Max Lucado Daily: DON’T BE AFRAID - April 17, 2018
Fear. It creates a form of spiritual amnesia. It dulls our miracle memory. It makes us forget what Jesus has done and how good God is. When fear shapes our lives, safety becomes our god. When safety becomes our god, we worship the risk-free life.
The fear-filled cannot love deeply. Love is risky. No wonder Jesus wages such a war against fear. The Gospels list 125 Christ-issued imperatives. Of these, 21 urge us to “not be afraid” or “not fear” or “have courage” or “take heart.” If quantity is any indicator, Jesus takes our fears seriously. The one statement he made more than any other was this–“don’t be afraid!”
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Leviticus 15
Bodily Discharges
15 1-3 God spoke to Moses and Aaron: “Speak to the People of Israel. Tell them, When a man has a discharge from his genitals, the discharge is unclean. Whether it comes from a seepage or an obstruction he is unclean. He is unclean all the days his body has a seepage or an obstruction.
4-7 “Every bed on which he lies is ritually unclean, everything on which he sits is unclean. If someone touches his bed or sits on anything he’s sat on, or touches the man with the discharge, he has to wash his clothes and bathe in water; he remains unclean until evening.
8-11 “If the man with the discharge spits on someone who is clean, that person has to wash his clothes and bathe in water; he remains unclean until evening. Every saddle on which the man with the discharge rides is unclean. Whoever touches anything that has been under him becomes unclean until evening. Anyone who carries such an object must wash his clothes and bathe with water; he remains unclean until evening. If the one with the discharge touches someone without first rinsing his hands with water, the one touched must wash his clothes and bathe with water; he remains unclean until evening.
12 “If a pottery container is touched by someone with a discharge, you must break it; a wooden article is to be rinsed in water.
13-15 “When a person with a discharge is cleansed from it, he is to count off seven days for his cleansing, wash his clothes, and bathe in running water. Then he is clean. On the eighth day he is to take two doves or two pigeons and come before God at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and give them to the priest. The priest then offers one as an Absolution-Offering and one as a Whole-Burnt-Offering and makes atonement for him in the presence of God because of his discharge.
16-18 “When a man has an emission of semen, he must bathe his entire body in water; he remains unclean until evening. Every piece of clothing and everything made of leather which gets semen on it must be washed with water; it remains unclean until evening. When a man sleeps with a woman and has an emission of semen, both are to wash in water; they remain unclean until evening.
19-23 “When a woman has a discharge of blood, the impurity of her menstrual period lasts seven days. Anyone who touches her is unclean until evening. Everything on which she lies or sits during her period is unclean. Anyone who touches her bed or anything on which she sits must wash his clothes and bathe in water; he remains unclean until evening.
24 “If a man sleeps with her and her menstrual blood gets on him, he is unclean for seven days and every bed on which he lies becomes unclean.
25-27 “If a woman has a discharge of blood for many days, but not at the time of her monthly period, or has a discharge that continues beyond the time of her period, she is unclean the same as during the time of her period. Every bed on which she lies during the time of the discharge and everything on which she sits becomes unclean the same as in her monthly period. Anyone who touches these things becomes unclean and must wash his clothes and bathe in water; he remains unclean until evening.
28-30 “When she is cleansed from her discharge, she is to count off seven days; then she is clean. On the eighth day she is to take two doves or two pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. The priest will offer one for an Absolution-Offering and the other for a Whole-Burnt-Offering. The priest will make atonement for her in the presence of God because of the discharge that made her unclean.
31 “You are responsible for keeping the People of Israel separate from that which makes them ritually unclean, lest they die in their unclean condition by defiling my Dwelling which is among them.
32-33 “These are the procedures to follow for a man with a discharge or an emission of semen that makes him unclean, and for a woman in her menstrual period—any man or woman with a discharge and also for a man who sleeps with a woman who is unclean.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, April 17, 2018
Read: John 6:16–21
Jesus Walks on the Water
16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, 17 where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. 18 A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. 19 When they had rowed about three or four miles,[a] they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were frightened. 20 But he said to them, “It is I; don’t be afraid.” 21 Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.
Footnotes:
John 6:19 Or about 5 or 6 kilometers
INSIGHT
The story of Jesus meeting His disciples on the sea paints a vivid picture of how Jesus fulfilled God’s promises. In Bible times, the sea was seen as a terrifying force of chaos. Only God could walk on the sea (Job 9:8; Psalm 77:19). And in Israel’s central redemption story—their deliverance from slavery—it was God’s power that brought Israel through the sea, leaving Egypt behind (Exodus 14:21).
So when John describes Jesus walking on the waves, we can understand the disciples’ terror (John 6:19)—they were seeing God. Jesus’s response, “It is I” (literally “I am”), confirmed His unity with God, the “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14; John 8:58). By bringing the boat “immediately” to shore (John 6:21, 25), Jesus not only delivered the disciples but also likely pointed to the good news of another exodus from the “sea.” His death and resurrection would bring His people out of bondage into freedom (Galatians 5:1).
In this lifetime, we don’t always experience the full restoration we long for (2 Corinthians 5:4), but we do experience the power that will one day transform all things (4:16–17). Because of Jesus, we don’t need to be afraid (John 6:20).
What fears do you need to place in the all-powerful hands of Jesus? - Monica Brands
Learning to Know God
By Karen Wolfe
But he said to them, “It is I; don’t be afraid.” John 6:20
For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be a mother. I dreamed about getting married, getting pregnant, and holding my baby in my arms for the first time. When I finally got married, my husband and I never even considered waiting to expand our family. But with each negative pregnancy test, we realized we were struggling with infertility. Months of doctors’ visits, tests, and tears followed. We were in the middle of a storm. Infertility was a bitter pill to swallow and left me wondering about God’s goodness and faithfulness.
When I reflect on our journey, I think about the story of the disciples caught in the storm on the sea in John 6. As they struggled against the waves in the dark of the storm, Jesus unexpectedly came to them walking on the stormy waves. He calmed them with His presence, saying, “It is I; don’t be afraid” (v. 20).
What fears do you need to place in the all-powerful hands of Jesus?
Like the disciples, my husband and I had no idea what was coming in our storm; but we found comfort as we learned to know God more deeply as the One who is always faithful and true. Although we would not have the child we had dreamed of, we learned that in all our struggles we can experience the power of His calming presence. Because He is there powerfully working in our lives, we need not be anxious.
Dear Lord, thank You that I do not have to face the storms in this life without You. Thank You for Your calming presence and power carrying me through whatever I face.
Read more about waiting on God at discoveryseries.org/q0736.
We can experience God’s powerful presence even in the storms of our lives.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, April 17, 2018
All or Nothing?
When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment…and plunged into the sea. —John 21:7
Have you ever had a crisis in your life in which you deliberately, earnestly, and recklessly abandoned everything? It is a crisis of the will. You may come to that point many times externally, but it will amount to nothing. The true deep crisis of abandonment, or total surrender, is reached internally, not externally. The giving up of only external things may actually be an indication of your being in total bondage.
Have you deliberately committed your will to Jesus Christ? It is a transaction of the will, not of emotion; any positive emotion that results is simply a superficial blessing arising out of the transaction. If you focus your attention on the emotion, you will never make the transaction. Do not ask God what the transaction is to be, but make the determination to surrender your will regarding whatever you see, whether it is in the shallow or the deep, profound places internally.
If you have heard Jesus Christ’s voice on the waves of the sea, you can let your convictions and your consistency take care of themselves by concentrating on maintaining your intimate relationship to Him.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are not to preach the doing of good things; good deeds are not to be preached, they are to be performed. So Send I You, 1330 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, April 17, 2018
The Open Door On a Locked-Up Heart - #8157
When you live in the New York area, locking up your house is just second nature. In fact, it's wise to make sure that every door and every window is locked. Unfortunately, all those precautions can work against you if you forget or lose your house key. Yes, this is the voice of experience. Not only are all those nasty people locked out, you are now locked out! I've been there and done that. I can remember making a complete circuit of the house, desperately trying every window and every door. And the good news was that sometimes I actually found something was unlocked. I'd take even a window that I had to be a contortionist to get through! Anything to find a way to get in!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Open Door On a Locked-Up Heart."
There are probably some people in your world who you want in heaven with you someday; people who probably don't know your Jesus yet. Maybe people who seem to have little interest in knowing Jesus. Sometimes, it seems as if the doors to their heart are all locked up when it comes to Him. But there is a way to get in, no matter how hostile they may seem.
In our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Peter 2:12, Peter says we should "live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us." He even says that "by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men."
A lost person might resist your invitation to Christian meetings and reject your Christian beliefs; but random acts of love and kindness? They're usually a key that unlocks even the hardest hearts. As Jesus carried out His rescue mission here on earth, He wrapped His message in concrete acts of love-touching the leper that no one would touch, going to dinner with "sinners" that the religious people avoided, going to a neighborhood where racial barriers said He should never go, or cuddling the children who came to Him.
That kind of love tears down walls between a believer and an unbeliever; it challenges an unbeliever's misconceptions about Christians being angry, and condemning and uncaring. It creates curiosity about what makes this caring person tick. And the good news is that anybody can show Jesus' love to a lost person. You don't have to have a theological education or a Hollywood personality. It simply requires that you focus on someone whose eternity you care about and you ask yourself this question: "Knowing what I know about this person, what things could I do that would make him or her feel loved?"
Maybe it's babysitting or helping to care for a live-in parent for free, filling in at work so they can have a day off, or helping with a school subject that person is struggling with, or maybe you could provide transportation, or offer to do some "dirty work" for them. Maybe it's forgiving a debt or providing work for them. You could introduce a newcomer to his new surroundings, open your home for dinner, how about repairing a vehicle or an appliance, or just taking an interest in something that matters to them.
I call it "rescue loving." It involves a conscious effort to identify what would make a lost person in your life feel loved. You can find a person's language of love by asking, "What need do they have right now that I could help with?" You literally go looking for needs into which you can pour the kind of love with which Jesus has loved you. That's how you find the open door on a life that you can't get into any other way.
Tuesday, April 17, 2018
Monday, April 16, 2018
Mark 8:22-38 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: MEDITATE ON GOOD THINGS - April 16, 2018
We worry about the past—what we said or did. We worry about the future—tomorrow’s assignments or the next decade’s developments. Worry takes a meat cleaver to our thoughts, energy, and focus.
But when you aren’t focused on your problem, you have a sudden availability of brain space. So, use it for good! Meditate on good things. According to the words of the apostle Paul, “Finally brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things!” (Philippians 4:8).
Don’t let anxious, negative thoughts take over your mind. You cannot control the circumstances, but you can always control what you think of them.
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Mark 8:22-38
They arrived at Bethsaida. Some people brought a sightless man and begged Jesus to give him a healing touch. Taking him by the hand, he led him out of the village. He put spit in the man’s eyes, laid hands on him, and asked, “Do you see anything?”
24-26 He looked up. “I see men. They look like walking trees.” So Jesus laid hands on his eyes again. The man looked hard and realized that he had recovered perfect sight, saw everything in bright, twenty-twenty focus. Jesus sent him straight home, telling him, “Don’t enter the village.”
The Messiah
27 Jesus and his disciples headed out for the villages around Caesarea Philippi. As they walked, he asked, “Who do the people say I am?”
28 “Some say ‘John the Baptizer,’” they said. “Others say ‘Elijah.’ Still others say ‘one of the prophets.’”
29 He then asked, “And you—what are you saying about me? Who am I?”
Peter gave the answer: “You are the Christ, the Messiah.”
30-32 Jesus warned them to keep it quiet, not to breathe a word of it to anyone. He then began explaining things to them: “It is necessary that the Son of Man proceed to an ordeal of suffering, be tried and found guilty by the elders, high priests, and religion scholars, be killed, and after three days rise up alive.” He said this simply and clearly so they couldn’t miss it.
32-33 But Peter grabbed him in protest. Turning and seeing his disciples wavering, wondering what to believe, Jesus confronted Peter. “Peter, get out of my way! Satan, get lost! You have no idea how God works.”
34-37 Calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for?
38 “If any of you are embarrassed over me and the way I’m leading you when you get around your fickle and unfocused friends, know that you’ll be an even greater embarrassment to the Son of Man when he arrives in all the splendor of God, his Father, with an army of the holy angels.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, April 16, 2018
Read: Psalm 39:4–6
“Show me, Lord, my life’s end
and the number of my days;
let me know how fleeting my life is.
5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth;
the span of my years is as nothing before you.
Everyone is but a breath,
even those who seem secure.[a]
6 “Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom;
in vain they rush about, heaping up wealth
without knowing whose it will finally be.
Footnotes:
Psalm 39:5 The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here and at the end of verse 11.
INSIGHT
Can you think of a time in your life that served as a wake-up call? David wrote Psalm 39 recalling such a moment. Although he doesn’t describe the circumstances that roused him from a sleeplike existence, his song tells us how he came to sense the importance of the moments given to us.
At first, he’s troubled by those who seem to have no moral conscience. Sensing foolishness and danger in their presence, he decides not to speak—maybe so he won’t be like them or so that his words cannot be used against him (39:1–2).
But in self-imposed silence, David has a more troubling thought. He too has been living without wisdom. Time is getting away from him. He’s lost the joy and wonder of life. Realizing his own inclination to think life is found in the material things we accumulate, he calls out for help (vv. 3–6).
Recalling what he has already learned about the Source of joy and hope, he sees how reliant he is on the eternal God to help him see more than the momentary distraction of passing wealth (vv. 7–13).
Could this be a good time to see ourselves in David’s song? - Mart DeHaan
Just a Second
By Dave Branon
How fleeting my life is. Psalm 39:4
Scientists are pretty fussy about time. At the end of 2016, the folks at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland added an extra second to the year. So if you felt that year dragged on a bit longer than normal, you were right.
Why did they do that? Because the rotation of the earth slows down over time, the years get just a tiny bit longer. When scientists track manmade objects launched into space, they must have accuracy down to the millisecond. This is “to make sure our collision avoidance programs are accurate,” according to one scientist.
Lord, help us to use our time wisely for Your honor and glory.
For most of us, a second gained or lost doesn’t make much difference. Yet according to Scripture, our time and how we use it is important. For instance, Paul reminded us in 1 Corinthians 7:29 that “time is short.” The time we have to do God’s work is limited, so we must use it wisely. He urged us to “[make] the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16 esv).
This doesn’t mean we have to count each second as do the scientists, but when we consider the fleeting nature of life (Psalm 39:4), we can be reminded of the importance of using our time wisely.
Lord, thank You for each moment You give us. May we strive to honor You with this gift by using our time wisely for Your honor and glory.
Don’t just spend time—invest it.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, April 16, 2018
Can You Come Down From the Mountain?
While you have the light, believe in the light… —John 12:36
We all have moments when we feel better than ever before, and we say, “I feel fit for anything; if only I could always be like this!” We are not meant to be. Those moments are moments of insight which we have to live up to even when we do not feel like it. Many of us are no good for the everyday world when we are not on the mountaintop. Yet we must bring our everyday life up to the standard revealed to us on the mountaintop when we were there.
Never allow a feeling that was awakened in you on the mountaintop to evaporate. Don’t place yourself on the shelf by thinking, “How great to be in such a wonderful state of mind!” Act immediately— do something, even if your only reason to act is that you would rather not. If, during a prayer meeting, God shows you something to do, don’t say, “I’ll do it”— just do it! Pick yourself up by the back of the neck and shake off your fleshly laziness. Laziness can always be seen in our cravings for a mountaintop experience; all we talk about is our planning for our time on the mountain. We must learn to live in the ordinary “gray” day according to what we saw on the mountain.
Don’t give up because you have been blocked and confused once— go after it again. Burn your bridges behind you, and stand committed to God by an act of your own will. Never change your decisions, but be sure to make your decisions in the light of what you saw and learned on the mountain.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are in danger of being stern where God is tender, and of being tender where God is stern. The Love of God—The Message of Invincible Consolation, 673 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, April 16, 2018
Letting It Happen To Your Heart - #8156
We've gotten all too used to seeing streams of refugees pouring into another land; into a place to escape whatever was happening in their country. I still remember the heartbreaking images from the end of the 20th Century. You know, there were tens of thousands of Kosovo refugees fleeing from the attacks of Serbian soldiers and police. Day after day, we would hear reports on the news of how many more refugees had arrived on the Albanian or Macedonian border, and how many were jammed into makeshift camps, desperate for food, for water, for shelter, and for a feeling of being human again. Most of the major networks had correspondents on the scene who would report from that sea of humanity and misery. In a moment of disarming honesty, one reporter said, "When you cover a tragedy like this, you have to put up a steel wall to protect yourself or you can't do your job." But then he went on to say, "But I have to confess to you, suddenly today my steel wall came down. I just lost it."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Letting It Happen to Your Heart."
Maybe it's time for your steel wall to come down. If it does, you'll be on your way to having a heart like your Savior's.
Our word for today from the Word of God is from Matthew 9:35. It's about a heart that feels what others are too busy or too hard to feel. It says, "Jesus went through all the towns and villages...preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."
Now, the original Greek version of this passage reveals how really deep Jesus' feelings were. That Greek word for "had compassion" is actually rooted in the word for "entrails." In other words, when Jesus saw the need of these people, something happened way down deep inside the very deepest parts of His heart. He wants to give you a heart like His. And in the stress and pressures and superficiality of the world we live in, it's easy to inadvertently build a steel wall that keeps us from feeling the lostness of the people around us. But when you lose that, you've lost an essential part of what it means to have a Christ-like heart.
Yes, there are people who care too much. They make every burden their burden, and they end up burning out because they didn't turn those burdens over to Jesus, because they tried to make every need their concern instead of focusing on one or two and making a real difference in those.
But the far more common heart problem is not over-caring. No, it's under-caring. Most of us need to let the wall around us come down - to pray this transforming prayer, "Lord Jesus, help me see what You see when you see my neighbor, my co-worker, my friend, my family members, the people around me who have no relationship with You." See, even in ministry, it's easy to lose the broken heart that brought you into ministry in the first place. What once was passion; maybe it's just become a profession. You do most of the same things, but the passion is gone.
I heard recently of an urban pastor who often waited until sermon time to come to the platform. One Sunday, he wasn't there at sermon time. So, two deacons went back to the pastor's office and they found him looking out his window at the nearby houses and crying. One deacon said, "Oh, pastor, you're weeping over the needs of the people in this neighborhood, aren't you?" The pastor said, "No. I'm weeping because it doesn't move me like it used to."
Maybe that's you. Let the wall come down. Let Jesus put a piece of His caring, broken heart in you. Let Him help you see what He sees, feel what He feels for the people around you - for some people with a need He wants you to do something about.
Living with your heart open makes every day a mission and every day a holy adventure.
We worry about the past—what we said or did. We worry about the future—tomorrow’s assignments or the next decade’s developments. Worry takes a meat cleaver to our thoughts, energy, and focus.
But when you aren’t focused on your problem, you have a sudden availability of brain space. So, use it for good! Meditate on good things. According to the words of the apostle Paul, “Finally brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things!” (Philippians 4:8).
Don’t let anxious, negative thoughts take over your mind. You cannot control the circumstances, but you can always control what you think of them.
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Mark 8:22-38
They arrived at Bethsaida. Some people brought a sightless man and begged Jesus to give him a healing touch. Taking him by the hand, he led him out of the village. He put spit in the man’s eyes, laid hands on him, and asked, “Do you see anything?”
24-26 He looked up. “I see men. They look like walking trees.” So Jesus laid hands on his eyes again. The man looked hard and realized that he had recovered perfect sight, saw everything in bright, twenty-twenty focus. Jesus sent him straight home, telling him, “Don’t enter the village.”
The Messiah
27 Jesus and his disciples headed out for the villages around Caesarea Philippi. As they walked, he asked, “Who do the people say I am?”
28 “Some say ‘John the Baptizer,’” they said. “Others say ‘Elijah.’ Still others say ‘one of the prophets.’”
29 He then asked, “And you—what are you saying about me? Who am I?”
Peter gave the answer: “You are the Christ, the Messiah.”
30-32 Jesus warned them to keep it quiet, not to breathe a word of it to anyone. He then began explaining things to them: “It is necessary that the Son of Man proceed to an ordeal of suffering, be tried and found guilty by the elders, high priests, and religion scholars, be killed, and after three days rise up alive.” He said this simply and clearly so they couldn’t miss it.
32-33 But Peter grabbed him in protest. Turning and seeing his disciples wavering, wondering what to believe, Jesus confronted Peter. “Peter, get out of my way! Satan, get lost! You have no idea how God works.”
34-37 Calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for?
38 “If any of you are embarrassed over me and the way I’m leading you when you get around your fickle and unfocused friends, know that you’ll be an even greater embarrassment to the Son of Man when he arrives in all the splendor of God, his Father, with an army of the holy angels.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, April 16, 2018
Read: Psalm 39:4–6
“Show me, Lord, my life’s end
and the number of my days;
let me know how fleeting my life is.
5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth;
the span of my years is as nothing before you.
Everyone is but a breath,
even those who seem secure.[a]
6 “Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom;
in vain they rush about, heaping up wealth
without knowing whose it will finally be.
Footnotes:
Psalm 39:5 The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here and at the end of verse 11.
INSIGHT
Can you think of a time in your life that served as a wake-up call? David wrote Psalm 39 recalling such a moment. Although he doesn’t describe the circumstances that roused him from a sleeplike existence, his song tells us how he came to sense the importance of the moments given to us.
At first, he’s troubled by those who seem to have no moral conscience. Sensing foolishness and danger in their presence, he decides not to speak—maybe so he won’t be like them or so that his words cannot be used against him (39:1–2).
But in self-imposed silence, David has a more troubling thought. He too has been living without wisdom. Time is getting away from him. He’s lost the joy and wonder of life. Realizing his own inclination to think life is found in the material things we accumulate, he calls out for help (vv. 3–6).
Recalling what he has already learned about the Source of joy and hope, he sees how reliant he is on the eternal God to help him see more than the momentary distraction of passing wealth (vv. 7–13).
Could this be a good time to see ourselves in David’s song? - Mart DeHaan
Just a Second
By Dave Branon
How fleeting my life is. Psalm 39:4
Scientists are pretty fussy about time. At the end of 2016, the folks at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland added an extra second to the year. So if you felt that year dragged on a bit longer than normal, you were right.
Why did they do that? Because the rotation of the earth slows down over time, the years get just a tiny bit longer. When scientists track manmade objects launched into space, they must have accuracy down to the millisecond. This is “to make sure our collision avoidance programs are accurate,” according to one scientist.
Lord, help us to use our time wisely for Your honor and glory.
For most of us, a second gained or lost doesn’t make much difference. Yet according to Scripture, our time and how we use it is important. For instance, Paul reminded us in 1 Corinthians 7:29 that “time is short.” The time we have to do God’s work is limited, so we must use it wisely. He urged us to “[make] the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16 esv).
This doesn’t mean we have to count each second as do the scientists, but when we consider the fleeting nature of life (Psalm 39:4), we can be reminded of the importance of using our time wisely.
Lord, thank You for each moment You give us. May we strive to honor You with this gift by using our time wisely for Your honor and glory.
Don’t just spend time—invest it.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, April 16, 2018
Can You Come Down From the Mountain?
While you have the light, believe in the light… —John 12:36
We all have moments when we feel better than ever before, and we say, “I feel fit for anything; if only I could always be like this!” We are not meant to be. Those moments are moments of insight which we have to live up to even when we do not feel like it. Many of us are no good for the everyday world when we are not on the mountaintop. Yet we must bring our everyday life up to the standard revealed to us on the mountaintop when we were there.
Never allow a feeling that was awakened in you on the mountaintop to evaporate. Don’t place yourself on the shelf by thinking, “How great to be in such a wonderful state of mind!” Act immediately— do something, even if your only reason to act is that you would rather not. If, during a prayer meeting, God shows you something to do, don’t say, “I’ll do it”— just do it! Pick yourself up by the back of the neck and shake off your fleshly laziness. Laziness can always be seen in our cravings for a mountaintop experience; all we talk about is our planning for our time on the mountain. We must learn to live in the ordinary “gray” day according to what we saw on the mountain.
Don’t give up because you have been blocked and confused once— go after it again. Burn your bridges behind you, and stand committed to God by an act of your own will. Never change your decisions, but be sure to make your decisions in the light of what you saw and learned on the mountain.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are in danger of being stern where God is tender, and of being tender where God is stern. The Love of God—The Message of Invincible Consolation, 673 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, April 16, 2018
Letting It Happen To Your Heart - #8156
We've gotten all too used to seeing streams of refugees pouring into another land; into a place to escape whatever was happening in their country. I still remember the heartbreaking images from the end of the 20th Century. You know, there were tens of thousands of Kosovo refugees fleeing from the attacks of Serbian soldiers and police. Day after day, we would hear reports on the news of how many more refugees had arrived on the Albanian or Macedonian border, and how many were jammed into makeshift camps, desperate for food, for water, for shelter, and for a feeling of being human again. Most of the major networks had correspondents on the scene who would report from that sea of humanity and misery. In a moment of disarming honesty, one reporter said, "When you cover a tragedy like this, you have to put up a steel wall to protect yourself or you can't do your job." But then he went on to say, "But I have to confess to you, suddenly today my steel wall came down. I just lost it."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Letting It Happen to Your Heart."
Maybe it's time for your steel wall to come down. If it does, you'll be on your way to having a heart like your Savior's.
Our word for today from the Word of God is from Matthew 9:35. It's about a heart that feels what others are too busy or too hard to feel. It says, "Jesus went through all the towns and villages...preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."
Now, the original Greek version of this passage reveals how really deep Jesus' feelings were. That Greek word for "had compassion" is actually rooted in the word for "entrails." In other words, when Jesus saw the need of these people, something happened way down deep inside the very deepest parts of His heart. He wants to give you a heart like His. And in the stress and pressures and superficiality of the world we live in, it's easy to inadvertently build a steel wall that keeps us from feeling the lostness of the people around us. But when you lose that, you've lost an essential part of what it means to have a Christ-like heart.
Yes, there are people who care too much. They make every burden their burden, and they end up burning out because they didn't turn those burdens over to Jesus, because they tried to make every need their concern instead of focusing on one or two and making a real difference in those.
But the far more common heart problem is not over-caring. No, it's under-caring. Most of us need to let the wall around us come down - to pray this transforming prayer, "Lord Jesus, help me see what You see when you see my neighbor, my co-worker, my friend, my family members, the people around me who have no relationship with You." See, even in ministry, it's easy to lose the broken heart that brought you into ministry in the first place. What once was passion; maybe it's just become a profession. You do most of the same things, but the passion is gone.
I heard recently of an urban pastor who often waited until sermon time to come to the platform. One Sunday, he wasn't there at sermon time. So, two deacons went back to the pastor's office and they found him looking out his window at the nearby houses and crying. One deacon said, "Oh, pastor, you're weeping over the needs of the people in this neighborhood, aren't you?" The pastor said, "No. I'm weeping because it doesn't move me like it used to."
Maybe that's you. Let the wall come down. Let Jesus put a piece of His caring, broken heart in you. Let Him help you see what He sees, feel what He feels for the people around you - for some people with a need He wants you to do something about.
Living with your heart open makes every day a mission and every day a holy adventure.
Sunday, April 15, 2018
Mark 8:1-21, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Eternal Choices
God gives eternal choices, and these choices have eternal consequences. Isn't this the reminder of Calvary's trio? Ever wonder why there were two crosses next to Christ? Why not six or ten? Ever wonder why Jesus was in the center? Could it be the two crosses on the hill symbolize one of God's greatest gifts? The gift of choice. The two criminals were convicted by the same system. Condemned to death. Equally close to the same Jesus. But one changed and one did not.
You've made some bad choices in life, haven't you? You look back and you say, "If only I could make up for those bad choices." You can. When one thief on the cross prayed, Jesus loved him enough to save him. When the other mocked, Jesus loved him enough to let him. He allowed him the choice. And he does the same for you and me.
Then (the thief) said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus answered him, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise." Luke 23:42-43
from He Chose the Nails
Mark 8:1-21
A Meal for Four Thousand
8 1-3 At about this same time he again found himself with a hungry crowd on his hands. He called his disciples together and said, “This crowd is breaking my heart. They have stuck with me for three days, and now they have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they’ll faint along the way—some of them have come a long distance.”
4 His disciples responded, “What do you expect us to do about it? Buy food out here in the desert?”
5 He asked, “How much bread do you have?”
“Seven loaves,” they said.
6-10 So Jesus told the crowd to sit down on the ground. After giving thanks, he took the seven bread loaves, broke them into pieces, and gave them to his disciples so they could hand them out to the crowd. They also had a few fish. He pronounced a blessing over the fish and told his disciples to hand them out as well. The crowd ate its fill. Seven sacks of leftovers were collected. There were well over four thousand at the meal. Then he sent them home. He himself went straight to the boat with his disciples and set out for Dalmanoutha.
11-12 When they arrived, the Pharisees came out and started in on him, badgering him to prove himself, pushing him up against the wall. Provoked, he said, “Why does this generation clamor for miraculous guarantees? If I have anything to say about it, you’ll not get so much as a hint of a guarantee.”
Contaminating Yeast
13-15 He then left them, got back in the boat, and headed for the other side. But the disciples forgot to pack a lunch. Except for a single loaf of bread, there wasn’t a crumb in the boat. Jesus warned, “Be very careful. Keep a sharp eye out for the contaminating yeast of Pharisees and the followers of Herod.”
16-19 Meanwhile, the disciples were finding fault with each other because they had forgotten to bring bread. Jesus overheard and said, “Why are you fussing because you forgot bread? Don’t you see the point of all this? Don’t you get it at all? Remember the five loaves I broke for the five thousand? How many baskets of leftovers did you pick up?”
They said, “Twelve.”
20 “And the seven loaves for the four thousand—how many bags full of leftovers did you get?”
“Seven.”
21 He said, “Do you still not get it?”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, April 15, 2018
Read: Psalm 98
A psalm.
1 Sing to the Lord a new song,
for he has done marvelous things;
his right hand and his holy arm
have worked salvation for him.
2 The Lord has made his salvation known
and revealed his righteousness to the nations.
3 He has remembered his love
and his faithfulness to Israel;
all the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God.
4 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth,
burst into jubilant song with music;
5 make music to the Lord with the harp,
with the harp and the sound of singing,
6 with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn—
shout for joy before the Lord, the King.
7 Let the sea resound, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it.
8 Let the rivers clap their hands,
let the mountains sing together for joy;
9 let them sing before the Lord,
for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
and the peoples with equity.
INSIGHT
Hallel is the Hebrew word for “praise” and aptly describes many of the psalms, including Psalm 98. Within the Hebrew psalter, however, there is a subset of hymns called the Hallel Psalms (Psalms 113–118). These psalms were normally sung or recited during high feast times, including Passover—Psalms 113–114 before the meal and Psalms 115–118 after it. The Jewish day begins at dusk, so when Jesus shared a final Passover with His men, crucifixion day had already begun. In the context of the cross, the impact of singing Psalm 118:24 takes on new meaning: “This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (nasb). And knowing these words would have been on the Savior’s lips as He moved toward Calvary provides vivid commentary on Hebrews 12:2: “For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Why not take a moment to joyfully praise the Lord for all He has done? - Bill Crowder
Reason to Sing
By Kirsten Holmberg
Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things. Psalm 98:1
When I was thirteen, my school required students to take four exploratory courses, including home economics, art, choir, and woodworking. On my first day in choir, the instructor called each student to the piano individually to hear their voices and place them in the room according to their vocal range. During my turn at the piano, I sang the notes she played multiple times, but wasn’t directed to a section in the room. Instead, after repeated tries, she sent me to the counseling office to find a different class to take. From that moment on, I felt I shouldn’t sing at all, that my voice shouldn’t be heard in song.
I carried that thought with me for more than a decade until I read Psalm 98 as a young adult. The writer opens with an invitation to “sing to the Lord” (Psalm 98:1). The reason offered has nothing to do with the quality of our voices; He delights in all His children’s songs of thanksgiving and praise. Instead, we are invited to sing because God “has done marvelous things” (v. 1).
Take a moment to joyfully praise the Lord for all He has done.
The psalmist points out two wonderful reasons to joyfully praise God in song and in attitude: His saving work in our lives and His ongoing faithfulness toward us. In God’s choir, we each have a place to sing of the marvelous things He has done.
Lord, You have done great things in my life. Even if my voice isn’t one that would be heard on stage, I want to join the choir in thanking You for the amazing things You’ve done.
God loves to hear the voices of His children.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, April 15, 2018
The Failure To Pay Close Attention
The high places were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was loyal all his days. —2 Chronicles 15:17
Asa was not completely obedient in the outward, visible areas of his life. He was obedient in what he considered the most important areas, but he was not entirely right. Beware of ever thinking, “Oh, that thing in my life doesn’t matter much.” The fact that it doesn’t matter much to you may mean that it matters a great deal to God. Nothing should be considered a trivial matter by a child of God. How much longer are we going to prevent God from teaching us even one thing? But He keeps trying to teach us and He never loses patience. You say, “I know I am right with God”— yet the “high places” still remain in your life. There is still an area of disobedience. Do you protest that your heart is right with God, and yet there is something in your life He causes you to doubt? Whenever God causes a doubt about something, stop it immediately, no matter what it may be. Nothing in our lives is a mere insignificant detail to God.
Are there some things regarding your physical or intellectual life to which you have been paying no attention at all? If so, you may think you are all correct in the important areas, but you are careless— you are failing to concentrate or to focus properly. You no more need a day off from spiritual concentration on matters in your life than your heart needs a day off from beating. As you cannot take a day off morally and remain moral, neither can you take a day off spiritually and remain spiritual. God wants you to be entirely His, and it requires paying close attention to keep yourself fit. It also takes a tremendous amount of time. Yet some of us expect to rise above all of our problems, going from one mountaintop experience to another, with only a few minutes’ effort.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We must keep ourselves in touch, not with theories, but with people, and never get out of touch with human beings, if we are going to use the word of God skilfully amongst them. Workmen of God, 1341 L
God gives eternal choices, and these choices have eternal consequences. Isn't this the reminder of Calvary's trio? Ever wonder why there were two crosses next to Christ? Why not six or ten? Ever wonder why Jesus was in the center? Could it be the two crosses on the hill symbolize one of God's greatest gifts? The gift of choice. The two criminals were convicted by the same system. Condemned to death. Equally close to the same Jesus. But one changed and one did not.
You've made some bad choices in life, haven't you? You look back and you say, "If only I could make up for those bad choices." You can. When one thief on the cross prayed, Jesus loved him enough to save him. When the other mocked, Jesus loved him enough to let him. He allowed him the choice. And he does the same for you and me.
Then (the thief) said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus answered him, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise." Luke 23:42-43
from He Chose the Nails
Mark 8:1-21
A Meal for Four Thousand
8 1-3 At about this same time he again found himself with a hungry crowd on his hands. He called his disciples together and said, “This crowd is breaking my heart. They have stuck with me for three days, and now they have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they’ll faint along the way—some of them have come a long distance.”
4 His disciples responded, “What do you expect us to do about it? Buy food out here in the desert?”
5 He asked, “How much bread do you have?”
“Seven loaves,” they said.
6-10 So Jesus told the crowd to sit down on the ground. After giving thanks, he took the seven bread loaves, broke them into pieces, and gave them to his disciples so they could hand them out to the crowd. They also had a few fish. He pronounced a blessing over the fish and told his disciples to hand them out as well. The crowd ate its fill. Seven sacks of leftovers were collected. There were well over four thousand at the meal. Then he sent them home. He himself went straight to the boat with his disciples and set out for Dalmanoutha.
11-12 When they arrived, the Pharisees came out and started in on him, badgering him to prove himself, pushing him up against the wall. Provoked, he said, “Why does this generation clamor for miraculous guarantees? If I have anything to say about it, you’ll not get so much as a hint of a guarantee.”
Contaminating Yeast
13-15 He then left them, got back in the boat, and headed for the other side. But the disciples forgot to pack a lunch. Except for a single loaf of bread, there wasn’t a crumb in the boat. Jesus warned, “Be very careful. Keep a sharp eye out for the contaminating yeast of Pharisees and the followers of Herod.”
16-19 Meanwhile, the disciples were finding fault with each other because they had forgotten to bring bread. Jesus overheard and said, “Why are you fussing because you forgot bread? Don’t you see the point of all this? Don’t you get it at all? Remember the five loaves I broke for the five thousand? How many baskets of leftovers did you pick up?”
They said, “Twelve.”
20 “And the seven loaves for the four thousand—how many bags full of leftovers did you get?”
“Seven.”
21 He said, “Do you still not get it?”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, April 15, 2018
Read: Psalm 98
A psalm.
1 Sing to the Lord a new song,
for he has done marvelous things;
his right hand and his holy arm
have worked salvation for him.
2 The Lord has made his salvation known
and revealed his righteousness to the nations.
3 He has remembered his love
and his faithfulness to Israel;
all the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God.
4 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth,
burst into jubilant song with music;
5 make music to the Lord with the harp,
with the harp and the sound of singing,
6 with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn—
shout for joy before the Lord, the King.
7 Let the sea resound, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it.
8 Let the rivers clap their hands,
let the mountains sing together for joy;
9 let them sing before the Lord,
for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
and the peoples with equity.
INSIGHT
Hallel is the Hebrew word for “praise” and aptly describes many of the psalms, including Psalm 98. Within the Hebrew psalter, however, there is a subset of hymns called the Hallel Psalms (Psalms 113–118). These psalms were normally sung or recited during high feast times, including Passover—Psalms 113–114 before the meal and Psalms 115–118 after it. The Jewish day begins at dusk, so when Jesus shared a final Passover with His men, crucifixion day had already begun. In the context of the cross, the impact of singing Psalm 118:24 takes on new meaning: “This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (nasb). And knowing these words would have been on the Savior’s lips as He moved toward Calvary provides vivid commentary on Hebrews 12:2: “For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Why not take a moment to joyfully praise the Lord for all He has done? - Bill Crowder
Reason to Sing
By Kirsten Holmberg
Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things. Psalm 98:1
When I was thirteen, my school required students to take four exploratory courses, including home economics, art, choir, and woodworking. On my first day in choir, the instructor called each student to the piano individually to hear their voices and place them in the room according to their vocal range. During my turn at the piano, I sang the notes she played multiple times, but wasn’t directed to a section in the room. Instead, after repeated tries, she sent me to the counseling office to find a different class to take. From that moment on, I felt I shouldn’t sing at all, that my voice shouldn’t be heard in song.
I carried that thought with me for more than a decade until I read Psalm 98 as a young adult. The writer opens with an invitation to “sing to the Lord” (Psalm 98:1). The reason offered has nothing to do with the quality of our voices; He delights in all His children’s songs of thanksgiving and praise. Instead, we are invited to sing because God “has done marvelous things” (v. 1).
Take a moment to joyfully praise the Lord for all He has done.
The psalmist points out two wonderful reasons to joyfully praise God in song and in attitude: His saving work in our lives and His ongoing faithfulness toward us. In God’s choir, we each have a place to sing of the marvelous things He has done.
Lord, You have done great things in my life. Even if my voice isn’t one that would be heard on stage, I want to join the choir in thanking You for the amazing things You’ve done.
God loves to hear the voices of His children.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, April 15, 2018
The Failure To Pay Close Attention
The high places were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was loyal all his days. —2 Chronicles 15:17
Asa was not completely obedient in the outward, visible areas of his life. He was obedient in what he considered the most important areas, but he was not entirely right. Beware of ever thinking, “Oh, that thing in my life doesn’t matter much.” The fact that it doesn’t matter much to you may mean that it matters a great deal to God. Nothing should be considered a trivial matter by a child of God. How much longer are we going to prevent God from teaching us even one thing? But He keeps trying to teach us and He never loses patience. You say, “I know I am right with God”— yet the “high places” still remain in your life. There is still an area of disobedience. Do you protest that your heart is right with God, and yet there is something in your life He causes you to doubt? Whenever God causes a doubt about something, stop it immediately, no matter what it may be. Nothing in our lives is a mere insignificant detail to God.
Are there some things regarding your physical or intellectual life to which you have been paying no attention at all? If so, you may think you are all correct in the important areas, but you are careless— you are failing to concentrate or to focus properly. You no more need a day off from spiritual concentration on matters in your life than your heart needs a day off from beating. As you cannot take a day off morally and remain moral, neither can you take a day off spiritually and remain spiritual. God wants you to be entirely His, and it requires paying close attention to keep yourself fit. It also takes a tremendous amount of time. Yet some of us expect to rise above all of our problems, going from one mountaintop experience to another, with only a few minutes’ effort.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We must keep ourselves in touch, not with theories, but with people, and never get out of touch with human beings, if we are going to use the word of God skilfully amongst them. Workmen of God, 1341 L
Saturday, April 14, 2018
Leviticus 14, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: It is Finished
Picture if you will, a blank check. The amount of the check is "sufficient grace." The signer of the check is Jesus. The only blank line is for the payee. That part is for you! May I urge you to spend a few moments with your Savior receiving this check? Reflect on the work of God's grace. The nails that once held a Savior to the cross. His sacrifice was for you. Express your thanks for His grace. Whether for the first time or the thousandth, let Him hear you whisper, "Forgive us our debts." And let Him answer your prayer as you imagine writing your name on the check.
No more deposits are necessary. So complete was the payment that Jesus used a banking term to proclaim your salvation. "It is finished" (John 19:30)! Perhaps I best slip out now and leave the two of you to talk.
from The Great House of God
Leviticus 14
1-9 God spoke to Moses: “These are the instructions for the infected person at the time of his cleansing. First, bring him to the priest. The priest will take him outside the camp and make an examination; if the infected person has been healed of the serious skin disease, the priest will order two live, clean birds, some cedar wood, scarlet thread, and hyssop to be brought for the one to be cleansed. The priest will order him to kill one of the birds over fresh water in a clay pot. The priest will then take the live bird with the cedar wood, the scarlet thread, and the hyssop and dip them in the blood of the dead bird over fresh water and then sprinkle the person being cleansed from the serious skin disease seven times and pronounce him clean. Finally, he will release the live bird in the open field. The cleansed person, after washing his clothes, shaving off all his hair, and bathing with water, is clean. Afterwards he may again enter the camp, but he has to live outside his tent for seven days. On the seventh day, he must shave off all his hair—from his head, beard, eyebrows, all of it. He then must wash his clothes and bathe all over with water. He will be clean.
10-18 “The next day, the eighth day, he will bring two lambs without defect and a yearling ewe without defect, along with roughly six quarts of fine flour mixed with oil. The priest who pronounces him clean will place him and the materials for his offerings in the presence of God at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. The priest will take one of the lambs and present it and the pint of oil as a Compensation-Offering and lift them up as a Wave-Offering before God. He will slaughter the lamb in the place where the Absolution-Offering and the Whole-Burnt-Offering are slaughtered, in the Holy Place, because like the Absolution-Offering, the Compensation-Offering belongs to the priest; it is most holy. The priest will now take some of the blood of the Compensation-Offering and put it on the right earlobe of the man being cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. Following that he will take some oil and pour it into the palm of his left hand and then with the finger of his right hand sprinkle oil seven times before God. The priest will put some of the remaining oil on the right earlobe of the one being cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, placing it on top of the blood of the Compensation-Offering. He will put the rest of the oil on the head of the man being cleansed and make atonement for him before God.
19-20 “Finally the priest will sacrifice the Absolution-Offering and make atonement for the one to be cleansed from his uncleanness, slaughter the Whole-Burnt-Offering and offer it with the Grain-Offering on the Altar. He has made atonement for him. He is clean.
21-22 “If he is poor and cannot afford these offerings, he will bring one male lamb as a Compensation-Offering to be offered as a Wave-Offering to make atonement for him, and with it a couple of quarts of fine flour mixed with oil for a Grain-Offering, a pint of oil, and two doves or pigeons which he can afford, one for an Absolution-Offering and the other for a Whole-Burnt-Offering.
23-29 “On the eighth day he will bring them to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting before the presence of God. The priest will take the lamb for the Compensation-Offering together with the pint of oil and wave them before God as a Wave-Offering. He will slaughter the lamb for the Compensation-Offering, take some of its blood and put it on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. The priest will pour some of the oil into the palm of his left hand, and with his right finger sprinkle some of the oil from his palm seven times before God. He will put some of the oil that is in his palm on the same places he put the blood of the Compensation-Offering, on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. The priest will take what is left of the oil in his palm and put it on the head of the one to be cleansed, making atonement for him before God.
30-31 “At the last, he will sacrifice the doves or pigeons which are within his means, one as an Absolution-Offering and the other as a Whole-Burnt-Offering along with the Grain-Offering. Following this procedure the priest will make atonement for the one to be cleansed before God.”
32 These are the instructions to be followed for anyone who has a serious skin disease and cannot afford the regular offerings for his cleansing.
33-42 God spoke to Moses and Aaron: “When you enter the land of Canaan, which I’m giving to you as a possession, and I put a serious fungus in a house in the land of your possession, the householder is to go and tell the priest, ‘I have some kind of fungus in my house.’ The priest is to order the house vacated until he can come to examine the fungus, so that nothing in the house is declared unclean. When the priest comes and examines the house, if the fungus on the walls of the house has greenish or rusty swelling that appears to go deeper than the surface of the wall, the priest is to walk out the door and shut the house up for seven days. On the seventh day he is to come back and conduct another examination; if the fungus has spread in the walls of the house, he is to order that the stones affected by the fungus be torn out and thrown in a garbage dump outside the city. He is to make sure the entire inside of the house is scraped and the plaster that is removed be taken away to the garbage dump outside the city. Then he is to replace the stones and replaster the house.
43-47 “If the fungus breaks out again in the house after the stones have been torn out and the house has been scraped and plastered, the priest is to come and conduct an examination; if the fungus has spread, it is a malignant fungus. The house is unclean. The house has to be demolished—its stones, wood, and plaster are to be removed to the garbage dump outside the city. Anyone who enters the house while it is closed up is unclean until evening. Anyone who sleeps or eats in the house must wash his clothes.
48-53 “But if when the priest comes and conducts his examination, he finds that the fungus has not spread after the house has been replastered, the priest is to declare that the house is clean; the fungus is cured. He then is to purify the house by taking two birds, some cedar wood, scarlet thread, and hyssop. He will slaughter one bird over fresh water in a clay pot. Then he will take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the scarlet thread, and the living bird, dip them in the blood of the killed bird and the fresh water and sprinkle the house seven times, cleansing the house with the blood of the bird, the fresh water, the living bird, the cedar wood, the hyssop, and the scarlet thread. Last of all, he will let the living bird loose outside the city in the open field. He has made atonement for the house; the house is clean.
54-57 “These are the procedures to be followed for every kind of serious skin disease or itch, for mildew or fungus on clothing or in a house, and for a swelling or blister or shiny spot in order to determine when it is unclean and when it is clean. These are the procedures regarding infectious skin diseases and mildew and fungus.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, April 14, 2018
Read: Mark 4:35–41
Jesus Calms the Storm
35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”
39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
INSIGHT
The end of Mark 4 poses an interesting question that each of us must answer: Who is this man? The disciples asked this question after Christ spoke to the wind and the waves and they obeyed Him. Though we may think this was merely a response of astonishment at what Jesus had just accomplished, Mark wants us to take the question seriously because he wants to present the answer.
Immediately following the disciples’ question, Mark recounts three stories that are meant to fill in the answer. After the miracle of calming the storm, Jesus casts demons out of a possessed man (5:1–20), heals a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years (vv. 21–34), and raises a girl from the dead (vv. 35–43).
Who is Jesus? He is God in the flesh, the one with power over nature, the spirit world, our bodies, and power over death itself. There is nothing we face that is beyond His ability to command.
What storm do you face today? Turn to Him knowing who He is and what His power can do. - J.R. Hudberg
Into Our Storms
By Adam Holz
He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. Mark 4:39
Wind howled, lightning flashed, waves crashed. I thought I was going to die. My grandparents and I were fishing on a lake, but we’d stayed out too long. As the sun set, a fast-moving squall swept over our small boat. My grandfather instructed me to sit in front to keep it from capsizing. Terror flooded my heart. But then, somehow, I began to pray. I was fourteen.
I asked God for His reassurance and protection. The storm didn’t weaken, but we made it to shore. To this day, I don’t know if I’ve experienced a deeper certainty of God’s presence than that night in the storm.
What storm do you face today? Turn to Him knowing who He is and what His power can do.
Jesus is no stranger to storms. In Mark 4:35–41, He told His disciples to head across a lake that would soon turn windy and wild. The storm that night tested and bested these rugged fishermen. They too thought they were going to die. But Jesus calmed the water and then led His disciples to deeper faith.
Likewise, Jesus invites us to trust Him in our storms. Sometimes He miraculously stills the winds and the waves. Sometimes He does something equally miraculous: He steadies our hearts and helps us to trust Him. He asks us to rest in the belief that He has the power to say to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!”
Lord, the storms of our lives sometimes seem like they will swamp us. Help us trust that You are the Master of the storm, to place our faith in You when life’s winds blow fiercely.
No danger can come so near that God is not nearer still.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, April 14, 2018
Inner Invincibility
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me… —Matthew 11:29
“Whom the Lord loves He chastens…” (Hebrews 12:6). How petty our complaining is! Our Lord begins to bring us to the point where we can have fellowship with Him, only to hear us moan and groan, saying, “Oh Lord, just let me be like other people!” Jesus is asking us to get beside Him and take one end of the yoke, so that we can pull together. That’s why Jesus says to us, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). Are you closely identified with the Lord Jesus like that? If so, you will thank God when you feel the pressure of His hand upon you.
“…to those who have no might He increases strength” (Isaiah 40:29). God comes and takes us out of our emotionalism, and then our complaining turns into a hymn of praise. The only way to know the strength of God is to take the yoke of Jesus upon us and to learn from Him.
“…the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). Where do the saints get their joy? If we did not know some Christians well, we might think from just observing them that they have no burdens at all to bear. But we must lift the veil from our eyes. The fact that the peace, light, and joy of God is in them is proof that a burden is there as well. The burden that God places on us squeezes the grapes in our lives and produces the wine, but most of us see only the wine and not the burden. No power on earth or in hell can conquer the Spirit of God living within the human spirit; it creates an inner invincibility.
If your life is producing only a whine, instead of the wine, then ruthlessly kick it out. It is definitely a crime for a Christian to be weak in God’s strength.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We can understand the attributes of God in other ways, but we can only understand the Father’s heart in the Cross of Christ. The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption, 558 L
Picture if you will, a blank check. The amount of the check is "sufficient grace." The signer of the check is Jesus. The only blank line is for the payee. That part is for you! May I urge you to spend a few moments with your Savior receiving this check? Reflect on the work of God's grace. The nails that once held a Savior to the cross. His sacrifice was for you. Express your thanks for His grace. Whether for the first time or the thousandth, let Him hear you whisper, "Forgive us our debts." And let Him answer your prayer as you imagine writing your name on the check.
No more deposits are necessary. So complete was the payment that Jesus used a banking term to proclaim your salvation. "It is finished" (John 19:30)! Perhaps I best slip out now and leave the two of you to talk.
from The Great House of God
Leviticus 14
1-9 God spoke to Moses: “These are the instructions for the infected person at the time of his cleansing. First, bring him to the priest. The priest will take him outside the camp and make an examination; if the infected person has been healed of the serious skin disease, the priest will order two live, clean birds, some cedar wood, scarlet thread, and hyssop to be brought for the one to be cleansed. The priest will order him to kill one of the birds over fresh water in a clay pot. The priest will then take the live bird with the cedar wood, the scarlet thread, and the hyssop and dip them in the blood of the dead bird over fresh water and then sprinkle the person being cleansed from the serious skin disease seven times and pronounce him clean. Finally, he will release the live bird in the open field. The cleansed person, after washing his clothes, shaving off all his hair, and bathing with water, is clean. Afterwards he may again enter the camp, but he has to live outside his tent for seven days. On the seventh day, he must shave off all his hair—from his head, beard, eyebrows, all of it. He then must wash his clothes and bathe all over with water. He will be clean.
10-18 “The next day, the eighth day, he will bring two lambs without defect and a yearling ewe without defect, along with roughly six quarts of fine flour mixed with oil. The priest who pronounces him clean will place him and the materials for his offerings in the presence of God at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. The priest will take one of the lambs and present it and the pint of oil as a Compensation-Offering and lift them up as a Wave-Offering before God. He will slaughter the lamb in the place where the Absolution-Offering and the Whole-Burnt-Offering are slaughtered, in the Holy Place, because like the Absolution-Offering, the Compensation-Offering belongs to the priest; it is most holy. The priest will now take some of the blood of the Compensation-Offering and put it on the right earlobe of the man being cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. Following that he will take some oil and pour it into the palm of his left hand and then with the finger of his right hand sprinkle oil seven times before God. The priest will put some of the remaining oil on the right earlobe of the one being cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, placing it on top of the blood of the Compensation-Offering. He will put the rest of the oil on the head of the man being cleansed and make atonement for him before God.
19-20 “Finally the priest will sacrifice the Absolution-Offering and make atonement for the one to be cleansed from his uncleanness, slaughter the Whole-Burnt-Offering and offer it with the Grain-Offering on the Altar. He has made atonement for him. He is clean.
21-22 “If he is poor and cannot afford these offerings, he will bring one male lamb as a Compensation-Offering to be offered as a Wave-Offering to make atonement for him, and with it a couple of quarts of fine flour mixed with oil for a Grain-Offering, a pint of oil, and two doves or pigeons which he can afford, one for an Absolution-Offering and the other for a Whole-Burnt-Offering.
23-29 “On the eighth day he will bring them to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting before the presence of God. The priest will take the lamb for the Compensation-Offering together with the pint of oil and wave them before God as a Wave-Offering. He will slaughter the lamb for the Compensation-Offering, take some of its blood and put it on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. The priest will pour some of the oil into the palm of his left hand, and with his right finger sprinkle some of the oil from his palm seven times before God. He will put some of the oil that is in his palm on the same places he put the blood of the Compensation-Offering, on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. The priest will take what is left of the oil in his palm and put it on the head of the one to be cleansed, making atonement for him before God.
30-31 “At the last, he will sacrifice the doves or pigeons which are within his means, one as an Absolution-Offering and the other as a Whole-Burnt-Offering along with the Grain-Offering. Following this procedure the priest will make atonement for the one to be cleansed before God.”
32 These are the instructions to be followed for anyone who has a serious skin disease and cannot afford the regular offerings for his cleansing.
33-42 God spoke to Moses and Aaron: “When you enter the land of Canaan, which I’m giving to you as a possession, and I put a serious fungus in a house in the land of your possession, the householder is to go and tell the priest, ‘I have some kind of fungus in my house.’ The priest is to order the house vacated until he can come to examine the fungus, so that nothing in the house is declared unclean. When the priest comes and examines the house, if the fungus on the walls of the house has greenish or rusty swelling that appears to go deeper than the surface of the wall, the priest is to walk out the door and shut the house up for seven days. On the seventh day he is to come back and conduct another examination; if the fungus has spread in the walls of the house, he is to order that the stones affected by the fungus be torn out and thrown in a garbage dump outside the city. He is to make sure the entire inside of the house is scraped and the plaster that is removed be taken away to the garbage dump outside the city. Then he is to replace the stones and replaster the house.
43-47 “If the fungus breaks out again in the house after the stones have been torn out and the house has been scraped and plastered, the priest is to come and conduct an examination; if the fungus has spread, it is a malignant fungus. The house is unclean. The house has to be demolished—its stones, wood, and plaster are to be removed to the garbage dump outside the city. Anyone who enters the house while it is closed up is unclean until evening. Anyone who sleeps or eats in the house must wash his clothes.
48-53 “But if when the priest comes and conducts his examination, he finds that the fungus has not spread after the house has been replastered, the priest is to declare that the house is clean; the fungus is cured. He then is to purify the house by taking two birds, some cedar wood, scarlet thread, and hyssop. He will slaughter one bird over fresh water in a clay pot. Then he will take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the scarlet thread, and the living bird, dip them in the blood of the killed bird and the fresh water and sprinkle the house seven times, cleansing the house with the blood of the bird, the fresh water, the living bird, the cedar wood, the hyssop, and the scarlet thread. Last of all, he will let the living bird loose outside the city in the open field. He has made atonement for the house; the house is clean.
54-57 “These are the procedures to be followed for every kind of serious skin disease or itch, for mildew or fungus on clothing or in a house, and for a swelling or blister or shiny spot in order to determine when it is unclean and when it is clean. These are the procedures regarding infectious skin diseases and mildew and fungus.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, April 14, 2018
Read: Mark 4:35–41
Jesus Calms the Storm
35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”
39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
INSIGHT
The end of Mark 4 poses an interesting question that each of us must answer: Who is this man? The disciples asked this question after Christ spoke to the wind and the waves and they obeyed Him. Though we may think this was merely a response of astonishment at what Jesus had just accomplished, Mark wants us to take the question seriously because he wants to present the answer.
Immediately following the disciples’ question, Mark recounts three stories that are meant to fill in the answer. After the miracle of calming the storm, Jesus casts demons out of a possessed man (5:1–20), heals a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years (vv. 21–34), and raises a girl from the dead (vv. 35–43).
Who is Jesus? He is God in the flesh, the one with power over nature, the spirit world, our bodies, and power over death itself. There is nothing we face that is beyond His ability to command.
What storm do you face today? Turn to Him knowing who He is and what His power can do. - J.R. Hudberg
Into Our Storms
By Adam Holz
He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. Mark 4:39
Wind howled, lightning flashed, waves crashed. I thought I was going to die. My grandparents and I were fishing on a lake, but we’d stayed out too long. As the sun set, a fast-moving squall swept over our small boat. My grandfather instructed me to sit in front to keep it from capsizing. Terror flooded my heart. But then, somehow, I began to pray. I was fourteen.
I asked God for His reassurance and protection. The storm didn’t weaken, but we made it to shore. To this day, I don’t know if I’ve experienced a deeper certainty of God’s presence than that night in the storm.
What storm do you face today? Turn to Him knowing who He is and what His power can do.
Jesus is no stranger to storms. In Mark 4:35–41, He told His disciples to head across a lake that would soon turn windy and wild. The storm that night tested and bested these rugged fishermen. They too thought they were going to die. But Jesus calmed the water and then led His disciples to deeper faith.
Likewise, Jesus invites us to trust Him in our storms. Sometimes He miraculously stills the winds and the waves. Sometimes He does something equally miraculous: He steadies our hearts and helps us to trust Him. He asks us to rest in the belief that He has the power to say to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!”
Lord, the storms of our lives sometimes seem like they will swamp us. Help us trust that You are the Master of the storm, to place our faith in You when life’s winds blow fiercely.
No danger can come so near that God is not nearer still.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, April 14, 2018
Inner Invincibility
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me… —Matthew 11:29
“Whom the Lord loves He chastens…” (Hebrews 12:6). How petty our complaining is! Our Lord begins to bring us to the point where we can have fellowship with Him, only to hear us moan and groan, saying, “Oh Lord, just let me be like other people!” Jesus is asking us to get beside Him and take one end of the yoke, so that we can pull together. That’s why Jesus says to us, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). Are you closely identified with the Lord Jesus like that? If so, you will thank God when you feel the pressure of His hand upon you.
“…to those who have no might He increases strength” (Isaiah 40:29). God comes and takes us out of our emotionalism, and then our complaining turns into a hymn of praise. The only way to know the strength of God is to take the yoke of Jesus upon us and to learn from Him.
“…the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). Where do the saints get their joy? If we did not know some Christians well, we might think from just observing them that they have no burdens at all to bear. But we must lift the veil from our eyes. The fact that the peace, light, and joy of God is in them is proof that a burden is there as well. The burden that God places on us squeezes the grapes in our lives and produces the wine, but most of us see only the wine and not the burden. No power on earth or in hell can conquer the Spirit of God living within the human spirit; it creates an inner invincibility.
If your life is producing only a whine, instead of the wine, then ruthlessly kick it out. It is definitely a crime for a Christian to be weak in God’s strength.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We can understand the attributes of God in other ways, but we can only understand the Father’s heart in the Cross of Christ. The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption, 558 L
Friday, April 13, 2018
Mark 7:14-37, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: LET HIM FIX IT - April 13, 2018
I’m sure you’ve had an appliance you may have tried to fix, but with no success. So you took it to the specialist. You explained the problem and then…offered to stay and help fix it? or hovered at the workbench asking questions about the progress? How about threw a sleeping bag on the floor so you could watch the repairman at work? If you did any of these things, you don’t understand the relationship between client and repairman. The arrangement is uncomplicated. Leave it with him to fix it!
Our protocol with God is equally simple. Leave your problem with him. God doesn’t need our help, counsel, or assistance. Please repeat this phrase: I hereby resign as ruler of the universe. When God is ready for us to re-engage, he will let us know. Until then, replace anxious thoughts with grateful ones. God takes thanksgiving seriously!
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Mark 7:14-37
14-15 Jesus called the crowd together again and said, “Listen now, all of you—take this to heart. It’s not what you swallow that pollutes your life; it’s what you vomit—that’s the real pollution.”
17 When he was back home after being with the crowd, his disciples said, “We don’t get it. Put it in plain language.”
18-19 Jesus said, “Are you being willfully stupid? Don’t you see that what you swallow can’t contaminate you? It doesn’t enter your heart but your stomach, works its way through the intestines, and is finally flushed.” (That took care of dietary quibbling; Jesus was saying that all foods are fit to eat.)
20-23 He went on: “It’s what comes out of a person that pollutes: obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness—all these are vomit from the heart. There is the source of your pollution.”
24-26 From there Jesus set out for the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house there where he didn’t think he would be found, but he couldn’t escape notice. He was barely inside when a woman who had a disturbed daughter heard where he was. She came and knelt at his feet, begging for help. The woman was Greek, Syro-Phoenician by birth. She asked him to cure her daughter.
27 He said, “Stand in line and take your turn. The children get fed first. If there’s any left over, the dogs get it.”
28 She said, “Of course, Master. But don’t dogs under the table get scraps dropped by the children?”
29-30 Jesus was impressed. “You’re right! On your way! Your daughter is no longer disturbed. The demonic affliction is gone.” She went home and found her daughter relaxed on the bed, the torment gone for good.
31-35 Then he left the region of Tyre, went through Sidon back to Galilee Lake and over to the district of the Ten Towns. Some people brought a man who could neither hear nor speak and asked Jesus to lay a healing hand on him. He took the man off by himself, put his fingers in the man’s ears and some spit on the man’s tongue. Then Jesus looked up in prayer, groaned mightily, and commanded, “Ephphatha!—Open up!” And it happened. The man’s hearing was clear and his speech plain—just like that.
36-37 Jesus urged them to keep it quiet, but they talked it up all the more, beside themselves with excitement. “He’s done it all and done it well. He gives hearing to the deaf, speech to the speechless.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, April 13, 2018
Read: 1 Corinthians 12:14–26
Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
INSIGHT
Paul often uses the metaphor of the body to represent the church (see Romans 12:3–5; Ephesians 1:22–23; 4:12–13; Colossians 1:18; 2:19). In today’s passage he makes the observation that we’re not only to share each other’s pain but also to rejoice in the blessings other believers receive. Surprisingly we may find that more difficult.
Do you find it easier to share in others’ pain or in their joy? - Tim Gustafson
When One Hurts, All Hurt
By Linda Washington
If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 1 Corinthians 12:26
When a coworker called in sick due to extreme pain, everyone at the office was concerned. After a trip to the hospital and a day of bed rest, he returned to work and showed us the source of that pain—a kidney stone. He’d asked his doctor to give him the stone as a souvenir. Looking at that stone, I winced in sympathy, remembering the gallstone I had passed years ago. The pain had been excruciating.
Isn’t it interesting that something so small can cause a whole body so much agony? But in a way, that’s what the apostle Paul alludes to in 1 Corinthians 12:26: “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it.” Throughout chapter 12, Paul used the metaphor of a body to describe Christians around the world. When Paul said, “God has put the body together” (v. 24), he was referring to the entire body of Christ—all Christians. We all have different gifts and roles. But since we’re all part of the same body, if one person hurts, we all hurt. When a fellow Christian faces persecution, grief, or trials, we hurt as if we’re experiencing that pain.
If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 1 Corint
My coworker’s pain drove him to get the help his body needed. In the body of Christ, someone’s pain ignites our compassion and moves us toward action. We might pray, offer a word of encouragement, or do whatever it takes to aid the healing process. That’s how the body works together.
Lord, please give peace to those who are persecuted or in pain. Your family is my family too.
We’re in this together.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, April 13, 2018
What To Do When Your Burden Is Overwhelming
Cast your burden on the Lord… —Psalm 55:22
We must recognize the difference between burdens that are right for us to bear and burdens that are wrong. We should never bear the burdens of sin or doubt, but there are some burdens placed on us by God which He does not intend to lift off. God wants us to roll them back on Him— to literally “cast your burden,” which He has given you, “on the Lord….” If we set out to serve God and do His work but get out of touch with Him, the sense of responsibility we feel will be overwhelming and defeating. But if we will only roll back on God the burdens He has placed on us, He will take away that immense feeling of responsibility, replacing it with an awareness and understanding of Himself and His presence.
Many servants set out to serve God with great courage and with the right motives. But with no intimate fellowship with Jesus Christ, they are soon defeated. They do not know what to do with their burden, and it produces weariness in their lives. Others will see this and say, “What a sad end to something that had such a great beginning!”
“Cast your burden on the Lord….” You have been bearing it all, but you need to deliberately place one end on God’s shoulder. “…the government will be upon His shoulder” (Isaiah 9:6). Commit to God whatever burden He has placed on you. Don’t just cast it aside, but put it over onto Him and place yourself there with it. You will see that your burden is then lightened by the sense of companionship. But you should never try to separate yourself from your burden.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The measure of the worth of our public activity for God is the private profound communion we have with Him.… We have to pitch our tents where we shall always have quiet times with God, however noisy our times with the world may be. My Utmost for His Highest, January 6, 736 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, April 13, 2018
Making Sure It's Real - #8155
I was in a convenience store one night when an alert clerk made an important discovery. Someone had just handed her a bill, and she did what she was trained to do: she held it up to the light. She got this furrow in her brow and she reached for a special pen. When she marked the bill, the mark was black. When she marked another bill of the same denomination, it turned out yellow. The clerk turned to her coworker with the black-marked bill in her hand and said one word - I'll bet you guessed it - "counterfeit." Apparently, the man who gave it to her didn't realize it was counterfeit. But, looking at the bills side by side, there was no way I could tell one was counterfeit. But the light revealed that something was missing from that counterfeit that actually was printed into the real ones, and the pen confirmed it. I want to tell you, though, if you don't know how to detect the difference, the counterfeit and the real thing look the same...except one is worth absolutely nothing.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Making Sure It's Real."
Counterfeits are hard to detect - counterfeit money...even counterfeit Christians - people who look just like someone who really belongs to Jesus. They sound just like them, they act just like them, pretty much believe like them, but something's missing. Actually, someone is missing - Jesus. And that's the difference between an eternity in heaven and an eternity in hell.
That's the point of one of the most disturbing stories Jesus ever told, especially to us good church folk. It's in Matthew 13, beginning with verse 24. It's our word for today from the Word of God. Jesus says, "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field...His enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared." When the man's servants ask about the weeds, he explains that an enemy sowed them. They offer to go and pull up the weeds, but the master says, "No, because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvester: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn."
Later, Jesus explained that the wheat represents those who really belong to Him; the weeds are those who look like they do but don't really. And the harvest is that Judgment Day when those who were just Christian look-a-likes will go to an awful eternity and those who really knew Him will go to be with Him in heaven forever. This is sobering stuff. That's why 2 Corinthians 13:5 says, "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you - unless, of course, you fail the test?" It's important that you hold your Christianity up to the light before that day when it's too late to do it. The light may reveal that in the middle of all your Christianity, you've actually missed Christ. You've missed giving your life to Him.
You know that His death on the cross was to pay for all your sin. You know that His resurrection is the hope of your eternal life. You may have Jesus in your head, but maybe not in your heart. If there's been a time when you consciously grabbed Jesus as your only hope of being forgiven and going to heaven, then you do belong to Him. But if you don't know you did, you probably didn't, and you really need to before time runs out or your heart just turns too hard to respond.
Today, if you never have, please tell Jesus, "Lord, I know so much about You but I don't think I know You. I want to know you for real beginning right here and right now. I surrender the steering wheel of my life and I'm pinning all my hopes on you."
This could be your "Jesus day," finally the real thing. That's why you should go to our website. There are verses there, there are ways you can be sure you belong to Jesus before you hit the pillow tonight. The website is ANewStory.com. And it will be a new story for you.
See, you're so, so close to the real thing - to really belonging to the one who loves you most. Tonight, why don't you go to sleep knowing that you are His.
I’m sure you’ve had an appliance you may have tried to fix, but with no success. So you took it to the specialist. You explained the problem and then…offered to stay and help fix it? or hovered at the workbench asking questions about the progress? How about threw a sleeping bag on the floor so you could watch the repairman at work? If you did any of these things, you don’t understand the relationship between client and repairman. The arrangement is uncomplicated. Leave it with him to fix it!
Our protocol with God is equally simple. Leave your problem with him. God doesn’t need our help, counsel, or assistance. Please repeat this phrase: I hereby resign as ruler of the universe. When God is ready for us to re-engage, he will let us know. Until then, replace anxious thoughts with grateful ones. God takes thanksgiving seriously!
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Mark 7:14-37
14-15 Jesus called the crowd together again and said, “Listen now, all of you—take this to heart. It’s not what you swallow that pollutes your life; it’s what you vomit—that’s the real pollution.”
17 When he was back home after being with the crowd, his disciples said, “We don’t get it. Put it in plain language.”
18-19 Jesus said, “Are you being willfully stupid? Don’t you see that what you swallow can’t contaminate you? It doesn’t enter your heart but your stomach, works its way through the intestines, and is finally flushed.” (That took care of dietary quibbling; Jesus was saying that all foods are fit to eat.)
20-23 He went on: “It’s what comes out of a person that pollutes: obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness—all these are vomit from the heart. There is the source of your pollution.”
24-26 From there Jesus set out for the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house there where he didn’t think he would be found, but he couldn’t escape notice. He was barely inside when a woman who had a disturbed daughter heard where he was. She came and knelt at his feet, begging for help. The woman was Greek, Syro-Phoenician by birth. She asked him to cure her daughter.
27 He said, “Stand in line and take your turn. The children get fed first. If there’s any left over, the dogs get it.”
28 She said, “Of course, Master. But don’t dogs under the table get scraps dropped by the children?”
29-30 Jesus was impressed. “You’re right! On your way! Your daughter is no longer disturbed. The demonic affliction is gone.” She went home and found her daughter relaxed on the bed, the torment gone for good.
31-35 Then he left the region of Tyre, went through Sidon back to Galilee Lake and over to the district of the Ten Towns. Some people brought a man who could neither hear nor speak and asked Jesus to lay a healing hand on him. He took the man off by himself, put his fingers in the man’s ears and some spit on the man’s tongue. Then Jesus looked up in prayer, groaned mightily, and commanded, “Ephphatha!—Open up!” And it happened. The man’s hearing was clear and his speech plain—just like that.
36-37 Jesus urged them to keep it quiet, but they talked it up all the more, beside themselves with excitement. “He’s done it all and done it well. He gives hearing to the deaf, speech to the speechless.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, April 13, 2018
Read: 1 Corinthians 12:14–26
Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
INSIGHT
Paul often uses the metaphor of the body to represent the church (see Romans 12:3–5; Ephesians 1:22–23; 4:12–13; Colossians 1:18; 2:19). In today’s passage he makes the observation that we’re not only to share each other’s pain but also to rejoice in the blessings other believers receive. Surprisingly we may find that more difficult.
Do you find it easier to share in others’ pain or in their joy? - Tim Gustafson
When One Hurts, All Hurt
By Linda Washington
If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 1 Corinthians 12:26
When a coworker called in sick due to extreme pain, everyone at the office was concerned. After a trip to the hospital and a day of bed rest, he returned to work and showed us the source of that pain—a kidney stone. He’d asked his doctor to give him the stone as a souvenir. Looking at that stone, I winced in sympathy, remembering the gallstone I had passed years ago. The pain had been excruciating.
Isn’t it interesting that something so small can cause a whole body so much agony? But in a way, that’s what the apostle Paul alludes to in 1 Corinthians 12:26: “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it.” Throughout chapter 12, Paul used the metaphor of a body to describe Christians around the world. When Paul said, “God has put the body together” (v. 24), he was referring to the entire body of Christ—all Christians. We all have different gifts and roles. But since we’re all part of the same body, if one person hurts, we all hurt. When a fellow Christian faces persecution, grief, or trials, we hurt as if we’re experiencing that pain.
If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 1 Corint
My coworker’s pain drove him to get the help his body needed. In the body of Christ, someone’s pain ignites our compassion and moves us toward action. We might pray, offer a word of encouragement, or do whatever it takes to aid the healing process. That’s how the body works together.
Lord, please give peace to those who are persecuted or in pain. Your family is my family too.
We’re in this together.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, April 13, 2018
What To Do When Your Burden Is Overwhelming
Cast your burden on the Lord… —Psalm 55:22
We must recognize the difference between burdens that are right for us to bear and burdens that are wrong. We should never bear the burdens of sin or doubt, but there are some burdens placed on us by God which He does not intend to lift off. God wants us to roll them back on Him— to literally “cast your burden,” which He has given you, “on the Lord….” If we set out to serve God and do His work but get out of touch with Him, the sense of responsibility we feel will be overwhelming and defeating. But if we will only roll back on God the burdens He has placed on us, He will take away that immense feeling of responsibility, replacing it with an awareness and understanding of Himself and His presence.
Many servants set out to serve God with great courage and with the right motives. But with no intimate fellowship with Jesus Christ, they are soon defeated. They do not know what to do with their burden, and it produces weariness in their lives. Others will see this and say, “What a sad end to something that had such a great beginning!”
“Cast your burden on the Lord….” You have been bearing it all, but you need to deliberately place one end on God’s shoulder. “…the government will be upon His shoulder” (Isaiah 9:6). Commit to God whatever burden He has placed on you. Don’t just cast it aside, but put it over onto Him and place yourself there with it. You will see that your burden is then lightened by the sense of companionship. But you should never try to separate yourself from your burden.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The measure of the worth of our public activity for God is the private profound communion we have with Him.… We have to pitch our tents where we shall always have quiet times with God, however noisy our times with the world may be. My Utmost for His Highest, January 6, 736 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, April 13, 2018
Making Sure It's Real - #8155
I was in a convenience store one night when an alert clerk made an important discovery. Someone had just handed her a bill, and she did what she was trained to do: she held it up to the light. She got this furrow in her brow and she reached for a special pen. When she marked the bill, the mark was black. When she marked another bill of the same denomination, it turned out yellow. The clerk turned to her coworker with the black-marked bill in her hand and said one word - I'll bet you guessed it - "counterfeit." Apparently, the man who gave it to her didn't realize it was counterfeit. But, looking at the bills side by side, there was no way I could tell one was counterfeit. But the light revealed that something was missing from that counterfeit that actually was printed into the real ones, and the pen confirmed it. I want to tell you, though, if you don't know how to detect the difference, the counterfeit and the real thing look the same...except one is worth absolutely nothing.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Making Sure It's Real."
Counterfeits are hard to detect - counterfeit money...even counterfeit Christians - people who look just like someone who really belongs to Jesus. They sound just like them, they act just like them, pretty much believe like them, but something's missing. Actually, someone is missing - Jesus. And that's the difference between an eternity in heaven and an eternity in hell.
That's the point of one of the most disturbing stories Jesus ever told, especially to us good church folk. It's in Matthew 13, beginning with verse 24. It's our word for today from the Word of God. Jesus says, "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field...His enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared." When the man's servants ask about the weeds, he explains that an enemy sowed them. They offer to go and pull up the weeds, but the master says, "No, because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvester: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn."
Later, Jesus explained that the wheat represents those who really belong to Him; the weeds are those who look like they do but don't really. And the harvest is that Judgment Day when those who were just Christian look-a-likes will go to an awful eternity and those who really knew Him will go to be with Him in heaven forever. This is sobering stuff. That's why 2 Corinthians 13:5 says, "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you - unless, of course, you fail the test?" It's important that you hold your Christianity up to the light before that day when it's too late to do it. The light may reveal that in the middle of all your Christianity, you've actually missed Christ. You've missed giving your life to Him.
You know that His death on the cross was to pay for all your sin. You know that His resurrection is the hope of your eternal life. You may have Jesus in your head, but maybe not in your heart. If there's been a time when you consciously grabbed Jesus as your only hope of being forgiven and going to heaven, then you do belong to Him. But if you don't know you did, you probably didn't, and you really need to before time runs out or your heart just turns too hard to respond.
Today, if you never have, please tell Jesus, "Lord, I know so much about You but I don't think I know You. I want to know you for real beginning right here and right now. I surrender the steering wheel of my life and I'm pinning all my hopes on you."
This could be your "Jesus day," finally the real thing. That's why you should go to our website. There are verses there, there are ways you can be sure you belong to Jesus before you hit the pillow tonight. The website is ANewStory.com. And it will be a new story for you.
See, you're so, so close to the real thing - to really belonging to the one who loves you most. Tonight, why don't you go to sleep knowing that you are His.
Thursday, April 12, 2018
Leviticus 13, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: HE LISTENS - April 12, 2018
Is God sovereign over your circumstances? Is he mightier than your problem? Does he have answers to your questions? The Bible says yes, yes, and yes! “God is the blessed controller of all things, the king over all kings and the master of all masters” (1 Timothy 6:15 Phillips).
Rejoice in the Lord. This is step one. Don’t hurry past it. Face God before you face your problem. Then you will be ready to “let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6).
Fear triggers either despair or prayer. Choose wisely. Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). There’s no uncertainty in that promise. Jesus states unflinchingly that when you ask, he listens. So ask!
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Leviticus 13
Infections
1-3 God spoke to Moses and Aaron: “When someone has a swelling or a blister or a shiny spot on the skin that might signal a serious skin disease on the body, bring him to Aaron the priest or to one of his priest sons. The priest will examine the sore on the skin. If the hair in the sore has turned white and the sore appears more than skin deep, it is a serious skin disease and infectious. After the priest has examined it, he will pronounce the person unclean.
4-8 “If the shiny spot on the skin is white but appears to be only on the surface and the hair has not turned white, the priest will quarantine the person for seven days. On the seventh day the priest will examine it again; if, in his judgment, the sore is the same and has not spread, the priest will keep him in quarantine for another seven days. On the seventh day the priest will examine him a second time; if the sore has faded and hasn’t spread, the priest will declare him clean—it is a harmless rash. The person can go home and wash his clothes; he is clean. But if the sore spreads after he has shown himself to the priest and been declared clean, he must come back again to the priest who will conduct another examination. If the sore has spread, the priest will pronounce him unclean—it is a serious skin disease and infectious.
9-17 “Whenever someone has a serious and infectious skin disease, you must bring him to the priest. The priest will examine him; if there is a white swelling in the skin, the hair is turning white, and there is an open sore in the swelling, it is a chronic skin disease. The priest will pronounce him unclean. But he doesn’t need to quarantine him because he’s already given his diagnosis of unclean. If a serious disease breaks out that covers all the skin from head to foot, wherever the priest looks, the priest will make a thorough examination; if the disease covers his entire body, he will pronounce the person with the sore clean—since it has turned all white, he is clean. But if they are open, running sores, he is unclean. The priest will examine the open sores and pronounce him unclean. The open sores are unclean; they are evidence of a serious skin disease. But if the open sores dry up and turn white, he is to come back to the priest who will reexamine him; if the sores have turned white, the priest will pronounce the person with the sores clean. He is clean.
18-23 “When a person has a boil and it heals and in place of the boil there is white swelling or a reddish-white shiny spot, the person must present himself to the priest for an examination. If it looks like it has penetrated the skin and the hair in it has turned white, the priest will pronounce him unclean. It is a serious skin disease that has broken out in the boil. But if the examination shows that there is no white hair in it and it is only skin deep and has faded, the priest will put him in quarantine for seven days. If it then spreads over the skin, the priest will diagnose him as unclean. It is infectious. But if the shiny spot has not changed and hasn’t spread, it’s only a scar from the boil. The priest will pronounce him clean.
24-28 “When a person has a burn on his skin and the raw flesh turns into a reddish-white or white shiny spot, the priest is to examine it. If the hair has turned white in the shiny spot and it looks like it’s more than skin deep, a serious skin disease has erupted in the area of the burn. The priest will pronounce him unclean; it is a serious skin disease and infectious. But if on examination there is no white hair in the shiny spot and it doesn’t look to be more than skin deep but has faded, the priest will put him in quarantine for seven days. On the seventh day the priest will reexamine him. If by then it has spread over the skin, the priest will diagnose him as unclean; it is a serious skin disease and infectious. If by that time the shiny spot has stayed the same and has not spread but has faded, it is only a swelling from the burn. The priest will pronounce him clean; it’s only a scar from the burn.
29-37 “If a man or woman develops a sore on the head or chin, the priest will offer a diagnosis. If it looks as if it is under the skin and the hair in it is yellow and thin, he will pronounce the person ritually unclean. It is an itch, an infectious skin disease. But if when he examines the itch, he finds it is only skin deep and there is no black hair in it, he will put the person in quarantine for seven days. On the seventh day he will reexamine the sore; if the itch has not spread, there is no yellow hair in it, and it looks as if the itch is only skin deep, the person must shave, except for the itch; the priest will send him back to quarantine for another seven days. If the itch has not spread, and looks to be only skin deep, the priest will pronounce him clean. The person can go home and wash his clothes; he is clean. But if the itch spreads after being pronounced clean, the priest must reexamine it; if the itch has spread in the skin, he doesn’t have to look any farther, for yellow hair, for instance; he is unclean. But if he sees that the itch is unchanged and black hair has begun to grow in it, the itch is healed. The person is clean and the priest will pronounce him clean.
38-39 “When a man or woman gets shiny or white shiny spots on the skin, the priest is to make an examination; if the shiny spots are dull white, it is only a rash that has broken out: The person is clean.
40-44 “When a man loses his hair and goes bald, he is clean. If he loses his hair from his forehead, he is bald and he is clean. But if he has a reddish-white sore on scalp or forehead, it means a serious skin disease is breaking out. The priest is to examine it; if the swollen sore on his scalp or forehead is reddish-white like the appearance of the sore of a serious skin disease, he has a serious skin disease and is unclean. The priest has to pronounce him unclean because of the sore on his head.
45-46 “Any person with a serious skin disease must wear torn clothes, leave his hair loose and unbrushed, cover his upper lip, and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ As long as anyone has the sores, that one continues to be ritually unclean. That person must live alone; he or she must live outside the camp.
47-58 “If clothing—woolen or linen clothing, woven or knitted cloth of linen or wool, leather or leatherwork—is infected with a patch of serious fungus and if the spot in the clothing or the leather or the woven or the knitted material or anything made of leather is greenish or rusty, that is a sign of serious fungus. Show it to the priest. The priest will examine the spot and then confiscate the material for seven days. On the seventh day he will reexamine the spot. If it has spread in the garment—the woven or knitted or leather material—it is the spot of a persistent serious fungus and the material is unclean. He must burn the garment. Because of the persistent and contaminating fungus, the material must be burned. But if when the priest examines it the spot has not spread in the garment, the priest will command the owner to wash the material that has the spot, and he will confiscate it for another seven days. He’ll then make another examination after it has been washed; if the spot hasn’t changed in appearance, even though it hasn’t spread, it is still unclean. Burn it up, whether the fungus has affected the back or the front. If, when the priest makes his examination, the spot has faded after it has been washed, he is to tear the spot from the garment. But if it reappears, it is a fresh outbreak—throw whatever has the spot in the fire. If the garment is washed and the spot has gone away, then wash it a second time; it is clean.
59 “These are the instructions regarding a spot of serious fungus in clothing of wool or linen, woven or knitted material, or any article of leather, for pronouncing them clean or unclean.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, April 12, 2018
Read: 1 Thessalonians 1:1–3
Paul, Silas[a] and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
Grace and peace to you.
Thanksgiving for the Thessalonians’ Faith
2 We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. 3 We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Footnotes:
1 Thessalonians 1:1 Greek Silvanus, a variant of Silas
INSIGHT
The Thessalonian church was a “model” church known for her “faith in God” (1 Thessalonians 1:7–8). The church was commended for her “faithful work, [her] loving deeds, and . . . enduring hope” (v. 3 nlt). This trilogy of faith, love, and hope is a mark of spiritual growth and maturity. The work God has called us to do is characterized by our love for God and our neighbor (Luke 10:27). To love is hard work, for it is something we have to learn to do. And we “have been taught by God to love each other” (1 Thessalonians 4:9). Paul aptly calls it a “labor of love” (1:3 esv, emphasis added). Highlighting Christ’s second coming at the end of each chapter (1:10; 2:19; 3:13; 4:15; 5:23), Paul speaks of our “endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (1:3). Speaking of this trilogy of “faith, love, and hope” elsewhere, Paul says, “Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13 nlt).
Is your life characterized by faithful work, loving deeds, and enduring hope? - K. T. Sim
Faith, Love, and Hope
By Lisa Samra
We always thank God for all of you. 1 Thessalonians 1:2
For ten years, my Aunt Kathy cared for her father (my grandfather) in her home. She cooked and cleaned for him when he was independent, and then took on the role of nurse when his health declined.
Her service is one modern example of the words of Paul who wrote to the Thessalonians that he thanked God for “your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 1:3).
Be encouraged as you do the work God has called you to do.
My aunt served in faith and love. Her daily, consistent care was the result of her belief that God called her to this important work. Her labor was borne out of love for God and her father.
She also endured in hope. My grandfather was a very kind man, but it was difficult to watch him decline. She gave up time with family and friends, and limited travel to care for him. She was able to endure because of the hope that God would strengthen her each day, along with the hope of heaven that awaited my grandfather.
Whether it is caring for a relative, helping a neighbor, or volunteering your time, be encouraged as you do the work God has called you to do. Your labor can be a powerful testimony of faith, hope, and love.
Lord, may I this day have eyes to see others’ needs, direction from You on any ways I might help, and the Spirit’s power to obey. May I live out the faith, love, and hope You’ve given to me.
The glory of life is to love, not to be loved; to give, not to get; to serve, not to be served.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, April 12, 2018
Complete and Effective Dominion
Death no longer has dominion over Him.…the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God… —Romans 6:9-11
Co-Eternal Life. Eternal life is the life which Jesus Christ exhibited on the human level. And it is this same life, not simply a copy of it, which is made evident in our mortal flesh when we are born again. Eternal life is not a gift from God; eternal life is the gift of God. The energy and the power which was so very evident in Jesus will be exhibited in us by an act of the absolute sovereign grace of God, once we have made that complete and effective decision about sin.
“You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…” (Acts 1:8)— not power as a gift from the Holy Spirit; the power is the Holy Spirit, not something that He gives us. The life that was in Jesus becomes ours because of His Cross, once we make the decision to be identified with Him. If it is difficult to get right with God, it is because we refuse to make this moral decision about sin. But once we do decide, the full life of God comes in immediately. Jesus came to give us an endless supply of life— “…that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19). Eternal life has nothing to do with time. It is the life which Jesus lived when He was down here, and the only Source of life is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Even the weakest saint can experience the power of the deity of the Son of God, when he is willing to “let go.” But any effort to “hang on” to the least bit of our own power will only diminish the life of Jesus in us. We have to keep letting go, and slowly, but surely, the great full life of God will invade us, penetrating every part. Then Jesus will have complete and effective dominion in us, and people will take notice that we have been with Him.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The great point of Abraham’s faith in God was that he was prepared to do anything for God.
Not Knowing Whither
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, April 12, 2018
Power To Meet The Demands - #8154
There's this one experiment I remember from my grade school science class – no, it was not dissecting a brontosaurus. Our science teacher had this little hand-crank generator wired to a light bulb. And we'd turn that little crank, and it managed to generate just enough juice to light the light bulb. That baby generator was fine for the limited demands of Mr. Light Bulb, but I'd hate to try and run my whole house on it! Bye-bye stove, microwave, refrigerator, computer, lighting, and heat. No way that puny power supply could handle all those demands!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Power To Meet The Demands."
It's amazing how we try to meet the demands of our life with what amounts to a little hand crank generator. We're browning out, we're blacking out, and we're wearing out because we're not plugging into a much bigger power source.
That power is dramatically on display in our word for today from the Word of God in Exodus 17:8. The Bible says, "The Amalekites attacked the Israelites...Moses said to Joshua, 'Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.'"
Well, the battle is joined and "as long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning." So what's the deal with this staff? We learn in verses 15 and 16 that it represents the power and presence of the Lord. The Bible says, "Moses built an altar and called it, 'The Lord is my Banner.' He said, 'for hands were lifted up to the throne of the Lord.'" So Moses standing on that hill, holding high God's power, represents a leader who was interceding with God for his troops. And when he is, they win; when he doesn't, they lose.
In your world, you may very well be that person – or you need to be. For your family, for your group of friends, for the people at work or the people in your church – your #1 responsibility is to hold high the power...to keep the focus on prayer as the way to win your battles. Unfortunately, our tendency is to trust in hand-crank power – the power of planning, committees, money, good ideas, connections, experts, experience, promotion, and politics. But human generators cannot meet all the demands of our complicated lives. We need the kind of voltage that only prayer can generate.
We tend to feel that we're not doing anything really when we pray. You can tell by the way we say, "Well, I guess all we can do is pray." What? All I can do is go to the Throne Room from which billions of galaxies are governed and talk to the One who runs it all? Now, it might have looked as if Moses was doing nothing, but his intercession was determining the outcome of the battle. So will yours.
We're not just talking about some casual, occasional prayer here. This is prayer that is fervent, it is relentless until the battle is won. So are you leading the people around you to make prayer their first resort; to make prayer their primary method of getting things done? Are you modeling a lifestyle that says "prayer is power" to your family? Do you pray with people about issues or do you just talk about them?
As you and those who look to you face the battles ahead, would you be sure you're standing where Moses stood – above the fray, interceding, reminding your troops regularly of where their power comes from: the high voltage of God, unleashed on your situation through the holy generator that we call prayer.
Is God sovereign over your circumstances? Is he mightier than your problem? Does he have answers to your questions? The Bible says yes, yes, and yes! “God is the blessed controller of all things, the king over all kings and the master of all masters” (1 Timothy 6:15 Phillips).
Rejoice in the Lord. This is step one. Don’t hurry past it. Face God before you face your problem. Then you will be ready to “let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6).
Fear triggers either despair or prayer. Choose wisely. Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). There’s no uncertainty in that promise. Jesus states unflinchingly that when you ask, he listens. So ask!
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Leviticus 13
Infections
1-3 God spoke to Moses and Aaron: “When someone has a swelling or a blister or a shiny spot on the skin that might signal a serious skin disease on the body, bring him to Aaron the priest or to one of his priest sons. The priest will examine the sore on the skin. If the hair in the sore has turned white and the sore appears more than skin deep, it is a serious skin disease and infectious. After the priest has examined it, he will pronounce the person unclean.
4-8 “If the shiny spot on the skin is white but appears to be only on the surface and the hair has not turned white, the priest will quarantine the person for seven days. On the seventh day the priest will examine it again; if, in his judgment, the sore is the same and has not spread, the priest will keep him in quarantine for another seven days. On the seventh day the priest will examine him a second time; if the sore has faded and hasn’t spread, the priest will declare him clean—it is a harmless rash. The person can go home and wash his clothes; he is clean. But if the sore spreads after he has shown himself to the priest and been declared clean, he must come back again to the priest who will conduct another examination. If the sore has spread, the priest will pronounce him unclean—it is a serious skin disease and infectious.
9-17 “Whenever someone has a serious and infectious skin disease, you must bring him to the priest. The priest will examine him; if there is a white swelling in the skin, the hair is turning white, and there is an open sore in the swelling, it is a chronic skin disease. The priest will pronounce him unclean. But he doesn’t need to quarantine him because he’s already given his diagnosis of unclean. If a serious disease breaks out that covers all the skin from head to foot, wherever the priest looks, the priest will make a thorough examination; if the disease covers his entire body, he will pronounce the person with the sore clean—since it has turned all white, he is clean. But if they are open, running sores, he is unclean. The priest will examine the open sores and pronounce him unclean. The open sores are unclean; they are evidence of a serious skin disease. But if the open sores dry up and turn white, he is to come back to the priest who will reexamine him; if the sores have turned white, the priest will pronounce the person with the sores clean. He is clean.
18-23 “When a person has a boil and it heals and in place of the boil there is white swelling or a reddish-white shiny spot, the person must present himself to the priest for an examination. If it looks like it has penetrated the skin and the hair in it has turned white, the priest will pronounce him unclean. It is a serious skin disease that has broken out in the boil. But if the examination shows that there is no white hair in it and it is only skin deep and has faded, the priest will put him in quarantine for seven days. If it then spreads over the skin, the priest will diagnose him as unclean. It is infectious. But if the shiny spot has not changed and hasn’t spread, it’s only a scar from the boil. The priest will pronounce him clean.
24-28 “When a person has a burn on his skin and the raw flesh turns into a reddish-white or white shiny spot, the priest is to examine it. If the hair has turned white in the shiny spot and it looks like it’s more than skin deep, a serious skin disease has erupted in the area of the burn. The priest will pronounce him unclean; it is a serious skin disease and infectious. But if on examination there is no white hair in the shiny spot and it doesn’t look to be more than skin deep but has faded, the priest will put him in quarantine for seven days. On the seventh day the priest will reexamine him. If by then it has spread over the skin, the priest will diagnose him as unclean; it is a serious skin disease and infectious. If by that time the shiny spot has stayed the same and has not spread but has faded, it is only a swelling from the burn. The priest will pronounce him clean; it’s only a scar from the burn.
29-37 “If a man or woman develops a sore on the head or chin, the priest will offer a diagnosis. If it looks as if it is under the skin and the hair in it is yellow and thin, he will pronounce the person ritually unclean. It is an itch, an infectious skin disease. But if when he examines the itch, he finds it is only skin deep and there is no black hair in it, he will put the person in quarantine for seven days. On the seventh day he will reexamine the sore; if the itch has not spread, there is no yellow hair in it, and it looks as if the itch is only skin deep, the person must shave, except for the itch; the priest will send him back to quarantine for another seven days. If the itch has not spread, and looks to be only skin deep, the priest will pronounce him clean. The person can go home and wash his clothes; he is clean. But if the itch spreads after being pronounced clean, the priest must reexamine it; if the itch has spread in the skin, he doesn’t have to look any farther, for yellow hair, for instance; he is unclean. But if he sees that the itch is unchanged and black hair has begun to grow in it, the itch is healed. The person is clean and the priest will pronounce him clean.
38-39 “When a man or woman gets shiny or white shiny spots on the skin, the priest is to make an examination; if the shiny spots are dull white, it is only a rash that has broken out: The person is clean.
40-44 “When a man loses his hair and goes bald, he is clean. If he loses his hair from his forehead, he is bald and he is clean. But if he has a reddish-white sore on scalp or forehead, it means a serious skin disease is breaking out. The priest is to examine it; if the swollen sore on his scalp or forehead is reddish-white like the appearance of the sore of a serious skin disease, he has a serious skin disease and is unclean. The priest has to pronounce him unclean because of the sore on his head.
45-46 “Any person with a serious skin disease must wear torn clothes, leave his hair loose and unbrushed, cover his upper lip, and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ As long as anyone has the sores, that one continues to be ritually unclean. That person must live alone; he or she must live outside the camp.
47-58 “If clothing—woolen or linen clothing, woven or knitted cloth of linen or wool, leather or leatherwork—is infected with a patch of serious fungus and if the spot in the clothing or the leather or the woven or the knitted material or anything made of leather is greenish or rusty, that is a sign of serious fungus. Show it to the priest. The priest will examine the spot and then confiscate the material for seven days. On the seventh day he will reexamine the spot. If it has spread in the garment—the woven or knitted or leather material—it is the spot of a persistent serious fungus and the material is unclean. He must burn the garment. Because of the persistent and contaminating fungus, the material must be burned. But if when the priest examines it the spot has not spread in the garment, the priest will command the owner to wash the material that has the spot, and he will confiscate it for another seven days. He’ll then make another examination after it has been washed; if the spot hasn’t changed in appearance, even though it hasn’t spread, it is still unclean. Burn it up, whether the fungus has affected the back or the front. If, when the priest makes his examination, the spot has faded after it has been washed, he is to tear the spot from the garment. But if it reappears, it is a fresh outbreak—throw whatever has the spot in the fire. If the garment is washed and the spot has gone away, then wash it a second time; it is clean.
59 “These are the instructions regarding a spot of serious fungus in clothing of wool or linen, woven or knitted material, or any article of leather, for pronouncing them clean or unclean.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, April 12, 2018
Read: 1 Thessalonians 1:1–3
Paul, Silas[a] and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
Grace and peace to you.
Thanksgiving for the Thessalonians’ Faith
2 We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. 3 We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Footnotes:
1 Thessalonians 1:1 Greek Silvanus, a variant of Silas
INSIGHT
The Thessalonian church was a “model” church known for her “faith in God” (1 Thessalonians 1:7–8). The church was commended for her “faithful work, [her] loving deeds, and . . . enduring hope” (v. 3 nlt). This trilogy of faith, love, and hope is a mark of spiritual growth and maturity. The work God has called us to do is characterized by our love for God and our neighbor (Luke 10:27). To love is hard work, for it is something we have to learn to do. And we “have been taught by God to love each other” (1 Thessalonians 4:9). Paul aptly calls it a “labor of love” (1:3 esv, emphasis added). Highlighting Christ’s second coming at the end of each chapter (1:10; 2:19; 3:13; 4:15; 5:23), Paul speaks of our “endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (1:3). Speaking of this trilogy of “faith, love, and hope” elsewhere, Paul says, “Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13 nlt).
Is your life characterized by faithful work, loving deeds, and enduring hope? - K. T. Sim
Faith, Love, and Hope
By Lisa Samra
We always thank God for all of you. 1 Thessalonians 1:2
For ten years, my Aunt Kathy cared for her father (my grandfather) in her home. She cooked and cleaned for him when he was independent, and then took on the role of nurse when his health declined.
Her service is one modern example of the words of Paul who wrote to the Thessalonians that he thanked God for “your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 1:3).
Be encouraged as you do the work God has called you to do.
My aunt served in faith and love. Her daily, consistent care was the result of her belief that God called her to this important work. Her labor was borne out of love for God and her father.
She also endured in hope. My grandfather was a very kind man, but it was difficult to watch him decline. She gave up time with family and friends, and limited travel to care for him. She was able to endure because of the hope that God would strengthen her each day, along with the hope of heaven that awaited my grandfather.
Whether it is caring for a relative, helping a neighbor, or volunteering your time, be encouraged as you do the work God has called you to do. Your labor can be a powerful testimony of faith, hope, and love.
Lord, may I this day have eyes to see others’ needs, direction from You on any ways I might help, and the Spirit’s power to obey. May I live out the faith, love, and hope You’ve given to me.
The glory of life is to love, not to be loved; to give, not to get; to serve, not to be served.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, April 12, 2018
Complete and Effective Dominion
Death no longer has dominion over Him.…the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God… —Romans 6:9-11
Co-Eternal Life. Eternal life is the life which Jesus Christ exhibited on the human level. And it is this same life, not simply a copy of it, which is made evident in our mortal flesh when we are born again. Eternal life is not a gift from God; eternal life is the gift of God. The energy and the power which was so very evident in Jesus will be exhibited in us by an act of the absolute sovereign grace of God, once we have made that complete and effective decision about sin.
“You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…” (Acts 1:8)— not power as a gift from the Holy Spirit; the power is the Holy Spirit, not something that He gives us. The life that was in Jesus becomes ours because of His Cross, once we make the decision to be identified with Him. If it is difficult to get right with God, it is because we refuse to make this moral decision about sin. But once we do decide, the full life of God comes in immediately. Jesus came to give us an endless supply of life— “…that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19). Eternal life has nothing to do with time. It is the life which Jesus lived when He was down here, and the only Source of life is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Even the weakest saint can experience the power of the deity of the Son of God, when he is willing to “let go.” But any effort to “hang on” to the least bit of our own power will only diminish the life of Jesus in us. We have to keep letting go, and slowly, but surely, the great full life of God will invade us, penetrating every part. Then Jesus will have complete and effective dominion in us, and people will take notice that we have been with Him.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The great point of Abraham’s faith in God was that he was prepared to do anything for God.
Not Knowing Whither
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, April 12, 2018
Power To Meet The Demands - #8154
There's this one experiment I remember from my grade school science class – no, it was not dissecting a brontosaurus. Our science teacher had this little hand-crank generator wired to a light bulb. And we'd turn that little crank, and it managed to generate just enough juice to light the light bulb. That baby generator was fine for the limited demands of Mr. Light Bulb, but I'd hate to try and run my whole house on it! Bye-bye stove, microwave, refrigerator, computer, lighting, and heat. No way that puny power supply could handle all those demands!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Power To Meet The Demands."
It's amazing how we try to meet the demands of our life with what amounts to a little hand crank generator. We're browning out, we're blacking out, and we're wearing out because we're not plugging into a much bigger power source.
That power is dramatically on display in our word for today from the Word of God in Exodus 17:8. The Bible says, "The Amalekites attacked the Israelites...Moses said to Joshua, 'Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.'"
Well, the battle is joined and "as long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning." So what's the deal with this staff? We learn in verses 15 and 16 that it represents the power and presence of the Lord. The Bible says, "Moses built an altar and called it, 'The Lord is my Banner.' He said, 'for hands were lifted up to the throne of the Lord.'" So Moses standing on that hill, holding high God's power, represents a leader who was interceding with God for his troops. And when he is, they win; when he doesn't, they lose.
In your world, you may very well be that person – or you need to be. For your family, for your group of friends, for the people at work or the people in your church – your #1 responsibility is to hold high the power...to keep the focus on prayer as the way to win your battles. Unfortunately, our tendency is to trust in hand-crank power – the power of planning, committees, money, good ideas, connections, experts, experience, promotion, and politics. But human generators cannot meet all the demands of our complicated lives. We need the kind of voltage that only prayer can generate.
We tend to feel that we're not doing anything really when we pray. You can tell by the way we say, "Well, I guess all we can do is pray." What? All I can do is go to the Throne Room from which billions of galaxies are governed and talk to the One who runs it all? Now, it might have looked as if Moses was doing nothing, but his intercession was determining the outcome of the battle. So will yours.
We're not just talking about some casual, occasional prayer here. This is prayer that is fervent, it is relentless until the battle is won. So are you leading the people around you to make prayer their first resort; to make prayer their primary method of getting things done? Are you modeling a lifestyle that says "prayer is power" to your family? Do you pray with people about issues or do you just talk about them?
As you and those who look to you face the battles ahead, would you be sure you're standing where Moses stood – above the fray, interceding, reminding your troops regularly of where their power comes from: the high voltage of God, unleashed on your situation through the holy generator that we call prayer.
Wednesday, April 11, 2018
Leviticus 12, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: SET YOUR EYES ON THE LORD - April 11, 2018
It does no good to obsess yourself with your trouble. The more you do so, the bigger it grows. Begin with God. Celebrate his goodness. “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4).
Turn your attention away from the problem, and for a few minutes celebrate God. The more you look to God, the quicker your problem is reduced to its proper size. Listen to the strategy of the psalmist.
“I will lift up my eyes to the hills—
From whence comes my help?
My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 121:1-2)
Do you see the intentionality in those words? “I will lift up my eyes.” You gain nothing by setting your eyes on the problem. You gain everything by setting your eyes on the Lord. If you’re sinking, it’s because you are looking in the wrong direction!
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Leviticus 12
Childbirth
12 1-5 God spoke to Moses: “Tell the People of Israel, A woman who conceives and gives birth to a boy is ritually unclean for seven days, the same as during her menstruation. On the eighth day circumcise the boy. The mother must stay home another thirty-three days for purification from her bleeding. She may not touch anything consecrated or enter the Sanctuary until the days of her purification are complete. If she gives birth to a girl, she is unclean for fourteen days, the same as during her menstruation. She must stay home for sixty-six days for purification from her bleeding.
6-7 “When the days for her purification for either a boy or a girl are complete, she will bring a yearling lamb for a Whole-Burnt-Offering and a pigeon or dove for an Absolution-Offering to the priest at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. He will offer it to God and make atonement for her. She is then clean from her flow of blood.
“These are the instructions for a woman who gives birth to either a boy or a girl.
8 “If she can’t afford a lamb, she can bring two doves or two pigeons, one for the Whole-Burnt-Offering and one for the Absolution-Offering. The priest will make atonement for her and she will be clean.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, April 11, 2018
Read: Psalm 13
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
1 How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
3 Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
4 and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing the Lord’s praise,
for he has been good to me.
Footnotes:
Psalm 13:1 In Hebrew texts 13:1-6 is numbered 13:2-6
INSIGHT
Scholars disagree on the circumstances that prompted David to write Psalm 13. Some say that David’s enemy was Saul, who continually pursued David, seeking to kill him (v. 2). Others see the enemy as David’s son Absalom who conspired to drive David from the throne and take over as king (2 Samuel 15). Either way, the heartache David feels is real—driving him to God for help. David’s first response to these pressures is to complain about God’s seeming lack of response on his behalf, found in the repeated question “How long?” in Psalm 13:1–2. As David reflects on God’s past expressions of faithful love (v. 5), he finds reason to trust God even in his confusion and doubt. The closing note of praise (v. 6) expresses that trust—and anticipates God’s rescue.
When overwhelmed with the circumstances of life, do you find yourself wondering where God is? As you reflect on God’s faithfulness to you in the past it can remind you that He is worthy of your trust—even when you suffer and don’t know why. - Bill Crowder
How Long?
By Bill Crowder
Read: Psalm 13 | Bible in a Year: 1 Samuel 17–18; Luke 11:1–28
How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? Psalm 13:1
In Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice in Wonderland, Alice asks, “How long is forever?” The White Rabbit responds, “Sometimes, just one second.”
That’s how time felt when my brother David suddenly died. The days leading to his memorial dragged on, intensifying the sense of loss and grief we felt. Every second seemed to last forever.
In our seemingly endless moments of struggle, His unfailing love will carry us.
Another David echoed this sentiment, singing, “How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?” (Psalm 13:1–2). Four times in just two verses he asks God, “How long?” Sometimes the pains of life seem as though they will never end.
Into this heartache steps the presence and care of our heavenly Father. Like King David, we can honestly go to Him with our pain and loss, knowing that He will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). The psalmist discovered this as well, allowing his lament to move from a mournful minor key to a triumphant declaration: “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation” (Psalm 13:5).
In our seemingly endless moments of struggle, His unfailing love will carry us. We can rejoice in His salvation.
For more insight, download the Discovery Series booklet Out of the Ashes: God’s Presence in Job’s Pain at discoveryseries.org/q0735.
In times of pain and loss, the timeless God is our greatest comfort.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, April 11, 2018
Complete and Effective Divinity
If we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection… —Romans 6:5
Co-Resurrection. The proof that I have experienced crucifixion with Jesus is that I have a definite likeness to Him. The Spirit of Jesus entering me rearranges my personal life before God. The resurrection of Jesus has given Him the authority to give the life of God to me, and the experiences of my life must now be built on the foundation of His life. I can have the resurrection life of Jesus here and now, and it will exhibit itself through holiness.
The idea all through the apostle Paul’s writings is that after the decision to be identified with Jesus in His death has been made, the resurrection life of Jesus penetrates every bit of my human nature. It takes the omnipotence of God— His complete and effective divinity— to live the life of the Son of God in human flesh. The Holy Spirit cannot be accepted as a guest in merely one room of the house— He invades all of it. And once I decide that my “old man” (that is, my heredity of sin) should be identified with the death of Jesus, the Holy Spirit invades me. He takes charge of everything. My part is to walk in the light and to obey all that He reveals to me. Once I have made that important decision about sin, it is easy to “reckon” that I am actually “dead indeed to sin,” because I find the life of Jesus in me all the time (Romans 6:11). Just as there is only one kind of humanity, there is only one kind of holiness— the holiness of Jesus. And it is His holiness that has been given to me. God puts the holiness of His Son into me, and I belong to a new spiritual order.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
“When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” We all have faith in good principles, in good management, in good common sense, but who amongst us has faith in Jesus Christ? Physical courage is grand, moral courage is grander, but the man who trusts Jesus Christ in the face of the terrific problems of life is worth a whole crowd of heroes. The Highest Good, 544 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, April 11, 2018
Living Proof - #8153
We were adding onto our little house, and we were getting some help from good old Chuck. He's been a part of adding to our house; actually, he did most of the work. A wonderful Christian brother, skilled builder and handyman. He's like an everyday genius...which I am not. Now the days were pretty long and we'd be leaving the house earlier than Chuck got there and we'd return home after dark. So, I didn't get to see him much. But every day that front porch was noticeably farther along than it was when we left that morning. I actually did get to talk to Chuck on the phone one day, and I told him, in a way, he reminded me of the Lord. He was interested in how that happened. I said, "Well, I don't actually see him, but I see the difference he's made!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Living Proof."
There was a song years ago that said, "People need the Lord." Well, that's people you're around all the time. But they can't physically see Him, of course. They can't realize how real, how loving, and how powerful He is by seeing Him in person. But God's plan for introducing Himself to them is that, much like our friend's building work, they see the difference God makes in you.
In 1 Peter 2:12, our word for today from the Word of God, Peter says, "Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they may accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God..." Here are people who may even be hostile toward you and toward your Lord. But they see such impressive living proof of the Jesus-difference in your everyday life – in what it says here your "good deeds"- that they end up glorifying God!
Jesus made this same point in the Sermon on the Mount when He said, "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:16). There it is again. They can't see your Lord, but they can see your good deeds that are there because He's in you. And that living proof can turn them to Him. Especially in a world that's more skeptical than ever of religious pitches, religious systems, or religious pitchmen.
Notice, God doesn't say they'll be impressed with your arguments or your persuasive words. No, it's going to be your persuasive life. The random acts of kindness, the words of encouragement, your temper under control, the cleaned up mouth, the way you treat and talk about your mate, or your children, or your parents, your unselfishness, or the way you just put others ahead of yourself.
One clarification: You can't just show them the Jesus-difference. You do have to tell them Who is making the difference! Now, look. They can watch you for the next fifty years and say, "Oh, you know, Joe is such a nice guy, I'll bet Jesus died on the cross for my sins." They're not going to figure that out. You have to tell them! So, the business of taking people to heaven with you is actually kind of like first grade...show and tell.
That's why Peter says, right before his statement about them seeing your good deeds, that you are "belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness and into His wonderful light." They need to see it, but then you need to tell them. They'll never guess Jesus died on the cross for them unless you tell them.
Our friend is a carpenter that I may not actually see, but I could see each day the difference he was making. You belong to a carpenter named Jesus, and whether or not the people around you will ever know Him may depend on whether or not they can see in you the difference that Jesus makes!
It does no good to obsess yourself with your trouble. The more you do so, the bigger it grows. Begin with God. Celebrate his goodness. “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4).
Turn your attention away from the problem, and for a few minutes celebrate God. The more you look to God, the quicker your problem is reduced to its proper size. Listen to the strategy of the psalmist.
“I will lift up my eyes to the hills—
From whence comes my help?
My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 121:1-2)
Do you see the intentionality in those words? “I will lift up my eyes.” You gain nothing by setting your eyes on the problem. You gain everything by setting your eyes on the Lord. If you’re sinking, it’s because you are looking in the wrong direction!
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Leviticus 12
Childbirth
12 1-5 God spoke to Moses: “Tell the People of Israel, A woman who conceives and gives birth to a boy is ritually unclean for seven days, the same as during her menstruation. On the eighth day circumcise the boy. The mother must stay home another thirty-three days for purification from her bleeding. She may not touch anything consecrated or enter the Sanctuary until the days of her purification are complete. If she gives birth to a girl, she is unclean for fourteen days, the same as during her menstruation. She must stay home for sixty-six days for purification from her bleeding.
6-7 “When the days for her purification for either a boy or a girl are complete, she will bring a yearling lamb for a Whole-Burnt-Offering and a pigeon or dove for an Absolution-Offering to the priest at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. He will offer it to God and make atonement for her. She is then clean from her flow of blood.
“These are the instructions for a woman who gives birth to either a boy or a girl.
8 “If she can’t afford a lamb, she can bring two doves or two pigeons, one for the Whole-Burnt-Offering and one for the Absolution-Offering. The priest will make atonement for her and she will be clean.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, April 11, 2018
Read: Psalm 13
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
1 How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
3 Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
4 and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing the Lord’s praise,
for he has been good to me.
Footnotes:
Psalm 13:1 In Hebrew texts 13:1-6 is numbered 13:2-6
INSIGHT
Scholars disagree on the circumstances that prompted David to write Psalm 13. Some say that David’s enemy was Saul, who continually pursued David, seeking to kill him (v. 2). Others see the enemy as David’s son Absalom who conspired to drive David from the throne and take over as king (2 Samuel 15). Either way, the heartache David feels is real—driving him to God for help. David’s first response to these pressures is to complain about God’s seeming lack of response on his behalf, found in the repeated question “How long?” in Psalm 13:1–2. As David reflects on God’s past expressions of faithful love (v. 5), he finds reason to trust God even in his confusion and doubt. The closing note of praise (v. 6) expresses that trust—and anticipates God’s rescue.
When overwhelmed with the circumstances of life, do you find yourself wondering where God is? As you reflect on God’s faithfulness to you in the past it can remind you that He is worthy of your trust—even when you suffer and don’t know why. - Bill Crowder
How Long?
By Bill Crowder
Read: Psalm 13 | Bible in a Year: 1 Samuel 17–18; Luke 11:1–28
How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? Psalm 13:1
In Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice in Wonderland, Alice asks, “How long is forever?” The White Rabbit responds, “Sometimes, just one second.”
That’s how time felt when my brother David suddenly died. The days leading to his memorial dragged on, intensifying the sense of loss and grief we felt. Every second seemed to last forever.
In our seemingly endless moments of struggle, His unfailing love will carry us.
Another David echoed this sentiment, singing, “How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?” (Psalm 13:1–2). Four times in just two verses he asks God, “How long?” Sometimes the pains of life seem as though they will never end.
Into this heartache steps the presence and care of our heavenly Father. Like King David, we can honestly go to Him with our pain and loss, knowing that He will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). The psalmist discovered this as well, allowing his lament to move from a mournful minor key to a triumphant declaration: “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation” (Psalm 13:5).
In our seemingly endless moments of struggle, His unfailing love will carry us. We can rejoice in His salvation.
For more insight, download the Discovery Series booklet Out of the Ashes: God’s Presence in Job’s Pain at discoveryseries.org/q0735.
In times of pain and loss, the timeless God is our greatest comfort.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, April 11, 2018
Complete and Effective Divinity
If we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection… —Romans 6:5
Co-Resurrection. The proof that I have experienced crucifixion with Jesus is that I have a definite likeness to Him. The Spirit of Jesus entering me rearranges my personal life before God. The resurrection of Jesus has given Him the authority to give the life of God to me, and the experiences of my life must now be built on the foundation of His life. I can have the resurrection life of Jesus here and now, and it will exhibit itself through holiness.
The idea all through the apostle Paul’s writings is that after the decision to be identified with Jesus in His death has been made, the resurrection life of Jesus penetrates every bit of my human nature. It takes the omnipotence of God— His complete and effective divinity— to live the life of the Son of God in human flesh. The Holy Spirit cannot be accepted as a guest in merely one room of the house— He invades all of it. And once I decide that my “old man” (that is, my heredity of sin) should be identified with the death of Jesus, the Holy Spirit invades me. He takes charge of everything. My part is to walk in the light and to obey all that He reveals to me. Once I have made that important decision about sin, it is easy to “reckon” that I am actually “dead indeed to sin,” because I find the life of Jesus in me all the time (Romans 6:11). Just as there is only one kind of humanity, there is only one kind of holiness— the holiness of Jesus. And it is His holiness that has been given to me. God puts the holiness of His Son into me, and I belong to a new spiritual order.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
“When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” We all have faith in good principles, in good management, in good common sense, but who amongst us has faith in Jesus Christ? Physical courage is grand, moral courage is grander, but the man who trusts Jesus Christ in the face of the terrific problems of life is worth a whole crowd of heroes. The Highest Good, 544 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, April 11, 2018
Living Proof - #8153
We were adding onto our little house, and we were getting some help from good old Chuck. He's been a part of adding to our house; actually, he did most of the work. A wonderful Christian brother, skilled builder and handyman. He's like an everyday genius...which I am not. Now the days were pretty long and we'd be leaving the house earlier than Chuck got there and we'd return home after dark. So, I didn't get to see him much. But every day that front porch was noticeably farther along than it was when we left that morning. I actually did get to talk to Chuck on the phone one day, and I told him, in a way, he reminded me of the Lord. He was interested in how that happened. I said, "Well, I don't actually see him, but I see the difference he's made!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Living Proof."
There was a song years ago that said, "People need the Lord." Well, that's people you're around all the time. But they can't physically see Him, of course. They can't realize how real, how loving, and how powerful He is by seeing Him in person. But God's plan for introducing Himself to them is that, much like our friend's building work, they see the difference God makes in you.
In 1 Peter 2:12, our word for today from the Word of God, Peter says, "Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they may accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God..." Here are people who may even be hostile toward you and toward your Lord. But they see such impressive living proof of the Jesus-difference in your everyday life – in what it says here your "good deeds"- that they end up glorifying God!
Jesus made this same point in the Sermon on the Mount when He said, "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:16). There it is again. They can't see your Lord, but they can see your good deeds that are there because He's in you. And that living proof can turn them to Him. Especially in a world that's more skeptical than ever of religious pitches, religious systems, or religious pitchmen.
Notice, God doesn't say they'll be impressed with your arguments or your persuasive words. No, it's going to be your persuasive life. The random acts of kindness, the words of encouragement, your temper under control, the cleaned up mouth, the way you treat and talk about your mate, or your children, or your parents, your unselfishness, or the way you just put others ahead of yourself.
One clarification: You can't just show them the Jesus-difference. You do have to tell them Who is making the difference! Now, look. They can watch you for the next fifty years and say, "Oh, you know, Joe is such a nice guy, I'll bet Jesus died on the cross for my sins." They're not going to figure that out. You have to tell them! So, the business of taking people to heaven with you is actually kind of like first grade...show and tell.
That's why Peter says, right before his statement about them seeing your good deeds, that you are "belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness and into His wonderful light." They need to see it, but then you need to tell them. They'll never guess Jesus died on the cross for them unless you tell them.
Our friend is a carpenter that I may not actually see, but I could see each day the difference he was making. You belong to a carpenter named Jesus, and whether or not the people around you will ever know Him may depend on whether or not they can see in you the difference that Jesus makes!
Tuesday, April 10, 2018
Leviticus 11, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: BATTLING ANXIETY - April 10, 2018
It’s two-thirty in the morning. Everyone is asleep. Everyone, that is, except you! Thoughts rage through your mind. The green numbers on the clock are the only lights in your room, indeed the only lights in your life. Another hour passes. What a mess!
What does all this anxiety, all this restlessness mean? Simply this– you are a human. It doesn’t mean you’re a failure. It doesn’t mean your parents failed you or vice versa. And, this is important, it doesn’t mean you are not a Christian. Jesus battled anxiety, for heaven’s sake! In the Garden of Gethsemane he prayed three times that he wouldn’t have to drink of the cup (Matthew 26:36-44). He was anxious, but he didn’t stay anxious. He entrusted his fears to his heavenly Father and completed his earthly mission with faith. And he will help us to do likewise!
Read more Anxious for Nothing
Leviticus 11
Foods
1-2 God spoke to Moses and Aaron: “Speak to the People of Israel. Tell them, Of all the animals on Earth, these are the animals that you may eat:
3-8 “You may eat any animal that has a split hoof, divided in two, and that chews the cud, but not an animal that only chews the cud or only has a split hoof. For instance, the camel chews the cud but doesn’t have a split hoof, so it’s unclean. The rock badger chews the cud but doesn’t have a split hoof and so it’s unclean. The rabbit chews the cud but doesn’t have a split hoof so is unclean. The pig has a split hoof, divided in two, but doesn’t chew the cud and so is unclean. You may not eat their meat nor touch their carcasses; they are unclean to you.
9-12 “Among the creatures that live in the water of the seas and streams, you may eat any that have fins and scales. But anything that doesn’t have fins and scales, whether in seas or streams, whether small creatures in the shallows or huge creatures in the deeps, you are to detest. Yes, detest them. Don’t eat their meat; detest their carcasses. Anything living in the water that doesn’t have fins and scales is detestable to you.
13-19 “These are the birds you are to detest. Don’t eat them. They are detestable: eagle, vulture, osprey, kite, all falcons, all ravens, ostrich, nighthawk, sea gull, all hawks, owl, cormorant, ibis, water hen, pelican, Egyptian vulture, stork, all herons, hoopoe, bat.
20-23 “All flying insects that walk on all fours are detestable to you. But you can eat some of these, namely, those that have jointed legs for hopping on the ground: all locusts, katydids, crickets, and grasshoppers. But all the other flying insects that have four legs you are to detest.
24-25 “You will make yourselves ritually unclean until evening if you touch their carcasses. If you pick up one of their carcasses you must wash your clothes and you’ll be unclean until evening.
26 “Every animal that has a split hoof that’s not completely divided, or that doesn’t chew the cud is unclean for you; if you touch the carcass of any of them you become unclean.
27-28 “Every four-footed animal that goes on its paws is unclean for you; if you touch its carcass you are unclean until evening. If you pick up its carcass you must wash your clothes and are unclean until evening. They are unclean for you.
29-38 “Among the creatures that crawl on the ground, the following are unclean for you: weasel, rat, all lizards, gecko, monitor lizard, wall lizard, skink, chameleon. Among the crawling creatures, these are unclean for you. If you touch them when they are dead, you are ritually unclean until evening. When one of them dies and falls on something, that becomes unclean no matter what it’s used for, whether it’s made of wood, cloth, hide, or sackcloth. Put it in the water—it’s unclean until evening, and then it’s clean. If one of these dead creatures falls into a clay pot, everything in the pot is unclean and you must break the pot. Any food that could be eaten but has water on it from such a pot is unclean, and any liquid that could be drunk from it is unclean. Anything that one of these carcasses falls on is unclean—an oven or cooking pot must be broken up; they’re unclean and must be treated as unclean. A spring, though, or a cistern for collecting water remains clean, but if you touch one of these carcasses you’re ritually unclean. If a carcass falls on any seeds that are to be planted, they remain clean. But if water has been put on the seed and a carcass falls on it, you must treat it as unclean.
39-40 “If an animal that you are permitted to eat dies, anyone who touches the carcass is ritually unclean until evening. If you eat some of the carcass you must wash your clothes and you are unclean until evening. If you pick up the carcass you must wash your clothes and are unclean until evening.
41-43 “Creatures that crawl on the ground are detestable and not to be eaten. Don’t eat creatures that crawl on the ground, whether on their belly or on all fours or on many feet—they are detestable. Don’t make yourselves unclean or be defiled by them, because I am your God.
44-45 “Make yourselves holy for I am holy. Don’t make yourselves ritually unclean by any creature that crawls on the ground. I am God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Be holy because I am holy.
46-47 “These are the instructions on animals, birds, fish, and creatures that crawl on the ground. You have to distinguish between the ritually unclean and the clean, between living creatures that can be eaten and those that cannot be eaten.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, April 10, 2018
Read: Mark 9:14–29
Jesus Heals a Boy Possessed by an Impure Spirit
14 When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. 15 As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him.
16 “What are you arguing with them about?” he asked.
17 A man in the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. 18 Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.”
19 “You unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”
20 So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.
21 Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?”
“From childhood,” he answered. 22 “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”
23 “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.”
24 Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
25 When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the impure spirit. “You deaf and mute spirit,” he said, “I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.”
26 The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, “He’s dead.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up.
28 After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”
29 He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer.[a]”
Footnotes:
Mark 9:29 Some manuscripts prayer and fasting
Only by Prayer
By Xochitl Dixon
Everything is possible for one who believes. Mark 9:23
My friend called me late one night during her cancer treatment. Grieved by her uncontrollable sobs, I soon added my own tears and a silent prayer. What am I supposed to do, Lord?
Her wails squeezed my heart. I couldn’t stop her pain, fix her situation, or find one intelligible word of encouragement. But I knew who could help. As I wept with my friend, stumbling through a prayer, I whispered repeatedly, “Jesus. Jesus. Jesus.”
When we call on the name of Jesus, He can enable us to believe and rely on the power of His presence.
Her cries quieted to sniffs and whimpers, until her breathing slowed. Her husband’s voice startled me. “She’s asleep,” he said. “We’ll call tomorrow.”
I hung up, weeping prayers into my pillow.
The apostle Mark shares a story of another person who wanted to help his loved one. A desperate father brought his suffering son to Jesus (Mark 9:17). Doubt clung to his plea, as he reiterated the impossibility of their circumstances (vv. 20–22) and acknowledged his need for Jesus to empower his belief (v. 24). The father and son experienced freedom, hope, and peace when Jesus stepped in and took control (vv. 25–27).
When loved ones are hurting, it’s natural to want to do the right things and say the perfect words. But Christ is the only One who can truly help us. When we call on the name of Jesus, He can enable us to believe and rely on the power of His presence.
Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Oh, how we need You, Jesus.
Share your prayer request and pray for others at YourDailyBread.org.
The name of Jesus is the powerful prayer that leads us into His mighty presence.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, April 10, 2018
Complete and Effective Decision About Sin
…our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. —Romans 6:6
Co-Crucifixion. Have you made the following decision about sin—that it must be completely killed in you? It takes a long time to come to the point of making this complete and effective decision about sin. It is, however, the greatest moment in your life once you decide that sin must die in you– not simply be restrained, suppressed, or counteracted, but crucified— just as Jesus Christ died for the sin of the world. No one can bring anyone else to this decision. We may be mentally and spiritually convinced, but what we need to do is actually make the decision that Paul urged us to do in this passage.
Pull yourself up, take some time alone with God, and make this important decision, saying, “Lord, identify me with Your death until I know that sin is dead in me.” Make the moral decision that sin in you must be put to death.
This was not some divine future expectation on the part of Paul, but was a very radical and definite experience in his life. Are you prepared to let the Spirit of God search you until you know what the level and nature of sin is in your life— to see the very things that struggle against God’s Spirit in you? If so, will you then agree with God’s verdict on the nature of sin— that it should be identified with the death of Jesus? You cannot “reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin” (Romans 6:11) unless you have radically dealt with the issue of your will before God.
Have you entered into the glorious privilege of being crucified with Christ, until all that remains in your flesh and blood is His life? “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me…” (Galatians 2:20).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are not to preach the doing of good things; good deeds are not to be preached, they are to be performed. So Send I You, 1330 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, April 10, 2018
Built to Last - #8152
It's a ghost town now. But in the 1880s, she was one of the boomtowns of California-all because of some silver in the ground. When the price of silver soared, so did their fortunes and so did the population of this little town that we visited not too long ago. But when the price of silver crashed, well, of course, so did the town. Back in some of her better days, a fire hit the town and it burned a lot of it to the ground. The only original buildings still standing there today had one thing in common. In a town that was mostly wood structures, these were the ones that were made of adobe. They've reconstructed some of those wood buildings, but hey, they weren't there long ago because, of course, they couldn't survive the fire.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Built to Last."
That ghost town actually tells a story; what survives is only what is built with something lasting. After we take our last bow, sometimes just with the perspective of passing years even, that's how your life and mine will be. All that will matter is what was really lasting. All that really matters now is what's going to last, and it's tragic how ultimately meaningless much of what we spend ourselves on really is. Maybe God has arranged it for someone to be listening right now who is pouring a lot into goals and to stuff that really don't matter much. He's been trying to get a wakeup call through to you so you could rearrange your priorities to make a far greater difference with the rest of your life than you've made until now.
In 1 Corinthians 3, beginning with verse 11, which is our word for today from the Word of God, He pulls back the curtain and shows us the view from the finish line of our lives. He says, "No one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames." That's a heartbreaking picture. You get to the end of the one life you had, and everything you did with it burns in a fire marked "meaningless." Nothing to show for the one life I lived.
Now is the time to think about how lasting what we're doing and building really is; how eternally valuable it is, because then it's too late. What we read from the Bible makes it clear that the only foundation for a life that matters forever is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. He's the one who died for your sins so you could be forgiven, and He walked out of His grave so you could live forever. If your life seems hollow and unexplainably empty, it may be because Jesus is missing. He's the one you were made by. He's the one you were made for. If you would place your life in His hands today, then today could be the end of the wasted years and the beginning of the greatest years of your life.
And if you belong to Jesus, be sure you are, as Jesus said, "seeking first the Kingdom of God" (Matthew 6:33) and not your own kingdom. A life that survives every fire and matters forever is built this way: by basing every decision you make only on what Jesus says. You make sure that the people in your life are what you put first, not the projects, not the business, not your entertainment, not even a church. The people are what's going to last when everything else has burned. And the most eternal legacy you could leave with your life is to introduce someone else to Jesus Christ. Above all, be sure you have anchored your life, your soul and your eternity to the only One who can take you to heaven, and that's Jesus Christ who died to get you there.
He's actually come to you through this little visit today, because He is ready to come into your life at your invitation. Will you tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm yours." You say, "I want to know how to do that; how to make that work." Go to our website and get this done. It's ANewStory.com.
What a tragedy it would be for a winner here for this blink of an eye to be a loser there for all eternity. Spend what you've got on what lasts. Be sure you belong to Jesus Christ.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)