Max Lucado Daily: Judging Others
It is one thing to have a conviction; it's another to convict the person. Paul said in Romans 2:1, "If you think you can judge others" here is a stern reminder for you, "God judges those who do wrong things, and we know that his judging is right."
It is our job to hate the sin. But it is God's job to deal with the sinner. God has called us to despise evil, but he has never called us to despise the evildoer. But oh, how we would like to! Is there any act more delightful than judging others? There's something smug and self-satisfying about slamming down the gavel…"Guilty!" Judging others is a quick and easy way to feel good about ourselves. But that's the problem. God doesn't compare us to them. They are not the standard. God is. And compared to him, Paul argues in Romans 3:12, "There is no one who does anything good."
From In the Grip of Grace
Revelation 19
The Sound of Hallelujahs
1-3 I heard a sound like massed choirs in Heaven singing,
Hallelujah!
The salvation and glory and power are God’s—
his judgments true, his judgments just.
He judged the great Whore
who corrupted the earth with her lust.
He avenged on her the blood of his servants.
Then, more singing:
Hallelujah!
The smoke from her burning billows up
to high Heaven forever and ever and ever.
4 The Twenty-four Elders and the Four Animals fell to their knees and worshiped God on his Throne, praising,
Amen! Yes! Hallelujah!
5 From the Throne came a shout, a command:
Praise our God, all you his servants,
All you who fear him, small and great!
6-8 Then I heard the sound of massed choirs, the sound of a mighty cataract, the sound of strong thunder:
Hallelujah!
The Master reigns,
our God, the Sovereign-Strong!
Let us celebrate, let us rejoice,
let us give him the glory!
The Marriage of the Lamb has come;
his Wife has made herself ready.
She was given a bridal gown
of bright and shining linen.
The linen is the righteousness of the saints.
9 The Angel said to me, “Write this: ‘Blessed are those invited to the Wedding Supper of the Lamb.’” He added, “These are the true words of God!”
10 I fell at his feet to worship him, but he wouldn’t let me. “Don’t do that,” he said. “I’m a servant just like you, and like your brothers and sisters who hold to the witness of Jesus. The witness of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
A White Horse and Its Rider
11-16 Then I saw Heaven open wide—and oh! a white horse and its Rider. The Rider, named Faithful and True, judges and makes war in pure righteousness. His eyes are a blaze of fire, on his head many crowns. He has a Name inscribed that’s known only to himself. He is dressed in a robe soaked with blood, and he is addressed as “Word of God.” The armies of Heaven, mounted on white horses and dressed in dazzling white linen, follow him. A sharp sword comes out of his mouth so he can subdue the nations, then rule them with a rod of iron. He treads the winepress of the raging wrath of God, the Sovereign-Strong. On his robe and thigh is written, King of kings, Lord of lords.
17-18 I saw an Angel standing in the sun, shouting to all flying birds in Middle-Heaven, “Come to the Great Supper of God! Feast on the flesh of kings and captains and champions, horses and their riders. Eat your fill of them all—free and slave, small and great!”
19-21 I saw the Beast and, assembled with him, earth’s kings and their armies, ready to make war against the One on the horse and his army. The Beast was taken, and with him, his puppet, the False Prophet, who used signs to dazzle and deceive those who had taken the mark of the Beast and worshiped his image. They were thrown alive, those two, into Lake Fire and Brimstone. The rest were killed by the sword of the One on the horse, the sword that comes from his mouth. All the birds held a feast on their flesh.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, September 10, 2017
Read: 2 Corinthians 3:1–6
1-3 Does it sound like we’re patting ourselves on the back, insisting on our credentials, asserting our authority? Well, we’re not. Neither do we need letters of endorsement, either to you or from you. You yourselves are all the endorsement we need. Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it—not with ink, but with God’s living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives—and we publish it.
4-6 We couldn’t be more sure of ourselves in this—that you, written by Christ himself for God, are our letter of recommendation. We wouldn’t think of writing this kind of letter about ourselves. Only God can write such a letter. His letter authorizes us to help carry out this new plan of action. The plan wasn’t written out with ink on paper, with pages and pages of legal footnotes, killing your spirit. It’s written with Spirit on spirit, his life on our lives!
INSIGHT
Our Lord Jesus said we are the salt and light of the world (Matt. 5:13–14) to illustrate the impact believers have in their community (v. 16). We are not saved by our good works (Eph. 2:8–9), but once saved what we do and how we live are a witness to the power of Christ to change lives.
Sim Kay Tee
Writing Letters
By Amy Boucher Pye
You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. 2 Corinthians 3:2
My mother and her sisters engage in what is increasingly becoming a lost art form—writing letters. Each week they pen personal words to each other with such consistency that one of their mail-carriers worries when he doesn’t have something to deliver! Their letters brim with the stuff of life, the joys and heartaches along with the daily happenings of friends and family.
I love to reflect on this weekly exercise of the women in my family. It helps me appreciate even more the apostle Paul’s words that those who follow Jesus are “a letter from Christ,” who were “written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God” (2 Cor. 3:3). In response to false teachers who wanted to discredit his message (see 2 Cor. 11), Paul encouraged the church in Corinth to keep on following the true and living God as he had previously taught. In doing so, he memorably described the believers as Christ’s letter, with their transformed lives a more powerful witness to the Spirit working through Paul’s ministry than any written letter could be.
Through our words and actions, the Lord spreads His life-giving love.
How wonderful that God’s Spirit in us writes a story of grace and redemption! For as meaningful as written words can be, it is our lives that are the best witness to the truth of the gospel, for they speak volumes through our compassion, service, gratitude, and joy. Through our words and actions, the Lord spreads His life-giving love. What message might you send today?
Lord God, write the story of my life so that I might reflect Your love and goodness to those I encounter today.
We are Christ’s letters.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, September 10, 2017
Missionary Weapons (1)
When you were under the fig tree, I saw you. —John 1:48
Worshiping in Everyday Occasions. We presume that we would be ready for battle if confronted with a great crisis, but it is not the crisis that builds something within us— it simply reveals what we are made of already. Do you find yourself saying, “If God calls me to battle, of course I will rise to the occasion”? Yet you won’t rise to the occasion unless you have done so on God’s training ground. If you are not doing the task that is closest to you now, which God has engineered into your life, when the crisis comes, instead of being fit for battle, you will be revealed as being unfit. Crises always reveal a person’s true character.
A private relationship of worshiping God is the greatest essential element of spiritual fitness. The time will come, as Nathanael experienced in this passage, that a private “fig-tree” life will no longer be possible. Everything will be out in the open, and you will find yourself to be of no value there if you have not been worshiping in everyday occasions in your own home. If your worship is right in your private relationship with God, then when He sets you free, you will be ready. It is in the unseen life, which only God saw, that you have become perfectly fit. And when the strain of the crisis comes, you can be relied upon by God.
Are you saying, “But I can’t be expected to live a sanctified life in my present circumstances; I have no time for prayer or Bible study right now; besides, my opportunity for battle hasn’t come yet, but when it does, of course I will be ready”? No, you will not. If you have not been worshiping in everyday occasions, when you get involved in God’s work, you will not only be useless yourself but also a hindrance to those around you.
God’s training ground, where the missionary weapons are found, is the hidden, personal, worshiping life of the saint.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Beware of isolation; beware of the idea that you have to develop a holy life alone. It is impossible to develop a holy life alone; you will develop into an oddity and a peculiarism, into something utterly unlike what God wants you to be. The only way to develop spiritually is to go into the society of God’s own children, and you will soon find how God alters your set. God does not contradict our social instincts; He alters them. Biblical Psychology, 189 L
Sunday, September 10, 2017
Saturday, September 9, 2017
Nehemiah 11, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Settling for Crumbs
Rather than worship the Creator, we worship the creation! No wonder there is no wonder. We have figured it all out. Ever wonder why people sleep in on Sunday mornings, whether in bed or in the sanctuary? They've seen it all. Why get excited? They know it all! There's nothing sacred. The holy becomes humdrum.
Can you see why Paul says in Romans 1:24 that people became full of sexual sin, using their bodies wrongly with each other? You've got to get excitement somewhere. If there's no purpose to this life, nothing sacred about this life, what's to keep us from doing whatever we want? How does God feel about such a view of life? Well, let me give you a hint. How would you feel if you saw your children settling for crumbs when you had prepared for them a feast?…Exactly!
From In the Grip of Grace
Nehemiah 11
1-2 The leaders of the people were already living in Jerusalem, so the rest of the people drew lots to get one out of ten to move to Jerusalem, the holy city, while the other nine remained in their towns. The people applauded those who voluntarily offered to live in Jerusalem.
3-4 These are the leaders in the province who resided in Jerusalem (some Israelites, priests, Levites, Temple staff, and descendants of Solomon’s slaves lived in the towns of Judah on their own property in various towns; others from both Judah and Benjamin lived in Jerusalem):
4-6 From the family of Judah:
Athaiah son of Uzziah, the son of Zechariah, the son of Amariah, the son of Shephatiah, the son of Mahalalel, from the family line of Perez; Maaseiah son of Baruch, the son of Col-Hozeh, the son of Hazaiah, the son of Adaiah, the son of Joiarib, the son of Zechariah, the son of the Shilonite. The descendants of Perez who lived in Jerusalem numbered 468 valiant men.
7-9 From the family of Benjamin:
Sallu son of Meshullam, the son of Joed, the son of Pedaiah, the son of Kolaiah, the son of Maaseiah, the son of Ithiel, the son of Jeshaiah, and his brothers Gabbai and Sallai: 928 men. Joel son of Zicri was their chief and Judah son of Hassenuah was second in command over the city.
10-14 From the priests:
Jedaiah son of Joiarib; Jakin; Seraiah son of Hilkiah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Zadok, the son of Meraioth, the son of Ahitub, supervisor of The Temple of God, along with their associates responsible for work in The Temple: 822 men. Also Adaiah son of Jeroham, the son of Pelaliah, the son of Amzi, the son of Zechariah, the son of Pashhur, the son of Malkijah, and his associates who were heads of families: 242 men; Amashsai son of Azarel, the son of Ahzai, the son of Meshillemoth, the son of Immer, and his associates, all valiant men: 128 men. Their commander was Zabdiel son of Haggedolim.
15-18 From the Levites:
Shemaiah son of Hasshub, the son of Azrikam, the son of Hashabiah, the son of Bunni; Shabbethai and Jozabad, two of the leaders of the Levites who were in charge of the outside work of The Temple of God; Mattaniah son of Mica, the son of Zabdi, the son of Asaph, the director who led in thanksgiving and prayer; Bakbukiah, second among his associates; and Abda son of Shammua, the son of Galal, the son of Jeduthun. The Levites in the holy city totaled 284.
19 From the security guards:
Akkub, Talmon, and their associates who kept watch over the gates: 172 men.
20 The rest of the Israelites, priests, and Levites were in all the towns of Judah, each on his own family property.
21 The Temple staff lived on the hill Ophel. Ziha and Gishpa were responsible for them.
22-23 The chief officer over the Levites in Jerusalem was Uzzi son of Bani, the son of Hashabiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Mica. Uzzi was one of Asaph’s descendants, singers who led worship in The Temple of God. The singers got their orders from the king, who drew up their daily schedule.
24 Pethahiah son of Meshezabel, a descendant of Zerah son of Judah, represented the people’s concerns at the royal court.
25-30 Some of the Judeans lived in the villages near their farms:
Kiriath Arba (Hebron) and suburbs
Dibon and suburbs
Jekabzeel and suburbs
Jeshua
Moladah
Beth Pelet
Hazar Shual
Beersheba and suburbs
Ziklag
Meconah and suburbs
En Rimmon
Zorah
Jarmuth
Zanoah
Adullam and their towns
Lachish and its fields
Azekah and suburbs.
They were living all the way from Beersheba to the Valley of Hinnom.
31-36 The Benjaminites from Geba lived in:
Micmash
Aijah
Bethel and its suburbs
Anathoth
Nob and Ananiah
Hazor
Ramah and Gittaim
Hadid, Zeboim, and Neballat
Lod and Ono and the Valley of the Craftsmen. Also some of the Levitical groups of Judah were assigned to Benjamin.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, September 09, 2017
Read: John 14:1–12
4 “Don’t let this throw you. You trust God, don’t you? Trust me. There is plenty of room for you in my Father’s home. If that weren’t so, would I have told you that I’m on my way to get a room ready for you? And if I’m on my way to get your room ready, I’ll come back and get you so you can live where I live. And you already know the road I’m taking.”
5 Thomas said, “Master, we have no idea where you’re going. How do you expect us to know the road?”
6-7 Jesus said, “I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life. No one gets to the Father apart from me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him. You’ve even seen him!”
8 Philip said, “Master, show us the Father; then we’ll be content.”
9-10 “You’ve been with me all this time, Philip, and you still don’t understand? To see me is to see the Father. So how can you ask, ‘Where is the Father?’ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you aren’t mere words. I don’t just make them up on my own. The Father who resides in me crafts each word into a divine act.
11-14 “Believe me: I am in my Father and my Father is in me. If you can’t believe that, believe what you see—these works. The person who trusts me will not only do what I’m doing but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do that I’ve been doing. You can count on it. From now on, whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I’ll do it. That’s how the Father will be seen for who he is in the Son. I mean it. Whatever you request in this way, I’ll do.
Seeing God
By David H. Roper
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” John 14:8
Author and pastor Erwin Lutzer recounts a story about television show host Art Linkletter and a little boy who was drawing a picture of God. Amused, Linkletter said, “You can’t do that because nobody knows what God looks like.”
“They will when I get through!” the boy declared.
Lord, help us reflect Your Son in our lives.
We may wonder, What is God like? Is He good? Is He kind? Does He care? The simple answer to those questions is Jesus’s response to Philip’s request: “Lord, show us the Father.” Jesus replied, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:8–9).
If you ever get hungry to see God, look at Jesus. “The Son is the image of the invisible God,” said Paul (Col. 1:15). Read through the four gospels in the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Think deeply about what Jesus did and said. “Draw” your own mental picture of God as you read. You’ll know much more of what He’s like when you’re through.
A friend of mine once told me that the only God he could believe in is the one he saw in Jesus. If you look closely, I think you’ll agree. As you read about Him your heart will leap, for though you may not know it, Jesus is the God you’ve been looking for all your life.
We’re so prone, Lord, to want You to be something You are not. Help us to see You more clearly on the pages of Scripture. Help us reflect Your Son in our lives.
How do you see God? Submit your own artwork or photography at YourDailyBread.org.
The clearer we see God, the clearer we see ourselves. Erwin Lutzer
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, September 09, 2017
Do It Yourself (2)
…bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ… —2 Corinthians 10:5
Determinedly Discipline Other Things. This is another difficult aspect of the strenuous nature of sainthood. Paul said, according to the Moffatt translation of this verse, “…I take every project prisoner to make it obey Christ….” So much Christian work today has never been disciplined, but has simply come into being by impulse! In our Lord’s life every project was disciplined to the will of His Father. There was never the slightest tendency to follow the impulse of His own will as distinct from His Father’s will— “the Son can do nothing of Himself…” (John 5:19). Then compare this with what we do— we take “every thought” or project that comes to us by impulse and jump into action immediately, instead of imprisoning and disciplining ourselves to obey Christ.
Practical work for Christians is greatly overemphasized today, and the saints who are “bringing every thought [and project] into captivity” are criticized and told that they are not determined, and that they lack zeal for God or zeal for the souls of others. But true determination and zeal are found in obeying God, not in the inclination to serve Him that arises from our own undisciplined human nature. It is inconceivable, but true nevertheless, that saints are not “bringing every thought [and project] into captivity,” but are simply doing work for God that has been instigated by their own human nature, and has not been made spiritual through determined discipline.
We have a tendency to forget that a person is not only committed to Jesus Christ for salvation, but is also committed, responsible, and accountable to Jesus Christ’s view of God, the world, and of sin and the devil. This means that each person must recognize the responsibility to “be transformed by the renewing of [his] mind….” (Romans 12:2).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The great thing about faith in God is that it keeps a man undisturbed in the midst of disturbance. Notes on Isaiah, 1376 R
Rather than worship the Creator, we worship the creation! No wonder there is no wonder. We have figured it all out. Ever wonder why people sleep in on Sunday mornings, whether in bed or in the sanctuary? They've seen it all. Why get excited? They know it all! There's nothing sacred. The holy becomes humdrum.
Can you see why Paul says in Romans 1:24 that people became full of sexual sin, using their bodies wrongly with each other? You've got to get excitement somewhere. If there's no purpose to this life, nothing sacred about this life, what's to keep us from doing whatever we want? How does God feel about such a view of life? Well, let me give you a hint. How would you feel if you saw your children settling for crumbs when you had prepared for them a feast?…Exactly!
From In the Grip of Grace
Nehemiah 11
1-2 The leaders of the people were already living in Jerusalem, so the rest of the people drew lots to get one out of ten to move to Jerusalem, the holy city, while the other nine remained in their towns. The people applauded those who voluntarily offered to live in Jerusalem.
3-4 These are the leaders in the province who resided in Jerusalem (some Israelites, priests, Levites, Temple staff, and descendants of Solomon’s slaves lived in the towns of Judah on their own property in various towns; others from both Judah and Benjamin lived in Jerusalem):
4-6 From the family of Judah:
Athaiah son of Uzziah, the son of Zechariah, the son of Amariah, the son of Shephatiah, the son of Mahalalel, from the family line of Perez; Maaseiah son of Baruch, the son of Col-Hozeh, the son of Hazaiah, the son of Adaiah, the son of Joiarib, the son of Zechariah, the son of the Shilonite. The descendants of Perez who lived in Jerusalem numbered 468 valiant men.
7-9 From the family of Benjamin:
Sallu son of Meshullam, the son of Joed, the son of Pedaiah, the son of Kolaiah, the son of Maaseiah, the son of Ithiel, the son of Jeshaiah, and his brothers Gabbai and Sallai: 928 men. Joel son of Zicri was their chief and Judah son of Hassenuah was second in command over the city.
10-14 From the priests:
Jedaiah son of Joiarib; Jakin; Seraiah son of Hilkiah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Zadok, the son of Meraioth, the son of Ahitub, supervisor of The Temple of God, along with their associates responsible for work in The Temple: 822 men. Also Adaiah son of Jeroham, the son of Pelaliah, the son of Amzi, the son of Zechariah, the son of Pashhur, the son of Malkijah, and his associates who were heads of families: 242 men; Amashsai son of Azarel, the son of Ahzai, the son of Meshillemoth, the son of Immer, and his associates, all valiant men: 128 men. Their commander was Zabdiel son of Haggedolim.
15-18 From the Levites:
Shemaiah son of Hasshub, the son of Azrikam, the son of Hashabiah, the son of Bunni; Shabbethai and Jozabad, two of the leaders of the Levites who were in charge of the outside work of The Temple of God; Mattaniah son of Mica, the son of Zabdi, the son of Asaph, the director who led in thanksgiving and prayer; Bakbukiah, second among his associates; and Abda son of Shammua, the son of Galal, the son of Jeduthun. The Levites in the holy city totaled 284.
19 From the security guards:
Akkub, Talmon, and their associates who kept watch over the gates: 172 men.
20 The rest of the Israelites, priests, and Levites were in all the towns of Judah, each on his own family property.
21 The Temple staff lived on the hill Ophel. Ziha and Gishpa were responsible for them.
22-23 The chief officer over the Levites in Jerusalem was Uzzi son of Bani, the son of Hashabiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Mica. Uzzi was one of Asaph’s descendants, singers who led worship in The Temple of God. The singers got their orders from the king, who drew up their daily schedule.
24 Pethahiah son of Meshezabel, a descendant of Zerah son of Judah, represented the people’s concerns at the royal court.
25-30 Some of the Judeans lived in the villages near their farms:
Kiriath Arba (Hebron) and suburbs
Dibon and suburbs
Jekabzeel and suburbs
Jeshua
Moladah
Beth Pelet
Hazar Shual
Beersheba and suburbs
Ziklag
Meconah and suburbs
En Rimmon
Zorah
Jarmuth
Zanoah
Adullam and their towns
Lachish and its fields
Azekah and suburbs.
They were living all the way from Beersheba to the Valley of Hinnom.
31-36 The Benjaminites from Geba lived in:
Micmash
Aijah
Bethel and its suburbs
Anathoth
Nob and Ananiah
Hazor
Ramah and Gittaim
Hadid, Zeboim, and Neballat
Lod and Ono and the Valley of the Craftsmen. Also some of the Levitical groups of Judah were assigned to Benjamin.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, September 09, 2017
Read: John 14:1–12
4 “Don’t let this throw you. You trust God, don’t you? Trust me. There is plenty of room for you in my Father’s home. If that weren’t so, would I have told you that I’m on my way to get a room ready for you? And if I’m on my way to get your room ready, I’ll come back and get you so you can live where I live. And you already know the road I’m taking.”
5 Thomas said, “Master, we have no idea where you’re going. How do you expect us to know the road?”
6-7 Jesus said, “I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life. No one gets to the Father apart from me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him. You’ve even seen him!”
8 Philip said, “Master, show us the Father; then we’ll be content.”
9-10 “You’ve been with me all this time, Philip, and you still don’t understand? To see me is to see the Father. So how can you ask, ‘Where is the Father?’ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you aren’t mere words. I don’t just make them up on my own. The Father who resides in me crafts each word into a divine act.
11-14 “Believe me: I am in my Father and my Father is in me. If you can’t believe that, believe what you see—these works. The person who trusts me will not only do what I’m doing but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do that I’ve been doing. You can count on it. From now on, whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I’ll do it. That’s how the Father will be seen for who he is in the Son. I mean it. Whatever you request in this way, I’ll do.
Seeing God
By David H. Roper
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” John 14:8
Author and pastor Erwin Lutzer recounts a story about television show host Art Linkletter and a little boy who was drawing a picture of God. Amused, Linkletter said, “You can’t do that because nobody knows what God looks like.”
“They will when I get through!” the boy declared.
Lord, help us reflect Your Son in our lives.
We may wonder, What is God like? Is He good? Is He kind? Does He care? The simple answer to those questions is Jesus’s response to Philip’s request: “Lord, show us the Father.” Jesus replied, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:8–9).
If you ever get hungry to see God, look at Jesus. “The Son is the image of the invisible God,” said Paul (Col. 1:15). Read through the four gospels in the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Think deeply about what Jesus did and said. “Draw” your own mental picture of God as you read. You’ll know much more of what He’s like when you’re through.
A friend of mine once told me that the only God he could believe in is the one he saw in Jesus. If you look closely, I think you’ll agree. As you read about Him your heart will leap, for though you may not know it, Jesus is the God you’ve been looking for all your life.
We’re so prone, Lord, to want You to be something You are not. Help us to see You more clearly on the pages of Scripture. Help us reflect Your Son in our lives.
How do you see God? Submit your own artwork or photography at YourDailyBread.org.
The clearer we see God, the clearer we see ourselves. Erwin Lutzer
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, September 09, 2017
Do It Yourself (2)
…bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ… —2 Corinthians 10:5
Determinedly Discipline Other Things. This is another difficult aspect of the strenuous nature of sainthood. Paul said, according to the Moffatt translation of this verse, “…I take every project prisoner to make it obey Christ….” So much Christian work today has never been disciplined, but has simply come into being by impulse! In our Lord’s life every project was disciplined to the will of His Father. There was never the slightest tendency to follow the impulse of His own will as distinct from His Father’s will— “the Son can do nothing of Himself…” (John 5:19). Then compare this with what we do— we take “every thought” or project that comes to us by impulse and jump into action immediately, instead of imprisoning and disciplining ourselves to obey Christ.
Practical work for Christians is greatly overemphasized today, and the saints who are “bringing every thought [and project] into captivity” are criticized and told that they are not determined, and that they lack zeal for God or zeal for the souls of others. But true determination and zeal are found in obeying God, not in the inclination to serve Him that arises from our own undisciplined human nature. It is inconceivable, but true nevertheless, that saints are not “bringing every thought [and project] into captivity,” but are simply doing work for God that has been instigated by their own human nature, and has not been made spiritual through determined discipline.
We have a tendency to forget that a person is not only committed to Jesus Christ for salvation, but is also committed, responsible, and accountable to Jesus Christ’s view of God, the world, and of sin and the devil. This means that each person must recognize the responsibility to “be transformed by the renewing of [his] mind….” (Romans 12:2).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The great thing about faith in God is that it keeps a man undisturbed in the midst of disturbance. Notes on Isaiah, 1376 R
Friday, September 8, 2017
Nehemiah 10, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: GOD IS ABLE
What will happen if your job disappears? Or your health diminishes? Or the economy takes a nosedive? Does God have a message for his people when calamity strikes?
He certainly had a word for Isaiah. The prophet wrote, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up. . .above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: The whole earth is full of His glory” (Isaiah 6:1-3).
God calmed the fears of Isaiah, not by removing the problem, but by revealing his divine power and presence. Rejoice that God is able to do what you cannot do! Your anxiety decreases as your understanding of your heavenly father increases!
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Nehemiah 10
1-8 The sealed document bore these signatures:
Nehemiah the governor, son of Hacaliah,
Zedekiah, Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah,
Pashhur, Amariah, Malkijah,
Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch,
Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah,
Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch,
Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin,
Maaziah, Bilgai, and Shemaiah.
These were the priests.
9-13 The Levites:
Jeshua son of Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel,
and their kinsmen: Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan,
Mica, Rehob, Hashabiah,
Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah,
Hodiah, Bani, and Beninu.
14-27 The heads of the people:
Parosh, Pahath-Moab, Elam, Zattu, Bani,
Bunni, Azgad, Bebai,
Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin,
Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur,
Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai,
Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai,
Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir,
Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua,
Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah,
Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub,
Hallohesh, Pilha, Shobek,
Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah,
Ahiah, Hanan, Anan,
Malluch, Harim, and Baanah.
28-30 The rest of the people, priests, Levites, security guards, singers, Temple staff, and all who separated themselves from the foreign neighbors to keep The Revelation of God, together with their wives, sons, daughters—everyone old enough to understand—all joined their noble kinsmen in a binding oath to follow The Revelation of God given through Moses the servant of God, to keep and carry out all the commandments of God our Master, all his decisions and standards. Thus:
We will not marry our daughters to our foreign neighbors nor let our sons marry their daughters.
31 When the foreign neighbors bring goods or grain to sell on the Sabbath we won’t trade with them—not on the Sabbath or any other holy day.
Every seventh year we will leave the land fallow and cancel all debts.
32-33 We accept the responsibility for paying an annual tax of one-third of a shekel (about an eighth ounce) for providing The Temple of our God with
bread for the Table
regular Grain-Offerings
regular Whole-Burnt-Offerings
offerings for the Sabbaths, New Moons, and appointed feasts
Dedication-Offerings
Absolution-Offerings to atone for Israel
maintenance of The Temple of our God.
34 We—priests, Levites, and the people—have cast lots to see when each of our families will bring wood for burning on the Altar of our God, following the yearly schedule set down in The Revelation.
35-36 We take responsibility for delivering annually to The Temple of God the firstfruits of our crops and our orchards, our firstborn sons and cattle, and the firstborn from our herds and flocks for the priests who serve in The Temple of our God—just as it is set down in The Revelation.
37-39 We will bring the best of our grain, of our contributions, of the fruit of every tree, of wine, and of oil to the priests in the storerooms of The Temple of our God.
We will bring the tithes from our fields to the Levites, since the Levites are appointed to collect the tithes in the towns where we work. We’ll see to it that a priest descended from Aaron will supervise the Levites as they collect the tithes and make sure that they take a tenth of the tithes to the treasury in The Temple of our God. We’ll see to it that the People of Israel and Levites bring the grain, wine, and oil to the storage rooms where the vessels of the Sanctuary are kept and where the priests who serve, the security guards, and the choir meet.
We will not neglect The Temple of our God.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, September 08, 2017
Read: Psalm 30:1–12
A David Psalm
I give you all the credit, God—
you got me out of that mess,
you didn’t let my foes gloat.
2-3 God, my God, I yelled for help
and you put me together.
God, you pulled me out of the grave,
gave me another chance at life
when I was down-and-out.
4-5 All you saints! Sing your hearts out to God!
Thank him to his face!
He gets angry once in a while, but across
a lifetime there is only love.
The nights of crying your eyes out
give way to days of laughter.
6-7 When things were going great
I crowed, “I’ve got it made.
I’m God’s favorite.
He made me king of the mountain.”
Then you looked the other way
and I fell to pieces.
8-10 I called out to you, God;
I laid my case before you:
“Can you sell me for a profit when I’m dead?
auction me off at a cemetery yard sale?
When I’m ‘dust to dust’ my songs
and stories of you won’t sell.
So listen! and be kind!
Help me out of this!”
11-12 You did it: you changed wild lament
into whirling dance;
You ripped off my black mourning band
and decked me with wildflowers.
I’m about to burst with song;
I can’t keep quiet about you.
God, my God,
I can’t thank you enough.
INSIGHT
For encouragement as you face the difficulties of life, read When the Going Gets Tough at discoveryseries.org/hp072.
Carried Through
By Monica Brands
Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. Psalm 30:5
I recently stumbled across some of my journals from college and couldn’t resist taking time to reread them. Reading the entries, I realized I didn’t feel about myself then the same as I do today. My struggles with loneliness and doubts about my faith felt overwhelming at the time, but looking back now I can clearly see how God has carried me to a better place. Seeing how God gently brought me through those days reminded me that what feels overwhelming today will one day be part of a greater story of His healing love.
Psalm 30 is a celebration psalm that similarly looks back with amazement and gratitude on God’s powerful restoration: from sickness to healing, from threat of death to life, from feeling God’s judgment to enjoying His favor, from mourning to joy (vv. 2–3,11).
Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. Psalm 30:5
The psalm is attributed to David, to whom we owe some of the most pain-filled laments in Scripture. But David also experienced restoration so incredible he was able to confess, “Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning” (v. 5). Despite all the pain he had endured, David discovered something even greater—God’s powerful hand of healing.
If you are hurting today and need encouragement, recall those times in your past when God carried you through to a place of healing. Pray for trust that He will do so again.
Lord, when our struggles feel bigger than what we can handle, help us to find comfort and strength in how You’ve carried us before.
God is lovingly working toward restoration and joy in and through the pain of our lives.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, September 08, 2017
Do It Yourself (1)
…casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God… —2 Corinthians 10:5
Determinedly Demolish Some Things. Deliverance from sin is not the same as deliverance from human nature. There are things in human nature, such as prejudices, that the saint can only destroy through sheer neglect. But there are other things that have to be destroyed through violence, that is, through God’s divine strength imparted by His Spirit. There are some things over which we are not to fight, but only to “stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord…” (see Exodus 14:13). But every theory or thought that raises itself up as a fortified barrier “against the knowledge of God” is to be determinedly demolished by drawing on God’s power, not through human effort or by compromise (see 2 Corinthians 10:4).
It is only when God has transformed our nature and we have entered into the experience of sanctification that the fight begins. The warfare is not against sin; we can never fight against sin— Jesus Christ conquered that in His redemption of us. The conflict is waged over turning our natural life into a spiritual life. This is never done easily, nor does God intend that it be so. It is accomplished only through a series of moral choices. God does not make us holy in the sense that He makes our character holy. He makes us holy in the sense that He has made us innocent before Him. And then we have to turn that innocence into holy character through the moral choices we make. These choices are continually opposed and hostile to the things of our natural life which have become so deeply entrenched— the very things that raise themselves up as fortified barriers “against the knowledge of God.” We can either turn back, making ourselves of no value to the kingdom of God, or we can determinedly demolish these things, allowing Jesus to bring another son to glory (see Hebrews 2:10).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We begin our Christian life by believing what we are told to believe, then we have to go on to so assimilate our beliefs that they work out in a way that redounds to the glory of God. The danger is in multiplying the acceptation of beliefs we do not make our own. Conformed to His Image, 381 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, September 08, 2017
Avalanche Prevention - #8000
It sounds crazy at first. People trying to cause an avalanche. Actually, there are people who do that for a living. One of the many things you can learn watching the Discovery Channel! Obviously, people who get caught in the path of an avalanche of tons of snow have little chance for survival. Skiers, snowmobilers, hikers have all been the tragic victims of what is called the white death. Now enter the specialists they call the avalanche hunters. They actually drive into areas where potential avalanche conditions exist, and using this slender, hand-held cannon, they fire shots into dangerous snow masses. Well, these folks aren't crazy. They actually trigger a small avalanche-which removes some of the buildup that can cause a later major avalanche. Now it's making sense.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Avalanche Prevention."
And what an interesting way to prevent a big avalanche-by precipitating a small one. Do you know, it's similar to the strategy God recommends for preventing emotional avalanches in your relationships, which may have already done some painful damage.
Our word for today from the Word of God, Ephesians 4:26-27, "In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold." Now, notice God doesn't say here don't be angry. He says don't be angry in a way that is sinful and hurtful, in a way that gives the devil a place to get into a relationship. So what's sinful anger? Well, for one thing, it's anger you don't deal with right away...anger you let build up. That's the anger that ends up burying someone you care about in one of your emotional avalanches.
Those avalanche hunters know that a small avalanche that does relatively little damage can help prevent a big avalanche that can do a lot of damage. Well, you know, it works that way with your anger, too. Your tendency may be to stuff your anger, to store your anger, to stifle your anger. You don't talk about things when they first cause your temper to flare-you just keep it to yourself. But just because your anger doesn't come out doesn't mean it goes away. It just gets buried.
When you cover your anger, when you just turn cold or you shut people out, when you pout about it instead of expressing your feelings, or you smolder, you're just creating avalanche conditions. And the people around you are going to feel the effects of your anger. They'll just have no idea why. So there's no chance for understanding, or healing, or change...just tension.
Right now you might be in a relationship where there's growing friction and distance because there's been a buildup of anger inside you. Hard feelings may be growing on both sides, and hard feelings are much more difficult to fix than soft feelings. That's why God says to get it fixed that same day before it turns hard.
So it's time to deal with what's accumulating inside of you, isn't it, before it causes larger and more deadly avalanches, which it surely will? First, pour out those feelings to God. He already knows about them, but He's waiting for you to bring them to Him before He'll help you with them. And then find a way to express what's been bothering you to that person or to the people involved...not in some verbal attack on them, but in a way that focuses on how you feel about what they did. And if you can't say it, write it. And if the wounds are really deep and the distance really wide, get the healing help of an objective third party, like a pastor or counselor. Maybe you fear the confrontation. But listen, your greater fear should be the greater pain of not confronting it.
Deal with your anger right now, right away. Work it out before it can grow into something much bigger and a whole lot more damaging. Take care of it when it's small so you don't have to dig yourself and those you love out of the emotional death of a major avalanche.
What will happen if your job disappears? Or your health diminishes? Or the economy takes a nosedive? Does God have a message for his people when calamity strikes?
He certainly had a word for Isaiah. The prophet wrote, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up. . .above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: The whole earth is full of His glory” (Isaiah 6:1-3).
God calmed the fears of Isaiah, not by removing the problem, but by revealing his divine power and presence. Rejoice that God is able to do what you cannot do! Your anxiety decreases as your understanding of your heavenly father increases!
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Nehemiah 10
1-8 The sealed document bore these signatures:
Nehemiah the governor, son of Hacaliah,
Zedekiah, Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah,
Pashhur, Amariah, Malkijah,
Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch,
Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah,
Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch,
Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin,
Maaziah, Bilgai, and Shemaiah.
These were the priests.
9-13 The Levites:
Jeshua son of Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel,
and their kinsmen: Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan,
Mica, Rehob, Hashabiah,
Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah,
Hodiah, Bani, and Beninu.
14-27 The heads of the people:
Parosh, Pahath-Moab, Elam, Zattu, Bani,
Bunni, Azgad, Bebai,
Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin,
Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur,
Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai,
Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai,
Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir,
Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua,
Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah,
Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub,
Hallohesh, Pilha, Shobek,
Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah,
Ahiah, Hanan, Anan,
Malluch, Harim, and Baanah.
28-30 The rest of the people, priests, Levites, security guards, singers, Temple staff, and all who separated themselves from the foreign neighbors to keep The Revelation of God, together with their wives, sons, daughters—everyone old enough to understand—all joined their noble kinsmen in a binding oath to follow The Revelation of God given through Moses the servant of God, to keep and carry out all the commandments of God our Master, all his decisions and standards. Thus:
We will not marry our daughters to our foreign neighbors nor let our sons marry their daughters.
31 When the foreign neighbors bring goods or grain to sell on the Sabbath we won’t trade with them—not on the Sabbath or any other holy day.
Every seventh year we will leave the land fallow and cancel all debts.
32-33 We accept the responsibility for paying an annual tax of one-third of a shekel (about an eighth ounce) for providing The Temple of our God with
bread for the Table
regular Grain-Offerings
regular Whole-Burnt-Offerings
offerings for the Sabbaths, New Moons, and appointed feasts
Dedication-Offerings
Absolution-Offerings to atone for Israel
maintenance of The Temple of our God.
34 We—priests, Levites, and the people—have cast lots to see when each of our families will bring wood for burning on the Altar of our God, following the yearly schedule set down in The Revelation.
35-36 We take responsibility for delivering annually to The Temple of God the firstfruits of our crops and our orchards, our firstborn sons and cattle, and the firstborn from our herds and flocks for the priests who serve in The Temple of our God—just as it is set down in The Revelation.
37-39 We will bring the best of our grain, of our contributions, of the fruit of every tree, of wine, and of oil to the priests in the storerooms of The Temple of our God.
We will bring the tithes from our fields to the Levites, since the Levites are appointed to collect the tithes in the towns where we work. We’ll see to it that a priest descended from Aaron will supervise the Levites as they collect the tithes and make sure that they take a tenth of the tithes to the treasury in The Temple of our God. We’ll see to it that the People of Israel and Levites bring the grain, wine, and oil to the storage rooms where the vessels of the Sanctuary are kept and where the priests who serve, the security guards, and the choir meet.
We will not neglect The Temple of our God.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, September 08, 2017
Read: Psalm 30:1–12
A David Psalm
I give you all the credit, God—
you got me out of that mess,
you didn’t let my foes gloat.
2-3 God, my God, I yelled for help
and you put me together.
God, you pulled me out of the grave,
gave me another chance at life
when I was down-and-out.
4-5 All you saints! Sing your hearts out to God!
Thank him to his face!
He gets angry once in a while, but across
a lifetime there is only love.
The nights of crying your eyes out
give way to days of laughter.
6-7 When things were going great
I crowed, “I’ve got it made.
I’m God’s favorite.
He made me king of the mountain.”
Then you looked the other way
and I fell to pieces.
8-10 I called out to you, God;
I laid my case before you:
“Can you sell me for a profit when I’m dead?
auction me off at a cemetery yard sale?
When I’m ‘dust to dust’ my songs
and stories of you won’t sell.
So listen! and be kind!
Help me out of this!”
11-12 You did it: you changed wild lament
into whirling dance;
You ripped off my black mourning band
and decked me with wildflowers.
I’m about to burst with song;
I can’t keep quiet about you.
God, my God,
I can’t thank you enough.
INSIGHT
For encouragement as you face the difficulties of life, read When the Going Gets Tough at discoveryseries.org/hp072.
Carried Through
By Monica Brands
Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. Psalm 30:5
I recently stumbled across some of my journals from college and couldn’t resist taking time to reread them. Reading the entries, I realized I didn’t feel about myself then the same as I do today. My struggles with loneliness and doubts about my faith felt overwhelming at the time, but looking back now I can clearly see how God has carried me to a better place. Seeing how God gently brought me through those days reminded me that what feels overwhelming today will one day be part of a greater story of His healing love.
Psalm 30 is a celebration psalm that similarly looks back with amazement and gratitude on God’s powerful restoration: from sickness to healing, from threat of death to life, from feeling God’s judgment to enjoying His favor, from mourning to joy (vv. 2–3,11).
Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. Psalm 30:5
The psalm is attributed to David, to whom we owe some of the most pain-filled laments in Scripture. But David also experienced restoration so incredible he was able to confess, “Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning” (v. 5). Despite all the pain he had endured, David discovered something even greater—God’s powerful hand of healing.
If you are hurting today and need encouragement, recall those times in your past when God carried you through to a place of healing. Pray for trust that He will do so again.
Lord, when our struggles feel bigger than what we can handle, help us to find comfort and strength in how You’ve carried us before.
God is lovingly working toward restoration and joy in and through the pain of our lives.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, September 08, 2017
Do It Yourself (1)
…casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God… —2 Corinthians 10:5
Determinedly Demolish Some Things. Deliverance from sin is not the same as deliverance from human nature. There are things in human nature, such as prejudices, that the saint can only destroy through sheer neglect. But there are other things that have to be destroyed through violence, that is, through God’s divine strength imparted by His Spirit. There are some things over which we are not to fight, but only to “stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord…” (see Exodus 14:13). But every theory or thought that raises itself up as a fortified barrier “against the knowledge of God” is to be determinedly demolished by drawing on God’s power, not through human effort or by compromise (see 2 Corinthians 10:4).
It is only when God has transformed our nature and we have entered into the experience of sanctification that the fight begins. The warfare is not against sin; we can never fight against sin— Jesus Christ conquered that in His redemption of us. The conflict is waged over turning our natural life into a spiritual life. This is never done easily, nor does God intend that it be so. It is accomplished only through a series of moral choices. God does not make us holy in the sense that He makes our character holy. He makes us holy in the sense that He has made us innocent before Him. And then we have to turn that innocence into holy character through the moral choices we make. These choices are continually opposed and hostile to the things of our natural life which have become so deeply entrenched— the very things that raise themselves up as fortified barriers “against the knowledge of God.” We can either turn back, making ourselves of no value to the kingdom of God, or we can determinedly demolish these things, allowing Jesus to bring another son to glory (see Hebrews 2:10).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We begin our Christian life by believing what we are told to believe, then we have to go on to so assimilate our beliefs that they work out in a way that redounds to the glory of God. The danger is in multiplying the acceptation of beliefs we do not make our own. Conformed to His Image, 381 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, September 08, 2017
Avalanche Prevention - #8000
It sounds crazy at first. People trying to cause an avalanche. Actually, there are people who do that for a living. One of the many things you can learn watching the Discovery Channel! Obviously, people who get caught in the path of an avalanche of tons of snow have little chance for survival. Skiers, snowmobilers, hikers have all been the tragic victims of what is called the white death. Now enter the specialists they call the avalanche hunters. They actually drive into areas where potential avalanche conditions exist, and using this slender, hand-held cannon, they fire shots into dangerous snow masses. Well, these folks aren't crazy. They actually trigger a small avalanche-which removes some of the buildup that can cause a later major avalanche. Now it's making sense.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Avalanche Prevention."
And what an interesting way to prevent a big avalanche-by precipitating a small one. Do you know, it's similar to the strategy God recommends for preventing emotional avalanches in your relationships, which may have already done some painful damage.
Our word for today from the Word of God, Ephesians 4:26-27, "In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold." Now, notice God doesn't say here don't be angry. He says don't be angry in a way that is sinful and hurtful, in a way that gives the devil a place to get into a relationship. So what's sinful anger? Well, for one thing, it's anger you don't deal with right away...anger you let build up. That's the anger that ends up burying someone you care about in one of your emotional avalanches.
Those avalanche hunters know that a small avalanche that does relatively little damage can help prevent a big avalanche that can do a lot of damage. Well, you know, it works that way with your anger, too. Your tendency may be to stuff your anger, to store your anger, to stifle your anger. You don't talk about things when they first cause your temper to flare-you just keep it to yourself. But just because your anger doesn't come out doesn't mean it goes away. It just gets buried.
When you cover your anger, when you just turn cold or you shut people out, when you pout about it instead of expressing your feelings, or you smolder, you're just creating avalanche conditions. And the people around you are going to feel the effects of your anger. They'll just have no idea why. So there's no chance for understanding, or healing, or change...just tension.
Right now you might be in a relationship where there's growing friction and distance because there's been a buildup of anger inside you. Hard feelings may be growing on both sides, and hard feelings are much more difficult to fix than soft feelings. That's why God says to get it fixed that same day before it turns hard.
So it's time to deal with what's accumulating inside of you, isn't it, before it causes larger and more deadly avalanches, which it surely will? First, pour out those feelings to God. He already knows about them, but He's waiting for you to bring them to Him before He'll help you with them. And then find a way to express what's been bothering you to that person or to the people involved...not in some verbal attack on them, but in a way that focuses on how you feel about what they did. And if you can't say it, write it. And if the wounds are really deep and the distance really wide, get the healing help of an objective third party, like a pastor or counselor. Maybe you fear the confrontation. But listen, your greater fear should be the greater pain of not confronting it.
Deal with your anger right now, right away. Work it out before it can grow into something much bigger and a whole lot more damaging. Take care of it when it's small so you don't have to dig yourself and those you love out of the emotional death of a major avalanche.
Thursday, September 7, 2017
Revelation 18, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: BELIEVING IN A SOVEREIGN LORD
Control freaks are easily frustrated. We can’t take control because control is not ours to take! The Bible has a better idea. Rather than seeking control, relinquish it. Peace is within reach, not for lack of problems, but because of the presence of a sovereign Lord.
Rather than rehearse the chaos of the world, rejoice in the Lord’s sovereignty, as Paul did. From prison he wrote, “The things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ” (Philippians 1:12-13).
In the innermost of his being, Paul was a man who believed in the steady hand of a good God…protected and preserved by God’s love! He lived beneath the shadow of God’s wings. Do you?
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Revelation 18
Doom to the City of Darkness
18 1-8 Following this I saw another Angel descend from Heaven. His authority was immense, his glory flooded earth with brightness, his voice thunderous:
Ruined, ruined, Great Babylon, ruined!
A ghost town for demons is all that’s left!
A garrison of carrion spirits,
garrison of loathsome, carrion birds.
All nations drank the wild wine of her whoring;
kings of the earth went whoring with her;
entrepreneurs made millions exploiting her.
Just then I heard another shout out of Heaven:
Get out, my people, as fast as you can,
so you don’t get mixed up in her sins,
so you don’t get caught in her doom.
Her sins stink to high Heaven;
God has remembered every evil she’s done.
Give her back what she’s given,
double what she’s doubled in her works,
double the recipe in the cup she mixed;
Bring her flaunting and wild ways
to torment and tears.
Because she gloated, “I’m queen over all,
and no widow, never a tear on my face,”
In one day, disasters will crush her—
death, heartbreak, and famine—
Then she’ll be burned by fire, because God,
the Strong God who judges her,
has had enough.
9-10 “The kings of the earth will see the smoke of her burning, and they’ll cry and carry on, the kings who went night after night to her brothel. They’ll keep their distance for fear they’ll get burned, and they’ll cry their lament:
Doom, doom, the great city doomed!
City of Babylon, strong city!
In one hour it’s over, your judgment come!
11-17 “The traders will cry and carry on because the bottom dropped out of business, no more market for their goods: gold, silver, precious gems, pearls; fabrics of fine linen, purple, silk, scarlet; perfumed wood and vessels of ivory, precious woods, bronze, iron, and marble; cinnamon and spice, incense, myrrh, and frankincense; wine and oil, flour and wheat; cattle, sheep, horses, and chariots. And slaves—their terrible traffic in human lives.
Everything you’ve lived for, gone!
All delicate and delectable luxury, lost!
Not a scrap, not a thread to be found!
“The traders who made millions off her kept their distance for fear of getting burned, and cried and carried on all the more:
Doom, doom, the great city doomed!
Dressed in the latest fashions,
adorned with the finest jewels,
in one hour such wealth wiped out!
17-19 “All the ship captains and travelers by sea, sailors and toilers of the sea, stood off at a distance and cried their lament when they saw the smoke from her burning: ‘Oh, what a city! There was never a city like her!’ They threw dust on their heads and cried as if the world had come to an end:
Doom, doom, the great city doomed!
All who owned ships or did business by sea
Got rich on her getting and spending.
And now it’s over—wiped out in one hour!
20 “O Heaven, celebrate! And join in, saints, apostles, and prophets! God has judged her; every wrong you suffered from her has been judged.”
21-24 A strong Angel reached for a boulder—huge, like a millstone—and heaved it into the sea, saying,
Heaved and sunk, the great city Babylon,
sunk in the sea, not a sign of her ever again.
Silent the music of harpists and singers—
you’ll never hear flutes and trumpets again.
Artisans of every kind—gone;
you’ll never see their likes again.
The voice of a millstone grinding falls dumb;
you’ll never hear that sound again.
The light from lamps, never again;
never again laughter of bride and groom.
Her traders robbed the whole earth blind,
and by black-magic arts deceived the nations.
The only thing left of Babylon is blood—
the blood of saints and prophets,
the murdered and the martyred.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, September 07, 2017
Read: Acts 7:54–8:2
54-56 At that point they went wild, a rioting mob of catcalls and whistles and invective. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, hardly noticed—he only had eyes for God, whom he saw in all his glory with Jesus standing at his side. He said, “Oh! I see heaven wide open and the Son of Man standing at God’s side!”
57-58 Yelling and hissing, the mob drowned him out. Now in full stampede, they dragged him out of town and pelted him with rocks. The ringleaders took off their coats and asked a young man named Saul to watch them.
59-60 As the rocks rained down, Stephen prayed, “Master Jesus, take my life.” Then he knelt down, praying loud enough for everyone to hear, “Master, don’t blame them for this sin”—his last words. Then he died.
1 Saul was right there, congratulating the killers.
Simon the Wizard
8 1-2 That set off a terrific persecution of the church in Jerusalem. The believers were all scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. All, that is, but the apostles. Good and brave men buried Stephen, giving him a solemn funeral—not many dry eyes that day!
INSIGHT
Stephen was part of a group of men, known to be full of wisdom and the Spirit, selected to work together to meet the needs of others in the church. This text raises some interesting questions. Was Stephen alone in front of the members of the Sanhedrin? Where was the rest of the group? Where were they when he was being stoned?
While those who mourned and buried Stephen had the physical shoulders of others to cry on, Stephen wasn’t alone either—he was comforted and supported by Jesus Himself: “ ‘Look,’ [Stephen] said, ‘I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God’ ” (7:56). Stephen was granted a vision of Jesus at the moment of his greatest need of support.
Jesus will never leave us alone and we have the privilege of being Jesus to those around us. Who needs your support today?
J.R. Hudberg
The Ministry of Mourning
By David C. McCasland
Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. Acts 8:2
In 2002, a few months after my sister Martha and her husband, Jim, died in an accident, a friend invited me to a “Growing Through Grief” workshop at our church. I reluctantly agreed to attend the first session but had no intention of going back. To my surprise, I discovered a caring community of people trying to come to grips with a significant loss in their lives by seeking the help of God and others. It drew me back week after week as I worked toward acceptance and peace through the process of sharing our grief together.
Like the sudden loss of a loved one or friend, the death of Stephen, a dynamic witness for Jesus, brought shock and sorrow to those in the early church (Acts 7:57–60). In the face of persecution, “Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him” (8:2). These men of faith did two things together: They buried Stephen, an act of finality and loss. And they mourned deeply for him, a shared expression of their sorrow.
Father in heaven, help us to grow together in Your healing love.
As followers of Jesus, we need not mourn our losses alone. In sincerity and love we can reach out to others who are hurting, and in humility we can accept the concern of those who stand beside us.
As we grieve together, we can grow in understanding and in the peace that is ours through Jesus Christ, who knows our deepest sorrow.
Father in heaven, help us to “mourn with those who mourn” and grow together in Your healing love.
Read Le After Loss at discoveryseries.org/cb131.
The ministry of mourning with others helps bring healing to our hearts.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, September 07, 2017
Fountains of Blessings
The water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. —John 4:14
The picture our Lord described here is not that of a simple stream of water, but an overflowing fountain. Continue to “be filled” (Ephesians 5:18) and the sweetness of your vital relationship to Jesus will flow as generously out of you as it has been given to you. If you find that His life is not springing up as it should, you are to blame— something is obstructing the flow. Was Jesus saying to stay focused on the Source so that you may be blessed personally? No, you are to focus on the Source so that out of you “will flow rivers of living water”— irrepressible life (John 7:38).
We are to be fountains through which Jesus can flow as “rivers of living water” in blessing to everyone. Yet some of us are like the Dead Sea, always receiving but never giving, because our relationship is not right with the Lord Jesus. As surely as we receive blessings from Him, He will pour out blessings through us. But whenever the blessings are not being poured out in the same measure they are received, there is a defect in our relationship with Him. Is there anything between you and Jesus Christ? Is there anything hindering your faith in Him? If not, then Jesus says that out of you “will flow rivers of living water.” It is not a blessing that you pass on, or an experience that you share with others, but a river that continually flows through you. Stay at the Source, closely guarding your faith in Jesus Christ and your relationship to Him, and there will be a steady flow into the lives of others with no dryness or deadness whatsoever.
Is it excessive to say that rivers will flow out of one individual believer? Do you look at yourself and say, “But I don’t see the rivers”? Through the history of God’s work you will usually find that He has started with the obscure, the unknown, the ignored, but those who have been steadfastly true to Jesus Christ.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Bible is a relation of facts, the truth of which must be tested. Life may go on all right for a while, when suddenly a bereavement comes, or some crisis; unrequited love or a new love, a disaster, a business collapse, or a shocking sin, and we turn up our Bibles again and God’s word comes straight home, and we say, “Why, I never saw that there before.” Shade of His Hand, 1223 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, September 07, 2017
Miracles With Damaged Goods - #7999
As Lenny left our headquarters, I said, "Man, you have really made a difference around here!" He really had. A company that was getting rid of a lot of office furniture donated about a dozen desks to our ministry, and we were thrilled to get them! Good desks, but well, not exactly beautiful desks. They were all scarred and beat up, and on the surface they didn't look particularly useful. In fact, the company that donated them actually was getting ready to discard them before they learned about our need. So, here in a storage area were all these ugly desks...until Lenny got his hands on them. One by one, he went to work with his magic touch and he slowly restored their original beauty. By the time he was done, it looked almost like we had just gotten a shipment of expensive new desks.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Miracles With Damaged Goods."
As our amazing desk restorer stood in my office with hands so stained that they actually looked like they'd never be clean again, I thanked him for the amazing difference he'd made. He just broke into a big smile and he said, "Oh, I love doing this."
I know someone else like that. His name is Jesus and He, too, is in the restoring business. It took His hands being stained with His own blood to make His restoring work possible. But as He looks at countless scarred and undervalued lives that He has restored, I believe He says, "Oh, I love doing this." And He would love to do it for you.
There's a simple, five-word promise Jesus made that might mark for you the possibility of a fresh new start. That promise is in our word for today in the Word of God in Revelation 21:5. Jesus said, "Behold, I make all things new." Did you get that, "All things new"? That may be exactly the kind of miracle you need right now. Because, like that office furniture we received, life has left you pretty beat up...scarred, maybe deeply scarred. You feel broken-useless. You've never been able to answer that haunting question, "Why am I here?" You're carrying a lot of regrets over things that, well, you wish you had done differently. You carry a lot of pain from things that have been done to you, and things you've done to others.
But then there's Jesus, the one who makes all things new, but at a very high price-to Him that is, not to you. He said at the Last Supper as He broke a loaf of bread and handed it to His friend, "This is My body, which is given for you." (Luke 22:19) He was broken so you could be fixed. He paid for your sin on the cross so you wouldn't have to. That's what was happening on that horrific cross when He died. And in dying for your sin and then coming out of His grave, He broke the power of the thing that ultimately causes all the scars, and the regrets, and the hurts-the spiritual cancer called sin. And with hands that bear nail prints from His sacrifice for you, He reaches out to you and says, "I will make all things new." The promise of the Bible in 2 Corinthians 5:17 is this, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." That could be you.
The Bible says He will restore what sin has taken from you (Joel 2:25)...that He will "bind up the brokenhearted." He'll, "release the prisoner from darkness." He'll, "exchange the ashes of your life for beauty." And then the Bible says, "...He'll turn a ‘spirit of despair' into a ‘garment of praise'." (Isaiah 61:1-3) You don't have to be defined any longer by your pain or by your sin. You can now be defined by who you belong to forever-to Jesus Christ, God's Son, the King of all kings. Your life-changing relationship with Him begins when you come to Him and you say, "Jesus, You're my only hope. You died for me. Forgive me. Change me. I'm Yours."
I want to be sure you belong to Him. That's why we've got our website. That's really what it's for, and I want to urge you to go there and check it out as soon as you can today...ANewStory.com.
Because of Jesus, who is the Master Restorer, your life doesn't have to be more of what it's been for so long. No, see, He makes all things new, and right now He is waiting to do that for you.
Control freaks are easily frustrated. We can’t take control because control is not ours to take! The Bible has a better idea. Rather than seeking control, relinquish it. Peace is within reach, not for lack of problems, but because of the presence of a sovereign Lord.
Rather than rehearse the chaos of the world, rejoice in the Lord’s sovereignty, as Paul did. From prison he wrote, “The things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ” (Philippians 1:12-13).
In the innermost of his being, Paul was a man who believed in the steady hand of a good God…protected and preserved by God’s love! He lived beneath the shadow of God’s wings. Do you?
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Revelation 18
Doom to the City of Darkness
18 1-8 Following this I saw another Angel descend from Heaven. His authority was immense, his glory flooded earth with brightness, his voice thunderous:
Ruined, ruined, Great Babylon, ruined!
A ghost town for demons is all that’s left!
A garrison of carrion spirits,
garrison of loathsome, carrion birds.
All nations drank the wild wine of her whoring;
kings of the earth went whoring with her;
entrepreneurs made millions exploiting her.
Just then I heard another shout out of Heaven:
Get out, my people, as fast as you can,
so you don’t get mixed up in her sins,
so you don’t get caught in her doom.
Her sins stink to high Heaven;
God has remembered every evil she’s done.
Give her back what she’s given,
double what she’s doubled in her works,
double the recipe in the cup she mixed;
Bring her flaunting and wild ways
to torment and tears.
Because she gloated, “I’m queen over all,
and no widow, never a tear on my face,”
In one day, disasters will crush her—
death, heartbreak, and famine—
Then she’ll be burned by fire, because God,
the Strong God who judges her,
has had enough.
9-10 “The kings of the earth will see the smoke of her burning, and they’ll cry and carry on, the kings who went night after night to her brothel. They’ll keep their distance for fear they’ll get burned, and they’ll cry their lament:
Doom, doom, the great city doomed!
City of Babylon, strong city!
In one hour it’s over, your judgment come!
11-17 “The traders will cry and carry on because the bottom dropped out of business, no more market for their goods: gold, silver, precious gems, pearls; fabrics of fine linen, purple, silk, scarlet; perfumed wood and vessels of ivory, precious woods, bronze, iron, and marble; cinnamon and spice, incense, myrrh, and frankincense; wine and oil, flour and wheat; cattle, sheep, horses, and chariots. And slaves—their terrible traffic in human lives.
Everything you’ve lived for, gone!
All delicate and delectable luxury, lost!
Not a scrap, not a thread to be found!
“The traders who made millions off her kept their distance for fear of getting burned, and cried and carried on all the more:
Doom, doom, the great city doomed!
Dressed in the latest fashions,
adorned with the finest jewels,
in one hour such wealth wiped out!
17-19 “All the ship captains and travelers by sea, sailors and toilers of the sea, stood off at a distance and cried their lament when they saw the smoke from her burning: ‘Oh, what a city! There was never a city like her!’ They threw dust on their heads and cried as if the world had come to an end:
Doom, doom, the great city doomed!
All who owned ships or did business by sea
Got rich on her getting and spending.
And now it’s over—wiped out in one hour!
20 “O Heaven, celebrate! And join in, saints, apostles, and prophets! God has judged her; every wrong you suffered from her has been judged.”
21-24 A strong Angel reached for a boulder—huge, like a millstone—and heaved it into the sea, saying,
Heaved and sunk, the great city Babylon,
sunk in the sea, not a sign of her ever again.
Silent the music of harpists and singers—
you’ll never hear flutes and trumpets again.
Artisans of every kind—gone;
you’ll never see their likes again.
The voice of a millstone grinding falls dumb;
you’ll never hear that sound again.
The light from lamps, never again;
never again laughter of bride and groom.
Her traders robbed the whole earth blind,
and by black-magic arts deceived the nations.
The only thing left of Babylon is blood—
the blood of saints and prophets,
the murdered and the martyred.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, September 07, 2017
Read: Acts 7:54–8:2
54-56 At that point they went wild, a rioting mob of catcalls and whistles and invective. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, hardly noticed—he only had eyes for God, whom he saw in all his glory with Jesus standing at his side. He said, “Oh! I see heaven wide open and the Son of Man standing at God’s side!”
57-58 Yelling and hissing, the mob drowned him out. Now in full stampede, they dragged him out of town and pelted him with rocks. The ringleaders took off their coats and asked a young man named Saul to watch them.
59-60 As the rocks rained down, Stephen prayed, “Master Jesus, take my life.” Then he knelt down, praying loud enough for everyone to hear, “Master, don’t blame them for this sin”—his last words. Then he died.
1 Saul was right there, congratulating the killers.
Simon the Wizard
8 1-2 That set off a terrific persecution of the church in Jerusalem. The believers were all scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. All, that is, but the apostles. Good and brave men buried Stephen, giving him a solemn funeral—not many dry eyes that day!
INSIGHT
Stephen was part of a group of men, known to be full of wisdom and the Spirit, selected to work together to meet the needs of others in the church. This text raises some interesting questions. Was Stephen alone in front of the members of the Sanhedrin? Where was the rest of the group? Where were they when he was being stoned?
While those who mourned and buried Stephen had the physical shoulders of others to cry on, Stephen wasn’t alone either—he was comforted and supported by Jesus Himself: “ ‘Look,’ [Stephen] said, ‘I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God’ ” (7:56). Stephen was granted a vision of Jesus at the moment of his greatest need of support.
Jesus will never leave us alone and we have the privilege of being Jesus to those around us. Who needs your support today?
J.R. Hudberg
The Ministry of Mourning
By David C. McCasland
Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. Acts 8:2
In 2002, a few months after my sister Martha and her husband, Jim, died in an accident, a friend invited me to a “Growing Through Grief” workshop at our church. I reluctantly agreed to attend the first session but had no intention of going back. To my surprise, I discovered a caring community of people trying to come to grips with a significant loss in their lives by seeking the help of God and others. It drew me back week after week as I worked toward acceptance and peace through the process of sharing our grief together.
Like the sudden loss of a loved one or friend, the death of Stephen, a dynamic witness for Jesus, brought shock and sorrow to those in the early church (Acts 7:57–60). In the face of persecution, “Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him” (8:2). These men of faith did two things together: They buried Stephen, an act of finality and loss. And they mourned deeply for him, a shared expression of their sorrow.
Father in heaven, help us to grow together in Your healing love.
As followers of Jesus, we need not mourn our losses alone. In sincerity and love we can reach out to others who are hurting, and in humility we can accept the concern of those who stand beside us.
As we grieve together, we can grow in understanding and in the peace that is ours through Jesus Christ, who knows our deepest sorrow.
Father in heaven, help us to “mourn with those who mourn” and grow together in Your healing love.
Read Le After Loss at discoveryseries.org/cb131.
The ministry of mourning with others helps bring healing to our hearts.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, September 07, 2017
Fountains of Blessings
The water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. —John 4:14
The picture our Lord described here is not that of a simple stream of water, but an overflowing fountain. Continue to “be filled” (Ephesians 5:18) and the sweetness of your vital relationship to Jesus will flow as generously out of you as it has been given to you. If you find that His life is not springing up as it should, you are to blame— something is obstructing the flow. Was Jesus saying to stay focused on the Source so that you may be blessed personally? No, you are to focus on the Source so that out of you “will flow rivers of living water”— irrepressible life (John 7:38).
We are to be fountains through which Jesus can flow as “rivers of living water” in blessing to everyone. Yet some of us are like the Dead Sea, always receiving but never giving, because our relationship is not right with the Lord Jesus. As surely as we receive blessings from Him, He will pour out blessings through us. But whenever the blessings are not being poured out in the same measure they are received, there is a defect in our relationship with Him. Is there anything between you and Jesus Christ? Is there anything hindering your faith in Him? If not, then Jesus says that out of you “will flow rivers of living water.” It is not a blessing that you pass on, or an experience that you share with others, but a river that continually flows through you. Stay at the Source, closely guarding your faith in Jesus Christ and your relationship to Him, and there will be a steady flow into the lives of others with no dryness or deadness whatsoever.
Is it excessive to say that rivers will flow out of one individual believer? Do you look at yourself and say, “But I don’t see the rivers”? Through the history of God’s work you will usually find that He has started with the obscure, the unknown, the ignored, but those who have been steadfastly true to Jesus Christ.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Bible is a relation of facts, the truth of which must be tested. Life may go on all right for a while, when suddenly a bereavement comes, or some crisis; unrequited love or a new love, a disaster, a business collapse, or a shocking sin, and we turn up our Bibles again and God’s word comes straight home, and we say, “Why, I never saw that there before.” Shade of His Hand, 1223 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, September 07, 2017
Miracles With Damaged Goods - #7999
As Lenny left our headquarters, I said, "Man, you have really made a difference around here!" He really had. A company that was getting rid of a lot of office furniture donated about a dozen desks to our ministry, and we were thrilled to get them! Good desks, but well, not exactly beautiful desks. They were all scarred and beat up, and on the surface they didn't look particularly useful. In fact, the company that donated them actually was getting ready to discard them before they learned about our need. So, here in a storage area were all these ugly desks...until Lenny got his hands on them. One by one, he went to work with his magic touch and he slowly restored their original beauty. By the time he was done, it looked almost like we had just gotten a shipment of expensive new desks.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Miracles With Damaged Goods."
As our amazing desk restorer stood in my office with hands so stained that they actually looked like they'd never be clean again, I thanked him for the amazing difference he'd made. He just broke into a big smile and he said, "Oh, I love doing this."
I know someone else like that. His name is Jesus and He, too, is in the restoring business. It took His hands being stained with His own blood to make His restoring work possible. But as He looks at countless scarred and undervalued lives that He has restored, I believe He says, "Oh, I love doing this." And He would love to do it for you.
There's a simple, five-word promise Jesus made that might mark for you the possibility of a fresh new start. That promise is in our word for today in the Word of God in Revelation 21:5. Jesus said, "Behold, I make all things new." Did you get that, "All things new"? That may be exactly the kind of miracle you need right now. Because, like that office furniture we received, life has left you pretty beat up...scarred, maybe deeply scarred. You feel broken-useless. You've never been able to answer that haunting question, "Why am I here?" You're carrying a lot of regrets over things that, well, you wish you had done differently. You carry a lot of pain from things that have been done to you, and things you've done to others.
But then there's Jesus, the one who makes all things new, but at a very high price-to Him that is, not to you. He said at the Last Supper as He broke a loaf of bread and handed it to His friend, "This is My body, which is given for you." (Luke 22:19) He was broken so you could be fixed. He paid for your sin on the cross so you wouldn't have to. That's what was happening on that horrific cross when He died. And in dying for your sin and then coming out of His grave, He broke the power of the thing that ultimately causes all the scars, and the regrets, and the hurts-the spiritual cancer called sin. And with hands that bear nail prints from His sacrifice for you, He reaches out to you and says, "I will make all things new." The promise of the Bible in 2 Corinthians 5:17 is this, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." That could be you.
The Bible says He will restore what sin has taken from you (Joel 2:25)...that He will "bind up the brokenhearted." He'll, "release the prisoner from darkness." He'll, "exchange the ashes of your life for beauty." And then the Bible says, "...He'll turn a ‘spirit of despair' into a ‘garment of praise'." (Isaiah 61:1-3) You don't have to be defined any longer by your pain or by your sin. You can now be defined by who you belong to forever-to Jesus Christ, God's Son, the King of all kings. Your life-changing relationship with Him begins when you come to Him and you say, "Jesus, You're my only hope. You died for me. Forgive me. Change me. I'm Yours."
I want to be sure you belong to Him. That's why we've got our website. That's really what it's for, and I want to urge you to go there and check it out as soon as you can today...ANewStory.com.
Because of Jesus, who is the Master Restorer, your life doesn't have to be more of what it's been for so long. No, see, He makes all things new, and right now He is waiting to do that for you.
Wednesday, September 6, 2017
Nehemiah 9, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily:
REJOICE IN THE LORD!
If anyone had a reason to be anxious it was the apostle Paul! Envision an old man as he gazes out the window of a Roman prison. Half-blind, squinting just to read. Awaiting trial before the Roman emperor. His future is as gloomy as his jail cell.
Yet to read his words, you’d think he’d just arrived at a Jamaican beach hotel. His letter to the Philippians bears not a word of fear or complaint. Not one! Instead, he lifts his thanks to God and calls on his readers to do the same. “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4).
Paul’s challenge is a decision deeply rooted in the confidence that God exists, that he is in control, and that he is good. Rejoice in the Lord—always! You can’t run the world but you can entrust it to God!
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Nehemiah 9
1-3 Then on the twenty-fourth day of this month, the People of Israel gathered for a fast, wearing burlap and faces smudged with dirt as signs of repentance. The Israelites broke off all relations with foreigners, stood up, and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their parents. While they stood there in their places, they read from the Book of The Revelation of God, their God, for a quarter of the day. For another quarter of the day they confessed and worshiped their God.
4-5 A group of Levites—Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Kenani—stood on the platform and cried out to God, their God, in a loud voice. The Levites Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah said, “On your feet! Bless God, your God, for ever and ever!”
5-6 Blessed be your glorious name,
exalted above all blessing and praise!
You’re the one,
God, you alone;
You made the heavens,
the heavens of heavens, and all angels;
The earth and everything on it,
the seas and everything in them;
You keep them all alive;
heaven’s angels worship you!
7-8 You’re the one, God, the God
who chose Abram
And brought him from Ur of the Chaldees
and changed his name to Abraham.
You found his heart to be steady and true to you
and signed a covenant with him,
A covenant to give him the land of the Canaanites,
the Hittites, and the Amorites,
The Perizzites, Jebusites, and Girgashites,
—to give it to his descendants.
And you kept your word
because you are righteous.
9-15 You saw the anguish of our parents in Egypt.
You heard their cries at the Red Sea;
You amazed Pharaoh, his servants, and the people of his land
with wonders and miracle-signs.
You knew their bullying arrogance against your people;
you made a name for yourself that lasts to this day.
You split the sea before them;
they crossed through and never got their feet wet;
You pitched their pursuers into the deep;
they sank like a rock in the storm-tossed sea.
By day you led them with a Pillar of Cloud,
and by night with a Pillar of Fire
To show them the way
they were to travel.
You came down onto Mount Sinai,
you spoke to them out of heaven;
You gave them instructions on how to live well,
true teaching, sound rules and commands;
You introduced them
to your Holy Sabbath;
Through your servant Moses you decreed
commands, rules, and instruction.
You gave bread from heaven for their hunger,
you sent water from the rock for their thirst.
You told them to enter and take the land,
which you promised to give them.
16-19 But they, our ancestors, were arrogant;
bullheaded, they wouldn’t obey your commands.
They turned a deaf ear, they refused
to remember the miracles you had done for them;
They turned stubborn, got it into their heads
to return to their Egyptian slavery.
And you, a forgiving God,
gracious and compassionate,
Incredibly patient, with tons of love—
you didn’t dump them.
Yes, even when they cast a sculpted calf
and said, “This is your god
Who brought you out of Egypt,”
and continued from bad to worse,
You in your amazing compassion
didn’t walk off and leave them in the desert.
The Pillar of Cloud didn’t leave them;
daily it continued to show them their route;
The Pillar of Fire did the same by night,
showed them the right way to go.
20-23 You gave them your good Spirit
to teach them to live wisely.
You never stinted with your manna,
gave them plenty of water to drink.
You supported them forty years in that desert;
they had everything they needed;
Their clothes didn’t wear out
and their feet never blistered.
You gave them kingdoms and peoples,
establishing generous boundaries.
They took over the country of Sihon king of Heshbon
and the country of Og king of Bashan.
You multiplied children for them,
rivaling the stars in the night skies,
And you brought them into the land
that you promised their ancestors
they would get and own.
24-25 Well, they entered all right,
they took it and settled in.
The Canaanites who lived there
you brought to their knees before them.
You turned over their land, kings, and peoples
to do with as they pleased.
They took strong cities and fertile fields,
they took over well-furnished houses,
Cisterns, vineyards, olive groves,
and lush, extensive orchards.
And they ate, grew fat on the fat of the land;
they reveled in your bountiful goodness.
26-31 But then they mutinied, rebelled against you,
threw out your laws and killed your prophets,
The very prophets who tried to get them back on your side—
and then things went from bad to worse.
You turned them over to their enemies,
who made life rough for them.
But when they called out for help in their troubles
you listened from heaven;
And in keeping with your bottomless compassion
you gave them saviors:
Saviors who saved them
from the cruel abuse of their enemies.
But as soon as they had it easy again
they were right back at it—more evil.
So you turned away and left them again to their fate,
to the enemies who came right back.
They cried out to you again; in your great compassion
you heard and helped them again.
This went on over and over and over.
You warned them to return to your Revelation,
they responded with haughty arrogance:
They flouted your commands, spurned your rules
—the very words by which men and women live!
They set their jaws in defiance,
they turned their backs on you and didn’t listen.
You put up with them year after year
and warned them by your spirit through your prophets;
But when they refused to listen
you abandoned them to foreigners.
Still, because of your great compassion,
you didn’t make a total end to them.
You didn’t walk out and leave them for good;
yes, you are a God of grace and compassion.
32-37 And now, our God, the great God,
God majestic and terrible, loyal in covenant and love,
Don’t treat lightly the trouble that has come to us,
to our kings and princes, our priests and prophets,
Our ancestors, and all your people from the time
of the Assyrian kings right down to today.
You are not to blame
for all that has come down on us;
You did everything right,
we did everything wrong.
None of our kings, princes, priests, or ancestors
followed your Revelation;
They ignored your commands,
dismissed the warnings you gave them.
Even when they had their own kingdom
and were enjoying your generous goodness,
Living in that spacious and fertile land
that you spread out before them,
They didn’t serve you
or turn their backs on the practice of evil.
And here we are, slaves again today;
and here’s the land you gave our ancestors
So they could eat well and enjoy a good life,
and now look at us—no better than slaves on this land.
Its wonderful crops go to the kings
you put over us because of our sins;
They act like they own our bodies
and do whatever they like with our cattle.
We’re in deep trouble.
38 “Because of all this we are drawing up a binding pledge, a sealed document signed by our princes, our Levites, and our priests.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, September 06, 2017
Read: 2 Kings 19:9–19
8-13 The Rabshakeh left and found that the king of Assyria had pulled up stakes from Lachish and was now fighting against Libnah. Then Sennacherib heard that Tirhakah king of Cush was on his way to fight against him. So he sent another envoy with orders to deliver this message to Hezekiah king of Judah: “Don’t let that god that you think so much of keep stringing you along with the line, ‘Jerusalem will never fall to the king of Assyria.’ That’s a barefaced lie. You know the track record of the kings of Assyria—country after country laid waste, devastated. And what makes you think you’ll be an exception? Take a good look at these wasted nations, destroyed by my ancestors; did their gods do them any good? Look at Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, the people of Eden at Tel Assar. Ruins. And what’s left of the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of Sepharvaim, of Hena, of Ivvah? Bones.”
14-15 Hezekiah took the letter from the envoy and read it. He went to The Temple of God and spread it out before God. And Hezekiah prayed—oh, how he prayed!
God, God of Israel, seated
in majesty on the cherubim-throne.
You are the one and only God,
sovereign over all kingdoms on earth,
Maker of heaven,
maker of earth.
16 Open your ears, God, and listen,
open your eyes and look.
Look at this letter Sennacherib has sent,
a brazen insult to the living God!
17 The facts are true, O God: The kings of Assyria
have laid waste countries and kingdoms.
18 Huge bonfires they made of their gods, their
no-gods hand-made from wood and stone.
19 But now O God, our God,
save us from raw Assyrian power;
Make all the kingdoms on earth know
that you are God, the one and only God.
INSIGHT:
Hezekiah had many reasons to fear Assyria, a cruel nation (19:25–26) that had already conquered the ten tribes of Israel (see 2 Kings 17:1–18). But God reminded Hezekiah that He was more powerful than Assyria and could be trusted to keep His promises (19:28–34).
What overwhelming situations might you need to trust God with?
Give It to God
By Kirsten Holmberg
Then [Hezekiah] went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. 2 Kings 19:14
As a teenager, when I became overwhelmed by enormous challenges or high-stakes decisions, my mother taught me the merits of putting pen to paper to gain perspective. When I was uncertain whether to take specific classes or which job to pursue, or how to cope with the frightening realities of adulthood, I learned her habit of writing out the basic facts and the possible courses of action with their likely outcomes. After pouring my heart onto the page, I was able to step back from the problem and view it more objectively than my emotions allowed.
Just as recording my thoughts on paper offered me fresh perspective, pouring our hearts out to God in prayer helps us gain His perspective and remind us of His power. King Hezekiah did just that after receiving a daunting letter from an ominous adversary. The Assyrians threatened to destroy Jerusalem as they had many other nations. Hezekiah spread out the letter before the Lord, prayerfully calling on Him to deliver the people so that the world would recognize He “alone . . . [is] God” (2 Kings 19:19).
Lord, You are my source of wisdom and strength.
When we’re faced with a situation that brings anxiety, fear, or a deep awareness that getting through it will require more than what we have, let’s follow in Hezekiah’s footsteps and run straight to the Lord. Like him, we too can lay our problem before God and trust Him to guide our steps and calm our uneasy hearts.
Do you have a prayer request? Share it with the Our Daily Bread family at YourDailyBread.org.
God is our greatest help in times of distress.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, September 06, 2017
The Far-Reaching Rivers of Life
He who believes in Me…out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. —John 7:38
A river reaches places which its source never knows. And Jesus said that, if we have received His fullness, “rivers of living water” will flow out of us, reaching in blessing even “to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8) regardless of how small the visible effects of our lives may appear to be. We have nothing to do with the outflow— “This is the work of God, that you believe…” (John 6:29). God rarely allows a person to see how great a blessing he is to others.
A river is victoriously persistent, overcoming all barriers. For a while it goes steadily on its course, but then comes to an obstacle. And for a while it is blocked, yet it soon makes a pathway around the obstacle. Or a river will drop out of sight for miles, only later to emerge again even broader and greater than ever. Do you see God using the lives of others, but an obstacle has come into your life and you do not seem to be of any use to God? Then keep paying attention to the Source, and God will either take you around the obstacle or remove it. The river of the Spirit of God overcomes all obstacles. Never focus your eyes on the obstacle or the difficulty. The obstacle will be a matter of total indifference to the river that will flow steadily through you if you will simply remember to stay focused on the Source. Never allow anything to come between you and Jesus Christ— not emotion nor experience— nothing must keep you from the one great sovereign Source.
Think of the healing and far-reaching rivers developing and nourishing themselves in our souls! God has been opening up wonderful truths to our minds, and every point He has opened up is another indication of the wider power of the river that He will flow through us. If you believe in Jesus, you will find that God has developed and nourished in you mighty, rushing rivers of blessing for others.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is not what a man does that is of final importance, but what he is in what he does. The atmosphere produced by a man, much more than his activities, has the lasting influence. Baffled to Fight Better, 51 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, September 06, 2017
No Baggage on the Gospel - #7998
It's always been challenging to take our "On Eagle's Wings" team of young Native American believers to do reservation outreach. But going to Alaska to do it? Well, that meant a really challenging challenge! There's a suicide rate there 20 times greater than that of the rest of the young people in America. The young Native Alaskans are a desperate mission field. You can probably imagine the logistics of this kind of outreach were pretty exciting-especially when some of the villages you're in are 400 miles from the nearest road! The entire team had to be transported by missionary airplanes and fishing boats! Since the planes are just single or twin-engine aircraft, you can choose between taking less people with more luggage or more people with less luggage. Since we need every seat filled with a team member, the sacrifice is going to be, believe me, in how much baggage each of us takes. The limit is 20 pounds per person for five weeks! It's hard to travel that light, but it's important. When you carry just the basic essentials, you can move more people and go a lot farther!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Baggage on the Gospel."
A team moves farther and faster with less baggage...and so does the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That's why the powerful Apostle Paul, who could have dazzled a crowd with his incredible theology, kept his message to the lost very simple. Our word for today for the Word of God, 1 Corinthians 2:1-2-"When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified."
Now with all the Christian truth Paul could have presented, (that he knew there was to present), when it came to the lost, he carried an unencumbered Gospel. Like us packing for our missionary trip to Alaska, he limited himself to the basic essentials, and he left out anything that would unnecessarily encumber the message he was carrying. His message simple: Jesus Christ and His death on the cross for you.
Now one reason we may not see more people interested in our Jesus is maybe, without even realizing it, we've added baggage to the simple Gospel message. Baggage like rules, rituals, religion-all of which obscure the real issue, which is a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Sometimes we encumber the Gospel with lifestyle issues. "Now you need Jesus-and what are you doing with an earring there?" Or we attack their wrong music...or their wrong relationship...or their wrong entertainment. We're trying to clean them up before they have the Cleaner-Upper inside them! You don't clean fish before you catch them! So, stick to Jesus...stick to His cross!
It's also tempting to load down the Jesus story with the baggage of our group's special theological emphasis. There are distinctive aspects in every denomination and group that makes them them-and they often concern very important areas of Christian truth. But they're not part of the Gospel. They are what we will teach this person after they have been to the Cross and made Jesus their Savior. Then, those teachings may become essential to their relationship with Christ. But now, before they know Him, those emphases may be extra baggage-baggage that means, like traveling in those little planes in Alaska, we'll be carrying less people-to Jesus.
If a lost person stumbles over Jesus or His cross, then the responsibility is theirs. But if they stumble over baggage that we've add to Jesus and His cross, then the responsibility is on us. And the consequences can be eternal.
Aren't you glad you don't have to carry all the Christian baggage when you try to win the heart of a lost friend or loved one? Unpack all the other Christian things, and just deliver the essentials-the incredible news that Jesus loved us enough to die for us, to rescue us from the death penalty of our sin. Stick to Jesus!
REJOICE IN THE LORD!
If anyone had a reason to be anxious it was the apostle Paul! Envision an old man as he gazes out the window of a Roman prison. Half-blind, squinting just to read. Awaiting trial before the Roman emperor. His future is as gloomy as his jail cell.
Yet to read his words, you’d think he’d just arrived at a Jamaican beach hotel. His letter to the Philippians bears not a word of fear or complaint. Not one! Instead, he lifts his thanks to God and calls on his readers to do the same. “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4).
Paul’s challenge is a decision deeply rooted in the confidence that God exists, that he is in control, and that he is good. Rejoice in the Lord—always! You can’t run the world but you can entrust it to God!
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Nehemiah 9
1-3 Then on the twenty-fourth day of this month, the People of Israel gathered for a fast, wearing burlap and faces smudged with dirt as signs of repentance. The Israelites broke off all relations with foreigners, stood up, and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their parents. While they stood there in their places, they read from the Book of The Revelation of God, their God, for a quarter of the day. For another quarter of the day they confessed and worshiped their God.
4-5 A group of Levites—Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Kenani—stood on the platform and cried out to God, their God, in a loud voice. The Levites Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah said, “On your feet! Bless God, your God, for ever and ever!”
5-6 Blessed be your glorious name,
exalted above all blessing and praise!
You’re the one,
God, you alone;
You made the heavens,
the heavens of heavens, and all angels;
The earth and everything on it,
the seas and everything in them;
You keep them all alive;
heaven’s angels worship you!
7-8 You’re the one, God, the God
who chose Abram
And brought him from Ur of the Chaldees
and changed his name to Abraham.
You found his heart to be steady and true to you
and signed a covenant with him,
A covenant to give him the land of the Canaanites,
the Hittites, and the Amorites,
The Perizzites, Jebusites, and Girgashites,
—to give it to his descendants.
And you kept your word
because you are righteous.
9-15 You saw the anguish of our parents in Egypt.
You heard their cries at the Red Sea;
You amazed Pharaoh, his servants, and the people of his land
with wonders and miracle-signs.
You knew their bullying arrogance against your people;
you made a name for yourself that lasts to this day.
You split the sea before them;
they crossed through and never got their feet wet;
You pitched their pursuers into the deep;
they sank like a rock in the storm-tossed sea.
By day you led them with a Pillar of Cloud,
and by night with a Pillar of Fire
To show them the way
they were to travel.
You came down onto Mount Sinai,
you spoke to them out of heaven;
You gave them instructions on how to live well,
true teaching, sound rules and commands;
You introduced them
to your Holy Sabbath;
Through your servant Moses you decreed
commands, rules, and instruction.
You gave bread from heaven for their hunger,
you sent water from the rock for their thirst.
You told them to enter and take the land,
which you promised to give them.
16-19 But they, our ancestors, were arrogant;
bullheaded, they wouldn’t obey your commands.
They turned a deaf ear, they refused
to remember the miracles you had done for them;
They turned stubborn, got it into their heads
to return to their Egyptian slavery.
And you, a forgiving God,
gracious and compassionate,
Incredibly patient, with tons of love—
you didn’t dump them.
Yes, even when they cast a sculpted calf
and said, “This is your god
Who brought you out of Egypt,”
and continued from bad to worse,
You in your amazing compassion
didn’t walk off and leave them in the desert.
The Pillar of Cloud didn’t leave them;
daily it continued to show them their route;
The Pillar of Fire did the same by night,
showed them the right way to go.
20-23 You gave them your good Spirit
to teach them to live wisely.
You never stinted with your manna,
gave them plenty of water to drink.
You supported them forty years in that desert;
they had everything they needed;
Their clothes didn’t wear out
and their feet never blistered.
You gave them kingdoms and peoples,
establishing generous boundaries.
They took over the country of Sihon king of Heshbon
and the country of Og king of Bashan.
You multiplied children for them,
rivaling the stars in the night skies,
And you brought them into the land
that you promised their ancestors
they would get and own.
24-25 Well, they entered all right,
they took it and settled in.
The Canaanites who lived there
you brought to their knees before them.
You turned over their land, kings, and peoples
to do with as they pleased.
They took strong cities and fertile fields,
they took over well-furnished houses,
Cisterns, vineyards, olive groves,
and lush, extensive orchards.
And they ate, grew fat on the fat of the land;
they reveled in your bountiful goodness.
26-31 But then they mutinied, rebelled against you,
threw out your laws and killed your prophets,
The very prophets who tried to get them back on your side—
and then things went from bad to worse.
You turned them over to their enemies,
who made life rough for them.
But when they called out for help in their troubles
you listened from heaven;
And in keeping with your bottomless compassion
you gave them saviors:
Saviors who saved them
from the cruel abuse of their enemies.
But as soon as they had it easy again
they were right back at it—more evil.
So you turned away and left them again to their fate,
to the enemies who came right back.
They cried out to you again; in your great compassion
you heard and helped them again.
This went on over and over and over.
You warned them to return to your Revelation,
they responded with haughty arrogance:
They flouted your commands, spurned your rules
—the very words by which men and women live!
They set their jaws in defiance,
they turned their backs on you and didn’t listen.
You put up with them year after year
and warned them by your spirit through your prophets;
But when they refused to listen
you abandoned them to foreigners.
Still, because of your great compassion,
you didn’t make a total end to them.
You didn’t walk out and leave them for good;
yes, you are a God of grace and compassion.
32-37 And now, our God, the great God,
God majestic and terrible, loyal in covenant and love,
Don’t treat lightly the trouble that has come to us,
to our kings and princes, our priests and prophets,
Our ancestors, and all your people from the time
of the Assyrian kings right down to today.
You are not to blame
for all that has come down on us;
You did everything right,
we did everything wrong.
None of our kings, princes, priests, or ancestors
followed your Revelation;
They ignored your commands,
dismissed the warnings you gave them.
Even when they had their own kingdom
and were enjoying your generous goodness,
Living in that spacious and fertile land
that you spread out before them,
They didn’t serve you
or turn their backs on the practice of evil.
And here we are, slaves again today;
and here’s the land you gave our ancestors
So they could eat well and enjoy a good life,
and now look at us—no better than slaves on this land.
Its wonderful crops go to the kings
you put over us because of our sins;
They act like they own our bodies
and do whatever they like with our cattle.
We’re in deep trouble.
38 “Because of all this we are drawing up a binding pledge, a sealed document signed by our princes, our Levites, and our priests.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, September 06, 2017
Read: 2 Kings 19:9–19
8-13 The Rabshakeh left and found that the king of Assyria had pulled up stakes from Lachish and was now fighting against Libnah. Then Sennacherib heard that Tirhakah king of Cush was on his way to fight against him. So he sent another envoy with orders to deliver this message to Hezekiah king of Judah: “Don’t let that god that you think so much of keep stringing you along with the line, ‘Jerusalem will never fall to the king of Assyria.’ That’s a barefaced lie. You know the track record of the kings of Assyria—country after country laid waste, devastated. And what makes you think you’ll be an exception? Take a good look at these wasted nations, destroyed by my ancestors; did their gods do them any good? Look at Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, the people of Eden at Tel Assar. Ruins. And what’s left of the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of Sepharvaim, of Hena, of Ivvah? Bones.”
14-15 Hezekiah took the letter from the envoy and read it. He went to The Temple of God and spread it out before God. And Hezekiah prayed—oh, how he prayed!
God, God of Israel, seated
in majesty on the cherubim-throne.
You are the one and only God,
sovereign over all kingdoms on earth,
Maker of heaven,
maker of earth.
16 Open your ears, God, and listen,
open your eyes and look.
Look at this letter Sennacherib has sent,
a brazen insult to the living God!
17 The facts are true, O God: The kings of Assyria
have laid waste countries and kingdoms.
18 Huge bonfires they made of their gods, their
no-gods hand-made from wood and stone.
19 But now O God, our God,
save us from raw Assyrian power;
Make all the kingdoms on earth know
that you are God, the one and only God.
INSIGHT:
Hezekiah had many reasons to fear Assyria, a cruel nation (19:25–26) that had already conquered the ten tribes of Israel (see 2 Kings 17:1–18). But God reminded Hezekiah that He was more powerful than Assyria and could be trusted to keep His promises (19:28–34).
What overwhelming situations might you need to trust God with?
Give It to God
By Kirsten Holmberg
Then [Hezekiah] went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. 2 Kings 19:14
As a teenager, when I became overwhelmed by enormous challenges or high-stakes decisions, my mother taught me the merits of putting pen to paper to gain perspective. When I was uncertain whether to take specific classes or which job to pursue, or how to cope with the frightening realities of adulthood, I learned her habit of writing out the basic facts and the possible courses of action with their likely outcomes. After pouring my heart onto the page, I was able to step back from the problem and view it more objectively than my emotions allowed.
Just as recording my thoughts on paper offered me fresh perspective, pouring our hearts out to God in prayer helps us gain His perspective and remind us of His power. King Hezekiah did just that after receiving a daunting letter from an ominous adversary. The Assyrians threatened to destroy Jerusalem as they had many other nations. Hezekiah spread out the letter before the Lord, prayerfully calling on Him to deliver the people so that the world would recognize He “alone . . . [is] God” (2 Kings 19:19).
Lord, You are my source of wisdom and strength.
When we’re faced with a situation that brings anxiety, fear, or a deep awareness that getting through it will require more than what we have, let’s follow in Hezekiah’s footsteps and run straight to the Lord. Like him, we too can lay our problem before God and trust Him to guide our steps and calm our uneasy hearts.
Do you have a prayer request? Share it with the Our Daily Bread family at YourDailyBread.org.
God is our greatest help in times of distress.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, September 06, 2017
The Far-Reaching Rivers of Life
He who believes in Me…out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. —John 7:38
A river reaches places which its source never knows. And Jesus said that, if we have received His fullness, “rivers of living water” will flow out of us, reaching in blessing even “to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8) regardless of how small the visible effects of our lives may appear to be. We have nothing to do with the outflow— “This is the work of God, that you believe…” (John 6:29). God rarely allows a person to see how great a blessing he is to others.
A river is victoriously persistent, overcoming all barriers. For a while it goes steadily on its course, but then comes to an obstacle. And for a while it is blocked, yet it soon makes a pathway around the obstacle. Or a river will drop out of sight for miles, only later to emerge again even broader and greater than ever. Do you see God using the lives of others, but an obstacle has come into your life and you do not seem to be of any use to God? Then keep paying attention to the Source, and God will either take you around the obstacle or remove it. The river of the Spirit of God overcomes all obstacles. Never focus your eyes on the obstacle or the difficulty. The obstacle will be a matter of total indifference to the river that will flow steadily through you if you will simply remember to stay focused on the Source. Never allow anything to come between you and Jesus Christ— not emotion nor experience— nothing must keep you from the one great sovereign Source.
Think of the healing and far-reaching rivers developing and nourishing themselves in our souls! God has been opening up wonderful truths to our minds, and every point He has opened up is another indication of the wider power of the river that He will flow through us. If you believe in Jesus, you will find that God has developed and nourished in you mighty, rushing rivers of blessing for others.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is not what a man does that is of final importance, but what he is in what he does. The atmosphere produced by a man, much more than his activities, has the lasting influence. Baffled to Fight Better, 51 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, September 06, 2017
No Baggage on the Gospel - #7998
It's always been challenging to take our "On Eagle's Wings" team of young Native American believers to do reservation outreach. But going to Alaska to do it? Well, that meant a really challenging challenge! There's a suicide rate there 20 times greater than that of the rest of the young people in America. The young Native Alaskans are a desperate mission field. You can probably imagine the logistics of this kind of outreach were pretty exciting-especially when some of the villages you're in are 400 miles from the nearest road! The entire team had to be transported by missionary airplanes and fishing boats! Since the planes are just single or twin-engine aircraft, you can choose between taking less people with more luggage or more people with less luggage. Since we need every seat filled with a team member, the sacrifice is going to be, believe me, in how much baggage each of us takes. The limit is 20 pounds per person for five weeks! It's hard to travel that light, but it's important. When you carry just the basic essentials, you can move more people and go a lot farther!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Baggage on the Gospel."
A team moves farther and faster with less baggage...and so does the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That's why the powerful Apostle Paul, who could have dazzled a crowd with his incredible theology, kept his message to the lost very simple. Our word for today for the Word of God, 1 Corinthians 2:1-2-"When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified."
Now with all the Christian truth Paul could have presented, (that he knew there was to present), when it came to the lost, he carried an unencumbered Gospel. Like us packing for our missionary trip to Alaska, he limited himself to the basic essentials, and he left out anything that would unnecessarily encumber the message he was carrying. His message simple: Jesus Christ and His death on the cross for you.
Now one reason we may not see more people interested in our Jesus is maybe, without even realizing it, we've added baggage to the simple Gospel message. Baggage like rules, rituals, religion-all of which obscure the real issue, which is a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Sometimes we encumber the Gospel with lifestyle issues. "Now you need Jesus-and what are you doing with an earring there?" Or we attack their wrong music...or their wrong relationship...or their wrong entertainment. We're trying to clean them up before they have the Cleaner-Upper inside them! You don't clean fish before you catch them! So, stick to Jesus...stick to His cross!
It's also tempting to load down the Jesus story with the baggage of our group's special theological emphasis. There are distinctive aspects in every denomination and group that makes them them-and they often concern very important areas of Christian truth. But they're not part of the Gospel. They are what we will teach this person after they have been to the Cross and made Jesus their Savior. Then, those teachings may become essential to their relationship with Christ. But now, before they know Him, those emphases may be extra baggage-baggage that means, like traveling in those little planes in Alaska, we'll be carrying less people-to Jesus.
If a lost person stumbles over Jesus or His cross, then the responsibility is theirs. But if they stumble over baggage that we've add to Jesus and His cross, then the responsibility is on us. And the consequences can be eternal.
Aren't you glad you don't have to carry all the Christian baggage when you try to win the heart of a lost friend or loved one? Unpack all the other Christian things, and just deliver the essentials-the incredible news that Jesus loved us enough to die for us, to rescue us from the death penalty of our sin. Stick to Jesus!
Tuesday, September 5, 2017
Nehemiah 8, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: GOD OVERSEES YOUR WORLD
It is not God’s will that you face every day with dread and trepidation! I have a childhood memory that I cherish. My father loved corn bread and buttermilk. About ten o’clock each night he would meander into the kitchen and crumble a piece of corn bread into a glass of buttermilk, stand at the counter and drink it. Then he would make the rounds to the front and back doors, checking the locks. Once everything was secure, he would step into the bedroom I shared with my brother and say something like “Everything is secure, boys. You can go to sleep now.”
I have no inclination to believe that God loves corn bread and buttermilk, but I do believe he loves his children. He keeps everything secure and oversees your world! By his power you will “be anxious for nothing” and discover the “peace…that passes all understanding” (Philippians 4:4-8 RSV).
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Nehemiah 8
Ezra and The Revelation
By the time the seventh month arrived, the People of Israel were settled in their towns. Then all the people gathered as one person in the town square in front of the Water Gate and asked the scholar Ezra to bring the Book of The Revelation of Moses that God had commanded for Israel.
2-3 So Ezra the priest brought The Revelation to the congregation, which was made up of both men and women—everyone capable of understanding. It was the first day of the seventh month. He read it facing the town square at the Water Gate from early dawn until noon in the hearing of the men and women, all who could understand it. And all the people listened—they were all ears—to the Book of The Revelation.
4 The scholar Ezra stood on a wooden platform constructed for the occasion. He was flanked on the right by Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, and on the left by Pedaiah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam.
5-6 Ezra opened the book. Every eye was on him (he was standing on the raised platform) and as he opened the book everyone stood. Then Ezra praised God, the great God, and all the people responded, “Oh Yes! Yes!” with hands raised high. And then they fell to their knees in worship of God, their faces to the ground.
7-8 Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, and Pelaiah, all Levites, explained The Revelation while people stood, listening respectfully. They translated the Book of The Revelation of God so the people could understand it and then explained the reading.
9 Nehemiah the governor, along with Ezra the priest and scholar and the Levites who were teaching the people, said to all the people, “This day is holy to God, your God. Don’t weep and carry on.” They said this because all the people were weeping as they heard the words of The Revelation.
10 He continued, “Go home and prepare a feast, holiday food and drink; and share it with those who don’t have anything: This day is holy to God. Don’t feel bad. The joy of God is your strength!”
11 The Levites calmed the people, “Quiet now. This is a holy day. Don’t be upset.”
12 So the people went off to feast, eating and drinking and including the poor in a great celebration. Now they got it; they understood the reading that had been given to them.
13-15 On the second day of the month the family heads of all the people, the priests, and the Levites gathered around Ezra the scholar to get a deeper understanding of the words of The Revelation. They found written in The Revelation that God commanded through Moses that the People of Israel are to live in booths during the festival of the seventh month. So they published this decree and had it posted in all their cities and in Jerusalem: “Go into the hills and collect olive branches, pine branches, myrtle branches, palm branches, and any other leafy branches to make booths, as it is written.”
16-17 So the people went out, brought in branches, and made themselves booths on their roofs, courtyards, the courtyards of The Temple of God, the Water Gate plaza, and the Ephraim Gate plaza. The entire congregation that had come back from exile made booths and lived in them. The People of Israel hadn’t done this from the time of Joshua son of Nun until that very day—a terrific day! Great joy!
18 Ezra read from the Book of The Revelation of God each day, from the first to the last day—they celebrated the feast for seven days. On the eighth day they held a solemn assembly in accordance with the decree.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, September 05, 2017
Read: Romans 8:18–23; Revelation 21:1–5
That’s why I don’t think there’s any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what’s coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.
22-25 All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.
INSIGHT:
In Revelation 21:1–5, the word new means “of a new kind,” which is different from an updated version of something. The impact of the Revelation 21 kind of new is that when God makes “everything new” (v. 5), it will be unlike anything we have ever seen or experienced!
A Little Bit of Paradise
By Alyson Kieda
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Revelation 21:5
Gazing out my open study window, I hear birds chirping and hear and see the wind gently blowing in the trees. Bales of hay dot my neighbor’s newly tilled field, and large, white cumulus clouds stand out in contrast to the brilliant blue sky.
I’m enjoying a little bit of paradise—except for the almost incessant noise of the traffic that runs past our property and the slight ache in my back. I use the word paradise lightly because though our world was once completely good, it no longer is. When humanity sinned, we were expelled from the garden of Eden and the ground was “cursed” (see Gen. 3). Since then the Earth and everything in it has been in “bondage to decay.” Suffering, disease, and our deaths are all a result of humankind’s fall into sin (Rom. 8:18–23).
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Revelation 21:5
Yet God is making everything new. One day His dwelling place will be among His people in a renewed and restored creation—“a new heaven and a new earth”—where “there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev. 21:1–4). Until that day we can enjoy the bright splashes and sometimes wide expanses of breathtaking beauty we see around us in this world, which is just a small foretaste of the “paradise” that will be.
Dear Lord, thank You that in this world that can seem ugly with sin and decay You allow us to see glimpses of beauty.
Read about the life to come at discoveryseries.org/q1205.
God is making all things new.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, September 05, 2017
Watching With Jesus
Stay here and watch with Me. —Matthew 26:38
“Watch with Me.” Jesus was saying, in effect, “Watch with no private point of view at all, but watch solely and entirely with Me.” In the early stages of our Christian life, we do not watch with Jesus, we watch for Him. We do not watch with Him through the revealed truth of the Bible even in the circumstances of our own lives. Our Lord is trying to introduce us to identification with Himself through a particular “Gethsemane” experience of our own. But we refuse to go, saying, “No, Lord, I can’t see the meaning of this, and besides, it’s very painful.” And how can we possibly watch with Someone who is so incomprehensible? How are we going to understand Jesus sufficiently to watch with Him in His Gethsemane, when we don’t even know why He is suffering? We don’t know how to watch with Him— we are only used to the idea of Jesus watching with us.
The disciples loved Jesus Christ to the limit of their natural capacity, but they did not fully understand His purpose. In the Garden of Gethsemane they slept as a result of their own sorrow, and at the end of three years of the closest and most intimate relationship of their lives they “all…forsook Him and fled” (Matthew 26:56).
“They were all filled with the Holy Spirit…” (Acts 2:4). “They” refers to the same people, but something wonderful has happened between these two events— our Lord’s death, resurrection, and ascension— and the disciples have now been invaded and “filled with the Holy Spirit.” Our Lord had said, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…” (Acts 1:8). This meant that they learned to watch with Him the rest of their lives.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We all have the trick of saying—If only I were not where I am!—If only I had not got the kind of people I have to live with! If our faith or our religion does not help us in the conditions we are in, we have either a further struggle to go through, or we had better abandon that faith and religion. The Shadow of an Agony, 1178 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, September 05, 2017
The Warning is the Difference - #7997
He was in Singapore when he got word of a massive earthquake in the Indian Ocean and the possibility of a killer tsunami that could be headed for land; land that included his own village in India. He knew what he had to do. Desperately, he tried to reach his family there by means of a cell phone, and they answered. He warned them about the approaching danger, and they in turn warned the entire village of some 150 people. Within minutes they all were headed for high ground. The tsunami did hit that village full force. The homes were destroyed, the boats were destroyed, but every single person from that village survived.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Warning is the Difference."
People that Indian man cared about, people who otherwise would have died, are alive today for a simple reason-because of one man who gave the warning.
For every person you care about, every person in your personal world, whether they live or die eternally depends on that same urgent act of love-someone giving the warning. Warning that God's judgment for our lifetime of sinning is coming our way for all of us. The Bible makes clear that "man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). We're all guilty of rebellion against God; making ourselves the center of our lives where our Creator is the only One who belongs there. But the warning of God's Word declares not only the bad news of the inevitable death penalty for our sin, but the wonderful Good News of where the high ground is. It's that hill where Jesus died to pay the death penalty that we all deserve. The lives of people around you can literally be saved forever if someone gives them the warning.
To be sure, God's the One who draws them to Jesus. He's the one who saves the lost. But we're His plan - you and I - for pointing them His direction. And our silence is a fatal silence. That's why God has made our responsibility vividly clear in a number of places in Scripture, including our word for today from the Word of God. In Ezekiel 3, beginning with verse 16, God's challenge to His prophet mirrors what He is expecting of us who know the way to eternal safety; some of the most sobering words in the Bible, "I have made you a watchman." You're the one on the wall who can see the danger coming and whom God holds responsible for warning the people around you.
Listen, He goes on to say, "When I say to a wicked man, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood." Whether or not you think you're responsible to warn the people you know, God obviously thinks you are, and He's going to judge you accordingly. Like that man who called his village to warn the people he loved, God has given you life-saving information-information which they must have in order to have a chance at heaven. You know it. They don't. It's up to you in the power of God's Spirit. Whatever consequences you're afraid of if you tell them about Jesus, they can't even compare to the consequences if you don't tell them.
Just before God spoke this challenge, He led His messenger to just spend some time among the people the he was being sent to rescue. Ezekiel says, "I sat among them for seven days-overwhelmed." Would you just look at the spiritual needs around you. Let God give you His eyes to see what He sees when He looks at the people you know-the future inhabitants of hell-unless they find out how to get to heaven.
Let God overwhelm you, even break your heart for the precious people within your reach. Pray for God to open their heart, to open a door for you to speak to them, and to open your mouth when He does. Because the wave is coming, but they don't have to die. No, if you'll just give them the warning.
It is not God’s will that you face every day with dread and trepidation! I have a childhood memory that I cherish. My father loved corn bread and buttermilk. About ten o’clock each night he would meander into the kitchen and crumble a piece of corn bread into a glass of buttermilk, stand at the counter and drink it. Then he would make the rounds to the front and back doors, checking the locks. Once everything was secure, he would step into the bedroom I shared with my brother and say something like “Everything is secure, boys. You can go to sleep now.”
I have no inclination to believe that God loves corn bread and buttermilk, but I do believe he loves his children. He keeps everything secure and oversees your world! By his power you will “be anxious for nothing” and discover the “peace…that passes all understanding” (Philippians 4:4-8 RSV).
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Nehemiah 8
Ezra and The Revelation
By the time the seventh month arrived, the People of Israel were settled in their towns. Then all the people gathered as one person in the town square in front of the Water Gate and asked the scholar Ezra to bring the Book of The Revelation of Moses that God had commanded for Israel.
2-3 So Ezra the priest brought The Revelation to the congregation, which was made up of both men and women—everyone capable of understanding. It was the first day of the seventh month. He read it facing the town square at the Water Gate from early dawn until noon in the hearing of the men and women, all who could understand it. And all the people listened—they were all ears—to the Book of The Revelation.
4 The scholar Ezra stood on a wooden platform constructed for the occasion. He was flanked on the right by Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, and on the left by Pedaiah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam.
5-6 Ezra opened the book. Every eye was on him (he was standing on the raised platform) and as he opened the book everyone stood. Then Ezra praised God, the great God, and all the people responded, “Oh Yes! Yes!” with hands raised high. And then they fell to their knees in worship of God, their faces to the ground.
7-8 Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, and Pelaiah, all Levites, explained The Revelation while people stood, listening respectfully. They translated the Book of The Revelation of God so the people could understand it and then explained the reading.
9 Nehemiah the governor, along with Ezra the priest and scholar and the Levites who were teaching the people, said to all the people, “This day is holy to God, your God. Don’t weep and carry on.” They said this because all the people were weeping as they heard the words of The Revelation.
10 He continued, “Go home and prepare a feast, holiday food and drink; and share it with those who don’t have anything: This day is holy to God. Don’t feel bad. The joy of God is your strength!”
11 The Levites calmed the people, “Quiet now. This is a holy day. Don’t be upset.”
12 So the people went off to feast, eating and drinking and including the poor in a great celebration. Now they got it; they understood the reading that had been given to them.
13-15 On the second day of the month the family heads of all the people, the priests, and the Levites gathered around Ezra the scholar to get a deeper understanding of the words of The Revelation. They found written in The Revelation that God commanded through Moses that the People of Israel are to live in booths during the festival of the seventh month. So they published this decree and had it posted in all their cities and in Jerusalem: “Go into the hills and collect olive branches, pine branches, myrtle branches, palm branches, and any other leafy branches to make booths, as it is written.”
16-17 So the people went out, brought in branches, and made themselves booths on their roofs, courtyards, the courtyards of The Temple of God, the Water Gate plaza, and the Ephraim Gate plaza. The entire congregation that had come back from exile made booths and lived in them. The People of Israel hadn’t done this from the time of Joshua son of Nun until that very day—a terrific day! Great joy!
18 Ezra read from the Book of The Revelation of God each day, from the first to the last day—they celebrated the feast for seven days. On the eighth day they held a solemn assembly in accordance with the decree.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, September 05, 2017
Read: Romans 8:18–23; Revelation 21:1–5
That’s why I don’t think there’s any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what’s coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.
22-25 All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.
INSIGHT:
In Revelation 21:1–5, the word new means “of a new kind,” which is different from an updated version of something. The impact of the Revelation 21 kind of new is that when God makes “everything new” (v. 5), it will be unlike anything we have ever seen or experienced!
A Little Bit of Paradise
By Alyson Kieda
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Revelation 21:5
Gazing out my open study window, I hear birds chirping and hear and see the wind gently blowing in the trees. Bales of hay dot my neighbor’s newly tilled field, and large, white cumulus clouds stand out in contrast to the brilliant blue sky.
I’m enjoying a little bit of paradise—except for the almost incessant noise of the traffic that runs past our property and the slight ache in my back. I use the word paradise lightly because though our world was once completely good, it no longer is. When humanity sinned, we were expelled from the garden of Eden and the ground was “cursed” (see Gen. 3). Since then the Earth and everything in it has been in “bondage to decay.” Suffering, disease, and our deaths are all a result of humankind’s fall into sin (Rom. 8:18–23).
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Revelation 21:5
Yet God is making everything new. One day His dwelling place will be among His people in a renewed and restored creation—“a new heaven and a new earth”—where “there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev. 21:1–4). Until that day we can enjoy the bright splashes and sometimes wide expanses of breathtaking beauty we see around us in this world, which is just a small foretaste of the “paradise” that will be.
Dear Lord, thank You that in this world that can seem ugly with sin and decay You allow us to see glimpses of beauty.
Read about the life to come at discoveryseries.org/q1205.
God is making all things new.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, September 05, 2017
Watching With Jesus
Stay here and watch with Me. —Matthew 26:38
“Watch with Me.” Jesus was saying, in effect, “Watch with no private point of view at all, but watch solely and entirely with Me.” In the early stages of our Christian life, we do not watch with Jesus, we watch for Him. We do not watch with Him through the revealed truth of the Bible even in the circumstances of our own lives. Our Lord is trying to introduce us to identification with Himself through a particular “Gethsemane” experience of our own. But we refuse to go, saying, “No, Lord, I can’t see the meaning of this, and besides, it’s very painful.” And how can we possibly watch with Someone who is so incomprehensible? How are we going to understand Jesus sufficiently to watch with Him in His Gethsemane, when we don’t even know why He is suffering? We don’t know how to watch with Him— we are only used to the idea of Jesus watching with us.
The disciples loved Jesus Christ to the limit of their natural capacity, but they did not fully understand His purpose. In the Garden of Gethsemane they slept as a result of their own sorrow, and at the end of three years of the closest and most intimate relationship of their lives they “all…forsook Him and fled” (Matthew 26:56).
“They were all filled with the Holy Spirit…” (Acts 2:4). “They” refers to the same people, but something wonderful has happened between these two events— our Lord’s death, resurrection, and ascension— and the disciples have now been invaded and “filled with the Holy Spirit.” Our Lord had said, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…” (Acts 1:8). This meant that they learned to watch with Him the rest of their lives.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We all have the trick of saying—If only I were not where I am!—If only I had not got the kind of people I have to live with! If our faith or our religion does not help us in the conditions we are in, we have either a further struggle to go through, or we had better abandon that faith and religion. The Shadow of an Agony, 1178 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, September 05, 2017
The Warning is the Difference - #7997
He was in Singapore when he got word of a massive earthquake in the Indian Ocean and the possibility of a killer tsunami that could be headed for land; land that included his own village in India. He knew what he had to do. Desperately, he tried to reach his family there by means of a cell phone, and they answered. He warned them about the approaching danger, and they in turn warned the entire village of some 150 people. Within minutes they all were headed for high ground. The tsunami did hit that village full force. The homes were destroyed, the boats were destroyed, but every single person from that village survived.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Warning is the Difference."
People that Indian man cared about, people who otherwise would have died, are alive today for a simple reason-because of one man who gave the warning.
For every person you care about, every person in your personal world, whether they live or die eternally depends on that same urgent act of love-someone giving the warning. Warning that God's judgment for our lifetime of sinning is coming our way for all of us. The Bible makes clear that "man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). We're all guilty of rebellion against God; making ourselves the center of our lives where our Creator is the only One who belongs there. But the warning of God's Word declares not only the bad news of the inevitable death penalty for our sin, but the wonderful Good News of where the high ground is. It's that hill where Jesus died to pay the death penalty that we all deserve. The lives of people around you can literally be saved forever if someone gives them the warning.
To be sure, God's the One who draws them to Jesus. He's the one who saves the lost. But we're His plan - you and I - for pointing them His direction. And our silence is a fatal silence. That's why God has made our responsibility vividly clear in a number of places in Scripture, including our word for today from the Word of God. In Ezekiel 3, beginning with verse 16, God's challenge to His prophet mirrors what He is expecting of us who know the way to eternal safety; some of the most sobering words in the Bible, "I have made you a watchman." You're the one on the wall who can see the danger coming and whom God holds responsible for warning the people around you.
Listen, He goes on to say, "When I say to a wicked man, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood." Whether or not you think you're responsible to warn the people you know, God obviously thinks you are, and He's going to judge you accordingly. Like that man who called his village to warn the people he loved, God has given you life-saving information-information which they must have in order to have a chance at heaven. You know it. They don't. It's up to you in the power of God's Spirit. Whatever consequences you're afraid of if you tell them about Jesus, they can't even compare to the consequences if you don't tell them.
Just before God spoke this challenge, He led His messenger to just spend some time among the people the he was being sent to rescue. Ezekiel says, "I sat among them for seven days-overwhelmed." Would you just look at the spiritual needs around you. Let God give you His eyes to see what He sees when He looks at the people you know-the future inhabitants of hell-unless they find out how to get to heaven.
Let God overwhelm you, even break your heart for the precious people within your reach. Pray for God to open their heart, to open a door for you to speak to them, and to open your mouth when He does. Because the wave is coming, but they don't have to die. No, if you'll just give them the warning.
Monday, September 4, 2017
Nehemiah 7, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: A NEW CHAPTER FOR YOUR LIFE
The anxious heart says, “There’s trouble out there!” So you don’t sleep well. You don’t laugh often. Misfortune lurks… it’s just a matter of time. As a result you’re anxious. You’re not alone. Our society is crippled by anxiety. How can this be? Our cars are safer than ever. We regulate food and water and electricity. Yet if worry were an Olympic event, we’d win the gold medal!
Keep in mind that anxiety is not a sin but an emotion. It can, however, lead to sinful behavior. When we numb our fears with six-packs or food binges, when we peddle our fears to anyone who’ll buy them, we’re sinning. Jesus gave this word: “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighted down with. . .the anxieties of life” (Luke 21:34 NIV).
God made you for more than a life of angst and mind-splitting worry. He has a new chapter for your life. And he is ready to write it!
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Nehemiah 7
The Wall Rebuilt: Names and Numbers
1-2 After the wall was rebuilt and I had installed the doors, and the security guards, the singers, and the Levites were appointed, I put my brother Hanani, along with Hananiah the captain of the citadel, in charge of Jerusalem because he was an honest man and feared God more than most men.
3 I gave them this order: “Don’t open the gates of Jerusalem until the sun is up. And shut and bar the gates while the guards are still on duty. Appoint the guards from the citizens of Jerusalem and assign them to posts in front of their own homes.”
4 The city was large and spacious with only a few people in it and the houses not yet rebuilt.
5 God put it in my heart to gather the nobles, the officials, and the people in general to be registered. I found the genealogical record of those who were in the first return from exile. This is the record I found:
6-60 These are the people of the province who returned from the captivity of the Exile, the ones Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried off captive; they came back to Jerusalem and Judah, each going to his own town. They came back in the company of Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, and Baanah.
The numbers of the men of the People of Israel by families of origin:
Parosh, 2,172
Shephatiah, 372
Arah, 652
Pahath-Moab (sons of Jeshua and Joab), 2,818
Elam, 1,254
Zattu, 845
Zaccai, 760
Binnui, 648
Bebai, 628
Azgad, 2,322
Adonikam, 667
Bigvai, 2,067
Adin, 655
Ater (sons of Hezekiah), 98
Hashum, 328
Bezai, 324
Hariph, 112
Gibeon, 95.
Israelites identified by place of origin:
Bethlehem and Netophah, 188
Anathoth, 128
Beth Azmaveth, 42
Kiriath Jearim, Kephirah, and Beeroth, 743
Ramah and Geba, 621
Micmash, 122
Bethel and Ai, 123
Nebo (the other one), 52
Elam (the other one), 1,254
Harim, 320
Jericho, 345
Lod, Hadid, and Ono, 721
Senaah, 3,930.
Priestly families:
Jedaiah (sons of Jeshua), 973
Immer, 1,052
Pashhur, 1,247
Harim, 1,017.
Levitical families:
Jeshua (sons of Kadmiel and of Hodaviah), 74.
Singers:
Asaph’s family line, 148.
Security guard families:
Shallum, Ater, Talmon, Akkub, Hatita, and Shobai, 138.
Families of support staff:
Ziha, Hasupha, Tabbaoth,
Keros, Sia, Padon,
Lebana, Hagaba, Shalmai,
Hanan, Giddel, Gahar,
Reaiah, Rezin, Nekoda,
Gazzam, Uzza, Paseah,
Besai, Meunim, Nephussim,
Bakbuk, Hakupha, Harhur,
Bazluth, Mehida, Harsha,
Barkos, Sisera, Temah,
Neziah, and Hatipha.
Families of Solomon’s servants:
Sotai, Sophereth, Perida,
Jaala, Darkon, Giddel,
Shephatiah, Hattil, Pokereth-Hazzebaim, and Amon.
The Temple support staff and Solomon’s servants added up to 392.
61-63 These are those who came from Tel Melah, Tel Harsha, Kerub, Addon, and Immer. They weren’t able to prove their ancestry, whether they were true Israelites or not:
The sons of Delaiah, Tobiah, and Nekoda, 642.
Likewise with these priestly families:
The sons of Hobaiah, Hakkoz, and Barzillai, who had married a daughter of Barzillai the Gileadite and took that name.
64-65 They looked high and low for their family records but couldn’t find them. And so they were barred from priestly work as ritually unclean. The governor ruled that they could not eat from the holy food until a priest could determine their status by using the Urim and Thummim.
66-69 The total count for the congregation was 42,360. That did not include the male and female slaves who numbered 7,337. There were also 245 male and female singers. And there were 736 horses, 245 mules, 435 camels, and 6,720 donkeys.
70-72 Some of the heads of families made voluntary offerings for the work. The governor made a gift to the treasury of 1,000 drachmas of gold (about nineteen pounds), 50 bowls, and 530 garments for the priests. Some of the heads of the families made gifts to the treasury for the work; it came to 20,000 drachmas of gold and 2,200 minas of silver (about one and a third tons). Gifts from the rest of the people totaled 20,000 drachmas of gold (about 375 pounds), 2,000 minas of silver, and 67 garments for the priests.
73 The priests, Levites, security guards, singers, and Temple support staff, along with some others, and the rest of the People of Israel, all found a place to live in their own towns.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, September 04, 2017
Read: 1 Chronicles 16:11–18, 28–36
Thank God! Call out his Name!
Tell the whole world who he is and what he’s done!
Sing to him! Play songs for him!
Broadcast all his wonders!
Revel in his holy Name,
God-seekers, be jubilant!
Study God and his strength,
seek his presence day and night;
Remember all the wonders he performed,
the miracles and judgments that came out of his mouth.
Seed of Israel his servant!
Children of Jacob, his first choice!
He is God, our God;
wherever you go you come on his judgments and decisions.
He keeps his commitments across thousands
of generations, the covenant he commanded,
The same one he made with Abraham,
the very one he swore to Isaac;
He posted it in big block letters to Jacob,
this eternal covenant with Israel:
“I give you the land of Canaan,
this is your inheritance;
Even though you’re not much to look at,
a few straggling strangers.”
1 Chronicles 16:28-36The Message (MSG)
28-29 Shout Bravo! to God, families of the peoples,
in awe of the Glory, in awe of the Strength: Bravo!
Shout Bravo! to his famous Name,
lift high an offering and enter his presence!
Stand resplendent in his robes of holiness!
30-33 God is serious business, take him seriously;
he’s put the earth in place and it’s not moving.
So let Heaven rejoice, let Earth be jubilant,
and pass the word among the nations, “God reigns!”
Let Ocean, all teeming with life, bellow,
let Field and all its creatures shake the rafters;
Then the trees in the forest will add their applause
to all who are pleased and present before God
—he’s on his way to set things right!
34-36 Give thanks to God—he is good
and his love never quits.
Say, “Save us, Savior God,
round us up and get us out of these godless places,
So we can give thanks to your holy Name,
and bask in your life of praise.”
Blessed be God, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
Then everybody said, “Yes! Amen!” and “Praise God!”
INSIGHT:
Recall an occasion when you sought “God’s face,” when you “look[ed] to the Lord and his strength” (1 Chron. 16:11). What caused you to call and depend on God? How did the Lord respond to you?
Stepping into Strength
By James Banks
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. Colossians 4:2
“Will we see any snakes?”
Allan, a young boy in our neighborhood, asked that question as we started on a hike by the river near our home.
Prayer imparts the power to walk and not faint. Oswald Chambers
“We never have before,” I answered, “but we might! So let’s ask God to keep us safe.” We paused, prayed together, and kept walking.
Several minutes later my wife, Cari, suddenly took a quick step backward, narrowly avoiding a poisonous copperhead partially coiled on the path ahead. We waited as the snake left the trail, giving it a wide berth. Then we paused and thanked God nothing had happened. I believe that through Allan’s question, God had prepared us for the encounter, and our prayer was part of His providential care.
Our brush with danger that evening brings to mind the importance of David’s words: “Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always” (1 Chron. 16:11). This advice was part of a psalm celebrating the return of the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem. It recounts God’s faithfulness to His people in their struggles throughout history, reminding them to always praise Him and “cry out” to Him (v. 35).
What does it mean to “seek [God’s] face”? It means we turn our hearts toward Him in even the most mundane moments. Sometimes our prayers are answered differently than our asking, but God is faithful come what may. Our Good Shepherd will direct our paths and keeps us in His mercy, strength, and love. May we declare our dependence on Him.
Prayer imparts the power to walk and not faint. Oswald Chambers
Read more from Oswald Chambers at utmost.org.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, September 04, 2017
His!
They were Yours, You gave them to Me… —John 17:6
A missionary is someone in whom the Holy Spirit has brought about this realization: “You are not your own” (1 Corinthians 6:19). To say, “I am not my own,” is to have reached a high point in my spiritual stature. The true nature of that life in actual everyday confusion is evidenced by the deliberate giving up of myself to another Person through a sovereign decision, and that Person is Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit interprets and explains the nature of Jesus to me to make me one with my Lord, not that I might simply become a trophy for His showcase. Our Lord never sent any of His disciples out on the basis of what He had done for them. It was not until after the resurrection, when the disciples had perceived through the power of the Holy Spirit who Jesus really was, that He said, “Go” (Matthew 28:19; also see Luke 24:49 and Acts 1:8).
“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). He was not saying that this person cannot be good and upright, but that he cannot be someone over whom Jesus can write the word Mine. Any one of the relationships our Lord mentions in this verse can compete with our relationship with Him. I may prefer to belong to my mother, or to my wife, or to myself, but if that is the case, then, Jesus said, “[You] cannot be My disciple.” This does not mean that I will not be saved, but it does mean that I cannot be entirely His.
Our Lord makes His disciple His very own possession, becoming responsible for him. “…you shall be witnesses to Me…” (Acts 1:8). The desire that comes into a disciple is not one of doing anything for Jesus, but of being a perfect delight to Him. The missionary’s secret is truly being able to say, “I am His, and He is accomplishing His work and His purposes through me.”
Be entirely His!
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Am I getting nobler, better, more helpful, more humble, as I get older? Am I exhibiting the life that men take knowledge of as having been with Jesus, or am I getting more self-assertive, more deliberately determined to have my own way? It is a great thing to tell yourself the truth.
The Place of Help
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, September 04, 2017
The Dark and Lonely Stretches - #7996
When you're a five-year-old girl, going dark places can be pretty scary. When my wife was that age, she lived in the country and she had this long, often dark road that she walked to get to the school bus. Part of the way, there was a grandma, and then there was a neighbor who watched and waved at her as long as she was in sight. See, it was that last stretch that was the problem. Trees covering that road, making it dark on the sunniest day, and sounds in the woods that reminded her of those wild critters that lived in their area. She told me how she made it down that stretch. She said, "There was one thing that got me through every day. I sang this little song, ‘Jesus loves me, this I know.'"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Dark and Lonely Stretches."
It was years later and my honey's beloved grandfather was 94 years old. Little did we know that one particular call to him would be her last. It was brief, but it was memorable. Granddad was at the point where he often didn't recognize even the people closest to him even though they had a pretty small family. When my wife called, she identified herself, and he responded, "I don't know who this is." She again gave her name and reminded him that she was his granddaughter, the daughter of his only son. Just a chuckle on the other end, and Granddad said, "I don't know who this is." Then, when she told him she loved him, he seemed a little embarrassed. "Who is this strange woman saying she loves me?"
That's when my wife said, "Well, Granddad, that's OK. Because all that matters is that you know that Jesus loves you." We will never forget his suddenly animated response: "Now Him I know!" Think about it: a scared little girl, walking a stretch she had to walk alone; a grandfather, walking the final stretch of life so many have to walk alone. Each of them, at opposite ends of life, finding their anchor in the very same place-in the same person-in their personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
He wants to be your anchor for every dark, every lonely stretch you're going to ever walk-including that final stretch. The one the Bible calls "the valley of the shadow of death." The writer of that 23rd Psalm put it this way, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me." One "unloseable" relationship that not even death can interrupt. The one that you were made for that you were never meant to lose.
The Bible says of Jesus that we were all "created by Him and created for Him" (Colossians 1:16). Problem: we haven't lived for Him. We've chosen to usurp the throne of our life, to do what we want, not what God wants. So life is lonely and meaningless because we're away from the One we were made for. And only the death of the Son of God could pay the penalty for that sin.
And how do you know you can count on Jesus for every stretch of the road? Well, our word for today from the Word of God in Romans 8:39, "Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." That's your ironclad promise from the one who's never broken a promise.
He's coming where you are today, offering you this relationship that He actually died to give you. If He wouldn't turn His back on you when loving you meant dying for you, He will never turn His back on you. But you have to open your life to Him. Trust Him totally. Would you do that today? Why go another day without this love? Tell Him, "Jesus, You're my only hope. I'm Yours." When you do that, that's how your anchor relationship with Jesus begins.
I want you to be sure beyond any shadow of a doubt that you have got this settled with God once and for all. That's why our website's there. That's why I'm going to urge you to go there as soon as you can today - ANewStory.com. Will you go there? You'll see the information there that will help you be sure you belong to Jesus.
This is the only love that will not desert you, never divorce you, never disappoint you, and never die on you. From the moment you give yourself to Jesus, He's going to walk with you every step of the way-all the way to heaven.
The anxious heart says, “There’s trouble out there!” So you don’t sleep well. You don’t laugh often. Misfortune lurks… it’s just a matter of time. As a result you’re anxious. You’re not alone. Our society is crippled by anxiety. How can this be? Our cars are safer than ever. We regulate food and water and electricity. Yet if worry were an Olympic event, we’d win the gold medal!
Keep in mind that anxiety is not a sin but an emotion. It can, however, lead to sinful behavior. When we numb our fears with six-packs or food binges, when we peddle our fears to anyone who’ll buy them, we’re sinning. Jesus gave this word: “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighted down with. . .the anxieties of life” (Luke 21:34 NIV).
God made you for more than a life of angst and mind-splitting worry. He has a new chapter for your life. And he is ready to write it!
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Nehemiah 7
The Wall Rebuilt: Names and Numbers
1-2 After the wall was rebuilt and I had installed the doors, and the security guards, the singers, and the Levites were appointed, I put my brother Hanani, along with Hananiah the captain of the citadel, in charge of Jerusalem because he was an honest man and feared God more than most men.
3 I gave them this order: “Don’t open the gates of Jerusalem until the sun is up. And shut and bar the gates while the guards are still on duty. Appoint the guards from the citizens of Jerusalem and assign them to posts in front of their own homes.”
4 The city was large and spacious with only a few people in it and the houses not yet rebuilt.
5 God put it in my heart to gather the nobles, the officials, and the people in general to be registered. I found the genealogical record of those who were in the first return from exile. This is the record I found:
6-60 These are the people of the province who returned from the captivity of the Exile, the ones Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried off captive; they came back to Jerusalem and Judah, each going to his own town. They came back in the company of Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, and Baanah.
The numbers of the men of the People of Israel by families of origin:
Parosh, 2,172
Shephatiah, 372
Arah, 652
Pahath-Moab (sons of Jeshua and Joab), 2,818
Elam, 1,254
Zattu, 845
Zaccai, 760
Binnui, 648
Bebai, 628
Azgad, 2,322
Adonikam, 667
Bigvai, 2,067
Adin, 655
Ater (sons of Hezekiah), 98
Hashum, 328
Bezai, 324
Hariph, 112
Gibeon, 95.
Israelites identified by place of origin:
Bethlehem and Netophah, 188
Anathoth, 128
Beth Azmaveth, 42
Kiriath Jearim, Kephirah, and Beeroth, 743
Ramah and Geba, 621
Micmash, 122
Bethel and Ai, 123
Nebo (the other one), 52
Elam (the other one), 1,254
Harim, 320
Jericho, 345
Lod, Hadid, and Ono, 721
Senaah, 3,930.
Priestly families:
Jedaiah (sons of Jeshua), 973
Immer, 1,052
Pashhur, 1,247
Harim, 1,017.
Levitical families:
Jeshua (sons of Kadmiel and of Hodaviah), 74.
Singers:
Asaph’s family line, 148.
Security guard families:
Shallum, Ater, Talmon, Akkub, Hatita, and Shobai, 138.
Families of support staff:
Ziha, Hasupha, Tabbaoth,
Keros, Sia, Padon,
Lebana, Hagaba, Shalmai,
Hanan, Giddel, Gahar,
Reaiah, Rezin, Nekoda,
Gazzam, Uzza, Paseah,
Besai, Meunim, Nephussim,
Bakbuk, Hakupha, Harhur,
Bazluth, Mehida, Harsha,
Barkos, Sisera, Temah,
Neziah, and Hatipha.
Families of Solomon’s servants:
Sotai, Sophereth, Perida,
Jaala, Darkon, Giddel,
Shephatiah, Hattil, Pokereth-Hazzebaim, and Amon.
The Temple support staff and Solomon’s servants added up to 392.
61-63 These are those who came from Tel Melah, Tel Harsha, Kerub, Addon, and Immer. They weren’t able to prove their ancestry, whether they were true Israelites or not:
The sons of Delaiah, Tobiah, and Nekoda, 642.
Likewise with these priestly families:
The sons of Hobaiah, Hakkoz, and Barzillai, who had married a daughter of Barzillai the Gileadite and took that name.
64-65 They looked high and low for their family records but couldn’t find them. And so they were barred from priestly work as ritually unclean. The governor ruled that they could not eat from the holy food until a priest could determine their status by using the Urim and Thummim.
66-69 The total count for the congregation was 42,360. That did not include the male and female slaves who numbered 7,337. There were also 245 male and female singers. And there were 736 horses, 245 mules, 435 camels, and 6,720 donkeys.
70-72 Some of the heads of families made voluntary offerings for the work. The governor made a gift to the treasury of 1,000 drachmas of gold (about nineteen pounds), 50 bowls, and 530 garments for the priests. Some of the heads of the families made gifts to the treasury for the work; it came to 20,000 drachmas of gold and 2,200 minas of silver (about one and a third tons). Gifts from the rest of the people totaled 20,000 drachmas of gold (about 375 pounds), 2,000 minas of silver, and 67 garments for the priests.
73 The priests, Levites, security guards, singers, and Temple support staff, along with some others, and the rest of the People of Israel, all found a place to live in their own towns.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, September 04, 2017
Read: 1 Chronicles 16:11–18, 28–36
Thank God! Call out his Name!
Tell the whole world who he is and what he’s done!
Sing to him! Play songs for him!
Broadcast all his wonders!
Revel in his holy Name,
God-seekers, be jubilant!
Study God and his strength,
seek his presence day and night;
Remember all the wonders he performed,
the miracles and judgments that came out of his mouth.
Seed of Israel his servant!
Children of Jacob, his first choice!
He is God, our God;
wherever you go you come on his judgments and decisions.
He keeps his commitments across thousands
of generations, the covenant he commanded,
The same one he made with Abraham,
the very one he swore to Isaac;
He posted it in big block letters to Jacob,
this eternal covenant with Israel:
“I give you the land of Canaan,
this is your inheritance;
Even though you’re not much to look at,
a few straggling strangers.”
1 Chronicles 16:28-36The Message (MSG)
28-29 Shout Bravo! to God, families of the peoples,
in awe of the Glory, in awe of the Strength: Bravo!
Shout Bravo! to his famous Name,
lift high an offering and enter his presence!
Stand resplendent in his robes of holiness!
30-33 God is serious business, take him seriously;
he’s put the earth in place and it’s not moving.
So let Heaven rejoice, let Earth be jubilant,
and pass the word among the nations, “God reigns!”
Let Ocean, all teeming with life, bellow,
let Field and all its creatures shake the rafters;
Then the trees in the forest will add their applause
to all who are pleased and present before God
—he’s on his way to set things right!
34-36 Give thanks to God—he is good
and his love never quits.
Say, “Save us, Savior God,
round us up and get us out of these godless places,
So we can give thanks to your holy Name,
and bask in your life of praise.”
Blessed be God, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
Then everybody said, “Yes! Amen!” and “Praise God!”
INSIGHT:
Recall an occasion when you sought “God’s face,” when you “look[ed] to the Lord and his strength” (1 Chron. 16:11). What caused you to call and depend on God? How did the Lord respond to you?
Stepping into Strength
By James Banks
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. Colossians 4:2
“Will we see any snakes?”
Allan, a young boy in our neighborhood, asked that question as we started on a hike by the river near our home.
Prayer imparts the power to walk and not faint. Oswald Chambers
“We never have before,” I answered, “but we might! So let’s ask God to keep us safe.” We paused, prayed together, and kept walking.
Several minutes later my wife, Cari, suddenly took a quick step backward, narrowly avoiding a poisonous copperhead partially coiled on the path ahead. We waited as the snake left the trail, giving it a wide berth. Then we paused and thanked God nothing had happened. I believe that through Allan’s question, God had prepared us for the encounter, and our prayer was part of His providential care.
Our brush with danger that evening brings to mind the importance of David’s words: “Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always” (1 Chron. 16:11). This advice was part of a psalm celebrating the return of the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem. It recounts God’s faithfulness to His people in their struggles throughout history, reminding them to always praise Him and “cry out” to Him (v. 35).
What does it mean to “seek [God’s] face”? It means we turn our hearts toward Him in even the most mundane moments. Sometimes our prayers are answered differently than our asking, but God is faithful come what may. Our Good Shepherd will direct our paths and keeps us in His mercy, strength, and love. May we declare our dependence on Him.
Prayer imparts the power to walk and not faint. Oswald Chambers
Read more from Oswald Chambers at utmost.org.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, September 04, 2017
His!
They were Yours, You gave them to Me… —John 17:6
A missionary is someone in whom the Holy Spirit has brought about this realization: “You are not your own” (1 Corinthians 6:19). To say, “I am not my own,” is to have reached a high point in my spiritual stature. The true nature of that life in actual everyday confusion is evidenced by the deliberate giving up of myself to another Person through a sovereign decision, and that Person is Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit interprets and explains the nature of Jesus to me to make me one with my Lord, not that I might simply become a trophy for His showcase. Our Lord never sent any of His disciples out on the basis of what He had done for them. It was not until after the resurrection, when the disciples had perceived through the power of the Holy Spirit who Jesus really was, that He said, “Go” (Matthew 28:19; also see Luke 24:49 and Acts 1:8).
“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). He was not saying that this person cannot be good and upright, but that he cannot be someone over whom Jesus can write the word Mine. Any one of the relationships our Lord mentions in this verse can compete with our relationship with Him. I may prefer to belong to my mother, or to my wife, or to myself, but if that is the case, then, Jesus said, “[You] cannot be My disciple.” This does not mean that I will not be saved, but it does mean that I cannot be entirely His.
Our Lord makes His disciple His very own possession, becoming responsible for him. “…you shall be witnesses to Me…” (Acts 1:8). The desire that comes into a disciple is not one of doing anything for Jesus, but of being a perfect delight to Him. The missionary’s secret is truly being able to say, “I am His, and He is accomplishing His work and His purposes through me.”
Be entirely His!
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Am I getting nobler, better, more helpful, more humble, as I get older? Am I exhibiting the life that men take knowledge of as having been with Jesus, or am I getting more self-assertive, more deliberately determined to have my own way? It is a great thing to tell yourself the truth.
The Place of Help
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, September 04, 2017
The Dark and Lonely Stretches - #7996
When you're a five-year-old girl, going dark places can be pretty scary. When my wife was that age, she lived in the country and she had this long, often dark road that she walked to get to the school bus. Part of the way, there was a grandma, and then there was a neighbor who watched and waved at her as long as she was in sight. See, it was that last stretch that was the problem. Trees covering that road, making it dark on the sunniest day, and sounds in the woods that reminded her of those wild critters that lived in their area. She told me how she made it down that stretch. She said, "There was one thing that got me through every day. I sang this little song, ‘Jesus loves me, this I know.'"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Dark and Lonely Stretches."
It was years later and my honey's beloved grandfather was 94 years old. Little did we know that one particular call to him would be her last. It was brief, but it was memorable. Granddad was at the point where he often didn't recognize even the people closest to him even though they had a pretty small family. When my wife called, she identified herself, and he responded, "I don't know who this is." She again gave her name and reminded him that she was his granddaughter, the daughter of his only son. Just a chuckle on the other end, and Granddad said, "I don't know who this is." Then, when she told him she loved him, he seemed a little embarrassed. "Who is this strange woman saying she loves me?"
That's when my wife said, "Well, Granddad, that's OK. Because all that matters is that you know that Jesus loves you." We will never forget his suddenly animated response: "Now Him I know!" Think about it: a scared little girl, walking a stretch she had to walk alone; a grandfather, walking the final stretch of life so many have to walk alone. Each of them, at opposite ends of life, finding their anchor in the very same place-in the same person-in their personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
He wants to be your anchor for every dark, every lonely stretch you're going to ever walk-including that final stretch. The one the Bible calls "the valley of the shadow of death." The writer of that 23rd Psalm put it this way, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me." One "unloseable" relationship that not even death can interrupt. The one that you were made for that you were never meant to lose.
The Bible says of Jesus that we were all "created by Him and created for Him" (Colossians 1:16). Problem: we haven't lived for Him. We've chosen to usurp the throne of our life, to do what we want, not what God wants. So life is lonely and meaningless because we're away from the One we were made for. And only the death of the Son of God could pay the penalty for that sin.
And how do you know you can count on Jesus for every stretch of the road? Well, our word for today from the Word of God in Romans 8:39, "Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." That's your ironclad promise from the one who's never broken a promise.
He's coming where you are today, offering you this relationship that He actually died to give you. If He wouldn't turn His back on you when loving you meant dying for you, He will never turn His back on you. But you have to open your life to Him. Trust Him totally. Would you do that today? Why go another day without this love? Tell Him, "Jesus, You're my only hope. I'm Yours." When you do that, that's how your anchor relationship with Jesus begins.
I want you to be sure beyond any shadow of a doubt that you have got this settled with God once and for all. That's why our website's there. That's why I'm going to urge you to go there as soon as you can today - ANewStory.com. Will you go there? You'll see the information there that will help you be sure you belong to Jesus.
This is the only love that will not desert you, never divorce you, never disappoint you, and never die on you. From the moment you give yourself to Jesus, He's going to walk with you every step of the way-all the way to heaven.
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