Max Lucado Daily: GRACE GIVES MORE
Grace goes beyond mercy. Mercy gave Ruth some food. Grace gave her a husband and a home. Mercy gave the prodigal son a second chance, but grace threw him a party. Mercy prompted the Samaritan to bandage the wounds of a victim, but grace prompted him to leave his credit card as a payment for the victim’s care. Mercy forgave the thief on the cross but grace escorted him into paradise.
Let me spell it out. God has resolved to romance your heart. Through sunsets…through the kindness of a friend…through whispers of Scripture…perhaps even through a message from Max. Marginalized and discarded? Others may think so. You may think so. But God sees in you a masterpiece about to happen.
From God is With You Every Day
Isaiah 63
Who Goes There?
The watchmen call out,
“Who goes there, marching out of Edom,
out of Bozrah in clothes dyed red?
Name yourself, so splendidly dressed,
advancing, bristling with power!”
“It is I: I speak what is right,
I, mighty to save!”
2 “And why are your robes so red,
your clothes dyed red like those who tread grapes?”
3-6 “I’ve been treading the winepress alone.
No one was there to help me.
Angrily, I stomped the grapes;
raging, I trampled the people.
Their blood spurted all over me—
all my clothes were soaked with blood.
I was set on vengeance.
The time for redemption had arrived.
I looked around for someone to help
—no one.
I couldn’t believe it
—not one volunteer.
So I went ahead and did it myself,
fed and fueled by my rage.
I trampled the people in my anger,
crushed them under foot in my wrath,
soaked the earth with their lifeblood.”
All the Things God Has Done That Need Praising
7-9 I’ll make a list of God’s gracious dealings,
all the things God has done that need praising,
All the generous bounties of God,
his great goodness to the family of Israel—
Compassion lavished,
love extravagant.
He said, “Without question these are my people,
children who would never betray me.”
So he became their Savior.
In all their troubles,
he was troubled, too.
He didn’t send someone else to help them.
He did it himself, in person.
Out of his own love and pity
he redeemed them.
He rescued them and carried them along
for a long, long time.
10 But they turned on him;
they grieved his Holy Spirit.
So he turned on them,
became their enemy and fought them.
11-14 Then they remembered the old days,
the days of Moses, God’s servant:
“Where is he who brought the shepherds of his flock
up and out of the sea?
And what happened to the One who set
his Holy Spirit within them?
Who linked his arm with Moses’ right arm,
divided the waters before them,
Making him famous ever after,
and led them through the muddy abyss
as surefooted as horses on hard, level ground?
Like a herd of cattle led to pasture,
the Spirit of God gave them rest.”
14-19 That’s how you led your people!
That’s how you became so famous!
Look down from heaven, look at us!
Look out the window of your holy and magnificent house!
Whatever happened to your passion,
your famous mighty acts,
Your heartfelt pity, your compassion?
Why are you holding back?
You are our Father.
Abraham and Israel are long dead.
They wouldn’t know us from Adam.
But you’re our living Father,
our Redeemer, famous from eternity!
Why, God, did you make us wander from your ways?
Why did you make us cold and stubborn
so that we no longer worshiped you in awe?
Turn back for the sake of your servants.
You own us! We belong to you!
For a while your holy people had it good,
but now our enemies have wrecked your holy place.
For a long time now, you’ve paid no attention to us.
It’s like you never knew us.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Read: Hebrews 11:32–12:3
I could go on and on, but I’ve run out of time. There are so many more—Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets. . . . Through acts of faith, they toppled kingdoms, made justice work, took the promises for themselves. They were protected from lions, fires, and sword thrusts, turned disadvantage to advantage, won battles, routed alien armies. Women received their loved ones back from the dead. There were those who, under torture, refused to give in and go free, preferring something better: resurrection. Others braved abuse and whips, and, yes, chains and dungeons. We have stories of those who were stoned, sawed in two, murdered in cold blood; stories of vagrants wandering the earth in animal skins, homeless, friendless, powerless—the world didn’t deserve them!—making their way as best they could on the cruel edges of the world.
39-40 Not one of these people, even though their lives of faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised. God had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours.
Discipline in a Long-Distance Race
12 1-3 Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!
INSIGHT:
The target audience for the book of Hebrews is Jews who had trusted Jesus as their Messiah. But due to persecution, in some cases imprisonment, and through confiscation of personal property, they were tempted to forsake their faith in Jesus and return to Judaism.
The Twelfth Man
By David McCasland
Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Hebrews 12:1
A large sign at the Texas A&M University football stadium says “HOME OF THE 12TH MAN.” While each team is allowed eleven players on the field, the 12th Man is the presence of thousands of A&M students who remain standing during the entire game to cheer their team on. The tradition traces its roots to 1922 when the coach called a student from the stands to suit up and be ready to replace an injured player. Although he never entered the game, his willing presence on the sideline greatly encouraged the team.
Hebrews 11 describes heroes of the faith who faced great trials and remained loyal to God. Chapter 12 begins, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (v. 1).
Lord, give us strength to run our race of faith today.
We are not alone on our journey of faith. The great saints and ordinary people who have been faithful to the Lord encourage us by their example and also by their presence in heaven. They are a spiritual 12th Man standing with us while we are still on the field.
As we fix our eyes on Jesus, “the pioneer and perfecter of faith” (12:2), we are spurred on by all those who followed Him.
Lord, may we be aware of those in heaven who are cheering us on. Give us strength to run our race of faith today.
Faithful Christians from the past encourage us today.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Still Human!
…whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. —1 Corinthians 10:31
In the Scriptures, the great miracle of the incarnation slips into the ordinary life of a child; the great miracle of the transfiguration fades into the demon-possessed valley below; the glory of the resurrection descends into a breakfast on the seashore. This is not an anticlimax, but a great revelation of God.
We have a tendency to look for wonder in our experience, and we mistake heroic actions for real heroes. It’s one thing to go through a crisis grandly, yet quite another to go through every day glorifying God when there is no witness, no limelight, and no one paying even the remotest attention to us. If we are not looking for halos, we at least want something that will make people say, “What a wonderful man of prayer he is!” or, “What a great woman of devotion she is!” If you are properly devoted to the Lord Jesus, you have reached the lofty height where no one would ever notice you personally. All that is noticed is the power of God coming through you all the time.
We want to be able to say, “Oh, I have had a wonderful call from God!” But to do even the most humbling tasks to the glory of God takes the Almighty God Incarnate working in us. To be utterly unnoticeable requires God’s Spirit in us making us absolutely humanly His. The true test of a saint’s life is not successfulness but faithfulness on the human level of life. We tend to set up success in Christian work as our purpose, but our purpose should be to display the glory of God in human life, to live a life “hidden with Christ in God” in our everyday human conditions (Colossians 3:3). Our human relationships are the very conditions in which the ideal life of God should be exhibited.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Beware of pronouncing any verdict on the life of faith if you are not living it. Not Knowing Whither, 900 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
When You're Tired of a Small, Small World - #7788
If you've been to Disneyland or Disney World with children, they made sure you got on this cute little ride called "Small World". It's this little boat that takes you on a trip down this winding little canal where these precious little dolls sing to you. They're dressed like children from all over the world, and they're singing this little song to you, which I will not sing. This is not a musical program. But you will remember maybe, it goes, "It's a small world after all." And it's cute – for a while. The problem is they keep singing it to you, around every bend, from every side. By the end of that ride, you are sick of a small, small world!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "When You're Tired of a Small, Small World."
There's a man in the Bible who was. And maybe you are. Oh, it isn't that your life isn't full. I mean, it's just not fulfilling. You're restless, feeling a little claustrophobia, and you know there must be more than this.
That's where this man in the Bible named Jabez was. If you've never heard of Jabez, that's OK, most people haven't. He's only mentioned once in the Bible and he's in the middle of nine chapters of genealogies. In this endless list of people who are only remembered because (the King James word) they "begat" someone, God suddenly stops the list to tell us about one man who stood out in this sea of mediocrity. And all we know about him is that he prayed. But in this simple prayer of Jabez – which obviously really impressed God – is a launching pad for the larger life you're restless for. Guess who made you restless. God did, because He's got more for you.
That prayer is found in our word for today from 1 Chronicles 4:9-10. "Jabez was more honorable than his brothers...Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, 'Oh, that You would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let Your hand be with me, and keep me from harm'..." And then this little footnote, "And God granted His request." Then it goes right back to the begatters. Obviously, God responds to a prayer like the prayer of Jabez.
Why? Well, first, because it's impassioned. It's not just a casual "Dear God" thing. "Jabez cried out" to God. See, God responds to desperate, heartfelt, "O Lord!" prayers. Secondly, life-enlarging prayer recognizes that everything depends on the blessing of God, "Oh, that You would bless me." There is nothing worth losing the blessing of God for; no sacrifice too great to have the blessing of God. One great Christian leader used to pray this way, "Lord, we ask not that You bless what we do, but that we do what You bless." That's great!
Thirdly, the prayer that blows the walls off your small, small world trusts God to enlarge the impact of your life. "Enlarge my territory." You dare to dream a big dream, planted by God in your heart. You reach out to Him and say, "Lord, I want to make a greater difference with the rest of my life than I've ever made before."
Finally, life-enlarging prayer dares to go where you've never gone because the hand of God is upon you. "Let Your hand be with me and keep me from harm." You dare to risk because you're trusting God to guide you with His hand where you're supposed to go and you know you'll be safe because He is protecting you and you're exactly where you were meant to be.
I'll bet there's a voice inside of you right now and he's whispering, "You're made for more. You're made for more." Go for that more you were made for.
God's been waiting for you to get tired of your small, small world – so tired that you would fall on your knees before Him and trust Him to make your life so much bigger; bigger than you ever thought it could be.
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Isaiah 62 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: WELCOME GOD IN
When we invite God into our world, he walks in. He brings a host of gifts: joy, patience, resilience. Anxieties come, but they don’t stick. Fears surface and then depart. Regrets land on the windshield, but then comes the wiper of prayer.
The Devil still hands me stones of guilt, but I turn and give them to Christ. Struggles come, for sure. But so does God. Prayer is not a privilege for the pious, not the art of a chosen few. Prayer is simply a heartfelt conversation between God and his child.
My friend, he wants to talk with you. Even now, as you read these words, he taps at the door. Open it. Welcome him in and let the conversation begin!
From God is With You Every Day
Isaiah 62
Look, Your Savior Comes!
Regarding Zion, I can’t keep my mouth shut,
regarding Jerusalem, I can’t hold my tongue,
Until her righteousness blazes down like the sun
and her salvation flames up like a torch.
Foreign countries will see your righteousness,
and world leaders your glory.
You’ll get a brand-new name
straight from the mouth of God.
You’ll be a stunning crown in the palm of God’s hand,
a jeweled gold cup held high in the hand of your God.
No more will anyone call you Rejected,
and your country will no more be called Ruined.
You’ll be called Hephzibah (My Delight),
and your land Beulah (Married),
Because God delights in you
and your land will be like a wedding celebration.
For as a young man marries his virgin bride,
so your builder marries you,
And as a bridegroom is happy in his bride,
so your God is happy with you.
6-7 I’ve posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem.
Day and night they keep at it, praying, calling out,
reminding God to remember.
They are to give him no peace until he does what he said,
until he makes Jerusalem famous as the City of Praise.
8-9 God has taken a solemn oath,
an oath he means to keep:
“Never again will I open your grain-filled barns
to your enemies to loot and eat.
Never again will foreigners drink the wine
that you worked so hard to produce.
No. The farmers who grow the food will eat the food
and praise God for it.
And those who make the wine will drink the wine
in my holy courtyards.”
10-12 Walk out of the gates. Get going!
Get the road ready for the people.
Build the highway. Get at it!
Clear the debris,
hoist high a flag, a signal to all peoples!
Yes! God has broadcast to all the world:
“Tell daughter Zion, ‘Look! Your Savior comes,
Ready to do what he said he’d do,
prepared to complete what he promised.’”
Zion will be called new names: Holy People, God-Redeemed,
Sought-Out, City-Not-Forsaken.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Read: Ecclesiastes 1:1–11
The Quester
These are the words of the Quester, David’s son and king in Jerusalem
2-11 Smoke, nothing but smoke. [That’s what the Quester says.]
There’s nothing to anything—it’s all smoke.
What’s there to show for a lifetime of work,
a lifetime of working your fingers to the bone?
One generation goes its way, the next one arrives,
but nothing changes—it’s business as usual for old
planet earth.
The sun comes up and the sun goes down,
then does it again, and again—the same old round.
The wind blows south, the wind blows north.
Around and around and around it blows,
blowing this way, then that—the whirling, erratic wind.
All the rivers flow into the sea,
but the sea never fills up.
The rivers keep flowing to the same old place,
and then start all over and do it again.
Everything’s boring, utterly boring—
no one can find any meaning in it.
Boring to the eye,
boring to the ear.
What was will be again,
what happened will happen again.
There’s nothing new on this earth.
Year after year it’s the same old thing.
Does someone call out, “Hey, this is new”?
Don’t get excited—it’s the same old story.
Nobody remembers what happened yesterday.
And the things that will happen tomorrow?
Nobody’ll remember them either.
Don’t count on being remembered.
INSIGHT:
The author of Ecclesiastes seemed to go on a scavenger hunt for value through pleasure (2:1–3), projects (vv. 4–7), wealth (vv. 7–8), sex (v. 8), and fame (v. 9)—only to find it is meaningless. In some ways Ecclesiastes parallels Old Testament law. Even as the law shows us we can’t keep the law (and so we need a Savior in Jesus), Ecclesiastes shows us that apart from God’s vantage point, we will only end in frustration and futility (and so we need a satisfier in Jesus). If we restrict ourselves to seeking meaning as circumscribed by life “under the sun,” it would be like seeking a plank in the wide ocean. We are not restricted to happenstance “under the sun,” for God has spoken to us in His Son (Heb. 1:1–2). Jesus is God’s Son; therefore, listen to him” (Luke 9:35). People matter to God, for we are more than mere matter.
Do I Matter?
By Philip Yancey
[Christ Jesus] made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant. Philippians 2:7
I stand in the cashier line of the local supermarket and look around me. I see teenagers with shaved heads and nose rings looking through the snack foods; a young professional buying one steak, a few twigs of asparagus, and a sweet potato; an elderly woman pondering the peaches and strawberries. Does God know all these people by name? I ask myself. Do they really matter to Him?
The Maker of all things is the Maker of all human beings, and each of us is deemed worthy of His individual attention and love. God demonstrated that love in person on the gnarly hills of Israel and ultimately on the cross.
When we are overwhelmed by the ache of loneliness and pain, we can run only to You.
When Jesus visited earth in the form of a servant, He showed that the hand of God is not too big for the smallest person in the world. It is a hand engraved with our individual names and engraved also with wounds, the cost to God of loving us so much.
Now, when I find myself wallowing in self-pity, overwhelmed by the ache of loneliness that is articulated so well in books like Job and Ecclesiastes, I turn to the Gospel accounts of Jesus’s stories and deeds. If I conclude that my existence “under the sun” (Eccl. 1:3) makes no difference to God, I contradict one of the main reasons God came to earth. To the question Do I matter? Jesus is indeed the answer.
Father, when we are overwhelmed by the ache of loneliness and pain, we can run only to You. Jesus showed us how much we matter to You, and we thank You!
The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Jesus
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
“What Is That to You?”
Peter…said to Jesus, "But Lord, what about this man?" Jesus said to him, "…what is that to you? You follow Me." —John 21:21-22
One of the hardest lessons to learn comes from our stubborn refusal to refrain from interfering in other people’s lives. It takes a long time to realize the danger of being an amateur providence, that is, interfering with God’s plan for others. You see someone suffering and say, “He will not suffer, and I will make sure that he doesn’t.” You put your hand right in front of God’s permissive will to stop it, and then God says, “What is that to you?” Is there stagnation in your spiritual life? Don’t allow it to continue, but get into God’s presence and find out the reason for it. You will possibly find it is because you have been interfering in the life of another— proposing things you had no right to propose, or advising when you had no right to advise. When you do have to give advice to another person, God will advise through you with the direct understanding of His Spirit. Your part is to maintain the right relationship with God so that His discernment can come through you continually for the purpose of blessing someone else.
Most of us live only within the level of consciousness— consciously serving and consciously devoted to God. This shows immaturity and the fact that we’re not yet living the real Christian life. Maturity is produced in the life of a child of God on the unconscious level, until we become so totally surrendered to God that we are not even aware of being used by Him. When we are consciously aware of being used as broken bread and poured-out wine, we have yet another level to reach— a level where all awareness of ourselves and of what God is doing through us is completely eliminated. A saint is never consciously a saint— a saint is consciously dependent on God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Christian Church should not be a secret society of specialists, but a public manifestation of believers in Jesus. Facing Reality, 34 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Peace in the Midst of the Storm - #7787
Years ago a major art gallery sponsored a competition for painters. They were offering prizes for the best painting on the subject of "Peace". As the attenders browsed through the entries, most had decided that one certain painting was almost sure to win. It portrayed this lush green pasture under a vivid blue sky, with the cows grazing lazily and a little boy walking through the grass with his fishing pole over his shoulder. It really made you feel all peaceful. But it came in second. The painting that won was a big surprise. The scene was the ocean in a violent storm. The sky was ominous, the lightning was cutting across the sky, and the waves were crashing into the rock walls of the cliffs by the shore. No peace. But you had to look twice to understand what was going on. There, about halfway up the cliff was a birds' nest, tucked into a tiny hollow in the rock. A mother bird was sitting on that nest with her little babies, tucked underneath her, sleeping soundly. That was peace!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Peace in the Midst of the Storm."
Now, that was the title of the prize-winning painting – and rightly so, because peace is not just the absence of a storm. It's peace in the middle of the storm. The kind of peace many of us could use right now; the kind of peace maybe you could have right now if you're resting where you ought to be.
As our headlines have become more dominated with new dangers, as so many hearts have been struggling with new anxieties and new fears, I think we're ready for the incredible peace offered in Psalm 46. I call it "Good News for Troubled Times". It's our word for today from the Word of God. Maybe it should be our word for every day right now!
"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble." So, the more troubled things are, the more present God makes Himself. The psalmist then says, "Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging." Everything's collapsing here – things that have always been there for us. But no fear. Why? "God is our refuge and strength."
This psalm continues: "There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where The Most High dwells." Where does God live today? Well, it's in those who belong to Him through faith in Jesus. So this is about you. "God is within her, and she will not fall...Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall...the Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress." Then as everything seems to be melting down, God says, "Be still, and know that I am God."
OK, turn off the news, leave those other voices, and get where you can just be with God. And realize that as long as you're in His hands, there's no such thing as out of control. He is still God and you are still His!
And if you have never given yourself to Jesus, the Man who died for you to pay for your sin, I'd say there's never been a better time than this. With so much changing, with so much uncertainty, it's so great to know that you're safe forever in a relationship with Him.
I wonder if there's ever been a time when you began your personal relationship with Jesus. Not just have a religion about Jesus or agree with Jesus, but when you've pinned all your hopes on Him as the man who died for your sin and rose from the grave to give you eternal life. If you want that security, if you want that anchor; that rock to stand on, tell Him that today. Say, "Jesus, I want to belong to You. I don't just believe You, I want to belong to You and I'm giving myself to You because You gave yourself for me."
You know, I'd love to have you go to our website. I invite you to go there simply because the reason it's there is to help you be sure that you are anchored to Jesus Christ from this day on and forever. It's called ANewStory.com. I urge you to go there as soon as you can today.
When you are nesting in the care of the Lord Jesus Christ, you can rest through any storm, because you belong to the One who can give you peace in the middle of the storm.
When we invite God into our world, he walks in. He brings a host of gifts: joy, patience, resilience. Anxieties come, but they don’t stick. Fears surface and then depart. Regrets land on the windshield, but then comes the wiper of prayer.
The Devil still hands me stones of guilt, but I turn and give them to Christ. Struggles come, for sure. But so does God. Prayer is not a privilege for the pious, not the art of a chosen few. Prayer is simply a heartfelt conversation between God and his child.
My friend, he wants to talk with you. Even now, as you read these words, he taps at the door. Open it. Welcome him in and let the conversation begin!
From God is With You Every Day
Isaiah 62
Look, Your Savior Comes!
Regarding Zion, I can’t keep my mouth shut,
regarding Jerusalem, I can’t hold my tongue,
Until her righteousness blazes down like the sun
and her salvation flames up like a torch.
Foreign countries will see your righteousness,
and world leaders your glory.
You’ll get a brand-new name
straight from the mouth of God.
You’ll be a stunning crown in the palm of God’s hand,
a jeweled gold cup held high in the hand of your God.
No more will anyone call you Rejected,
and your country will no more be called Ruined.
You’ll be called Hephzibah (My Delight),
and your land Beulah (Married),
Because God delights in you
and your land will be like a wedding celebration.
For as a young man marries his virgin bride,
so your builder marries you,
And as a bridegroom is happy in his bride,
so your God is happy with you.
6-7 I’ve posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem.
Day and night they keep at it, praying, calling out,
reminding God to remember.
They are to give him no peace until he does what he said,
until he makes Jerusalem famous as the City of Praise.
8-9 God has taken a solemn oath,
an oath he means to keep:
“Never again will I open your grain-filled barns
to your enemies to loot and eat.
Never again will foreigners drink the wine
that you worked so hard to produce.
No. The farmers who grow the food will eat the food
and praise God for it.
And those who make the wine will drink the wine
in my holy courtyards.”
10-12 Walk out of the gates. Get going!
Get the road ready for the people.
Build the highway. Get at it!
Clear the debris,
hoist high a flag, a signal to all peoples!
Yes! God has broadcast to all the world:
“Tell daughter Zion, ‘Look! Your Savior comes,
Ready to do what he said he’d do,
prepared to complete what he promised.’”
Zion will be called new names: Holy People, God-Redeemed,
Sought-Out, City-Not-Forsaken.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Read: Ecclesiastes 1:1–11
The Quester
These are the words of the Quester, David’s son and king in Jerusalem
2-11 Smoke, nothing but smoke. [That’s what the Quester says.]
There’s nothing to anything—it’s all smoke.
What’s there to show for a lifetime of work,
a lifetime of working your fingers to the bone?
One generation goes its way, the next one arrives,
but nothing changes—it’s business as usual for old
planet earth.
The sun comes up and the sun goes down,
then does it again, and again—the same old round.
The wind blows south, the wind blows north.
Around and around and around it blows,
blowing this way, then that—the whirling, erratic wind.
All the rivers flow into the sea,
but the sea never fills up.
The rivers keep flowing to the same old place,
and then start all over and do it again.
Everything’s boring, utterly boring—
no one can find any meaning in it.
Boring to the eye,
boring to the ear.
What was will be again,
what happened will happen again.
There’s nothing new on this earth.
Year after year it’s the same old thing.
Does someone call out, “Hey, this is new”?
Don’t get excited—it’s the same old story.
Nobody remembers what happened yesterday.
And the things that will happen tomorrow?
Nobody’ll remember them either.
Don’t count on being remembered.
INSIGHT:
The author of Ecclesiastes seemed to go on a scavenger hunt for value through pleasure (2:1–3), projects (vv. 4–7), wealth (vv. 7–8), sex (v. 8), and fame (v. 9)—only to find it is meaningless. In some ways Ecclesiastes parallels Old Testament law. Even as the law shows us we can’t keep the law (and so we need a Savior in Jesus), Ecclesiastes shows us that apart from God’s vantage point, we will only end in frustration and futility (and so we need a satisfier in Jesus). If we restrict ourselves to seeking meaning as circumscribed by life “under the sun,” it would be like seeking a plank in the wide ocean. We are not restricted to happenstance “under the sun,” for God has spoken to us in His Son (Heb. 1:1–2). Jesus is God’s Son; therefore, listen to him” (Luke 9:35). People matter to God, for we are more than mere matter.
Do I Matter?
By Philip Yancey
[Christ Jesus] made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant. Philippians 2:7
I stand in the cashier line of the local supermarket and look around me. I see teenagers with shaved heads and nose rings looking through the snack foods; a young professional buying one steak, a few twigs of asparagus, and a sweet potato; an elderly woman pondering the peaches and strawberries. Does God know all these people by name? I ask myself. Do they really matter to Him?
The Maker of all things is the Maker of all human beings, and each of us is deemed worthy of His individual attention and love. God demonstrated that love in person on the gnarly hills of Israel and ultimately on the cross.
When we are overwhelmed by the ache of loneliness and pain, we can run only to You.
When Jesus visited earth in the form of a servant, He showed that the hand of God is not too big for the smallest person in the world. It is a hand engraved with our individual names and engraved also with wounds, the cost to God of loving us so much.
Now, when I find myself wallowing in self-pity, overwhelmed by the ache of loneliness that is articulated so well in books like Job and Ecclesiastes, I turn to the Gospel accounts of Jesus’s stories and deeds. If I conclude that my existence “under the sun” (Eccl. 1:3) makes no difference to God, I contradict one of the main reasons God came to earth. To the question Do I matter? Jesus is indeed the answer.
Father, when we are overwhelmed by the ache of loneliness and pain, we can run only to You. Jesus showed us how much we matter to You, and we thank You!
The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Jesus
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
“What Is That to You?”
Peter…said to Jesus, "But Lord, what about this man?" Jesus said to him, "…what is that to you? You follow Me." —John 21:21-22
One of the hardest lessons to learn comes from our stubborn refusal to refrain from interfering in other people’s lives. It takes a long time to realize the danger of being an amateur providence, that is, interfering with God’s plan for others. You see someone suffering and say, “He will not suffer, and I will make sure that he doesn’t.” You put your hand right in front of God’s permissive will to stop it, and then God says, “What is that to you?” Is there stagnation in your spiritual life? Don’t allow it to continue, but get into God’s presence and find out the reason for it. You will possibly find it is because you have been interfering in the life of another— proposing things you had no right to propose, or advising when you had no right to advise. When you do have to give advice to another person, God will advise through you with the direct understanding of His Spirit. Your part is to maintain the right relationship with God so that His discernment can come through you continually for the purpose of blessing someone else.
Most of us live only within the level of consciousness— consciously serving and consciously devoted to God. This shows immaturity and the fact that we’re not yet living the real Christian life. Maturity is produced in the life of a child of God on the unconscious level, until we become so totally surrendered to God that we are not even aware of being used by Him. When we are consciously aware of being used as broken bread and poured-out wine, we have yet another level to reach— a level where all awareness of ourselves and of what God is doing through us is completely eliminated. A saint is never consciously a saint— a saint is consciously dependent on God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Christian Church should not be a secret society of specialists, but a public manifestation of believers in Jesus. Facing Reality, 34 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Peace in the Midst of the Storm - #7787
Years ago a major art gallery sponsored a competition for painters. They were offering prizes for the best painting on the subject of "Peace". As the attenders browsed through the entries, most had decided that one certain painting was almost sure to win. It portrayed this lush green pasture under a vivid blue sky, with the cows grazing lazily and a little boy walking through the grass with his fishing pole over his shoulder. It really made you feel all peaceful. But it came in second. The painting that won was a big surprise. The scene was the ocean in a violent storm. The sky was ominous, the lightning was cutting across the sky, and the waves were crashing into the rock walls of the cliffs by the shore. No peace. But you had to look twice to understand what was going on. There, about halfway up the cliff was a birds' nest, tucked into a tiny hollow in the rock. A mother bird was sitting on that nest with her little babies, tucked underneath her, sleeping soundly. That was peace!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Peace in the Midst of the Storm."
Now, that was the title of the prize-winning painting – and rightly so, because peace is not just the absence of a storm. It's peace in the middle of the storm. The kind of peace many of us could use right now; the kind of peace maybe you could have right now if you're resting where you ought to be.
As our headlines have become more dominated with new dangers, as so many hearts have been struggling with new anxieties and new fears, I think we're ready for the incredible peace offered in Psalm 46. I call it "Good News for Troubled Times". It's our word for today from the Word of God. Maybe it should be our word for every day right now!
"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble." So, the more troubled things are, the more present God makes Himself. The psalmist then says, "Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging." Everything's collapsing here – things that have always been there for us. But no fear. Why? "God is our refuge and strength."
This psalm continues: "There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where The Most High dwells." Where does God live today? Well, it's in those who belong to Him through faith in Jesus. So this is about you. "God is within her, and she will not fall...Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall...the Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress." Then as everything seems to be melting down, God says, "Be still, and know that I am God."
OK, turn off the news, leave those other voices, and get where you can just be with God. And realize that as long as you're in His hands, there's no such thing as out of control. He is still God and you are still His!
And if you have never given yourself to Jesus, the Man who died for you to pay for your sin, I'd say there's never been a better time than this. With so much changing, with so much uncertainty, it's so great to know that you're safe forever in a relationship with Him.
I wonder if there's ever been a time when you began your personal relationship with Jesus. Not just have a religion about Jesus or agree with Jesus, but when you've pinned all your hopes on Him as the man who died for your sin and rose from the grave to give you eternal life. If you want that security, if you want that anchor; that rock to stand on, tell Him that today. Say, "Jesus, I want to belong to You. I don't just believe You, I want to belong to You and I'm giving myself to You because You gave yourself for me."
You know, I'd love to have you go to our website. I invite you to go there simply because the reason it's there is to help you be sure that you are anchored to Jesus Christ from this day on and forever. It's called ANewStory.com. I urge you to go there as soon as you can today.
When you are nesting in the care of the Lord Jesus Christ, you can rest through any storm, because you belong to the One who can give you peace in the middle of the storm.
Monday, November 14, 2016
Romans 11:19-36, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: HOLY ANGER
I was in an emergency room late one night. Victims of Satan filled the halls. A child—puffy, swollen eyes, beaten by her father. A woman—bruised cheeks, bloody nose. “My boyfriend got drunk and hit me,” she said, weeping.
Jesus saw victims of Satan too. He saw a leper one day…fingers gnarled…skin ulcerated…face disfigured. He got indignant. A holy anger, a compassionate disgust…and it moved him to action. I’m convinced that the same Satan stalks today, causing hunger, confusion in the Mideast, the apathy in Christ’s church. And Satan giggles among the dying.
Oh, dear Father, May we never grow so holy, may we never be so mature, may we never be so religious, that we see the footprints of Satan and stay calm.
From God is With You Every Day
Romans 11:19-36
It’s certainly possible to say, “Other branches were pruned so that I could be grafted in!” Well and good. But they were pruned because they were deadwood, no longer connected by belief and commitment to the root. The only reason you’re on the tree is because your graft “took” when you believed, and because you’re connected to that belief-nurturing root. So don’t get cocky and strut your branch. Be humbly mindful of the root that keeps you lithe and green.
21-22 If God didn’t think twice about taking pruning shears to the natural branches, why would he hesitate over you? He wouldn’t give it a second thought. Make sure you stay alert to these qualities of gentle kindness and ruthless severity that exist side by side in God—ruthless with the deadwood, gentle with the grafted shoot. But don’t presume on this gentleness. The moment you become deadwood, you’re out of there.
23-24 And don’t get to feeling superior to those pruned branches down on the ground. If they don’t persist in remaining deadwood, they could very well get grafted back in. God can do that. He can perform miracle grafts. Why, if he could graft you—branches cut from a tree out in the wild—into an orchard tree, he certainly isn’t going to have any trouble grafting branches back into the tree they grew from in the first place. Just be glad you’re in the tree, and hope for the best for the others.
A Complete Israel
25-29 I want to lay all this out on the table as clearly as I can, friends. This is complicated. It would be easy to misinterpret what’s going on and arrogantly assume that you’re royalty and they’re just rabble, out on their ears for good. But that’s not it at all. This hardness on the part of insider Israel toward God is temporary. Its effect is to open things up to all the outsiders so that we end up with a full house. Before it’s all over, there will be a complete Israel. As it is written,
A champion will stride down from the mountain of Zion;
he’ll clean house in Jacob.
And this is my commitment to my people:
removal of their sins.
From your point of view as you hear and embrace the good news of the Message, it looks like the Jews are God’s enemies. But looked at from the long-range perspective of God’s overall purpose, they remain God’s oldest friends. God’s gifts and God’s call are under full warranty—never canceled, never rescinded.
30-32 There was a time not so long ago when you were on the outs with God. But then the Jews slammed the door on him and things opened up for you. Now they are on the outs. But with the door held wide open for you, they have a way back in. In one way or another, God makes sure that we all experience what it means to be outside so that he can personally open the door and welcome us back in.
33-36 Have you ever come on anything quite like this extravagant generosity of God, this deep, deep wisdom? It’s way over our heads. We’ll never figure it out.
Is there anyone around who can explain God?
Anyone smart enough to tell him what to do?
Anyone who has done him such a huge favor
that God has to ask his advice?
Everything comes from him;
Everything happens through him;
Everything ends up in him.
Always glory! Always praise!
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, November 14, 2016
Read: Romans 15:1–7
Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status. Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, “How can I help?”
3-6 That’s exactly what Jesus did. He didn’t make it easy for himself by avoiding people’s troubles, but waded right in and helped out. “I took on the troubles of the troubled,” is the way Scripture puts it. Even if it was written in Scripture long ago, you can be sure it’s written for us. God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling and warm, personal counsel in Scripture to come to characterize us, keeping us alert for whatever he will do next. May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all. Then we’ll be a choir—not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Master Jesus!
7-13 So reach out and welcome one another to God’s glory. Jesus did it; now you do it! Jesus, staying true to God’s purposes, reached out in a special way to the Jewish insiders so that the old ancestral promises would come true for them. As a result, the non-Jewish outsiders have been able to experience mercy and to show appreciation to God. Just think of all the Scriptures that will come true in what we do! For instance:
Then I’ll join outsiders in a hymn-sing;
I’ll sing to your name!
And this one:
Outsiders and insiders, rejoice together!
And again:
People of all nations, celebrate God!
All colors and races, give hearty praise!
And Isaiah’s word:
There’s the root of our ancestor Jesse,
breaking through the earth and growing tree tall,
Tall enough for everyone everywhere to see and take hope!
Oh! May the God of green hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!
INSIGHT:
The Roman believers were in need of building on the sense of unity they enjoyed. Our reading for today concludes on an essential ingredient in interpersonal relationships, that of acceptance. “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.” Certainly a subtle sensing of rejection will inhibit all healthy relationships. We are to accept others as Christ has accepted us
All Together Now
By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
With one mind and one voice . . . glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 15:6
While Nicholas Taylor was boarding a train in Perth, Australia, his leg became wedged in the gap between the platform and a commuter car. When safety officials could not free him, they coordinated the efforts of nearly 50 passengers who lined up and, on the count of three, pushed against the train. Working in unison, they shifted the weight just enough to free Taylor’s leg.
The apostle Paul recognized the power of Christians working together in many of his letters to the early churches. He urged the Roman believers to accept each other the way Christ had accepted them and said, “[May God] give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 15:5–6).
Our unity comes from our union with Christ.
Unity with other believers enables us to broadcast God’s greatness and also helps us to endure persecution. Knowing that the Philippians would pay a price for their faith, Paul encouraged them to strive “together as one for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you” (Phil. 1:27–28).
Satan loves to divide and conquer, but his efforts fail when, with God’s help, we “make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3).
Dear God, please let Christians everywhere experience the blessing of unity in You. Remind us of what we have in common: one hope, one faith, and one Lord—Jesus Christ.
Our unity comes from our union with Christ.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, November 14, 2016
Discovering Divine Design
As for me, being on the way, the Lord led me… —Genesis 24:27
We should be so one with God that we don’t need to ask continually for guidance. Sanctification means that we are made the children of God. A child’s life is normally obedient, until he chooses disobedience. But as soon as he chooses to disobey, an inherent inner conflict is produced. On the spiritual level, inner conflict is the warning of the Spirit of God. When He warns us in this way, we must stop at once and be renewed in the spirit of our mind to discern God’s will (see Romans 12:2). If we are born again by the Spirit of God, our devotion to Him is hindered, or even stopped, by continually asking Him to guide us here and there. “…the Lord led me…” and on looking back we see the presence of an amazing design. If we are born of God we will see His guiding hand and give Him the credit.
We can all see God in exceptional things, but it requires the growth of spiritual discipline to see God in every detail. Never believe that the so-called random events of life are anything less than God’s appointed order. Be ready to discover His divine designs anywhere and everywhere.
Beware of being obsessed with consistency to your own convictions instead of being devoted to God. If you are a saint and say, “I will never do this or that,” in all probability this will be exactly what God will require of you. There was never a more inconsistent being on this earth than our Lord, but He was never inconsistent with His Father. The important consistency in a saint is not to a principle but to the divine life. It is the divine life that continually makes more and more discoveries about the divine mind. It is easier to be an excessive fanatic than it is to be consistently faithful, because God causes an amazing humbling of our religious conceit when we are faithful to Him.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is not what a man does that is of final importance, but what he is in what he does. The atmosphere produced by a man, much more than his activities, has the lasting influence. Baffled to Fight Better, 51 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, November 14, 2016
The Master Heart Surgeon - #7786
I met this 87-year-old man one day who had been given a whole new lease on life. His heart arteries were so clogged that his health was deteriorating rapidly. But then the heart surgeon went to work on him and gave him a quadruple heart bypass. In a sense, the doctor created four new arteries and plugged them into this man's heart so his heart could once again get the blood it needs when it needs it. I mean it's totally amazing the difference a skilled heart surgeon can make.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Master Heart Surgeon."
If God was a doctor, I kind of think He'd be a heart specialist. Actually, He is a heart specialist. I mean, look at how He has changed my heart and your heart. And you may be facing a situation right now that will only change for the better if someone's heart changes. There may be someone out there whose heart, whose attitude, is standing in the way of something you believe God wants done. It's time for heart surgery and one of the most powerful prayers you can learn to pray.
God's heart-changing work is graphically illustrated in our word for today from the Word of God. It's in Ezra 1 beginning in verse 1. Now God's people, the Jews, have been in captivity for 70 years, but now it's time for them to go home and build God's temple in God's land. Problem: they are under the control of a pagan king named Cyrus, who just happens to be the most powerful man on earth at that time. Actually, not a problem-for God, that is.
Here's what our word for today says. "In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord...the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus, king of Persia, to make a proclamation throughout his realm." Now the proclamation said this. "The Lord...has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and He has appointed me to build a temple for Him at Jerusalem in Judah." Wait a minute! This is amazing! This is a pagan king. Who would have guessed? "Any of His people among you-may His God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem to Judah and build the temple of the Lord." He's going, "You guys, it's okay with me. You go home. I want to be a part of you building the temple of the Lord." He didn't even believe in Him as far as we know. Isn't that amazing?
God wants something done. A king stands in the way. God changes his heart. Later in this same book there is another pagan king in power who stands in the way. But Ezra tells us, "The Lord had filled them with joy by changing the attitude of the king...so that he assisted them in the work on the house of God" (Ezra 6:22).
Now, in many of life's situations there is some "king". You know, a king person-the gatekeeper. That's the one whose permission is needed. That's the one who's in a position to decide whether this is a yes or no. And here's what God tells us about those people in Proverbs 21:1. I love this. "The king's heart" (whoever is the most powerful guy around) "is in the hand of the Lord; He directs it like a watercourse wherever He pleases." Even if he's far from God, even if he's the most powerful man in the world.
So one of the most powerful prayers you can pray is, "Lord, change her heart. Change his heart." Through fervent, consistent prayer, you just focus all of God's unlimited power on the heart of the "king" in your situation. Like a skilled heart surgeon, God has the ability to open up a clogged heart-to move an unmovable heart, to change that stubborn heart. In fact, in Ezekiel 36:26 God says that "He will take that heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh and put a new spirit within us." What a promise!
So exercise the authority you have in prayer-the authority to enter the throne room from which billions of galaxies are governed and aim God's power at one heart on earth. It is amazing the difference the Master Heart Surgeon can make when He changes a heart that no one on earth could move.
I was in an emergency room late one night. Victims of Satan filled the halls. A child—puffy, swollen eyes, beaten by her father. A woman—bruised cheeks, bloody nose. “My boyfriend got drunk and hit me,” she said, weeping.
Jesus saw victims of Satan too. He saw a leper one day…fingers gnarled…skin ulcerated…face disfigured. He got indignant. A holy anger, a compassionate disgust…and it moved him to action. I’m convinced that the same Satan stalks today, causing hunger, confusion in the Mideast, the apathy in Christ’s church. And Satan giggles among the dying.
Oh, dear Father, May we never grow so holy, may we never be so mature, may we never be so religious, that we see the footprints of Satan and stay calm.
From God is With You Every Day
Romans 11:19-36
It’s certainly possible to say, “Other branches were pruned so that I could be grafted in!” Well and good. But they were pruned because they were deadwood, no longer connected by belief and commitment to the root. The only reason you’re on the tree is because your graft “took” when you believed, and because you’re connected to that belief-nurturing root. So don’t get cocky and strut your branch. Be humbly mindful of the root that keeps you lithe and green.
21-22 If God didn’t think twice about taking pruning shears to the natural branches, why would he hesitate over you? He wouldn’t give it a second thought. Make sure you stay alert to these qualities of gentle kindness and ruthless severity that exist side by side in God—ruthless with the deadwood, gentle with the grafted shoot. But don’t presume on this gentleness. The moment you become deadwood, you’re out of there.
23-24 And don’t get to feeling superior to those pruned branches down on the ground. If they don’t persist in remaining deadwood, they could very well get grafted back in. God can do that. He can perform miracle grafts. Why, if he could graft you—branches cut from a tree out in the wild—into an orchard tree, he certainly isn’t going to have any trouble grafting branches back into the tree they grew from in the first place. Just be glad you’re in the tree, and hope for the best for the others.
A Complete Israel
25-29 I want to lay all this out on the table as clearly as I can, friends. This is complicated. It would be easy to misinterpret what’s going on and arrogantly assume that you’re royalty and they’re just rabble, out on their ears for good. But that’s not it at all. This hardness on the part of insider Israel toward God is temporary. Its effect is to open things up to all the outsiders so that we end up with a full house. Before it’s all over, there will be a complete Israel. As it is written,
A champion will stride down from the mountain of Zion;
he’ll clean house in Jacob.
And this is my commitment to my people:
removal of their sins.
From your point of view as you hear and embrace the good news of the Message, it looks like the Jews are God’s enemies. But looked at from the long-range perspective of God’s overall purpose, they remain God’s oldest friends. God’s gifts and God’s call are under full warranty—never canceled, never rescinded.
30-32 There was a time not so long ago when you were on the outs with God. But then the Jews slammed the door on him and things opened up for you. Now they are on the outs. But with the door held wide open for you, they have a way back in. In one way or another, God makes sure that we all experience what it means to be outside so that he can personally open the door and welcome us back in.
33-36 Have you ever come on anything quite like this extravagant generosity of God, this deep, deep wisdom? It’s way over our heads. We’ll never figure it out.
Is there anyone around who can explain God?
Anyone smart enough to tell him what to do?
Anyone who has done him such a huge favor
that God has to ask his advice?
Everything comes from him;
Everything happens through him;
Everything ends up in him.
Always glory! Always praise!
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, November 14, 2016
Read: Romans 15:1–7
Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status. Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, “How can I help?”
3-6 That’s exactly what Jesus did. He didn’t make it easy for himself by avoiding people’s troubles, but waded right in and helped out. “I took on the troubles of the troubled,” is the way Scripture puts it. Even if it was written in Scripture long ago, you can be sure it’s written for us. God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling and warm, personal counsel in Scripture to come to characterize us, keeping us alert for whatever he will do next. May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all. Then we’ll be a choir—not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Master Jesus!
7-13 So reach out and welcome one another to God’s glory. Jesus did it; now you do it! Jesus, staying true to God’s purposes, reached out in a special way to the Jewish insiders so that the old ancestral promises would come true for them. As a result, the non-Jewish outsiders have been able to experience mercy and to show appreciation to God. Just think of all the Scriptures that will come true in what we do! For instance:
Then I’ll join outsiders in a hymn-sing;
I’ll sing to your name!
And this one:
Outsiders and insiders, rejoice together!
And again:
People of all nations, celebrate God!
All colors and races, give hearty praise!
And Isaiah’s word:
There’s the root of our ancestor Jesse,
breaking through the earth and growing tree tall,
Tall enough for everyone everywhere to see and take hope!
Oh! May the God of green hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!
INSIGHT:
The Roman believers were in need of building on the sense of unity they enjoyed. Our reading for today concludes on an essential ingredient in interpersonal relationships, that of acceptance. “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.” Certainly a subtle sensing of rejection will inhibit all healthy relationships. We are to accept others as Christ has accepted us
All Together Now
By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
With one mind and one voice . . . glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 15:6
While Nicholas Taylor was boarding a train in Perth, Australia, his leg became wedged in the gap between the platform and a commuter car. When safety officials could not free him, they coordinated the efforts of nearly 50 passengers who lined up and, on the count of three, pushed against the train. Working in unison, they shifted the weight just enough to free Taylor’s leg.
The apostle Paul recognized the power of Christians working together in many of his letters to the early churches. He urged the Roman believers to accept each other the way Christ had accepted them and said, “[May God] give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 15:5–6).
Our unity comes from our union with Christ.
Unity with other believers enables us to broadcast God’s greatness and also helps us to endure persecution. Knowing that the Philippians would pay a price for their faith, Paul encouraged them to strive “together as one for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you” (Phil. 1:27–28).
Satan loves to divide and conquer, but his efforts fail when, with God’s help, we “make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3).
Dear God, please let Christians everywhere experience the blessing of unity in You. Remind us of what we have in common: one hope, one faith, and one Lord—Jesus Christ.
Our unity comes from our union with Christ.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, November 14, 2016
Discovering Divine Design
As for me, being on the way, the Lord led me… —Genesis 24:27
We should be so one with God that we don’t need to ask continually for guidance. Sanctification means that we are made the children of God. A child’s life is normally obedient, until he chooses disobedience. But as soon as he chooses to disobey, an inherent inner conflict is produced. On the spiritual level, inner conflict is the warning of the Spirit of God. When He warns us in this way, we must stop at once and be renewed in the spirit of our mind to discern God’s will (see Romans 12:2). If we are born again by the Spirit of God, our devotion to Him is hindered, or even stopped, by continually asking Him to guide us here and there. “…the Lord led me…” and on looking back we see the presence of an amazing design. If we are born of God we will see His guiding hand and give Him the credit.
We can all see God in exceptional things, but it requires the growth of spiritual discipline to see God in every detail. Never believe that the so-called random events of life are anything less than God’s appointed order. Be ready to discover His divine designs anywhere and everywhere.
Beware of being obsessed with consistency to your own convictions instead of being devoted to God. If you are a saint and say, “I will never do this or that,” in all probability this will be exactly what God will require of you. There was never a more inconsistent being on this earth than our Lord, but He was never inconsistent with His Father. The important consistency in a saint is not to a principle but to the divine life. It is the divine life that continually makes more and more discoveries about the divine mind. It is easier to be an excessive fanatic than it is to be consistently faithful, because God causes an amazing humbling of our religious conceit when we are faithful to Him.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is not what a man does that is of final importance, but what he is in what he does. The atmosphere produced by a man, much more than his activities, has the lasting influence. Baffled to Fight Better, 51 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, November 14, 2016
The Master Heart Surgeon - #7786
I met this 87-year-old man one day who had been given a whole new lease on life. His heart arteries were so clogged that his health was deteriorating rapidly. But then the heart surgeon went to work on him and gave him a quadruple heart bypass. In a sense, the doctor created four new arteries and plugged them into this man's heart so his heart could once again get the blood it needs when it needs it. I mean it's totally amazing the difference a skilled heart surgeon can make.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Master Heart Surgeon."
If God was a doctor, I kind of think He'd be a heart specialist. Actually, He is a heart specialist. I mean, look at how He has changed my heart and your heart. And you may be facing a situation right now that will only change for the better if someone's heart changes. There may be someone out there whose heart, whose attitude, is standing in the way of something you believe God wants done. It's time for heart surgery and one of the most powerful prayers you can learn to pray.
God's heart-changing work is graphically illustrated in our word for today from the Word of God. It's in Ezra 1 beginning in verse 1. Now God's people, the Jews, have been in captivity for 70 years, but now it's time for them to go home and build God's temple in God's land. Problem: they are under the control of a pagan king named Cyrus, who just happens to be the most powerful man on earth at that time. Actually, not a problem-for God, that is.
Here's what our word for today says. "In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord...the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus, king of Persia, to make a proclamation throughout his realm." Now the proclamation said this. "The Lord...has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and He has appointed me to build a temple for Him at Jerusalem in Judah." Wait a minute! This is amazing! This is a pagan king. Who would have guessed? "Any of His people among you-may His God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem to Judah and build the temple of the Lord." He's going, "You guys, it's okay with me. You go home. I want to be a part of you building the temple of the Lord." He didn't even believe in Him as far as we know. Isn't that amazing?
God wants something done. A king stands in the way. God changes his heart. Later in this same book there is another pagan king in power who stands in the way. But Ezra tells us, "The Lord had filled them with joy by changing the attitude of the king...so that he assisted them in the work on the house of God" (Ezra 6:22).
Now, in many of life's situations there is some "king". You know, a king person-the gatekeeper. That's the one whose permission is needed. That's the one who's in a position to decide whether this is a yes or no. And here's what God tells us about those people in Proverbs 21:1. I love this. "The king's heart" (whoever is the most powerful guy around) "is in the hand of the Lord; He directs it like a watercourse wherever He pleases." Even if he's far from God, even if he's the most powerful man in the world.
So one of the most powerful prayers you can pray is, "Lord, change her heart. Change his heart." Through fervent, consistent prayer, you just focus all of God's unlimited power on the heart of the "king" in your situation. Like a skilled heart surgeon, God has the ability to open up a clogged heart-to move an unmovable heart, to change that stubborn heart. In fact, in Ezekiel 36:26 God says that "He will take that heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh and put a new spirit within us." What a promise!
So exercise the authority you have in prayer-the authority to enter the throne room from which billions of galaxies are governed and aim God's power at one heart on earth. It is amazing the difference the Master Heart Surgeon can make when He changes a heart that no one on earth could move.
Sunday, November 13, 2016
Isaiah 61 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: You at Your Best
Call it what you wish. A talent…a skill set…a gift. The terms are different, but the truth is the same. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:7, “The Spirit has given each of us a special way of serving others.”
You aren’t the only person with your skill. But you are the only person with your version of your skill. You entered the world uniquely equipped. Psalm 139:13-15 describes it as “knit together, woven together in the dark of the womb, intricately and curiously wrought.”
Each of us! Not some of us, a few of us, or the elite among us. Each of us has a beauty that longs to be revealed and released. It is you at your best! When you stand at the intersection of your skill and God’s call, you are standing at the corner of Promised Land Avenue and Glory Days Boulevard.
From Glory Days
Isaiah 61
Announce Freedom to All Captives
The Spirit of God, the Master, is on me
because God anointed me.
He sent me to preach good news to the poor,
heal the heartbroken,
Announce freedom to all captives,
pardon all prisoners.
God sent me to announce the year of his grace—
a celebration of God’s destruction of our enemies—
and to comfort all who mourn,
To care for the needs of all who mourn in Zion,
give them bouquets of roses instead of ashes,
Messages of joy instead of news of doom,
a praising heart instead of a languid spirit.
Rename them “Oaks of Righteousness”
planted by God to display his glory.
They’ll rebuild the old ruins,
raise a new city out of the wreckage.
They’ll start over on the ruined cities,
take the rubble left behind and make it new.
You’ll hire outsiders to herd your flocks
and foreigners to work your fields,
But you’ll have the title “Priests of God,”
honored as ministers of our God.
You’ll feast on the bounty of nations,
you’ll bask in their glory.
Because you got a double dose of trouble
and more than your share of contempt,
Your inheritance in the land will be doubled
and your joy go on forever.
8-9 “Because I, God, love fair dealing
and hate thievery and crime,
I’ll pay your wages on time and in full,
and establish my eternal covenant with you.
Your descendants will become well-known all over.
Your children in foreign countries
Will be recognized at once
as the people I have blessed.”
10-11 I will sing for joy in God,
explode in praise from deep in my soul!
He dressed me up in a suit of salvation,
he outfitted me in a robe of righteousness,
As a bridegroom who puts on a tuxedo
and a bride a jeweled tiara.
For as the earth bursts with spring wildflowers,
and as a garden cascades with blossoms,
So the Master, God, brings righteousness into full bloom
and puts praise on display before the nations.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, November 13, 2016
Read: Nehemiah 8:2–6; Acts 8:4–8
So Ezra the priest brought The Revelation to the congregation, which was made up of both men and women—everyone capable of understanding. It was the first day of the seventh month. He read it facing the town square at the Water Gate from early dawn until noon in the hearing of the men and women, all who could understand it. And all the people listened—they were all ears—to the Book of The Revelation.
4 The scholar Ezra stood on a wooden platform constructed for the occasion. He was flanked on the right by Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, and on the left by Pedaiah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam.
5-6 Ezra opened the book. Every eye was on him (he was standing on the raised platform) and as he opened the book everyone stood. Then Ezra praised God, the great God, and all the people responded, “Oh Yes! Yes!” with hands raised high. And then they fell to their knees in worship of God, their faces to the ground.
Acts 8:4-8The Message (MSG)
3-8 And Saul just went wild, devastating the church, entering house after house after house, dragging men and women off to jail. Forced to leave home base, the followers of Jesus all became missionaries. Wherever they were scattered, they preached the Message about Jesus. Going down to a Samaritan city, Philip proclaimed the Message of the Messiah. When the people heard what he had to say and saw the miracles, the clear signs of God’s action, they hung on his every word. Many who could neither stand nor walk were healed that day. The evil spirits protested loudly as they were sent on their way. And what joy in the city!
INSIGHT:
On one occasion, many of Jesus’s followers rejected His teaching because they found it “hard” and “no longer followed him” (John 6:60, 66). Jesus then challenged the Twelve and asked if they too would reject His teaching. Responding, Peter affirmed they still would follow, for “You have the words of eternal life” (v. 68).
Pay Close Attention
By Lawrence Darmani
All the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law. Nehemiah 8:3
As I sat in the auditorium, I faced the pastor with my eyes fixed on him. My posture suggested I was absorbing everything he was saying. Suddenly I heard everybody laughing and clapping. Surprised, I looked about. The preacher had apparently said something humorous, but I had no clue what it might have been. From all appearances I had been listening carefully, but in reality my mind was far away.
It’s possible to hear what is being said but not listen, to watch but not see, to be present and yet absent. In such a condition, we may miss important messages meant for us.
Nothing deserves more attention than words that help us discover the joy and wonder of God.
As Ezra read God’s instructions to the people of Judah, “All the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law” (Neh. 8:3). Their attention to the explanation produced understanding (v. 8), which resulted in their repentance and revival. In another situation in Samaria, Philip, after persecution of the believers broke out in Jerusalem (Acts 8:1), reached out to the Samaritan people. The crowd not only observed the miraculous signs he did, but they also “paid close attention to what he said” (v. 6). “So there was great joy in that city” (v. 8).
The mind can be like a wandering adventurer that misses a lot of excitement close by. Nothing deserves more attention than words that help us discover the joy and wonder of our Father in heaven.
Lord, our minds are so prone to distraction. Help us to be present in the moment, especially when listening to those who instruct us in Your ways.
The receiving of the Word consists in two parts: attention of the mind and intention of the will. William Ames
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, November 13, 2016
Faith or Experience?
…the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. —Galatians 2:20
We should battle through our moods, feelings, and emotions into absolute devotion to the Lord Jesus. We must break out of our own little world of experience into abandoned devotion to Him. Think who the New Testament says Jesus Christ is, and then think of the despicable meagerness of the miserable faith we exhibit by saying, “I haven’t had this experience or that experience”! Think what faith in Jesus Christ claims and provides— He can present us faultless before the throne of God, inexpressibly pure, absolutely righteous, and profoundly justified. Stand in absolute adoring faith “in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God— and righteousness and sanctification and redemption…” (1 Corinthians 1:30). How dare we talk of making a sacrifice for the Son of God! We are saved from hell and total destruction, and then we talk about making sacrifices!
We must continually focus and firmly place our faith in Jesus Christ— not a “prayer meeting” Jesus Christ, or a “book” Jesus Christ, but the New Testament Jesus Christ, who is God Incarnate, and who ought to strike us dead at His feet. Our faith must be in the One from whom our salvation springs. Jesus Christ wants our absolute, unrestrained devotion to Himself. We can never experience Jesus Christ, or selfishly bind Him in the confines of our own hearts. Our faith must be built on strong determined confidence in Him.
It is because of our trusting in experience that we see the steadfast impatience of the Holy Spirit against unbelief. All of our fears are sinful, and we create our own fears by refusing to nourish ourselves in our faith. How can anyone who is identified with Jesus Christ suffer from doubt or fear! Our lives should be an absolute hymn of praise resulting from perfect, irrepressible, triumphant belief.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
An intellectual conception of God may be found in a bad vicious character. The knowledge and vision of God is dependent entirely on a pure heart. Character determines the revelation of God to the individual. The pure in heart see God. Biblical Ethics, 125 R
Call it what you wish. A talent…a skill set…a gift. The terms are different, but the truth is the same. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:7, “The Spirit has given each of us a special way of serving others.”
You aren’t the only person with your skill. But you are the only person with your version of your skill. You entered the world uniquely equipped. Psalm 139:13-15 describes it as “knit together, woven together in the dark of the womb, intricately and curiously wrought.”
Each of us! Not some of us, a few of us, or the elite among us. Each of us has a beauty that longs to be revealed and released. It is you at your best! When you stand at the intersection of your skill and God’s call, you are standing at the corner of Promised Land Avenue and Glory Days Boulevard.
From Glory Days
Isaiah 61
Announce Freedom to All Captives
The Spirit of God, the Master, is on me
because God anointed me.
He sent me to preach good news to the poor,
heal the heartbroken,
Announce freedom to all captives,
pardon all prisoners.
God sent me to announce the year of his grace—
a celebration of God’s destruction of our enemies—
and to comfort all who mourn,
To care for the needs of all who mourn in Zion,
give them bouquets of roses instead of ashes,
Messages of joy instead of news of doom,
a praising heart instead of a languid spirit.
Rename them “Oaks of Righteousness”
planted by God to display his glory.
They’ll rebuild the old ruins,
raise a new city out of the wreckage.
They’ll start over on the ruined cities,
take the rubble left behind and make it new.
You’ll hire outsiders to herd your flocks
and foreigners to work your fields,
But you’ll have the title “Priests of God,”
honored as ministers of our God.
You’ll feast on the bounty of nations,
you’ll bask in their glory.
Because you got a double dose of trouble
and more than your share of contempt,
Your inheritance in the land will be doubled
and your joy go on forever.
8-9 “Because I, God, love fair dealing
and hate thievery and crime,
I’ll pay your wages on time and in full,
and establish my eternal covenant with you.
Your descendants will become well-known all over.
Your children in foreign countries
Will be recognized at once
as the people I have blessed.”
10-11 I will sing for joy in God,
explode in praise from deep in my soul!
He dressed me up in a suit of salvation,
he outfitted me in a robe of righteousness,
As a bridegroom who puts on a tuxedo
and a bride a jeweled tiara.
For as the earth bursts with spring wildflowers,
and as a garden cascades with blossoms,
So the Master, God, brings righteousness into full bloom
and puts praise on display before the nations.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, November 13, 2016
Read: Nehemiah 8:2–6; Acts 8:4–8
So Ezra the priest brought The Revelation to the congregation, which was made up of both men and women—everyone capable of understanding. It was the first day of the seventh month. He read it facing the town square at the Water Gate from early dawn until noon in the hearing of the men and women, all who could understand it. And all the people listened—they were all ears—to the Book of The Revelation.
4 The scholar Ezra stood on a wooden platform constructed for the occasion. He was flanked on the right by Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, and on the left by Pedaiah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam.
5-6 Ezra opened the book. Every eye was on him (he was standing on the raised platform) and as he opened the book everyone stood. Then Ezra praised God, the great God, and all the people responded, “Oh Yes! Yes!” with hands raised high. And then they fell to their knees in worship of God, their faces to the ground.
Acts 8:4-8The Message (MSG)
3-8 And Saul just went wild, devastating the church, entering house after house after house, dragging men and women off to jail. Forced to leave home base, the followers of Jesus all became missionaries. Wherever they were scattered, they preached the Message about Jesus. Going down to a Samaritan city, Philip proclaimed the Message of the Messiah. When the people heard what he had to say and saw the miracles, the clear signs of God’s action, they hung on his every word. Many who could neither stand nor walk were healed that day. The evil spirits protested loudly as they were sent on their way. And what joy in the city!
INSIGHT:
On one occasion, many of Jesus’s followers rejected His teaching because they found it “hard” and “no longer followed him” (John 6:60, 66). Jesus then challenged the Twelve and asked if they too would reject His teaching. Responding, Peter affirmed they still would follow, for “You have the words of eternal life” (v. 68).
Pay Close Attention
By Lawrence Darmani
All the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law. Nehemiah 8:3
As I sat in the auditorium, I faced the pastor with my eyes fixed on him. My posture suggested I was absorbing everything he was saying. Suddenly I heard everybody laughing and clapping. Surprised, I looked about. The preacher had apparently said something humorous, but I had no clue what it might have been. From all appearances I had been listening carefully, but in reality my mind was far away.
It’s possible to hear what is being said but not listen, to watch but not see, to be present and yet absent. In such a condition, we may miss important messages meant for us.
Nothing deserves more attention than words that help us discover the joy and wonder of God.
As Ezra read God’s instructions to the people of Judah, “All the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law” (Neh. 8:3). Their attention to the explanation produced understanding (v. 8), which resulted in their repentance and revival. In another situation in Samaria, Philip, after persecution of the believers broke out in Jerusalem (Acts 8:1), reached out to the Samaritan people. The crowd not only observed the miraculous signs he did, but they also “paid close attention to what he said” (v. 6). “So there was great joy in that city” (v. 8).
The mind can be like a wandering adventurer that misses a lot of excitement close by. Nothing deserves more attention than words that help us discover the joy and wonder of our Father in heaven.
Lord, our minds are so prone to distraction. Help us to be present in the moment, especially when listening to those who instruct us in Your ways.
The receiving of the Word consists in two parts: attention of the mind and intention of the will. William Ames
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, November 13, 2016
Faith or Experience?
…the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. —Galatians 2:20
We should battle through our moods, feelings, and emotions into absolute devotion to the Lord Jesus. We must break out of our own little world of experience into abandoned devotion to Him. Think who the New Testament says Jesus Christ is, and then think of the despicable meagerness of the miserable faith we exhibit by saying, “I haven’t had this experience or that experience”! Think what faith in Jesus Christ claims and provides— He can present us faultless before the throne of God, inexpressibly pure, absolutely righteous, and profoundly justified. Stand in absolute adoring faith “in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God— and righteousness and sanctification and redemption…” (1 Corinthians 1:30). How dare we talk of making a sacrifice for the Son of God! We are saved from hell and total destruction, and then we talk about making sacrifices!
We must continually focus and firmly place our faith in Jesus Christ— not a “prayer meeting” Jesus Christ, or a “book” Jesus Christ, but the New Testament Jesus Christ, who is God Incarnate, and who ought to strike us dead at His feet. Our faith must be in the One from whom our salvation springs. Jesus Christ wants our absolute, unrestrained devotion to Himself. We can never experience Jesus Christ, or selfishly bind Him in the confines of our own hearts. Our faith must be built on strong determined confidence in Him.
It is because of our trusting in experience that we see the steadfast impatience of the Holy Spirit against unbelief. All of our fears are sinful, and we create our own fears by refusing to nourish ourselves in our faith. How can anyone who is identified with Jesus Christ suffer from doubt or fear! Our lives should be an absolute hymn of praise resulting from perfect, irrepressible, triumphant belief.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
An intellectual conception of God may be found in a bad vicious character. The knowledge and vision of God is dependent entirely on a pure heart. Character determines the revelation of God to the individual. The pure in heart see God. Biblical Ethics, 125 R
Saturday, November 12, 2016
Isaiah 60, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Spill Your Heart Before God
As a member of God's family, come to Him- not as a stranger, but as an heir. Earnestly make your requests known to him; not because of what you have achieved, but because of what Christ has done! Jesus spilled his blood for you. You can spill your heart before God.
Jesus said if you have faith, you can tell a mountain to go and jump into the sea (Mark 11:23). What is your mountain? What is the challenge of your life? Call out to God for help! Will he do what you want? I cannot say, but this I can say, "He will do what is best." That includes any force that is seeking to drive you out of the Promised Land. "Ask and it will be given to you," Jesus said in Matthew 7:7. It is a battle, but you do not fight in vain. Call on God for great things!
From Glory Days
Isaiah 60
People Returning for the Reunion
“Get out of bed, Jerusalem!
Wake up. Put your face in the sunlight.
God’s bright glory has risen for you.
The whole earth is wrapped in darkness,
all people sunk in deep darkness,
But God rises on you,
his sunrise glory breaks over you.
Nations will come to your light,
kings to your sunburst brightness.
Look up! Look around!
Watch as they gather, watch as they approach you:
Your sons coming from great distances,
your daughters carried by their nannies.
When you see them coming you’ll smile—big smiles!
Your heart will swell and, yes, burst!
All those people returning by sea for the reunion,
a rich harvest of exiles gathered in from the nations!
And then streams of camel caravans as far as the eye can see,
young camels of nomads in Midian and Ephah,
Pouring in from the south from Sheba,
loaded with gold and frankincense,
preaching the praises of God.
And yes, a great roundup
of flocks from the nomads in Kedar and Nebaioth,
Welcome gifts for worship at my altar
as I bathe my glorious Temple in splendor.
What’s That We See in the Distance?
8-22 “What’s that we see in the distance,
a cloud on the horizon, like doves darkening the sky?
It’s ships from the distant islands,
the famous Tarshish ships
Returning your children from faraway places,
loaded with riches, with silver and gold,
And backed by the name of your God, The Holy of Israel,
showering you with splendor.
Foreigners will rebuild your walls,
and their kings assist you in the conduct of worship.
When I was angry I hit you hard.
It’s my desire now to be tender.
Your Jerusalem gates will always be open
—open house day and night!—
Receiving deliveries of wealth from all nations,
and their kings, the delivery boys!
Any nation or kingdom that doesn’t deliver will perish;
those nations will be totally wasted.
The rich woods of Lebanon will be delivered
—all that cypress and oak and pine—
To give a splendid elegance to my Sanctuary,
as I make my footstool glorious.
The descendants of your oppressor
will come bowing and scraping to you.
All who looked down at you in contempt
will lick your boots.
They’ll confer a title on you: City of God,
Zion of The Holy of Israel.
Not long ago you were despised refuse—
out-of-the-way, unvisited, ignored.
But now I’ve put you on your feet,
towering and grand forever, a joy to look at!
When you suck the milk of nations
and the breasts of royalty,
You’ll know that I, God, am your Savior,
your Redeemer, Champion of Jacob.
I’ll give you only the best—no more hand-me-downs!
Gold instead of bronze, silver instead of iron,
bronze instead of wood, iron instead of stones.
I’ll install Peace to run your country,
make Righteousness your boss.
There’ll be no more stories of crime in your land,
no more robberies, no more vandalism.
You’ll name your main street Salvation Way,
and install Praise Park at the center of town.
You’ll have no more need of the sun by day
nor the brightness of the moon at night.
God will be your eternal light,
your God will bathe you in splendor.
Your sun will never go down,
your moon will never fade.
I will be your eternal light.
Your days of grieving are over.
All your people will live right and well,
in permanent possession of the land.
They’re the green shoot that I planted,
planted with my own hands to display my glory.
The runt will become a great tribe,
the weakling become a strong nation.
I am God.
At the right time I’ll make it happen.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, November 12, 2016
Read: John 6:34–51
They jumped at that: “Master, give us this bread, now and forever!”
35-38 Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life. The person who aligns with me hungers no more and thirsts no more, ever. I have told you this explicitly because even though you have seen me in action, you don’t really believe me. Every person the Father gives me eventually comes running to me. And once that person is with me, I hold on and don’t let go. I came down from heaven not to follow my own whim but to accomplish the will of the One who sent me.
39-40 “This, in a nutshell, is that will: that everything handed over to me by the Father be completed—not a single detail missed—and at the wrap-up of time I have everything and everyone put together, upright and whole. This is what my Father wants: that anyone who sees the Son and trusts who he is and what he does and then aligns with him will enter real life, eternal life. My part is to put them on their feet alive and whole at the completion of time.”
41-42 At this, because he said, “I am the Bread that came down from heaven,” the Jews started arguing over him: “Isn’t this the son of Joseph? Don’t we know his father? Don’t we know his mother? How can he now say, ‘I came down out of heaven’ and expect anyone to believe him?”
43-46 Jesus said, “Don’t bicker among yourselves over me. You’re not in charge here. The Father who sent me is in charge. He draws people to me—that’s the only way you’ll ever come. Only then do I do my work, putting people together, setting them on their feet, ready for the End. This is what the prophets meant when they wrote, ‘And then they will all be personally taught by God.’ Anyone who has spent any time at all listening to the Father, really listening and therefore learning, comes to me to be taught personally—to see it with his own eyes, hear it with his own ears, from me, since I have it firsthand from the Father. No one has seen the Father except the One who has his Being alongside the Father—and you can see me.
47-51 “I’m telling you the most solemn and sober truth now: Whoever believes in me has real life, eternal life. I am the Bread of Life. Your ancestors ate the manna bread in the desert and died. But now here is Bread that truly comes down out of heaven. Anyone eating this Bread will not die, ever. I am the Bread—living Bread!—who came down out of heaven. Anyone who eats this Bread will live—and forever! The Bread that I present to the world so that it can eat and live is myself, this flesh-and-blood self.”
INSIGHT:
Many items in John’s gospel combine Jesus’s works and His words. For example, He feeds more than 5,000 people with bread in John 6 and declares Himself “the bread of life.” Here’s the world’s superlative show-and-tell—He does what He is. In the ancient world of Israel, probably the number one food item was bread. In effect, it served as the staple food. Jesus said, “Man shall not live on bread alone” (Matt. 4:4). However, if we don’t live on some bread (that is, food), we won’t have physical life for long. Just as “bread” is what supplies us with physical life, Jesus is the One who supplies us with spiritual life.
Bread!
By Keila Ochoa
I am the bread of life. John 6:48
I live in a small Mexican city where every morning and evening you can hear a distinctive cry: “Bread!” A man with a huge basket on his bike offers a great variety of fresh sweet and salty breads for sale. I used to live in a bigger city, where I had to go to the bakery to buy bread. So I enjoy having fresh bread brought to my door.
Moving from the thought of feeding physical hunger to spiritual hunger, I think of Jesus’s words: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever” (John 6:51).
Jesus is the Bread of Life. Let’s tell everybody the great news.
Someone has said that evangelism is really one beggar telling another beggar where he found bread. Many of us can say, “Once I was spiritually hungry, spiritually starving because of my sins. Then I heard the good news. Someone told me where to find bread: in Jesus. And my life changed!”
Now we have the privilege and the responsibility of pointing others to this Bread of Life. We can share Jesus in our neighborhood, in our workplace, in our school, in our places of recreation. We can talk about Jesus in the waiting room, on the bus, or on the train. We can take the good news to others through doors of friendship.
Jesus is the Bread of Life. Let’s tell everybody the great news.
Lord Jesus, I want to be Your witness everywhere I go.
Share the Bread of Life wherever you are.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, November 12, 2016
The Changed Life
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. —2 Corinthians 5:17
What understanding do you have of the salvation of your soul? The work of salvation means that in your real life things are dramatically changed. You no longer look at things in the same way. Your desires are new and the old things have lost their power to attract you. One of the tests for determining if the work of salvation in your life is genuine is— has God changed the things that really matter to you? If you still yearn for the old things, it is absurd to talk about being born from above— you are deceiving yourself. If you are born again, the Spirit of God makes the change very evident in your real life and thought. And when a crisis comes, you are the most amazed person on earth at the wonderful difference there is in you. There is no possibility of imagining that you did it. It is this complete and amazing change that is the very evidence that you are saved.
What difference has my salvation and sanctification made? For instance, can I stand in the light of 1 Corinthians 13 , or do I squirm and evade the issue? True salvation, worked out in me by the Holy Spirit, frees me completely. And as long as I “walk in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:7), God sees nothing to rebuke because His life is working itself into every detailed part of my being, not on the conscious level, but even deeper than my consciousness.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is in the middle that human choices are made; the beginning and the end remain with God. The decrees of God are birth and death, and in between those limits man makes his own distress or joy. Shade of His Hand, 1223 L
As a member of God's family, come to Him- not as a stranger, but as an heir. Earnestly make your requests known to him; not because of what you have achieved, but because of what Christ has done! Jesus spilled his blood for you. You can spill your heart before God.
Jesus said if you have faith, you can tell a mountain to go and jump into the sea (Mark 11:23). What is your mountain? What is the challenge of your life? Call out to God for help! Will he do what you want? I cannot say, but this I can say, "He will do what is best." That includes any force that is seeking to drive you out of the Promised Land. "Ask and it will be given to you," Jesus said in Matthew 7:7. It is a battle, but you do not fight in vain. Call on God for great things!
From Glory Days
Isaiah 60
People Returning for the Reunion
“Get out of bed, Jerusalem!
Wake up. Put your face in the sunlight.
God’s bright glory has risen for you.
The whole earth is wrapped in darkness,
all people sunk in deep darkness,
But God rises on you,
his sunrise glory breaks over you.
Nations will come to your light,
kings to your sunburst brightness.
Look up! Look around!
Watch as they gather, watch as they approach you:
Your sons coming from great distances,
your daughters carried by their nannies.
When you see them coming you’ll smile—big smiles!
Your heart will swell and, yes, burst!
All those people returning by sea for the reunion,
a rich harvest of exiles gathered in from the nations!
And then streams of camel caravans as far as the eye can see,
young camels of nomads in Midian and Ephah,
Pouring in from the south from Sheba,
loaded with gold and frankincense,
preaching the praises of God.
And yes, a great roundup
of flocks from the nomads in Kedar and Nebaioth,
Welcome gifts for worship at my altar
as I bathe my glorious Temple in splendor.
What’s That We See in the Distance?
8-22 “What’s that we see in the distance,
a cloud on the horizon, like doves darkening the sky?
It’s ships from the distant islands,
the famous Tarshish ships
Returning your children from faraway places,
loaded with riches, with silver and gold,
And backed by the name of your God, The Holy of Israel,
showering you with splendor.
Foreigners will rebuild your walls,
and their kings assist you in the conduct of worship.
When I was angry I hit you hard.
It’s my desire now to be tender.
Your Jerusalem gates will always be open
—open house day and night!—
Receiving deliveries of wealth from all nations,
and their kings, the delivery boys!
Any nation or kingdom that doesn’t deliver will perish;
those nations will be totally wasted.
The rich woods of Lebanon will be delivered
—all that cypress and oak and pine—
To give a splendid elegance to my Sanctuary,
as I make my footstool glorious.
The descendants of your oppressor
will come bowing and scraping to you.
All who looked down at you in contempt
will lick your boots.
They’ll confer a title on you: City of God,
Zion of The Holy of Israel.
Not long ago you were despised refuse—
out-of-the-way, unvisited, ignored.
But now I’ve put you on your feet,
towering and grand forever, a joy to look at!
When you suck the milk of nations
and the breasts of royalty,
You’ll know that I, God, am your Savior,
your Redeemer, Champion of Jacob.
I’ll give you only the best—no more hand-me-downs!
Gold instead of bronze, silver instead of iron,
bronze instead of wood, iron instead of stones.
I’ll install Peace to run your country,
make Righteousness your boss.
There’ll be no more stories of crime in your land,
no more robberies, no more vandalism.
You’ll name your main street Salvation Way,
and install Praise Park at the center of town.
You’ll have no more need of the sun by day
nor the brightness of the moon at night.
God will be your eternal light,
your God will bathe you in splendor.
Your sun will never go down,
your moon will never fade.
I will be your eternal light.
Your days of grieving are over.
All your people will live right and well,
in permanent possession of the land.
They’re the green shoot that I planted,
planted with my own hands to display my glory.
The runt will become a great tribe,
the weakling become a strong nation.
I am God.
At the right time I’ll make it happen.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, November 12, 2016
Read: John 6:34–51
They jumped at that: “Master, give us this bread, now and forever!”
35-38 Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life. The person who aligns with me hungers no more and thirsts no more, ever. I have told you this explicitly because even though you have seen me in action, you don’t really believe me. Every person the Father gives me eventually comes running to me. And once that person is with me, I hold on and don’t let go. I came down from heaven not to follow my own whim but to accomplish the will of the One who sent me.
39-40 “This, in a nutshell, is that will: that everything handed over to me by the Father be completed—not a single detail missed—and at the wrap-up of time I have everything and everyone put together, upright and whole. This is what my Father wants: that anyone who sees the Son and trusts who he is and what he does and then aligns with him will enter real life, eternal life. My part is to put them on their feet alive and whole at the completion of time.”
41-42 At this, because he said, “I am the Bread that came down from heaven,” the Jews started arguing over him: “Isn’t this the son of Joseph? Don’t we know his father? Don’t we know his mother? How can he now say, ‘I came down out of heaven’ and expect anyone to believe him?”
43-46 Jesus said, “Don’t bicker among yourselves over me. You’re not in charge here. The Father who sent me is in charge. He draws people to me—that’s the only way you’ll ever come. Only then do I do my work, putting people together, setting them on their feet, ready for the End. This is what the prophets meant when they wrote, ‘And then they will all be personally taught by God.’ Anyone who has spent any time at all listening to the Father, really listening and therefore learning, comes to me to be taught personally—to see it with his own eyes, hear it with his own ears, from me, since I have it firsthand from the Father. No one has seen the Father except the One who has his Being alongside the Father—and you can see me.
47-51 “I’m telling you the most solemn and sober truth now: Whoever believes in me has real life, eternal life. I am the Bread of Life. Your ancestors ate the manna bread in the desert and died. But now here is Bread that truly comes down out of heaven. Anyone eating this Bread will not die, ever. I am the Bread—living Bread!—who came down out of heaven. Anyone who eats this Bread will live—and forever! The Bread that I present to the world so that it can eat and live is myself, this flesh-and-blood self.”
INSIGHT:
Many items in John’s gospel combine Jesus’s works and His words. For example, He feeds more than 5,000 people with bread in John 6 and declares Himself “the bread of life.” Here’s the world’s superlative show-and-tell—He does what He is. In the ancient world of Israel, probably the number one food item was bread. In effect, it served as the staple food. Jesus said, “Man shall not live on bread alone” (Matt. 4:4). However, if we don’t live on some bread (that is, food), we won’t have physical life for long. Just as “bread” is what supplies us with physical life, Jesus is the One who supplies us with spiritual life.
Bread!
By Keila Ochoa
I am the bread of life. John 6:48
I live in a small Mexican city where every morning and evening you can hear a distinctive cry: “Bread!” A man with a huge basket on his bike offers a great variety of fresh sweet and salty breads for sale. I used to live in a bigger city, where I had to go to the bakery to buy bread. So I enjoy having fresh bread brought to my door.
Moving from the thought of feeding physical hunger to spiritual hunger, I think of Jesus’s words: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever” (John 6:51).
Jesus is the Bread of Life. Let’s tell everybody the great news.
Someone has said that evangelism is really one beggar telling another beggar where he found bread. Many of us can say, “Once I was spiritually hungry, spiritually starving because of my sins. Then I heard the good news. Someone told me where to find bread: in Jesus. And my life changed!”
Now we have the privilege and the responsibility of pointing others to this Bread of Life. We can share Jesus in our neighborhood, in our workplace, in our school, in our places of recreation. We can talk about Jesus in the waiting room, on the bus, or on the train. We can take the good news to others through doors of friendship.
Jesus is the Bread of Life. Let’s tell everybody the great news.
Lord Jesus, I want to be Your witness everywhere I go.
Share the Bread of Life wherever you are.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, November 12, 2016
The Changed Life
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. —2 Corinthians 5:17
What understanding do you have of the salvation of your soul? The work of salvation means that in your real life things are dramatically changed. You no longer look at things in the same way. Your desires are new and the old things have lost their power to attract you. One of the tests for determining if the work of salvation in your life is genuine is— has God changed the things that really matter to you? If you still yearn for the old things, it is absurd to talk about being born from above— you are deceiving yourself. If you are born again, the Spirit of God makes the change very evident in your real life and thought. And when a crisis comes, you are the most amazed person on earth at the wonderful difference there is in you. There is no possibility of imagining that you did it. It is this complete and amazing change that is the very evidence that you are saved.
What difference has my salvation and sanctification made? For instance, can I stand in the light of 1 Corinthians 13 , or do I squirm and evade the issue? True salvation, worked out in me by the Holy Spirit, frees me completely. And as long as I “walk in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:7), God sees nothing to rebuke because His life is working itself into every detailed part of my being, not on the conscious level, but even deeper than my consciousness.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is in the middle that human choices are made; the beginning and the end remain with God. The decrees of God are birth and death, and in between those limits man makes his own distress or joy. Shade of His Hand, 1223 L
Friday, November 11, 2016
Isaiah 59 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: WHEN THE DEVIL DRAWS NEAR
When the Devil draws near, stand against him. Give him no quarter. Don’t stand for his accusations. When he dredges up your past mistakes, tell him whose you are. He has no recourse to this truth. He knows who you are. He just hopes that you don’t—or that you’ll forget. So prove to him that you know. Tell him:
“I have been bought with a price. I belong to God” (1 Corinthians 6:20).
“I cannot be separated from the love of God” (Romans 8:35).
“I can find grace and mercy at the time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).
God’s people think like this. They walk with a reverent swagger. They live out of their inheritance. They show the Devil the new name on their spiritual passport. The secret of survival when the Devil draws near? Remember what God has done. And remember whose you are!
From God is With You Every Day
Isaiah 59
We Long for Light but Sink into Darkness
Look! Listen!
God’s arm is not amputated—he can still save.
God’s ears are not stopped up—he can still hear.
There’s nothing wrong with God; the wrong is in you.
Your wrongheaded lives caused the split between you and God.
Your sins got between you so that he doesn’t hear.
Your hands are drenched in blood,
your fingers dripping with guilt,
Your lips smeared with lies,
your tongue swollen from muttering obscenities.
No one speaks up for the right,
no one deals fairly.
They trust in illusion, they tell lies,
they get pregnant with mischief and have sin-babies.
They hatch snake eggs and weave spider webs.
Eat an egg and die; break an egg and get a snake!
The spider webs are no good for shirts or shawls.
No one can wear these weavings!
They weave wickedness,
they hatch violence.
They compete in the race to do evil
and run to be the first to murder.
They plan and plot evil, think and breathe evil,
and leave a trail of wrecked lives behind them.
They know nothing about peace
and less than nothing about justice.
They make tortuously twisted roads.
No peace for the wretch who walks down those roads!
9-11 Which means that we’re a far cry from fair dealing,
and we’re not even close to right living.
We long for light but sink into darkness,
long for brightness but stumble through the night.
Like the blind, we inch along a wall,
groping eyeless in the dark.
We shuffle our way in broad daylight,
like the dead, but somehow walking.
We’re no better off than bears, groaning,
and no worse off than doves, moaning.
We look for justice—not a sign of it;
for salvation—not so much as a hint.
12-15 Our wrongdoings pile up before you, God,
our sins stand up and accuse us.
Our wrongdoings stare us down;
we know in detail what we’ve done:
Mocking and denying God,
not following our God,
Spreading false rumors, inciting sedition,
pregnant with lies, muttering malice.
Justice is beaten back,
Righteousness is banished to the sidelines,
Truth staggers down the street,
Honesty is nowhere to be found,
Good is missing in action.
Anyone renouncing evil is beaten and robbed.
15-19 God looked and saw evil looming on the horizon—
so much evil and no sign of Justice.
He couldn’t believe what he saw:
not a soul around to correct this awful situation.
So he did it himself, took on the work of Salvation,
fueled by his own Righteousness.
He dressed in Righteousness, put it on like a suit of armor,
with Salvation on his head like a helmet,
Put on Judgment like an overcoat,
and threw a cloak of Passion across his shoulders.
He’ll make everyone pay for what they’ve done:
fury for his foes, just deserts for his enemies.
Even the far-off islands will get paid off in full.
In the west they’ll fear the name of God,
in the east they’ll fear the glory of God,
For he’ll arrive like a river in flood stage,
whipped to a torrent by the wind of God.
20 “I’ll arrive in Zion as Redeemer,
to those in Jacob who leave their sins.”
God’s Decree.
21 “As for me,” God says, “this is my covenant with them: My Spirit that I’ve placed upon you and the words that I’ve given you to speak, they’re not going to leave your mouths nor the mouths of your children nor the mouths of your grandchildren. You will keep repeating these words and won’t ever stop.” God’s orders.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, November 11, 2016
Read: John 15:12–17
“I’ve told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I’m no longer calling you servants because servants don’t understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I’ve named you friends because I’ve let you in on everything I’ve heard from the Father.
16 “You didn’t choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won’t spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you.
17 “But remember the root command: Love one another.
INSIGHT:
Jesus spoke of “a new commandment” to love one another (John 13:34). The command to love is not entirely new (1 John 2:7), for God commanded every Jew to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18; Matt. 5:43; 22:39). What is new is that Jesus raised the bar to the highest standard of loving: “As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34). He used the words servants and friends to contrast the new level of love and intimacy we now have with Him. The one who loved you as He loved Himself is a true friend, one who will humbly and lovingly serve you (13:1–17), and one who sacrificially loved you, even laying down His life for you (15:13).
Seeing Well
By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
You are my friends if you do what I command. John 15:14
Raleigh looks like a powerful dog—he is large and muscular and has a thick coat of fur. And he weighs over 100 pounds! Despite his appearance, Raleigh connects well with people. His owner takes him to nursing homes and hospitals to bring people a smile.
Once, a four-year-old girl spotted Raleigh across a room. She wanted to pet him, but was afraid to get close. Eventually, her curiosity overcame her sense of caution and she spent several minutes talking to him and petting him. She discovered that he is a gentle creature, even though he is powerful.
You are my friends if you do what I command. John 15:14
The combination of these qualities reminds me of what we read about Jesus in the New Testament. Jesus was approachable—He welcomed little children (Matt. 19:13–15). He was kind to an adulterous woman in a desperate situation (John 8:1–11). Compassion motivated Him to teach crowds (Mark 6:34). At the same time, Jesus’s power was astounding. Heads turned and jaws dropped as He subdued demons, calmed violent storms, and resurrected dead people! (Mark 1:21–34; 4:35–41; John 11).
The way we see Jesus determines how we relate to Him. If we focus only on His power, we may treat Him with the detached worship we’d give a comic book superhero. Yet, if we overemphasize His kindness, we risk treating Him too casually. The truth is that Jesus is both at once—great enough to deserve our obedience yet humble enough to call us friends.
Jesus, thank You for the privilege of knowing You. I acknowledge Your gentle power. I worship You as the Son of God—full of grace and glory.
What we think of Jesus shows in how we relate with Him.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, November 11, 2016
The Supreme Climb
He said, "Take now your son…" —Genesis 22:2
God’s command is, “Take now,” not later. It is incredible how we debate! We know something is right, but we try to find excuses for not doing it immediately. If we are to climb to the height God reveals, it can never be done later— it must be done now. And the sacrifice must be worked through our will before we actually perform it.
“So Abraham rose early in the morning…and went to the place of which God had told him” (Genesis 22:3). Oh, the wonderful simplicity of Abraham! When God spoke, he did not “confer with flesh and blood” (Galatians 1:16). Beware when you want to “confer with flesh and blood” or even your own thoughts, insights, or understandings— anything that is not based on your personal relationship with God. These are all things that compete with and hinder obedience to God.
Abraham did not choose what the sacrifice would be. Always guard against self-chosen service for God. Self-sacrifice may be a disease that impairs your service. If God has made your cup sweet, drink it with grace; or even if He has made it bitter, drink it in communion with Him. If the providential will of God means a hard and difficult time for you, go through it. But never decide the place of your own martyrdom, as if to say, “I will only go to there, but no farther.” God chose the test for Abraham, and Abraham neither delayed nor protested, but steadily obeyed. If you are not living in touch with God, it is easy to blame Him or pass judgment on Him. You must go through the trial before you have any right to pronounce a verdict, because by going through the trial you learn to know God better. God is working in us to reach His highest goals until His purpose and our purpose become one.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Beware of pronouncing any verdict on the life of faith if you are not living it. Not Knowing Whither, 900 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, November 11, 2016
Flying Through The Dead Zone - #7785
Missionary pilots are some of my personal heroes-especially since the incredible job they did moving our Native American team across Alaska some years ago. Often there really wasn't much of a runway to land on or good weather to fly in, but they always got us there safely. On one flight, I was in the co-pilot seat (yeah, of all things) in a little six-seater aircraft, and our pilot, Gary, was flying us to a Yukon River village through some low visibility, low ceilings-just generally lousy weather. And as we neared our destination, he said, "I hate this part. We're in the dead zone." "Dead zone" isn't exactly what I want to hear from a pilot when I'm flying with him, so I asked Gary what he meant by that. He described that part of a flight where you cannot communicate with the tower or with any other aircraft. You're kind of all alone. It doesn't last long, he explained, but if you're in trouble or you're going down, nobody knows. It's a lonely stretch. Well, after a couple more minutes, Gary broke into a big smile and he said, "Good. We're back." I smiled, too.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Flying Through the Dead Zone."
Now you may never fly an airplane, but you probably know about navigating life's dead zones-those times when it seems as if heaven is silent, answers just aren't coming, no one seems to understand, and your feelings are either blah or they're all over the map. It's a lonely stretch. Maybe it's what you're flying through right now in your life journey.
The 23rd Psalm is spiritual "chicken soup" for life's dead zones. David reminds us that "the Lord is my Shepherd", even when I can't see Him or feel Him, you're being protected, provided for, guided, even when your feelings are flat and God's invisible. Then comes that bottom line assurance that is all the difference when you feel out of touch with the tower and with all the other pilots around you.
Our word for today from the Word of God-Psalm 23:4. I go back to this often. "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." Now you may not be facing physical death right now, but it could be a season of dark shadows, a deadness inside, confusion, uncertainty about what's going on. Well, your hope and your stability is to look up to your Lord as the Psalmist did and said, "I will fear no evil, for You are with me."
My wife told me about her long walk to the school bus as a little girl. For most of it, she was in sight of her house and her grandparents' house or her neighbor's house. But the last stretch was a path through a dark woods, and that stretch she had to walk all alone. Maybe like the stretch you're on right now-a stretch no one can walk with you except one Person. Little Karen would face her fears by singing a song as she passed through her "dead zone". She sang, "Jesus loves me, this I know...Yes, Jesus loves me."
When a pilot gets in trouble during a dead zone time, nobody knows. But if you belong to Jesus, there is no such time, no matter how alone you may feel. Jesus always knows. Jesus always cares. Jesus always leads you through. Your feelings may be lying to you, so keep your eyes on the instruments. Believe God's Word right now! Plant both your feet on His promises. Don't trust anything else. Hang onto those time-tested promises of God's Word like a drowning person hanging onto a life preserver. They are still true, and you need them now more than ever.
If a dead zone is a time when no one knows and no one understands, well if you belong to Jesus, you will never really fly through a dead zone. The feelings may not be there, the people you love may not be able to be there, the visible answers to prayer may not be there. But Jesus is there! Hang on tighter than ever. You never know Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you've got.
When the Devil draws near, stand against him. Give him no quarter. Don’t stand for his accusations. When he dredges up your past mistakes, tell him whose you are. He has no recourse to this truth. He knows who you are. He just hopes that you don’t—or that you’ll forget. So prove to him that you know. Tell him:
“I have been bought with a price. I belong to God” (1 Corinthians 6:20).
“I cannot be separated from the love of God” (Romans 8:35).
“I can find grace and mercy at the time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).
God’s people think like this. They walk with a reverent swagger. They live out of their inheritance. They show the Devil the new name on their spiritual passport. The secret of survival when the Devil draws near? Remember what God has done. And remember whose you are!
From God is With You Every Day
Isaiah 59
We Long for Light but Sink into Darkness
Look! Listen!
God’s arm is not amputated—he can still save.
God’s ears are not stopped up—he can still hear.
There’s nothing wrong with God; the wrong is in you.
Your wrongheaded lives caused the split between you and God.
Your sins got between you so that he doesn’t hear.
Your hands are drenched in blood,
your fingers dripping with guilt,
Your lips smeared with lies,
your tongue swollen from muttering obscenities.
No one speaks up for the right,
no one deals fairly.
They trust in illusion, they tell lies,
they get pregnant with mischief and have sin-babies.
They hatch snake eggs and weave spider webs.
Eat an egg and die; break an egg and get a snake!
The spider webs are no good for shirts or shawls.
No one can wear these weavings!
They weave wickedness,
they hatch violence.
They compete in the race to do evil
and run to be the first to murder.
They plan and plot evil, think and breathe evil,
and leave a trail of wrecked lives behind them.
They know nothing about peace
and less than nothing about justice.
They make tortuously twisted roads.
No peace for the wretch who walks down those roads!
9-11 Which means that we’re a far cry from fair dealing,
and we’re not even close to right living.
We long for light but sink into darkness,
long for brightness but stumble through the night.
Like the blind, we inch along a wall,
groping eyeless in the dark.
We shuffle our way in broad daylight,
like the dead, but somehow walking.
We’re no better off than bears, groaning,
and no worse off than doves, moaning.
We look for justice—not a sign of it;
for salvation—not so much as a hint.
12-15 Our wrongdoings pile up before you, God,
our sins stand up and accuse us.
Our wrongdoings stare us down;
we know in detail what we’ve done:
Mocking and denying God,
not following our God,
Spreading false rumors, inciting sedition,
pregnant with lies, muttering malice.
Justice is beaten back,
Righteousness is banished to the sidelines,
Truth staggers down the street,
Honesty is nowhere to be found,
Good is missing in action.
Anyone renouncing evil is beaten and robbed.
15-19 God looked and saw evil looming on the horizon—
so much evil and no sign of Justice.
He couldn’t believe what he saw:
not a soul around to correct this awful situation.
So he did it himself, took on the work of Salvation,
fueled by his own Righteousness.
He dressed in Righteousness, put it on like a suit of armor,
with Salvation on his head like a helmet,
Put on Judgment like an overcoat,
and threw a cloak of Passion across his shoulders.
He’ll make everyone pay for what they’ve done:
fury for his foes, just deserts for his enemies.
Even the far-off islands will get paid off in full.
In the west they’ll fear the name of God,
in the east they’ll fear the glory of God,
For he’ll arrive like a river in flood stage,
whipped to a torrent by the wind of God.
20 “I’ll arrive in Zion as Redeemer,
to those in Jacob who leave their sins.”
God’s Decree.
21 “As for me,” God says, “this is my covenant with them: My Spirit that I’ve placed upon you and the words that I’ve given you to speak, they’re not going to leave your mouths nor the mouths of your children nor the mouths of your grandchildren. You will keep repeating these words and won’t ever stop.” God’s orders.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, November 11, 2016
Read: John 15:12–17
“I’ve told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I’m no longer calling you servants because servants don’t understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I’ve named you friends because I’ve let you in on everything I’ve heard from the Father.
16 “You didn’t choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won’t spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you.
17 “But remember the root command: Love one another.
INSIGHT:
Jesus spoke of “a new commandment” to love one another (John 13:34). The command to love is not entirely new (1 John 2:7), for God commanded every Jew to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18; Matt. 5:43; 22:39). What is new is that Jesus raised the bar to the highest standard of loving: “As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34). He used the words servants and friends to contrast the new level of love and intimacy we now have with Him. The one who loved you as He loved Himself is a true friend, one who will humbly and lovingly serve you (13:1–17), and one who sacrificially loved you, even laying down His life for you (15:13).
Seeing Well
By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
You are my friends if you do what I command. John 15:14
Raleigh looks like a powerful dog—he is large and muscular and has a thick coat of fur. And he weighs over 100 pounds! Despite his appearance, Raleigh connects well with people. His owner takes him to nursing homes and hospitals to bring people a smile.
Once, a four-year-old girl spotted Raleigh across a room. She wanted to pet him, but was afraid to get close. Eventually, her curiosity overcame her sense of caution and she spent several minutes talking to him and petting him. She discovered that he is a gentle creature, even though he is powerful.
You are my friends if you do what I command. John 15:14
The combination of these qualities reminds me of what we read about Jesus in the New Testament. Jesus was approachable—He welcomed little children (Matt. 19:13–15). He was kind to an adulterous woman in a desperate situation (John 8:1–11). Compassion motivated Him to teach crowds (Mark 6:34). At the same time, Jesus’s power was astounding. Heads turned and jaws dropped as He subdued demons, calmed violent storms, and resurrected dead people! (Mark 1:21–34; 4:35–41; John 11).
The way we see Jesus determines how we relate to Him. If we focus only on His power, we may treat Him with the detached worship we’d give a comic book superhero. Yet, if we overemphasize His kindness, we risk treating Him too casually. The truth is that Jesus is both at once—great enough to deserve our obedience yet humble enough to call us friends.
Jesus, thank You for the privilege of knowing You. I acknowledge Your gentle power. I worship You as the Son of God—full of grace and glory.
What we think of Jesus shows in how we relate with Him.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, November 11, 2016
The Supreme Climb
He said, "Take now your son…" —Genesis 22:2
God’s command is, “Take now,” not later. It is incredible how we debate! We know something is right, but we try to find excuses for not doing it immediately. If we are to climb to the height God reveals, it can never be done later— it must be done now. And the sacrifice must be worked through our will before we actually perform it.
“So Abraham rose early in the morning…and went to the place of which God had told him” (Genesis 22:3). Oh, the wonderful simplicity of Abraham! When God spoke, he did not “confer with flesh and blood” (Galatians 1:16). Beware when you want to “confer with flesh and blood” or even your own thoughts, insights, or understandings— anything that is not based on your personal relationship with God. These are all things that compete with and hinder obedience to God.
Abraham did not choose what the sacrifice would be. Always guard against self-chosen service for God. Self-sacrifice may be a disease that impairs your service. If God has made your cup sweet, drink it with grace; or even if He has made it bitter, drink it in communion with Him. If the providential will of God means a hard and difficult time for you, go through it. But never decide the place of your own martyrdom, as if to say, “I will only go to there, but no farther.” God chose the test for Abraham, and Abraham neither delayed nor protested, but steadily obeyed. If you are not living in touch with God, it is easy to blame Him or pass judgment on Him. You must go through the trial before you have any right to pronounce a verdict, because by going through the trial you learn to know God better. God is working in us to reach His highest goals until His purpose and our purpose become one.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Beware of pronouncing any verdict on the life of faith if you are not living it. Not Knowing Whither, 900 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, November 11, 2016
Flying Through The Dead Zone - #7785
Missionary pilots are some of my personal heroes-especially since the incredible job they did moving our Native American team across Alaska some years ago. Often there really wasn't much of a runway to land on or good weather to fly in, but they always got us there safely. On one flight, I was in the co-pilot seat (yeah, of all things) in a little six-seater aircraft, and our pilot, Gary, was flying us to a Yukon River village through some low visibility, low ceilings-just generally lousy weather. And as we neared our destination, he said, "I hate this part. We're in the dead zone." "Dead zone" isn't exactly what I want to hear from a pilot when I'm flying with him, so I asked Gary what he meant by that. He described that part of a flight where you cannot communicate with the tower or with any other aircraft. You're kind of all alone. It doesn't last long, he explained, but if you're in trouble or you're going down, nobody knows. It's a lonely stretch. Well, after a couple more minutes, Gary broke into a big smile and he said, "Good. We're back." I smiled, too.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Flying Through the Dead Zone."
Now you may never fly an airplane, but you probably know about navigating life's dead zones-those times when it seems as if heaven is silent, answers just aren't coming, no one seems to understand, and your feelings are either blah or they're all over the map. It's a lonely stretch. Maybe it's what you're flying through right now in your life journey.
The 23rd Psalm is spiritual "chicken soup" for life's dead zones. David reminds us that "the Lord is my Shepherd", even when I can't see Him or feel Him, you're being protected, provided for, guided, even when your feelings are flat and God's invisible. Then comes that bottom line assurance that is all the difference when you feel out of touch with the tower and with all the other pilots around you.
Our word for today from the Word of God-Psalm 23:4. I go back to this often. "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." Now you may not be facing physical death right now, but it could be a season of dark shadows, a deadness inside, confusion, uncertainty about what's going on. Well, your hope and your stability is to look up to your Lord as the Psalmist did and said, "I will fear no evil, for You are with me."
My wife told me about her long walk to the school bus as a little girl. For most of it, she was in sight of her house and her grandparents' house or her neighbor's house. But the last stretch was a path through a dark woods, and that stretch she had to walk all alone. Maybe like the stretch you're on right now-a stretch no one can walk with you except one Person. Little Karen would face her fears by singing a song as she passed through her "dead zone". She sang, "Jesus loves me, this I know...Yes, Jesus loves me."
When a pilot gets in trouble during a dead zone time, nobody knows. But if you belong to Jesus, there is no such time, no matter how alone you may feel. Jesus always knows. Jesus always cares. Jesus always leads you through. Your feelings may be lying to you, so keep your eyes on the instruments. Believe God's Word right now! Plant both your feet on His promises. Don't trust anything else. Hang onto those time-tested promises of God's Word like a drowning person hanging onto a life preserver. They are still true, and you need them now more than ever.
If a dead zone is a time when no one knows and no one understands, well if you belong to Jesus, you will never really fly through a dead zone. The feelings may not be there, the people you love may not be able to be there, the visible answers to prayer may not be there. But Jesus is there! Hang on tighter than ever. You never know Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you've got.
Thursday, November 10, 2016
Isaiah 58, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: IT’S NOT THE JOURNEY
This is God’s invitation to us. Set your hearts on your home! In God’s plan it’s all about the King and his kingdom. He wrote the script, built the sets, directs the actors, and knows the final act—an everlasting kingdom. Scripture says, “At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth” (Ephesians 1:10 NLT). Reach for it!
The journey home is nice, but the journey is not the destination. Those who are content with nothing more than joy in the journey are settling for too little satisfaction. There is more to this life than this life. The Bible tells us “God…has planted eternity in the human heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). In God’s narrative, life on earth is but the beginning. It’s the first letter of the first sentence in the first chapter of God’s great story that he is writing with your life.
From God is With You Every Day
Isaiah 58
Your Prayers Won’t Get Off the Ground
“Shout! A full-throated shout!
Hold nothing back—a trumpet-blast shout!
Tell my people what’s wrong with their lives,
face my family Jacob with their sins!
They’re busy, busy, busy at worship,
and love studying all about me.
To all appearances they’re a nation of right-living people—
law-abiding, God-honoring.
They ask me, ‘What’s the right thing to do?’
and love having me on their side.
But they also complain,
‘Why do we fast and you don’t look our way?
Why do we humble ourselves and you don’t even notice?’
3-5 “Well, here’s why:
“The bottom line on your ‘fast days’ is profit.
You drive your employees much too hard.
You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight.
You fast, but you swing a mean fist.
The kind of fasting you do
won’t get your prayers off the ground.
Do you think this is the kind of fast day I’m after:
a day to show off humility?
To put on a pious long face
and parade around solemnly in black?
Do you call that fasting,
a fast day that I, God, would like?
6-9 “This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
to break the chains of injustice,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed,
cancel debts.
What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’
A Full Life in the Emptiest of Places
9-12 “If you get rid of unfair practices,
quit blaming victims,
quit gossiping about other people’s sins,
If you are generous with the hungry
and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,
Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.
I will always show you where to go.
I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—
firm muscles, strong bones.
You’ll be like a well-watered garden,
a gurgling spring that never runs dry.
You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,
rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You’ll be known as those who can fix anything,
restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,
make the community livable again.
13-14 “If you watch your step on the Sabbath
and don’t use my holy day for personal advantage,
If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy,
God’s holy day as a celebration,
If you honor it by refusing ‘business as usual,’
making money, running here and there—
Then you’ll be free to enjoy God!
Oh, I’ll make you ride high and soar above it all.
I’ll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob.”
Yes! God says so!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, November 10, 2016
Read: Mark 1:16–22
Passing along the beach of Lake Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew net-fishing. Fishing was their regular work. Jesus said to them, “Come with me. I’ll make a new kind of fisherman out of you. I’ll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass.” They didn’t ask questions. They dropped their nets and followed.
19-20 A dozen yards or so down the beach, he saw the brothers James and John, Zebedee’s sons. They were in the boat, mending their fishnets. Right off, he made the same offer. Immediately, they left their father Zebedee, the boat, and the hired hands, and followed.
Confident Teaching
21-22 Then they entered Capernaum. When the Sabbath arrived, Jesus lost no time in getting to the meeting place. He spent the day there teaching. They were surprised at his teaching—so forthright, so confident—not quibbling and quoting like the religion scholars.
INSIGHT:
In ancient cultures, the family relationship was more than a heritage; it was an identity. The family business wasn’t simply a way to earn a living; it was a commitment to family. This cultural setting shows two surprising aspects to Jesus’s call of His disciples. First, the authority and absoluteness of Jesus’s call. He calls these men to accept an immediate, complete, and permanent change of life and an entirely new destiny. Jesus’s call to discipleship trumps even the closest relationships (see Mark 10:29–30). Second, the immediate and unquestioning response of the disciples. “At once” can also be translated “immediately.” These men left father and business to follow Jesus with no hesitation.
A New Purpose
By Bill Crowder
“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” Mark 1:17
Jacob Davis was a tailor with a problem. It was the height of the Gold Rush in the 1800s American West and the gold miners’ work pants kept wearing out. His solution? Davis went to a local dry goods company owned by Levi Strauss, purchased tent cloth, and made work pants from that heavy, sturdy material—and blue jeans were born. Today, denim jeans in a variety of forms (including Levi’s) are among the most popular clothing items in the world, and all because tent material was given a new purpose.
Simon and his friends were fishermen on the Sea of Galilee. Then Jesus arrived and called them to follow Him. He gave them a new purpose. No longer would they fish for fish. As Jesus told them, “Come, follow me, . . . and I will send you out to fish for people” (Mark 1:17).
“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” Mark 1:17
With this new purpose set for their lives, these men were taught and trained by Jesus so that, after His ascension, they could be used by God to capture the hearts of people with the message of the cross and resurrection of Christ. Today, we follow in their steps as we share the good news of Christ’s love and salvation.
May our lives both declare and exhibit this love that can change the lives, purposes, and eternal destinies of others.
Help me, Lord, to represent You well so that others might be drawn to Your love and salvation.
With our new life in Christ we have been given a new purpose.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, November 10, 2016
Fellowship in the Gospel
…fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ… —1 Thessalonians 3:2
After sanctification, it is difficult to state what your purpose in life is, because God has moved you into His purpose through the Holy Spirit. He is using you now for His purposes throughout the world as He used His Son for the purpose of our salvation. If you seek great things for yourself, thinking, “God has called me for this and for that,” you barricade God from using you. As long as you maintain your own personal interests and ambitions, you cannot be completely aligned or identified with God’s interests. This can only be accomplished by giving up all of your personal plans once and for all, and by allowing God to take you directly into His purpose for the world. Your understanding of your ways must also be surrendered, because they are now the ways of the Lord.
I must learn that the purpose of my life belongs to God, not me. God is using me from His great personal perspective, and all He asks of me is that I trust Him. I should never say, “Lord, this causes me such heartache.” To talk that way makes me a stumbling block. When I stop telling God what I want, He can freely work His will in me without any hindrance. He can crush me, exalt me, or do anything else He chooses. He simply asks me to have absolute faith in Him and His goodness. Self-pity is of the devil, and if I wallow in it I cannot be used by God for His purpose in the world. Doing this creates for me my own cozy “world within the world,” and God will not be allowed to move me from it because of my fear of being “frost-bitten.”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The truth is we have nothing to fear and nothing to overcome because He is all in all and we are more than conquerors through Him. The recognition of this truth is not flattering to the worker’s sense of heroics, but it is amazingly glorifying to the work of Christ. Approved Unto God, 4 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, November 10, 2016
Divinely Positioned - #7784
Some friends of ours struggled with a wide variety of health issues over several years. And a while back, a trusted friend told them about a juice taken from a rare fruit that seemed to have measurably improved their health, and the health of several people that they love. Well, our friends invested in that juice, and they liked the early results. I can just imagine what would have happened, though, if some telemarketer had called them cold and tried to sell this product to them. "Hey, I have some juice for you." Click. See, I know these people. They never would have bought it from some professional salesman. But, you know, it helped when someone like them, someone they knew and trusted was the one who told them about it. They wanted what she believed in. They wanted what was changing her.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Divinely Positioned."
You are divinely positioned. Yeah, because someone will believe you about Jesus that would never believe anyone else. You know, most of us are like my friends that I described. We're not going to buy from Mr. Slick Salesman. We'll buy from someone who's like us. Even when it comes to the most important choice we'll ever make in our life – our relationship with the God who made us; with the God we will stand before when we die.
Many of us have found at the cross of Jesus Christ the greatest love in the universe. And in His empty grave, we found the greatest power in the universe – the power of the only man who ever walked out of His grave under His own power. But every day we're with folks who've never experienced His love or His power and who will never experience His heaven if they don't meet Him for themselves. But whose responsibility is it to tell them?
Many of us would like to leave it to someone who can do it better – like my pastor or that evangelist. He's really good. He's better at this; got more training. The problem is that in our world today, those folks are perceived as professional God-salesmen, which most lost folks aren't interested in listening to. But then, God's strategy never has been to leave spiritual rescuing just to His professional lifeguards. He works through the everyday believers; His satisfied customers.
Take our word for today from the Word of God, for example, in John 4:39. Jesus wants to reach the Samaritans in a nearby village, but He's Jewish and they don't like Jews. He doesn't go into that village and have rallies there. He reaches one Samaritan woman and sends her back to her village to tell about Him. The Bible says, "Many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the woman's testimony." They listened to someone like them. So will the people around you.
Over the past twenty plus summers, I've been eyewitness to a modern miracle. In 400 years of missionary effort, only about 5% of Native Americans know Jesus Christ. And yet, I've seen thousands of Native young people give their lives to Christ, because our On Eagles' Wings teams – they're the ones telling about Jesus and their people just like them, young Native Americans who have lived the drinking, the drugs, the gang life, the violence, the despair and the suicide. But now they have found hope in the Creator's Son, Jesus Christ, and they're going to reservation after reservation introducing young people just like them to Jesus Christ. Some have said it's the greatest spiritual harvest in 400 years. Why? Because the messenger is someone like them! That's why there's been a breakthrough.
Do you see yourself in this life-saving picture? Who are the people around you going to listen to about Jesus Christ? Someone from their tribe, their vocation, their avocation, their occupation, their location, or their association. Someone who walks the same trail they do day after day and you're the person they know who's walking that trail with the hope of Jesus Christ and showing them in that world – their world – the Jesus-difference.
You don't have to go to their world. You are in their world! It is you they'll listen to. It is you God will hold accountable for their soul. Is there someone who could say it better? Maybe. Would they listen to that person? Probably not. They'll listen to you. Jesus is sending you to your people to tell them about Him. Humanly speaking, their eternity is in your hands, and you are their best chance.
This is God’s invitation to us. Set your hearts on your home! In God’s plan it’s all about the King and his kingdom. He wrote the script, built the sets, directs the actors, and knows the final act—an everlasting kingdom. Scripture says, “At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth” (Ephesians 1:10 NLT). Reach for it!
The journey home is nice, but the journey is not the destination. Those who are content with nothing more than joy in the journey are settling for too little satisfaction. There is more to this life than this life. The Bible tells us “God…has planted eternity in the human heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). In God’s narrative, life on earth is but the beginning. It’s the first letter of the first sentence in the first chapter of God’s great story that he is writing with your life.
From God is With You Every Day
Isaiah 58
Your Prayers Won’t Get Off the Ground
“Shout! A full-throated shout!
Hold nothing back—a trumpet-blast shout!
Tell my people what’s wrong with their lives,
face my family Jacob with their sins!
They’re busy, busy, busy at worship,
and love studying all about me.
To all appearances they’re a nation of right-living people—
law-abiding, God-honoring.
They ask me, ‘What’s the right thing to do?’
and love having me on their side.
But they also complain,
‘Why do we fast and you don’t look our way?
Why do we humble ourselves and you don’t even notice?’
3-5 “Well, here’s why:
“The bottom line on your ‘fast days’ is profit.
You drive your employees much too hard.
You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight.
You fast, but you swing a mean fist.
The kind of fasting you do
won’t get your prayers off the ground.
Do you think this is the kind of fast day I’m after:
a day to show off humility?
To put on a pious long face
and parade around solemnly in black?
Do you call that fasting,
a fast day that I, God, would like?
6-9 “This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
to break the chains of injustice,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed,
cancel debts.
What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’
A Full Life in the Emptiest of Places
9-12 “If you get rid of unfair practices,
quit blaming victims,
quit gossiping about other people’s sins,
If you are generous with the hungry
and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,
Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.
I will always show you where to go.
I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—
firm muscles, strong bones.
You’ll be like a well-watered garden,
a gurgling spring that never runs dry.
You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,
rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You’ll be known as those who can fix anything,
restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,
make the community livable again.
13-14 “If you watch your step on the Sabbath
and don’t use my holy day for personal advantage,
If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy,
God’s holy day as a celebration,
If you honor it by refusing ‘business as usual,’
making money, running here and there—
Then you’ll be free to enjoy God!
Oh, I’ll make you ride high and soar above it all.
I’ll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob.”
Yes! God says so!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, November 10, 2016
Read: Mark 1:16–22
Passing along the beach of Lake Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew net-fishing. Fishing was their regular work. Jesus said to them, “Come with me. I’ll make a new kind of fisherman out of you. I’ll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass.” They didn’t ask questions. They dropped their nets and followed.
19-20 A dozen yards or so down the beach, he saw the brothers James and John, Zebedee’s sons. They were in the boat, mending their fishnets. Right off, he made the same offer. Immediately, they left their father Zebedee, the boat, and the hired hands, and followed.
Confident Teaching
21-22 Then they entered Capernaum. When the Sabbath arrived, Jesus lost no time in getting to the meeting place. He spent the day there teaching. They were surprised at his teaching—so forthright, so confident—not quibbling and quoting like the religion scholars.
INSIGHT:
In ancient cultures, the family relationship was more than a heritage; it was an identity. The family business wasn’t simply a way to earn a living; it was a commitment to family. This cultural setting shows two surprising aspects to Jesus’s call of His disciples. First, the authority and absoluteness of Jesus’s call. He calls these men to accept an immediate, complete, and permanent change of life and an entirely new destiny. Jesus’s call to discipleship trumps even the closest relationships (see Mark 10:29–30). Second, the immediate and unquestioning response of the disciples. “At once” can also be translated “immediately.” These men left father and business to follow Jesus with no hesitation.
A New Purpose
By Bill Crowder
“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” Mark 1:17
Jacob Davis was a tailor with a problem. It was the height of the Gold Rush in the 1800s American West and the gold miners’ work pants kept wearing out. His solution? Davis went to a local dry goods company owned by Levi Strauss, purchased tent cloth, and made work pants from that heavy, sturdy material—and blue jeans were born. Today, denim jeans in a variety of forms (including Levi’s) are among the most popular clothing items in the world, and all because tent material was given a new purpose.
Simon and his friends were fishermen on the Sea of Galilee. Then Jesus arrived and called them to follow Him. He gave them a new purpose. No longer would they fish for fish. As Jesus told them, “Come, follow me, . . . and I will send you out to fish for people” (Mark 1:17).
“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” Mark 1:17
With this new purpose set for their lives, these men were taught and trained by Jesus so that, after His ascension, they could be used by God to capture the hearts of people with the message of the cross and resurrection of Christ. Today, we follow in their steps as we share the good news of Christ’s love and salvation.
May our lives both declare and exhibit this love that can change the lives, purposes, and eternal destinies of others.
Help me, Lord, to represent You well so that others might be drawn to Your love and salvation.
With our new life in Christ we have been given a new purpose.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, November 10, 2016
Fellowship in the Gospel
…fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ… —1 Thessalonians 3:2
After sanctification, it is difficult to state what your purpose in life is, because God has moved you into His purpose through the Holy Spirit. He is using you now for His purposes throughout the world as He used His Son for the purpose of our salvation. If you seek great things for yourself, thinking, “God has called me for this and for that,” you barricade God from using you. As long as you maintain your own personal interests and ambitions, you cannot be completely aligned or identified with God’s interests. This can only be accomplished by giving up all of your personal plans once and for all, and by allowing God to take you directly into His purpose for the world. Your understanding of your ways must also be surrendered, because they are now the ways of the Lord.
I must learn that the purpose of my life belongs to God, not me. God is using me from His great personal perspective, and all He asks of me is that I trust Him. I should never say, “Lord, this causes me such heartache.” To talk that way makes me a stumbling block. When I stop telling God what I want, He can freely work His will in me without any hindrance. He can crush me, exalt me, or do anything else He chooses. He simply asks me to have absolute faith in Him and His goodness. Self-pity is of the devil, and if I wallow in it I cannot be used by God for His purpose in the world. Doing this creates for me my own cozy “world within the world,” and God will not be allowed to move me from it because of my fear of being “frost-bitten.”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The truth is we have nothing to fear and nothing to overcome because He is all in all and we are more than conquerors through Him. The recognition of this truth is not flattering to the worker’s sense of heroics, but it is amazingly glorifying to the work of Christ. Approved Unto God, 4 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, November 10, 2016
Divinely Positioned - #7784
Some friends of ours struggled with a wide variety of health issues over several years. And a while back, a trusted friend told them about a juice taken from a rare fruit that seemed to have measurably improved their health, and the health of several people that they love. Well, our friends invested in that juice, and they liked the early results. I can just imagine what would have happened, though, if some telemarketer had called them cold and tried to sell this product to them. "Hey, I have some juice for you." Click. See, I know these people. They never would have bought it from some professional salesman. But, you know, it helped when someone like them, someone they knew and trusted was the one who told them about it. They wanted what she believed in. They wanted what was changing her.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Divinely Positioned."
You are divinely positioned. Yeah, because someone will believe you about Jesus that would never believe anyone else. You know, most of us are like my friends that I described. We're not going to buy from Mr. Slick Salesman. We'll buy from someone who's like us. Even when it comes to the most important choice we'll ever make in our life – our relationship with the God who made us; with the God we will stand before when we die.
Many of us have found at the cross of Jesus Christ the greatest love in the universe. And in His empty grave, we found the greatest power in the universe – the power of the only man who ever walked out of His grave under His own power. But every day we're with folks who've never experienced His love or His power and who will never experience His heaven if they don't meet Him for themselves. But whose responsibility is it to tell them?
Many of us would like to leave it to someone who can do it better – like my pastor or that evangelist. He's really good. He's better at this; got more training. The problem is that in our world today, those folks are perceived as professional God-salesmen, which most lost folks aren't interested in listening to. But then, God's strategy never has been to leave spiritual rescuing just to His professional lifeguards. He works through the everyday believers; His satisfied customers.
Take our word for today from the Word of God, for example, in John 4:39. Jesus wants to reach the Samaritans in a nearby village, but He's Jewish and they don't like Jews. He doesn't go into that village and have rallies there. He reaches one Samaritan woman and sends her back to her village to tell about Him. The Bible says, "Many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the woman's testimony." They listened to someone like them. So will the people around you.
Over the past twenty plus summers, I've been eyewitness to a modern miracle. In 400 years of missionary effort, only about 5% of Native Americans know Jesus Christ. And yet, I've seen thousands of Native young people give their lives to Christ, because our On Eagles' Wings teams – they're the ones telling about Jesus and their people just like them, young Native Americans who have lived the drinking, the drugs, the gang life, the violence, the despair and the suicide. But now they have found hope in the Creator's Son, Jesus Christ, and they're going to reservation after reservation introducing young people just like them to Jesus Christ. Some have said it's the greatest spiritual harvest in 400 years. Why? Because the messenger is someone like them! That's why there's been a breakthrough.
Do you see yourself in this life-saving picture? Who are the people around you going to listen to about Jesus Christ? Someone from their tribe, their vocation, their avocation, their occupation, their location, or their association. Someone who walks the same trail they do day after day and you're the person they know who's walking that trail with the hope of Jesus Christ and showing them in that world – their world – the Jesus-difference.
You don't have to go to their world. You are in their world! It is you they'll listen to. It is you God will hold accountable for their soul. Is there someone who could say it better? Maybe. Would they listen to that person? Probably not. They'll listen to you. Jesus is sending you to your people to tell them about Him. Humanly speaking, their eternity is in your hands, and you are their best chance.
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
Isaiah 57 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: GOD IS NEVER SURPRISED
Most people suffer from small thoughts about God. In an effort to see him as our friend, we have lost his immensity. In our desire to understand him, we have sought to contain him. The God of the Bible cannot be contained. He brought order out of chaos and created creation. He consulted no committee. He sought no counsel. He said, “I am God and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me” (Isaiah 46:9 NIV).
The greatest kings have surrendered their crowns. The queen of England is called Her Majesty, yet she must eat and bathe and rest. The True Majesty is never hungry. He never sleeps. He has never needed assistance or attention. “He sustains everything by the mighty power of his command” (Hebrews 1:3 NLT). He has authority over the world—over your world! And he has never, ever uttered the phrase, “How did that happen?”
From God is With You Every Day
Isaiah 57
Never Tired of Trying New Religions
Meanwhile, right-living people die
and no one gives them a thought.
God-fearing people are carted off
and no one even notices.
The right-living people are out of their misery,
they’re finally at rest.
They lived well and with dignity
and now they’re finally at peace.
3-10 “But you, children of a witch, come here!
Sons of a slut, daughters of a whore.
What business do you have taunting,
sneering, and sticking out your tongue?
Do you have any idea what wretches you’ve turned out to be?
A race of rebels, a generation of liars.
You satisfy your lust any place you find some shade
and fornicate at whim.
You kill your children at any convenient spot—
any cave or crevasse will do.
You take stones from the creek
and set up your sex-and-religion shrines.
You’ve chosen your fate.
Your worship will be your doom.
You’ve climbed a high mountain
to practice your foul sex-and-death religion.
Behind closed doors
you assemble your precious gods and goddesses.
Deserting me, you’ve gone all out, stripped down
and made your bed your place of worship.
You’ve climbed into bed with the ‘sacred’ whores
and loved every minute of it,
adoring every curve of their naked bodies.
You anoint your king-god with ointments
and lavish perfumes on yourselves.
You send scouts to search out the latest in religion,
send them all the way to hell and back.
You wear yourselves out trying the new and the different,
and never see what a waste it all is.
You’ve always found strength for the latest fad,
never got tired of trying new religions.
11-13 “Who talked you into the pursuit of this nonsense,
leaving me high and dry,
forgetting you ever knew me?
Because I don’t yell and make a scene
do you think I don’t exist?
I’ll go over, detail by detail, all your ‘righteous’ attempts at religion,
and expose the absurdity of it all.
Go ahead, cry for help to your collection of no-gods:
A good wind will blow them away.
They’re smoke, nothing but smoke.
“But anyone who runs to me for help
will inherit the land,
will end up owning my holy mountain!”
14 Someone says: “Build, build! Make a road!
Clear the way, remove the rocks
from the road my people will travel.”
15-21 A Message from the high and towering God,
who lives in Eternity,
whose name is Holy:
“I live in the high and holy places,
but also with the low-spirited, the spirit-crushed,
And what I do is put new spirit in them,
get them up and on their feet again.
For I’m not going to haul people into court endlessly,
I’m not going to be angry forever.
Otherwise, people would lose heart.
These souls I created would tire out and give up.
I was angry, good and angry, because of Israel’s sins.
I struck him hard and turned away in anger,
while he kept at his stubborn, willful ways.
When I looked again and saw what he was doing,
I decided to heal him, lead him, and comfort him,
creating a new language of praise for the mourners.
Peace to the far-off, peace to the near-at-hand,” says God—
“and yes, I will heal them.
But the wicked are storm-battered seas
that can’t quiet down.
The waves stir up garbage and mud.
There’s no peace,” God says, “for the wicked.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, November 09, 2016
Read: Matthew 16:1–4
Some Bad Yeast
Some Pharisees and Sadducees were on him again, pressing him to prove himself to them. He told them, “You have a saying that goes, ‘Red sky at night, sailor’s delight; red sky at morning, sailors take warning.’ You find it easy enough to forecast the weather—why can’t you read the signs of the times? An evil and wanton generation is always wanting signs and wonders. The only sign you’ll get is the Jonah sign.” Then he turned on his heel and walked away.
INSIGHT:
After the religious leaders’ ironic demand for a sign of Jesus’s identity (Matt. 16:1–4), Jesus takes His men north to Caesarea Philippi where He asks two questions. The first, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” (v. 13) was a survey of the prevailing opinions held by the common people about His identity. The answers were complimentary, but all fell short of the truth. The second question, “Who do you say I am?” received Peter’s ringing response, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (vv. 15–16). With God’s help, Peter rightly assessed all the miraculous signs Jesus had done in their first eighteen months together and affirmed that Jesus was God in human flesh.
Signs and Feelings
By Tim Gustafson
Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. Psalm 119:105
A young man I know has a habit of asking God for signs. That’s not necessarily bad, but his prayers tend to seek confirmation of his feelings. For instance, he’ll pray, “God, if You want me to do X, then You please do Y, and I’ll know it’s okay.”
This has created a dilemma. Because of the way he prays and the way he thinks God is answering, he feels that he should get back with his ex-girlfriend. Perhaps unsurprisingly, she feels strongly that God doesn’t want that.
The best way to know God’s will is to say, “I will” to God.
The religious leaders of Jesus’s day demanded a sign from Him to prove the validity of His claims (Matt. 16:1). They weren’t seeking God’s guidance; they were challenging His divine authority. Jesus replied, “A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign” (v. 4). The Lord’s strong response wasn’t a blanket statement to prevent anyone from seeking God’s guidance. Rather, Jesus was accusing them of ignoring the clear prophecies in Scripture that indicated He was the Messiah.
God wants us to seek His guidance in prayer (James 1:5). He also gives us the guidance of the Spirit (John 14:26) and His Word (Ps. 119:105). He provides us with mentors and wise leaders. And He’s given us the example of Jesus Himself.
It’s wise to ask God for clear direction, but He may not always give it in ways that we expect or want. Perhaps the larger point of prayer is that we learn more about God’s nature and develop a relationship with our Father.
Lord, it is impossible for us to comprehend Your nature, and yet You welcome us to approach You in prayer. And so we seek Your guidance today and ask to know You in ways we haven’t seen before.
The best way to know God’s will is to say, “I will” to God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, November 09, 2016
Sacred Service
I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ… —Colossians 1:24
The Christian worker has to be a sacred “go-between.” He must be so closely identified with his Lord and the reality of His redemption that Christ can continually bring His creating life through him. I am not referring to the strength of one individual’s personality being superimposed on another, but the real presence of Christ coming through every aspect of the worker’s life. When we preach the historical facts of the life and death of our Lord as they are conveyed in the New Testament, our words are made sacred. God uses these words, on the basis of His redemption, to create something in those who listen which otherwise could never have been created. If we simply preach the effects of redemption in the human life instead of the revealed, divine truth regarding Jesus Himself, the result is not new birth in those who listen. The result is a refined religious lifestyle, and the Spirit of God cannot witness to it because such preaching is in a realm other than His. We must make sure that we are living in such harmony with God that as we proclaim His truth He can create in others those things which He alone can do.
When we say, “What a wonderful personality, what a fascinating person, and what wonderful insight!” then what opportunity does the gospel of God have through all of that? It cannot get through, because the attraction is to the messenger and not the message. If a person attracts through his personality, that becomes his appeal. If, however, he is identified with the Lord Himself, then the appeal becomes what Jesus Christ can do. The danger is to glory in men, yet Jesus says we are to lift up only Him (see John 12:32).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Re-state to yourself what you believe, then do away with as much of it as possible, and get back to the bedrock of the Cross of Christ. My Utmost for His Highest, November 25, 848 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, November 09, 2016
Safe in an Unsafe World - #7783
After watching the World Trade Center as part of my skyline for many years, it hit really hard that awful September 11th to see those towers come crashing down and thousands of lives with them. The day after the first attack on the Trade Center, which was back in 1993, I was greeted by a TV crew as I got off a flight from Newark. Of all things, they asked me as a New Yorker how I felt after that bombing. And I could only think of one word, "vulnerable." That was my answer.
Well, since the events of that September 11th, and the years since then, and all of the terrorism that has spread Iike a cancer, I think a lot of us are feeling more and more vulnerable all the time. Look, we've watched everyday people like us, doing things we do back on September 11th, passengers on a jetliner, folks at their jobs – suddenly wiped out en masse. We're uncertain about what a new kind of war might mean, where the danger might pop up next, and what's going to happen economically. And some of us are trying to help our children understand this crazy world that we don't even understand. We all feel vulnerable. It's as if some of our own sense of personal security and safety started to come crashing down with those towers.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Safe in an Unsafe World."
Even without the constantly disturbing events in the news, we all know the feeling of having things that we counted on suddenly crashing down – a person we love, our job, the collapse of a marriage, a bad report from the doctor. In times like these, we're hungry for something we can anchor to, for something to sustain us when the bad news is more than we can bear, for something that will make us feel really safe.
When our President addressed the nation on this generation's "day of infamy" that September 11th, he alluded to the one source of comfort and hope in moments like these. He quoted from that treasured 23rd Psalm in the Bible – actually, Psalm 23:4, our word for today from the Word of God. "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me."
The Bible holds out to you and me a security that can keep you safe in life's deepest valleys – even the valley of the shadow of death. That security is a relationship. It's a person. "You are with me, Lord" the psalmist said. All our lives we've been looking for one "unloseable" love. And there really is one. It's the love of the One who made you, the One you will meet on the other side of your last heartbeat, the One whose love caused Him to literally lay down His life for you.
In our vulnerable moments, our moments that are more than you can handle alone, those moments when you've gone seeking God, maybe you've realized that there's something that is separating you from Him. The Bible says we're right. The Bible says, "Your sins have separated you from your God" (Isaiah 59:2). But Jesus came to remove that wall between you and God – the only way it could be removed – by Jesus dying to pay the death penalty for you and for me, hijacking a life that God was supposed to run and we took it instead.
Either you have this life-saving relationship with Jesus or you don't. It all depends on whether there's been a time when you grabbed the outstretched hand of Jesus like a person trapped in the wreckage would grab the hand of his rescuer. If you are ready for the kind of security, the safety that only Jesus Christ can offer, if you're ready to begin this anchor relationship with the man who died for you, whose love you will never lose, would you tell Him that right where you are? "Jesus, you died for me. My life is yours from this day on."
I want you to know for sure that you have that anchor, that security from this day on. So I'd invite you to go where some information is that will really help that happen. It's our website ANewStory.com. I'd love for you to visit there as soon as you can today.
My prayer is that you'll be able to go to sleep tonight knowing you are in the safest place in the universe – the arms of Jesus Christ – and that you'll be able to say, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil – for You are with me."
Most people suffer from small thoughts about God. In an effort to see him as our friend, we have lost his immensity. In our desire to understand him, we have sought to contain him. The God of the Bible cannot be contained. He brought order out of chaos and created creation. He consulted no committee. He sought no counsel. He said, “I am God and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me” (Isaiah 46:9 NIV).
The greatest kings have surrendered their crowns. The queen of England is called Her Majesty, yet she must eat and bathe and rest. The True Majesty is never hungry. He never sleeps. He has never needed assistance or attention. “He sustains everything by the mighty power of his command” (Hebrews 1:3 NLT). He has authority over the world—over your world! And he has never, ever uttered the phrase, “How did that happen?”
From God is With You Every Day
Isaiah 57
Never Tired of Trying New Religions
Meanwhile, right-living people die
and no one gives them a thought.
God-fearing people are carted off
and no one even notices.
The right-living people are out of their misery,
they’re finally at rest.
They lived well and with dignity
and now they’re finally at peace.
3-10 “But you, children of a witch, come here!
Sons of a slut, daughters of a whore.
What business do you have taunting,
sneering, and sticking out your tongue?
Do you have any idea what wretches you’ve turned out to be?
A race of rebels, a generation of liars.
You satisfy your lust any place you find some shade
and fornicate at whim.
You kill your children at any convenient spot—
any cave or crevasse will do.
You take stones from the creek
and set up your sex-and-religion shrines.
You’ve chosen your fate.
Your worship will be your doom.
You’ve climbed a high mountain
to practice your foul sex-and-death religion.
Behind closed doors
you assemble your precious gods and goddesses.
Deserting me, you’ve gone all out, stripped down
and made your bed your place of worship.
You’ve climbed into bed with the ‘sacred’ whores
and loved every minute of it,
adoring every curve of their naked bodies.
You anoint your king-god with ointments
and lavish perfumes on yourselves.
You send scouts to search out the latest in religion,
send them all the way to hell and back.
You wear yourselves out trying the new and the different,
and never see what a waste it all is.
You’ve always found strength for the latest fad,
never got tired of trying new religions.
11-13 “Who talked you into the pursuit of this nonsense,
leaving me high and dry,
forgetting you ever knew me?
Because I don’t yell and make a scene
do you think I don’t exist?
I’ll go over, detail by detail, all your ‘righteous’ attempts at religion,
and expose the absurdity of it all.
Go ahead, cry for help to your collection of no-gods:
A good wind will blow them away.
They’re smoke, nothing but smoke.
“But anyone who runs to me for help
will inherit the land,
will end up owning my holy mountain!”
14 Someone says: “Build, build! Make a road!
Clear the way, remove the rocks
from the road my people will travel.”
15-21 A Message from the high and towering God,
who lives in Eternity,
whose name is Holy:
“I live in the high and holy places,
but also with the low-spirited, the spirit-crushed,
And what I do is put new spirit in them,
get them up and on their feet again.
For I’m not going to haul people into court endlessly,
I’m not going to be angry forever.
Otherwise, people would lose heart.
These souls I created would tire out and give up.
I was angry, good and angry, because of Israel’s sins.
I struck him hard and turned away in anger,
while he kept at his stubborn, willful ways.
When I looked again and saw what he was doing,
I decided to heal him, lead him, and comfort him,
creating a new language of praise for the mourners.
Peace to the far-off, peace to the near-at-hand,” says God—
“and yes, I will heal them.
But the wicked are storm-battered seas
that can’t quiet down.
The waves stir up garbage and mud.
There’s no peace,” God says, “for the wicked.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, November 09, 2016
Read: Matthew 16:1–4
Some Bad Yeast
Some Pharisees and Sadducees were on him again, pressing him to prove himself to them. He told them, “You have a saying that goes, ‘Red sky at night, sailor’s delight; red sky at morning, sailors take warning.’ You find it easy enough to forecast the weather—why can’t you read the signs of the times? An evil and wanton generation is always wanting signs and wonders. The only sign you’ll get is the Jonah sign.” Then he turned on his heel and walked away.
INSIGHT:
After the religious leaders’ ironic demand for a sign of Jesus’s identity (Matt. 16:1–4), Jesus takes His men north to Caesarea Philippi where He asks two questions. The first, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” (v. 13) was a survey of the prevailing opinions held by the common people about His identity. The answers were complimentary, but all fell short of the truth. The second question, “Who do you say I am?” received Peter’s ringing response, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (vv. 15–16). With God’s help, Peter rightly assessed all the miraculous signs Jesus had done in their first eighteen months together and affirmed that Jesus was God in human flesh.
Signs and Feelings
By Tim Gustafson
Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. Psalm 119:105
A young man I know has a habit of asking God for signs. That’s not necessarily bad, but his prayers tend to seek confirmation of his feelings. For instance, he’ll pray, “God, if You want me to do X, then You please do Y, and I’ll know it’s okay.”
This has created a dilemma. Because of the way he prays and the way he thinks God is answering, he feels that he should get back with his ex-girlfriend. Perhaps unsurprisingly, she feels strongly that God doesn’t want that.
The best way to know God’s will is to say, “I will” to God.
The religious leaders of Jesus’s day demanded a sign from Him to prove the validity of His claims (Matt. 16:1). They weren’t seeking God’s guidance; they were challenging His divine authority. Jesus replied, “A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign” (v. 4). The Lord’s strong response wasn’t a blanket statement to prevent anyone from seeking God’s guidance. Rather, Jesus was accusing them of ignoring the clear prophecies in Scripture that indicated He was the Messiah.
God wants us to seek His guidance in prayer (James 1:5). He also gives us the guidance of the Spirit (John 14:26) and His Word (Ps. 119:105). He provides us with mentors and wise leaders. And He’s given us the example of Jesus Himself.
It’s wise to ask God for clear direction, but He may not always give it in ways that we expect or want. Perhaps the larger point of prayer is that we learn more about God’s nature and develop a relationship with our Father.
Lord, it is impossible for us to comprehend Your nature, and yet You welcome us to approach You in prayer. And so we seek Your guidance today and ask to know You in ways we haven’t seen before.
The best way to know God’s will is to say, “I will” to God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, November 09, 2016
Sacred Service
I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ… —Colossians 1:24
The Christian worker has to be a sacred “go-between.” He must be so closely identified with his Lord and the reality of His redemption that Christ can continually bring His creating life through him. I am not referring to the strength of one individual’s personality being superimposed on another, but the real presence of Christ coming through every aspect of the worker’s life. When we preach the historical facts of the life and death of our Lord as they are conveyed in the New Testament, our words are made sacred. God uses these words, on the basis of His redemption, to create something in those who listen which otherwise could never have been created. If we simply preach the effects of redemption in the human life instead of the revealed, divine truth regarding Jesus Himself, the result is not new birth in those who listen. The result is a refined religious lifestyle, and the Spirit of God cannot witness to it because such preaching is in a realm other than His. We must make sure that we are living in such harmony with God that as we proclaim His truth He can create in others those things which He alone can do.
When we say, “What a wonderful personality, what a fascinating person, and what wonderful insight!” then what opportunity does the gospel of God have through all of that? It cannot get through, because the attraction is to the messenger and not the message. If a person attracts through his personality, that becomes his appeal. If, however, he is identified with the Lord Himself, then the appeal becomes what Jesus Christ can do. The danger is to glory in men, yet Jesus says we are to lift up only Him (see John 12:32).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Re-state to yourself what you believe, then do away with as much of it as possible, and get back to the bedrock of the Cross of Christ. My Utmost for His Highest, November 25, 848 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, November 09, 2016
Safe in an Unsafe World - #7783
After watching the World Trade Center as part of my skyline for many years, it hit really hard that awful September 11th to see those towers come crashing down and thousands of lives with them. The day after the first attack on the Trade Center, which was back in 1993, I was greeted by a TV crew as I got off a flight from Newark. Of all things, they asked me as a New Yorker how I felt after that bombing. And I could only think of one word, "vulnerable." That was my answer.
Well, since the events of that September 11th, and the years since then, and all of the terrorism that has spread Iike a cancer, I think a lot of us are feeling more and more vulnerable all the time. Look, we've watched everyday people like us, doing things we do back on September 11th, passengers on a jetliner, folks at their jobs – suddenly wiped out en masse. We're uncertain about what a new kind of war might mean, where the danger might pop up next, and what's going to happen economically. And some of us are trying to help our children understand this crazy world that we don't even understand. We all feel vulnerable. It's as if some of our own sense of personal security and safety started to come crashing down with those towers.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Safe in an Unsafe World."
Even without the constantly disturbing events in the news, we all know the feeling of having things that we counted on suddenly crashing down – a person we love, our job, the collapse of a marriage, a bad report from the doctor. In times like these, we're hungry for something we can anchor to, for something to sustain us when the bad news is more than we can bear, for something that will make us feel really safe.
When our President addressed the nation on this generation's "day of infamy" that September 11th, he alluded to the one source of comfort and hope in moments like these. He quoted from that treasured 23rd Psalm in the Bible – actually, Psalm 23:4, our word for today from the Word of God. "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me."
The Bible holds out to you and me a security that can keep you safe in life's deepest valleys – even the valley of the shadow of death. That security is a relationship. It's a person. "You are with me, Lord" the psalmist said. All our lives we've been looking for one "unloseable" love. And there really is one. It's the love of the One who made you, the One you will meet on the other side of your last heartbeat, the One whose love caused Him to literally lay down His life for you.
In our vulnerable moments, our moments that are more than you can handle alone, those moments when you've gone seeking God, maybe you've realized that there's something that is separating you from Him. The Bible says we're right. The Bible says, "Your sins have separated you from your God" (Isaiah 59:2). But Jesus came to remove that wall between you and God – the only way it could be removed – by Jesus dying to pay the death penalty for you and for me, hijacking a life that God was supposed to run and we took it instead.
Either you have this life-saving relationship with Jesus or you don't. It all depends on whether there's been a time when you grabbed the outstretched hand of Jesus like a person trapped in the wreckage would grab the hand of his rescuer. If you are ready for the kind of security, the safety that only Jesus Christ can offer, if you're ready to begin this anchor relationship with the man who died for you, whose love you will never lose, would you tell Him that right where you are? "Jesus, you died for me. My life is yours from this day on."
I want you to know for sure that you have that anchor, that security from this day on. So I'd invite you to go where some information is that will really help that happen. It's our website ANewStory.com. I'd love for you to visit there as soon as you can today.
My prayer is that you'll be able to go to sleep tonight knowing you are in the safest place in the universe – the arms of Jesus Christ – and that you'll be able to say, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil – for You are with me."
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