Max Lucado Daily: Give Your Child to God
You’ve wept a monsoon of tears for your child, enough to summon the attention of every angel and their neighbor to your cause. But you’re not so sure anymore.
You find yourself wondering if Christ has forgotten you and your child. He hasn’t! Keep giving your child to God. In the right time, the right way, he will give your child back to you.
A quarter century ago, I gave my daughter to God. I remembered the way Abraham had placed Isaac on the altar. I made my apartment living room my altar and lifted my daughter toward heaven. I can’t raise this girl, I confessed, but You can. I give her back to you! Must have been a sight to behold, a pajama-clad father lifting his blanket-wrapped baby toward the ceiling. But something tells me one parent appreciated the gesture.
Abraham. And, of course, God!
Ezekiel 19
A Story of Two Lions
1-4 Sing the blues over the princes of Israel. Say:
What a lioness was your mother
among lions!
She crouched in a pride of young lions.
Her cubs grew large.
She reared one of her cubs to maturity,
a robust young lion.
He learned to hunt.
He ate men.
Nations sounded the alarm.
He was caught in a trap.
They took him with hooks
and dragged him to Egypt.
5-9 When the lioness saw she was luckless,
that her hope for that cub was gone,
She took her other cub
and made him a strong young lion.
He prowled with the lions,
a robust young lion.
He learned to hunt.
He ate men.
He rampaged through their defenses,
left their cities in ruins.
The country and everyone in it
was terrorized by the roars of the lion.
The nations got together to hunt him.
Everyone joined the hunt.
They set out their traps
and caught him.
They put a wooden collar on him
and took him to the king of Babylon.
No more would that voice be heard
disturbing the peace in the mountains of Israel!
10-14 Here’s another way to put it:
Your mother was like a vine in a vineyard,
transplanted alongside streams of water,
Luxurious in branches and grapes
because of the ample water.
It grew sturdy branches
fit to be carved into a royal scepter.
It grew high, reaching into the clouds.
Its branches filled the horizon,
and everyone could see it.
Then it was ripped up in a rage
and thrown to the ground.
The hot east wind shriveled it up
and stripped its fruit.
The sturdy branches dried out,
fit for nothing but kindling.
Now it’s a stick stuck out in the desert,
a bare stick in a desert of death,
Good for nothing but making fires,
campfires in the desert.
Not a hint now of those sturdy branches
fit for use as a royal scepter!
(This is a sad song, a text for singing the blues.)
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, May 07, 2017
Read: Matthew 26:17–30
The Traitor
17 On the first of the Days of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Where do you want us to prepare your Passover meal?”
18-19 He said, “Enter the city. Go up to a certain man and say, ‘The Teacher says, My time is near. I and my disciples plan to celebrate the Passover meal at your house.’” The disciples followed Jesus’ instructions to the letter, and prepared the Passover meal.
20-21 After sunset, he and the Twelve were sitting around the table. During the meal, he said, “I have something hard but important to say to you: One of you is going to hand me over to the conspirators.”
22 They were stunned, and then began to ask, one after another, “It isn’t me, is it, Master?”
23-24 Jesus answered, “The one who hands me over is someone I eat with daily, one who passes me food at the table. In one sense the Son of Man is entering into a way of treachery well-marked by the Scriptures—no surprises here. In another sense that man who turns him in, turns traitor to the Son of Man—better never to have been born than do this!”
25 Then Judas, already turned traitor, said, “It isn’t me, is it, Rabbi?”
Jesus said, “Don’t play games with me, Judas.”
The Bread and the Cup
26-29 During the meal, Jesus took and blessed the bread, broke it, and gave it to his disciples:
Take, eat.
This is my body.
Taking the cup and thanking God, he gave it to them:
Drink this, all of you.
This is my blood,
God’s new covenant poured out for many people
for the forgiveness of sins.
“I’ll not be drinking wine from this cup again until that new day when I’ll drink with you in the kingdom of my Father.”
30 They sang a hymn and went directly to Mount Olives.
INSIGHT:
How might Jesus’s example encourage you to praise God during hard times?
Praise in the Dark
By James Banks
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. Hebrews 13:15
Even though my friend Mickey was losing his eyesight, he told me, “I’m going to keep praising God every day, because He’s done so much for me.”
Jesus gave Mickey, and us, the ultimate reason for such never-ending praise. The twenty-sixth chapter of Matthew tells us about how Jesus shared the Passover meal with His disciples the night before He went to the cross. Verse 30 shows us how they concluded the meal: “When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.”
Lord, help me to learn to praise You more and more.
It wasn’t just any hymn they sang that night—it was a hymn of praise. For millennia, Jews have sung a group of Psalms called “The Hallel” at Passover (hallel is the Hebrew word for “praise”). The last of these prayers and songs of praise, found in Psalms 113–118, honors the God who has become our salvation (118:21). It refers to a rejected stone that became a cornerstone (v. 22) and one who comes in the name of the Lord (v. 26). They may very well have sung, “The Lord has done it this very day; let us rejoice today and be glad” (v. 24).
As Jesus sang with His disciples on this Passover night, He was giving us the ultimate reason to lift our eyes above our immediate circumstances. He was leading us in praise of the never-ending love and faithfulness of our God.
You are always worthy of praise, Lord, even when I don’t feel like praising You! Help me to learn to praise You more and more.
Praising God helps us recall His goodness that never ends.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, May 07, 2017
Building For Eternity
Which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it… —Luke 14:28
Our Lord was not referring here to a cost which we have to count, but to a cost which He has already counted. The cost was those thirty years in Nazareth, those three years of popularity, scandal, and hatred, the unfathomable agony He experienced in Gethsemane, and the assault upon Him at Calvary— the central point upon which all of time and eternity turn. Jesus Christ has counted the cost. In the final analysis, people are not going to laugh at Him and say, “This man began to build and was not able to finish” (Luke 14:30).
The conditions of discipleship given to us by our Lord in verses 26, 27, and 33 mean that the men and women He is going to use in His mighty building enterprises are those in whom He has done everything. “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple ” (Luke 14:26). This verse teaches us that the only men and women our Lord will use in His building enterprises are those who love Him personally, passionately, and with great devotion— those who have a love for Him that goes far beyond any of the closest relationships on earth. The conditions are strict, but they are glorious.
All that we build is going to be inspected by God. When God inspects us with His searching and refining fire, will He detect that we have built enterprises of our own on the foundation of Jesus? (see 1 Corinthians 3:10-15). We are living in a time of tremendous enterprises, a time when we are trying to work for God, and that is where the trap is. Profoundly speaking, we can never work for God. Jesus, as the Master Builder, takes us over so that He may direct and control us completely for His enterprises and His building plans; and no one has any right to demand where he will be put to work.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We never enter into the Kingdom of God by having our head questions answered, but only by commitment. The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption, 565 R
Sunday, May 7, 2017
Saturday, May 6, 2017
Ezekiel 18, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: TOOLS IN SATAN’S TOOL KIT
How do we explain our stubborn hearts and conniving ways? How do we explain Auschwitz, human trafficking, abuse? If I were the devil, I’d want you to feel attacked by an indefinable force. If I were the devil, I’d keep my name out of it.
But God doesn’t let the devil get away with this. He tells us his name: splitter, a divider, a wedge driver. Don’t fault the plunging economy or a raging dictator for your anxiety. They are simply tools in Satan’s tool kit. We can’t understand God’s narrative without understanding Satan’s strategy. Scripture says, “the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).
God calls the devil by name and promises to defeat him. So, be assured, his days are numbered.
From There’s More to Your Story
Ezekiel 18
Judged According to the Way You Live
1-2 God’s Message to me: “What do you people mean by going around the country repeating the saying,
The parents ate green apples,
The children got the stomachache?
3-4 “As sure as I’m the living God, you’re not going to repeat this saying in Israel any longer. Every soul—man, woman, child—belongs to me, parent and child alike. You die for your own sin, not another’s.
5-9 “Imagine a person who lives well, treating others fairly, keeping good relationships—
doesn’t eat at the pagan shrines,
doesn’t worship the idols so popular in Israel,
doesn’t seduce a neighbor’s spouse,
doesn’t indulge in casual sex,
doesn’t bully anyone,
doesn’t pile up bad debts,
doesn’t steal,
doesn’t refuse food to the hungry,
doesn’t refuse clothing to the ill-clad,
doesn’t exploit the poor,
doesn’t live by impulse and greed,
doesn’t treat one person better than another,
But lives by my statutes and faithfully
honors and obeys my laws.
This person who lives upright and well
shall live a full and true life.
Decree of God, the Master.
10-13 “But if this person has a child who turns violent and murders and goes off and does any of these things, even though the parent has done none of them—
eats at the pagan shrines,
seduces his neighbor’s spouse,
bullies the weak,
steals,
piles up bad debts,
admires idols,
commits outrageous obscenities,
exploits the poor
“—do you think this person, the child, will live? Not a chance! Because he’s done all these vile things, he’ll die. And his death will be his own fault.
14-17 “Now look: Suppose that this child has a child who sees all the sins done by his parent. The child sees them, but doesn’t follow in the parent’s footsteps—
doesn’t eat at the pagan shrines,
doesn’t worship the popular idols of Israel,
doesn’t seduce his neighbor’s spouse,
doesn’t bully anyone,
doesn’t refuse to loan money,
doesn’t steal,
doesn’t refuse food to the hungry,
doesn’t refuse to give clothes to the ill-clad,
doesn’t live by impulse and greed,
doesn’t exploit the poor.
He does what I say;
he performs my laws and lives by my statutes.
17-18 “This person will not die for the sins of the parent; he will live truly and well. But the parent will die for what the parent did, for the sins of—
oppressing the weak,
robbing brothers and sisters,
doing what is dead wrong in the community.
19-20 “Do you need to ask, ‘So why does the child not share the guilt of the parent?’
“Isn’t it plain? It’s because the child did what is fair and right. Since the child was careful to do what is lawful and right, the child will live truly and well. The soul that sins is the soul that dies. The child does not share the guilt of the parent, nor the parent the guilt of the child. If you live upright and well, you get the credit; if you live a wicked life, you’re guilty as charged.
21-23 “But a wicked person who turns his back on that life of sin and keeps all my statutes, living a just and righteous life, he’ll live, really live. He won’t die. I won’t keep a list of all the things he did wrong. He will live. Do you think I take any pleasure in the death of wicked men and women? Isn’t it my pleasure that they turn around, no longer living wrong but living right—really living?
24 “The same thing goes for a good person who turns his back on an upright life and starts sinning, plunging into the same vile obscenities that the wicked person practices. Will this person live? I don’t keep a list of all the things this person did right, like money in the bank he can draw on. Because of his defection, because he accumulates sin, he’ll die.
25-28 “Do I hear you saying, ‘That’s not fair! God’s not fair!’?
“Listen, Israel. I’m not fair? You’re the ones who aren’t fair! If a good person turns away from his good life and takes up sinning, he’ll die for it. He’ll die for his own sin. Likewise, if a bad person turns away from his bad life and starts living a good life, a fair life, he will save his life. Because he faces up to all the wrongs he’s committed and puts them behind him, he will live, really live. He won’t die.
29 “And yet Israel keeps on whining, ‘That’s not fair! God’s not fair.’
“I’m not fair, Israel? You’re the ones who aren’t fair.
30-32 “The upshot is this, Israel: I’ll judge each of you according to the way you live. So turn around! Turn your backs on your rebellious living so that sin won’t drag you down. Clean house. No more rebellions, please. Get a new heart! Get a new spirit! Why would you choose to die, Israel? I take no pleasure in anyone’s death. Decree of God, the Master.
“Make a clean break! Live!”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, May 06, 2017
Read: Matthew 18:23–35
“The kingdom of God is like a king who decided to square accounts with his servants. As he got under way, one servant was brought before him who had run up a debt of a hundred thousand dollars. He couldn’t pay up, so the king ordered the man, along with his wife, children, and goods, to be auctioned off at the slave market.
26-27 “The poor wretch threw himself at the king’s feet and begged, ‘Give me a chance and I’ll pay it all back.’ Touched by his plea, the king let him off, erasing the debt.
28 “The servant was no sooner out of the room when he came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him ten dollars. He seized him by the throat and demanded, ‘Pay up. Now!’
29-31 “The poor wretch threw himself down and begged, ‘Give me a chance and I’ll pay it all back.’ But he wouldn’t do it. He had him arrested and put in jail until the debt was paid. When the other servants saw this going on, they were outraged and brought a detailed report to the king.
32-35 “The king summoned the man and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave your entire debt when you begged me for mercy. Shouldn’t you be compelled to be merciful to your fellow servant who asked for mercy?’ The king was furious and put the screws to the man until he paid back his entire debt. And that’s exactly what my Father in heaven is going to do to each one of you who doesn’t forgive unconditionally anyone who asks for mercy.”
INSIGHT:
Are you withholding forgiveness from someone who has harmed you? As you reflect on how merciful God has been to you, why not ask Him to help you have a spirit of forgiveness.
For more on this topic, read “Free to Forgive” at ourdailyjourney.org/2016/06/12/free-to-forgive.
Should I Forgive?
By Xochitl Dixon
Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Colossians 3:13
I arrived early at my church to help set up for an event. A woman stood crying at the opposite end of the sanctuary. She’d been cruel and gossiped about me in the past, so I quickly drowned out her sobs with a vacuum cleaner. Why should I care about someone who didn’t like me?
When the Holy Spirit reminded me how much God had forgiven me, I crossed the room. The woman shared that her baby had been in the hospital for months. We cried, embraced, and prayed for her daughter. After working through our differences, we’re now good friends.
Lord, help us give our grievances to You so that You may turn them into something good.
In Matthew 18, Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a king who decided to settle his accounts. A servant who owed a staggering amount of money pleaded for mercy. Soon after the king canceled his debt, that servant tracked down and condemned a man who owed him far less than what he’d owed the king. When word got back to the king, the wicked servant was imprisoned because of his own unforgiving spirit (vv. 23–34).
Choosing to forgive doesn’t condone sin, excuse the wrongs done to us, or minimize our hurts. Offering forgiveness simply frees us to enjoy God’s undeserved gift of mercy, as we invite Him to accomplish beautiful works of peace-restoring grace in our lives and our relationships.
Lord, help us give our grievances to You so that You may turn them into something good. Make us ready to forgive completely and earnestly. Give us Your spirit of unity.
Forgiving others expresses our trust in God’s right to judge according to His perfection and goodness.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, May 06, 2017
Liberty and the Standards of Jesus
Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free… —Galatians 5:1
A spiritually-minded person will never come to you with the demand— “Believe this and that”; a spiritually-minded person will demand that you align your life with the standards of Jesus. We are not asked to believe the Bible, but to believe the One whom the Bible reveals (see John 5:39-40). We are called to present liberty for the conscience of others, not to bring them liberty for their thoughts and opinions. And if we ourselves are free with the liberty of Christ, others will be brought into that same liberty— the liberty that comes from realizing the absolute control and authority of Jesus Christ.
Always measure your life solely by the standards of Jesus. Submit yourself to His yoke, and His alone; and always be careful never to place a yoke on others that is not of Jesus Christ. It takes God a long time to get us to stop thinking that unless everyone sees things exactly as we do, they must be wrong. That is never God’s view. There is only one true liberty— the liberty of Jesus at work in our conscience enabling us to do what is right.
Don’t get impatient with others. Remember how God dealt with you— with patience and with gentleness. But never water down the truth of God. Let it have its way and never apologize for it. Jesus said, “Go…and make disciples…” (Matthew 28:19), not, “Make converts to your own thoughts and opinions.”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Jesus Christ can afford to be misunderstood; we cannot. Our weakness lies in always wanting to vindicate ourselves.
The Place of Help
How do we explain our stubborn hearts and conniving ways? How do we explain Auschwitz, human trafficking, abuse? If I were the devil, I’d want you to feel attacked by an indefinable force. If I were the devil, I’d keep my name out of it.
But God doesn’t let the devil get away with this. He tells us his name: splitter, a divider, a wedge driver. Don’t fault the plunging economy or a raging dictator for your anxiety. They are simply tools in Satan’s tool kit. We can’t understand God’s narrative without understanding Satan’s strategy. Scripture says, “the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).
God calls the devil by name and promises to defeat him. So, be assured, his days are numbered.
From There’s More to Your Story
Ezekiel 18
Judged According to the Way You Live
1-2 God’s Message to me: “What do you people mean by going around the country repeating the saying,
The parents ate green apples,
The children got the stomachache?
3-4 “As sure as I’m the living God, you’re not going to repeat this saying in Israel any longer. Every soul—man, woman, child—belongs to me, parent and child alike. You die for your own sin, not another’s.
5-9 “Imagine a person who lives well, treating others fairly, keeping good relationships—
doesn’t eat at the pagan shrines,
doesn’t worship the idols so popular in Israel,
doesn’t seduce a neighbor’s spouse,
doesn’t indulge in casual sex,
doesn’t bully anyone,
doesn’t pile up bad debts,
doesn’t steal,
doesn’t refuse food to the hungry,
doesn’t refuse clothing to the ill-clad,
doesn’t exploit the poor,
doesn’t live by impulse and greed,
doesn’t treat one person better than another,
But lives by my statutes and faithfully
honors and obeys my laws.
This person who lives upright and well
shall live a full and true life.
Decree of God, the Master.
10-13 “But if this person has a child who turns violent and murders and goes off and does any of these things, even though the parent has done none of them—
eats at the pagan shrines,
seduces his neighbor’s spouse,
bullies the weak,
steals,
piles up bad debts,
admires idols,
commits outrageous obscenities,
exploits the poor
“—do you think this person, the child, will live? Not a chance! Because he’s done all these vile things, he’ll die. And his death will be his own fault.
14-17 “Now look: Suppose that this child has a child who sees all the sins done by his parent. The child sees them, but doesn’t follow in the parent’s footsteps—
doesn’t eat at the pagan shrines,
doesn’t worship the popular idols of Israel,
doesn’t seduce his neighbor’s spouse,
doesn’t bully anyone,
doesn’t refuse to loan money,
doesn’t steal,
doesn’t refuse food to the hungry,
doesn’t refuse to give clothes to the ill-clad,
doesn’t live by impulse and greed,
doesn’t exploit the poor.
He does what I say;
he performs my laws and lives by my statutes.
17-18 “This person will not die for the sins of the parent; he will live truly and well. But the parent will die for what the parent did, for the sins of—
oppressing the weak,
robbing brothers and sisters,
doing what is dead wrong in the community.
19-20 “Do you need to ask, ‘So why does the child not share the guilt of the parent?’
“Isn’t it plain? It’s because the child did what is fair and right. Since the child was careful to do what is lawful and right, the child will live truly and well. The soul that sins is the soul that dies. The child does not share the guilt of the parent, nor the parent the guilt of the child. If you live upright and well, you get the credit; if you live a wicked life, you’re guilty as charged.
21-23 “But a wicked person who turns his back on that life of sin and keeps all my statutes, living a just and righteous life, he’ll live, really live. He won’t die. I won’t keep a list of all the things he did wrong. He will live. Do you think I take any pleasure in the death of wicked men and women? Isn’t it my pleasure that they turn around, no longer living wrong but living right—really living?
24 “The same thing goes for a good person who turns his back on an upright life and starts sinning, plunging into the same vile obscenities that the wicked person practices. Will this person live? I don’t keep a list of all the things this person did right, like money in the bank he can draw on. Because of his defection, because he accumulates sin, he’ll die.
25-28 “Do I hear you saying, ‘That’s not fair! God’s not fair!’?
“Listen, Israel. I’m not fair? You’re the ones who aren’t fair! If a good person turns away from his good life and takes up sinning, he’ll die for it. He’ll die for his own sin. Likewise, if a bad person turns away from his bad life and starts living a good life, a fair life, he will save his life. Because he faces up to all the wrongs he’s committed and puts them behind him, he will live, really live. He won’t die.
29 “And yet Israel keeps on whining, ‘That’s not fair! God’s not fair.’
“I’m not fair, Israel? You’re the ones who aren’t fair.
30-32 “The upshot is this, Israel: I’ll judge each of you according to the way you live. So turn around! Turn your backs on your rebellious living so that sin won’t drag you down. Clean house. No more rebellions, please. Get a new heart! Get a new spirit! Why would you choose to die, Israel? I take no pleasure in anyone’s death. Decree of God, the Master.
“Make a clean break! Live!”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, May 06, 2017
Read: Matthew 18:23–35
“The kingdom of God is like a king who decided to square accounts with his servants. As he got under way, one servant was brought before him who had run up a debt of a hundred thousand dollars. He couldn’t pay up, so the king ordered the man, along with his wife, children, and goods, to be auctioned off at the slave market.
26-27 “The poor wretch threw himself at the king’s feet and begged, ‘Give me a chance and I’ll pay it all back.’ Touched by his plea, the king let him off, erasing the debt.
28 “The servant was no sooner out of the room when he came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him ten dollars. He seized him by the throat and demanded, ‘Pay up. Now!’
29-31 “The poor wretch threw himself down and begged, ‘Give me a chance and I’ll pay it all back.’ But he wouldn’t do it. He had him arrested and put in jail until the debt was paid. When the other servants saw this going on, they were outraged and brought a detailed report to the king.
32-35 “The king summoned the man and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave your entire debt when you begged me for mercy. Shouldn’t you be compelled to be merciful to your fellow servant who asked for mercy?’ The king was furious and put the screws to the man until he paid back his entire debt. And that’s exactly what my Father in heaven is going to do to each one of you who doesn’t forgive unconditionally anyone who asks for mercy.”
INSIGHT:
Are you withholding forgiveness from someone who has harmed you? As you reflect on how merciful God has been to you, why not ask Him to help you have a spirit of forgiveness.
For more on this topic, read “Free to Forgive” at ourdailyjourney.org/2016/06/12/free-to-forgive.
Should I Forgive?
By Xochitl Dixon
Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Colossians 3:13
I arrived early at my church to help set up for an event. A woman stood crying at the opposite end of the sanctuary. She’d been cruel and gossiped about me in the past, so I quickly drowned out her sobs with a vacuum cleaner. Why should I care about someone who didn’t like me?
When the Holy Spirit reminded me how much God had forgiven me, I crossed the room. The woman shared that her baby had been in the hospital for months. We cried, embraced, and prayed for her daughter. After working through our differences, we’re now good friends.
Lord, help us give our grievances to You so that You may turn them into something good.
In Matthew 18, Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a king who decided to settle his accounts. A servant who owed a staggering amount of money pleaded for mercy. Soon after the king canceled his debt, that servant tracked down and condemned a man who owed him far less than what he’d owed the king. When word got back to the king, the wicked servant was imprisoned because of his own unforgiving spirit (vv. 23–34).
Choosing to forgive doesn’t condone sin, excuse the wrongs done to us, or minimize our hurts. Offering forgiveness simply frees us to enjoy God’s undeserved gift of mercy, as we invite Him to accomplish beautiful works of peace-restoring grace in our lives and our relationships.
Lord, help us give our grievances to You so that You may turn them into something good. Make us ready to forgive completely and earnestly. Give us Your spirit of unity.
Forgiving others expresses our trust in God’s right to judge according to His perfection and goodness.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, May 06, 2017
Liberty and the Standards of Jesus
Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free… —Galatians 5:1
A spiritually-minded person will never come to you with the demand— “Believe this and that”; a spiritually-minded person will demand that you align your life with the standards of Jesus. We are not asked to believe the Bible, but to believe the One whom the Bible reveals (see John 5:39-40). We are called to present liberty for the conscience of others, not to bring them liberty for their thoughts and opinions. And if we ourselves are free with the liberty of Christ, others will be brought into that same liberty— the liberty that comes from realizing the absolute control and authority of Jesus Christ.
Always measure your life solely by the standards of Jesus. Submit yourself to His yoke, and His alone; and always be careful never to place a yoke on others that is not of Jesus Christ. It takes God a long time to get us to stop thinking that unless everyone sees things exactly as we do, they must be wrong. That is never God’s view. There is only one true liberty— the liberty of Jesus at work in our conscience enabling us to do what is right.
Don’t get impatient with others. Remember how God dealt with you— with patience and with gentleness. But never water down the truth of God. Let it have its way and never apologize for it. Jesus said, “Go…and make disciples…” (Matthew 28:19), not, “Make converts to your own thoughts and opinions.”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Jesus Christ can afford to be misunderstood; we cannot. Our weakness lies in always wanting to vindicate ourselves.
The Place of Help
Friday, May 5, 2017
2 Timothy 2, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: PATIENCE IS A FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT
God’s patience. You’ve read about it. Perhaps underlined Bible passages regarding it. But have you received it? Patience deeply received results in patience freely offered. But patience never received leads to an abundance of problems.
Remember where the king sent the unforgiving servant? “Then the angry king sent the man to prison until he had paid every penny” (Matthew 18:34 NLT). Whew! we sigh. Glad that story is a parable. It’s a good thing God doesn’t imprison the impatient in real life. Don’t be so sure! Impatience still imprisons the soul. For that reason, God does more than demand patience from us; he offers it to us!
Patience is a fruit of his Spirit. It hangs from the tree of Galatians 5:22: “The Spirit produces the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience.”
From A Love Worth Giving
2 Timothy 2
Doing Your Best for God
1-7 So, my son, throw yourself into this work for Christ. Pass on what you heard from me—the whole congregation saying Amen!—to reliable leaders who are competent to teach others. When the going gets rough, take it on the chin with the rest of us, the way Jesus did. A soldier on duty doesn’t get caught up in making deals at the marketplace. He concentrates on carrying out orders. An athlete who refuses to play by the rules will never get anywhere. It’s the diligent farmer who gets the produce. Think it over. God will make it all plain.
8-13 Fix this picture firmly in your mind: Jesus, descended from the line of David, raised from the dead. It’s what you’ve heard from me all along. It’s what I’m sitting in jail for right now—but God’s Word isn’t in jail! That’s why I stick it out here—so that everyone God calls will get in on the salvation of Christ in all its glory. This is a sure thing:
If we die with him, we’ll live with him;
If we stick it out with him, we’ll rule with him;
If we turn our backs on him, he’ll turn his back on us;
If we give up on him, he does not give up—
for there’s no way he can be false to himself.
14-18 Repeat these basic essentials over and over to God’s people. Warn them before God against pious nitpicking, which chips away at the faith. It just wears everyone out. Concentrate on doing your best for God, work you won’t be ashamed of, laying out the truth plain and simple. Stay clear of pious talk that is only talk. Words are not mere words, you know. If they’re not backed by a godly life, they accumulate as poison in the soul. Hymenaeus and Philetus are examples, throwing believers off stride and missing the truth by a mile by saying the resurrection is over and done with.
19 Meanwhile, God’s firm foundation is as firm as ever, these sentences engraved on the stones:
god knows who belongs to him.
spurn evil, all you who name god as god.
20-21 In a well-furnished kitchen there are not only crystal goblets and silver platters, but waste cans and compost buckets—some containers used to serve fine meals, others to take out the garbage. Become the kind of container God can use to present any and every kind of gift to his guests for their blessing.
22-26 Run away from infantile indulgence. Run after mature righteousness—faith, love, peace—joining those who are in honest and serious prayer before God. Refuse to get involved in inane discussions; they always end up in fights. God’s servant must not be argumentative, but a gentle listener and a teacher who keeps cool, working firmly but patiently with those who refuse to obey. You never know how or when God might sober them up with a change of heart and a turning to the truth, enabling them to escape the Devil’s trap, where they are caught and held captive, forced to run his errands.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, May 05, 2017
Read: Jeremiah 29:4–14
4 This is the Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel’s God, to all the exiles I’ve taken from Jerusalem to Babylon:
5 “Build houses and make yourselves at home.
“Put in gardens and eat what grows in that country.
6 “Marry and have children. Encourage your children to marry and have children so that you’ll thrive in that country and not waste away.
7 “Make yourselves at home there and work for the country’s welfare.
“Pray for Babylon’s well-being. If things go well for Babylon, things will go well for you.”
8-9 Yes. Believe it or not, this is the Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel’s God: “Don’t let all those so-called preachers and know-it-alls who are all over the place there take you in with their lies. Don’t pay any attention to the fantasies they keep coming up with to please you. They’re a bunch of liars preaching lies—and claiming I sent them! I never sent them, believe me.” God’s Decree!
10-11 This is God’s Word on the subject: “As soon as Babylon’s seventy years are up and not a day before, I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.
12 “When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen.
13-14 “When you come looking for me, you’ll find me.
“Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” God’s Decree.
“I’ll turn things around for you. I’ll bring you back from all the countries into which I drove you”—God’s Decree—“bring you home to the place from which I sent you off into exile. You can count on it.
INSIGHT:
What is one past sorrow that you find great difficulty in letting go? How does God’s promise in Jeremiah 29:11–14 comfort and encourage you as you turn your pain over to the Lord?
The Ministry of Memory
By David C. McCasland
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11
Our experiences of loss and disappointment may leave us feeling angry, guilty, and confused. Whether our choices have closed some doors that will never reopen or, through no fault of our own, tragedy has invaded our lives, the result is often what Oswald Chambers called “the unfathomable sadness of ‘the might have been.’ ” We may try to suppress the painful memory, but discover we can’t.
Chambers reminds us that the Lord is still active in our lives. “Never be afraid when God brings back the past,” he said. “Let memory have its way. It is a minister of God with its rebuke and chastisement and sorrow. God will turn the ‘might have been’ into a wonderful [place of growth] for the future.”
The Lord’s forgiveness can transform our sorrow into confidence in His everlasting love.
In Old Testament days when God sent the people of Israel into exile in Babylon, He told them to serve Him in that foreign land and grow in faith until He brought them back to their home. “ ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’ ” (Jer. 29:11).
God urged them not to ignore or be trapped by events of the past but instead to focus on Him and look ahead. The Lord’s forgiveness can transform the memory of our sorrow into confidence in His everlasting love.
Father, thank You for Your plans for us, and for the future that awaits us in Your love.
For more insight from Oswald Chambers, visit utmost.org.
God can use our deepest disappointments to nurture our faith in Him.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, May 05, 2017
Judgment and the Love of God
The time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God… —1 Peter 4:17
The Christian servant must never forget that salvation is God’s idea, not man’s; therefore, it has an unfathomable depth. Salvation is the great thought of God, not an experience. Experience is simply the door through which salvation comes into the conscious level of our life so that we are aware of what has taken place on a much deeper level. Never preach the experience— preach the great thought of God behind the experience. When we preach, we are not simply proclaiming how people can be saved from hell and be made moral and pure; we are conveying good news about God.
In the teachings of Jesus Christ the element of judgment is always brought out— it is the sign of the love of God. Never sympathize with someone who finds it difficult to get to God; God is not to blame. It is not for us to figure out the reason for the difficulty, but only to present the truth of God so that the Spirit of God will reveal what is wrong. The greatest test of the quality of our preaching is whether or not it brings everyone to judgment. When the truth is preached, the Spirit of God brings each person face to face with God Himself.
If Jesus ever commanded us to do something that He was unable to equip us to accomplish, He would be a liar. And if we make our own inability a stumbling block or an excuse not to be obedient, it means that we are telling God that there is something which He has not yet taken into account. Every element of our own self-reliance must be put to death by the power of God. The moment we recognize our complete weakness and our dependence upon Him will be the very moment that the Spirit of God will exhibit His power.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One Who is leading. My Utmost for His Highest, March 19, 761 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, May 05, 2017
The Hand That Is Your Hope - #7910
If you don’t know how to swim, it’s not cool to let your friends know that, right? Well, let me tell you, it’s just not smart not to tell them, especially if you’re going into the lake with them to swim. The scene was Lake Michigan. This 10-year-old boy was me. I couldn’t swim and I was too proud to tell my friends. Suddenly, as I waded deeper and deeper, I lost my footing and I began drinking the lake. I can remember the terror of it to this day. My friends thought it was funny. They were just laughing and going, "Oh, look at Ronnie. He’s such a clown!" I was dying. I'd gone under for the second time, and man, how I remember! I was helpless. I could not contribute a thing to getting back to shore. Thankfully, someone saw me, jumped in and that rescuer did it all!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Hand That Is Your Hope."
That day in the lake I had one hope-a rescuer. Only one person jumped in to save me, and I’m alive because of him.
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Timothy 2:3-6. "God our Savior...wants all men to be saved...There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all men." Now the saving that God is talking about here is from the effects and the punishment for the way we’ve run our lives. Actually, because we’ve run our lives when they were supposed to be God’s to run. The Bible makes it clear that we are drowning in the guilt of our sin and in the death penalty that God attaches to sin.
And God says that when you and I were drowning spiritually, His own Son, Jesus, jumped in to rescue us. He loved you so much He couldn’t stand to lose you. In God’s words, "He gave Himself a ransom." A ransom...that's paying the price to get you back. For Jesus, that was a high price. It meant absorbing all the hell and all the punishment for your sin as He died on that cross.
But you can still go under. You can still drown, if you won’t let Jesus rescue you. Maybe it's hard for you to admit that you can’t somehow swim to God on your own. In fact, you’ve done some very good things to make it to Him-but not good enough to meet the perfect standard of a perfect God. In Romans 3:10, God includes every person when He says that by His standards, "There is no one righteous, not even one." Not even one. Not even you. Not even me. Like me that day at the lake, there's nothing you can contribute to your rescue. Your only hope is a savior. And only one person jumped in to save you. That is Jesus Christ.
All that any religion can offer you is a book of swimming instructions-their way to swim to God. But it doesn’t matter if they’re Protestant swimming instructions or Catholic swimming instructions, or Jewish, or Moslem, or Buddhist, or New Age or whatever. Swimming instructions won’t rescue a drowning man or woman. Only the Savior can do that. And only Jesus did the dying it requires to get rid of your sin and to get you into a relationship with your Creator.
Even now, through these few minutes, Jesus is coming to you, offering to do for you what you could never do for yourself, and that is save you from your sin. All you can do is grab Him as if He’s your only hope, because He is! You can’t rescue yourself. Won’t you finally put your pride aside and all the religion and the goodness you thought would get you to heaven, and just reach for Jesus? He would have never died on that cross if your goodness could get you to heaven. It took that! That was the only way.
Tell Him right now, "Jesus, I believe that when you were dying on that cross some of those sins you were dying for were mine. And I have no hope but what You did there on that cross, and I'm grabbing You like a drowning person would grab a lifeguard-to be my Savior from my sin."
I really want to invite you to go to our website as soon as you can today, because you're going to find there laid out very carefully with the scriptures from God's own Word that will help you be sure you belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com.
That day I was going under, I had one hope-and that one hope was enough. The rescuer had come. That’s what Jesus wants to be for you, beginning right now. Please, grab your Savior and hold on tight.
God’s patience. You’ve read about it. Perhaps underlined Bible passages regarding it. But have you received it? Patience deeply received results in patience freely offered. But patience never received leads to an abundance of problems.
Remember where the king sent the unforgiving servant? “Then the angry king sent the man to prison until he had paid every penny” (Matthew 18:34 NLT). Whew! we sigh. Glad that story is a parable. It’s a good thing God doesn’t imprison the impatient in real life. Don’t be so sure! Impatience still imprisons the soul. For that reason, God does more than demand patience from us; he offers it to us!
Patience is a fruit of his Spirit. It hangs from the tree of Galatians 5:22: “The Spirit produces the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience.”
From A Love Worth Giving
2 Timothy 2
Doing Your Best for God
1-7 So, my son, throw yourself into this work for Christ. Pass on what you heard from me—the whole congregation saying Amen!—to reliable leaders who are competent to teach others. When the going gets rough, take it on the chin with the rest of us, the way Jesus did. A soldier on duty doesn’t get caught up in making deals at the marketplace. He concentrates on carrying out orders. An athlete who refuses to play by the rules will never get anywhere. It’s the diligent farmer who gets the produce. Think it over. God will make it all plain.
8-13 Fix this picture firmly in your mind: Jesus, descended from the line of David, raised from the dead. It’s what you’ve heard from me all along. It’s what I’m sitting in jail for right now—but God’s Word isn’t in jail! That’s why I stick it out here—so that everyone God calls will get in on the salvation of Christ in all its glory. This is a sure thing:
If we die with him, we’ll live with him;
If we stick it out with him, we’ll rule with him;
If we turn our backs on him, he’ll turn his back on us;
If we give up on him, he does not give up—
for there’s no way he can be false to himself.
14-18 Repeat these basic essentials over and over to God’s people. Warn them before God against pious nitpicking, which chips away at the faith. It just wears everyone out. Concentrate on doing your best for God, work you won’t be ashamed of, laying out the truth plain and simple. Stay clear of pious talk that is only talk. Words are not mere words, you know. If they’re not backed by a godly life, they accumulate as poison in the soul. Hymenaeus and Philetus are examples, throwing believers off stride and missing the truth by a mile by saying the resurrection is over and done with.
19 Meanwhile, God’s firm foundation is as firm as ever, these sentences engraved on the stones:
god knows who belongs to him.
spurn evil, all you who name god as god.
20-21 In a well-furnished kitchen there are not only crystal goblets and silver platters, but waste cans and compost buckets—some containers used to serve fine meals, others to take out the garbage. Become the kind of container God can use to present any and every kind of gift to his guests for their blessing.
22-26 Run away from infantile indulgence. Run after mature righteousness—faith, love, peace—joining those who are in honest and serious prayer before God. Refuse to get involved in inane discussions; they always end up in fights. God’s servant must not be argumentative, but a gentle listener and a teacher who keeps cool, working firmly but patiently with those who refuse to obey. You never know how or when God might sober them up with a change of heart and a turning to the truth, enabling them to escape the Devil’s trap, where they are caught and held captive, forced to run his errands.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, May 05, 2017
Read: Jeremiah 29:4–14
4 This is the Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel’s God, to all the exiles I’ve taken from Jerusalem to Babylon:
5 “Build houses and make yourselves at home.
“Put in gardens and eat what grows in that country.
6 “Marry and have children. Encourage your children to marry and have children so that you’ll thrive in that country and not waste away.
7 “Make yourselves at home there and work for the country’s welfare.
“Pray for Babylon’s well-being. If things go well for Babylon, things will go well for you.”
8-9 Yes. Believe it or not, this is the Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel’s God: “Don’t let all those so-called preachers and know-it-alls who are all over the place there take you in with their lies. Don’t pay any attention to the fantasies they keep coming up with to please you. They’re a bunch of liars preaching lies—and claiming I sent them! I never sent them, believe me.” God’s Decree!
10-11 This is God’s Word on the subject: “As soon as Babylon’s seventy years are up and not a day before, I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.
12 “When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen.
13-14 “When you come looking for me, you’ll find me.
“Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” God’s Decree.
“I’ll turn things around for you. I’ll bring you back from all the countries into which I drove you”—God’s Decree—“bring you home to the place from which I sent you off into exile. You can count on it.
INSIGHT:
What is one past sorrow that you find great difficulty in letting go? How does God’s promise in Jeremiah 29:11–14 comfort and encourage you as you turn your pain over to the Lord?
The Ministry of Memory
By David C. McCasland
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11
Our experiences of loss and disappointment may leave us feeling angry, guilty, and confused. Whether our choices have closed some doors that will never reopen or, through no fault of our own, tragedy has invaded our lives, the result is often what Oswald Chambers called “the unfathomable sadness of ‘the might have been.’ ” We may try to suppress the painful memory, but discover we can’t.
Chambers reminds us that the Lord is still active in our lives. “Never be afraid when God brings back the past,” he said. “Let memory have its way. It is a minister of God with its rebuke and chastisement and sorrow. God will turn the ‘might have been’ into a wonderful [place of growth] for the future.”
The Lord’s forgiveness can transform our sorrow into confidence in His everlasting love.
In Old Testament days when God sent the people of Israel into exile in Babylon, He told them to serve Him in that foreign land and grow in faith until He brought them back to their home. “ ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’ ” (Jer. 29:11).
God urged them not to ignore or be trapped by events of the past but instead to focus on Him and look ahead. The Lord’s forgiveness can transform the memory of our sorrow into confidence in His everlasting love.
Father, thank You for Your plans for us, and for the future that awaits us in Your love.
For more insight from Oswald Chambers, visit utmost.org.
God can use our deepest disappointments to nurture our faith in Him.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, May 05, 2017
Judgment and the Love of God
The time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God… —1 Peter 4:17
The Christian servant must never forget that salvation is God’s idea, not man’s; therefore, it has an unfathomable depth. Salvation is the great thought of God, not an experience. Experience is simply the door through which salvation comes into the conscious level of our life so that we are aware of what has taken place on a much deeper level. Never preach the experience— preach the great thought of God behind the experience. When we preach, we are not simply proclaiming how people can be saved from hell and be made moral and pure; we are conveying good news about God.
In the teachings of Jesus Christ the element of judgment is always brought out— it is the sign of the love of God. Never sympathize with someone who finds it difficult to get to God; God is not to blame. It is not for us to figure out the reason for the difficulty, but only to present the truth of God so that the Spirit of God will reveal what is wrong. The greatest test of the quality of our preaching is whether or not it brings everyone to judgment. When the truth is preached, the Spirit of God brings each person face to face with God Himself.
If Jesus ever commanded us to do something that He was unable to equip us to accomplish, He would be a liar. And if we make our own inability a stumbling block or an excuse not to be obedient, it means that we are telling God that there is something which He has not yet taken into account. Every element of our own self-reliance must be put to death by the power of God. The moment we recognize our complete weakness and our dependence upon Him will be the very moment that the Spirit of God will exhibit His power.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One Who is leading. My Utmost for His Highest, March 19, 761 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, May 05, 2017
The Hand That Is Your Hope - #7910
If you don’t know how to swim, it’s not cool to let your friends know that, right? Well, let me tell you, it’s just not smart not to tell them, especially if you’re going into the lake with them to swim. The scene was Lake Michigan. This 10-year-old boy was me. I couldn’t swim and I was too proud to tell my friends. Suddenly, as I waded deeper and deeper, I lost my footing and I began drinking the lake. I can remember the terror of it to this day. My friends thought it was funny. They were just laughing and going, "Oh, look at Ronnie. He’s such a clown!" I was dying. I'd gone under for the second time, and man, how I remember! I was helpless. I could not contribute a thing to getting back to shore. Thankfully, someone saw me, jumped in and that rescuer did it all!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Hand That Is Your Hope."
That day in the lake I had one hope-a rescuer. Only one person jumped in to save me, and I’m alive because of him.
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Timothy 2:3-6. "God our Savior...wants all men to be saved...There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all men." Now the saving that God is talking about here is from the effects and the punishment for the way we’ve run our lives. Actually, because we’ve run our lives when they were supposed to be God’s to run. The Bible makes it clear that we are drowning in the guilt of our sin and in the death penalty that God attaches to sin.
And God says that when you and I were drowning spiritually, His own Son, Jesus, jumped in to rescue us. He loved you so much He couldn’t stand to lose you. In God’s words, "He gave Himself a ransom." A ransom...that's paying the price to get you back. For Jesus, that was a high price. It meant absorbing all the hell and all the punishment for your sin as He died on that cross.
But you can still go under. You can still drown, if you won’t let Jesus rescue you. Maybe it's hard for you to admit that you can’t somehow swim to God on your own. In fact, you’ve done some very good things to make it to Him-but not good enough to meet the perfect standard of a perfect God. In Romans 3:10, God includes every person when He says that by His standards, "There is no one righteous, not even one." Not even one. Not even you. Not even me. Like me that day at the lake, there's nothing you can contribute to your rescue. Your only hope is a savior. And only one person jumped in to save you. That is Jesus Christ.
All that any religion can offer you is a book of swimming instructions-their way to swim to God. But it doesn’t matter if they’re Protestant swimming instructions or Catholic swimming instructions, or Jewish, or Moslem, or Buddhist, or New Age or whatever. Swimming instructions won’t rescue a drowning man or woman. Only the Savior can do that. And only Jesus did the dying it requires to get rid of your sin and to get you into a relationship with your Creator.
Even now, through these few minutes, Jesus is coming to you, offering to do for you what you could never do for yourself, and that is save you from your sin. All you can do is grab Him as if He’s your only hope, because He is! You can’t rescue yourself. Won’t you finally put your pride aside and all the religion and the goodness you thought would get you to heaven, and just reach for Jesus? He would have never died on that cross if your goodness could get you to heaven. It took that! That was the only way.
Tell Him right now, "Jesus, I believe that when you were dying on that cross some of those sins you were dying for were mine. And I have no hope but what You did there on that cross, and I'm grabbing You like a drowning person would grab a lifeguard-to be my Savior from my sin."
I really want to invite you to go to our website as soon as you can today, because you're going to find there laid out very carefully with the scriptures from God's own Word that will help you be sure you belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com.
That day I was going under, I had one hope-and that one hope was enough. The rescuer had come. That’s what Jesus wants to be for you, beginning right now. Please, grab your Savior and hold on tight.
Thursday, May 4, 2017
Ezekiel 17, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: GOD’S PATIENCE
Maybe no one has told you about God’s patience and willingness to put up with you! The Bible says, “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love” (Psalm 103:8 NIV).
Stare at the proof of God’s patience! Those thousand sunsets you never thanked him for? Those times you used his name only when you cussed? And oh my, those promises: “Get me out of this, and I’ll never tell another lie.” If broken promises were lumber, we could build a subdivision.
Doesn’t God have ample reason to walk out on us? But he doesn’t. Why? Because “God is being patient with you” (2 Peter 3:9). Patience isn’t naïve. It doesn’t ignore misbehavior. It’s slow to boil. This is how God treats us. Patience is the red carpet upon which God’s grace approaches us!
From A Love Worth Giving
Ezekiel 17
The Great Tree Is Made Small and the Small Tree Great
1-6 God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, make a riddle for the house of Israel. Tell them a story. Say, ‘God, the Master, says:
“‘A great eagle
with a huge wingspan and long feathers,
In full plumage and bright colors,
came to Lebanon
And took the top off a cedar,
broke off the top branch,
Took it to a land of traders,
and set it down in a city of shopkeepers.
Then he took a cutting from the land
and planted it in good, well-watered soil,
like a willow on a riverbank.
It sprouted into a flourishing vine,
low to the ground.
Its branches grew toward the eagle
and the roots became established—
A vine putting out shoots,
developing branches.
7-8 “‘There was another great eagle
with a huge wingspan and thickly feathered.
This vine sent out its roots toward him
from the place where it was planted.
Its branches reached out to him
so he could water it
from a long distance.
It had been planted
in good, well-watered soil,
And it put out branches and bore fruit,
and became a noble vine.
9-10 “‘God, the Master, says,
Will it thrive?
Won’t he just pull it up by the roots
and leave the grapes to rot
And the branches to shrivel up,
a withered, dead vine?
It won’t take much strength
or many hands to pull it up.
Even if it’s transplanted,
will it thrive?
When the hot east wind strikes it,
won’t it shrivel up?
Won’t it dry up and blow away
from the place where it was planted?’”
11-12 God’s Message came to me: “Tell this house of rebels, ‘Do you get it? Do you know what this means?’
12-14 “Tell them, ‘The king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and took its king and its leaders back to Babylon. He took one of the royal family and made a covenant with him, making him swear his loyalty. The king of Babylon took all the top leaders into exile to make sure that this kingdom stayed weak—didn’t get any big ideas of itself—and kept the covenant with him so that it would have a future.
15 “‘But he rebelled and sent emissaries to Egypt to recruit horses and a big army. Do you think that’s going to work? Are they going to get by with this? Does anyone break a covenant and get off scot-free?
16-18 “‘As sure as I am the living God, this king who broke his pledge of loyalty and his covenant will die in that country, in Babylon. Pharaoh with his big army—all those soldiers!—won’t lift a finger to fight for him when Babylon sets siege to the city and kills everyone inside. Because he broke his word and broke the covenant, even though he gave his solemn promise, because he went ahead and did all these things anyway, he won’t escape.
19-21 “‘Therefore, God, the Master, says, As sure as I am the living God, because the king despised my oath and broke my covenant, I’ll bring the consequences crashing down on his head. I’ll send out a search party and catch him. I’ll take him to Babylon and have him brought to trial because of his total disregard for me. All his elite soldiers, along with the rest of the army, will be killed in battle, and whoever is left will be scattered to the four winds. Then you’ll realize that I, God, have spoken.
22-24 “‘God, the Master, says, I personally will take a shoot from the top of the towering cedar, a cutting from the crown of the tree, and plant it on a high and towering mountain, on the high mountain of Israel. It will grow, putting out branches and fruit—a majestic cedar. Birds of every sort and kind will live under it. They’ll build nests in the shade of its branches. All the trees of the field will recognize that I, God, made the great tree small and the small tree great, made the green tree turn dry and the dry tree sprout green branches. I, God, said it—and I did it.’”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, May 04, 2017
Read: Psalm 102:1–17
A Prayer of One Whose Life Is Falling to Pieces, and Who Lets God Know Just How Bad It Is
1-2 God, listen! Listen to my prayer,
listen to the pain in my cries.
Don’t turn your back on me
just when I need you so desperately.
Pay attention! This is a cry for help!
And hurry—this can’t wait!
3-11 I’m wasting away to nothing,
I’m burning up with fever.
I’m a ghost of my former self,
half-consumed already by terminal illness.
My jaws ache from gritting my teeth;
I’m nothing but skin and bones.
I’m like a buzzard in the desert,
a crow perched on the rubble.
Insomniac, I twitter away,
mournful as a sparrow in the gutter.
All day long my enemies taunt me,
while others just curse.
They bring in meals—casseroles of ashes!
I draw drink from a barrel of my tears.
And all because of your furious anger;
you swept me up and threw me out.
There’s nothing left of me—
a withered weed, swept clean from the path.
12-17 Yet you, God, are sovereign still,
always and ever sovereign.
You’ll get up from your throne and help Zion—
it’s time for compassionate help.
Oh, how your servants love this city’s rubble
and weep with compassion over its dust!
The godless nations will sit up and take notice
—see your glory, worship your name—
When God rebuilds Zion,
when he shows up in all his glory,
When he attends to the prayer of the wretched.
He won’t dismiss their prayer.
INSIGHT:
Our Father welcomes us into His presence in prayer, but we also have the encouraging record of Jesus Himself praying for us! As the Teacher moved ever closer to the cross, Jesus prayed for His followers who walked with Him and all (including us) who would later come to Him (John 17:20). And when we pray, the Holy Spirit helps us align our prayers with the Father’s purposes (Rom. 8:26–27).
Five-Minute Rule
By Anne Cetas
He will respond to the prayer of the destitute; he will not despise their plea. Psalm 102:17
I read about a five-minute rule that a mother had for her children. They had to be ready for school and gather together five minutes before it was time to leave each day.
They would gather around Mom, and she would pray for each one by name, asking for the Lord’s blessing on their day. Then she’d give them a kiss and off they’d run. Even neighborhood kids would be included in the prayer circle if they happened to stop by. One of the children said many years later that she learned from this experience how crucial prayer is to her day.
God cares for you and wants to hear from you.
The writer of Psalm 102 knew the importance of prayer. This psalm is labeled, “A prayer of an afflicted person who has grown weak and pours out a lament before the Lord.” He cried out, “Hear my prayer, Lord; . . . when I call, answer me quickly” (vv. 1–2). God looks down “from his sanctuary on high, from heaven he [views] the earth” (v. 19).
God cares for you and wants to hear from you. Whether you follow the five-minute rule asking for blessings on the day, or need to spend more time crying out to Him in deep distress, talk to the Lord each day. Your example may have a big impact on your family or someone close to you.
Teach me to be aware of Your presence, Lord, and to talk to You freely and often.
Read Jesus' Blueprint for Prayer at discoveryseries.org/hj891.
Prayer is an acknowledgment of our need for God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, May 04, 2017
Vicarious Intercession
…having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus… —Hebrews 10:19
Beware of thinking that intercession means bringing our own personal sympathies and concerns into the presence of God, and then demanding that He do whatever we ask. Our ability to approach God is due entirely to the vicarious, or substitutionary, identification of our Lord with sin. We have “boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus.”
Spiritual stubbornness is the most effective hindrance to intercession, because it is based on a sympathetic “understanding” of things we see in ourselves and others that we think needs no atonement. We have the idea that there are certain good and virtuous things in each of us that do not need to be based on the atonement by the Cross of Christ. Just the sluggishness and lack of interest produced by this kind of thinking makes us unable to intercede. We do not identify ourselves with God’s interests and concerns for others, and we get irritated with Him. Yet we are always ready with our own ideas, and our intercession becomes only the glorification of our own natural sympathies. We have to realize that the identification of Jesus with sin means a radical change of all of our sympathies and interests. Vicarious intercession means that we deliberately substitute God’s interests in others for our natural sympathy with them.
Am I stubborn or substituted? Am I spoiled or complete in my relationship to God? Am I irritable or spiritual? Am I determined to have my own way or determined to be identified with Him?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
To those who have had no agony Jesus says, “I have nothing for you; stand on your own feet, square your own shoulders. I have come for the man who knows he has a bigger handful than he can cope with, who knows there are forces he cannot touch; I will do everything for him if he will let Me. Only let a man grant he needs it, and I will do it for him.”
The Shadow of an Agony
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, May 04, 2017
Making It Spring - #7909
Maybe you’re like me; you're one of those people who lives in a climate where there are four seasons, where the fall and spring are spectacularly beautiful and where winter is really winter, and summer is really summer. There’s probably one change of seasons that is probably anticipated by you more than any other-the end of winter! I’ve always lived with four seasons, and I like them all. I just think one of them lasts a month or two too long. That’s why I was so excited during a February ministry trip to South Carolina. I was living up north at the time, and so we had this serious winter. Now February is still winter a little while longer, but in South Carolina, the trees were starting to bloom! Not only were the flowers out on the trees, the shorts were even out on the humans! I don’t remember seeing dogwood blooming in February! That was early even for the mid-South, but there had been a string of days in the 70’s with temperatures that were still mild at night. So those little flowers said to themselves, "Hey, it’s warm, guys! I guess it’s time to bloom! You think they might have said that?
I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Making It Spring."
Now it happens to trees and flowers; the warmth brings out the beauty. It happens to people, too. There are people who are ready to bloom, ready to blossom if someone would only provide a warm climate for them-maybe you.
There’s a wonderful example here in our word for today from the Word of God beginning in Acts 9:26, "When Saul came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple." Remember, Saul had been a persecutor of Christians. He’s come to Christ now, but they’re having a hard time believing that. So, he's greeted by winter, you might say! It's cold!
Then the Bible says, "But Barnabas" (now you might remember his name means son of encouragement) "took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus." All of a sudden, here’s a warm climate; a touch of spring for Saul! It goes on to say, "So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely and spoke boldly in the name of the Lord."
Saul is at a critical point in his new faith. He’s ready to blossom into leadership, but he ran into some wintry responses. Everything in his life in the future at that point seemed to depend on someone who would provide a climate of warmth and encouragement; someone who believed in him. Barnabas surrounded this young believer with that kind of warmth, and something beautiful blossomed; someone beautiful blossomed!
There are people in your life who need that same kind of warm environment right now. It might be your own child, or friend or coworker, someone who is one of the difficult people in your life. It’s amazing the difference a little warmth can make in bringing out the beauty in a person!
The problem is we might be offering too much cold and not enough warm. If that person feels condemned, or criticized, or attacked, well don’t expect any beauty to emerge. Maybe you’ve made it feel like winter for them and the cold just makes you want to withdraw or be defensive or fight back. And one of the frustrating facts about our relationships is this: the less lovable a person is acting, the more they need your love. Yes, hard, difficult people are often folks who have experienced a lot of winter from people and some of it may be their own fault. But more cold is not going to help them blossom into something better. No, only warmth will do that.
How about signing up for the Barnabas Club? Make up your mind that you’re going to ask God for the grace to regularly affirm that person, to tell them their worth and tell them the beautiful things you see in them. Make them feel safe when they’re with you. Be the one person who expects the best of them, not the worst.
Actually, that’s how Jesus treats us, isn’t it? And that kind of love brings out the best in us. Will you love the people around you as Jesus has loved you? They’ll never blossom as long as it feels like winter. But if they get from you the warmth of love and encouragement, you can help bring out the beauty inside them. You can be the one who makes it spring for someone!
Maybe no one has told you about God’s patience and willingness to put up with you! The Bible says, “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love” (Psalm 103:8 NIV).
Stare at the proof of God’s patience! Those thousand sunsets you never thanked him for? Those times you used his name only when you cussed? And oh my, those promises: “Get me out of this, and I’ll never tell another lie.” If broken promises were lumber, we could build a subdivision.
Doesn’t God have ample reason to walk out on us? But he doesn’t. Why? Because “God is being patient with you” (2 Peter 3:9). Patience isn’t naïve. It doesn’t ignore misbehavior. It’s slow to boil. This is how God treats us. Patience is the red carpet upon which God’s grace approaches us!
From A Love Worth Giving
Ezekiel 17
The Great Tree Is Made Small and the Small Tree Great
1-6 God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, make a riddle for the house of Israel. Tell them a story. Say, ‘God, the Master, says:
“‘A great eagle
with a huge wingspan and long feathers,
In full plumage and bright colors,
came to Lebanon
And took the top off a cedar,
broke off the top branch,
Took it to a land of traders,
and set it down in a city of shopkeepers.
Then he took a cutting from the land
and planted it in good, well-watered soil,
like a willow on a riverbank.
It sprouted into a flourishing vine,
low to the ground.
Its branches grew toward the eagle
and the roots became established—
A vine putting out shoots,
developing branches.
7-8 “‘There was another great eagle
with a huge wingspan and thickly feathered.
This vine sent out its roots toward him
from the place where it was planted.
Its branches reached out to him
so he could water it
from a long distance.
It had been planted
in good, well-watered soil,
And it put out branches and bore fruit,
and became a noble vine.
9-10 “‘God, the Master, says,
Will it thrive?
Won’t he just pull it up by the roots
and leave the grapes to rot
And the branches to shrivel up,
a withered, dead vine?
It won’t take much strength
or many hands to pull it up.
Even if it’s transplanted,
will it thrive?
When the hot east wind strikes it,
won’t it shrivel up?
Won’t it dry up and blow away
from the place where it was planted?’”
11-12 God’s Message came to me: “Tell this house of rebels, ‘Do you get it? Do you know what this means?’
12-14 “Tell them, ‘The king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and took its king and its leaders back to Babylon. He took one of the royal family and made a covenant with him, making him swear his loyalty. The king of Babylon took all the top leaders into exile to make sure that this kingdom stayed weak—didn’t get any big ideas of itself—and kept the covenant with him so that it would have a future.
15 “‘But he rebelled and sent emissaries to Egypt to recruit horses and a big army. Do you think that’s going to work? Are they going to get by with this? Does anyone break a covenant and get off scot-free?
16-18 “‘As sure as I am the living God, this king who broke his pledge of loyalty and his covenant will die in that country, in Babylon. Pharaoh with his big army—all those soldiers!—won’t lift a finger to fight for him when Babylon sets siege to the city and kills everyone inside. Because he broke his word and broke the covenant, even though he gave his solemn promise, because he went ahead and did all these things anyway, he won’t escape.
19-21 “‘Therefore, God, the Master, says, As sure as I am the living God, because the king despised my oath and broke my covenant, I’ll bring the consequences crashing down on his head. I’ll send out a search party and catch him. I’ll take him to Babylon and have him brought to trial because of his total disregard for me. All his elite soldiers, along with the rest of the army, will be killed in battle, and whoever is left will be scattered to the four winds. Then you’ll realize that I, God, have spoken.
22-24 “‘God, the Master, says, I personally will take a shoot from the top of the towering cedar, a cutting from the crown of the tree, and plant it on a high and towering mountain, on the high mountain of Israel. It will grow, putting out branches and fruit—a majestic cedar. Birds of every sort and kind will live under it. They’ll build nests in the shade of its branches. All the trees of the field will recognize that I, God, made the great tree small and the small tree great, made the green tree turn dry and the dry tree sprout green branches. I, God, said it—and I did it.’”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, May 04, 2017
Read: Psalm 102:1–17
A Prayer of One Whose Life Is Falling to Pieces, and Who Lets God Know Just How Bad It Is
1-2 God, listen! Listen to my prayer,
listen to the pain in my cries.
Don’t turn your back on me
just when I need you so desperately.
Pay attention! This is a cry for help!
And hurry—this can’t wait!
3-11 I’m wasting away to nothing,
I’m burning up with fever.
I’m a ghost of my former self,
half-consumed already by terminal illness.
My jaws ache from gritting my teeth;
I’m nothing but skin and bones.
I’m like a buzzard in the desert,
a crow perched on the rubble.
Insomniac, I twitter away,
mournful as a sparrow in the gutter.
All day long my enemies taunt me,
while others just curse.
They bring in meals—casseroles of ashes!
I draw drink from a barrel of my tears.
And all because of your furious anger;
you swept me up and threw me out.
There’s nothing left of me—
a withered weed, swept clean from the path.
12-17 Yet you, God, are sovereign still,
always and ever sovereign.
You’ll get up from your throne and help Zion—
it’s time for compassionate help.
Oh, how your servants love this city’s rubble
and weep with compassion over its dust!
The godless nations will sit up and take notice
—see your glory, worship your name—
When God rebuilds Zion,
when he shows up in all his glory,
When he attends to the prayer of the wretched.
He won’t dismiss their prayer.
INSIGHT:
Our Father welcomes us into His presence in prayer, but we also have the encouraging record of Jesus Himself praying for us! As the Teacher moved ever closer to the cross, Jesus prayed for His followers who walked with Him and all (including us) who would later come to Him (John 17:20). And when we pray, the Holy Spirit helps us align our prayers with the Father’s purposes (Rom. 8:26–27).
Five-Minute Rule
By Anne Cetas
He will respond to the prayer of the destitute; he will not despise their plea. Psalm 102:17
I read about a five-minute rule that a mother had for her children. They had to be ready for school and gather together five minutes before it was time to leave each day.
They would gather around Mom, and she would pray for each one by name, asking for the Lord’s blessing on their day. Then she’d give them a kiss and off they’d run. Even neighborhood kids would be included in the prayer circle if they happened to stop by. One of the children said many years later that she learned from this experience how crucial prayer is to her day.
God cares for you and wants to hear from you.
The writer of Psalm 102 knew the importance of prayer. This psalm is labeled, “A prayer of an afflicted person who has grown weak and pours out a lament before the Lord.” He cried out, “Hear my prayer, Lord; . . . when I call, answer me quickly” (vv. 1–2). God looks down “from his sanctuary on high, from heaven he [views] the earth” (v. 19).
God cares for you and wants to hear from you. Whether you follow the five-minute rule asking for blessings on the day, or need to spend more time crying out to Him in deep distress, talk to the Lord each day. Your example may have a big impact on your family or someone close to you.
Teach me to be aware of Your presence, Lord, and to talk to You freely and often.
Read Jesus' Blueprint for Prayer at discoveryseries.org/hj891.
Prayer is an acknowledgment of our need for God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, May 04, 2017
Vicarious Intercession
…having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus… —Hebrews 10:19
Beware of thinking that intercession means bringing our own personal sympathies and concerns into the presence of God, and then demanding that He do whatever we ask. Our ability to approach God is due entirely to the vicarious, or substitutionary, identification of our Lord with sin. We have “boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus.”
Spiritual stubbornness is the most effective hindrance to intercession, because it is based on a sympathetic “understanding” of things we see in ourselves and others that we think needs no atonement. We have the idea that there are certain good and virtuous things in each of us that do not need to be based on the atonement by the Cross of Christ. Just the sluggishness and lack of interest produced by this kind of thinking makes us unable to intercede. We do not identify ourselves with God’s interests and concerns for others, and we get irritated with Him. Yet we are always ready with our own ideas, and our intercession becomes only the glorification of our own natural sympathies. We have to realize that the identification of Jesus with sin means a radical change of all of our sympathies and interests. Vicarious intercession means that we deliberately substitute God’s interests in others for our natural sympathy with them.
Am I stubborn or substituted? Am I spoiled or complete in my relationship to God? Am I irritable or spiritual? Am I determined to have my own way or determined to be identified with Him?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
To those who have had no agony Jesus says, “I have nothing for you; stand on your own feet, square your own shoulders. I have come for the man who knows he has a bigger handful than he can cope with, who knows there are forces he cannot touch; I will do everything for him if he will let Me. Only let a man grant he needs it, and I will do it for him.”
The Shadow of an Agony
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, May 04, 2017
Making It Spring - #7909
Maybe you’re like me; you're one of those people who lives in a climate where there are four seasons, where the fall and spring are spectacularly beautiful and where winter is really winter, and summer is really summer. There’s probably one change of seasons that is probably anticipated by you more than any other-the end of winter! I’ve always lived with four seasons, and I like them all. I just think one of them lasts a month or two too long. That’s why I was so excited during a February ministry trip to South Carolina. I was living up north at the time, and so we had this serious winter. Now February is still winter a little while longer, but in South Carolina, the trees were starting to bloom! Not only were the flowers out on the trees, the shorts were even out on the humans! I don’t remember seeing dogwood blooming in February! That was early even for the mid-South, but there had been a string of days in the 70’s with temperatures that were still mild at night. So those little flowers said to themselves, "Hey, it’s warm, guys! I guess it’s time to bloom! You think they might have said that?
I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Making It Spring."
Now it happens to trees and flowers; the warmth brings out the beauty. It happens to people, too. There are people who are ready to bloom, ready to blossom if someone would only provide a warm climate for them-maybe you.
There’s a wonderful example here in our word for today from the Word of God beginning in Acts 9:26, "When Saul came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple." Remember, Saul had been a persecutor of Christians. He’s come to Christ now, but they’re having a hard time believing that. So, he's greeted by winter, you might say! It's cold!
Then the Bible says, "But Barnabas" (now you might remember his name means son of encouragement) "took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus." All of a sudden, here’s a warm climate; a touch of spring for Saul! It goes on to say, "So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely and spoke boldly in the name of the Lord."
Saul is at a critical point in his new faith. He’s ready to blossom into leadership, but he ran into some wintry responses. Everything in his life in the future at that point seemed to depend on someone who would provide a climate of warmth and encouragement; someone who believed in him. Barnabas surrounded this young believer with that kind of warmth, and something beautiful blossomed; someone beautiful blossomed!
There are people in your life who need that same kind of warm environment right now. It might be your own child, or friend or coworker, someone who is one of the difficult people in your life. It’s amazing the difference a little warmth can make in bringing out the beauty in a person!
The problem is we might be offering too much cold and not enough warm. If that person feels condemned, or criticized, or attacked, well don’t expect any beauty to emerge. Maybe you’ve made it feel like winter for them and the cold just makes you want to withdraw or be defensive or fight back. And one of the frustrating facts about our relationships is this: the less lovable a person is acting, the more they need your love. Yes, hard, difficult people are often folks who have experienced a lot of winter from people and some of it may be their own fault. But more cold is not going to help them blossom into something better. No, only warmth will do that.
How about signing up for the Barnabas Club? Make up your mind that you’re going to ask God for the grace to regularly affirm that person, to tell them their worth and tell them the beautiful things you see in them. Make them feel safe when they’re with you. Be the one person who expects the best of them, not the worst.
Actually, that’s how Jesus treats us, isn’t it? And that kind of love brings out the best in us. Will you love the people around you as Jesus has loved you? They’ll never blossom as long as it feels like winter. But if they get from you the warmth of love and encouragement, you can help bring out the beauty inside them. You can be the one who makes it spring for someone!
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Ezekiel 16, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: THE MOUNT EVEREST OF LOVE WRITINGS
1 Corinthians 13 is the Mount Everest of love writings. And no words get to the heart of loving people like verses 4-8:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
Someone challenged me to replace the word love in this passage with my name. I did and became a liar. The passage set a standard I could not meet. No one can meet it…except Jesus. So rather than let this scripture remind us of a love we cannot produce, let it remind us of a love we cannot resist—God’s love!
From A Love Worth Giving
Ezekiel 16
Your Beauty Went to Your Head
1-3 God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her outrageous violations. Say this: ‘The Message of God, the Master, to Jerusalem: You were born and bred among Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.
4-5 “‘On the day you were born your umbilical cord was not cut, you weren’t bathed and cleaned up, you weren’t rubbed with salt, you weren’t wrapped in a baby blanket. No one cared a fig for you. No one did one thing to care for you tenderly in these ways. You were thrown out into a vacant lot and left there, dirty and unwashed—a newborn nobody wanted.
6-7 “‘And then I came by. I saw you all miserable and bloody. Yes, I said to you, lying there helpless and filthy, “Live! Grow up like a plant in the field!” And you did. You grew up. You grew tall and matured as a woman, full-breasted, with flowing hair. But you were naked and vulnerable, fragile and exposed.
8-14 “‘I came by again and saw you, saw that you were ready for love and a lover. I took care of you, dressed you and protected you. I promised you my love and entered the covenant of marriage with you. I, God, the Master, gave my word. You became mine. I gave you a good bath, washing off all that old blood, and anointed you with aromatic oils. I dressed you in a colorful gown and put leather sandals on your feet. I gave you linen blouses and a fashionable wardrobe of expensive clothing. I adorned you with jewelry: I placed bracelets on your wrists, fitted you out with a necklace, emerald rings, sapphire earrings, and a diamond tiara. You were provided with everything precious and beautiful: with exquisite clothes and elegant food, garnished with honey and oil. You were absolutely stunning. You were a queen! You became world-famous, a legendary beauty brought to perfection by my adornments. Decree of God, the Master.
15-16 “‘But your beauty went to your head and you became a common whore, grabbing anyone coming down the street and taking him into your bed. You took your fine dresses and made “tents” of them, using them as brothels in which you practiced your trade. This kind of thing should never happen, never.
What a Sick Soul!
17-19 “‘And then you took all that fine jewelry I gave you, my gold and my silver, and made pornographic images of them for your brothels. You decorated your beds with fashionable silks and cottons, and perfumed them with my aromatic oils and incense. And then you set out the wonderful foods I provided—the fresh breads and fruits, with fine herbs and spices, which were my gifts to you—and you served them as delicacies in your whorehouses. That’s what happened, says God, the Master.
20-21 “‘And then you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had given birth to as my children, and you killed them, sacrificing them to idols. Wasn’t it bad enough that you had become a whore? And now you’re a murderer, killing my children and sacrificing them to idols.
22 “‘Not once during these years of outrageous obscenities and whorings did you remember your infancy, when you were naked and exposed, a blood-smeared newborn.
23-24 “‘And then to top off all your evil acts, you built your bold brothels in every town square. Doom! Doom to you, says God, the Master! At every major intersection you built your bold brothels and exposed your sluttish sex, spreading your legs for everyone who passed by.
25-27 “‘And then you went international with your whoring. You fornicated with the Egyptians, seeking them out in their sex orgies. The more promiscuous you became, the angrier I got. Finally, I intervened, reduced your borders and turned you over to the rapacity of your enemies. Even the Philistine women—can you believe it?—were shocked at your sluttish life.
28-29 “‘You went on to fornicate with the Assyrians. Your appetite was insatiable. But still you weren’t satisfied. You took on the Babylonians, a country of businessmen, and still you weren’t satisfied.
30-31 “‘What a sick soul! Doing all this stuff—the champion whore! You built your bold brothels at every major intersection, opened up your whorehouses in every neighborhood, but you were different from regular whores in that you wouldn’t accept a fee.
32-34 “‘Wives who are unfaithful to their husbands accept gifts from their lovers. And men commonly pay their whores. But you pay your lovers! You bribe men from all over to come to bed with you! You’re just the opposite of the regular whores who get paid for sex. Instead, you pay men for their favors! You even pervert whoredom!
35-38 “‘Therefore, whore, listen to God’s Message: I, God, the Master, say, Because you’ve been unrestrained in your promiscuity, stripped down for every lover, flaunting your sex, and because of your pornographic idols and all the slaughtered children you offered to them, therefore, because of all this, I’m going to get all your lovers together, all those you’ve used for your own pleasure, the ones you loved and the ones you loathed. I’ll assemble them as a courtroom of spectators around you. In broad daylight I’ll strip you naked before them—they’ll see what you really look like. Then I’ll sentence you to the punishment for an adulterous woman and a murderous woman. I’ll give you a taste of my wrath!
39-41 “‘I’ll gather all your lovers around you and turn you over to them. They’ll tear down your bold brothels and sex shrines. They’ll rip off your clothes, take your jewels, and leave you naked and exposed. Then they’ll call for a mass meeting. The mob will stone you and hack you to pieces with their swords. They’ll burn down your houses. A massive judgment—with all the women watching!
41-42 “‘I’ll have put a full stop to your whoring life—no more paying lovers to come to your bed! By then my anger will be played out. My jealousy will subside.
43 “‘Because you didn’t remember what happened when you were young but made me angry with all this behavior, I’ll make you pay for your waywardness. Didn’t you just exponentially compound your outrageous obscenities with all your sluttish ways?
44-45 “‘Everyone who likes to use proverbs will use this one: “Like mother, like daughter.” You’re the daughter of your mother, who couldn’t stand her husband and children. And you’re a true sister of your sisters, who couldn’t stand their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.
46-48 “‘Your older sister is Samaria. She lived to the north of you with her daughters. Your younger sister is Sodom, who lived to the south of you with her daughters. Haven’t you lived just like they did? Haven’t you engaged in outrageous obscenities just like they did? In fact, it didn’t take you long to catch up and pass them! As sure as I am the living God!—Decree of God, the Master—your sister Sodom and her daughters never even came close to what you and your daughters have done.
49-50 “‘The sin of your sister Sodom was this: She lived with her daughters in the lap of luxury—proud, gluttonous, and lazy. They ignored the oppressed and the poor. They put on airs and lived obscene lives. And you know what happened: I did away with them.
51-52 “‘And Samaria. Samaria didn’t sin half as much as you. You’ve committed far more obscenities than she ever did. Why, you make your two sisters look good in comparison with what you’ve done! Face it, your sisters look mighty good compared with you. Because you’ve outsinned them so completely, you’ve actually made them look righteous. Aren’t you ashamed? But you’re going to have to live with it. What a reputation to carry into history: outsinning your two sisters!
53-58 “‘But I’m going to reverse their fortunes, the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters. And—get this—your fortunes right along with them! Still, you’re going to have to live with your shame. And by facing and accepting your shame, you’re going to provide some comfort to your two sisters. Your sisters, Sodom with her daughters and Samaria with her daughters, will become what they were before, and you will become what you were before. Remember the days when you were putting on airs, acting so high and mighty, looking down on sister Sodom? That was before your evil ways were exposed. And now you’re the butt of contempt, despised by the Edomite women, the Philistine women, and everybody else around. But you have to face it, to accept the shame of your obscene and vile life. Decree of God, the Master.
59-63 “‘God, the Master, says, I’ll do to you just as you have already done, you who have treated my oath with contempt and broken the covenant. All the same, I’ll remember the covenant I made with you when you were young and I’ll make a new covenant with you that will last forever. You’ll remember your sorry past and be properly contrite when you receive back your sisters, both the older and the younger. I’ll give them to you as daughters, but not as participants in your covenant. I’ll firmly establish my covenant with you and you’ll know that I am God. You’ll remember your past life and face the shame of it, but when I make atonement for you, make everything right after all you’ve done, it will leave you speechless.’” Decree of God, the Master.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, May 03, 2017
Read: Genesis 28:10–17
Jacob left Beersheba and went to Haran. He came to a certain place and camped for the night since the sun had set. He took one of the stones there, set it under his head and lay down to sleep. And he dreamed: A stairway was set on the ground and it reached all the way to the sky; angels of God were going up and going down on it.
13-15 Then God was right before him, saying, “I am God, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. I’m giving the ground on which you are sleeping to you and to your descendants. Your descendants will be as the dust of the Earth; they’ll stretch from west to east and from north to south. All the families of the Earth will bless themselves in you and your descendants. Yes. I’ll stay with you, I’ll protect you wherever you go, and I’ll bring you back to this very ground. I’ll stick with you until I’ve done everything I promised you.”
16-17 Jacob woke up from his sleep. He said, “God is in this place—truly. And I didn’t even know it!” He was terrified. He whispered in awe, “Incredible. Wonderful. Holy. This is God’s House. This is the Gate of Heaven.”
INSIGHT:
The Scriptures teach us that saving faith must be a personal faith; the faith of our parents will not save us. But it is interesting that in today’s passage God introduces Himself to Jacob by pointing to his ancestors. It is not Jacob’s lineage that is important, but that the God he had heard about from his ancestors was the same God who would now be with him. Jacob could have confidence that God would be with him because He had been with Abraham and Isaac.
What stories of God’s faithfulness from your past or from the lives of your family bring encouragement that God does not change and will always be with you?
Alone in Space
By Mart DeHaan
Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it. Genesis 28:16
Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden knew what it felt like to be on the far side of the moon. For three days back in 1971, he flew alone in his command module, Endeavor, while two crewmates worked thousands of miles below on the surface of the moon. His only companions were the stars overhead that he remembers as being so thick they seemed to wrap him in a sheet of light.
As the sun went down on the Old Testament character Jacob’s first night away from home, he too was profoundly alone, but for a different reason. He was on the run from his older brother—who wanted to kill him for stealing the family blessing normally given to the firstborn son. Yet on falling asleep, Jacob had a dream of a staircase joining heaven and earth. As he watched angels ascending and descending, he heard the voice of God promising to be with him and to bless the whole earth through his children. When Jacob woke he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it” (Gen. 28:16).
Father, the glory of Your unseen presence and goodness is far greater than we can imagine.
Jacob had isolated himself because of his deceit. Yet as real as his failures, and as dark as the night, he was in the presence of the One whose plans are always better and more far-reaching than our own. Heaven is closer than we think, and the “God of Jacob” is with us.
Father, thank You for using the story of Jacob to show us that the glory of Your unseen presence and goodness is far greater than we could imagine.
God is nearer than we think.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, May 03, 2017
Vital Intercession
…praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit… —Ephesians 6:18
As we continue on in our intercession for others, we may find that our obedience to God in interceding is going to cost those for whom we intercede more than we ever thought. The danger in this is that we begin to intercede in sympathy with those whom God was gradually lifting up to a totally different level in direct answer to our prayers. Whenever we step back from our close identification with God’s interest and concern for others and step into having emotional sympathy with them, the vital connection with God is gone. We have then put our sympathy and concern for them in the way, and this is a deliberate rebuke to God.
It is impossible for us to have living and vital intercession unless we are perfectly and completely sure of God. And the greatest destroyer of that confident relationship to God, so necessary for intercession, is our own personal sympathy and preconceived bias. Identification with God is the key to intercession, and whenever we stop being identified with Him it is because of our sympathy with others, not because of sin. It is not likely that sin will interfere with our intercessory relationship with God, but sympathy will. It is sympathy with ourselves or with others that makes us say, “I will not allow that thing to happen.” And instantly we are out of that vital connection with God.
Vital intercession leaves you with neither the time nor the inclination to pray for your own “sad and pitiful self.” You do not have to struggle to keep thoughts of yourself out, because they are not even there to be kept out of your thinking. You are completely and entirely identified with God’s interests and concerns in other lives. God gives us discernment in the lives of others to call us to intercession for them, never so that we may find fault with them.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The life of Abraham is an illustration of two things: of unreserved surrender to God, and of God’s complete possession of a child of His for His own highest end. Not Knowing Whither, 901 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, May 03, 2017
The Heart of a Hero - #7908
When that terrorist bomb ripped apart the Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City on that infamous April 19 years ago, Mark was on the scene within ten minutes. Today that scene of horrendous carnage and violence is a tranquil Memorial Site in downtown Oklahoma City. One night when I was speaking in that city, Mark (who was a police officer) took me there for a personal tour that was pretty moving. Gesturing toward that quiet memorial area that stands where the building once stood, he showed me where the nursery had been, from which he had carried the youngest victims of the bombing. And he pointed to the area where he had assisted in the dramatic rescue of a woman who thought she was going to die but was brought out alive by some valiant rescuers. Mark remembers making a quick call to his wife that day, telling her and his daughters, "I love you. I'll see you later" not knowing how much later that would be. As he and the men around him looked at the sagging wreckage over their heads, Mark just said to his supervisor, "I think we’re going to die here." They must have all thought that. But they refused to leave because lives were at stake.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Heart of a Hero."
Standing next to a man who had risked his life on this very ground to save other lives, it hit me full force: a rescuer forgets about himself or he’ll never take the risks to go in to save a life; someone who will die if he doesn’t. And I thought about what it is that keeps most people who have been rescued by Jesus from trying to rescue other spiritually dying people. We’re so focused on ourselves that either we don’t care about those lives at stake or more likely we’re paralyzed by our fears of how they might react if we told them about our Jesus, who is heaven’s Rescuer. In either case, we do nothing because we’re all wrapped up in ourselves; the exact opposite of a rescuer, who abandons all his self-interest because someone's going to die if he doesn’t go in.
In a sense, all of us who know Christ are actually "Esthers." She’s the Jewish girl who became the queen of Persia without anyone ever discovering her real roots. Then came the day when a shrewd conspiracy caused the king to approve a decree for the slaughter of all Jews. Mordecai, the man who had raised Esther, sent her a message, urging her to go to the king and plead for the life of her people. She was afraid because the law of the land dictated that anyone who entered the king’s presence unbidden would be executed unless he extended his gold scepter to them.
In Esther 4:14-16 our word for today from the Word of God, Mordecai appeals to her with this plea: "Who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" Esther does go to the king, uttering this courageous declaration: "If I perish, I perish." That's the heart of a rescuer. It doesn’t matter what happens to me. It matters what happens to the people who will die if I don’t do something. And her people were saved.
Like Esther, you have been assigned where you are-where you work, where you live, or where you go to school. Why? To help save the lives of the people there; people who, without a relationship with the Man who died for their sins, face an eternity in hell and no hope of heaven. And you have the life-saving information about Jesus that can rescue them. It’s not about changing their religion. It's not about you winning an argument or getting them to come to your church or your religion. It’s about whether they have a chance to know the only Person who can save them-Jesus.
You’re afraid of what might happen if you went in for the rescue. I know that feeling. It might damage your relationship, and you might mess it up. Would you think like a rescuer-fearing more what will happen if you don’t attempt the rescue than what will happen if you do? You've been brought into their lives for such a time as this.
Jesus abandoned Himself completely to rescue you. There is no rescue unless the rescuer forgets about himself or herself. Someone’s eternity may depend on you doing just that. God put you where you are so they could have a chance at heaven. Don’t fail them. Don’t fail the Rescuer who died so they and so you could live.
1 Corinthians 13 is the Mount Everest of love writings. And no words get to the heart of loving people like verses 4-8:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
Someone challenged me to replace the word love in this passage with my name. I did and became a liar. The passage set a standard I could not meet. No one can meet it…except Jesus. So rather than let this scripture remind us of a love we cannot produce, let it remind us of a love we cannot resist—God’s love!
From A Love Worth Giving
Ezekiel 16
Your Beauty Went to Your Head
1-3 God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her outrageous violations. Say this: ‘The Message of God, the Master, to Jerusalem: You were born and bred among Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.
4-5 “‘On the day you were born your umbilical cord was not cut, you weren’t bathed and cleaned up, you weren’t rubbed with salt, you weren’t wrapped in a baby blanket. No one cared a fig for you. No one did one thing to care for you tenderly in these ways. You were thrown out into a vacant lot and left there, dirty and unwashed—a newborn nobody wanted.
6-7 “‘And then I came by. I saw you all miserable and bloody. Yes, I said to you, lying there helpless and filthy, “Live! Grow up like a plant in the field!” And you did. You grew up. You grew tall and matured as a woman, full-breasted, with flowing hair. But you were naked and vulnerable, fragile and exposed.
8-14 “‘I came by again and saw you, saw that you were ready for love and a lover. I took care of you, dressed you and protected you. I promised you my love and entered the covenant of marriage with you. I, God, the Master, gave my word. You became mine. I gave you a good bath, washing off all that old blood, and anointed you with aromatic oils. I dressed you in a colorful gown and put leather sandals on your feet. I gave you linen blouses and a fashionable wardrobe of expensive clothing. I adorned you with jewelry: I placed bracelets on your wrists, fitted you out with a necklace, emerald rings, sapphire earrings, and a diamond tiara. You were provided with everything precious and beautiful: with exquisite clothes and elegant food, garnished with honey and oil. You were absolutely stunning. You were a queen! You became world-famous, a legendary beauty brought to perfection by my adornments. Decree of God, the Master.
15-16 “‘But your beauty went to your head and you became a common whore, grabbing anyone coming down the street and taking him into your bed. You took your fine dresses and made “tents” of them, using them as brothels in which you practiced your trade. This kind of thing should never happen, never.
What a Sick Soul!
17-19 “‘And then you took all that fine jewelry I gave you, my gold and my silver, and made pornographic images of them for your brothels. You decorated your beds with fashionable silks and cottons, and perfumed them with my aromatic oils and incense. And then you set out the wonderful foods I provided—the fresh breads and fruits, with fine herbs and spices, which were my gifts to you—and you served them as delicacies in your whorehouses. That’s what happened, says God, the Master.
20-21 “‘And then you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had given birth to as my children, and you killed them, sacrificing them to idols. Wasn’t it bad enough that you had become a whore? And now you’re a murderer, killing my children and sacrificing them to idols.
22 “‘Not once during these years of outrageous obscenities and whorings did you remember your infancy, when you were naked and exposed, a blood-smeared newborn.
23-24 “‘And then to top off all your evil acts, you built your bold brothels in every town square. Doom! Doom to you, says God, the Master! At every major intersection you built your bold brothels and exposed your sluttish sex, spreading your legs for everyone who passed by.
25-27 “‘And then you went international with your whoring. You fornicated with the Egyptians, seeking them out in their sex orgies. The more promiscuous you became, the angrier I got. Finally, I intervened, reduced your borders and turned you over to the rapacity of your enemies. Even the Philistine women—can you believe it?—were shocked at your sluttish life.
28-29 “‘You went on to fornicate with the Assyrians. Your appetite was insatiable. But still you weren’t satisfied. You took on the Babylonians, a country of businessmen, and still you weren’t satisfied.
30-31 “‘What a sick soul! Doing all this stuff—the champion whore! You built your bold brothels at every major intersection, opened up your whorehouses in every neighborhood, but you were different from regular whores in that you wouldn’t accept a fee.
32-34 “‘Wives who are unfaithful to their husbands accept gifts from their lovers. And men commonly pay their whores. But you pay your lovers! You bribe men from all over to come to bed with you! You’re just the opposite of the regular whores who get paid for sex. Instead, you pay men for their favors! You even pervert whoredom!
35-38 “‘Therefore, whore, listen to God’s Message: I, God, the Master, say, Because you’ve been unrestrained in your promiscuity, stripped down for every lover, flaunting your sex, and because of your pornographic idols and all the slaughtered children you offered to them, therefore, because of all this, I’m going to get all your lovers together, all those you’ve used for your own pleasure, the ones you loved and the ones you loathed. I’ll assemble them as a courtroom of spectators around you. In broad daylight I’ll strip you naked before them—they’ll see what you really look like. Then I’ll sentence you to the punishment for an adulterous woman and a murderous woman. I’ll give you a taste of my wrath!
39-41 “‘I’ll gather all your lovers around you and turn you over to them. They’ll tear down your bold brothels and sex shrines. They’ll rip off your clothes, take your jewels, and leave you naked and exposed. Then they’ll call for a mass meeting. The mob will stone you and hack you to pieces with their swords. They’ll burn down your houses. A massive judgment—with all the women watching!
41-42 “‘I’ll have put a full stop to your whoring life—no more paying lovers to come to your bed! By then my anger will be played out. My jealousy will subside.
43 “‘Because you didn’t remember what happened when you were young but made me angry with all this behavior, I’ll make you pay for your waywardness. Didn’t you just exponentially compound your outrageous obscenities with all your sluttish ways?
44-45 “‘Everyone who likes to use proverbs will use this one: “Like mother, like daughter.” You’re the daughter of your mother, who couldn’t stand her husband and children. And you’re a true sister of your sisters, who couldn’t stand their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.
46-48 “‘Your older sister is Samaria. She lived to the north of you with her daughters. Your younger sister is Sodom, who lived to the south of you with her daughters. Haven’t you lived just like they did? Haven’t you engaged in outrageous obscenities just like they did? In fact, it didn’t take you long to catch up and pass them! As sure as I am the living God!—Decree of God, the Master—your sister Sodom and her daughters never even came close to what you and your daughters have done.
49-50 “‘The sin of your sister Sodom was this: She lived with her daughters in the lap of luxury—proud, gluttonous, and lazy. They ignored the oppressed and the poor. They put on airs and lived obscene lives. And you know what happened: I did away with them.
51-52 “‘And Samaria. Samaria didn’t sin half as much as you. You’ve committed far more obscenities than she ever did. Why, you make your two sisters look good in comparison with what you’ve done! Face it, your sisters look mighty good compared with you. Because you’ve outsinned them so completely, you’ve actually made them look righteous. Aren’t you ashamed? But you’re going to have to live with it. What a reputation to carry into history: outsinning your two sisters!
53-58 “‘But I’m going to reverse their fortunes, the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters. And—get this—your fortunes right along with them! Still, you’re going to have to live with your shame. And by facing and accepting your shame, you’re going to provide some comfort to your two sisters. Your sisters, Sodom with her daughters and Samaria with her daughters, will become what they were before, and you will become what you were before. Remember the days when you were putting on airs, acting so high and mighty, looking down on sister Sodom? That was before your evil ways were exposed. And now you’re the butt of contempt, despised by the Edomite women, the Philistine women, and everybody else around. But you have to face it, to accept the shame of your obscene and vile life. Decree of God, the Master.
59-63 “‘God, the Master, says, I’ll do to you just as you have already done, you who have treated my oath with contempt and broken the covenant. All the same, I’ll remember the covenant I made with you when you were young and I’ll make a new covenant with you that will last forever. You’ll remember your sorry past and be properly contrite when you receive back your sisters, both the older and the younger. I’ll give them to you as daughters, but not as participants in your covenant. I’ll firmly establish my covenant with you and you’ll know that I am God. You’ll remember your past life and face the shame of it, but when I make atonement for you, make everything right after all you’ve done, it will leave you speechless.’” Decree of God, the Master.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, May 03, 2017
Read: Genesis 28:10–17
Jacob left Beersheba and went to Haran. He came to a certain place and camped for the night since the sun had set. He took one of the stones there, set it under his head and lay down to sleep. And he dreamed: A stairway was set on the ground and it reached all the way to the sky; angels of God were going up and going down on it.
13-15 Then God was right before him, saying, “I am God, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. I’m giving the ground on which you are sleeping to you and to your descendants. Your descendants will be as the dust of the Earth; they’ll stretch from west to east and from north to south. All the families of the Earth will bless themselves in you and your descendants. Yes. I’ll stay with you, I’ll protect you wherever you go, and I’ll bring you back to this very ground. I’ll stick with you until I’ve done everything I promised you.”
16-17 Jacob woke up from his sleep. He said, “God is in this place—truly. And I didn’t even know it!” He was terrified. He whispered in awe, “Incredible. Wonderful. Holy. This is God’s House. This is the Gate of Heaven.”
INSIGHT:
The Scriptures teach us that saving faith must be a personal faith; the faith of our parents will not save us. But it is interesting that in today’s passage God introduces Himself to Jacob by pointing to his ancestors. It is not Jacob’s lineage that is important, but that the God he had heard about from his ancestors was the same God who would now be with him. Jacob could have confidence that God would be with him because He had been with Abraham and Isaac.
What stories of God’s faithfulness from your past or from the lives of your family bring encouragement that God does not change and will always be with you?
Alone in Space
By Mart DeHaan
Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it. Genesis 28:16
Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden knew what it felt like to be on the far side of the moon. For three days back in 1971, he flew alone in his command module, Endeavor, while two crewmates worked thousands of miles below on the surface of the moon. His only companions were the stars overhead that he remembers as being so thick they seemed to wrap him in a sheet of light.
As the sun went down on the Old Testament character Jacob’s first night away from home, he too was profoundly alone, but for a different reason. He was on the run from his older brother—who wanted to kill him for stealing the family blessing normally given to the firstborn son. Yet on falling asleep, Jacob had a dream of a staircase joining heaven and earth. As he watched angels ascending and descending, he heard the voice of God promising to be with him and to bless the whole earth through his children. When Jacob woke he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it” (Gen. 28:16).
Father, the glory of Your unseen presence and goodness is far greater than we can imagine.
Jacob had isolated himself because of his deceit. Yet as real as his failures, and as dark as the night, he was in the presence of the One whose plans are always better and more far-reaching than our own. Heaven is closer than we think, and the “God of Jacob” is with us.
Father, thank You for using the story of Jacob to show us that the glory of Your unseen presence and goodness is far greater than we could imagine.
God is nearer than we think.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, May 03, 2017
Vital Intercession
…praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit… —Ephesians 6:18
As we continue on in our intercession for others, we may find that our obedience to God in interceding is going to cost those for whom we intercede more than we ever thought. The danger in this is that we begin to intercede in sympathy with those whom God was gradually lifting up to a totally different level in direct answer to our prayers. Whenever we step back from our close identification with God’s interest and concern for others and step into having emotional sympathy with them, the vital connection with God is gone. We have then put our sympathy and concern for them in the way, and this is a deliberate rebuke to God.
It is impossible for us to have living and vital intercession unless we are perfectly and completely sure of God. And the greatest destroyer of that confident relationship to God, so necessary for intercession, is our own personal sympathy and preconceived bias. Identification with God is the key to intercession, and whenever we stop being identified with Him it is because of our sympathy with others, not because of sin. It is not likely that sin will interfere with our intercessory relationship with God, but sympathy will. It is sympathy with ourselves or with others that makes us say, “I will not allow that thing to happen.” And instantly we are out of that vital connection with God.
Vital intercession leaves you with neither the time nor the inclination to pray for your own “sad and pitiful self.” You do not have to struggle to keep thoughts of yourself out, because they are not even there to be kept out of your thinking. You are completely and entirely identified with God’s interests and concerns in other lives. God gives us discernment in the lives of others to call us to intercession for them, never so that we may find fault with them.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The life of Abraham is an illustration of two things: of unreserved surrender to God, and of God’s complete possession of a child of His for His own highest end. Not Knowing Whither, 901 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, May 03, 2017
The Heart of a Hero - #7908
When that terrorist bomb ripped apart the Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City on that infamous April 19 years ago, Mark was on the scene within ten minutes. Today that scene of horrendous carnage and violence is a tranquil Memorial Site in downtown Oklahoma City. One night when I was speaking in that city, Mark (who was a police officer) took me there for a personal tour that was pretty moving. Gesturing toward that quiet memorial area that stands where the building once stood, he showed me where the nursery had been, from which he had carried the youngest victims of the bombing. And he pointed to the area where he had assisted in the dramatic rescue of a woman who thought she was going to die but was brought out alive by some valiant rescuers. Mark remembers making a quick call to his wife that day, telling her and his daughters, "I love you. I'll see you later" not knowing how much later that would be. As he and the men around him looked at the sagging wreckage over their heads, Mark just said to his supervisor, "I think we’re going to die here." They must have all thought that. But they refused to leave because lives were at stake.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Heart of a Hero."
Standing next to a man who had risked his life on this very ground to save other lives, it hit me full force: a rescuer forgets about himself or he’ll never take the risks to go in to save a life; someone who will die if he doesn’t. And I thought about what it is that keeps most people who have been rescued by Jesus from trying to rescue other spiritually dying people. We’re so focused on ourselves that either we don’t care about those lives at stake or more likely we’re paralyzed by our fears of how they might react if we told them about our Jesus, who is heaven’s Rescuer. In either case, we do nothing because we’re all wrapped up in ourselves; the exact opposite of a rescuer, who abandons all his self-interest because someone's going to die if he doesn’t go in.
In a sense, all of us who know Christ are actually "Esthers." She’s the Jewish girl who became the queen of Persia without anyone ever discovering her real roots. Then came the day when a shrewd conspiracy caused the king to approve a decree for the slaughter of all Jews. Mordecai, the man who had raised Esther, sent her a message, urging her to go to the king and plead for the life of her people. She was afraid because the law of the land dictated that anyone who entered the king’s presence unbidden would be executed unless he extended his gold scepter to them.
In Esther 4:14-16 our word for today from the Word of God, Mordecai appeals to her with this plea: "Who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" Esther does go to the king, uttering this courageous declaration: "If I perish, I perish." That's the heart of a rescuer. It doesn’t matter what happens to me. It matters what happens to the people who will die if I don’t do something. And her people were saved.
Like Esther, you have been assigned where you are-where you work, where you live, or where you go to school. Why? To help save the lives of the people there; people who, without a relationship with the Man who died for their sins, face an eternity in hell and no hope of heaven. And you have the life-saving information about Jesus that can rescue them. It’s not about changing their religion. It's not about you winning an argument or getting them to come to your church or your religion. It’s about whether they have a chance to know the only Person who can save them-Jesus.
You’re afraid of what might happen if you went in for the rescue. I know that feeling. It might damage your relationship, and you might mess it up. Would you think like a rescuer-fearing more what will happen if you don’t attempt the rescue than what will happen if you do? You've been brought into their lives for such a time as this.
Jesus abandoned Himself completely to rescue you. There is no rescue unless the rescuer forgets about himself or herself. Someone’s eternity may depend on you doing just that. God put you where you are so they could have a chance at heaven. Don’t fail them. Don’t fail the Rescuer who died so they and so you could live.
Tuesday, May 2, 2017
Ezekiel 15, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: LOVE EACH OTHER
“Love each other!” we pastors tell our churches. “Be patient, kind, and forgiving,” we urge. But instructing people to love without telling them they are loved is like telling them to write a check without our making a deposit in their accounts. No wonder so many relationships are overdrawn. Hearts have insufficient love.
The key to loving is living loved. Remember Paul’s prayer? “May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love” (Ephesians 3:17 NLT). Does bumping into certain people leave you brittle, breakable, and fruitless? Do you easily fall apart? If so, your love may be grounded in the wrong soil. It may be rooted in their love (which is fickle) or in your resolve to love (which is frail). John urges us to rely on the love God has for us (1 John 4:16 NIV).
Many people tell us to love. Only God gives us the power to do so!
From A Love Worth Giving
Ezekiel 15
Used as Fuel for the Fire
1-3 God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, how would you compare the wood of a vine with the branches of any tree you’d find in the forest? Is vine wood ever used to make anything? Is it used to make pegs to hang things from?
4 “I don’t think so. At best it’s good for fuel. Look at it: A flimsy piece of vine, thrown in the fire and then rescued—the ends burned off and the middle charred. Now is it good for anything?
5 “Hardly. When it was whole it wasn’t good for anything. Half-burned is no improvement. What’s it good for?
6-8 “So here’s the Message of God, the Master: Like the wood of the vine I selected from among the trees of the forest and used as fuel for the fire, just so I’ll treat those who live in Jerusalem. I am dead set against them. Even though at one time they got out of the fire charred, the fire’s going to burn them up. When I take my stand against them, you’ll realize that I am God. I’ll turn this country into a wilderness because they’ve been faithless.” Decree of God, the Master.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, May 02, 2017
Read: Matthew 8:1–4
He Carried Our Diseases
1-2 Jesus came down the mountain with the cheers of the crowd still ringing in his ears. Then a leper appeared and went to his knees before Jesus, praying, “Master, if you want to, you can heal my body.”
3-4 Jesus reached out and touched him, saying, “I want to. Be clean.” Then and there, all signs of the leprosy were gone. Jesus said, “Don’t talk about this all over town. Just quietly present your healed body to the priest, along with the appropriate expressions of thanks to God. Your cleansed and grateful life, not your words, will bear witness to what I have done.”
INSIGHT:
Do you wonder what it would feel like to be an “untouchable”? Or do you know all too well what it means to be avoided like the plague, either from your own experience or through the pain of someone you love? If you’ve felt the sting of exclusion, then you probably can feel empathy for the leper who reached out to Jesus. Until that day, this man would have had to live on the outside of normal relationships and society. According to ancient ceremonial rules, “Those who suffer from a serious skin disease must . . . cover their mouth and call out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ As long as the serious disease lasts, they . . . must live in isolation in their place outside the camp” (Lev. 13:45–46 nlt).
Such social isolation, however, wasn’t the worst part. In first-century Israel, lepers were regarded as rejected by God. So imagine what it must have meant when Jesus reached out to a desperate person who probably hadn’t felt a human touch for years. Every time Jesus performed a miracle of healing, He gave credibility to His words and showed hopeless, suffering, and even untouchable people that God knew and loved them. Mart DeHaan
Just a Touch
By Tim Gustafson
Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. Matthew 8:3
Kiley leaped at the chance to go to a remote area of East Africa to assist a medical mission, yet she felt uneasy. She didn’t have any medical experience. Still, she could provide basic care.
While there, she met a woman with a horrible but treatable disease. The woman’s distorted leg repulsed her, but Kiley knew she had to do something. As she cleaned and bandaged the leg, her patient began crying. Concerned, Kiley asked if she was hurting her. “No,” she replied. “It’s the first time anyone has touched me in nine years.”
Lord, we want to show the fearless love You showed when You walked this earth.
Leprosy is another disease that can render its victims repulsive to others, and ancient Jewish culture had strict guidelines to prevent its spread: “They must live alone,” the law declared. “They must live outside the camp” (Lev. 13:46).
That’s why it’s so remarkable that a leper approached Jesus to say, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean” (Matt. 8:2). “Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be clean!’ ” (v. 3).
In touching a lonely woman’s diseased leg, Kiley began to show the fearless, bridge-building love of Jesus. A single touch made a difference.
Lord, we want to show the fearless love You showed when You walked this earth.
What difference might we make if we overcome our fears and trust God to use us?
Share with other readers at Facebook.com/ourdailybread.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, May 02, 2017
The Patience To Wait for the Vision
Though it tarries, wait for it… —Habakkuk 2:3
Patience is not the same as indifference; patience conveys the idea of someone who is tremendously strong and able to withstand all assaults. Having the vision of God is the source of patience because it gives us God’s true and proper inspiration. Moses endured, not because of his devotion to his principles of what was right, nor because of his sense of duty to God, but because he had a vision of God. “…he endured as seeing Him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27). A person who has the vision of God is not devoted to a cause or to any particular issue— he is devoted to God Himself. You always know when the vision is of God because of the inspiration that comes with it. Things come to you with greatness and add vitality to your life because everything is energized by God. He may give you a time spiritually, with no word from Himself at all, just as His Son experienced during His time of temptation in the wilderness. When God does that, simply endure, and the power to endure will be there because you see God.
“Though it tarries, wait for it….” The proof that we have the vision is that we are reaching out for more than we have already grasped. It is a bad thing to be satisfied spiritually. The psalmist said, “What shall I render to the Lord…? I will take up the cup of salvation…” (Psalm 116:12-13). We are apt to look for satisfaction within ourselves and say, “Now I’ve got it! Now I am completely sanctified. Now I can endure.” Instantly we are on the road to ruin. Our reach must exceed our grasp. Paul said, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on…” (Philippians 3:12). If we have only what we have experienced, we have nothing. But if we have the inspiration of the vision of God, we have more than we can experience. Beware of the danger of spiritual relaxation.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is nothing, naturally speaking, that makes us lose heart quicker than decay—the decay of bodily beauty, of natural life, of friendship, of associations, all these things make a man lose heart; but Paul says when we are trusting in Jesus Christ these things do not find us discouraged, light comes through them. The Place of Help, 1032 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, May 02, 2017
Cherish Them...While You Can - #7907
It was my first Valentine's Day without the love of my life since I was 18. I found the Valentine card that I sent her a couple of years ago. In it, I wrote: "I have never loved you more. You never cease to amaze me, amuse me, and captivate me." As the sun came up on my first Valentine's Day alone, I realized I had a choice to make. I could either spend the day mourning what I had lost, or I could celebrate the decades I did have with this remarkable woman, and I chose that. I'm glad I did.
I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Cherish Them...While You Can."
In the months since Karen went Home, I've found myself telling my friends, "Cherish her while you can." Like the Bible says in our word for today from the Word of God in Psalm 90:12, "Teach us to number our days aright that we may apply our hearts to wisdom." My translation: make each day count, man!
Suddenly, one May day, I had no more days to cherish the great treasure of my life. Reflecting on our years and days together, I found myself jotting down four questions that I'd encourage every married man to ask himself.
1. What would she say is her biggest competition for my time and my attention? Sports? My work? Facebook? The gym? My hobby? Being with the guys? I'll tell you what, whether or not the Mister knows what it is, you can be sure Mrs. does. Once you figure out the answer, then would you show her that she's number 1 over that? Every time you intentionally put her ahead of your biggest competition, you are making her know how loved she is. You are cherishing her.
2. In what ways am I a better man because of her love and influence? I've been thinking about that a lot in the past few months. I have been changed by the love of the woman I married. Most men are in ways they may not see unless they honestly pursue this question. My wife was the most generous person I've ever known. I was a spoiled and selfish only child. That's one of many ways God used her to make me more of a man. I'm glad I told her that. So once you've thought about how you're different because of her love, would you tell her!
3. What are three qualities she has that I really love and appreciate about her? Now I'll tell you, we're pretty quick to think of the things that frustrate us. Can I make a list of those? No. We communicate those pretty well. What about the qualities, the actions that mean a lot to you...that you fell in love with? Thank her! Why don't we give "flowers" before the funeral while they can still smell them!
4. If she was suddenly gone today, what would my biggest regrets be? Oh, I've had plenty of time to think about that one in recent months. If you think about it while she's still by your side, you can change it! It's too late to say "I wish I had" or "I wish I hadn't" at a graveside.
Sometimes it can be hard to answer questions like these. Which may indicate we have a deadly condition. A hardening heart. Filling up with resentment, anger, bitterness, self-pity, self justification. And more than the problems or the conflicts, it's a hard heart that kills love.
Sometimes you don't feel the love. Those are the times to say, "God, I don't have it, but You do. You loved her enough to die on a cross for her. So if you'll send Your love for her through me, I'll make sure it gets delivered." Life's too short and love's too precious for a closed-up heart.
I love this hope-restoring promise from the Author of love. He says, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 36:26). I can tell you that "new heart" has saved many a marriage.
And it may be you've never experienced this love of Christ for yourself; this One who sacrificed His life so you could have your sin forgiven and so you could be new, and so you could have His resources to make your relationship work. Would you tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm yours." Go to our website. There's a whole lot more there about how this relationship can change your life forever. It's ANewStory.com.
From my wounded heart to the heart of a guy like me out there, cherish the love of your life. There are no days to waste.
“Love each other!” we pastors tell our churches. “Be patient, kind, and forgiving,” we urge. But instructing people to love without telling them they are loved is like telling them to write a check without our making a deposit in their accounts. No wonder so many relationships are overdrawn. Hearts have insufficient love.
The key to loving is living loved. Remember Paul’s prayer? “May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love” (Ephesians 3:17 NLT). Does bumping into certain people leave you brittle, breakable, and fruitless? Do you easily fall apart? If so, your love may be grounded in the wrong soil. It may be rooted in their love (which is fickle) or in your resolve to love (which is frail). John urges us to rely on the love God has for us (1 John 4:16 NIV).
Many people tell us to love. Only God gives us the power to do so!
From A Love Worth Giving
Ezekiel 15
Used as Fuel for the Fire
1-3 God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, how would you compare the wood of a vine with the branches of any tree you’d find in the forest? Is vine wood ever used to make anything? Is it used to make pegs to hang things from?
4 “I don’t think so. At best it’s good for fuel. Look at it: A flimsy piece of vine, thrown in the fire and then rescued—the ends burned off and the middle charred. Now is it good for anything?
5 “Hardly. When it was whole it wasn’t good for anything. Half-burned is no improvement. What’s it good for?
6-8 “So here’s the Message of God, the Master: Like the wood of the vine I selected from among the trees of the forest and used as fuel for the fire, just so I’ll treat those who live in Jerusalem. I am dead set against them. Even though at one time they got out of the fire charred, the fire’s going to burn them up. When I take my stand against them, you’ll realize that I am God. I’ll turn this country into a wilderness because they’ve been faithless.” Decree of God, the Master.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, May 02, 2017
Read: Matthew 8:1–4
He Carried Our Diseases
1-2 Jesus came down the mountain with the cheers of the crowd still ringing in his ears. Then a leper appeared and went to his knees before Jesus, praying, “Master, if you want to, you can heal my body.”
3-4 Jesus reached out and touched him, saying, “I want to. Be clean.” Then and there, all signs of the leprosy were gone. Jesus said, “Don’t talk about this all over town. Just quietly present your healed body to the priest, along with the appropriate expressions of thanks to God. Your cleansed and grateful life, not your words, will bear witness to what I have done.”
INSIGHT:
Do you wonder what it would feel like to be an “untouchable”? Or do you know all too well what it means to be avoided like the plague, either from your own experience or through the pain of someone you love? If you’ve felt the sting of exclusion, then you probably can feel empathy for the leper who reached out to Jesus. Until that day, this man would have had to live on the outside of normal relationships and society. According to ancient ceremonial rules, “Those who suffer from a serious skin disease must . . . cover their mouth and call out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ As long as the serious disease lasts, they . . . must live in isolation in their place outside the camp” (Lev. 13:45–46 nlt).
Such social isolation, however, wasn’t the worst part. In first-century Israel, lepers were regarded as rejected by God. So imagine what it must have meant when Jesus reached out to a desperate person who probably hadn’t felt a human touch for years. Every time Jesus performed a miracle of healing, He gave credibility to His words and showed hopeless, suffering, and even untouchable people that God knew and loved them. Mart DeHaan
Just a Touch
By Tim Gustafson
Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. Matthew 8:3
Kiley leaped at the chance to go to a remote area of East Africa to assist a medical mission, yet she felt uneasy. She didn’t have any medical experience. Still, she could provide basic care.
While there, she met a woman with a horrible but treatable disease. The woman’s distorted leg repulsed her, but Kiley knew she had to do something. As she cleaned and bandaged the leg, her patient began crying. Concerned, Kiley asked if she was hurting her. “No,” she replied. “It’s the first time anyone has touched me in nine years.”
Lord, we want to show the fearless love You showed when You walked this earth.
Leprosy is another disease that can render its victims repulsive to others, and ancient Jewish culture had strict guidelines to prevent its spread: “They must live alone,” the law declared. “They must live outside the camp” (Lev. 13:46).
That’s why it’s so remarkable that a leper approached Jesus to say, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean” (Matt. 8:2). “Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be clean!’ ” (v. 3).
In touching a lonely woman’s diseased leg, Kiley began to show the fearless, bridge-building love of Jesus. A single touch made a difference.
Lord, we want to show the fearless love You showed when You walked this earth.
What difference might we make if we overcome our fears and trust God to use us?
Share with other readers at Facebook.com/ourdailybread.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, May 02, 2017
The Patience To Wait for the Vision
Though it tarries, wait for it… —Habakkuk 2:3
Patience is not the same as indifference; patience conveys the idea of someone who is tremendously strong and able to withstand all assaults. Having the vision of God is the source of patience because it gives us God’s true and proper inspiration. Moses endured, not because of his devotion to his principles of what was right, nor because of his sense of duty to God, but because he had a vision of God. “…he endured as seeing Him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27). A person who has the vision of God is not devoted to a cause or to any particular issue— he is devoted to God Himself. You always know when the vision is of God because of the inspiration that comes with it. Things come to you with greatness and add vitality to your life because everything is energized by God. He may give you a time spiritually, with no word from Himself at all, just as His Son experienced during His time of temptation in the wilderness. When God does that, simply endure, and the power to endure will be there because you see God.
“Though it tarries, wait for it….” The proof that we have the vision is that we are reaching out for more than we have already grasped. It is a bad thing to be satisfied spiritually. The psalmist said, “What shall I render to the Lord…? I will take up the cup of salvation…” (Psalm 116:12-13). We are apt to look for satisfaction within ourselves and say, “Now I’ve got it! Now I am completely sanctified. Now I can endure.” Instantly we are on the road to ruin. Our reach must exceed our grasp. Paul said, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on…” (Philippians 3:12). If we have only what we have experienced, we have nothing. But if we have the inspiration of the vision of God, we have more than we can experience. Beware of the danger of spiritual relaxation.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is nothing, naturally speaking, that makes us lose heart quicker than decay—the decay of bodily beauty, of natural life, of friendship, of associations, all these things make a man lose heart; but Paul says when we are trusting in Jesus Christ these things do not find us discouraged, light comes through them. The Place of Help, 1032 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, May 02, 2017
Cherish Them...While You Can - #7907
It was my first Valentine's Day without the love of my life since I was 18. I found the Valentine card that I sent her a couple of years ago. In it, I wrote: "I have never loved you more. You never cease to amaze me, amuse me, and captivate me." As the sun came up on my first Valentine's Day alone, I realized I had a choice to make. I could either spend the day mourning what I had lost, or I could celebrate the decades I did have with this remarkable woman, and I chose that. I'm glad I did.
I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Cherish Them...While You Can."
In the months since Karen went Home, I've found myself telling my friends, "Cherish her while you can." Like the Bible says in our word for today from the Word of God in Psalm 90:12, "Teach us to number our days aright that we may apply our hearts to wisdom." My translation: make each day count, man!
Suddenly, one May day, I had no more days to cherish the great treasure of my life. Reflecting on our years and days together, I found myself jotting down four questions that I'd encourage every married man to ask himself.
1. What would she say is her biggest competition for my time and my attention? Sports? My work? Facebook? The gym? My hobby? Being with the guys? I'll tell you what, whether or not the Mister knows what it is, you can be sure Mrs. does. Once you figure out the answer, then would you show her that she's number 1 over that? Every time you intentionally put her ahead of your biggest competition, you are making her know how loved she is. You are cherishing her.
2. In what ways am I a better man because of her love and influence? I've been thinking about that a lot in the past few months. I have been changed by the love of the woman I married. Most men are in ways they may not see unless they honestly pursue this question. My wife was the most generous person I've ever known. I was a spoiled and selfish only child. That's one of many ways God used her to make me more of a man. I'm glad I told her that. So once you've thought about how you're different because of her love, would you tell her!
3. What are three qualities she has that I really love and appreciate about her? Now I'll tell you, we're pretty quick to think of the things that frustrate us. Can I make a list of those? No. We communicate those pretty well. What about the qualities, the actions that mean a lot to you...that you fell in love with? Thank her! Why don't we give "flowers" before the funeral while they can still smell them!
4. If she was suddenly gone today, what would my biggest regrets be? Oh, I've had plenty of time to think about that one in recent months. If you think about it while she's still by your side, you can change it! It's too late to say "I wish I had" or "I wish I hadn't" at a graveside.
Sometimes it can be hard to answer questions like these. Which may indicate we have a deadly condition. A hardening heart. Filling up with resentment, anger, bitterness, self-pity, self justification. And more than the problems or the conflicts, it's a hard heart that kills love.
Sometimes you don't feel the love. Those are the times to say, "God, I don't have it, but You do. You loved her enough to die on a cross for her. So if you'll send Your love for her through me, I'll make sure it gets delivered." Life's too short and love's too precious for a closed-up heart.
I love this hope-restoring promise from the Author of love. He says, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 36:26). I can tell you that "new heart" has saved many a marriage.
And it may be you've never experienced this love of Christ for yourself; this One who sacrificed His life so you could have your sin forgiven and so you could be new, and so you could have His resources to make your relationship work. Would you tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm yours." Go to our website. There's a whole lot more there about how this relationship can change your life forever. It's ANewStory.com.
From my wounded heart to the heart of a guy like me out there, cherish the love of your life. There are no days to waste.
Monday, May 1, 2017
Ezekiel 14, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: LOVING AS GOD LOVES
I’m supposed to love my neighbor? Okay, by golly, I will. So we try. We’re going to love if it kills us! And it may do just that. Could it be that the secret to giving love is to first receive it? The Bible says, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Eph. 4:32 NIV).
Finding it hard to put others first? Think of the way Christ put you first. Scripture says, “Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God” (Phil. 2:6 NLT). Can’t we love like this? Not without God’s help we can’t. But if we haven’t received these things ourselves, how can we give them to others? Would we love as God loves? Then, start by receiving God’s love!
From A Love Worth Giving
Ezekiel 14
Idols in Their Hearts
1-5 Some of the leaders of Israel approached me and sat down with me. God’s Message came to me: “Son of Man, these people have installed idols in their hearts. They have embraced the wickedness that will ruin them. Why should I even bother with their prayers? Therefore tell them, ‘The Message of God, the Master: All in Israel who install idols in their hearts and embrace the wickedness that will ruin them and still have the gall to come to a prophet, be on notice: I, God, will step in and personally answer them as they come dragging along their mob of idols. I am ready to go to work on the hearts of the house of Israel, all of whom have left me for their idols.’
6-8 “Therefore, say to the house of Israel: ‘God, the Master, says, Repent! Turn your backs on your no-god idols. Turn your backs on all your outrageous obscenities. To every last person from the house of Israel, including any of the resident aliens who live in Israel—all who turn their backs on me and embrace idols, who install the wickedness that will ruin them at the center of their lives and then have the gall to go to the prophet to ask me questions—I, God, will step in and give the answer myself. I’ll oppose those people to their faces, make an example of them—a warning lesson—and get rid of them so you will realize that I am God.
9-11 “‘If a prophet is deceived and tells these idolaters the lies they want to hear, I, God, get blamed for those lies. He won’t get by with it. I’ll grab him by the scruff of the neck and get him out of there. They’ll be equally guilty, the prophet and the one who goes to the prophet, so that the house of Israel will never again wander off my paths and make themselves filthy in their rebellions, but will rather be my people, just as I am their God. Decree of God, the Master.’”
12-14 God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, when a country sins against me by living faithlessly and I reach out and destroy its food supply by bringing on a famine, wiping out humans and animals alike, even if Noah, Daniel, and Job—the Big Three—were alive at the time, it wouldn’t do the population any good. Their righteousness would only save their own lives.” Decree of God, the Master.
15-16 “Or, if I make wild animals go through the country so that everyone has to leave and the country becomes wilderness and no one dares enter it anymore because of the wild animals, even if these three men were living there, as sure as I am the living God, neither their sons nor daughters would be rescued, but only those three, and the country would revert to wilderness.
17-18 “Or, if I bring war on that country and give the order, ‘Let the killing begin!’ leaving both people and animals dead, even if those three men were alive at the time, as sure as I am the living God, neither sons nor daughters would be rescued, but only these three.
19-20 “Or, if I visit a deadly disease on that country, pouring out my lethal anger, killing both people and animals, and Noah, Daniel, and Job happened to be alive at the time, as sure as I am the living God, not a son, not a daughter, would be rescued. Only these three would be delivered because of their righteousness.
21-23 “Now then, that’s the picture,” says God, the Master, “once I’ve sent my four catastrophic judgments on Jerusalem—war, famine, wild animals, disease—to kill off people and animals alike. But look! Believe it or not, there’ll be survivors. Some of their sons and daughters will be brought out. When they come out to you and their salvation is right in your face, you’ll see for yourself the life they’ve been saved from. You’ll know that this severe judgment I brought on Jerusalem was worth it, that it had to be. Yes, when you see in detail the kind of lives they’ve been living, you’ll feel much better. You’ll see the reason behind all that I’ve done in Jerusalem.” Decree of God, the Master.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, May 01, 2017
Read: Judges 6:11–16, 24
11-12 One day the angel of God came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, whose son Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress, out of sight of the Midianites. The angel of God appeared to him and said, “God is with you, O mighty warrior!”
13 Gideon replied, “With me, my master? If God is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all the miracle-wonders our parents and grandparents told us about, telling us, ‘Didn’t God deliver us from Egypt?’ The fact is, God has nothing to do with us—he has turned us over to Midian.”
14 But God faced him directly: “Go in this strength that is yours. Save Israel from Midian. Haven’t I just sent you?”
15 Gideon said to him, “Me, my master? How and with what could I ever save Israel? Look at me. My clan’s the weakest in Manasseh and I’m the runt of the litter.”
16 God said to him, “I’ll be with you. Believe me, you’ll defeat Midian as one man.”
Judges 6:24The Message (MSG)
24 Then Gideon built an altar there to God and named it “God’s Peace.” It’s still called that at Ophrah of Abiezer.
INSIGHT:
Today’s text provides some insight into how we should view situations for which we feel inadequate. Gideon did not feel prepared to go into battle against the Midianites who were oppressing Israel. Responding to Gideon’s understandable concern, God sent the angel of the Lord to encourage him. He said that Gideon should “go in the strength” he had (Judg. 6:14), but he also said, “I will be with you” (v. 16). When God calls us to take on a difficult task, we can rely on His strength and power to help us accomplish it.
Are you facing a situation for which you feel inadequate? Ask God for His strength to help you.
Questions for God
By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
Go with the strength you have . . . . I will be with you. nlt Judges 6:14, 16
What would you do if the Lord showed up in the middle of your workday with a message? This happened to Gideon, one of the ancient Israelites. “The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!’ ” Gideon could have responded with a wordless nod and gulp, but instead he said, “If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?” (Judg. 6:12–13 nlt). Gideon wanted to know why it seemed as if God had abandoned His people.
God didn’t answer that question. After Gideon had endured seven years of enemy attacks, starvation, and hiding in caves, God didn’t explain why He never intervened. God could have revealed Israel’s past sin as the reason, but instead He gave Gideon hope for the future. God said, “Go with the strength you have . . . . I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites” (vv.14, 16 nlt).
Lord, I am reaching out to You for the peace I need.
Do you ever wonder why God has allowed suffering in your life? Instead of answering that specific question, God may satisfy you with His nearness today and remind you that you can rely on His strength when you feel weak. When Gideon finally believed that God was with him and would help him, he built an altar and called it “The Lord Is Peace” (v. 24).
There is peace in knowing that whatever we do and wherever we go, we go with God who promised never to leave or forsake His followers.
For help, read Why? Seeing God in Our Pain at discoveryseries.org/cb151.
What could be better than getting answers to our why questions? Trusting a good and powerful God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, May 01, 2017
Faith— Not Emotion
We walk by faith, not by sight. —2 Corinthians 5:7
For a while, we are fully aware of God’s concern for us. But then, when God begins to use us in His work, we begin to take on a pitiful look and talk only of our trials and difficulties. And all the while God is trying to make us do our work as hidden people who are not in the spotlight. None of us would be hidden spiritually if we could help it. Can we do our work when it seems that God has sealed up heaven? Some of us always want to be brightly illuminated saints with golden halos and with the continual glow of inspiration, and to have other saints of God dealing with us all the time. A self-assured saint is of no value to God. He is abnormal, unfit for daily life, and completely unlike God. We are here, not as immature angels, but as men and women, to do the work of this world. And we are to do it with an infinitely greater power to withstand the struggle because we have been born from above.
If we continually try to bring back those exceptional moments of inspiration, it is a sign that it is not God we want. We are becoming obsessed with the moments when God did come and speak with us, and we are insisting that He do it again. But what God wants us to do is to “walk by faith.” How many of us have set ourselves aside as if to say, “I cannot do anything else until God appears to me”? He will never do it. We will have to get up on our own, without any inspiration and without any sudden touch from God. Then comes our surprise and we find ourselves exclaiming, “Why, He was there all the time, and I never knew it!” Never live for those exceptional moments— they are surprises. God will give us His touches of inspiration only when He sees that we are not in danger of being led away by them. We must never consider our moments of inspiration as the standard way of life— our work is our standard.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One Who is leading. My Utmost for His Highest, March 19, 761 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, May 01, 2017
The Eyes That Are Watching You - #7906
It's been a long time since I've had a pregnant woman in our family. But years ago, my wife, Karen, handled it beautifully. I offered to take some of that load, but apparently some things just can't be delegated. Now, the time came around for our daughter to have her first child some years ago. She lived close to us, so we got to walk down Pregnant Avenue with her. It was exciting! It was amazing how things our daughter might have normally done without even giving it a thought she wouldn't let herself do while she was pregnant. I think she was kind of watching what her Mom did. You know, she knew what her Mom had done. She refused to eat anything with certain artificial ingredients in it, things she loved. But she wouldn't touch them while pregnant. She had some headaches, but she would not put pain relievers into her body. No antihistamines, no matter how frustrating her cold symptoms got. She added a powerful new factor in deciding what she would and wouldn't do: the passenger she was carrying - the baby!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Eyes That Are Watching You."
Our pregnant daughter was asking a new question about what she did, "How could this harm someone else that I'm responsible for?" A pregnant woman isn't the only one who needs to be thinking about that kind of thing; about actions that might affect someone else.
Romans 14:13 is our word for today from the Word of God, "Make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way." If you call yourself a follower of Jesus, you can't just base your actions on how they'll affect you. There are other lives watching yours that will be affected by your choices. We believers are responsible for each other whether we acknowledge that responsibility or not. And like our daughter, there may be things you could do that wouldn't hurt you, but might harm someone who's watching you.
Paul really took this responsibility very seriously. In his day, Christians disagreed over whether it was ok to eat meat that had been offered to an idol. And Paul said he felt he could do it without it hurting him. But listen to what he decided and how he decided it. "If what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall" (1 Corinthians 8:13). And he tells you and me to "be careful that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak" (1 Corinthians 8:9).
It's clear that our Lord expects us to calculate the effect of our actions on the people around us when we're deciding what we'll do and what we'll not do. Could it be that you're inadvertently leading a fellow believer into something that maybe you can handle but they can't? You might only do a little, but they'll see you doing it and figure it's ok. Except maybe they won't stop with a little. Something you validated could devastate someone else.
If you're a parent, your children are watching. And they'll replicate how you handle things, no matter how you tell them to act. Are you causing them to stumble? And remember there are unbelievers who know you're one of those Christian-types and they're watching you, they're listening to you. One friend told my wife and me, "I've sworn off church. I know a lot of those people and they're very different on Monday than they are in church on Sunday." She was having a hard time seeing Jesus because some inconsistent Christians were blocking the view. Could it be that some of your choices are confusing an unbeliever you know? That could harm them forever! No, it isn't enough to do something based solely on whether it will harm you. What you do, and who you are, is seeping into the systems of other people close to you.
I watched our daughter make some wonderfully unselfish choices, all because she knew how her choices could harm a life that was dependent on her choices. You've got someone in your life like that. Don't just think about what's good for you ... think about what's good for some of those vulnerable people whose lives are affected by the way you live yours.
I’m supposed to love my neighbor? Okay, by golly, I will. So we try. We’re going to love if it kills us! And it may do just that. Could it be that the secret to giving love is to first receive it? The Bible says, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Eph. 4:32 NIV).
Finding it hard to put others first? Think of the way Christ put you first. Scripture says, “Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God” (Phil. 2:6 NLT). Can’t we love like this? Not without God’s help we can’t. But if we haven’t received these things ourselves, how can we give them to others? Would we love as God loves? Then, start by receiving God’s love!
From A Love Worth Giving
Ezekiel 14
Idols in Their Hearts
1-5 Some of the leaders of Israel approached me and sat down with me. God’s Message came to me: “Son of Man, these people have installed idols in their hearts. They have embraced the wickedness that will ruin them. Why should I even bother with their prayers? Therefore tell them, ‘The Message of God, the Master: All in Israel who install idols in their hearts and embrace the wickedness that will ruin them and still have the gall to come to a prophet, be on notice: I, God, will step in and personally answer them as they come dragging along their mob of idols. I am ready to go to work on the hearts of the house of Israel, all of whom have left me for their idols.’
6-8 “Therefore, say to the house of Israel: ‘God, the Master, says, Repent! Turn your backs on your no-god idols. Turn your backs on all your outrageous obscenities. To every last person from the house of Israel, including any of the resident aliens who live in Israel—all who turn their backs on me and embrace idols, who install the wickedness that will ruin them at the center of their lives and then have the gall to go to the prophet to ask me questions—I, God, will step in and give the answer myself. I’ll oppose those people to their faces, make an example of them—a warning lesson—and get rid of them so you will realize that I am God.
9-11 “‘If a prophet is deceived and tells these idolaters the lies they want to hear, I, God, get blamed for those lies. He won’t get by with it. I’ll grab him by the scruff of the neck and get him out of there. They’ll be equally guilty, the prophet and the one who goes to the prophet, so that the house of Israel will never again wander off my paths and make themselves filthy in their rebellions, but will rather be my people, just as I am their God. Decree of God, the Master.’”
12-14 God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, when a country sins against me by living faithlessly and I reach out and destroy its food supply by bringing on a famine, wiping out humans and animals alike, even if Noah, Daniel, and Job—the Big Three—were alive at the time, it wouldn’t do the population any good. Their righteousness would only save their own lives.” Decree of God, the Master.
15-16 “Or, if I make wild animals go through the country so that everyone has to leave and the country becomes wilderness and no one dares enter it anymore because of the wild animals, even if these three men were living there, as sure as I am the living God, neither their sons nor daughters would be rescued, but only those three, and the country would revert to wilderness.
17-18 “Or, if I bring war on that country and give the order, ‘Let the killing begin!’ leaving both people and animals dead, even if those three men were alive at the time, as sure as I am the living God, neither sons nor daughters would be rescued, but only these three.
19-20 “Or, if I visit a deadly disease on that country, pouring out my lethal anger, killing both people and animals, and Noah, Daniel, and Job happened to be alive at the time, as sure as I am the living God, not a son, not a daughter, would be rescued. Only these three would be delivered because of their righteousness.
21-23 “Now then, that’s the picture,” says God, the Master, “once I’ve sent my four catastrophic judgments on Jerusalem—war, famine, wild animals, disease—to kill off people and animals alike. But look! Believe it or not, there’ll be survivors. Some of their sons and daughters will be brought out. When they come out to you and their salvation is right in your face, you’ll see for yourself the life they’ve been saved from. You’ll know that this severe judgment I brought on Jerusalem was worth it, that it had to be. Yes, when you see in detail the kind of lives they’ve been living, you’ll feel much better. You’ll see the reason behind all that I’ve done in Jerusalem.” Decree of God, the Master.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, May 01, 2017
Read: Judges 6:11–16, 24
11-12 One day the angel of God came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, whose son Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress, out of sight of the Midianites. The angel of God appeared to him and said, “God is with you, O mighty warrior!”
13 Gideon replied, “With me, my master? If God is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all the miracle-wonders our parents and grandparents told us about, telling us, ‘Didn’t God deliver us from Egypt?’ The fact is, God has nothing to do with us—he has turned us over to Midian.”
14 But God faced him directly: “Go in this strength that is yours. Save Israel from Midian. Haven’t I just sent you?”
15 Gideon said to him, “Me, my master? How and with what could I ever save Israel? Look at me. My clan’s the weakest in Manasseh and I’m the runt of the litter.”
16 God said to him, “I’ll be with you. Believe me, you’ll defeat Midian as one man.”
Judges 6:24The Message (MSG)
24 Then Gideon built an altar there to God and named it “God’s Peace.” It’s still called that at Ophrah of Abiezer.
INSIGHT:
Today’s text provides some insight into how we should view situations for which we feel inadequate. Gideon did not feel prepared to go into battle against the Midianites who were oppressing Israel. Responding to Gideon’s understandable concern, God sent the angel of the Lord to encourage him. He said that Gideon should “go in the strength” he had (Judg. 6:14), but he also said, “I will be with you” (v. 16). When God calls us to take on a difficult task, we can rely on His strength and power to help us accomplish it.
Are you facing a situation for which you feel inadequate? Ask God for His strength to help you.
Questions for God
By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
Go with the strength you have . . . . I will be with you. nlt Judges 6:14, 16
What would you do if the Lord showed up in the middle of your workday with a message? This happened to Gideon, one of the ancient Israelites. “The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!’ ” Gideon could have responded with a wordless nod and gulp, but instead he said, “If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?” (Judg. 6:12–13 nlt). Gideon wanted to know why it seemed as if God had abandoned His people.
God didn’t answer that question. After Gideon had endured seven years of enemy attacks, starvation, and hiding in caves, God didn’t explain why He never intervened. God could have revealed Israel’s past sin as the reason, but instead He gave Gideon hope for the future. God said, “Go with the strength you have . . . . I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites” (vv.14, 16 nlt).
Lord, I am reaching out to You for the peace I need.
Do you ever wonder why God has allowed suffering in your life? Instead of answering that specific question, God may satisfy you with His nearness today and remind you that you can rely on His strength when you feel weak. When Gideon finally believed that God was with him and would help him, he built an altar and called it “The Lord Is Peace” (v. 24).
There is peace in knowing that whatever we do and wherever we go, we go with God who promised never to leave or forsake His followers.
For help, read Why? Seeing God in Our Pain at discoveryseries.org/cb151.
What could be better than getting answers to our why questions? Trusting a good and powerful God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, May 01, 2017
Faith— Not Emotion
We walk by faith, not by sight. —2 Corinthians 5:7
For a while, we are fully aware of God’s concern for us. But then, when God begins to use us in His work, we begin to take on a pitiful look and talk only of our trials and difficulties. And all the while God is trying to make us do our work as hidden people who are not in the spotlight. None of us would be hidden spiritually if we could help it. Can we do our work when it seems that God has sealed up heaven? Some of us always want to be brightly illuminated saints with golden halos and with the continual glow of inspiration, and to have other saints of God dealing with us all the time. A self-assured saint is of no value to God. He is abnormal, unfit for daily life, and completely unlike God. We are here, not as immature angels, but as men and women, to do the work of this world. And we are to do it with an infinitely greater power to withstand the struggle because we have been born from above.
If we continually try to bring back those exceptional moments of inspiration, it is a sign that it is not God we want. We are becoming obsessed with the moments when God did come and speak with us, and we are insisting that He do it again. But what God wants us to do is to “walk by faith.” How many of us have set ourselves aside as if to say, “I cannot do anything else until God appears to me”? He will never do it. We will have to get up on our own, without any inspiration and without any sudden touch from God. Then comes our surprise and we find ourselves exclaiming, “Why, He was there all the time, and I never knew it!” Never live for those exceptional moments— they are surprises. God will give us His touches of inspiration only when He sees that we are not in danger of being led away by them. We must never consider our moments of inspiration as the standard way of life— our work is our standard.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One Who is leading. My Utmost for His Highest, March 19, 761 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, May 01, 2017
The Eyes That Are Watching You - #7906
It's been a long time since I've had a pregnant woman in our family. But years ago, my wife, Karen, handled it beautifully. I offered to take some of that load, but apparently some things just can't be delegated. Now, the time came around for our daughter to have her first child some years ago. She lived close to us, so we got to walk down Pregnant Avenue with her. It was exciting! It was amazing how things our daughter might have normally done without even giving it a thought she wouldn't let herself do while she was pregnant. I think she was kind of watching what her Mom did. You know, she knew what her Mom had done. She refused to eat anything with certain artificial ingredients in it, things she loved. But she wouldn't touch them while pregnant. She had some headaches, but she would not put pain relievers into her body. No antihistamines, no matter how frustrating her cold symptoms got. She added a powerful new factor in deciding what she would and wouldn't do: the passenger she was carrying - the baby!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Eyes That Are Watching You."
Our pregnant daughter was asking a new question about what she did, "How could this harm someone else that I'm responsible for?" A pregnant woman isn't the only one who needs to be thinking about that kind of thing; about actions that might affect someone else.
Romans 14:13 is our word for today from the Word of God, "Make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way." If you call yourself a follower of Jesus, you can't just base your actions on how they'll affect you. There are other lives watching yours that will be affected by your choices. We believers are responsible for each other whether we acknowledge that responsibility or not. And like our daughter, there may be things you could do that wouldn't hurt you, but might harm someone who's watching you.
Paul really took this responsibility very seriously. In his day, Christians disagreed over whether it was ok to eat meat that had been offered to an idol. And Paul said he felt he could do it without it hurting him. But listen to what he decided and how he decided it. "If what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall" (1 Corinthians 8:13). And he tells you and me to "be careful that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak" (1 Corinthians 8:9).
It's clear that our Lord expects us to calculate the effect of our actions on the people around us when we're deciding what we'll do and what we'll not do. Could it be that you're inadvertently leading a fellow believer into something that maybe you can handle but they can't? You might only do a little, but they'll see you doing it and figure it's ok. Except maybe they won't stop with a little. Something you validated could devastate someone else.
If you're a parent, your children are watching. And they'll replicate how you handle things, no matter how you tell them to act. Are you causing them to stumble? And remember there are unbelievers who know you're one of those Christian-types and they're watching you, they're listening to you. One friend told my wife and me, "I've sworn off church. I know a lot of those people and they're very different on Monday than they are in church on Sunday." She was having a hard time seeing Jesus because some inconsistent Christians were blocking the view. Could it be that some of your choices are confusing an unbeliever you know? That could harm them forever! No, it isn't enough to do something based solely on whether it will harm you. What you do, and who you are, is seeping into the systems of other people close to you.
I watched our daughter make some wonderfully unselfish choices, all because she knew how her choices could harm a life that was dependent on her choices. You've got someone in your life like that. Don't just think about what's good for you ... think about what's good for some of those vulnerable people whose lives are affected by the way you live yours.
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