Damascus. Compare Acts 7:43.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, January 30, 2016
Read: John 16:17-24
Some of the disciples asked each other, “What does he mean when he says, ‘In a little while you won’t see me, but then you will see me,’ and ‘I am going to the Father’? 18 And what does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand.”
19 Jesus realized they wanted to ask him about it, so he said, “Are you asking yourselves what I meant? I said in a little while you won’t see me, but a little while after that you will see me again. 20 I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn over what is going to happen to me, but the world will rejoice. You will grieve, but your grief will suddenly turn to wonderful joy. 21 It will be like a woman suffering the pains of labor. When her child is born, her anguish gives way to joy because she has brought a new baby into the world. 22 So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again; then you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy. 23 At that time you won’t need to ask me for anything. I tell you the truth, you will ask the Father directly, and he will grant your request because you use my name. 24 You haven’t done this before. Ask, using my name, and you will receive, and you will have abundant joy.
INSIGHT:
Having spoken of His imminent betrayal and death (John 13:18–38), Jesus now assures His disciples of His presence and love with the promise of the Holy Spirit (John 14–16). He comforts them by saying their grief will “turn to joy” (v. 20), comparing their emotions to those of a woman giving birth (v. 21)—the very baby that causes the pain also causes the joy. “Now is your time of grief,” Jesus tells His disciples, “but I will see you again and you will rejoice” (v. 22). We have “hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).
The Mention of His Name
By David Egner
I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. John 16:22
When the soloist began to sing during our Sunday service, the congregation gave him full, hushed attention. His mellow bass-baritone voice brought them the soul-touching words of an old song by Gordon Jensen. The song’s title expresses a truth that grows more precious the older we become: “He’s as Close as the Mention of His Name.”
We’ve all experienced times of separation from our loved ones. A child marries and moves far away. Parents are separated from us because of career or health. A child goes off to school in another state or country. True, we have texting and Skype. But we are here and they are there. And then there is the separation of death.
But as believers in Christ, we have His promise that we are never alone. Though we may feel alone, He hasn’t gone anywhere. He’s right here, right now, always and forever. When He left this earth, He told His followers, “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). He also promised us, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Heb. 13:5).
The silent plea, the whispered mention of His name, even the very thought of Him brings us solace and reassurance. “He’s as close as the mention of His name.”
Jesus, thank You that You are near. I need You.
Jesus never abandons or forgets His own.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, January 30, 2016
The Dilemma of Obedience
Samuel was afraid to tell Eli the vision. —1 Samuel 3:15
God never speaks to us in dramatic ways, but in ways that are easy to misunderstand. Then we say, “I wonder if that is God’s voice?” Isaiah said that the Lord spoke to him “with a strong hand,” that is, by the pressure of his circumstances (Isaiah 8:11). Without the sovereign hand of God Himself, nothing touches our lives. Do we discern His hand at work, or do we see things as mere occurrences?
Get into the habit of saying, “Speak, Lord,” and life will become a romance (1 Samuel 3:9). Every time circumstances press in on you, say, “Speak, Lord,” and make time to listen. Chastening is more than a means of discipline— it is meant to bring me to the point of saying, “Speak, Lord.” Think back to a time when God spoke to you. Do you remember what He said? Was it Luke 11:13, or was it 1 Thessalonians 5:23? As we listen, our ears become more sensitive, and like Jesus, we will hear God all the time.
Should I tell my “Eli” what God has shown to me? This is where the dilemma of obedience hits us. We disobey God by becoming amateur providences and thinking, “I must shield ‘Eli,’ ” who represents the best people we know. God did not tell Samuel to tell Eli— he had to decide that for himself. God’s message to you may hurt your “Eli,” but trying to prevent suffering in another’s life will prove to be an obstruction between your soul and God. It is at your own risk that you prevent someone’s right hand being cut off or right eye being plucked out (see Matthew 5:29-30).
Never ask another person’s advice about anything God makes you decide before Him. If you ask advice, you will almost always side with Satan. “…I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood…” (Galatians 1:16).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
When you are joyful, be joyful; when you are sad, be sad. If God has given you a sweet cup, don’t make it bitter; and if He has given you a bitter cup, don’t try and make it sweet; take things as they come. Shade of His Hand, 1226 L
When you sense the volume increasing and the heat rising, close your mouth. It’s better to be quiet and keep a brother than be loud and lose one. Romans 14:4 makes it clear… “they are God’s servants, not yours. They are responsible to him, not to you. Let him tell them whether they are right or wrong.”
We judge others when we stop addressing the controversy and start attacking the character. Example? “You’d expect such an opinion out of a person who never studies the Bible!” If we disagree, let us disagree agreeably. Unity demands that we discuss the issues, not the person. Paul said, “Let us try to do what makes peace and helps one another” (Rom. 14:19).
1 Peter 4:8 says, “Love shall cover the multitude of sins.” So, if love covers a multitude of sins, can it not cover a multitude of opinions?
From Max on Life
Amos 5
A Call to Repentance
Listen, you people of Israel! Listen to this funeral song I am singing:
2 “The virgin Israel has fallen,
never to rise again!
She lies abandoned on the ground,
with no one to help her up.”
3 The Sovereign Lord says:
“When a city sends a thousand men to battle,
only a hundred will return.
When a town sends a hundred,
only ten will come back alive.”
4 Now this is what the Lord says to the family of Israel:
“Come back to me and live!
5 Don’t worship at the pagan altars at Bethel;
don’t go to the shrines at Gilgal or Beersheba.
For the people of Gilgal will be dragged off into exile,
and the people of Bethel will be reduced to nothing.”
6 Come back to the Lord and live!
Otherwise, he will roar through Israel[e] like a fire,
devouring you completely.
Your gods in Bethel
won’t be able to quench the flames.
7 You twist justice, making it a bitter pill for the oppressed.
You treat the righteous like dirt.
8 It is the Lord who created the stars,
the Pleiades and Orion.
He turns darkness into morning
and day into night.
He draws up water from the oceans
and pours it down as rain on the land.
The Lord is his name!
9 With blinding speed and power he destroys the strong,
crushing all their defenses.
10 How you hate honest judges!
How you despise people who tell the truth!
11 You trample the poor,
stealing their grain through taxes and unfair rent.
Therefore, though you build beautiful stone houses,
you will never live in them.
Though you plant lush vineyards,
you will never drink wine from them.
12 For I know the vast number of your sins
and the depth of your rebellions.
You oppress good people by taking bribes
and deprive the poor of justice in the courts.
13 So those who are smart keep their mouths shut,
for it is an evil time.
14 Do what is good and run from evil
so that you may live!
Then the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will be your helper,
just as you have claimed.
15 Hate evil and love what is good;
turn your courts into true halls of justice.
Perhaps even yet the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies
will have mercy on the remnant of his people.[f]
16 Therefore, this is what the Lord, the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, says:
“There will be crying in all the public squares
and mourning in every street.
Call for the farmers to weep with you,
and summon professional mourners to wail.
17 There will be wailing in every vineyard,
for I will destroy them all,”
says the Lord.
Warning of Coming Judgment
18 What sorrow awaits you who say,
“If only the day of the Lord were here!”
You have no idea what you are wishing for.
That day will bring darkness, not light.
19 In that day you will be like a man who runs from a lion—
only to meet a bear.
Escaping from the bear, he leans his hand against a wall in his house—
and he’s bitten by a snake.
20 Yes, the day of the Lord will be dark and hopeless,
without a ray of joy or hope.
21 “I hate all your show and pretense—
the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies.
22 I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings.
I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings.
23 Away with your noisy hymns of praise!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24 Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice,
an endless river of righteous living.
25 “Was it to me you were bringing sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, Israel? 26 No, you served your pagan gods—Sakkuth your king god and Kaiwan your star god—the images you made for yourselves. 27 So I will send you into exile, to a land east of Damascus,[g]” says the Lord, whose name is the God of Heaven’s Armies.
Footnotes:
5:6 Hebrew the house of Joseph.
5:15 Hebrew the remnant of Joseph.
5:26-27 Greek version reads No, you carried your pagan gods—the shrine of Molech, the star of your god Rephan, and the images you made for yourselves. So I will send you into exile, to a land east of Damascus. Compare Acts 7:43.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, January 30, 2016
Read: John 16:17-24
Some of the disciples asked each other, “What does he mean when he says, ‘In a little while you won’t see me, but then you will see me,’ and ‘I am going to the Father’? 18 And what does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand.”
19 Jesus realized they wanted to ask him about it, so he said, “Are you asking yourselves what I meant? I said in a little while you won’t see me, but a little while after that you will see me again. 20 I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn over what is going to happen to me, but the world will rejoice. You will grieve, but your grief will suddenly turn to wonderful joy. 21 It will be like a woman suffering the pains of labor. When her child is born, her anguish gives way to joy because she has brought a new baby into the world. 22 So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again; then you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy. 23 At that time you won’t need to ask me for anything. I tell you the truth, you will ask the Father directly, and he will grant your request because you use my name. 24 You haven’t done this before. Ask, using my name, and you will receive, and you will have abundant joy.
INSIGHT:
Having spoken of His imminent betrayal and death (John 13:18–38), Jesus now assures His disciples of His presence and love with the promise of the Holy Spirit (John 14–16). He comforts them by saying their grief will “turn to joy” (v. 20), comparing their emotions to those of a woman giving birth (v. 21)—the very baby that causes the pain also causes the joy. “Now is your time of grief,” Jesus tells His disciples, “but I will see you again and you will rejoice” (v. 22). We have “hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).
The Mention of His Name
By David Egner
I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. John 16:22
When the soloist began to sing during our Sunday service, the congregation gave him full, hushed attention. His mellow bass-baritone voice brought them the soul-touching words of an old song by Gordon Jensen. The song’s title expresses a truth that grows more precious the older we become: “He’s as Close as the Mention of His Name.”
We’ve all experienced times of separation from our loved ones. A child marries and moves far away. Parents are separated from us because of career or health. A child goes off to school in another state or country. True, we have texting and Skype. But we are here and they are there. And then there is the separation of death.
But as believers in Christ, we have His promise that we are never alone. Though we may feel alone, He hasn’t gone anywhere. He’s right here, right now, always and forever. When He left this earth, He told His followers, “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). He also promised us, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Heb. 13:5).
The silent plea, the whispered mention of His name, even the very thought of Him brings us solace and reassurance. “He’s as close as the mention of His name.”
Jesus, thank You that You are near. I need You.
Jesus never abandons or forgets His own.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, January 30, 2016
The Dilemma of Obedience
Samuel was afraid to tell Eli the vision. —1 Samuel 3:15
God never speaks to us in dramatic ways, but in ways that are easy to misunderstand. Then we say, “I wonder if that is God’s voice?” Isaiah said that the Lord spoke to him “with a strong hand,” that is, by the pressure of his circumstances (Isaiah 8:11). Without the sovereign hand of God Himself, nothing touches our lives. Do we discern His hand at work, or do we see things as mere occurrences?
Get into the habit of saying, “Speak, Lord,” and life will become a romance (1 Samuel 3:9). Every time circumstances press in on you, say, “Speak, Lord,” and make time to listen. Chastening is more than a means of discipline— it is meant to bring me to the point of saying, “Speak, Lord.” Think back to a time when God spoke to you. Do you remember what He said? Was it Luke 11:13, or was it 1 Thessalonians 5:23? As we listen, our ears become more sensitive, and like Jesus, we will hear God all the time.
Should I tell my “Eli” what God has shown to me? This is where the dilemma of obedience hits us. We disobey God by becoming amateur providences and thinking, “I must shield ‘Eli,’ ” who represents the best people we know. God did not tell Samuel to tell Eli— he had to decide that for himself. God’s message to you may hurt your “Eli,” but trying to prevent suffering in another’s life will prove to be an obstruction between your soul and God. It is at your own risk that you prevent someone’s right hand being cut off or right eye being plucked out (see Matthew 5:29-30).
Never ask another person’s advice about anything God makes you decide before Him. If you ask advice, you will almost always side with Satan. “…I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood…” (Galatians 1:16).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
When you are joyful, be joyful; when you are sad, be sad. If God has given you a sweet cup, don’t make it bitter; and if He has given you a bitter cup, don’t try and make it sweet; take things as they come. Shade of His Hand, 1226 L
Friday, January 29, 2016
Amos 4, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Next Door Savior
In the aftermath of 9/11, a group of religious leaders was invited to come to Washington and pray with President Bush. The group was well frocked and well known. You might wonder if I felt out of place. The only time I wear a robe is when I step out of the shower. When it came my turn to meet George W. Bush, I added, "And, Mr. President, I was raised in Andrews, Texas, a half-hour drive from your hometown." He smiled that lopsided smile and let his accent drawl ever so slightly. "Why, I know your town. I've walked those streets. I've even played your golf course."
It was nice to know the president knew my home. How much nicer to know the same about God! Yes, he rules the universe. Yes, he has walked your streets. He's still the next door Savior. Jesus-the One above all powers! Jesus-the One who knows your home? You bet he is!
From Next Door Savior
Amos 4
Israel Has Not Returned to God
Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria,
you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy
and say to your husbands, “Bring us some drinks!”
2 The Sovereign Lord has sworn by his holiness:
“The time will surely come
when you will be taken away with hooks,
the last of you with fishhooks.[a]
3 You will each go straight out
through breaches in the wall,
and you will be cast out toward Harmon,[b]”
declares the Lord.
4 “Go to Bethel and sin;
go to Gilgal and sin yet more.
Bring your sacrifices every morning,
your tithes every three years.[c]
5 Burn leavened bread as a thank offering
and brag about your freewill offerings—
boast about them, you Israelites,
for this is what you love to do,”
declares the Sovereign Lord.
6 “I gave you empty stomachs in every city
and lack of bread in every town,
yet you have not returned to me,”
declares the Lord.
7 “I also withheld rain from you
when the harvest was still three months away.
I sent rain on one town,
but withheld it from another.
One field had rain;
another had none and dried up.
8 People staggered from town to town for water
but did not get enough to drink,
yet you have not returned to me,”
declares the Lord.
9 “Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards,
destroying them with blight and mildew.
Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees,
yet you have not returned to me,”
declares the Lord.
10 “I sent plagues among you
as I did to Egypt.
I killed your young men with the sword,
along with your captured horses.
I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps,
yet you have not returned to me,”
declares the Lord.
11 “I overthrew some of you
as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
You were like a burning stick snatched from the fire,
yet you have not returned to me,”
declares the Lord.
12 “Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel,
and because I will do this to you, Israel,
prepare to meet your God.”
13 He who forms the mountains,
who creates the wind,
and who reveals his thoughts to mankind,
who turns dawn to darkness,
and treads on the heights of the earth—
the Lord God Almighty is his name.
Footnotes:
Amos 4:2 Or away in baskets, / the last of you in fish baskets
Amos 4:3 Masoretic Text; with a different word division of the Hebrew (see Septuagint) out, you mountain of oppression
Amos 4:4 Or days
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, January 29, 2016
Read: 1 Kings 4:29-34
God gave Solomon very great wisdom and understanding, and knowledge as vast as the sands of the seashore. 30 In fact, his wisdom exceeded that of all the wise men of the East and the wise men of Egypt. 31 He was wiser than anyone else, including Ethan the Ezrahite and the sons of Mahol—Heman, Calcol, and Darda. His fame spread throughout all the surrounding nations. 32 He composed some 3,000 proverbs and wrote 1,005 songs. 33 He could speak with authority about all kinds of plants, from the great cedar of Lebanon to the tiny hyssop that grows from cracks in a wall. He could also speak about animals, birds, small creatures, and fish. 34 And kings from every nation sent their ambassadors to listen to the wisdom of Solomon.
INSIGHT:
There is a subtle but important difference between intelligence and wisdom. Both of them are desirable; both of them important; both require diligence and discipline to acquire and exercise. However, wisdom is often considered the appropriate application of intelligence. Knowing something is one thing; being able to act well on what you know is another. As Solomon shows, intelligence can be demonstrated by speech, but wisdom is demonstrated in both speech and action.
Her Father’s Zoo
By Mart DeHaan
The righteous care for the needs of their animals, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel. Proverbs 12:10
June Williams was only 4 when her father bought 7 acres of land to build a zoo without bars or cages. Growing up she remembers how creative her father was in trying to help wild animals feel free in confinement. Today Chester Zoo is one of England’s most popular wildlife attractions. Home to 11,000 animals on 110 acres of land, the zoo reflects her father’s concern for animal welfare, education, and conservation.
Solomon had a similar interest in all creatures great and small. In addition to studying the wildlife of the Middle East, he imported exotic animals like apes and monkeys from far-off lands (1 Kings 10:22). But one of his proverbs shows us that Solomon’s knowledge of nature went beyond intellectual curiosity. When he expressed the spiritual implications of how we treat our animals, he mirrored something of the heart of our Creator: “The righteous care for the needs of their animals, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel” (Prov. 12:10).
The beauty of God's creation should inspire us to take better care of what He has entrusted to us.
With God-given wisdom, Solomon saw that our relationship to our Creator affects not only how we treat people but also how much thoughtful consideration we give to the creatures in our care.
Father in heaven, when we think about the wonder and diversity of Your animal kingdom, please help us not only to worship You, but to care for what You’ve entrusted to us.
God is the real Owner of all of us.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, January 29, 2016
How Could Someone Be So Ignorant!
Who are You, Lord? —Acts 26:15
“The Lord spoke thus to me with a strong hand…” (Isaiah 8:11). There is no escape when our Lord speaks. He always comes using His authority and taking hold of our understanding. Has the voice of God come to you directly? If it has, you cannot mistake the intimate insistence with which it has spoken to you. God speaks in the language you know best— not through your ears, but through your circumstances.
God has to destroy our determined confidence in our own convictions. We say, “I know that this is what I should do” — and suddenly the voice of God speaks in a way that overwhelms us by revealing the depths of our ignorance. We show our ignorance of Him in the very way we decide to serve Him. We serve Jesus in a spirit that is not His, and hurt Him by our defense of Him. We push His claims in the spirit of the devil; our words sound all right, but the spirit is that of an enemy. “He…rebuked them, and said, ‘You do not know what manner of spirit you are of’ ” (Luke 9:55). The spirit of our Lord in His followers is described in 1 Corinthians 13.
Have I been persecuting Jesus by an eager determination to serve Him in my own way? If I feel I have done my duty, yet have hurt Him in the process, I can be sure that this was not my duty. My way will not be to foster a meek and quiet spirit, only the spirit of self-satisfaction. We presume that whatever is unpleasant is our duty! Is that anything like the spirit of our Lord— “I delight to do Your will, O my God…” (Psalm 40:8).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Sincerity means that the appearance and the reality are exactly the same.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, January 29, 2016
Carried When You Can't Make It - #7580
At one time our offices were on the third floor of an old factory building. There were a lot of stairs, and they had a pretty steep pitch. One of our team members dropped by one day with her beautiful four-month-old daughter, Katie. Mom was tired. And needless to say, the child wasn't able to climb up the stairs to the third floor on her own. Sometimes adults could barely make it. Mom needed to carry Katie in her arms the whole way. The sight of her carrying her daughter? I hate to say it was almost amusing. Mom was out of breath as she tried to recover. But not Katie! No, she was all cute and wide-eyed. She's not sweating; she's not panting. No, she's totally relaxed, totally cool. Of course she didn't have to do any of the work.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Carried When You Can't Make It."
Which leads us to our word for today from the Word of God from Deuteronomy 1:29; a wonderful passage on the relationship God the Father has with us, His kids. He says, "Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them." With Jesus you don't have to be afraid of anything. "The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you." And then He says, "The Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place."
That's a beautiful picture! Notice I said a loving parent had come to our office carrying a child where that child could have never gone on her own. All the work was done by the parent. The child? Totally relaxed.
Let's talk about where you are right now. You may be at the end of your strength, the end of your answers, the end of your resources, the end of your money, or the end of your hope. You know what? It's time for "carry power." "As a father carries his son" God says. God has His big arms wide open right now saying, "My child, quit trying to do this on your own. You'll never make it. It's carry time. Come on!"
For some of us self-reliant, stubborn types it's hard to surrender our self-effort. We're not going to make it. God leads us through the desert where we can't survive so we'll finally surrender to being carried. So we'll finally exchange our weakness for His strength and our stress for His peace. That's the exchange that He invites us to in Philippians 4:6-7, "Do not be anxious about anything."
But there we are huffing and puffing, trying to crawl up the stairs on our own. He said, "But in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Give the whole load to your Father. Let Him carry you. And He says, "The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."
That's the lightness of Spirit, the calm in your heart. That's what I saw in little Katie when she came to the office. The one who was carrying her was doing all the work; taking all the strain. Maybe you've got something right now that Jesus needs to carry. And remember, He paid a high price so He would be available; there would be no wall between you and Him so He could carry you and carry your burden.
The Bible says, "What a friend we have in Jesus; all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh what needless pain we bear all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer."
Now, would you let Him carry what you've carried for way too long? The problem stressing you, whose problem is it to solve? Is it yours or Almighty God's? The mountain that needs to be moved? The person who needs to change? Whose job is it? How you answer those questions will be the difference between great peace or great stress.
With God, you can go to heights you cannot go to alone. Like Katie and her mother carrying her, your Heavenly Father is ready to do that for you if you'll trust His "carry power."
In the aftermath of 9/11, a group of religious leaders was invited to come to Washington and pray with President Bush. The group was well frocked and well known. You might wonder if I felt out of place. The only time I wear a robe is when I step out of the shower. When it came my turn to meet George W. Bush, I added, "And, Mr. President, I was raised in Andrews, Texas, a half-hour drive from your hometown." He smiled that lopsided smile and let his accent drawl ever so slightly. "Why, I know your town. I've walked those streets. I've even played your golf course."
It was nice to know the president knew my home. How much nicer to know the same about God! Yes, he rules the universe. Yes, he has walked your streets. He's still the next door Savior. Jesus-the One above all powers! Jesus-the One who knows your home? You bet he is!
From Next Door Savior
Amos 4
Israel Has Not Returned to God
Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria,
you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy
and say to your husbands, “Bring us some drinks!”
2 The Sovereign Lord has sworn by his holiness:
“The time will surely come
when you will be taken away with hooks,
the last of you with fishhooks.[a]
3 You will each go straight out
through breaches in the wall,
and you will be cast out toward Harmon,[b]”
declares the Lord.
4 “Go to Bethel and sin;
go to Gilgal and sin yet more.
Bring your sacrifices every morning,
your tithes every three years.[c]
5 Burn leavened bread as a thank offering
and brag about your freewill offerings—
boast about them, you Israelites,
for this is what you love to do,”
declares the Sovereign Lord.
6 “I gave you empty stomachs in every city
and lack of bread in every town,
yet you have not returned to me,”
declares the Lord.
7 “I also withheld rain from you
when the harvest was still three months away.
I sent rain on one town,
but withheld it from another.
One field had rain;
another had none and dried up.
8 People staggered from town to town for water
but did not get enough to drink,
yet you have not returned to me,”
declares the Lord.
9 “Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards,
destroying them with blight and mildew.
Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees,
yet you have not returned to me,”
declares the Lord.
10 “I sent plagues among you
as I did to Egypt.
I killed your young men with the sword,
along with your captured horses.
I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps,
yet you have not returned to me,”
declares the Lord.
11 “I overthrew some of you
as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
You were like a burning stick snatched from the fire,
yet you have not returned to me,”
declares the Lord.
12 “Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel,
and because I will do this to you, Israel,
prepare to meet your God.”
13 He who forms the mountains,
who creates the wind,
and who reveals his thoughts to mankind,
who turns dawn to darkness,
and treads on the heights of the earth—
the Lord God Almighty is his name.
Footnotes:
Amos 4:2 Or away in baskets, / the last of you in fish baskets
Amos 4:3 Masoretic Text; with a different word division of the Hebrew (see Septuagint) out, you mountain of oppression
Amos 4:4 Or days
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, January 29, 2016
Read: 1 Kings 4:29-34
God gave Solomon very great wisdom and understanding, and knowledge as vast as the sands of the seashore. 30 In fact, his wisdom exceeded that of all the wise men of the East and the wise men of Egypt. 31 He was wiser than anyone else, including Ethan the Ezrahite and the sons of Mahol—Heman, Calcol, and Darda. His fame spread throughout all the surrounding nations. 32 He composed some 3,000 proverbs and wrote 1,005 songs. 33 He could speak with authority about all kinds of plants, from the great cedar of Lebanon to the tiny hyssop that grows from cracks in a wall. He could also speak about animals, birds, small creatures, and fish. 34 And kings from every nation sent their ambassadors to listen to the wisdom of Solomon.
INSIGHT:
There is a subtle but important difference between intelligence and wisdom. Both of them are desirable; both of them important; both require diligence and discipline to acquire and exercise. However, wisdom is often considered the appropriate application of intelligence. Knowing something is one thing; being able to act well on what you know is another. As Solomon shows, intelligence can be demonstrated by speech, but wisdom is demonstrated in both speech and action.
Her Father’s Zoo
By Mart DeHaan
The righteous care for the needs of their animals, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel. Proverbs 12:10
June Williams was only 4 when her father bought 7 acres of land to build a zoo without bars or cages. Growing up she remembers how creative her father was in trying to help wild animals feel free in confinement. Today Chester Zoo is one of England’s most popular wildlife attractions. Home to 11,000 animals on 110 acres of land, the zoo reflects her father’s concern for animal welfare, education, and conservation.
Solomon had a similar interest in all creatures great and small. In addition to studying the wildlife of the Middle East, he imported exotic animals like apes and monkeys from far-off lands (1 Kings 10:22). But one of his proverbs shows us that Solomon’s knowledge of nature went beyond intellectual curiosity. When he expressed the spiritual implications of how we treat our animals, he mirrored something of the heart of our Creator: “The righteous care for the needs of their animals, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel” (Prov. 12:10).
The beauty of God's creation should inspire us to take better care of what He has entrusted to us.
With God-given wisdom, Solomon saw that our relationship to our Creator affects not only how we treat people but also how much thoughtful consideration we give to the creatures in our care.
Father in heaven, when we think about the wonder and diversity of Your animal kingdom, please help us not only to worship You, but to care for what You’ve entrusted to us.
God is the real Owner of all of us.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, January 29, 2016
How Could Someone Be So Ignorant!
Who are You, Lord? —Acts 26:15
“The Lord spoke thus to me with a strong hand…” (Isaiah 8:11). There is no escape when our Lord speaks. He always comes using His authority and taking hold of our understanding. Has the voice of God come to you directly? If it has, you cannot mistake the intimate insistence with which it has spoken to you. God speaks in the language you know best— not through your ears, but through your circumstances.
God has to destroy our determined confidence in our own convictions. We say, “I know that this is what I should do” — and suddenly the voice of God speaks in a way that overwhelms us by revealing the depths of our ignorance. We show our ignorance of Him in the very way we decide to serve Him. We serve Jesus in a spirit that is not His, and hurt Him by our defense of Him. We push His claims in the spirit of the devil; our words sound all right, but the spirit is that of an enemy. “He…rebuked them, and said, ‘You do not know what manner of spirit you are of’ ” (Luke 9:55). The spirit of our Lord in His followers is described in 1 Corinthians 13.
Have I been persecuting Jesus by an eager determination to serve Him in my own way? If I feel I have done my duty, yet have hurt Him in the process, I can be sure that this was not my duty. My way will not be to foster a meek and quiet spirit, only the spirit of self-satisfaction. We presume that whatever is unpleasant is our duty! Is that anything like the spirit of our Lord— “I delight to do Your will, O my God…” (Psalm 40:8).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Sincerity means that the appearance and the reality are exactly the same.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, January 29, 2016
Carried When You Can't Make It - #7580
At one time our offices were on the third floor of an old factory building. There were a lot of stairs, and they had a pretty steep pitch. One of our team members dropped by one day with her beautiful four-month-old daughter, Katie. Mom was tired. And needless to say, the child wasn't able to climb up the stairs to the third floor on her own. Sometimes adults could barely make it. Mom needed to carry Katie in her arms the whole way. The sight of her carrying her daughter? I hate to say it was almost amusing. Mom was out of breath as she tried to recover. But not Katie! No, she was all cute and wide-eyed. She's not sweating; she's not panting. No, she's totally relaxed, totally cool. Of course she didn't have to do any of the work.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Carried When You Can't Make It."
Which leads us to our word for today from the Word of God from Deuteronomy 1:29; a wonderful passage on the relationship God the Father has with us, His kids. He says, "Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them." With Jesus you don't have to be afraid of anything. "The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you." And then He says, "The Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place."
That's a beautiful picture! Notice I said a loving parent had come to our office carrying a child where that child could have never gone on her own. All the work was done by the parent. The child? Totally relaxed.
Let's talk about where you are right now. You may be at the end of your strength, the end of your answers, the end of your resources, the end of your money, or the end of your hope. You know what? It's time for "carry power." "As a father carries his son" God says. God has His big arms wide open right now saying, "My child, quit trying to do this on your own. You'll never make it. It's carry time. Come on!"
For some of us self-reliant, stubborn types it's hard to surrender our self-effort. We're not going to make it. God leads us through the desert where we can't survive so we'll finally surrender to being carried. So we'll finally exchange our weakness for His strength and our stress for His peace. That's the exchange that He invites us to in Philippians 4:6-7, "Do not be anxious about anything."
But there we are huffing and puffing, trying to crawl up the stairs on our own. He said, "But in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Give the whole load to your Father. Let Him carry you. And He says, "The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."
That's the lightness of Spirit, the calm in your heart. That's what I saw in little Katie when she came to the office. The one who was carrying her was doing all the work; taking all the strain. Maybe you've got something right now that Jesus needs to carry. And remember, He paid a high price so He would be available; there would be no wall between you and Him so He could carry you and carry your burden.
The Bible says, "What a friend we have in Jesus; all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh what needless pain we bear all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer."
Now, would you let Him carry what you've carried for way too long? The problem stressing you, whose problem is it to solve? Is it yours or Almighty God's? The mountain that needs to be moved? The person who needs to change? Whose job is it? How you answer those questions will be the difference between great peace or great stress.
With God, you can go to heights you cannot go to alone. Like Katie and her mother carrying her, your Heavenly Father is ready to do that for you if you'll trust His "carry power."
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Amos 3, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: In Our Place
Suppose you were to stand on a stage while a film of every secret and selfish moment of your life was projected on the screen behind you? Would you not scream for the heavens to have mercy? And would you not feel just a fraction of what Christ felt on the cross? The icy displeasure of a sin-hating God?
The Bible says Christ carried all our sins in his body. See Christ on the cross? That’s a gossiper hanging there. See Jesus? Embezzler….liar…bigot. Hold it, Max! Don’t you lump Christ with those evildoers. I didn’t. HE did. More than place his name in the same sentence, he placed himself in their place. And yours! With hands nailed open, he invited God, Treat me as you would them. And God did. “My God, my God, why did you abandon me?” (Matthew 27:46). Why did Christ scream those words? It’s simple–so you will never have to!
From Next Door Savior
Amos 3
Witnesses Summoned Against Israel
Hear this word, people of Israel, the word the Lord has spoken against you—against the whole family I brought up out of Egypt:
2 “You only have I chosen
of all the families of the earth;
therefore I will punish you
for all your sins.”
3 Do two walk together
unless they have agreed to do so?
4 Does a lion roar in the thicket
when it has no prey?
Does it growl in its den
when it has caught nothing?
5 Does a bird swoop down to a trap on the ground
when no bait is there?
Does a trap spring up from the ground
if it has not caught anything?
6 When a trumpet sounds in a city,
do not the people tremble?
When disaster comes to a city,
has not the Lord caused it?
7 Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing
without revealing his plan
to his servants the prophets.
8 The lion has roared—
who will not fear?
The Sovereign Lord has spoken—
who can but prophesy?
9 Proclaim to the fortresses of Ashdod
and to the fortresses of Egypt:
“Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria;
see the great unrest within her
and the oppression among her people.”
10 “They do not know how to do right,” declares the Lord,
“who store up in their fortresses
what they have plundered and looted.”
11 Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“An enemy will overrun your land,
pull down your strongholds
and plunder your fortresses.”
12 This is what the Lord says:
“As a shepherd rescues from the lion’s mouth
only two leg bones or a piece of an ear,
so will the Israelites living in Samaria be rescued,
with only the head of a bed
and a piece of fabric[i] from a couch.[j]”
13 “Hear this and testify against the descendants of Jacob,” declares the Lord, the Lord God Almighty.
14 “On the day I punish Israel for her sins,
I will destroy the altars of Bethel;
the horns of the altar will be cut off
and fall to the ground.
15 I will tear down the winter house
along with the summer house;
the houses adorned with ivory will be destroyed
and the mansions will be demolished,”
declares the Lord.
Footnotes:
Amos 3:12 The meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain.
Amos 3:12 Or Israelites be rescued, / those who sit in Samaria / on the edge of their beds / and in Damascus on their couches.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Read: Psalm 18:1-6
For the choir director: A psalm of David, the servant of the Lord. He sang this song to the Lord on the day the Lord rescued him from all his enemies and from Saul. He sang:
1 I love you, Lord;
you are my strength.
2 The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior;
my God is my rock, in whom I find protection.
He is my shield, the power that saves me,
and my place of safety.
3 I called on the Lord, who is worthy of praise,
and he saved me from my enemies.
4 The ropes of death entangled me;
floods of destruction swept over me.
5 The grave[a] wrapped its ropes around me;
death laid a trap in my path.
6 But in my distress I cried out to the Lord;
yes, I prayed to my God for help.
He heard me from his sanctuary;
my cry to him reached his ears.
Footnotes:
18:5 Hebrew Sheol
INSIGHT:
Psalm 18 seems to be a song of retrospective understanding. In many of David’s psalms we find him being pursued and hunted, first by Saul and later by Absalom. During those times of flight and danger, David sometimes questioned God’s faithfulness, love, and care—wondering why the Lord didn’t intervene on his behalf. In Psalm 18, however, we see a more reflective David. He looked back on his journey and saw continuous evidence of the presence and protection of God along the way (vv. 1–3; 16–19; 25–29; 35–36; 47–50)—even in the seasons of life where that evidence seemed scarce. Now, looking back, David affirmed what he had questioned—the faithfulness of God.
Before the Phone
By Keila Ochoa
In my distress I called to the Lord. Psalm 18:6
As a mom of young children I’m sometimes susceptible to panic. My first reaction is to call my mom on the phone and ask her what to do with my son’s allergy or my daughter’s sudden cough.
Mom is a great resource, but when I read the Psalms, I’m reminded of how often we need the kind of help that no mortal can give. In Psalm 18 David was in great danger. Afraid, close to death, and in anguish, he called on the Lord.
Jesus always hears our cries.
David could say, “I love you, Lord” because he understood God was a fortress, a rock, and a deliverer (vv. 1-2). God was his shield, his salvation, and his stronghold. Maybe we cannot understand David’s praise because we have not experienced God’s help. It may be that we reach for the phone before going to God for advice and help.
Surely God puts people in our lives to give us help and comfort. But let’s also remember to pray. God will hear us. As David sang, “From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears” (v. 6). When we go to God, we join David’s song and enjoy Him as our rock, our fortress, and our deliverer.
Next time you reach for the phone, remember also to pray.
Dear Lord, help me to remember You are my deliverer, and You always hear my cry.
Prayer is the bridge between panic and peace.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, January 28, 2016
How Could Someone So Persecute Jesus!
Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? —Acts 26:14
Are you determined to have your own way in living for God? We will never be free from this trap until we are brought into the experience of the baptism of “the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11). Stubbornness and self-will will always stab Jesus Christ. It may hurt no one else, but it wounds His Spirit. Whenever we are obstinate and self-willed and set on our own ambitions, we are hurting Jesus. Every time we stand on our own rights and insist that this is what we intend to do, we are persecuting Him. Whenever we rely on self-respect, we systematically disturb and grieve His Spirit. And when we finally understand that it is Jesus we have been persecuting all this time, it is the most crushing revelation ever.
Is the Word of God tremendously penetrating and sharp in me as I hand it on to you, or does my life betray the things I profess to teach? I may teach sanctification and yet exhibit the spirit of Satan, the very spirit that persecutes Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Jesus is conscious of only one thing— a perfect oneness with the Father. And He tells us, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). All I do should be based on a perfect oneness with Him, not on a self-willed determination to be godly. This will mean that others may use me, go around me, or completely ignore me, but if I will submit to it for His sake, I will prevent Jesus Christ from being persecuted.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Bible is the only Book that gives us any indication of the true nature of sin, and where it came from. The Philosophy of Sin, 1107 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, January 28, 2016
A Little Girl, A Light - and How to Help the Lost Ones - #7579
She was just seven years old; the lone survivor of a plane crash that killed her parents, her sister, and her cousin. The sheriff said "she literally fell out of the sky into a dark hole." He called her survival "a miracle."
This "miracle" survivor somehow crawled out of this upside-down wreckage of her dad's plane dressed only in shorts and a t-shirt on a winter night. Shoeless, through brambles and underbrush, this what they called "remarkable" young girl navigated two embankments, a hill, and a creek bed in the dark.
And then the light. Actually, just a single security light on a house. When she knocked on that door, a kind, grandfatherly man brought her inside. Then she was safe. One report said this: "He thinks his security light may have been a beacon." Yeah, a beacon for a little girl who had lost so much. But, thank God, she was alive.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Little Girl, A Light - and How to Help the Lost Ones."
This story got me to thinking about who I need to be for people who've lost so much, who feel alone, whose world has suddenly crashed, who need someone to be a light - a "beacon" - in an otherwise dark night.
Actually, that is what my Jesus said I should be as His follower. It's actually in our word for today from the Word of God in Matthew 5, beginning with verse 14, "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."
I've been thinking what it means to be a light for people in my personal world. It means being one person they know who is all about their need, not about my own. Who has time to listen. Who doesn't just ask the obligatory "How you doin'?" But who asks that second and third question to see if that obligatory "fine" answer they gave you is really how they're doing.
Being a light means being the one who refuses to hear or speak trash talk about anyone. Who protects a person's name when they're not in the room. Who builds a person up and never tears them down. Who says, "Thank you" and "I'm sorry" and "I was wrong."
It's always treating people, as the Bible says, "with gentleness and respect" (1 Peter 3:15). Not "turning off the light" by making them feel condemned or put down.
The "light" is the person who remembers a person's birthday, who checks on them when they're sick, who's at the hospital, the wedding, and the funeral. Who drops what I'm doing when they're hurting. Who offers to pray with - not just for - them when God is needed so much.
So I ask myself: do people around me see me as "safe"; the "go-to" person when it's dark, when it's cold and when it's lonely? Have I so lived that when they hit a wall, they'll think of me as a place to turn? I'll know it's because of the Jesus in me. Am I the light on the porch when people around me are feeling lost?
I can be that for one reason. Jesus Christ has been that for me. As a dad who didn't know what to do, when there was no money, in the cold chill of that cemetery. When I was spiritually lost with no hope of heaven, because of running my life instead of God running it, I found one beacon in my storm - a cross and an empty tomb. It is, by the way, where you will find that same light, that same help, that same forgiveness; that light inside of you.
If you have never begun a relationship with this Jesus, who changes everything with planting His love and His hope inside of you and you now can survive any storm, I would invite you to go to our website and let me walk you through there the way you can be sure you belong to Him. Go to ANewStory.com. Because Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12). He's kept that promise for me every time.
If someone in my personal world is wandering in the dark today, I just pray they've seen the Light in me so I can help them find home.
Suppose you were to stand on a stage while a film of every secret and selfish moment of your life was projected on the screen behind you? Would you not scream for the heavens to have mercy? And would you not feel just a fraction of what Christ felt on the cross? The icy displeasure of a sin-hating God?
The Bible says Christ carried all our sins in his body. See Christ on the cross? That’s a gossiper hanging there. See Jesus? Embezzler….liar…bigot. Hold it, Max! Don’t you lump Christ with those evildoers. I didn’t. HE did. More than place his name in the same sentence, he placed himself in their place. And yours! With hands nailed open, he invited God, Treat me as you would them. And God did. “My God, my God, why did you abandon me?” (Matthew 27:46). Why did Christ scream those words? It’s simple–so you will never have to!
From Next Door Savior
Witnesses Summoned Against Israel
Hear this word, people of Israel, the word the Lord has spoken against you—against the whole family I brought up out of Egypt:
2 “You only have I chosen
of all the families of the earth;
therefore I will punish you
for all your sins.”
3 Do two walk together
unless they have agreed to do so?
4 Does a lion roar in the thicket
when it has no prey?
Does it growl in its den
when it has caught nothing?
5 Does a bird swoop down to a trap on the ground
when no bait is there?
Does a trap spring up from the ground
if it has not caught anything?
6 When a trumpet sounds in a city,
do not the people tremble?
When disaster comes to a city,
has not the Lord caused it?
7 Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing
without revealing his plan
to his servants the prophets.
8 The lion has roared—
who will not fear?
The Sovereign Lord has spoken—
who can but prophesy?
9 Proclaim to the fortresses of Ashdod
and to the fortresses of Egypt:
“Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria;
see the great unrest within her
and the oppression among her people.”
10 “They do not know how to do right,” declares the Lord,
“who store up in their fortresses
what they have plundered and looted.”
11 Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“An enemy will overrun your land,
pull down your strongholds
and plunder your fortresses.”
12 This is what the Lord says:
“As a shepherd rescues from the lion’s mouth
only two leg bones or a piece of an ear,
so will the Israelites living in Samaria be rescued,
with only the head of a bed
and a piece of fabric[i] from a couch.[j]”
13 “Hear this and testify against the descendants of Jacob,” declares the Lord, the Lord God Almighty.
14 “On the day I punish Israel for her sins,
I will destroy the altars of Bethel;
the horns of the altar will be cut off
and fall to the ground.
15 I will tear down the winter house
along with the summer house;
the houses adorned with ivory will be destroyed
and the mansions will be demolished,”
declares the Lord.
Footnotes:
Amos 3:12 The meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain.
Amos 3:12 Or Israelites be rescued, / those who sit in Samaria / on the edge of their beds / and in Damascus on their couches.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Read: Psalm 18:1-6
For the choir director: A psalm of David, the servant of the Lord. He sang this song to the Lord on the day the Lord rescued him from all his enemies and from Saul. He sang:
1 I love you, Lord;
you are my strength.
2 The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior;
my God is my rock, in whom I find protection.
He is my shield, the power that saves me,
and my place of safety.
3 I called on the Lord, who is worthy of praise,
and he saved me from my enemies.
4 The ropes of death entangled me;
floods of destruction swept over me.
5 The grave[a] wrapped its ropes around me;
death laid a trap in my path.
6 But in my distress I cried out to the Lord;
yes, I prayed to my God for help.
He heard me from his sanctuary;
my cry to him reached his ears.
Footnotes:
18:5 Hebrew Sheol
INSIGHT:
Psalm 18 seems to be a song of retrospective understanding. In many of David’s psalms we find him being pursued and hunted, first by Saul and later by Absalom. During those times of flight and danger, David sometimes questioned God’s faithfulness, love, and care—wondering why the Lord didn’t intervene on his behalf. In Psalm 18, however, we see a more reflective David. He looked back on his journey and saw continuous evidence of the presence and protection of God along the way (vv. 1–3; 16–19; 25–29; 35–36; 47–50)—even in the seasons of life where that evidence seemed scarce. Now, looking back, David affirmed what he had questioned—the faithfulness of God.
Before the Phone
By Keila Ochoa
In my distress I called to the Lord. Psalm 18:6
As a mom of young children I’m sometimes susceptible to panic. My first reaction is to call my mom on the phone and ask her what to do with my son’s allergy or my daughter’s sudden cough.
Mom is a great resource, but when I read the Psalms, I’m reminded of how often we need the kind of help that no mortal can give. In Psalm 18 David was in great danger. Afraid, close to death, and in anguish, he called on the Lord.
Jesus always hears our cries.
David could say, “I love you, Lord” because he understood God was a fortress, a rock, and a deliverer (vv. 1-2). God was his shield, his salvation, and his stronghold. Maybe we cannot understand David’s praise because we have not experienced God’s help. It may be that we reach for the phone before going to God for advice and help.
Surely God puts people in our lives to give us help and comfort. But let’s also remember to pray. God will hear us. As David sang, “From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears” (v. 6). When we go to God, we join David’s song and enjoy Him as our rock, our fortress, and our deliverer.
Next time you reach for the phone, remember also to pray.
Dear Lord, help me to remember You are my deliverer, and You always hear my cry.
Prayer is the bridge between panic and peace.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, January 28, 2016
How Could Someone So Persecute Jesus!
Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? —Acts 26:14
Are you determined to have your own way in living for God? We will never be free from this trap until we are brought into the experience of the baptism of “the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11). Stubbornness and self-will will always stab Jesus Christ. It may hurt no one else, but it wounds His Spirit. Whenever we are obstinate and self-willed and set on our own ambitions, we are hurting Jesus. Every time we stand on our own rights and insist that this is what we intend to do, we are persecuting Him. Whenever we rely on self-respect, we systematically disturb and grieve His Spirit. And when we finally understand that it is Jesus we have been persecuting all this time, it is the most crushing revelation ever.
Is the Word of God tremendously penetrating and sharp in me as I hand it on to you, or does my life betray the things I profess to teach? I may teach sanctification and yet exhibit the spirit of Satan, the very spirit that persecutes Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Jesus is conscious of only one thing— a perfect oneness with the Father. And He tells us, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). All I do should be based on a perfect oneness with Him, not on a self-willed determination to be godly. This will mean that others may use me, go around me, or completely ignore me, but if I will submit to it for His sake, I will prevent Jesus Christ from being persecuted.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Bible is the only Book that gives us any indication of the true nature of sin, and where it came from. The Philosophy of Sin, 1107 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, January 28, 2016
A Little Girl, A Light - and How to Help the Lost Ones - #7579
She was just seven years old; the lone survivor of a plane crash that killed her parents, her sister, and her cousin. The sheriff said "she literally fell out of the sky into a dark hole." He called her survival "a miracle."
This "miracle" survivor somehow crawled out of this upside-down wreckage of her dad's plane dressed only in shorts and a t-shirt on a winter night. Shoeless, through brambles and underbrush, this what they called "remarkable" young girl navigated two embankments, a hill, and a creek bed in the dark.
And then the light. Actually, just a single security light on a house. When she knocked on that door, a kind, grandfatherly man brought her inside. Then she was safe. One report said this: "He thinks his security light may have been a beacon." Yeah, a beacon for a little girl who had lost so much. But, thank God, she was alive.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Little Girl, A Light - and How to Help the Lost Ones."
This story got me to thinking about who I need to be for people who've lost so much, who feel alone, whose world has suddenly crashed, who need someone to be a light - a "beacon" - in an otherwise dark night.
Actually, that is what my Jesus said I should be as His follower. It's actually in our word for today from the Word of God in Matthew 5, beginning with verse 14, "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."
I've been thinking what it means to be a light for people in my personal world. It means being one person they know who is all about their need, not about my own. Who has time to listen. Who doesn't just ask the obligatory "How you doin'?" But who asks that second and third question to see if that obligatory "fine" answer they gave you is really how they're doing.
Being a light means being the one who refuses to hear or speak trash talk about anyone. Who protects a person's name when they're not in the room. Who builds a person up and never tears them down. Who says, "Thank you" and "I'm sorry" and "I was wrong."
It's always treating people, as the Bible says, "with gentleness and respect" (1 Peter 3:15). Not "turning off the light" by making them feel condemned or put down.
The "light" is the person who remembers a person's birthday, who checks on them when they're sick, who's at the hospital, the wedding, and the funeral. Who drops what I'm doing when they're hurting. Who offers to pray with - not just for - them when God is needed so much.
So I ask myself: do people around me see me as "safe"; the "go-to" person when it's dark, when it's cold and when it's lonely? Have I so lived that when they hit a wall, they'll think of me as a place to turn? I'll know it's because of the Jesus in me. Am I the light on the porch when people around me are feeling lost?
I can be that for one reason. Jesus Christ has been that for me. As a dad who didn't know what to do, when there was no money, in the cold chill of that cemetery. When I was spiritually lost with no hope of heaven, because of running my life instead of God running it, I found one beacon in my storm - a cross and an empty tomb. It is, by the way, where you will find that same light, that same help, that same forgiveness; that light inside of you.
If you have never begun a relationship with this Jesus, who changes everything with planting His love and His hope inside of you and you now can survive any storm, I would invite you to go to our website and let me walk you through there the way you can be sure you belong to Him. Go to ANewStory.com. Because Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12). He's kept that promise for me every time.
If someone in my personal world is wandering in the dark today, I just pray they've seen the Light in me so I can help them find home.
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