Max Lucado Daily: STANDING ON GOD’S PROMISES
The promises of God work. They work! Search until you find covenants that address your needs. Clutch them as the precious pearls they are. And when the enemy comes with his lies of doubt and fear, produce the pearl. Satan will be quickly silenced. He has no reply for truth.
Russell Kelso Carter committed himself to believe the promises of God in the Bible. His decision to trust God in the midst of great difficulty gave birth to a hymn that’s still sung today. My favorite stanza says:
“Standing on the promises that cannot fail,
when the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
by the living Word of God I shall prevail,
standing on the promises of God!”
Will you do the same? Build your life on the promises of God. Because God’s promises are unbreakable your hope will be unshakable!
Read more Unshakable Hope
Judges 8
Then the Ephraimites said to Gideon, “Why did you leave us out of this, not calling us when you went to fight Midian?” They were indignant and let him know it.
2-3 But Gideon replied, “What have I done compared to you? Why, even the gleanings of Ephraim are superior to the vintage of Abiezer. God gave you Midian’s commanders, Oreb and Zeeb. What have I done compared with you?”
When they heard this, they calmed down and cooled off.
4-5 Gideon and his three hundred arrived at the Jordan and crossed over. They were bone-tired but still pressing the pursuit. He asked the men of Succoth, “Please, give me some loaves of bread for my troops I have with me. They’re worn out, and I’m hot on the trail of Zebah and Zalmunna, the Midianite kings.”
6 But the leaders in Succoth said, “You’re on a wild goose chase; why should we help you on a fool’s errand?”
7 Gideon said, “If you say so. But when God gives me Zebah and Zalmunna, I’ll give you a thrashing, whip your bare flesh with desert thorns and thistles!”
8-9 He went from there to Peniel and made the same request. The men of Peniel, like the men of Succoth, also refused. Gideon told them, “When I return safe and sound, I’ll demolish this tower.”
10 Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with an army of about fifteen companies, all that was left of the fighting force of the easterners—they had lost 120 companies of soldiers.
11-12 Gideon went up the caravan trail east of Nobah and Jogbehah, found and attacked the undefended camp. Zebah and Zalmunna fled, but he chased and captured the two kings of Midian. The whole camp had panicked.
13-15 Gideon son of Joash returned from the battle by way of the Heres Pass. He captured a young man from Succoth and asked some questions. The young man wrote down the names of the officials and leaders of Succoth, seventy-seven men. Then Gideon went to the men of Succoth and said, “Here are the wild geese, Zebah and Zalmunna, you said I’d never catch. You wouldn’t give so much as a scrap of bread to my worn-out men; you taunted us, saying that we were on a fool’s errand.”
16-17 Then he took the seventy-seven leaders of Succoth and thrashed them with desert thorns and thistles. And he demolished the tower of Peniel and killed the men of the city.
18 He then addressed Zebah and Zalmunna: “Tell me about the men you killed at Tabor.”
“They were men much like you,” they said, “each one like a king’s son.”
19 Gideon said, “They were my brothers, my mother’s sons. As God lives, if you had let them live, I would let you live.”
20 Then he spoke to Jether, his firstborn: “Get up and kill them.” But he couldn’t do it, couldn’t draw his sword. He was afraid—he was still just a boy.
21 Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Do it yourself—if you’re man enough!” And Gideon did it. He stepped up and killed Zebah and Zalmunna. Then he took the crescents that hung on the necks of their camels.
22 The Israelites said, “Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson. You have saved us from Midian’s tyranny.”
23 Gideon said, “I most certainly will not rule over you, nor will my son. God will reign over you.”
24 Then Gideon said, “But I do have one request. Give me, each of you, an earring that you took as plunder.” Ishmaelites wore gold earrings, and the men all had their pockets full of them.
25-26 They said, “Of course. They’re yours!”
They spread out a blanket and each man threw his plundered earrings on it. The gold earrings that Gideon had asked for weighed about forty-three pounds—and that didn’t include the crescents and pendants, the purple robes worn by the Midianite kings, and the ornaments hung around the necks of their camels.
27 Gideon made the gold into a sacred ephod and put it on display in his hometown, Ophrah. All Israel prostituted itself there. Gideon and his family, too, were seduced by it.
28 Midian’s tyranny was broken by the Israelites; nothing more was heard from them. The land was quiet for forty years in Gideon’s time.
29-31 Jerub-Baal son of Joash went home and lived in his house. Gideon had seventy sons. He fathered them all—he had a lot of wives! His concubine, the one at Shechem, also bore him a son. He named him Abimelech.
32 Gideon son of Joash died at a good old age. He was buried in the tomb of his father Joash at Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
Abimelech
33-35 Gideon was hardly cool in the tomb when the People of Israel had gotten off track and were prostituting themselves to Baal—they made Baal-of-the-Covenant their god. The People of Israel forgot all about God, their God, who had saved them from all their enemies who had hemmed them in. And they didn’t keep faith with the family of Jerub-Baal (Gideon), honoring all the good he had done for Israel.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, October 09, 2018
Read: Romans 8:22–30
For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because[a] the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,[b] for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Footnotes:
Romans 8:27 Or that
Romans 8:28 Some manuscripts God works all things together for good, or God works in all things for the good
INSIGHT
Our inability to know what to ask for when we pray is part of a bigger story. According to Paul’s letter to the Romans, there’s a lot more we can’t do for ourselves. We also can’t avoid the consequences of our own choices, change our own hearts, make ourselves right with God, or even live up to our own expectations (Romans 4:5; 6:23; 7:18–21). Yet Paul doesn’t leave us helpless and hopeless. He begins and ends chapter 8 showing us how to rise on wings of wonder. Could anything lift us higher than to know that we also can’t do anything that would cause the God who is for us to stop helping and loving us? (vv. 11, 31–39). - Mart DeHaan
Much More Than Words
By Lawrence Darmani
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. Romans 8:26
At a dedication ceremony during which a Bible translated into a local African language was presented, the area chief was presented with his own copy. In appreciation, he lifted the Bible to the skies and exclaimed, “Now we know God understands our language! We can read the Bible in our own native mother-tongue.”
No matter our language, our heavenly Father understands it. But often we feel unable to express our deepest longings to Him. The apostle Paul encourages us to pray regardless of how we feel. Paul speaks of our suffering world and our own pain: “The whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth” (Romans 8:22), and he compares that to the Holy Spirit’s work on our behalf. “The Spirit helps us in our weakness,” he writes. “We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans” (v. 26).
God’s Holy Spirit knows us intimately. He knows our longings, our heart-language, and our unspoken words, and He helps us in our communication with God. His Spirit draws us to be transformed into the image of God the Son (v. 29).
Our heavenly Father understands our language and speaks to us through His Word. When we think our prayers are weak or too short, His Holy Spirit helps us by speaking through us to the Father. He yearns for us to talk with Him in prayer.
Thank You, Lord, for understanding my language and innermost longings. When my prayers are weak and dry, bear me up through Your Spirit.
When we feel weak in our prayers, God’s Spirit helps us in ways we can’t imagine.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, October 09, 2018
Building on the Atonement
…present…your members as instruments of righteousness to God. —Romans 6:13
I cannot save and sanctify myself; I cannot make atonement for sin; I cannot redeem the world; I cannot right what is wrong, purify what is impure, or make holy what is unholy. That is all the sovereign work of God. Do I have faith in what Jesus Christ has done? He has made the perfect atonement for sin. Am I in the habit of constantly realizing it? The greatest need we have is not to do things, but to believe things. The redemption of Christ is not an experience, it is the great act of God which He has performed through Christ, and I have to build my faith on it. If I construct my faith on my own experience, I produce the most unscriptural kind of life— an isolated life, with my eyes focused solely on my own holiness. Beware of that human holiness that is not based on the atonement of the Lord. It has no value for anything except a life of isolation— it is useless to God and a nuisance to man. Measure every kind of experience you have by our Lord Himself. We cannot do anything pleasing to God unless we deliberately build on the foundation of the atonement by the Cross of Christ.
The atonement of Jesus must be exhibited in practical, unassuming ways in my life. Every time I obey, the absolute deity of God is on my side, so that the grace of God and my natural obedience are in perfect agreement. Obedience means that I have completely placed my trust in the atonement, and my obedience is immediately met by the delight of the supernatural grace of God.
Beware of the human holiness that denies the reality of the natural life— it is a fraud. Continually bring yourself to the trial or test of the atonement and ask, “Where is the discernment of the atonement in this, and in that?”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Christian Church should not be a secret society of specialists, but a public manifestation of believers in Jesus. Facing Reality, 34 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, October 09, 2018
The Scary Picture Of the Real You - #8282
It really wasn't fair. But some friends of mine in youth ministry used to carry out these dreaded Saturday morning raids on teenagers from the local high school. By the way, those raids got those kids to an event that they eventually ended up enjoying, but they didn't enjoy how it started. A few leaders would show up early on Saturday morning at the house of one of their student leaders. When a parent came to the door, they would tell them what church group they were from and asked the parents' permission to "kidnap" their son or daughter to a "come as you are" breakfast they were having with student leaders. Most of the parents actually went along with it with a bit of amusement. The invaders went to the door of that teenager's room and gave them one minute to throw something on before they came in for them. Sixty seconds later, people of the same sex went in to that room and snapped a picture of the Saturday morning self. This was back in the days with those Polaroid cameras before digital. Those pictures were of course posted at the breakfast to the horror of those kids, especially the girls. No makeup, bad hair, real skin, they didn't seem to be too excited about everyone seeing what they really were like.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Scary Picture Of the Real You."
There's the dressed up, fixed up version of ourselves that everyone sees. And then there's that not-so-beautiful picture of what we really look like. A lot of us struggle with that one. One of the writers of the Bible, actually a man named Paul sure did. But as you hear his description of the gap between the person he wants to be and the person he is, he seems to speak for all of us.
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Romans 7:18, "For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing." There's the picture of how I want to look and then this candid picture of what we really are. There's this dark side, I guess. Maybe it's anger, or selfishness, or bitterness, or prejudice. The ugly picture may be something sexual, or an addiction, a past that continues to haunt our present. You know, that dark secret. God calls it by that one ultimately ugly word-sin: rebellion against our Creator's ways, and against our Creator himself.
And these sentences from the Bible capture how powerless we are to change the picture. Here the Bible says, "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" He's just sick of being this person he hates. One mother I know, who has been agonizing over her teenage daughter, recently confronted her with the ugly things that she knew her daughter had been doing. The daughter said, "Mother, I'm not like that!" Oh, she sure didn't want to be like that, but she was like that! We're all caught in between the person we want to be, we need to be and the person we really are.
But then comes the hope in this same statement in the Bible, "Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" There is hope of changing the picture, but only one. We don't need a religion, we don't need some self-improvement program, we need a Savior. We need a rescuer who will do for us what a lifeguard does for a drowning person, deliver us from the thing we can't deliver ourselves from.
That is what the cross of Jesus Christ is all about. God's one and only Son loving you so much He absorbed all the guilt and all the hell of all your sin so you can finally go free if you grab the lifeguard with all the faith you've got.
Maybe you've never made this awesome Savior your Savior and you're ready to be rescued. I hope you are. Would you tell Him that right now? He's alive; He came back from the dead. He's walked out of His grave. He's ready to walk into your life and change it. He's where you are now waiting for you to put all your trust in Him.
I'd love to help you cross over and make this important choice. Our website is all about helping you do that. It's ANewStory.com. I hope you won't waste any time before you get there today.
The Bible promises that, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone; a new life has begun." That miracle for you may be one prayer away.
Tuesday, October 9, 2018
Monday, October 8, 2018
Judges 7, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily:
DRENCHED IN HOPE
Jesus encouraged his followers to “always pray and never lose hope” (Luke 18:1). Never lose hope? Never be fainthearted? Never feel overwhelmed? Never get sucked into the sewer of despair? Can you imagine? No day lost to anguish. No decision driven by fear. This is God’s will for you and me. He wants us to “abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).” Abound…what an extraordinary verb to use with hope.
For about half an hour recently, the sky above me became a waterfall. I had to pull my car off the road. Windshield wipers stood no chance against the downpour. Every square inch of the highway was drenched. Rain abounded. Could you use some abounding hope? God will drench your world with hope; it is His promise. And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!
Read more Unshakable Hope
Judges 7
Jerub-Baal (Gideon) got up early the next morning, all his troops right there with him. They set up camp at Harod’s Spring. The camp of Midian was in the plain, north of them near the Hill of Moreh.
2-3 God said to Gideon, “You have too large an army with you. I can’t turn Midian over to them like this—they’ll take all the credit, saying, ‘I did it all myself,’ and forget about me. Make a public announcement: ‘Anyone afraid, anyone who has any qualms at all, may leave Mount Gilead now and go home.’” Twenty-two companies headed for home. Ten companies were left.
4-5 God said to Gideon: “There are still too many. Take them down to the stream and I’ll make a final cut. When I say, ‘This one goes with you,’ he’ll go. When I say, ‘This one doesn’t go,’ he won’t go.” So Gideon took the troops down to the stream.
5-6 God said to Gideon: “Everyone who laps with his tongue, the way a dog laps, set on one side. And everyone who kneels to drink, drinking with his face to the water, set to the other side.” Three hundred lapped with their tongues from their cupped hands. All the rest knelt to drink.
7 God said to Gideon: “I’ll use the three hundred men who lapped at the stream to save you and give Midian into your hands. All the rest may go home.”
8 After Gideon took all their provisions and trumpets, he sent all the Israelites home. He took up his position with the three hundred. The camp of Midian stretched out below him in the valley.
9-12 That night, God told Gideon: “Get up and go down to the camp. I’ve given it to you. If you have any doubts about going down, go down with Purah your armor bearer; when you hear what they’re saying, you’ll be bold and confident.” He and his armor bearer Purah went down near the place where sentries were posted. Midian and Amalek, all the easterners, were spread out on the plain like a swarm of locusts. And their camels! Past counting, like grains of sand on the seashore!
13 Gideon arrived just in time to hear a man tell his friend a dream. He said, “I had this dream: A loaf of barley bread tumbled into the Midianite camp. It came to the tent and hit it so hard it collapsed. The tent fell!”
14 His friend said, “This has to be the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite! God has turned Midian—the whole camp!—over to him.”
15 When Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he went to his knees before God in prayer. Then he went back to the Israelite camp and said, “Get up and get going! God has just given us the Midianite army!”
16-18 He divided the three hundred men into three companies. He gave each man a trumpet and an empty jar, with a torch in the jar. He said, “Watch me and do what I do. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly what I do. When I and those with me blow the trumpets, you also, all around the camp, blow your trumpets and shout, ‘For God and for Gideon!’”
19-22 Gideon and his hundred men got to the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after the sentries had been posted. They blew the trumpets, at the same time smashing the jars they carried. All three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands, ready to blow, and shouted, “A sword for God and for Gideon!” They were stationed all around the camp, each man at his post. The whole Midianite camp jumped to its feet. They yelled and fled. When the three hundred blew the trumpets, God aimed each Midianite’s sword against his companion, all over the camp. They ran for their lives—to Beth Shittah, toward Zererah, to the border of Abel Meholah near Tabbath.
23 Israelites rallied from Naphtali, from Asher, and from all over Manasseh. They had Midian on the run.
24 Gideon then sent messengers through all the hill country of Ephraim, urging them, “Come down against Midian! Capture the fords of the Jordan at Beth Barah.”
25 So all the men of Ephraim rallied and captured the fords of the Jordan at Beth Barah. They also captured the two Midianite commanders Oreb (Raven) and Zeeb (Wolf). They killed Oreb at Raven Rock; Zeeb they killed at Wolf Winepress. And they pressed the pursuit of Midian. They brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon across the Jordan.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, October 08, 2018
Read: Zephaniah 3:14–20
Israel's Joy and Restoration
14 Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion;
shout, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart,
O daughter of Jerusalem!
15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you;
he has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall never again fear evil.
16 On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:
“Fear not, O Zion;
let not your hands grow weak.
17 The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
18 I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival,
so that you will no longer suffer reproach.[a]
19 Behold, at that time I will deal
with all your oppressors.
And I will save the lame
and gather the outcast,
and I will change their shame into praise
and renown in all the earth.
20 At that time I will bring you in,
at the time when I gather you together;
for I will make you renowned and praised
among all the peoples of the earth,
when I restore your fortunes
before your eyes,” says the Lord.
Footnotes:
Zephaniah 3:18 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain
INSIGHT
The singing heart of God (Zephaniah 3:17) is but one of the many ways He expresses His love and care for us. Of course, we readily acknowledge that He rescues us and provides for us. We also know He made us and empowers us to live for Him in this world. But that is only the beginning. In Luke 15 we find that, like the father in the parable of the prodigal son, God rejoices over our rescue and return to Him. Additionally, He comforts us in our seasons of trial (2 Corinthians 1:3–8). Beyond that, He mourns with us in our pain—even to the point of valuing our tears (Psalm 56:8). In these and countless other ways, our God continually expresses the depth of His love and concern for His children.
How have you experienced that care in the different seasons of your own life? - Bill Crowder
Our Singing Father
By Adam Holz
The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will . . . rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17
No one told me before my wife and I had children how important singing would be. My children are now six, eight, and ten. But all three had problems sleeping early on. Each night, my wife and I took turns rocking our little ones, praying they’d nod off quickly. I spent hundreds of hours rocking them, desperately crooning lullabies to (hopefully!) speed up the process. But as I sang over our children night after night, something amazing happened: It deepened my bond of love and delight for them in ways I had never dreamed.
Did you know Scripture describes our heavenly Father singing over His children too? Just as I sought to soothe my children with song, so Zephaniah concludes with a portrait of our heavenly Father singing over His people: “He will take great delight in you; in his love he will . . . rejoice over you with singing” (3:17).
Much of Zephaniah’s prophetic book warns of a coming time of judgment for those who’d rejected God. Yet that’s not where it ends. Zephaniah concludes not with judgment but with a description of God not only rescuing His people from all their suffering (vv. 19–20) but also tenderly loving and rejoicing over them with song (v. 17).
Our God is not only a “Mighty Warrior who saves” and restores (v. 17) but a loving Father who tenderly sings songs of love over us.
Father, help us to embrace Your tender love and “hear” the songs You sing.
Our heavenly Father delights in His children like a parent singing to a newborn baby.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, October 08, 2018
Coming to Jesus
Come to Me… —Matthew 11:28
Isn’t it humiliating to be told that we must come to Jesus! Think of the things about which we will not come to Jesus Christ. If you want to know how real you are, test yourself by these words— “Come to Me….” In every dimension in which you are not real, you will argue or evade the issue altogether rather than come; you will go through sorrow rather than come; and you will do anything rather than come the last lap of the race of seemingly unspeakable foolishness and say, “Just as I am, I come.” As long as you have even the least bit of spiritual disrespect, it will always reveal itself in the fact that you are expecting God to tell you to do something very big, and yet all He is telling you to do is to “Come….”
“Come to Me….” When you hear those words, you will know that something must happen in you before you can come. The Holy Spirit will show you what you have to do, and it will involve anything that will uproot whatever is preventing you from getting through to Jesus. And you will never get any further until you are willing to do that very thing. The Holy Spirit will search out that one immovable stronghold within you, but He cannot budge it unless you are willing to let Him do so.
How often have you come to God with your requests and gone away thinking, “I’ve really received what I wanted this time!” And yet you go away with nothing, while all the time God has stood with His hands outstretched not only to take you but also for you to take Him. Just think of the invincible, unconquerable, and untiring patience of Jesus, who lovingly says, “Come to Me….”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is not what a man does that is of final importance, but what he is in what he does. The atmosphere produced by a man, much more than his activities, has the lasting influence. Baffled to Fight Better, 51 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, October 08, 2018
Bumper Car Families - #8281
When our kids were growing up, it was hard to find a ride at the amusement park you could get us all to ride. We have roller coaster lovers and roller coaster no-way-ers - that's me. But there was one we all liked to do – bumper cars. You know, those little electric cars inside that fenced-in area. That's old school, man! They turned them on, and everyone starts out together, then you start speeding around that circle. Some end up spinning out, going backwards, going forward, intentionally or accidentally running into other cars – especially those you love. Each one of us would each get into our little hot rod. We'd basically start out heading the same direction, but in no time we were heading in five different directions and occasionally bumping into each other. Does that sound like any family you know?
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Bumper Car Families."
In the busyness and the pressures of our lives today, that's what many families turn out to be isn't it – bumper car families? Oh, you may all start out the day in basically the same place, but then you take off in different directions and then you just occasionally bump into each other. In fact, a lot of families are slowly but surely flying apart, with each one in their own personal world and increasingly strangers, living under the same roof. And certainly, social media, the internet have only compounded it. We can be apart in the same house. It was not meant to be that way when the Heavenly Father gave you to each other. But keeping a family together in a bumper car world doesn't just happen. No, it takes someone who plays a mean trumpet.
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Nehemiah 4:19-20. God has called him to lead the Jews of his time in the amazing rebuilding of the walls and gates of Jerusalem – which were virtually totaled. Each person or group had a particular section they were responsible for. But Nehemiah knew that someone had to pull them together sometimes.
Here we go, "Then I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, 'The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall." Sort of a bumper car situation – everybody headed off in their direction, maybe bumping into each other occasionally. He says, "Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us!" Nehemiah was a leader who insisted that his spread out team come together sometimes! There was nothing about their work that would naturally bring them together. It actually took them different directions. But there was one person who made sure they got together!
You know what? That's what every family needs – someone who blows the trumpet to get that group of separated people together regularly. You have to set a time and a place and make it happen. If it doesn't, people leave home with dangerous unmet needs that were supposed to be met at home; the need for closeness, for attention, for encouragement, for affection, for safety. You have to be together for those needs to be met!
DRENCHED IN HOPE
Jesus encouraged his followers to “always pray and never lose hope” (Luke 18:1). Never lose hope? Never be fainthearted? Never feel overwhelmed? Never get sucked into the sewer of despair? Can you imagine? No day lost to anguish. No decision driven by fear. This is God’s will for you and me. He wants us to “abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).” Abound…what an extraordinary verb to use with hope.
For about half an hour recently, the sky above me became a waterfall. I had to pull my car off the road. Windshield wipers stood no chance against the downpour. Every square inch of the highway was drenched. Rain abounded. Could you use some abounding hope? God will drench your world with hope; it is His promise. And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!
Read more Unshakable Hope
Judges 7
Jerub-Baal (Gideon) got up early the next morning, all his troops right there with him. They set up camp at Harod’s Spring. The camp of Midian was in the plain, north of them near the Hill of Moreh.
2-3 God said to Gideon, “You have too large an army with you. I can’t turn Midian over to them like this—they’ll take all the credit, saying, ‘I did it all myself,’ and forget about me. Make a public announcement: ‘Anyone afraid, anyone who has any qualms at all, may leave Mount Gilead now and go home.’” Twenty-two companies headed for home. Ten companies were left.
4-5 God said to Gideon: “There are still too many. Take them down to the stream and I’ll make a final cut. When I say, ‘This one goes with you,’ he’ll go. When I say, ‘This one doesn’t go,’ he won’t go.” So Gideon took the troops down to the stream.
5-6 God said to Gideon: “Everyone who laps with his tongue, the way a dog laps, set on one side. And everyone who kneels to drink, drinking with his face to the water, set to the other side.” Three hundred lapped with their tongues from their cupped hands. All the rest knelt to drink.
7 God said to Gideon: “I’ll use the three hundred men who lapped at the stream to save you and give Midian into your hands. All the rest may go home.”
8 After Gideon took all their provisions and trumpets, he sent all the Israelites home. He took up his position with the three hundred. The camp of Midian stretched out below him in the valley.
9-12 That night, God told Gideon: “Get up and go down to the camp. I’ve given it to you. If you have any doubts about going down, go down with Purah your armor bearer; when you hear what they’re saying, you’ll be bold and confident.” He and his armor bearer Purah went down near the place where sentries were posted. Midian and Amalek, all the easterners, were spread out on the plain like a swarm of locusts. And their camels! Past counting, like grains of sand on the seashore!
13 Gideon arrived just in time to hear a man tell his friend a dream. He said, “I had this dream: A loaf of barley bread tumbled into the Midianite camp. It came to the tent and hit it so hard it collapsed. The tent fell!”
14 His friend said, “This has to be the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite! God has turned Midian—the whole camp!—over to him.”
15 When Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he went to his knees before God in prayer. Then he went back to the Israelite camp and said, “Get up and get going! God has just given us the Midianite army!”
16-18 He divided the three hundred men into three companies. He gave each man a trumpet and an empty jar, with a torch in the jar. He said, “Watch me and do what I do. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly what I do. When I and those with me blow the trumpets, you also, all around the camp, blow your trumpets and shout, ‘For God and for Gideon!’”
19-22 Gideon and his hundred men got to the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after the sentries had been posted. They blew the trumpets, at the same time smashing the jars they carried. All three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands, ready to blow, and shouted, “A sword for God and for Gideon!” They were stationed all around the camp, each man at his post. The whole Midianite camp jumped to its feet. They yelled and fled. When the three hundred blew the trumpets, God aimed each Midianite’s sword against his companion, all over the camp. They ran for their lives—to Beth Shittah, toward Zererah, to the border of Abel Meholah near Tabbath.
23 Israelites rallied from Naphtali, from Asher, and from all over Manasseh. They had Midian on the run.
24 Gideon then sent messengers through all the hill country of Ephraim, urging them, “Come down against Midian! Capture the fords of the Jordan at Beth Barah.”
25 So all the men of Ephraim rallied and captured the fords of the Jordan at Beth Barah. They also captured the two Midianite commanders Oreb (Raven) and Zeeb (Wolf). They killed Oreb at Raven Rock; Zeeb they killed at Wolf Winepress. And they pressed the pursuit of Midian. They brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon across the Jordan.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, October 08, 2018
Read: Zephaniah 3:14–20
Israel's Joy and Restoration
14 Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion;
shout, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart,
O daughter of Jerusalem!
15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you;
he has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall never again fear evil.
16 On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:
“Fear not, O Zion;
let not your hands grow weak.
17 The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
18 I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival,
so that you will no longer suffer reproach.[a]
19 Behold, at that time I will deal
with all your oppressors.
And I will save the lame
and gather the outcast,
and I will change their shame into praise
and renown in all the earth.
20 At that time I will bring you in,
at the time when I gather you together;
for I will make you renowned and praised
among all the peoples of the earth,
when I restore your fortunes
before your eyes,” says the Lord.
Footnotes:
Zephaniah 3:18 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain
INSIGHT
The singing heart of God (Zephaniah 3:17) is but one of the many ways He expresses His love and care for us. Of course, we readily acknowledge that He rescues us and provides for us. We also know He made us and empowers us to live for Him in this world. But that is only the beginning. In Luke 15 we find that, like the father in the parable of the prodigal son, God rejoices over our rescue and return to Him. Additionally, He comforts us in our seasons of trial (2 Corinthians 1:3–8). Beyond that, He mourns with us in our pain—even to the point of valuing our tears (Psalm 56:8). In these and countless other ways, our God continually expresses the depth of His love and concern for His children.
How have you experienced that care in the different seasons of your own life? - Bill Crowder
Our Singing Father
By Adam Holz
The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will . . . rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17
No one told me before my wife and I had children how important singing would be. My children are now six, eight, and ten. But all three had problems sleeping early on. Each night, my wife and I took turns rocking our little ones, praying they’d nod off quickly. I spent hundreds of hours rocking them, desperately crooning lullabies to (hopefully!) speed up the process. But as I sang over our children night after night, something amazing happened: It deepened my bond of love and delight for them in ways I had never dreamed.
Did you know Scripture describes our heavenly Father singing over His children too? Just as I sought to soothe my children with song, so Zephaniah concludes with a portrait of our heavenly Father singing over His people: “He will take great delight in you; in his love he will . . . rejoice over you with singing” (3:17).
Much of Zephaniah’s prophetic book warns of a coming time of judgment for those who’d rejected God. Yet that’s not where it ends. Zephaniah concludes not with judgment but with a description of God not only rescuing His people from all their suffering (vv. 19–20) but also tenderly loving and rejoicing over them with song (v. 17).
Our God is not only a “Mighty Warrior who saves” and restores (v. 17) but a loving Father who tenderly sings songs of love over us.
Father, help us to embrace Your tender love and “hear” the songs You sing.
Our heavenly Father delights in His children like a parent singing to a newborn baby.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, October 08, 2018
Coming to Jesus
Come to Me… —Matthew 11:28
Isn’t it humiliating to be told that we must come to Jesus! Think of the things about which we will not come to Jesus Christ. If you want to know how real you are, test yourself by these words— “Come to Me….” In every dimension in which you are not real, you will argue or evade the issue altogether rather than come; you will go through sorrow rather than come; and you will do anything rather than come the last lap of the race of seemingly unspeakable foolishness and say, “Just as I am, I come.” As long as you have even the least bit of spiritual disrespect, it will always reveal itself in the fact that you are expecting God to tell you to do something very big, and yet all He is telling you to do is to “Come….”
“Come to Me….” When you hear those words, you will know that something must happen in you before you can come. The Holy Spirit will show you what you have to do, and it will involve anything that will uproot whatever is preventing you from getting through to Jesus. And you will never get any further until you are willing to do that very thing. The Holy Spirit will search out that one immovable stronghold within you, but He cannot budge it unless you are willing to let Him do so.
How often have you come to God with your requests and gone away thinking, “I’ve really received what I wanted this time!” And yet you go away with nothing, while all the time God has stood with His hands outstretched not only to take you but also for you to take Him. Just think of the invincible, unconquerable, and untiring patience of Jesus, who lovingly says, “Come to Me….”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is not what a man does that is of final importance, but what he is in what he does. The atmosphere produced by a man, much more than his activities, has the lasting influence. Baffled to Fight Better, 51 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, October 08, 2018
Bumper Car Families - #8281
When our kids were growing up, it was hard to find a ride at the amusement park you could get us all to ride. We have roller coaster lovers and roller coaster no-way-ers - that's me. But there was one we all liked to do – bumper cars. You know, those little electric cars inside that fenced-in area. That's old school, man! They turned them on, and everyone starts out together, then you start speeding around that circle. Some end up spinning out, going backwards, going forward, intentionally or accidentally running into other cars – especially those you love. Each one of us would each get into our little hot rod. We'd basically start out heading the same direction, but in no time we were heading in five different directions and occasionally bumping into each other. Does that sound like any family you know?
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Bumper Car Families."
In the busyness and the pressures of our lives today, that's what many families turn out to be isn't it – bumper car families? Oh, you may all start out the day in basically the same place, but then you take off in different directions and then you just occasionally bump into each other. In fact, a lot of families are slowly but surely flying apart, with each one in their own personal world and increasingly strangers, living under the same roof. And certainly, social media, the internet have only compounded it. We can be apart in the same house. It was not meant to be that way when the Heavenly Father gave you to each other. But keeping a family together in a bumper car world doesn't just happen. No, it takes someone who plays a mean trumpet.
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Nehemiah 4:19-20. God has called him to lead the Jews of his time in the amazing rebuilding of the walls and gates of Jerusalem – which were virtually totaled. Each person or group had a particular section they were responsible for. But Nehemiah knew that someone had to pull them together sometimes.
Here we go, "Then I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, 'The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall." Sort of a bumper car situation – everybody headed off in their direction, maybe bumping into each other occasionally. He says, "Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us!" Nehemiah was a leader who insisted that his spread out team come together sometimes! There was nothing about their work that would naturally bring them together. It actually took them different directions. But there was one person who made sure they got together!
You know what? That's what every family needs – someone who blows the trumpet to get that group of separated people together regularly. You have to set a time and a place and make it happen. If it doesn't, people leave home with dangerous unmet needs that were supposed to be met at home; the need for closeness, for attention, for encouragement, for affection, for safety. You have to be together for those needs to be met!
Sunday, October 7, 2018
Judges 6, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Conversation With God
Mark 1:35 says, "Jesus went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed."
This dialogue must have been common among His friends:
"Has anyone seen Jesus?"
"Oh, you know. He's up to the same thing."
"Praying again?"
"Yep. He's been gone since sunrise."
Jesus would even disappear for an entire night of prayer. Prayer for most of us, isn't a matter of a month-long retreat or even an hour of meditation. It's a conversation with God while driving to work or waiting for an appointment.
God will teach you to pray. We speak, He listens. He speaks, we listen. This is prayer in its purest form. God changes His people through such moments.
Sign on at BeforeAmen.com-take the Prayer Strengths Assessment-then get ready to connect with God like never before!
Judges 6
Gideon
Yet again the People of Israel went back to doing evil in God’s sight. God put them under the domination of Midian for seven years. Midian overpowered Israel. Because of Midian, the People of Israel made for themselves hideouts in the mountains—caves and forts. When Israel planted its crops, Midian and Amalek, the easterners, would invade them, camp in their fields, and destroy their crops all the way down to Gaza. They left nothing for them to live on, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey. Bringing their cattle and tents, they came in and took over, like an invasion of locusts. And their camels—past counting! They marched in and devastated the country. The People of Israel, reduced to grinding poverty by Midian, cried out to God for help.
7-10 One time when the People of Israel had cried out to God because of Midian, God sent them a prophet with this message: “God, the God of Israel, says,
I delivered you from Egypt,
I freed you from a life of slavery;
I rescued you from Egypt’s brutality
and then from every oppressor;
I pushed them out of your way
and gave you their land.
“And I said to you, ‘I am God, your God. Don’t for a minute be afraid of the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living.’ But you didn’t listen to me.”
11-12 One day the angel of God came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, whose son Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress, out of sight of the Midianites. The angel of God appeared to him and said, “God is with you, O mighty warrior!”
13 Gideon replied, “With me, my master? If God is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all the miracle-wonders our parents and grandparents told us about, telling us, ‘Didn’t God deliver us from Egypt?’ The fact is, God has nothing to do with us—he has turned us over to Midian.”
14 But God faced him directly: “Go in this strength that is yours. Save Israel from Midian. Haven’t I just sent you?”
15 Gideon said to him, “Me, my master? How and with what could I ever save Israel? Look at me. My clan’s the weakest in Manasseh and I’m the runt of the litter.”
16 God said to him, “I’ll be with you. Believe me, you’ll defeat Midian as one man.”
17-18 Gideon said, “If you’re serious about this, do me a favor: Give me a sign to back up what you’re telling me. Don’t leave until I come back and bring you my gift.”
He said, “I’ll wait till you get back.”
19 Gideon went and prepared a young goat and a huge amount of unraised bread (he used over half a bushel of flour!). He put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot and took them back under the shade of the oak tree for a sacred meal.
20 The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and unraised bread, place them on that rock, and pour the broth on them.” Gideon did it.
21-22 The angel of God stretched out the tip of the stick he was holding and touched the meat and the bread. Fire broke out of the rock and burned up the meat and bread while the angel of God slipped away out of sight. And Gideon knew it was the angel of God!
Gideon said, “Oh no! Master, God! I have seen the angel of God face-to-face!”
23 But God reassured him, “Easy now. Don’t panic. You won’t die.”
24 Then Gideon built an altar there to God and named it “God’s Peace.” It’s still called that at Ophrah of Abiezer.
25-26 That night this happened. God said to him, “Take your father’s best seven-year-old bull, the prime one. Tear down your father’s Baal altar and chop down the Asherah fertility pole beside it. Then build an altar to God, your God, on the top of this hill. Take the prime bull and present it as a Whole-Burnt-Offering, using firewood from the Asherah pole that you cut down.”
27 Gideon selected ten men from his servants and did exactly what God had told him. But because of his family and the people in the neighborhood, he was afraid to do it openly, so he did it that night.
28 Early in the morning, the people in town were shocked to find Baal’s altar torn down, the Asherah pole beside it chopped down, and the prime bull burning away on the altar that had been built.
29 They kept asking, “Who did this?”
Questions and more questions, and then the answer: “Gideon son of Joash did it.”
30 The men of the town demanded of Joash: “Bring out your son! He must die! Why, he tore down the Baal altar and chopped down the Asherah tree!”
31 But Joash stood up to the crowd pressing in on him, “Are you going to fight Baal’s battles for him? Are you going to save him? Anyone who takes Baal’s side will be dead by morning. If Baal is a god in fact, let him fight his own battles and defend his own altar.”
32 They nicknamed Gideon that day Jerub-Baal because after he had torn down the Baal altar, he had said, “Let Baal fight his own battles.”
33-35 All the Midianites and Amalekites (the easterners) got together, crossed the river, and made camp in the Valley of Jezreel. God’s Spirit came over Gideon. He blew his ram’s horn trumpet and the Abiezrites came out, ready to follow him. He dispatched messengers all through Manasseh, calling them to the battle; also to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali. They all came.
36-37 Gideon said to God, “If this is right, if you are using me to save Israel as you’ve said, then look: I’m placing a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If dew is on the fleece only, but the floor is dry, then I know that you will use me to save Israel, as you said.”
38 That’s what happened. When he got up early the next morning, he wrung out the fleece—enough dew to fill a bowl with water!
39 Then Gideon said to God, “Don’t be impatient with me, but let me say one more thing. I want to try another time with the fleece. But this time let the fleece stay dry, while the dew drenches the ground.”
40 God made it happen that very night. Only the fleece was dry while the ground was wet with dew.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, October 07, 2018
Read: Hebrews 13:1–3
Sacrifices Pleasing to God
13 Let brotherly love continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 3 Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.
INSIGHT
When Hebrews 13:1–3 encourages believers to treat others with love, it does so after reminding believers of their rock-solid foundation for security. If there was ever anyone we might think would make us feel threatened or ashamed, it would be our infinitely holy and powerful God. But the good news is that because of Christ’s cleansing work, believers need not tremble in fear before God’s holiness (12:18–21). Instead, we can fearlessly celebrate a life of joyful awe and worship in His kingdom and in fellowship with His people (vv. 22–24, 28).
Knowing security in God’s love, knowing He will never abandon us (13:5–6), means we can stop relating to others in fear. Instead, we can love and care for fellow believers as our brothers and sisters in Christ (vv. 1, 3). And we can extend our arms to invite everyone we can into God’s family of grace (v. 2). - Monica Brands
A Warm Welcome for All
By Dave Branon
Let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. Galatians 6:10
During a recent vacation, my wife and I visited a famous athletic complex. The gates were wide open, and it appeared that we were welcome to visit. We enjoyed touring the grounds and admiring the well-manicured sports fields. As we were about to leave, someone stopped us and coldly told us we were not supposed to be there. Suddenly, we were reminded that we were outsiders—and it felt uncomfortable.
On that vacation we also visited a church. Again, the doors were open, so we walked in. What a difference! Many people greeted us warmly and made us feel right at home. We walked out of that church service knowing we were welcomed and accepted.
Sadly, it isn’t uncommon for outsiders to receive the unspoken message “you’re not supposed to be here” when they visit a church. But Scripture calls us to be hospitable to all. Jesus said we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, which surely means welcoming them into our lives and our churches (Matthew 22:39). In Hebrews, we’re reminded to “show hospitality to strangers” (13:2). Both Luke and Paul instruct us to show active love to people with social and physical needs (Luke 14:13–14; Romans 12:13). And among the body of believers, we have a special responsibility to show love (Galatians 6:10).
When we welcome all people openly and with Christlike love, we reflect our Savior’s love and compassion.
Lord, open our hearts to all people who enter our lives—showing them Christlike love and godly hospitality. Help us to make everyone we meet feel the warm welcome of Jesus’s love.
When we practice hospitality, we share God’s goodness.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, October 07, 2018
The Nature of Reconciliation
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. —2 Corinthians 5:21
Sin is a fundamental relationship— it is not wrong doing, but wrong being— it is deliberate and determined independence from God. The Christian faith bases everything on the extreme, self-confident nature of sin. Other faiths deal with sins— the Bible alone deals with sin. The first thing Jesus Christ confronted in people was the heredity of sin, and it is because we have ignored this in our presentation of the gospel that the message of the gospel has lost its sting and its explosive power.
The revealed truth of the Bible is not that Jesus Christ took on Himself our fleshly sins, but that He took on Himself the heredity of sin that no man can even touch. God made His own Son “to be sin” that He might make the sinner into a saint. It is revealed throughout the Bible that our Lord took on Himself the sin of the world through identification with us, not through sympathy for us. He deliberately took on His own shoulders, and endured in His own body, the complete, cumulative sin of the human race. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us…” and by so doing He placed salvation for the entire human race solely on the basis of redemption. Jesus Christ reconciled the human race, putting it back to where God designed it to be. And now anyone can experience that reconciliation, being brought into oneness with God, on the basis of what our Lord has done on the cross.
A man cannot redeem himself— redemption is the work of God, and is absolutely finished and complete. And its application to individual people is a matter of their own individual action or response to it. A distinction must always be made between the revealed truth of redemption and the actual conscious experience of salvation in a person’s life.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
To live a life alone with God does not mean that we live it apart from everyone else. The connection between godly men and women and those associated with them is continually revealed in the Bible, e.g., 1 Timothy 4:10. Not Knowing Whither, 867 L
Mark 1:35 says, "Jesus went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed."
This dialogue must have been common among His friends:
"Has anyone seen Jesus?"
"Oh, you know. He's up to the same thing."
"Praying again?"
"Yep. He's been gone since sunrise."
Jesus would even disappear for an entire night of prayer. Prayer for most of us, isn't a matter of a month-long retreat or even an hour of meditation. It's a conversation with God while driving to work or waiting for an appointment.
God will teach you to pray. We speak, He listens. He speaks, we listen. This is prayer in its purest form. God changes His people through such moments.
Sign on at BeforeAmen.com-take the Prayer Strengths Assessment-then get ready to connect with God like never before!
Judges 6
Gideon
Yet again the People of Israel went back to doing evil in God’s sight. God put them under the domination of Midian for seven years. Midian overpowered Israel. Because of Midian, the People of Israel made for themselves hideouts in the mountains—caves and forts. When Israel planted its crops, Midian and Amalek, the easterners, would invade them, camp in their fields, and destroy their crops all the way down to Gaza. They left nothing for them to live on, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey. Bringing their cattle and tents, they came in and took over, like an invasion of locusts. And their camels—past counting! They marched in and devastated the country. The People of Israel, reduced to grinding poverty by Midian, cried out to God for help.
7-10 One time when the People of Israel had cried out to God because of Midian, God sent them a prophet with this message: “God, the God of Israel, says,
I delivered you from Egypt,
I freed you from a life of slavery;
I rescued you from Egypt’s brutality
and then from every oppressor;
I pushed them out of your way
and gave you their land.
“And I said to you, ‘I am God, your God. Don’t for a minute be afraid of the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living.’ But you didn’t listen to me.”
11-12 One day the angel of God came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, whose son Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress, out of sight of the Midianites. The angel of God appeared to him and said, “God is with you, O mighty warrior!”
13 Gideon replied, “With me, my master? If God is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all the miracle-wonders our parents and grandparents told us about, telling us, ‘Didn’t God deliver us from Egypt?’ The fact is, God has nothing to do with us—he has turned us over to Midian.”
14 But God faced him directly: “Go in this strength that is yours. Save Israel from Midian. Haven’t I just sent you?”
15 Gideon said to him, “Me, my master? How and with what could I ever save Israel? Look at me. My clan’s the weakest in Manasseh and I’m the runt of the litter.”
16 God said to him, “I’ll be with you. Believe me, you’ll defeat Midian as one man.”
17-18 Gideon said, “If you’re serious about this, do me a favor: Give me a sign to back up what you’re telling me. Don’t leave until I come back and bring you my gift.”
He said, “I’ll wait till you get back.”
19 Gideon went and prepared a young goat and a huge amount of unraised bread (he used over half a bushel of flour!). He put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot and took them back under the shade of the oak tree for a sacred meal.
20 The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and unraised bread, place them on that rock, and pour the broth on them.” Gideon did it.
21-22 The angel of God stretched out the tip of the stick he was holding and touched the meat and the bread. Fire broke out of the rock and burned up the meat and bread while the angel of God slipped away out of sight. And Gideon knew it was the angel of God!
Gideon said, “Oh no! Master, God! I have seen the angel of God face-to-face!”
23 But God reassured him, “Easy now. Don’t panic. You won’t die.”
24 Then Gideon built an altar there to God and named it “God’s Peace.” It’s still called that at Ophrah of Abiezer.
25-26 That night this happened. God said to him, “Take your father’s best seven-year-old bull, the prime one. Tear down your father’s Baal altar and chop down the Asherah fertility pole beside it. Then build an altar to God, your God, on the top of this hill. Take the prime bull and present it as a Whole-Burnt-Offering, using firewood from the Asherah pole that you cut down.”
27 Gideon selected ten men from his servants and did exactly what God had told him. But because of his family and the people in the neighborhood, he was afraid to do it openly, so he did it that night.
28 Early in the morning, the people in town were shocked to find Baal’s altar torn down, the Asherah pole beside it chopped down, and the prime bull burning away on the altar that had been built.
29 They kept asking, “Who did this?”
Questions and more questions, and then the answer: “Gideon son of Joash did it.”
30 The men of the town demanded of Joash: “Bring out your son! He must die! Why, he tore down the Baal altar and chopped down the Asherah tree!”
31 But Joash stood up to the crowd pressing in on him, “Are you going to fight Baal’s battles for him? Are you going to save him? Anyone who takes Baal’s side will be dead by morning. If Baal is a god in fact, let him fight his own battles and defend his own altar.”
32 They nicknamed Gideon that day Jerub-Baal because after he had torn down the Baal altar, he had said, “Let Baal fight his own battles.”
33-35 All the Midianites and Amalekites (the easterners) got together, crossed the river, and made camp in the Valley of Jezreel. God’s Spirit came over Gideon. He blew his ram’s horn trumpet and the Abiezrites came out, ready to follow him. He dispatched messengers all through Manasseh, calling them to the battle; also to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali. They all came.
36-37 Gideon said to God, “If this is right, if you are using me to save Israel as you’ve said, then look: I’m placing a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If dew is on the fleece only, but the floor is dry, then I know that you will use me to save Israel, as you said.”
38 That’s what happened. When he got up early the next morning, he wrung out the fleece—enough dew to fill a bowl with water!
39 Then Gideon said to God, “Don’t be impatient with me, but let me say one more thing. I want to try another time with the fleece. But this time let the fleece stay dry, while the dew drenches the ground.”
40 God made it happen that very night. Only the fleece was dry while the ground was wet with dew.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, October 07, 2018
Read: Hebrews 13:1–3
Sacrifices Pleasing to God
13 Let brotherly love continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 3 Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.
INSIGHT
When Hebrews 13:1–3 encourages believers to treat others with love, it does so after reminding believers of their rock-solid foundation for security. If there was ever anyone we might think would make us feel threatened or ashamed, it would be our infinitely holy and powerful God. But the good news is that because of Christ’s cleansing work, believers need not tremble in fear before God’s holiness (12:18–21). Instead, we can fearlessly celebrate a life of joyful awe and worship in His kingdom and in fellowship with His people (vv. 22–24, 28).
Knowing security in God’s love, knowing He will never abandon us (13:5–6), means we can stop relating to others in fear. Instead, we can love and care for fellow believers as our brothers and sisters in Christ (vv. 1, 3). And we can extend our arms to invite everyone we can into God’s family of grace (v. 2). - Monica Brands
A Warm Welcome for All
By Dave Branon
Let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. Galatians 6:10
During a recent vacation, my wife and I visited a famous athletic complex. The gates were wide open, and it appeared that we were welcome to visit. We enjoyed touring the grounds and admiring the well-manicured sports fields. As we were about to leave, someone stopped us and coldly told us we were not supposed to be there. Suddenly, we were reminded that we were outsiders—and it felt uncomfortable.
On that vacation we also visited a church. Again, the doors were open, so we walked in. What a difference! Many people greeted us warmly and made us feel right at home. We walked out of that church service knowing we were welcomed and accepted.
Sadly, it isn’t uncommon for outsiders to receive the unspoken message “you’re not supposed to be here” when they visit a church. But Scripture calls us to be hospitable to all. Jesus said we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, which surely means welcoming them into our lives and our churches (Matthew 22:39). In Hebrews, we’re reminded to “show hospitality to strangers” (13:2). Both Luke and Paul instruct us to show active love to people with social and physical needs (Luke 14:13–14; Romans 12:13). And among the body of believers, we have a special responsibility to show love (Galatians 6:10).
When we welcome all people openly and with Christlike love, we reflect our Savior’s love and compassion.
Lord, open our hearts to all people who enter our lives—showing them Christlike love and godly hospitality. Help us to make everyone we meet feel the warm welcome of Jesus’s love.
When we practice hospitality, we share God’s goodness.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, October 07, 2018
The Nature of Reconciliation
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. —2 Corinthians 5:21
Sin is a fundamental relationship— it is not wrong doing, but wrong being— it is deliberate and determined independence from God. The Christian faith bases everything on the extreme, self-confident nature of sin. Other faiths deal with sins— the Bible alone deals with sin. The first thing Jesus Christ confronted in people was the heredity of sin, and it is because we have ignored this in our presentation of the gospel that the message of the gospel has lost its sting and its explosive power.
The revealed truth of the Bible is not that Jesus Christ took on Himself our fleshly sins, but that He took on Himself the heredity of sin that no man can even touch. God made His own Son “to be sin” that He might make the sinner into a saint. It is revealed throughout the Bible that our Lord took on Himself the sin of the world through identification with us, not through sympathy for us. He deliberately took on His own shoulders, and endured in His own body, the complete, cumulative sin of the human race. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us…” and by so doing He placed salvation for the entire human race solely on the basis of redemption. Jesus Christ reconciled the human race, putting it back to where God designed it to be. And now anyone can experience that reconciliation, being brought into oneness with God, on the basis of what our Lord has done on the cross.
A man cannot redeem himself— redemption is the work of God, and is absolutely finished and complete. And its application to individual people is a matter of their own individual action or response to it. A distinction must always be made between the revealed truth of redemption and the actual conscious experience of salvation in a person’s life.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
To live a life alone with God does not mean that we live it apart from everyone else. The connection between godly men and women and those associated with them is continually revealed in the Bible, e.g., 1 Timothy 4:10. Not Knowing Whither, 867 L
Saturday, October 6, 2018
Judges 5, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Lord, Teach Us to Pray
We can’t even get the cable company to answer us, yet God will? The doctor’s too busy, but God isn’t? We have our doubts about prayer!
Jesus raised people from the dead. But a “How to Vacate the Cemetery” seminar? His followers never called for one. But they did want Him to do this: “Lord, teach us to pray.” Might their interest have something to do with the jaw-dropping promise Jesus attached to prayer? “Ask and it will be given to you.” When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray He gave them a prayer. Could you use the same?
Father, You are good. I need help. Heal me and forgive me.
They need help. Thank You. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Before amen—comes the power of a simple prayer. Punctuate your day with it!
Judges 5
That day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang this song:
2 When they let down their hair in Israel,
they let it blow wild in the wind.
The people volunteered with abandon,
bless God!
3 Hear O kings! Listen O princes!
To God, yes to God, I’ll sing,
Make music to God,
to the God of Israel.
4-5 God, when you left Seir,
marched across the fields of Edom,
Earth quaked, yes, the skies poured rain,
oh, the clouds made rivers.
Mountains leapt before God, the Sinai God,
before God, the God of Israel.
6-8 In the time of Shamgar son of Anath,
and in the time of Jael,
Public roads were abandoned,
travelers went by backroads.
Warriors became fat and sloppy,
no fight left in them.
Then you, Deborah, rose up;
you got up, a mother in Israel.
God chose new leaders,
who then fought at the gates.
And not a shield or spear to be seen
among the forty companies of Israel.
9 Lift your hearts high, O Israel,
with abandon, volunteering yourselves with the people—bless God!
10-11 You who ride on prize donkeys
comfortably mounted on blankets
And you who walk down the roads,
ponder, attend!
Gather at the town well
and listen to them sing,
Chanting the tale of God’s victories,
his victories accomplished in Israel.
Then the people of God
went down to the city gates.
12 Wake up, wake up, Deborah!
Wake up, wake up, sing a song!
On your feet, Barak!
Take your prisoners, son of Abinoam!
13-18 Then the remnant went down to greet the brave ones.
The people of God joined the mighty ones.
The captains from Ephraim came to the valley,
behind you, Benjamin, with your troops.
Captains marched down from Makir,
from Zebulun high-ranking leaders came down.
Issachar’s princes rallied to Deborah,
Issachar stood fast with Barak,
backing him up on the field of battle.
But in Reuben’s divisions there was much second-guessing.
Why all those campfire discussions?
Diverted and distracted,
Reuben’s divisions couldn’t make up their minds.
Gilead played it safe across the Jordan,
and Dan, why did he go off sailing?
Asher kept his distance on the seacoast,
safe and secure in his harbors.
But Zebulun risked life and limb, defied death,
as did Naphtali on the battle heights.
19-23 The kings came, they fought,
the kings of Canaan fought.
At Taanach they fought, at Megiddo’s brook,
but they took no silver, no plunder.
The stars in the sky joined the fight,
from their courses they fought against Sisera.
The torrent Kishon swept them away,
the torrent attacked them, the torrent Kishon.
Oh, you’ll stomp on the necks of the strong!
Then the hoofs of the horses pounded,
charging, stampeding stallions.
“Curse Meroz,” says God’s angel.
“Curse, double curse, its people,
Because they didn’t come when God needed them,
didn’t rally to God’s side with valiant fighters.”
24-27 Most blessed of all women is Jael,
wife of Heber the Kenite,
most blessed of homemaking women.
He asked for water,
she brought milk;
In a handsome bowl,
she offered cream.
She grabbed a tent peg in her left hand,
with her right hand she seized a hammer.
She hammered Sisera, she smashed his head,
she drove a hole through his temple.
He slumped at her feet. He fell. He sprawled.
He slumped at her feet. He fell.
Slumped. Fallen. Dead.
28-30 Sisera’s mother waited at the window,
a weary, anxious watch.
“What’s keeping his chariot?
What delays his chariot’s rumble?”
The wisest of her ladies-in-waiting answers
with calm, reassuring words,
“Don’t you think they’re busy at plunder,
dividing up the loot?
A girl, maybe two girls,
for each man,
And for Sisera a bright silk shirt,
a prize, fancy silk shirt!
And a colorful scarf—make it two scarves—
to grace the neck of the plunderer.”
31 Thus may all God’s enemies perish,
while his lovers be like the unclouded sun.
The land was quiet for forty years.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, October 06, 2018
Read: Philippians 2:14–16
Philippians 2:14-16 English Standard Version (ESV)
14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.
INSIGHT
Paul’s words here—“Do everything without grumbling or arguing” (Philippians 2:14)—remind us of the Israelites during the Exodus. Soon after the people had experienced their miraculous deliverance from slavery, they “grumbled against Moses and Aaron” (Exodus 16:2). They even said, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt!” (v. 3). God hated their murmuring. In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians he alludes to that generation of Israelites: “Do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel” (1 Corinthians 10:10).
We’re all prone to complain; it’s the norm in this world. That’s why doing things “without grumbling or arguing” (Philippians 2:14) will set us apart in this world. When we live our lives in grateful obedience to God, we will shine “like stars in the sky” (v. 15). Our quiet and humble service will stand in stark contrast to the dissatisfied world around us. Living a quiet and peaceable life of gratitude is the real countercultural movement.
Do people avoid us because we’re always complaining? Or are they drawn to Christ because they sense His Spirit working in us to give us a grateful heart? - Tim Gustafson
Twinkle
By Elisa Morgan
Shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. Philippians 2:15–16
“Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” is an English lullaby. Its lyrics, originally a poem by Jane Taylor, capture the wonder of God’s universe where stars hang “up above the world so high.” In the rarely published later stanzas, the star acts as a guide: “As your bright and tiny spark lights the traveler in the dark.”
In Philippians, Paul challenges believers in Philippi to be blameless and pure as they “shine . . . like stars in the sky” while offering the good news of the gospel to all around them (2:15–16). We wonder how we can shine like stars. We often feel inadequate and struggle to think our “light” is bright enough to make a difference. But stars don’t try to be stars. They just are. Light changes our world. And it changes us. God brought physical light into our world (Genesis 1:3); and through Jesus, God brings spiritual light into our lives (John 1:1–4).
We who have God’s light in us are to shine in such a way that those around us see light and are drawn to its source. As effortlessly as a star hanging in the night sky, our light makes a difference because of what it is: Light! When we simply shine, we follow Paul’s directive to “hold firmly to the word of life” in a world in deep darkness, and we draw others to the source of our hope: Jesus.
Dear God, may Your light shine out of the very cracks of our beings as we hold out the Word of life to others.
Jesus brings light into our life.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, October 06, 2018
The Nature of Regeneration
When it pleased God…to reveal His Son in me… —Galatians 1:15-16
By Oswald Chambers
When it pleased God…to reveal His Son in me… —Galatians 1:15-16
If Jesus Christ is going to regenerate me, what is the problem He faces? It is simply this— I have a heredity in which I had no say or decision; I am not holy, nor am I likely to be; and if all Jesus Christ can do is tell me that I must be holy, His teaching only causes me to despair. But if Jesus Christ is truly a regenerator, someone who can put His own heredity of holiness into me, then I can begin to see what He means when He says that I have to be holy. Redemption means that Jesus Christ can put into anyone the hereditary nature that was in Himself, and all the standards He gives us are based on that nature— His teaching is meant to be applied to the life which He puts within us. The proper action on my part is simply to agree with God’s verdict on sin as judged on the Cross of Christ.
The New Testament teaching about regeneration is that when a person is hit by his own sense of need, God will put the Holy Spirit into his spirit, and his personal spirit will be energized by the Spirit of the Son of God— “…until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). The moral miracle of redemption is that God can put a new nature into me through which I can live a totally new life. When I finally reach the edge of my need and know my own limitations, then Jesus says, “Blessed are you…” (Matthew 5:11). But I must get to that point. God cannot put into me, the responsible moral person that I am, the nature that was in Jesus Christ unless I am aware of my need for it.
Just as the nature of sin entered into the human race through one man, the Holy Spirit entered into the human race through another Man (see Romans 5:12-19). And redemption means that I can be delivered from the heredity of sin, and that through Jesus Christ I can receive a pure and spotless heredity, namely, the Holy Spirit.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Christian Church should not be a secret society of specialists, but a public manifestation of believers in Jesus. Facing Reality, 34 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, October 5, 2018
Hollow On the Inside - #8280
There's this unforgettable drive above the Hudson River; in fact, the highway just kind of hangs out on Storm King Mountain. (I love that name.) It's a few miles north of New York City and as you look down on the Hudson River you get this incredible view. Now every time I've been able to catch a glance down there at this view of the Hudson, I've been fascinated with this castle. It sits right in the middle of the river on an island. It's kind of like a Robin Hood type of castle. Well, some years ago my wife and I got to take a cruise along the Hudson River and I could take an extended look at that castle. We went right past it, and our tour guide said, "That's Bannerman Castle." Mr. Bannerman, apparently, was an arms dealer for many, many years, and over many decades there are a lot of very interesting stories about people coming and going for weapons all through the wars and all kinds of things. Then in the 1960's there was a large explosion there on the island. What about the castle? Well, I was surprised to learn the truth about that castle.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Hollow on the Inside."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 23, beginning at verse 25. But first, I have to tell you that Bannerman Castle according to the tour guide, though it's very impressive on the outside, is now hollow on the inside. Okay, now listen to what Jesus says about human Bannerman Castles. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish but inside they are full of greed and self indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First, clean the inside of the cup and dish, then the outside also will be clean. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness."
Look at this. Jesus says there are people that look great on the outside, religious on the outside, but they've got big problems on the inside. This could be you. I mean it could be true of a marriage, it could be true of a church, an organization, a leader, you and me.
You know we live in a world where image and appearance are everything. You know we work on our fitness, and our hair, and our wardrobe, making good comments, making good impressions, looking like we have it all together, but then maybe there's another you. When you're alone, when you're thinking honestly, can you feel that emptiness inside...that hollowness? You can't explain it but you can't deny it! And beneath the image you know the darkness, you know the sin. You know the struggle that's in there. Like one young woman said, "There's a darkness inside me that scares me." Well, eventually it's all going to collapse.
Mickey Mantle said before his death, "I filled my emptiness with alcohol." Listen to what Jesus said in John 8:12, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness." Jesus is saying, "Invite me into that inner darkness; invite me into that emptiness. I can fill it." He said later in this chapter in Matthew 23, "How often I have longed to gather your children together, but you were not willing."
Jesus says that he has been knocking on the door of your life. Why don't you give the emptiness and the darkness to the One who already knows all about you, who sees past the image, who can forgive that sin, who can clean out that darkness, and who can let you go free from it? Let it bring you not to depression, but to the cross of Jesus where he died knowing the sin inside of you and wanting to forgive you and set you free. You need to clean it up, not cover it up. Say, "Lord, I need a Savior, no more trusting in me. It's all in your hands; I'm all in your hands now from this day on, Jesus."
Look, our website is there for a crossroads moment like this in your life; literally, a road that goes to the cross. I hope you'll go there and see from God's Word what you need to know to begin a relationship with Jesus Christ. It's ANewStory.com.
Jesus builds people from the inside out. So, open the door of that empty castle and let Jesus in. He'll make you strong inside and you can finally be done with that hollow spot in your heart.
We can’t even get the cable company to answer us, yet God will? The doctor’s too busy, but God isn’t? We have our doubts about prayer!
Jesus raised people from the dead. But a “How to Vacate the Cemetery” seminar? His followers never called for one. But they did want Him to do this: “Lord, teach us to pray.” Might their interest have something to do with the jaw-dropping promise Jesus attached to prayer? “Ask and it will be given to you.” When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray He gave them a prayer. Could you use the same?
Father, You are good. I need help. Heal me and forgive me.
They need help. Thank You. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Before amen—comes the power of a simple prayer. Punctuate your day with it!
Judges 5
That day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang this song:
2 When they let down their hair in Israel,
they let it blow wild in the wind.
The people volunteered with abandon,
bless God!
3 Hear O kings! Listen O princes!
To God, yes to God, I’ll sing,
Make music to God,
to the God of Israel.
4-5 God, when you left Seir,
marched across the fields of Edom,
Earth quaked, yes, the skies poured rain,
oh, the clouds made rivers.
Mountains leapt before God, the Sinai God,
before God, the God of Israel.
6-8 In the time of Shamgar son of Anath,
and in the time of Jael,
Public roads were abandoned,
travelers went by backroads.
Warriors became fat and sloppy,
no fight left in them.
Then you, Deborah, rose up;
you got up, a mother in Israel.
God chose new leaders,
who then fought at the gates.
And not a shield or spear to be seen
among the forty companies of Israel.
9 Lift your hearts high, O Israel,
with abandon, volunteering yourselves with the people—bless God!
10-11 You who ride on prize donkeys
comfortably mounted on blankets
And you who walk down the roads,
ponder, attend!
Gather at the town well
and listen to them sing,
Chanting the tale of God’s victories,
his victories accomplished in Israel.
Then the people of God
went down to the city gates.
12 Wake up, wake up, Deborah!
Wake up, wake up, sing a song!
On your feet, Barak!
Take your prisoners, son of Abinoam!
13-18 Then the remnant went down to greet the brave ones.
The people of God joined the mighty ones.
The captains from Ephraim came to the valley,
behind you, Benjamin, with your troops.
Captains marched down from Makir,
from Zebulun high-ranking leaders came down.
Issachar’s princes rallied to Deborah,
Issachar stood fast with Barak,
backing him up on the field of battle.
But in Reuben’s divisions there was much second-guessing.
Why all those campfire discussions?
Diverted and distracted,
Reuben’s divisions couldn’t make up their minds.
Gilead played it safe across the Jordan,
and Dan, why did he go off sailing?
Asher kept his distance on the seacoast,
safe and secure in his harbors.
But Zebulun risked life and limb, defied death,
as did Naphtali on the battle heights.
19-23 The kings came, they fought,
the kings of Canaan fought.
At Taanach they fought, at Megiddo’s brook,
but they took no silver, no plunder.
The stars in the sky joined the fight,
from their courses they fought against Sisera.
The torrent Kishon swept them away,
the torrent attacked them, the torrent Kishon.
Oh, you’ll stomp on the necks of the strong!
Then the hoofs of the horses pounded,
charging, stampeding stallions.
“Curse Meroz,” says God’s angel.
“Curse, double curse, its people,
Because they didn’t come when God needed them,
didn’t rally to God’s side with valiant fighters.”
24-27 Most blessed of all women is Jael,
wife of Heber the Kenite,
most blessed of homemaking women.
He asked for water,
she brought milk;
In a handsome bowl,
she offered cream.
She grabbed a tent peg in her left hand,
with her right hand she seized a hammer.
She hammered Sisera, she smashed his head,
she drove a hole through his temple.
He slumped at her feet. He fell. He sprawled.
He slumped at her feet. He fell.
Slumped. Fallen. Dead.
28-30 Sisera’s mother waited at the window,
a weary, anxious watch.
“What’s keeping his chariot?
What delays his chariot’s rumble?”
The wisest of her ladies-in-waiting answers
with calm, reassuring words,
“Don’t you think they’re busy at plunder,
dividing up the loot?
A girl, maybe two girls,
for each man,
And for Sisera a bright silk shirt,
a prize, fancy silk shirt!
And a colorful scarf—make it two scarves—
to grace the neck of the plunderer.”
31 Thus may all God’s enemies perish,
while his lovers be like the unclouded sun.
The land was quiet for forty years.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, October 06, 2018
Read: Philippians 2:14–16
Philippians 2:14-16 English Standard Version (ESV)
14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.
INSIGHT
Paul’s words here—“Do everything without grumbling or arguing” (Philippians 2:14)—remind us of the Israelites during the Exodus. Soon after the people had experienced their miraculous deliverance from slavery, they “grumbled against Moses and Aaron” (Exodus 16:2). They even said, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt!” (v. 3). God hated their murmuring. In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians he alludes to that generation of Israelites: “Do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel” (1 Corinthians 10:10).
We’re all prone to complain; it’s the norm in this world. That’s why doing things “without grumbling or arguing” (Philippians 2:14) will set us apart in this world. When we live our lives in grateful obedience to God, we will shine “like stars in the sky” (v. 15). Our quiet and humble service will stand in stark contrast to the dissatisfied world around us. Living a quiet and peaceable life of gratitude is the real countercultural movement.
Do people avoid us because we’re always complaining? Or are they drawn to Christ because they sense His Spirit working in us to give us a grateful heart? - Tim Gustafson
Twinkle
By Elisa Morgan
Shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. Philippians 2:15–16
“Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” is an English lullaby. Its lyrics, originally a poem by Jane Taylor, capture the wonder of God’s universe where stars hang “up above the world so high.” In the rarely published later stanzas, the star acts as a guide: “As your bright and tiny spark lights the traveler in the dark.”
In Philippians, Paul challenges believers in Philippi to be blameless and pure as they “shine . . . like stars in the sky” while offering the good news of the gospel to all around them (2:15–16). We wonder how we can shine like stars. We often feel inadequate and struggle to think our “light” is bright enough to make a difference. But stars don’t try to be stars. They just are. Light changes our world. And it changes us. God brought physical light into our world (Genesis 1:3); and through Jesus, God brings spiritual light into our lives (John 1:1–4).
We who have God’s light in us are to shine in such a way that those around us see light and are drawn to its source. As effortlessly as a star hanging in the night sky, our light makes a difference because of what it is: Light! When we simply shine, we follow Paul’s directive to “hold firmly to the word of life” in a world in deep darkness, and we draw others to the source of our hope: Jesus.
Dear God, may Your light shine out of the very cracks of our beings as we hold out the Word of life to others.
Jesus brings light into our life.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, October 06, 2018
The Nature of Regeneration
When it pleased God…to reveal His Son in me… —Galatians 1:15-16
By Oswald Chambers
When it pleased God…to reveal His Son in me… —Galatians 1:15-16
If Jesus Christ is going to regenerate me, what is the problem He faces? It is simply this— I have a heredity in which I had no say or decision; I am not holy, nor am I likely to be; and if all Jesus Christ can do is tell me that I must be holy, His teaching only causes me to despair. But if Jesus Christ is truly a regenerator, someone who can put His own heredity of holiness into me, then I can begin to see what He means when He says that I have to be holy. Redemption means that Jesus Christ can put into anyone the hereditary nature that was in Himself, and all the standards He gives us are based on that nature— His teaching is meant to be applied to the life which He puts within us. The proper action on my part is simply to agree with God’s verdict on sin as judged on the Cross of Christ.
The New Testament teaching about regeneration is that when a person is hit by his own sense of need, God will put the Holy Spirit into his spirit, and his personal spirit will be energized by the Spirit of the Son of God— “…until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). The moral miracle of redemption is that God can put a new nature into me through which I can live a totally new life. When I finally reach the edge of my need and know my own limitations, then Jesus says, “Blessed are you…” (Matthew 5:11). But I must get to that point. God cannot put into me, the responsible moral person that I am, the nature that was in Jesus Christ unless I am aware of my need for it.
Just as the nature of sin entered into the human race through one man, the Holy Spirit entered into the human race through another Man (see Romans 5:12-19). And redemption means that I can be delivered from the heredity of sin, and that through Jesus Christ I can receive a pure and spotless heredity, namely, the Holy Spirit.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Christian Church should not be a secret society of specialists, but a public manifestation of believers in Jesus. Facing Reality, 34 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, October 5, 2018
Hollow On the Inside - #8280
There's this unforgettable drive above the Hudson River; in fact, the highway just kind of hangs out on Storm King Mountain. (I love that name.) It's a few miles north of New York City and as you look down on the Hudson River you get this incredible view. Now every time I've been able to catch a glance down there at this view of the Hudson, I've been fascinated with this castle. It sits right in the middle of the river on an island. It's kind of like a Robin Hood type of castle. Well, some years ago my wife and I got to take a cruise along the Hudson River and I could take an extended look at that castle. We went right past it, and our tour guide said, "That's Bannerman Castle." Mr. Bannerman, apparently, was an arms dealer for many, many years, and over many decades there are a lot of very interesting stories about people coming and going for weapons all through the wars and all kinds of things. Then in the 1960's there was a large explosion there on the island. What about the castle? Well, I was surprised to learn the truth about that castle.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Hollow on the Inside."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 23, beginning at verse 25. But first, I have to tell you that Bannerman Castle according to the tour guide, though it's very impressive on the outside, is now hollow on the inside. Okay, now listen to what Jesus says about human Bannerman Castles. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish but inside they are full of greed and self indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First, clean the inside of the cup and dish, then the outside also will be clean. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness."
Look at this. Jesus says there are people that look great on the outside, religious on the outside, but they've got big problems on the inside. This could be you. I mean it could be true of a marriage, it could be true of a church, an organization, a leader, you and me.
You know we live in a world where image and appearance are everything. You know we work on our fitness, and our hair, and our wardrobe, making good comments, making good impressions, looking like we have it all together, but then maybe there's another you. When you're alone, when you're thinking honestly, can you feel that emptiness inside...that hollowness? You can't explain it but you can't deny it! And beneath the image you know the darkness, you know the sin. You know the struggle that's in there. Like one young woman said, "There's a darkness inside me that scares me." Well, eventually it's all going to collapse.
Mickey Mantle said before his death, "I filled my emptiness with alcohol." Listen to what Jesus said in John 8:12, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness." Jesus is saying, "Invite me into that inner darkness; invite me into that emptiness. I can fill it." He said later in this chapter in Matthew 23, "How often I have longed to gather your children together, but you were not willing."
Jesus says that he has been knocking on the door of your life. Why don't you give the emptiness and the darkness to the One who already knows all about you, who sees past the image, who can forgive that sin, who can clean out that darkness, and who can let you go free from it? Let it bring you not to depression, but to the cross of Jesus where he died knowing the sin inside of you and wanting to forgive you and set you free. You need to clean it up, not cover it up. Say, "Lord, I need a Savior, no more trusting in me. It's all in your hands; I'm all in your hands now from this day on, Jesus."
Look, our website is there for a crossroads moment like this in your life; literally, a road that goes to the cross. I hope you'll go there and see from God's Word what you need to know to begin a relationship with Jesus Christ. It's ANewStory.com.
Jesus builds people from the inside out. So, open the door of that empty castle and let Jesus in. He'll make you strong inside and you can finally be done with that hollow spot in your heart.
Friday, October 5, 2018
Judges 4, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: AN ANCHOR FOR THE SOUL
Sometimes we just run out of hope. When we do, where can we turn? Hebrews 6:19-20 says, “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf.”
The anchor has one purpose—to steady the boat. You and I need a good anchor. Why? Because you have a valuable vessel—your soul. When God breathed into Adam, he gave him more than oxygen, he gave him a soul. The anchor for the soul is set, not on a boat or person or possession, but it is set in the inner sanctuary behind the curtain where Jesus has entered on our behalf. In other words, our anchor is set in the very throne room of God. Death, failure, betrayal, sickness, or disappointment—they cannot take your hope, because they cannot take your Jesus.
Read more Unshakable Hope
Judges 4
Deborah
4 1-3 The People of Israel kept right on doing evil in God’s sight. With Ehud dead, God sold them off to Jabin king of Canaan who ruled from Hazor. Sisera, who lived in Harosheth Haggoyim, was the commander of his army. The People of Israel cried out to God because he had cruelly oppressed them with his nine hundred iron chariots for twenty years.
4-5 Deborah was a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth. She was judge over Israel at that time. She held court under Deborah’s Palm between Ramah and Bethel in the hills of Ephraim. The People of Israel went to her in matters of justice.
6-7 She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “It has become clear that God, the God of Israel, commands you: Go to Mount Tabor and prepare for battle. Take ten companies of soldiers from Naphtali and Zebulun. I’ll take care of getting Sisera, the leader of Jabin’s army, to the Kishon River with all his chariots and troops. And I’ll make sure you win the battle.”
8 Barak said, “If you go with me, I’ll go. But if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.”
9-10 She said, “Of course I’ll go with you. But understand that with an attitude like that, there’ll be no glory in it for you. God will use a woman’s hand to take care of Sisera.”
Deborah got ready and went with Barak to Kedesh. Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali together at Kedesh. Ten companies of men followed him. And Deborah was with him.
11-13 It happened that Heber the Kenite had parted company with the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, Moses’ in-law. He was now living at Zaanannim Oak near Kedesh. They told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor. Sisera immediately called up all his chariots to the Kishon River—nine hundred iron chariots!—along with all his troops who were with him at Harosheth Haggoyim.
14 Deborah said to Barak, “Charge! This very day God has given you victory over Sisera. Isn’t God marching before you?”
Barak charged down the slopes of Mount Tabor, his ten companies following him.
15-16 God routed Sisera—all those chariots, all those troops!—before Barak. Sisera jumped out of his chariot and ran. Barak chased the chariots and troops all the way to Harosheth Haggoyim. Sisera’s entire fighting force was killed—not one man left.
17-18 Meanwhile Sisera, running for his life, headed for the tent of Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite. Jabin king of Hazor and Heber the Kenite were on good terms with one another. Jael stepped out to meet Sisera and said, “Come in, sir. Stay here with me. Don’t be afraid.”
So he went with her into her tent. She covered him with a blanket.
19 He said to her, “Please, a little water. I’m thirsty.”
She opened a bottle of milk, gave him a drink, and then covered him up again.
20 He then said, “Stand at the tent flap. If anyone comes by and asks you, ‘Is there anyone here?’ tell him, ‘No, not a soul.’”
21 Then while he was fast asleep from exhaustion, Jael wife of Heber took a tent peg and hammer, tiptoed toward him, and drove the tent peg through his temple and all the way into the ground. He convulsed and died.
22 Barak arrived in pursuit of Sisera. Jael went out to greet him. She said, “Come, I’ll show you the man you’re looking for.” He went with her and there he was—Sisera, stretched out, dead, with a tent peg through his temple.
23-24 On that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan before the People of Israel. The People of Israel pressed harder and harder on Jabin king of Canaan until there was nothing left of him.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, October 05, 2018
Read: Psalm 51:9-13
Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right[a] spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
Footnotes:
Psalm 51:10 Or steadfast
INSIGHT
David wrote Psalm 51 in repentance for his sin of adultery with Bathsheba; his deliberate actions that led to the death of her husband, Uriah; and ultimately his sin against God (v. 4). Psalm 32, also penned by David, is similar in that here too he writes from his own experience on the pain of unconfessed sin and of the blessing of repentance. Even as Christians we will sin—and sometimes again and again. At such times, if we stubbornly refuse to confess our sins, we feel the effects of the sin eating away at us spiritually, mentally, and physically (vv. 3–4). Why? Not because we’ve lost our salvation, but because we’ve driven a wedge between us and our holy God. When we come to God in sorrow for our sins and receive His forgiveness, the “joy of [our] salvation”—the joy of being in an intimate relationship with God—is restored (51:12; see 32:1–2). In both psalms, David illustrates that confession and repentance lead to God’s forgiveness, which leads to a restored relationship, which leads to great joy—and enables us to sing! (32:11).
When have you experienced restored joy after confession? - Alyson Kieda
Better Than Ever
By David H. Roper
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Psalm 51:12
The story is told of a group of salmon fishermen who gathered in a Scottish inn after a long day of fishing. As one was describing a catch to his friends, his arm swept across the table and knocked a glass against the wall, shattering it and leaving a stain on the white plaster surface. The man apologized to the innkeeper and offered to pay for the damage, but there was nothing he could do; the wall was ruined. A man seated nearby said, “Don’t worry.” Rising, he took a painting implement from his pocket and began to sketch around the ugly stain. Slowly there emerged the head of a magnificent stag. The man was Sir E. H. Landseer, Scotland’s foremost animal artist.
David, Israel’s illustrious king who penned Psalm 51, brought shame on himself and his nation by his sins. He committed adultery with the wife of one of his friends and engineered the death of that friend—both deeds worthy of death. It would seem his life was ruined. But he pled with God: “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me” (v. 12).
Like David we have shameful acts in our past and the memories that accompany them, recollections that taunt us in the middle of the night. There’s so much we wish we could undo or redo.
There is a grace that not only forgives sin but also uses it to make us better than before. God wastes nothing.
Lord, I’ve failed You again. Please forgive me again. Change me. Turn me around. Teach me to follow Your ways.
God has both an all-seeing eye and all-forgiving heart.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, October 05, 2018
The Nature of Degeneration
Just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned… —Romans 5:12
The Bible does not say that God punished the human race for one man’s sin, but that the nature of sin, namely, my claim to my right to myself, entered into the human race through one man. But it also says that another Man took upon Himself the sin of the human race and put it away— an infinitely more profound revelation (see Hebrews 9:26). The nature of sin is not immorality and wrongdoing, but the nature of self-realization which leads us to say, “I am my own god.” This nature may exhibit itself in proper morality or in improper immorality, but it always has a common basis— my claim to my right to myself. When our Lord faced either people with all the forces of evil in them, or people who were clean-living, moral, and upright, He paid no attention to the moral degradation of one, nor any attention to the moral attainment of the other. He looked at something we do not see, namely, the nature of man (see John 2:25).
Sin is something I am born with and cannot touch— only God touches sin through redemption. It is through the Cross of Christ that God redeemed the entire human race from the possibility of damnation through the heredity of sin. God nowhere holds a person responsible for having the heredity of sin, and does not condemn anyone because of it. Condemnation comes when I realize that Jesus Christ came to deliver me from this heredity of sin, and yet I refuse to let Him do so. From that moment I begin to get the seal of damnation. “This is the condemnation [and the critical moment], that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light…” (John 3:19).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Seeing is never believing: we interpret what we see in the light of what we believe. Faith is confidence in God before you see God emerging; therefore the nature of faith is that it must be tried. He Shall Glorify Me, 494 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, October 05, 2018
How to Never Be Satisfied - #8279
Hey, if you're looking for a great real estate deal, don't go looking in the metropolitan New York area. Yeah, housing in the metro New York area is just really expensive. When people from another part of the country start looking at home prices there, they usually get a paralyzing case of sticker shock. When our friend Rachel and her husband moved to the New York area to serve the Lord, they went through that cost-of-living trauma. Rachel was talking one day to my wife about this and it led her to tell about a minor, but particularly irritating, frustration she had with their house. It was about that pipe in the corner of the dining room. Rachel said, "I have wallpapered the room. I have tried everything to get that dumb pipe to blend in, but nothing works! It's ugly!" Then she paused for a moment and she said, "You know, I told God I'd live in a grass hut in Africa if He called me to, and I meant it! Why can't I live in a house with an ugly pipe in New Jersey?" Then Rachel answered her own question. "I know why." The diagnosis that followed might provide an x-ray of what's going on in you.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Never Be Satisfied."
Our friend said, "My problem is comparing." She was comparing what she had to what others around her had. And since others around her were in nicer homes, she couldn't be content with hers. Now, if she had been in a place where everyone lived in a grass hut, she could have been content with a grass hut I suppose.
Content. Doesn't just the sound of the word make you feel kind of quiet and peaceful inside. Our word for today from the Word of God is about it; it comes from 1 Timothy 6:6-8. "Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we'll be content with that." So, Paul boldly affirmed that contentment has nothing to do with your surroundings when he wrote this from a dismal prison cell, "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength." (Philippians 4:12-13)
Discontentment. That's an ugly word – never satisfied, forever frustrated, constantly turbulent inside. And like our friend pointed out, discontentment seems to always start with comparing. And we invariably compare our situation with what looks like greener grass with someone who is better off than we are.
So you decide how you're going to feel about where you are by comparing yourself with someone who makes more money than you do; who has more house than you do; who you think is better looking or more talented than you are. Maybe you're comparing your ministry to someone else's, or your job, or how you're being treated. There's probably some arena of your life where you are especially susceptible to comparing yourself. Well, congratulations. You have found the secret of never being satisfied with your life!
So how do we find that contentment that the Bible calls "great gain"? For starters, if you must compare, compare yourself with the people who are worse off than you are. There are many, many of them. And focus on the God you belong to who is working out a unique plan just for you, unlike anyone else's on earth. As part of His plan, there will always be people with more of what you want and people with less than what you have. He's measuring out yours in the amounts that will most make you like Jesus and help you be what He made you to be.
You're unique! God's plans for you are unique! So comparing makes no sense and it's an insult to the Heavenly Father who is providing everything you need. One day when Peter was comparing God's plans for him with God's plans for John, Peter asked, "Lord, what about him?" Jesus said to him what He might want to say about you and your comparing things, "What is that to you? You must follow me."
Sometimes we just run out of hope. When we do, where can we turn? Hebrews 6:19-20 says, “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf.”
The anchor has one purpose—to steady the boat. You and I need a good anchor. Why? Because you have a valuable vessel—your soul. When God breathed into Adam, he gave him more than oxygen, he gave him a soul. The anchor for the soul is set, not on a boat or person or possession, but it is set in the inner sanctuary behind the curtain where Jesus has entered on our behalf. In other words, our anchor is set in the very throne room of God. Death, failure, betrayal, sickness, or disappointment—they cannot take your hope, because they cannot take your Jesus.
Read more Unshakable Hope
Judges 4
Deborah
4 1-3 The People of Israel kept right on doing evil in God’s sight. With Ehud dead, God sold them off to Jabin king of Canaan who ruled from Hazor. Sisera, who lived in Harosheth Haggoyim, was the commander of his army. The People of Israel cried out to God because he had cruelly oppressed them with his nine hundred iron chariots for twenty years.
4-5 Deborah was a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth. She was judge over Israel at that time. She held court under Deborah’s Palm between Ramah and Bethel in the hills of Ephraim. The People of Israel went to her in matters of justice.
6-7 She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “It has become clear that God, the God of Israel, commands you: Go to Mount Tabor and prepare for battle. Take ten companies of soldiers from Naphtali and Zebulun. I’ll take care of getting Sisera, the leader of Jabin’s army, to the Kishon River with all his chariots and troops. And I’ll make sure you win the battle.”
8 Barak said, “If you go with me, I’ll go. But if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.”
9-10 She said, “Of course I’ll go with you. But understand that with an attitude like that, there’ll be no glory in it for you. God will use a woman’s hand to take care of Sisera.”
Deborah got ready and went with Barak to Kedesh. Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali together at Kedesh. Ten companies of men followed him. And Deborah was with him.
11-13 It happened that Heber the Kenite had parted company with the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, Moses’ in-law. He was now living at Zaanannim Oak near Kedesh. They told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor. Sisera immediately called up all his chariots to the Kishon River—nine hundred iron chariots!—along with all his troops who were with him at Harosheth Haggoyim.
14 Deborah said to Barak, “Charge! This very day God has given you victory over Sisera. Isn’t God marching before you?”
Barak charged down the slopes of Mount Tabor, his ten companies following him.
15-16 God routed Sisera—all those chariots, all those troops!—before Barak. Sisera jumped out of his chariot and ran. Barak chased the chariots and troops all the way to Harosheth Haggoyim. Sisera’s entire fighting force was killed—not one man left.
17-18 Meanwhile Sisera, running for his life, headed for the tent of Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite. Jabin king of Hazor and Heber the Kenite were on good terms with one another. Jael stepped out to meet Sisera and said, “Come in, sir. Stay here with me. Don’t be afraid.”
So he went with her into her tent. She covered him with a blanket.
19 He said to her, “Please, a little water. I’m thirsty.”
She opened a bottle of milk, gave him a drink, and then covered him up again.
20 He then said, “Stand at the tent flap. If anyone comes by and asks you, ‘Is there anyone here?’ tell him, ‘No, not a soul.’”
21 Then while he was fast asleep from exhaustion, Jael wife of Heber took a tent peg and hammer, tiptoed toward him, and drove the tent peg through his temple and all the way into the ground. He convulsed and died.
22 Barak arrived in pursuit of Sisera. Jael went out to greet him. She said, “Come, I’ll show you the man you’re looking for.” He went with her and there he was—Sisera, stretched out, dead, with a tent peg through his temple.
23-24 On that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan before the People of Israel. The People of Israel pressed harder and harder on Jabin king of Canaan until there was nothing left of him.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, October 05, 2018
Read: Psalm 51:9-13
Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right[a] spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
Footnotes:
Psalm 51:10 Or steadfast
INSIGHT
David wrote Psalm 51 in repentance for his sin of adultery with Bathsheba; his deliberate actions that led to the death of her husband, Uriah; and ultimately his sin against God (v. 4). Psalm 32, also penned by David, is similar in that here too he writes from his own experience on the pain of unconfessed sin and of the blessing of repentance. Even as Christians we will sin—and sometimes again and again. At such times, if we stubbornly refuse to confess our sins, we feel the effects of the sin eating away at us spiritually, mentally, and physically (vv. 3–4). Why? Not because we’ve lost our salvation, but because we’ve driven a wedge between us and our holy God. When we come to God in sorrow for our sins and receive His forgiveness, the “joy of [our] salvation”—the joy of being in an intimate relationship with God—is restored (51:12; see 32:1–2). In both psalms, David illustrates that confession and repentance lead to God’s forgiveness, which leads to a restored relationship, which leads to great joy—and enables us to sing! (32:11).
When have you experienced restored joy after confession? - Alyson Kieda
Better Than Ever
By David H. Roper
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Psalm 51:12
The story is told of a group of salmon fishermen who gathered in a Scottish inn after a long day of fishing. As one was describing a catch to his friends, his arm swept across the table and knocked a glass against the wall, shattering it and leaving a stain on the white plaster surface. The man apologized to the innkeeper and offered to pay for the damage, but there was nothing he could do; the wall was ruined. A man seated nearby said, “Don’t worry.” Rising, he took a painting implement from his pocket and began to sketch around the ugly stain. Slowly there emerged the head of a magnificent stag. The man was Sir E. H. Landseer, Scotland’s foremost animal artist.
David, Israel’s illustrious king who penned Psalm 51, brought shame on himself and his nation by his sins. He committed adultery with the wife of one of his friends and engineered the death of that friend—both deeds worthy of death. It would seem his life was ruined. But he pled with God: “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me” (v. 12).
Like David we have shameful acts in our past and the memories that accompany them, recollections that taunt us in the middle of the night. There’s so much we wish we could undo or redo.
There is a grace that not only forgives sin but also uses it to make us better than before. God wastes nothing.
Lord, I’ve failed You again. Please forgive me again. Change me. Turn me around. Teach me to follow Your ways.
God has both an all-seeing eye and all-forgiving heart.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, October 05, 2018
The Nature of Degeneration
Just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned… —Romans 5:12
The Bible does not say that God punished the human race for one man’s sin, but that the nature of sin, namely, my claim to my right to myself, entered into the human race through one man. But it also says that another Man took upon Himself the sin of the human race and put it away— an infinitely more profound revelation (see Hebrews 9:26). The nature of sin is not immorality and wrongdoing, but the nature of self-realization which leads us to say, “I am my own god.” This nature may exhibit itself in proper morality or in improper immorality, but it always has a common basis— my claim to my right to myself. When our Lord faced either people with all the forces of evil in them, or people who were clean-living, moral, and upright, He paid no attention to the moral degradation of one, nor any attention to the moral attainment of the other. He looked at something we do not see, namely, the nature of man (see John 2:25).
Sin is something I am born with and cannot touch— only God touches sin through redemption. It is through the Cross of Christ that God redeemed the entire human race from the possibility of damnation through the heredity of sin. God nowhere holds a person responsible for having the heredity of sin, and does not condemn anyone because of it. Condemnation comes when I realize that Jesus Christ came to deliver me from this heredity of sin, and yet I refuse to let Him do so. From that moment I begin to get the seal of damnation. “This is the condemnation [and the critical moment], that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light…” (John 3:19).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Seeing is never believing: we interpret what we see in the light of what we believe. Faith is confidence in God before you see God emerging; therefore the nature of faith is that it must be tried. He Shall Glorify Me, 494 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, October 05, 2018
How to Never Be Satisfied - #8279
Hey, if you're looking for a great real estate deal, don't go looking in the metropolitan New York area. Yeah, housing in the metro New York area is just really expensive. When people from another part of the country start looking at home prices there, they usually get a paralyzing case of sticker shock. When our friend Rachel and her husband moved to the New York area to serve the Lord, they went through that cost-of-living trauma. Rachel was talking one day to my wife about this and it led her to tell about a minor, but particularly irritating, frustration she had with their house. It was about that pipe in the corner of the dining room. Rachel said, "I have wallpapered the room. I have tried everything to get that dumb pipe to blend in, but nothing works! It's ugly!" Then she paused for a moment and she said, "You know, I told God I'd live in a grass hut in Africa if He called me to, and I meant it! Why can't I live in a house with an ugly pipe in New Jersey?" Then Rachel answered her own question. "I know why." The diagnosis that followed might provide an x-ray of what's going on in you.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Never Be Satisfied."
Our friend said, "My problem is comparing." She was comparing what she had to what others around her had. And since others around her were in nicer homes, she couldn't be content with hers. Now, if she had been in a place where everyone lived in a grass hut, she could have been content with a grass hut I suppose.
Content. Doesn't just the sound of the word make you feel kind of quiet and peaceful inside. Our word for today from the Word of God is about it; it comes from 1 Timothy 6:6-8. "Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we'll be content with that." So, Paul boldly affirmed that contentment has nothing to do with your surroundings when he wrote this from a dismal prison cell, "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength." (Philippians 4:12-13)
Discontentment. That's an ugly word – never satisfied, forever frustrated, constantly turbulent inside. And like our friend pointed out, discontentment seems to always start with comparing. And we invariably compare our situation with what looks like greener grass with someone who is better off than we are.
So you decide how you're going to feel about where you are by comparing yourself with someone who makes more money than you do; who has more house than you do; who you think is better looking or more talented than you are. Maybe you're comparing your ministry to someone else's, or your job, or how you're being treated. There's probably some arena of your life where you are especially susceptible to comparing yourself. Well, congratulations. You have found the secret of never being satisfied with your life!
So how do we find that contentment that the Bible calls "great gain"? For starters, if you must compare, compare yourself with the people who are worse off than you are. There are many, many of them. And focus on the God you belong to who is working out a unique plan just for you, unlike anyone else's on earth. As part of His plan, there will always be people with more of what you want and people with less than what you have. He's measuring out yours in the amounts that will most make you like Jesus and help you be what He made you to be.
You're unique! God's plans for you are unique! So comparing makes no sense and it's an insult to the Heavenly Father who is providing everything you need. One day when Peter was comparing God's plans for him with God's plans for John, Peter asked, "Lord, what about him?" Jesus said to him what He might want to say about you and your comparing things, "What is that to you? You must follow me."
Thursday, October 4, 2018
Luke 13:1-22, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: GOD DOES ALL THE WORK
Salvation, from beginning to end, is a work of our Father. God doesn’t stand on a mountain and tell us to climb it and find him. He comes down into our dark valley and finds us. He doesn’t offer to complete the work if we will start it. He does all the work, from beginning to end. He washes our sins without our help. What a gift God has given you. Your salvation is guaranteed. Your name is written in the only book that matters.
This is the message of God, the promise of grace. Grace is entirely God’s. No condemnation, Scripture says. Not limited condemnation or appropriate condemnation. That’s what people give. What does God give his children? No condemnation. Let this promise be declared: “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!
Read more Unshakable Hope
Luke 13:1-22
Unless You Turn to God
13 1-5 About that time some people came up and told him about the Galileans Pilate had killed while they were at worship, mixing their blood with the blood of the sacrifices on the altar. Jesus responded, “Do you think those murdered Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans? Not at all. Unless you turn to God, you, too, will die. And those eighteen in Jerusalem the other day, the ones crushed and killed when the Tower of Siloam collapsed and fell on them, do you think they were worse citizens than all other Jerusalemites? Not at all. Unless you turn to God, you, too, will die.”
6-7 Then he told them a story: “A man had an apple tree planted in his front yard. He came to it expecting to find apples, but there weren’t any. He said to his gardener, ‘What’s going on here? For three years now I’ve come to this tree expecting apples and not one apple have I found. Chop it down! Why waste good ground with it any longer?’
8-9 “The gardener said, ‘Let’s give it another year. I’ll dig around it and fertilize, and maybe it will produce next year; if it doesn’t, then chop it down.’”
Healing on the Sabbath
10-13 He was teaching in one of the meeting places on the Sabbath. There was a woman present, so twisted and bent over with arthritis that she couldn’t even look up. She had been afflicted with this for eighteen years. When Jesus saw her, he called her over. “Woman, you’re free!” He laid hands on her and suddenly she was standing straight and tall, giving glory to God.
14 The meeting-place president, furious because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the congregation, “Six days have been defined as work days. Come on one of the six if you want to be healed, but not on the seventh, the Sabbath.”
15-16 But Jesus shot back, “You frauds! Each Sabbath every one of you regularly unties your cow or donkey from its stall, leads it out for water, and thinks nothing of it. So why isn’t it all right for me to untie this daughter of Abraham and lead her from the stall where Satan has had her tied these eighteen years?”
17 When he put it that way, his critics were left looking quite silly and red-faced. The congregation was delighted and cheered him on.
The Way to God
18-19 Then he said, “How can I picture God’s kingdom for you? What kind of story can I use? It’s like a pine nut that a man plants in his front yard. It grows into a huge pine tree with thick branches, and eagles build nests in it.”
20-21 He tried again. “How can I picture God’s kingdom? It’s like yeast that a woman works into enough dough for three loaves of bread—and waits while the dough rises.”
22 He went on teaching from town to village, village to town, but keeping on a steady course toward Jerusalem.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, October 04, 2018
Read: Ephesians 6:10–18
The Whole Armor of God
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,
INSIGHT
The “full armor of God” in Ephesians 6:10–17 is God’s provision for us as we seek to live for Him in this world. Paul was under house arrest in Rome as he wrote the letter to the Ephesians, so the armor imagery would have been forefront in his mind. He had been under the close guard of Roman soldiers (the palace guard, see Philippians 1:12–14) for more than two years. With long experience in the presence of Roman soldiers, Paul’s description of their armor was a useful image and an accessible word picture for his first readers.
As you consider the different elements of Roman armor, consider the practical way each piece protected the soldier. How is Paul using those ideas to express how God enables us to stand against evil?- Bill Crowder
Courageous Stand
By Bill Crowder
Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world. Ephesians 6:12
Teresa Prekerowa was just a teenager when the Nazis invaded her native Poland at the dawn of World War II. This was in the beginnings of the Holocaust when her Jewish neighbors began to disappear—arrested by the Nazis. So Teresa and other Polish countrymen risked their lives to rescue those neighbors from the Warsaw ghetto and the Nazi purge. Teresa would become one of the premier historians of the war and the Holocaust, but it was her courage to stand against the tide of evil that would list her with the Righteous Among the Nations at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.
Courage is needed to stand against evil. Paul told the church at Ephesus, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil” (Ephesians 6:12). Clearly this unseen opposition is more than any of us can face alone, so God has given us the necessary spiritual resources (the “full armor of God”) to enable us to “stand against the devil’s schemes” (v. 11).
What might that courageous stand involve? It may be working against injustice or intervening on behalf of someone you know who is vulnerable or victimized. Whatever form the conflict may take, we can have courage—our God has already provided what we need to stand for Him and against evil.
Listen to the Discover the Word program “Brave Enough” at discovertheword.org/series/brave-enough.
God enables us to stand for Him.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, October 04, 2018
The Vision and The Reality
…to those who are…called to be saints… —1 Corinthians 1:2
Thank God for being able to see all that you have not yet been. You have had the vision, but you are not yet to the reality of it by any means. It is when we are in the valley, where we prove whether we will be the choice ones, that most of us turn back. We are not quite prepared for the bumps and bruises that must come if we are going to be turned into the shape of the vision. We have seen what we are not, and what God wants us to be, but are we willing to be battered into the shape of the vision to be used by God? The beatings will always come in the most common, everyday ways and through common, everyday people.
There are times when we do know what God’s purpose is; whether we will let the vision be turned into actual character depends on us, not on God. If we prefer to relax on the mountaintop and live in the memory of the vision, then we will be of no real use in the ordinary things of which human life is made. We have to learn to live in reliance upon what we saw in the vision, not simply live in ecstatic delight and conscious reflection upon God. This means living the realities of our lives in the light of the vision until the truth of the vision is actually realized in us. Every bit of our training is in that direction. Learn to thank God for making His demands known.
Our little “I am” always sulks and pouts when God says do. Let your little “I am” be shriveled up in God’s wrath and indignation— “I AM WHO I AM…has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14). He must dominate. Isn’t it piercing to realize that God not only knows where we live, but also knows the gutters into which we crawl! He will hunt us down as fast as a flash of lightning. No human being knows human beings as God does.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is nothing, naturally speaking, that makes us lose heart quicker than decay—the decay of bodily beauty, of natural life, of friendship, of associations, all these things make a man lose heart; but Paul says when we are trusting in Jesus Christ these things do not find us discouraged, light comes through them. The Place of Help, 1032 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, October 04, 2018
How to Never Be Satisfied - #8279
Hey, if you're looking for a great real estate deal, don't go looking in the metropolitan New York area. Yeah, housing in the metro New York area is just really expensive. When people from another part of the country start looking at home prices there, they usually get a paralyzing case of sticker shock. When our friend Rachel and her husband moved to the New York area to serve the Lord, they went through that cost-of-living trauma. Rachel was talking one day to my wife about this and it led her to tell about a minor, but particularly irritating, frustration she had with their house. It was about that pipe in the corner of the dining room. Rachel said, "I have wallpapered the room. I have tried everything to get that dumb pipe to blend in, but nothing works! It's ugly!" Then she paused for a moment and she said, "You know, I told God I'd live in a grass hut in Africa if He called me to, and I meant it! Why can't I live in a house with an ugly pipe in New Jersey?" Then Rachel answered her own question. "I know why." The diagnosis that followed might provide an x-ray of what's going on in you.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Never Be Satisfied."
Our friend said, "My problem is comparing." She was comparing what she had to what others around her had. And since others around her were in nicer homes, she couldn't be content with hers. Now, if she had been in a place where everyone lived in a grass hut, she could have been content with a grass hut I suppose.
Content. Doesn't just the sound of the word make you feel kind of quiet and peaceful inside. Our word for today from the Word of God is about it; it comes from 1 Timothy 6:6-8. "Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we'll be content with that." So, Paul boldly affirmed that contentment has nothing to do with your surroundings when he wrote this from a dismal prison cell, "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength." (Philippians 4:12-13)
Discontentment. That's an ugly word – never satisfied, forever frustrated, constantly turbulent inside. And like our friend pointed out, discontentment seems to always start with comparing. And we invariably compare our situation with what looks like greener grass with someone who is better off than we are.
So you decide how you're going to feel about where you are by comparing yourself with someone who makes more money than you do; who has more house than you do; who you think is better looking or more talented than you are. Maybe you're comparing your ministry to someone else's, or your job, or how you're being treated. There's probably some arena of your life where you are especially susceptible to comparing yourself. Well, congratulations. You have found the secret of never being satisfied with your life!
So how do we find that contentment that the Bible calls "great gain"? For starters, if you must compare, compare yourself with the people who are worse off than you are. There are many, many of them. And focus on the God you belong to who is working out a unique plan just for you, unlike anyone else's on earth. As part of His plan, there will always be people with more of what you want and people with less than what you have. He's measuring out yours in the amounts that will most make you like Jesus and help you be what He made you to be.
You're unique! God's plans for you are unique! So comparing makes no sense and it's an insult to the Heavenly Father who is providing everything you need. One day when Peter was comparing God's plans for him with God's plans for John, Peter asked, "Lord, what about him?" Jesus said to him what He might want to say about you and your comparing things, "What is that to you? You must follow me."
Salvation, from beginning to end, is a work of our Father. God doesn’t stand on a mountain and tell us to climb it and find him. He comes down into our dark valley and finds us. He doesn’t offer to complete the work if we will start it. He does all the work, from beginning to end. He washes our sins without our help. What a gift God has given you. Your salvation is guaranteed. Your name is written in the only book that matters.
This is the message of God, the promise of grace. Grace is entirely God’s. No condemnation, Scripture says. Not limited condemnation or appropriate condemnation. That’s what people give. What does God give his children? No condemnation. Let this promise be declared: “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!
Read more Unshakable Hope
Luke 13:1-22
Unless You Turn to God
13 1-5 About that time some people came up and told him about the Galileans Pilate had killed while they were at worship, mixing their blood with the blood of the sacrifices on the altar. Jesus responded, “Do you think those murdered Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans? Not at all. Unless you turn to God, you, too, will die. And those eighteen in Jerusalem the other day, the ones crushed and killed when the Tower of Siloam collapsed and fell on them, do you think they were worse citizens than all other Jerusalemites? Not at all. Unless you turn to God, you, too, will die.”
6-7 Then he told them a story: “A man had an apple tree planted in his front yard. He came to it expecting to find apples, but there weren’t any. He said to his gardener, ‘What’s going on here? For three years now I’ve come to this tree expecting apples and not one apple have I found. Chop it down! Why waste good ground with it any longer?’
8-9 “The gardener said, ‘Let’s give it another year. I’ll dig around it and fertilize, and maybe it will produce next year; if it doesn’t, then chop it down.’”
Healing on the Sabbath
10-13 He was teaching in one of the meeting places on the Sabbath. There was a woman present, so twisted and bent over with arthritis that she couldn’t even look up. She had been afflicted with this for eighteen years. When Jesus saw her, he called her over. “Woman, you’re free!” He laid hands on her and suddenly she was standing straight and tall, giving glory to God.
14 The meeting-place president, furious because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the congregation, “Six days have been defined as work days. Come on one of the six if you want to be healed, but not on the seventh, the Sabbath.”
15-16 But Jesus shot back, “You frauds! Each Sabbath every one of you regularly unties your cow or donkey from its stall, leads it out for water, and thinks nothing of it. So why isn’t it all right for me to untie this daughter of Abraham and lead her from the stall where Satan has had her tied these eighteen years?”
17 When he put it that way, his critics were left looking quite silly and red-faced. The congregation was delighted and cheered him on.
The Way to God
18-19 Then he said, “How can I picture God’s kingdom for you? What kind of story can I use? It’s like a pine nut that a man plants in his front yard. It grows into a huge pine tree with thick branches, and eagles build nests in it.”
20-21 He tried again. “How can I picture God’s kingdom? It’s like yeast that a woman works into enough dough for three loaves of bread—and waits while the dough rises.”
22 He went on teaching from town to village, village to town, but keeping on a steady course toward Jerusalem.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, October 04, 2018
Read: Ephesians 6:10–18
The Whole Armor of God
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,
INSIGHT
The “full armor of God” in Ephesians 6:10–17 is God’s provision for us as we seek to live for Him in this world. Paul was under house arrest in Rome as he wrote the letter to the Ephesians, so the armor imagery would have been forefront in his mind. He had been under the close guard of Roman soldiers (the palace guard, see Philippians 1:12–14) for more than two years. With long experience in the presence of Roman soldiers, Paul’s description of their armor was a useful image and an accessible word picture for his first readers.
As you consider the different elements of Roman armor, consider the practical way each piece protected the soldier. How is Paul using those ideas to express how God enables us to stand against evil?- Bill Crowder
Courageous Stand
By Bill Crowder
Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world. Ephesians 6:12
Teresa Prekerowa was just a teenager when the Nazis invaded her native Poland at the dawn of World War II. This was in the beginnings of the Holocaust when her Jewish neighbors began to disappear—arrested by the Nazis. So Teresa and other Polish countrymen risked their lives to rescue those neighbors from the Warsaw ghetto and the Nazi purge. Teresa would become one of the premier historians of the war and the Holocaust, but it was her courage to stand against the tide of evil that would list her with the Righteous Among the Nations at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.
Courage is needed to stand against evil. Paul told the church at Ephesus, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil” (Ephesians 6:12). Clearly this unseen opposition is more than any of us can face alone, so God has given us the necessary spiritual resources (the “full armor of God”) to enable us to “stand against the devil’s schemes” (v. 11).
What might that courageous stand involve? It may be working against injustice or intervening on behalf of someone you know who is vulnerable or victimized. Whatever form the conflict may take, we can have courage—our God has already provided what we need to stand for Him and against evil.
Listen to the Discover the Word program “Brave Enough” at discovertheword.org/series/brave-enough.
God enables us to stand for Him.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, October 04, 2018
The Vision and The Reality
…to those who are…called to be saints… —1 Corinthians 1:2
Thank God for being able to see all that you have not yet been. You have had the vision, but you are not yet to the reality of it by any means. It is when we are in the valley, where we prove whether we will be the choice ones, that most of us turn back. We are not quite prepared for the bumps and bruises that must come if we are going to be turned into the shape of the vision. We have seen what we are not, and what God wants us to be, but are we willing to be battered into the shape of the vision to be used by God? The beatings will always come in the most common, everyday ways and through common, everyday people.
There are times when we do know what God’s purpose is; whether we will let the vision be turned into actual character depends on us, not on God. If we prefer to relax on the mountaintop and live in the memory of the vision, then we will be of no real use in the ordinary things of which human life is made. We have to learn to live in reliance upon what we saw in the vision, not simply live in ecstatic delight and conscious reflection upon God. This means living the realities of our lives in the light of the vision until the truth of the vision is actually realized in us. Every bit of our training is in that direction. Learn to thank God for making His demands known.
Our little “I am” always sulks and pouts when God says do. Let your little “I am” be shriveled up in God’s wrath and indignation— “I AM WHO I AM…has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14). He must dominate. Isn’t it piercing to realize that God not only knows where we live, but also knows the gutters into which we crawl! He will hunt us down as fast as a flash of lightning. No human being knows human beings as God does.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is nothing, naturally speaking, that makes us lose heart quicker than decay—the decay of bodily beauty, of natural life, of friendship, of associations, all these things make a man lose heart; but Paul says when we are trusting in Jesus Christ these things do not find us discouraged, light comes through them. The Place of Help, 1032 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, October 04, 2018
How to Never Be Satisfied - #8279
Hey, if you're looking for a great real estate deal, don't go looking in the metropolitan New York area. Yeah, housing in the metro New York area is just really expensive. When people from another part of the country start looking at home prices there, they usually get a paralyzing case of sticker shock. When our friend Rachel and her husband moved to the New York area to serve the Lord, they went through that cost-of-living trauma. Rachel was talking one day to my wife about this and it led her to tell about a minor, but particularly irritating, frustration she had with their house. It was about that pipe in the corner of the dining room. Rachel said, "I have wallpapered the room. I have tried everything to get that dumb pipe to blend in, but nothing works! It's ugly!" Then she paused for a moment and she said, "You know, I told God I'd live in a grass hut in Africa if He called me to, and I meant it! Why can't I live in a house with an ugly pipe in New Jersey?" Then Rachel answered her own question. "I know why." The diagnosis that followed might provide an x-ray of what's going on in you.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Never Be Satisfied."
Our friend said, "My problem is comparing." She was comparing what she had to what others around her had. And since others around her were in nicer homes, she couldn't be content with hers. Now, if she had been in a place where everyone lived in a grass hut, she could have been content with a grass hut I suppose.
Content. Doesn't just the sound of the word make you feel kind of quiet and peaceful inside. Our word for today from the Word of God is about it; it comes from 1 Timothy 6:6-8. "Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we'll be content with that." So, Paul boldly affirmed that contentment has nothing to do with your surroundings when he wrote this from a dismal prison cell, "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength." (Philippians 4:12-13)
Discontentment. That's an ugly word – never satisfied, forever frustrated, constantly turbulent inside. And like our friend pointed out, discontentment seems to always start with comparing. And we invariably compare our situation with what looks like greener grass with someone who is better off than we are.
So you decide how you're going to feel about where you are by comparing yourself with someone who makes more money than you do; who has more house than you do; who you think is better looking or more talented than you are. Maybe you're comparing your ministry to someone else's, or your job, or how you're being treated. There's probably some arena of your life where you are especially susceptible to comparing yourself. Well, congratulations. You have found the secret of never being satisfied with your life!
So how do we find that contentment that the Bible calls "great gain"? For starters, if you must compare, compare yourself with the people who are worse off than you are. There are many, many of them. And focus on the God you belong to who is working out a unique plan just for you, unlike anyone else's on earth. As part of His plan, there will always be people with more of what you want and people with less than what you have. He's measuring out yours in the amounts that will most make you like Jesus and help you be what He made you to be.
You're unique! God's plans for you are unique! So comparing makes no sense and it's an insult to the Heavenly Father who is providing everything you need. One day when Peter was comparing God's plans for him with God's plans for John, Peter asked, "Lord, what about him?" Jesus said to him what He might want to say about you and your comparing things, "What is that to you? You must follow me."
Wednesday, October 3, 2018
Luke 12:32-59, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: JESUS IS COMING
Are you in the midst of a storm? The followers of Jesus were. And through the midst of the storm, He came. Matthew 14:25-26 says, “Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him they were terrified. ‘It’s a ghost,’ they said, and cried out in fear.” Jesus turned the water into a walkway. His followers called him a ghost, but Jesus still came.
Jesus was not distracted from his mission. After Jesus stilled the storm, the disciples worshipped him. “Truly you are the Son of God,” they said. With a stilled boat as their altar and beating hearts as their liturgy, they worshipped Jesus. May you and I do the same. Storms still come but so does Jesus!
Read more Unshakable Hope
Luke 12:32-59
“What I’m trying to do here is get you to relax, not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Don’t be afraid of missing out. You’re my dearest friends! The Father wants to give you the very kingdom itself.
33-34 “Be generous. Give to the poor. Get yourselves a bank that can’t go bankrupt, a bank in heaven far from bankrobbers, safe from embezzlers, a bank you can bank on. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.
When the Master Shows Up
35-38 “Keep your shirts on; keep the lights on! Be like house servants waiting for their master to come back from his honeymoon, awake and ready to open the door when he arrives and knocks. Lucky the servants whom the master finds on watch! He’ll put on an apron, sit them at the table, and serve them a meal, sharing his wedding feast with them. It doesn’t matter what time of the night he arrives; they’re awake—and so blessed!
39-40 “You know that if the house owner had known what night the burglar was coming, he wouldn’t have stayed out late and left the place unlocked. So don’t you be slovenly and careless. Just when you don’t expect him, the Son of Man will show up.”
41 Peter said, “Master, are you telling this story just for us? Or is it for everybody?”
42-46 The Master said, “Let me ask you: Who is the dependable manager, full of common sense, that the master puts in charge of his staff to feed them well and on time? He is a blessed man if when the master shows up he’s doing his job. But if he says to himself, ‘The master is certainly taking his time,’ begins maltreating the servants and maids, throws parties for his friends, and gets drunk, the master will walk in when he least expects it, give him the thrashing of his life, and put him back in the kitchen peeling potatoes.
47-48 “The servant who knows what his master wants and ignores it, or insolently does whatever he pleases, will be thoroughly thrashed. But if he does a poor job through ignorance, he’ll get off with a slap on the hand. Great gifts mean great responsibilities; greater gifts, greater responsibilities!
To Start a Fire
49-53 “I’ve come to start a fire on this earth—how I wish it were blazing right now! I’ve come to change everything, turn everything rightside up—how I long for it to be finished! Do you think I came to smooth things over and make everything nice? Not so. I’ve come to disrupt and confront! From now on, when you find five in a house, it will be—
Three against two,
and two against three;
Father against son,
and son against father;
Mother against daughter,
and daughter against mother;
Mother-in-law against bride,
and bride against mother-in-law.”
54-56 Then he turned to the crowd: “When you see clouds coming in from the west, you say, ‘Storm’s coming’—and you’re right. And when the wind comes out of the south, you say, ‘This’ll be a hot one’—and you’re right. Frauds! You know how to tell a change in the weather, so don’t tell me you can’t tell a change in the season, the God-season we’re in right now.
57-59 “You don’t have to be a genius to understand these things. Just use your common sense, the kind you’d use if, while being taken to court, you decided to settle up with your accuser on the way, knowing that if the case went to the judge you’d probably go to jail and pay every last penny of the fine. That’s the kind of decision I’m asking you to make.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, October 03, 2018
Read: Mark 10:46–52
Jesus Heals Blind Bartimaeus
46 And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. 47 And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 49 And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.” 50 And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. 51 And Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.” 52 And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.
INSIGHT
Today’s story is a beautiful picture of the compassion of our Savior. Even to those He initially refused to help (see the story of the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:21–28), He stretched out a merciful and loving hand. All of His actions proved the claim He made at the beginning of His ministry—He was anointed by God and came “to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18–19).
But while Jesus is the epitome of mercy, He didn’t heal everyone. In the stories recorded in Scripture, we are told He healed all who came to him (see Matthew 8:16). But that’s the qualification—they came to Him. He healed all who admitted their need of something only He could provide.
Jesus still welcomes everyone who comes to Him. He may not always heal in the same way He did while He was here on Earth, but He still offers forgiveness and salvation to anyone who asks. - J.R. Hudberg
Asking for Help
By Patricia Raybon
“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. Mark 10:51
Her email arrived late in a long day. In truth, I didn’t open it. I was working overtime to help a family member manage his serious illness. I didn’t have time, therefore, for social distractions.
The next morning, however, when I clicked on my friend’s message, I saw this question: “Can I help you in any way?” Feeling embarrassed, I started to answer no. Then I took a deep breath to pause. I noticed then that her question sounded familiar—if not divine.
That’s because Jesus asked it. Hearing a blind beggar call out to Him on the Jericho Road, Jesus stopped to ask this man, named Bartimaeus, a similar question. Can I help? Or as Jesus said: “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mark 10:51).
The question is stunning. It shows the Healer, Jesus, longs to help us. But first, we’re invited to admit needing Him—a humbling step. The “professional” beggar Bartimaeus was needy, indeed—poor, alone, and possibly hungry and downcast. But wanting a new life, he simply told Jesus his most basic need. “Rabbi,” he said, “I want to see.”
For a blind man, it was an honest plea. Jesus healed him immediately. My friend sought such honesty from me too. So I promised her I’d pray to understand my basic need and, more important, I’d humbly tell her. Do you know your basic need today? When a friend asks, tell it. Then take your plea even higher. Tell God.
Lord, I am needy. I want to share my heart with You now. Help me to humbly receive the help of others also.
Welcome to Patricia Raybon! Meet all our authors at odb.org/all-authors.
God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble. 1 Peter 5:5
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, October 03, 2018
The Place of Ministry
He said to them, "This kind [of unclean spirit] can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting." —Mark 9:29
“His disciples asked Him privately, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’ ” (Mark 9:28). The answer lies in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. “This kind can come out by nothing but” concentrating on Him, and then doubling and redoubling that concentration on Him. We can remain powerless forever, as the disciples were in this situation, by trying to do God’s work without concentrating on His power, and by following instead the ideas that we draw from our own nature. We actually slander and dishonor God by our very eagerness to serve Him without knowing Him.
When you are brought face to face with a difficult situation and nothing happens externally, you can still know that freedom and release will be given because of your continued concentration on Jesus Christ. Your duty in service and ministry is to see that there is nothing between Jesus and yourself. Is there anything between you and Jesus even now? If there is, you must get through it, not by ignoring it as an irritation, or by going up and over it, but by facing it and getting through it into the presence of Jesus Christ. Then that very problem itself, and all that you have been through in connection with it, will glorify Jesus Christ in a way that you will never know until you see Him face to face.
We must be able to “mount up with wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:31), but we must also know how to come down. The power of the saint lies in the coming down and in the living that is done in the valley. Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13) and what he was referring to were mostly humiliating things. And yet it is in our power to refuse to be humiliated and to say, “No, thank you, I much prefer to be on the mountaintop with God.” Can I face things as they actually are in the light of the reality of Jesus Christ, or do things as they really are destroy my faith in Him, and put me into a panic?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We all have the trick of saying—If only I were not where I am!—If only I had not got the kind of people I have to live with! If our faith or our religion does not help us in the conditions we are in, we have either a further struggle to go through, or we had better abandon that faith and religion. The Shadow of an Agony, 1178 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, October 03, 2018
The Only Impression That Matters - #8278
Dr. Harry Ironside used to tell a story about a man who lived in a small country town in England. One day, he went to London where he would need to stay for several days. He was glad to be there on a Sunday because that gave him opportunity to hear some of the great preachers of his day. He wrote home to his wife, and he said: "Last Sunday morning I went to hear Dr. Jones, and in the evening I went to the Metropolitan Tabernacle to hear Charles Spurgeon. I was so greatly impressed by both of them. Dr. Jones is certainly a great preacher, but Mr. Spurgeon has a great Savior."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Only Impression That Matters."
So who are people impressed with after they have been with you? Are they impressed with you, or are they impressed with your Jesus? In many ways, that's the measure of the authenticity and the impact of your life.
There have been few more brilliant, more gifted men to walk this planet than the great Apostle Paul. But he didn't want people thinking about him. He wanted to leave people thinking about Jesus. He says so in our word for today from the Word of God in 2 Corinthians 4:5, "We do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." He's saying it's not about us, folks. It's all about Jesus. And that's a relief!
I'm guessing there are some people close to you who do not have a relationship with Jesus and therefore they have no hope of heaven because they don't have Him. And there are probably some of them at least who you've never told about what Jesus did for them, and I bet I can guess why. That would be one word-fear. Am I right? Fear of what they'll think, fear for your relationship or your position, fear of messing it up, or fear of rejection. All the fears that keep us from telling about Jesus have one thing in common. They're all about me. They might reject me, they might think less of me, or I might mess it up. We trip over our preoccupation with ourselves and we never get to the people whose eternity depends on them hearing about our Jesus.
But it's not about me. "We preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord." It's all about Jesus. That's why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:2, "I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." There it is, Jesus and His cross. That's your message. Knowing what Jesus did for them on the cross-that's really the only impression that matters. So, don't encumber the simplicity of that glorious Good News with other things like church, religion, cultural issues, politics, lifestyle issues. There's no point in attacking the lost lifestyle of a person who's lost! "What a surprise! Wow, they're acting lost!" Well they need a Savior. Let's focus on that!
There's something very wrong if you're using Jesus to make a name for yourself or to impress other people with you. You are actually hijacking His glory. And there's something wrong if you're not telling people about Jesus because of something about you. It's not who's doing the telling that's the issue; it's who you're telling about-the One who offers the greatest love in the world.
Just take them to the cross and show them that. He offers them the greatest power in the world. Take them to that empty tomb and show them that. He'll give you the words. He'll give you the opportunity, and He is your message. So make Jesus the subject. Keep Jesus the subject. Don't let religion become the subject, because Jesus made this awesome promise. He said, "When I am lifted up...I will draw all men to myself" (John 12:32).
Are you in the midst of a storm? The followers of Jesus were. And through the midst of the storm, He came. Matthew 14:25-26 says, “Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him they were terrified. ‘It’s a ghost,’ they said, and cried out in fear.” Jesus turned the water into a walkway. His followers called him a ghost, but Jesus still came.
Jesus was not distracted from his mission. After Jesus stilled the storm, the disciples worshipped him. “Truly you are the Son of God,” they said. With a stilled boat as their altar and beating hearts as their liturgy, they worshipped Jesus. May you and I do the same. Storms still come but so does Jesus!
Read more Unshakable Hope
Luke 12:32-59
“What I’m trying to do here is get you to relax, not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Don’t be afraid of missing out. You’re my dearest friends! The Father wants to give you the very kingdom itself.
33-34 “Be generous. Give to the poor. Get yourselves a bank that can’t go bankrupt, a bank in heaven far from bankrobbers, safe from embezzlers, a bank you can bank on. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.
When the Master Shows Up
35-38 “Keep your shirts on; keep the lights on! Be like house servants waiting for their master to come back from his honeymoon, awake and ready to open the door when he arrives and knocks. Lucky the servants whom the master finds on watch! He’ll put on an apron, sit them at the table, and serve them a meal, sharing his wedding feast with them. It doesn’t matter what time of the night he arrives; they’re awake—and so blessed!
39-40 “You know that if the house owner had known what night the burglar was coming, he wouldn’t have stayed out late and left the place unlocked. So don’t you be slovenly and careless. Just when you don’t expect him, the Son of Man will show up.”
41 Peter said, “Master, are you telling this story just for us? Or is it for everybody?”
42-46 The Master said, “Let me ask you: Who is the dependable manager, full of common sense, that the master puts in charge of his staff to feed them well and on time? He is a blessed man if when the master shows up he’s doing his job. But if he says to himself, ‘The master is certainly taking his time,’ begins maltreating the servants and maids, throws parties for his friends, and gets drunk, the master will walk in when he least expects it, give him the thrashing of his life, and put him back in the kitchen peeling potatoes.
47-48 “The servant who knows what his master wants and ignores it, or insolently does whatever he pleases, will be thoroughly thrashed. But if he does a poor job through ignorance, he’ll get off with a slap on the hand. Great gifts mean great responsibilities; greater gifts, greater responsibilities!
To Start a Fire
49-53 “I’ve come to start a fire on this earth—how I wish it were blazing right now! I’ve come to change everything, turn everything rightside up—how I long for it to be finished! Do you think I came to smooth things over and make everything nice? Not so. I’ve come to disrupt and confront! From now on, when you find five in a house, it will be—
Three against two,
and two against three;
Father against son,
and son against father;
Mother against daughter,
and daughter against mother;
Mother-in-law against bride,
and bride against mother-in-law.”
54-56 Then he turned to the crowd: “When you see clouds coming in from the west, you say, ‘Storm’s coming’—and you’re right. And when the wind comes out of the south, you say, ‘This’ll be a hot one’—and you’re right. Frauds! You know how to tell a change in the weather, so don’t tell me you can’t tell a change in the season, the God-season we’re in right now.
57-59 “You don’t have to be a genius to understand these things. Just use your common sense, the kind you’d use if, while being taken to court, you decided to settle up with your accuser on the way, knowing that if the case went to the judge you’d probably go to jail and pay every last penny of the fine. That’s the kind of decision I’m asking you to make.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, October 03, 2018
Read: Mark 10:46–52
Jesus Heals Blind Bartimaeus
46 And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. 47 And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 49 And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.” 50 And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. 51 And Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.” 52 And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.
INSIGHT
Today’s story is a beautiful picture of the compassion of our Savior. Even to those He initially refused to help (see the story of the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:21–28), He stretched out a merciful and loving hand. All of His actions proved the claim He made at the beginning of His ministry—He was anointed by God and came “to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18–19).
But while Jesus is the epitome of mercy, He didn’t heal everyone. In the stories recorded in Scripture, we are told He healed all who came to him (see Matthew 8:16). But that’s the qualification—they came to Him. He healed all who admitted their need of something only He could provide.
Jesus still welcomes everyone who comes to Him. He may not always heal in the same way He did while He was here on Earth, but He still offers forgiveness and salvation to anyone who asks. - J.R. Hudberg
Asking for Help
By Patricia Raybon
“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. Mark 10:51
Her email arrived late in a long day. In truth, I didn’t open it. I was working overtime to help a family member manage his serious illness. I didn’t have time, therefore, for social distractions.
The next morning, however, when I clicked on my friend’s message, I saw this question: “Can I help you in any way?” Feeling embarrassed, I started to answer no. Then I took a deep breath to pause. I noticed then that her question sounded familiar—if not divine.
That’s because Jesus asked it. Hearing a blind beggar call out to Him on the Jericho Road, Jesus stopped to ask this man, named Bartimaeus, a similar question. Can I help? Or as Jesus said: “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mark 10:51).
The question is stunning. It shows the Healer, Jesus, longs to help us. But first, we’re invited to admit needing Him—a humbling step. The “professional” beggar Bartimaeus was needy, indeed—poor, alone, and possibly hungry and downcast. But wanting a new life, he simply told Jesus his most basic need. “Rabbi,” he said, “I want to see.”
For a blind man, it was an honest plea. Jesus healed him immediately. My friend sought such honesty from me too. So I promised her I’d pray to understand my basic need and, more important, I’d humbly tell her. Do you know your basic need today? When a friend asks, tell it. Then take your plea even higher. Tell God.
Lord, I am needy. I want to share my heart with You now. Help me to humbly receive the help of others also.
Welcome to Patricia Raybon! Meet all our authors at odb.org/all-authors.
God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble. 1 Peter 5:5
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, October 03, 2018
The Place of Ministry
He said to them, "This kind [of unclean spirit] can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting." —Mark 9:29
“His disciples asked Him privately, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’ ” (Mark 9:28). The answer lies in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. “This kind can come out by nothing but” concentrating on Him, and then doubling and redoubling that concentration on Him. We can remain powerless forever, as the disciples were in this situation, by trying to do God’s work without concentrating on His power, and by following instead the ideas that we draw from our own nature. We actually slander and dishonor God by our very eagerness to serve Him without knowing Him.
When you are brought face to face with a difficult situation and nothing happens externally, you can still know that freedom and release will be given because of your continued concentration on Jesus Christ. Your duty in service and ministry is to see that there is nothing between Jesus and yourself. Is there anything between you and Jesus even now? If there is, you must get through it, not by ignoring it as an irritation, or by going up and over it, but by facing it and getting through it into the presence of Jesus Christ. Then that very problem itself, and all that you have been through in connection with it, will glorify Jesus Christ in a way that you will never know until you see Him face to face.
We must be able to “mount up with wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:31), but we must also know how to come down. The power of the saint lies in the coming down and in the living that is done in the valley. Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13) and what he was referring to were mostly humiliating things. And yet it is in our power to refuse to be humiliated and to say, “No, thank you, I much prefer to be on the mountaintop with God.” Can I face things as they actually are in the light of the reality of Jesus Christ, or do things as they really are destroy my faith in Him, and put me into a panic?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We all have the trick of saying—If only I were not where I am!—If only I had not got the kind of people I have to live with! If our faith or our religion does not help us in the conditions we are in, we have either a further struggle to go through, or we had better abandon that faith and religion. The Shadow of an Agony, 1178 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, October 03, 2018
The Only Impression That Matters - #8278
Dr. Harry Ironside used to tell a story about a man who lived in a small country town in England. One day, he went to London where he would need to stay for several days. He was glad to be there on a Sunday because that gave him opportunity to hear some of the great preachers of his day. He wrote home to his wife, and he said: "Last Sunday morning I went to hear Dr. Jones, and in the evening I went to the Metropolitan Tabernacle to hear Charles Spurgeon. I was so greatly impressed by both of them. Dr. Jones is certainly a great preacher, but Mr. Spurgeon has a great Savior."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Only Impression That Matters."
So who are people impressed with after they have been with you? Are they impressed with you, or are they impressed with your Jesus? In many ways, that's the measure of the authenticity and the impact of your life.
There have been few more brilliant, more gifted men to walk this planet than the great Apostle Paul. But he didn't want people thinking about him. He wanted to leave people thinking about Jesus. He says so in our word for today from the Word of God in 2 Corinthians 4:5, "We do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." He's saying it's not about us, folks. It's all about Jesus. And that's a relief!
I'm guessing there are some people close to you who do not have a relationship with Jesus and therefore they have no hope of heaven because they don't have Him. And there are probably some of them at least who you've never told about what Jesus did for them, and I bet I can guess why. That would be one word-fear. Am I right? Fear of what they'll think, fear for your relationship or your position, fear of messing it up, or fear of rejection. All the fears that keep us from telling about Jesus have one thing in common. They're all about me. They might reject me, they might think less of me, or I might mess it up. We trip over our preoccupation with ourselves and we never get to the people whose eternity depends on them hearing about our Jesus.
But it's not about me. "We preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord." It's all about Jesus. That's why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:2, "I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." There it is, Jesus and His cross. That's your message. Knowing what Jesus did for them on the cross-that's really the only impression that matters. So, don't encumber the simplicity of that glorious Good News with other things like church, religion, cultural issues, politics, lifestyle issues. There's no point in attacking the lost lifestyle of a person who's lost! "What a surprise! Wow, they're acting lost!" Well they need a Savior. Let's focus on that!
There's something very wrong if you're using Jesus to make a name for yourself or to impress other people with you. You are actually hijacking His glory. And there's something wrong if you're not telling people about Jesus because of something about you. It's not who's doing the telling that's the issue; it's who you're telling about-the One who offers the greatest love in the world.
Just take them to the cross and show them that. He offers them the greatest power in the world. Take them to that empty tomb and show them that. He'll give you the words. He'll give you the opportunity, and He is your message. So make Jesus the subject. Keep Jesus the subject. Don't let religion become the subject, because Jesus made this awesome promise. He said, "When I am lifted up...I will draw all men to myself" (John 12:32).
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