Max Lucado Daily: We Have a Problem
Can you live without sin for one day? No? How about one hour? Can you do it? No…nor can I. And if we can't live without sin, we have a problem. Proverbs 10:16 says that we are evil and "evil people are paid with punishment." What can we do? Observe what Jesus does with our filth. He carries it to the Cross.
God speaks in Isaiah 50:6, "I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting." Mingled with His blood and sweat was the essence of our sin. Angels were a prayer away. Couldn't they have taken the spittle away? They could have, but Jesus never commanded them to. The One who chose the nails also chose the saliva. Why? The sinless One took on the face of a sinner, so that we sinners could take on the face of a saint!
From He Chose the Nails
Psalm 21
A David Psalm
21 1-7 Your strength, God, is the king’s strength.
Helped, he’s hollering Hosannas.
You gave him exactly what he wanted;
you didn’t hold back.
You filled his arms with gifts;
you gave him a right royal welcome.
He wanted a good life; you gave it to him,
and then made it a long life as a bonus.
You lifted him high and bright as a cumulus cloud,
then dressed him in rainbow colors.
You pile blessings on him;
you make him glad when you smile.
Is it any wonder the king loves God?
that he’s sticking with the Best?
8-12 With a fistful of enemies in one hand
and a fistful of haters in the other,
You radiate with such brilliance
that they cringe as before a furnace.
Now the furnace swallows them whole,
the fire eats them alive!
You purge the earth of their progeny,
you wipe the slate clean.
All their evil schemes, the plots they cook up,
have fizzled—every one.
You sent them packing;
they couldn’t face you.
13 Show your strength, God, so no one can miss it.
We are out singing the good news!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, March 02, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Proverbs 4:5-19
When I was a boy at my father’s knee,
the pride and joy of my mother,
He would sit me down and drill me:
“Take this to heart. Do what I tell you—live!
Sell everything and buy Wisdom! Forage for Understanding!
Don’t forget one word! Don’t deviate an inch!
Never walk away from Wisdom—she guards your life;
love her—she keeps her eye on you.
Above all and before all, do this: Get Wisdom!
Write this at the top of your list: Get Understanding!
Throw your arms around her—believe me, you won’t regret it;
never let her go—she’ll make your life glorious.
She’ll garland your life with grace,
she’ll festoon your days with beauty.”
10-15 Dear friend, take my advice;
it will add years to your life.
I’m writing out clear directions to Wisdom Way,
I’m drawing a map to Righteous Road.
I don’t want you ending up in blind alleys,
or wasting time making wrong turns.
Hold tight to good advice; don’t relax your grip.
Guard it well—your life is at stake!
Don’t take Wicked Bypass;
don’t so much as set foot on that road.
Stay clear of it; give it a wide berth.
Make a detour and be on your way.
16-17 Evil people are restless
unless they’re making trouble;
They can’t get a good night’s sleep
unless they’ve made life miserable for somebody.
Perversity is their food and drink,
violence their drug of choice.
18-19 The ways of right-living people glow with light;
the longer they live, the brighter they shine.
But the road of wrongdoing gets darker and darker—
travelers can’t see a thing; they fall flat on their faces.
Insight
In Proverbs 4, Solomon encourages his sons to pursue wisdom and then emphasizes its benefits. Wisdom will watch over and protect (v. 6). She will exalt and honor the one who finds her (v. 8). She will adorn those who find her with “garland” and a “crown”—symbols of respect and dignity (v. 9). She will keep those who pursue her from stumbling and from stepping on the path of evildoers (vv. 12, 14). With all these benefits, it’s no wonder we’re to pursue wisdom no matter the cost. It’s worth everything we have (v. 7). By: J.R. Hudberg
Searching for Treasure
[Wisdom] is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. Proverbs 3:14
Buried treasure. It sounds like something out of a children’s storybook. But eccentric millionaire Forrest Fenn claims to have left a box of jewels and gold, worth up to $2 million, somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. Many people have gone in search of it. In fact, four people have lost their lives trying to find the hidden riches.
The author of Proverbs gives us reason to stop and think: Does any kind of treasure merit such a quest? In Proverbs 4, a father writing to his sons about how to live well suggests that wisdom is one thing worth seeking at any cost (v. 7). Wisdom, he says, will lead us through life, keep us from stumbling, and crown us with honor (vv. 8–12). Writing hundreds of years later, James, half-brother of Jesus and leader in the early church, also emphasized the importance of wisdom. “The wisdom that comes from heaven,” he writes, “is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere” (James 3:17). When we seek wisdom, we find all kinds of good things flourishing in our lives.
To seek wisdom is ultimately to seek God, the source of all wisdom and understanding. And the wisdom that comes from above is worth more than any buried treasure we could ever imagine. By Amy Peterson
Today's Reflection
Are you actively seeking God’s wisdom? How can you do so today?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, March 02, 2019
Have You Felt the Pain Inflicted by the Lord?
He said to him the third time, "…do you love Me?" —John 21:17
Have you ever felt the pain, inflicted by the Lord, at the very center of your being, deep down in the most sensitive area of your life? The devil never inflicts pain there, and neither can sin nor human emotions. Nothing can cut through to that part of our being but the Word of God. “Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, ‘Do you love Me?’ ” Yet he was awakened to the fact that at the center of his personal life he was devoted to Jesus. And then he began to see what Jesus’ patient questioning meant. There was not the slightest bit of doubt left in Peter’s mind; he could never be deceived again. And there was no need for an impassioned response; no need for immediate action or an emotional display. It was a revelation to him to realize how much he did love the Lord, and with amazement he simply said, “Lord, You know all things….” Peter began to see how very much he did love Jesus, and there was no need to say, “Look at this or that as proof of my love.” Peter was beginning to discover within himself just how much he really did love the Lord. He discovered that his eyes were so fixed on Jesus Christ that he saw no one else in heaven above or on the earth below. But he did not know it until the probing, hurting questions of the Lord were asked. The Lord’s questions always reveal the true me to myself.
Oh, the wonder of the patient directness and skill of Jesus Christ with Peter! Our Lord never asks questions until the perfect time. Rarely, but probably once in each of our lives, He will back us into a corner where He will hurt us with His piercing questions. Then we will realize that we do love Him far more deeply than our words can ever say.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Awe is the condition of a man’s spirit realizing Who God is and what He has done for him personally. Our Lord emphasizes the attitude of a child; no attitude can express such solemn awe and familiarity as that of a child. Not Knowing Whither, 882 L
Saturday, March 2, 2019
Friday, March 1, 2019
Psalm 20, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: BRUISED REEDS AND SMOLDERING WICKS
Look at a bruised reed at the water’s edge—once slender, sturdy, and tall— now bowed and bent. Are you a bruised reed? You were upright and sturdy, rooted in the riverbed of confidence. Then you were bruised by harsh words, a friend’s anger, a spouse’s betrayal, religion’s rigidity, or your own failure.
Is there anything closer to death than the smoldering wick on a candle? Once you blazed with faith. Then they said your ideas were foolish, your dreams were too lofty.
But the theme of the New Testament is that God is the friend of the wounded heart and the keeper of your dreams. Christ met people at all points of pain. By His touch bruised reeds straightened and smoldering wicks were ignited.
Read more He Still Moves Stones
Psalm 20
A David Psalm
20 1-4 God answer you on the day you crash,
The name God-of-Jacob put you out of harm’s reach,
Send reinforcements from Holy Hill,
Dispatch from Zion fresh supplies,
Exclaim over your offerings,
Celebrate your sacrifices,
Give you what your heart desires,
Accomplish your plans.
5 When you win, we plan to raise the roof
and lead the parade with our banners.
May all your wishes come true!
6 That clinches it—help’s coming,
an answer’s on the way,
everything’s going to work out.
7-8 See those people polishing their chariots,
and those others grooming their horses?
But we’re making garlands for God our God.
The chariots will rust,
those horses pull up lame—
and we’ll be on our feet, standing tall.
9 Make the king a winner, God;
the day we call, give us your answer.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, March 01, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:John 21:17-25
Then he said it a third time: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was upset that he asked for the third time, “Do you love me?” so he answered, “Master, you know everything there is to know. You’ve got to know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. I’m telling you the very truth now: When you were young you dressed yourself and went wherever you wished, but when you get old you’ll have to stretch out your hands while someone else dresses you and takes you where you don’t want to go.” He said this to hint at the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. And then he commanded, “Follow me.”
20-21 Turning his head, Peter noticed the disciple Jesus loved following right behind. When Peter noticed him, he asked Jesus, “Master, what’s going to happen to him?”
22-23 Jesus said, “If I want him to live until I come again, what’s that to you? You—follow me.” That is how the rumor got out among the brothers that this disciple wouldn’t die. But that is not what Jesus said. He simply said, “If I want him to live until I come again, what’s that to you?”
24 This is the same disciple who was eyewitness to all these things and wrote them down. And we all know that his eyewitness account is reliable and accurate.
25 There are so many other things Jesus did. If they were all written down, each of them, one by one, I can’t imagine a world big enough to hold such a library of books.
Insight
Some scholars speculate that John 21 was written (under the guidance of the Holy Spirit) at a later time than the first 20 chapters and was added to clarify a misunderstanding. Apparently, some believed that Jesus had promised John he wouldn’t die until Jesus returned, and that rumor had spread widely. The so-called “second ending” (ch. 21) was intended to address that false idea by clarifying Jesus’s words (vv. 22–23). By: Bill Crowder
No Comparison
A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones. Proverbs 14:30
“One of these days I’m going to put it all on Facebook—not just the good stuff!”
My friend Sue’s comment—made casually over lunch with her husband—caused me to laugh out loud and also to think. Social media can be a good thing, helping us stay in touch with and pray for friends across the years and miles. But if we’re not careful, it can also create an unrealistic outlook on life. When much of what we see posted is a “highlight reel” of “the good stuff,” we can be misled into thinking others’ lives are without trouble, and wonder where our own went wrong.
Comparing ourselves with others is a sure recipe for unhappiness. When the disciples compared themselves to each other (see Luke 9:46; 22:24), Jesus quickly discouraged it. Soon after His resurrection, Jesus told Peter how he would suffer for his faith. Peter then turned to John and asked, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me” (John 21:21–22).
Jesus pointed Peter to the best remedy for unhealthy comparisons. When our minds are focused on God and all He’s done for us, self-focused thoughts fall gently away and we long to follow Him. In place of the world’s competitive strain and stress, He gives us His loving presence and peace. Nothing can compare with Him. By James Banks
Today's Reflection
How can you use social media in a God-honoring way? How can a real relationship with God keep you from making unhealthy comparisons?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, March 01, 2019
The Piercing Question
Do you love Me? —John 21:17
Peter’s response to this piercing question is considerably different from the bold defiance he exhibited only a few days before when he declared, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!” (Matthew 26:35; also see Matthew 26:33-34). Our natural individuality, or our natural self, boldly speaks out and declares its feelings. But the true love within our inner spiritual self can be discovered only by experiencing the hurt of this question of Jesus Christ. Peter loved Jesus in the way any natural man loves a good person. Yet that is nothing but emotional love. It may reach deeply into our natural self, but it never penetrates to the spirit of a person. True love never simply declares itself. Jesus said, “Whoever confesses Me before men [that is, confesses his love by everything he does, not merely by his words], him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God” (Luke 12:8).
Unless we are experiencing the hurt of facing every deception about ourselves, we have hindered the work of the Word of God in our lives. The Word of God inflicts hurt on us more than sin ever could, because sin dulls our senses. But this question of the Lord intensifies our sensitivities to the point that this hurt produced by Jesus is the most exquisite pain conceivable. It hurts not only on the natural level, but also on the deeper spiritual level. “For the Word of God is living and powerful…, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit…”— to the point that no deception can remain (Hebrews 4:12). When the Lord asks us this question, it is impossible to think and respond properly, because when the Lord speaks directly to us, the pain is too intense. It causes such a tremendous hurt that any part of our life which may be out of line with His will can feel the pain. There is never any mistaking the pain of the Lord’s Word by His children, but the moment that pain is felt is the very moment at which God reveals His truth to us.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, March 01, 2019
Mail From Someone Who Loves You - #8385
I used to laugh at my roommate in college when he'd get a love letter from his girlfriend. He was kind of weird all day. He'd go off and he'd read that thing, you know, four or five times. And I'd go, "Hey, Buddy, there's nothing new in there. It says the same thing every time." Well, there was no laughing when I was separated from the woman I loved and ended up marrying. No, Karen and I were separated for the summers, and boy, I'll tell you what. I would write a letter to her just about every day, and she'd write a letter to me just about every day. I've got a whole suitcase full of those letters it's still nice to go back and read. Because I'll tell you, what made my day was going to that mailbox and getting some mail and knowing there would probably be mail there from somebody who loved me very much.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Mail From Someone Who Loves You."
Actually, you get mail every day from someone who loves you very much, but you could. It's actually mail from Almighty God Himself! It's contained in the Word of God - the Bible. See, God's messages are in His Book. Maybe you say, "Well, yeah, but that's not new information." Well, right, God's messages in the Bible are timeless information. They're always there, they are as true today as they were the day He authored them. and they've been true for generation after generation after generation. But, on the other hand, God's messages are always breaking news, too, because your situation is different today than the last time you may have read that verse.
God has a way through His Holy Spirit of personalizing that message. Of course, God's Holy Spirit, who knows all about the Bible and knows all about you, will miraculously use one of God's messages to change how you see your situation, and it might even change the situation! Timeless information, yes. But it is also breaking news for your situation.
Yes, you've got mail from God. But, like any message you might receive through email or text, you'll never get the message if you don't check in to see what God has to say today. So many days have been so unnecessarily confusing, frustrating and messed up because you didn't pick up your mail from God.
There's a great picture of how God sends His messages to us in our word for today from the Word of God in Exodus 16:14. God's ancient people were traveling through the wilderness in need of food. And God supplied their need by sending this miracle food called manna – which interestingly enough the Hebrew word means, "What is it?" "Hey, let's go get some 'what is it' Honey." The Bible says, "When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, 'What is it?'"
"Moses said to them, 'This is what the Lord has commanded: Each one is to gather as much as he needs...No one is to keep any of it until morning.' However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggot," the Bible says, "and it began to smell." In the New Testament, manna is actually used to symbolize spiritual food from God. And the "collection" principle is still the same – pick up a fresh batch each new day.
Yesterday's messages from God? Well, they're not going to do for today, because He's got fresh manna for you, fresh messages for the needs of this fresh new day. That's one of the main ways "His new mercies come every morning."
Some days your mail from God are going to give you perspective on what's going on in your life. Other days it will give you a corrective to steer you back on course from a detour you're almost about to take. But it's daily bread! You'll have to want God's messages enough to turn off some of the other messages for a little while: all the stuff you get on your phone, and the text, and the TV, and the Internet, and newspaper, and music – all of which can end up stealing all or most of your time with God.
If you'll open God's Word with the eagerness and the anticipation of someone who is opening their love letter, I can guarantee you that you will always have mail, holy mail, life-changing mail - messages from the God of the universe to your heart.
Look at a bruised reed at the water’s edge—once slender, sturdy, and tall— now bowed and bent. Are you a bruised reed? You were upright and sturdy, rooted in the riverbed of confidence. Then you were bruised by harsh words, a friend’s anger, a spouse’s betrayal, religion’s rigidity, or your own failure.
Is there anything closer to death than the smoldering wick on a candle? Once you blazed with faith. Then they said your ideas were foolish, your dreams were too lofty.
But the theme of the New Testament is that God is the friend of the wounded heart and the keeper of your dreams. Christ met people at all points of pain. By His touch bruised reeds straightened and smoldering wicks were ignited.
Read more He Still Moves Stones
Psalm 20
A David Psalm
20 1-4 God answer you on the day you crash,
The name God-of-Jacob put you out of harm’s reach,
Send reinforcements from Holy Hill,
Dispatch from Zion fresh supplies,
Exclaim over your offerings,
Celebrate your sacrifices,
Give you what your heart desires,
Accomplish your plans.
5 When you win, we plan to raise the roof
and lead the parade with our banners.
May all your wishes come true!
6 That clinches it—help’s coming,
an answer’s on the way,
everything’s going to work out.
7-8 See those people polishing their chariots,
and those others grooming their horses?
But we’re making garlands for God our God.
The chariots will rust,
those horses pull up lame—
and we’ll be on our feet, standing tall.
9 Make the king a winner, God;
the day we call, give us your answer.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, March 01, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:John 21:17-25
Then he said it a third time: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was upset that he asked for the third time, “Do you love me?” so he answered, “Master, you know everything there is to know. You’ve got to know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. I’m telling you the very truth now: When you were young you dressed yourself and went wherever you wished, but when you get old you’ll have to stretch out your hands while someone else dresses you and takes you where you don’t want to go.” He said this to hint at the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. And then he commanded, “Follow me.”
20-21 Turning his head, Peter noticed the disciple Jesus loved following right behind. When Peter noticed him, he asked Jesus, “Master, what’s going to happen to him?”
22-23 Jesus said, “If I want him to live until I come again, what’s that to you? You—follow me.” That is how the rumor got out among the brothers that this disciple wouldn’t die. But that is not what Jesus said. He simply said, “If I want him to live until I come again, what’s that to you?”
24 This is the same disciple who was eyewitness to all these things and wrote them down. And we all know that his eyewitness account is reliable and accurate.
25 There are so many other things Jesus did. If they were all written down, each of them, one by one, I can’t imagine a world big enough to hold such a library of books.
Insight
Some scholars speculate that John 21 was written (under the guidance of the Holy Spirit) at a later time than the first 20 chapters and was added to clarify a misunderstanding. Apparently, some believed that Jesus had promised John he wouldn’t die until Jesus returned, and that rumor had spread widely. The so-called “second ending” (ch. 21) was intended to address that false idea by clarifying Jesus’s words (vv. 22–23). By: Bill Crowder
No Comparison
A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones. Proverbs 14:30
“One of these days I’m going to put it all on Facebook—not just the good stuff!”
My friend Sue’s comment—made casually over lunch with her husband—caused me to laugh out loud and also to think. Social media can be a good thing, helping us stay in touch with and pray for friends across the years and miles. But if we’re not careful, it can also create an unrealistic outlook on life. When much of what we see posted is a “highlight reel” of “the good stuff,” we can be misled into thinking others’ lives are without trouble, and wonder where our own went wrong.
Comparing ourselves with others is a sure recipe for unhappiness. When the disciples compared themselves to each other (see Luke 9:46; 22:24), Jesus quickly discouraged it. Soon after His resurrection, Jesus told Peter how he would suffer for his faith. Peter then turned to John and asked, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me” (John 21:21–22).
Jesus pointed Peter to the best remedy for unhealthy comparisons. When our minds are focused on God and all He’s done for us, self-focused thoughts fall gently away and we long to follow Him. In place of the world’s competitive strain and stress, He gives us His loving presence and peace. Nothing can compare with Him. By James Banks
Today's Reflection
How can you use social media in a God-honoring way? How can a real relationship with God keep you from making unhealthy comparisons?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, March 01, 2019
The Piercing Question
Do you love Me? —John 21:17
Peter’s response to this piercing question is considerably different from the bold defiance he exhibited only a few days before when he declared, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!” (Matthew 26:35; also see Matthew 26:33-34). Our natural individuality, or our natural self, boldly speaks out and declares its feelings. But the true love within our inner spiritual self can be discovered only by experiencing the hurt of this question of Jesus Christ. Peter loved Jesus in the way any natural man loves a good person. Yet that is nothing but emotional love. It may reach deeply into our natural self, but it never penetrates to the spirit of a person. True love never simply declares itself. Jesus said, “Whoever confesses Me before men [that is, confesses his love by everything he does, not merely by his words], him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God” (Luke 12:8).
Unless we are experiencing the hurt of facing every deception about ourselves, we have hindered the work of the Word of God in our lives. The Word of God inflicts hurt on us more than sin ever could, because sin dulls our senses. But this question of the Lord intensifies our sensitivities to the point that this hurt produced by Jesus is the most exquisite pain conceivable. It hurts not only on the natural level, but also on the deeper spiritual level. “For the Word of God is living and powerful…, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit…”— to the point that no deception can remain (Hebrews 4:12). When the Lord asks us this question, it is impossible to think and respond properly, because when the Lord speaks directly to us, the pain is too intense. It causes such a tremendous hurt that any part of our life which may be out of line with His will can feel the pain. There is never any mistaking the pain of the Lord’s Word by His children, but the moment that pain is felt is the very moment at which God reveals His truth to us.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, March 01, 2019
Mail From Someone Who Loves You - #8385
I used to laugh at my roommate in college when he'd get a love letter from his girlfriend. He was kind of weird all day. He'd go off and he'd read that thing, you know, four or five times. And I'd go, "Hey, Buddy, there's nothing new in there. It says the same thing every time." Well, there was no laughing when I was separated from the woman I loved and ended up marrying. No, Karen and I were separated for the summers, and boy, I'll tell you what. I would write a letter to her just about every day, and she'd write a letter to me just about every day. I've got a whole suitcase full of those letters it's still nice to go back and read. Because I'll tell you, what made my day was going to that mailbox and getting some mail and knowing there would probably be mail there from somebody who loved me very much.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Mail From Someone Who Loves You."
Actually, you get mail every day from someone who loves you very much, but you could. It's actually mail from Almighty God Himself! It's contained in the Word of God - the Bible. See, God's messages are in His Book. Maybe you say, "Well, yeah, but that's not new information." Well, right, God's messages in the Bible are timeless information. They're always there, they are as true today as they were the day He authored them. and they've been true for generation after generation after generation. But, on the other hand, God's messages are always breaking news, too, because your situation is different today than the last time you may have read that verse.
God has a way through His Holy Spirit of personalizing that message. Of course, God's Holy Spirit, who knows all about the Bible and knows all about you, will miraculously use one of God's messages to change how you see your situation, and it might even change the situation! Timeless information, yes. But it is also breaking news for your situation.
Yes, you've got mail from God. But, like any message you might receive through email or text, you'll never get the message if you don't check in to see what God has to say today. So many days have been so unnecessarily confusing, frustrating and messed up because you didn't pick up your mail from God.
There's a great picture of how God sends His messages to us in our word for today from the Word of God in Exodus 16:14. God's ancient people were traveling through the wilderness in need of food. And God supplied their need by sending this miracle food called manna – which interestingly enough the Hebrew word means, "What is it?" "Hey, let's go get some 'what is it' Honey." The Bible says, "When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, 'What is it?'"
"Moses said to them, 'This is what the Lord has commanded: Each one is to gather as much as he needs...No one is to keep any of it until morning.' However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggot," the Bible says, "and it began to smell." In the New Testament, manna is actually used to symbolize spiritual food from God. And the "collection" principle is still the same – pick up a fresh batch each new day.
Yesterday's messages from God? Well, they're not going to do for today, because He's got fresh manna for you, fresh messages for the needs of this fresh new day. That's one of the main ways "His new mercies come every morning."
Some days your mail from God are going to give you perspective on what's going on in your life. Other days it will give you a corrective to steer you back on course from a detour you're almost about to take. But it's daily bread! You'll have to want God's messages enough to turn off some of the other messages for a little while: all the stuff you get on your phone, and the text, and the TV, and the Internet, and newspaper, and music – all of which can end up stealing all or most of your time with God.
If you'll open God's Word with the eagerness and the anticipation of someone who is opening their love letter, I can guarantee you that you will always have mail, holy mail, life-changing mail - messages from the God of the universe to your heart.
Thursday, February 28, 2019
Psalm 17, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: FINISHING STRONG
The Christian race is demanding, grueling, and sometimes agonizing. It takes a massive effort to finish strong. But many don’t. They may come to church and warm a pew, but their hearts aren’t in the race.
Jesus is the classic example of one who endured, in spite of temptation, accusations, and shame. The devil tempted Jesus nonstop for forty days. Jesus’ own family called him a lunatic. And, on the cross, he bore the collective shame of all humanity. How did he endure? By focusing on “the joy that God put before him.” That was the prize of heaven! And what he saw gave him strength to finish… and and finish strong.
Someday we will be seated, and Christ will christen the meal with these words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” And in that moment, the race will have been worth it.
Read more Just Like Jesus
Psalm 17
A David Prayer
17 1-2 Listen while I build my case, God,
the most honest prayer you’ll ever hear.
Show the world I’m innocent—
in your heart you know I am.
3 Go ahead, examine me from inside out,
surprise me in the middle of the night—
You’ll find I’m just what I say I am.
My words don’t run loose.
4-5 I’m not trying to get my way
in the world’s way.
I’m trying to get your way,
your Word’s way.
I’m staying on your trail;
I’m putting one foot
In front of the other.
I’m not giving up.
6-7 I call to you, God, because I’m sure of an answer.
So—answer! bend your ear! listen sharp!
Paint grace-graffiti on the fences;
take in your frightened children who
Are running from the neighborhood bullies
straight to you.
8-9 Keep your eye on me;
hide me under your cool wing feathers
From the wicked who are out to get me,
from mortal enemies closing in.
10-14 Their hearts are hard as nails,
their mouths blast hot air.
They are after me, nipping my heels,
determined to bring me down,
Lions ready to rip me apart,
young lions poised to pounce.
Up, God: beard them! break them!
By your sword, free me from their clutches;
Barehanded, God, break these mortals,
these flat-earth people who can’t think beyond today.
I’d like to see their bellies
swollen with famine food,
The weeds they’ve sown
harvested and baked into famine bread,
With second helpings for their children
and crusts for their babies to chew on.
15 And me? I plan on looking
you full in the face. When I get up,
I’ll see your full stature
and live heaven on earth.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, February 28, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Psalm 51:1-7
A David Psalm, After He Was Confronted by Nathan About the Affair with Bathsheba
51 1-3 Generous in love—God, give grace!
Huge in mercy—wipe out my bad record.
Scrub away my guilt,
soak out my sins in your laundry.
I know how bad I’ve been;
my sins are staring me down.
4-6 You’re the One I’ve violated, and you’ve seen
it all, seen the full extent of my evil.
You have all the facts before you;
whatever you decide about me is fair.
I’ve been out of step with you for a long time,
in the wrong since before I was born.
What you’re after is truth from the inside out.
Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.
7-15 Soak me in your laundry and I’ll come out clean,
scrub me and I’ll have a snow-white life.
Tune me in to foot-tapping songs,
set these once-broken bones to dancing.
Don’t look too close for blemishes,
give me a clean bill of health.
God, make a fresh start in me,
shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
Don’t throw me out with the trash,
or fail to breathe holiness in me.
Bring me back from gray exile,
put a fresh wind in my sails!
Give me a job teaching rebels your ways
so the lost can find their way home.
Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God,
and I’ll sing anthems to your life-giving ways.
Unbutton my lips, dear God;
I’ll let loose with your praise.
Insight
Psalm 51 is one of the seven penitential psalms (Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143), so called because the writer in repentant sorrow confesses his sins and turns to the Lord for forgiveness. The subheading to this psalm reads: “A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.” David’s sin and confrontation is recorded in 2 Samuel 11–12. Many scholars believe David penned both Psalms 32 and 51 after repenting from his sins of adultery with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah. Psalm 32 describes David’s spiritual dryness during the year when he refused to confess his sins (vv. 3–4), and the delight and sense of release after he acknowledged them (vv. 1–2, 5–11). In Psalm 51, after Nathan confronts him, David confesses his sins and pours his heart out to God and asks for forgiveness. Psalm 51 has become the model prayer for forgiveness of sin. By: K. T. Sim
Great News!
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love. Psalm 51:1
The article in the local newspaper was short but heartwarming. After attending a faith-based program on building stronger family ties, a group of prison inmates were given a rare treat of an open visit with their families. Some hadn’t seen their children in years. Instead of talking through a glass panel, they could touch and hold their loved ones. The tears flowed freely as families grew closer and wounds began to heal.
For most readers, it was just a story. But for these families, holding one another was a life-changing event—and for some, the process of forgiveness and reconciliation was begun.
God’s forgiveness of our sin and offer of reconciliation, made possible through His Son, is more than a mere fact of the Christian faith. The article’s news of reconciliation reminds us that Jesus’s sacrifice is great news not just for the world, but for you and me.
In times when we’re overwhelmed by guilt for something we’ve done, however, it’s news we can cling to desperately. That’s when the fact of God’s unending mercy becomes personal news: because of Jesus’s dying on our behalf, we can come to the Father washed clean, “whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:7). In such times, when we know we don’t deserve His mercy, we can hold on to the only thing we can depend on: God’s unfailing love and compassion (v. 1). By Leslie Koh
Today's Reflection
Father, I’m sorry if I’ve taken Your mercy and love for granted. Thank You for this wonderful gift and privilege that I don’t deserve yet You’ve promised unconditionally.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, February 28, 2019
“Do You Now Believe?”
"By this we believe…." Jesus answered them, "Do you now believe?" —John 16:30-31
“Now we believe….” But Jesus asks, “Do you…? Indeed the hour is coming…that you…will leave Me alone” (John 16:31-32). Many Christian workers have left Jesus Christ alone and yet tried to serve Him out of a sense of duty, or because they sense a need as a result of their own discernment. The reason for this is actually the absence of the resurrection life of Jesus. Our soul has gotten out of intimate contact with God by leaning on our own religious understanding (see Proverbs 3:5-6). This is not deliberate sin and there is no punishment attached to it. But once a person realizes how he has hindered his understanding of Jesus Christ, and caused uncertainties, sorrows, and difficulties for himself, it is with shame and remorse that he has to return.
We need to rely on the resurrection life of Jesus on a much deeper level than we do now. We should get in the habit of continually seeking His counsel on everything, instead of making our own commonsense decisions and then asking Him to bless them. He cannot bless them; it is not in His realm to do so, and those decisions are severed from reality. If we do something simply out of a sense of duty, we are trying to live up to a standard that competes with Jesus Christ. We become a prideful, arrogant person, thinking we know what to do in every situation. We have put our sense of duty on the throne of our life, instead of enthroning the resurrection life of Jesus. We are not told to “walk in the light” of our conscience or in the light of a sense of duty, but to “walk in the light as He is in the light…” (1 John 1:7). When we do something out of a sense of duty, it is easy to explain the reasons for our actions to others. But when we do something out of obedience to the Lord, there can be no other explanation— just obedience. That is why a saint can be so easily ridiculed and misunderstood.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We must keep ourselves in touch, not with theories, but with people, and never get out of touch with human beings, if we are going to use the word of God skilfully amongst them. Workmen of God, 1341 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, February 28, 2019
Declaring Bankruptcy - Finding Hope - #8384
It's never fun when the plane you're flying on hits turbulence, especially if the fellow next to you has like a weak stomach. It's really not fun when an entire airline hits turbulence. Several have over the years, including one of America's largest and one that had been kind of my airline of preference. It was a bit of a shocker to read that their indebtedness had reached such a critical point they were actually considering the protection of bankruptcy to try to recover. Bankruptcy is a word we're hearing way too often. You know? Then I saw the headline that confirmed the seriousness of their situation. Here's what it said: "Airline Seeks Rescue in Bankruptcy."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Declaring Bankruptcy - Finding Hope."
Seems strange, doesn't it? The hope of rescue depending on declaring you're bankrupt. But it's the only hope some businesses have of recovering. Declaring bankruptcy is also the only hope you or I have of escaping the awful consequences of running our own lives instead of letting God run them. Our moral debt to God is so far beyond our ability to pay.
The spiritual economics of heaven and hell are spelled out starkly in Romans 6:23, our word for today from the Word of God. "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Just three chapters earlier, God makes it clear that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." That "all" means there's no one who's excluded, not you, not me, not the most religious person listening today. We've all earned those "wages of sin" which is "death." That's spiritual death, which means total separation from the God who has made us...forever.
But after that awful statement about what our sin costs, the light suddenly goes on when God talks about "eternal life." So it's possible I don't have to suffer the penalty that I deserve for hijacking my life from my Creator. It is possible, but it is the gift of God. That's "gift," as in there's nothing I can do to earn it; someone else paid for it. Jesus paid for it. He died on the cross to pay for it. He took the death penalty that I deserve - that you deserve. That's why He cried out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" God the Father was turning His back on God the Son so He would never have to turn His back on you!
But there's only one road to that spiritual rescue. You've got to declare your spiritual bankruptcy, admitting there's nothing you can do to pay the debt for the sinning you've done. And that means the surrender of all our spiritual, religious pride, of any hope we've been putting in our religion, or our church, or our Christianness. As great a person as people may think we are, in God's eyes, we're bankrupt, or He wouldn't have sent His Son to die to pay our debt. We may look great, but we're spiritually broke.
Has there ever been a time when you've come to God with nothing in your hands and just said, "Lord, my only hope is what your Son did on the cross for me. So, by faith, I give You my life. I turn from running my own life. I claim Jesus as the total payment for every sin I have ever committed." Until that moment of surrender, your bill with God stands unpaid, and you still carry that awful death penalty.
Don't you want to get that settled today; the one day you know you have to do it? Well, then, tell Him, "Jesus, I'm yours. Thank you for dying in my place." I would really encourage you to go visit our website today, because it's all about how to begin this relationship with the only One who can save you from your sin. I hope you'll go there - ANewStory.com.
What a wonderful day for you to come to the Savior to declare your bankruptcy. See, your bill has been paid on an old rugged cross. Think of this: you can go to bed tonight debt-free in God's sight! Forgiven and free!
The Christian race is demanding, grueling, and sometimes agonizing. It takes a massive effort to finish strong. But many don’t. They may come to church and warm a pew, but their hearts aren’t in the race.
Jesus is the classic example of one who endured, in spite of temptation, accusations, and shame. The devil tempted Jesus nonstop for forty days. Jesus’ own family called him a lunatic. And, on the cross, he bore the collective shame of all humanity. How did he endure? By focusing on “the joy that God put before him.” That was the prize of heaven! And what he saw gave him strength to finish… and and finish strong.
Someday we will be seated, and Christ will christen the meal with these words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” And in that moment, the race will have been worth it.
Read more Just Like Jesus
Psalm 17
A David Prayer
17 1-2 Listen while I build my case, God,
the most honest prayer you’ll ever hear.
Show the world I’m innocent—
in your heart you know I am.
3 Go ahead, examine me from inside out,
surprise me in the middle of the night—
You’ll find I’m just what I say I am.
My words don’t run loose.
4-5 I’m not trying to get my way
in the world’s way.
I’m trying to get your way,
your Word’s way.
I’m staying on your trail;
I’m putting one foot
In front of the other.
I’m not giving up.
6-7 I call to you, God, because I’m sure of an answer.
So—answer! bend your ear! listen sharp!
Paint grace-graffiti on the fences;
take in your frightened children who
Are running from the neighborhood bullies
straight to you.
8-9 Keep your eye on me;
hide me under your cool wing feathers
From the wicked who are out to get me,
from mortal enemies closing in.
10-14 Their hearts are hard as nails,
their mouths blast hot air.
They are after me, nipping my heels,
determined to bring me down,
Lions ready to rip me apart,
young lions poised to pounce.
Up, God: beard them! break them!
By your sword, free me from their clutches;
Barehanded, God, break these mortals,
these flat-earth people who can’t think beyond today.
I’d like to see their bellies
swollen with famine food,
The weeds they’ve sown
harvested and baked into famine bread,
With second helpings for their children
and crusts for their babies to chew on.
15 And me? I plan on looking
you full in the face. When I get up,
I’ll see your full stature
and live heaven on earth.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, February 28, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Psalm 51:1-7
A David Psalm, After He Was Confronted by Nathan About the Affair with Bathsheba
51 1-3 Generous in love—God, give grace!
Huge in mercy—wipe out my bad record.
Scrub away my guilt,
soak out my sins in your laundry.
I know how bad I’ve been;
my sins are staring me down.
4-6 You’re the One I’ve violated, and you’ve seen
it all, seen the full extent of my evil.
You have all the facts before you;
whatever you decide about me is fair.
I’ve been out of step with you for a long time,
in the wrong since before I was born.
What you’re after is truth from the inside out.
Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.
7-15 Soak me in your laundry and I’ll come out clean,
scrub me and I’ll have a snow-white life.
Tune me in to foot-tapping songs,
set these once-broken bones to dancing.
Don’t look too close for blemishes,
give me a clean bill of health.
God, make a fresh start in me,
shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
Don’t throw me out with the trash,
or fail to breathe holiness in me.
Bring me back from gray exile,
put a fresh wind in my sails!
Give me a job teaching rebels your ways
so the lost can find their way home.
Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God,
and I’ll sing anthems to your life-giving ways.
Unbutton my lips, dear God;
I’ll let loose with your praise.
Insight
Psalm 51 is one of the seven penitential psalms (Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143), so called because the writer in repentant sorrow confesses his sins and turns to the Lord for forgiveness. The subheading to this psalm reads: “A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.” David’s sin and confrontation is recorded in 2 Samuel 11–12. Many scholars believe David penned both Psalms 32 and 51 after repenting from his sins of adultery with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah. Psalm 32 describes David’s spiritual dryness during the year when he refused to confess his sins (vv. 3–4), and the delight and sense of release after he acknowledged them (vv. 1–2, 5–11). In Psalm 51, after Nathan confronts him, David confesses his sins and pours his heart out to God and asks for forgiveness. Psalm 51 has become the model prayer for forgiveness of sin. By: K. T. Sim
Great News!
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love. Psalm 51:1
The article in the local newspaper was short but heartwarming. After attending a faith-based program on building stronger family ties, a group of prison inmates were given a rare treat of an open visit with their families. Some hadn’t seen their children in years. Instead of talking through a glass panel, they could touch and hold their loved ones. The tears flowed freely as families grew closer and wounds began to heal.
For most readers, it was just a story. But for these families, holding one another was a life-changing event—and for some, the process of forgiveness and reconciliation was begun.
God’s forgiveness of our sin and offer of reconciliation, made possible through His Son, is more than a mere fact of the Christian faith. The article’s news of reconciliation reminds us that Jesus’s sacrifice is great news not just for the world, but for you and me.
In times when we’re overwhelmed by guilt for something we’ve done, however, it’s news we can cling to desperately. That’s when the fact of God’s unending mercy becomes personal news: because of Jesus’s dying on our behalf, we can come to the Father washed clean, “whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:7). In such times, when we know we don’t deserve His mercy, we can hold on to the only thing we can depend on: God’s unfailing love and compassion (v. 1). By Leslie Koh
Today's Reflection
Father, I’m sorry if I’ve taken Your mercy and love for granted. Thank You for this wonderful gift and privilege that I don’t deserve yet You’ve promised unconditionally.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, February 28, 2019
“Do You Now Believe?”
"By this we believe…." Jesus answered them, "Do you now believe?" —John 16:30-31
“Now we believe….” But Jesus asks, “Do you…? Indeed the hour is coming…that you…will leave Me alone” (John 16:31-32). Many Christian workers have left Jesus Christ alone and yet tried to serve Him out of a sense of duty, or because they sense a need as a result of their own discernment. The reason for this is actually the absence of the resurrection life of Jesus. Our soul has gotten out of intimate contact with God by leaning on our own religious understanding (see Proverbs 3:5-6). This is not deliberate sin and there is no punishment attached to it. But once a person realizes how he has hindered his understanding of Jesus Christ, and caused uncertainties, sorrows, and difficulties for himself, it is with shame and remorse that he has to return.
We need to rely on the resurrection life of Jesus on a much deeper level than we do now. We should get in the habit of continually seeking His counsel on everything, instead of making our own commonsense decisions and then asking Him to bless them. He cannot bless them; it is not in His realm to do so, and those decisions are severed from reality. If we do something simply out of a sense of duty, we are trying to live up to a standard that competes with Jesus Christ. We become a prideful, arrogant person, thinking we know what to do in every situation. We have put our sense of duty on the throne of our life, instead of enthroning the resurrection life of Jesus. We are not told to “walk in the light” of our conscience or in the light of a sense of duty, but to “walk in the light as He is in the light…” (1 John 1:7). When we do something out of a sense of duty, it is easy to explain the reasons for our actions to others. But when we do something out of obedience to the Lord, there can be no other explanation— just obedience. That is why a saint can be so easily ridiculed and misunderstood.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We must keep ourselves in touch, not with theories, but with people, and never get out of touch with human beings, if we are going to use the word of God skilfully amongst them. Workmen of God, 1341 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, February 28, 2019
Declaring Bankruptcy - Finding Hope - #8384
It's never fun when the plane you're flying on hits turbulence, especially if the fellow next to you has like a weak stomach. It's really not fun when an entire airline hits turbulence. Several have over the years, including one of America's largest and one that had been kind of my airline of preference. It was a bit of a shocker to read that their indebtedness had reached such a critical point they were actually considering the protection of bankruptcy to try to recover. Bankruptcy is a word we're hearing way too often. You know? Then I saw the headline that confirmed the seriousness of their situation. Here's what it said: "Airline Seeks Rescue in Bankruptcy."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Declaring Bankruptcy - Finding Hope."
Seems strange, doesn't it? The hope of rescue depending on declaring you're bankrupt. But it's the only hope some businesses have of recovering. Declaring bankruptcy is also the only hope you or I have of escaping the awful consequences of running our own lives instead of letting God run them. Our moral debt to God is so far beyond our ability to pay.
The spiritual economics of heaven and hell are spelled out starkly in Romans 6:23, our word for today from the Word of God. "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Just three chapters earlier, God makes it clear that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." That "all" means there's no one who's excluded, not you, not me, not the most religious person listening today. We've all earned those "wages of sin" which is "death." That's spiritual death, which means total separation from the God who has made us...forever.
But after that awful statement about what our sin costs, the light suddenly goes on when God talks about "eternal life." So it's possible I don't have to suffer the penalty that I deserve for hijacking my life from my Creator. It is possible, but it is the gift of God. That's "gift," as in there's nothing I can do to earn it; someone else paid for it. Jesus paid for it. He died on the cross to pay for it. He took the death penalty that I deserve - that you deserve. That's why He cried out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" God the Father was turning His back on God the Son so He would never have to turn His back on you!
But there's only one road to that spiritual rescue. You've got to declare your spiritual bankruptcy, admitting there's nothing you can do to pay the debt for the sinning you've done. And that means the surrender of all our spiritual, religious pride, of any hope we've been putting in our religion, or our church, or our Christianness. As great a person as people may think we are, in God's eyes, we're bankrupt, or He wouldn't have sent His Son to die to pay our debt. We may look great, but we're spiritually broke.
Has there ever been a time when you've come to God with nothing in your hands and just said, "Lord, my only hope is what your Son did on the cross for me. So, by faith, I give You my life. I turn from running my own life. I claim Jesus as the total payment for every sin I have ever committed." Until that moment of surrender, your bill with God stands unpaid, and you still carry that awful death penalty.
Don't you want to get that settled today; the one day you know you have to do it? Well, then, tell Him, "Jesus, I'm yours. Thank you for dying in my place." I would really encourage you to go visit our website today, because it's all about how to begin this relationship with the only One who can save you from your sin. I hope you'll go there - ANewStory.com.
What a wonderful day for you to come to the Savior to declare your bankruptcy. See, your bill has been paid on an old rugged cross. Think of this: you can go to bed tonight debt-free in God's sight! Forgiven and free!
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
Psalm 19, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: WHEN HEAVEN CELEBRATES
In Luke 15, Jesus tells three stories of something lost and something found: a lost sheep; a lost coin; and a lost son. At the end of each story, Jesus describes a celebration. The point is clear. Jesus is happiest when the lost are found. Jesus rejoices because he knows what awaits the saved. In Heaven, you will at long last, have a heart just like his. Guiltless, fearless, tirelessly worshiping, and flawlessly discerning.
Jesus also rejoices that we are saved from hell. He says there’s only one sound there—and that is the “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Every person you meet has been given an invitation to dinner. When one says ‘yes,’ celebrate! When one hesitates, urge him to get ready. You don’t want anyone to miss the party.
Read more Just Like Jesus
Psalm 19
A David Psalm
19 1-2 God’s glory is on tour in the skies,
God-craft on exhibit across the horizon.
Madame Day holds classes every morning,
Professor Night lectures each evening.
3-4 Their words aren’t heard,
their voices aren’t recorded,
But their silence fills the earth:
unspoken truth is spoken everywhere.
4-5 God makes a huge dome
for the sun—a superdome!
The morning sun’s a new husband
leaping from his honeymoon bed,
The daybreaking sun an athlete
racing to the tape.
6 That’s how God’s Word vaults across the skies
from sunrise to sunset,
Melting ice, scorching deserts,
warming hearts to faith.
7-9 The revelation of God is whole
and pulls our lives together.
The signposts of God are clear
and point out the right road.
The life-maps of God are right,
showing the way to joy.
The directions of God are plain
and easy on the eyes.
God’s reputation is twenty-four-carat gold,
with a lifetime guarantee.
The decisions of God are accurate
down to the nth degree.
10 God’s Word is better than a diamond,
better than a diamond set between emeralds.
You’ll like it better than strawberries in spring,
better than red, ripe strawberries.
11-14 There’s more: God’s Word warns us of danger
and directs us to hidden treasure.
Otherwise how will we find our way?
Or know when we play the fool?
Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh!
Keep me from stupid sins,
from thinking I can take over your work;
Then I can start this day sun-washed,
scrubbed clean of the grime of sin.
These are the words in my mouth;
these are what I chew on and pray.
Accept them when I place them
on the morning altar,
O God, my Altar-Rock,
God, Priest-of-My-Altar.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Matthew 21:14-16
Matthew 21:14-16 The Message (MSG)
12-14 Jesus went straight to the Temple and threw out everyone who had set up shop, buying and selling. He kicked over the tables of loan sharks and the stalls of dove merchants. He quoted this text:
My house was designated a house of prayer;
You have made it a hangout for thieves.
Now there was room for the blind and crippled to get in. They came to Jesus and he healed them.
15-16 When the religious leaders saw the outrageous things he was doing, and heard all the children running and shouting through the Temple, “Hosanna to David’s Son!” they were up in arms and took him to task. “Do you hear what these children are saying?”
Jesus said, “Yes, I hear them. And haven’t you read in God’s Word, ‘From the mouths of children and babies I’ll furnish a place of praise’?”
Insight
After arriving in Jerusalem on what is known as Palm Sunday, Jesus made His way to the temple where He symbolically and prophetically reclaimed God’s house for its rightful purposes (Matthew 21:12). In doing so, He quoted the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah (v. 13): “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer’ [Isaiah 56:7], but you are making it ‘a den of robbers’” [Jeremiah 7:11]. Jesus’s zeal for God’s house was such that—though risky—He did not let the mismanagement of the religious leaders go unchallenged. What may have been mercenary practices were—at least momentarily—replaced with marvelous acts of mercy (v. 14), deeds which were more consistent with the purposes of the Father’s house. Though the physically blind were healed, the blindness of the leaders remained, as noted by their indignation and words to Jesus (vv. 15–16). By: Arthur Jackson
Out of the Mouths of Babes
Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes. Psalm 8:2 esv
After watching ten-year-old Viola using a tree branch as a microphone to mimic a preacher, Michele decided to give Viola the opportunity to “preach” during a village outreach. Viola accepted. Michele, a missionary in South Sudan, wrote, “The crowd was enraptured. . . . A little girl who had been abandoned stood in authority before them as a daughter of the King of kings, powerfully sharing the reality of God’s Kingdom. Half the crowd came forward to receive Jesus” (Michele Perry, Love Has a Face).
The crowd that day hadn’t expected to hear a child preach. This incident brings to mind the phrase “out of the mouths of babes,” which comes from Psalm 8. David wrote, “Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes” (v. 2 esv). Jesus later quoted this verse in Matthew 21:16, after the chief priests and scribes criticized the children calling out praise to Jesus in the temple at Jerusalem. The children were a nuisance to these leaders. By quoting this Scripture, Jesus showed that God took seriously the praise of these children. They did what the leaders were unwilling to do: give glory to the longed-for Messiah.
As Viola and the children in the temple showed, God can use even a child to bring Him glory. Out of their willing hearts came a fountain of praise. By Linda Washington
Today's Reflection
How can I offer praise to God today? Why is He worthy of my praise?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
The Impoverished Ministry of Jesus
Where then do You get that living water? —John 4:11
“The well is deep” — and even a great deal deeper than the Samaritan woman knew! (John 4:11). Think of the depths of human nature and human life; think of the depth of the “wells” in you. Have you been limiting, or impoverishing, the ministry of Jesus to the point that He is unable to work in your life? Suppose that you have a deep “well” of hurt and trouble inside your heart, and Jesus comes and says to you, “Let not your heart be troubled…” (John 14:1). Would your response be to shrug your shoulders and say, “But, Lord, the well is too deep, and even You can’t draw up quietness and comfort out of it.” Actually, that is correct. Jesus doesn’t bring anything up from the wells of human nature— He brings them down from above. We limit the Holy One of Israel by remembering only what we have allowed Him to do for us in the past, and also by saying, “Of course, I cannot expect God to do this particular thing.” The thing that approaches the very limits of His power is the very thing we as disciples of Jesus ought to believe He will do. We impoverish and weaken His ministry in us the moment we forget He is almighty. The impoverishment is in us, not in Him. We will come to Jesus for Him to be our comforter or our sympathizer, but we refrain from approaching Him as our Almighty God.
The reason some of us are such poor examples of Christianity is that we have failed to recognize that Christ is almighty. We have Christian attributes and experiences, but there is no abandonment or surrender to Jesus Christ. When we get into difficult circumstances, we impoverish His ministry by saying, “Of course, He can’t do anything about this.” We struggle to reach the bottom of our own well, trying to get water for ourselves. Beware of sitting back, and saying, “It can’t be done.” You will know it can be done if you will look to Jesus. The well of your incompleteness runs deep, but make the effort to look away from yourself and to look toward Him.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Jesus Christ is always unyielding to my claim to my right to myself. The one essential element in all our Lord’s teaching about discipleship is abandon, no calculation, no trace of self-interest.
Disciples Indeed
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
Taking Your Place on the Front Lines - #8383
My friend Bobby served as a Marine in Vietnam, and he told me something about his experience there that really got my attention. He said his assignment was doing electrical work on airplanes-which is not necessarily a front lines assignment. But there was a war going on all around them. So, when there was enemy activity, every soldier was trained to grab their weapon, take their position, and be prepared to fight. Their bottom line assignment was summed up in four words, "every Marine - a rifle."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Taking Your Place on the Front Lines."
Nobody is just support troops. Everybody's needed on the front lines. That's the strategy for the most important battle of all time-the battle for the souls of lost men and women that rages in every generation.
God puts flesh-and-blood on that principle in a story in Numbers 32, beginning with vs 1. It's our word for today from the Word of God. Here's the story. God has delivered the Jews from slavery in Egypt, led them through the wilderness, and now He's brought them to the banks of the Jordan River, the threshold of their Promised Land. Soon the battle for the land will begin. Even before entering, each of Israel's twelve tribes has been allotted a certain area of the land as their inheritance. That's on the west side of Jordan. On the east side of the Jordan, the Reubenites and Gadites "who had very large herds and flocks saw that the lands of Jazer and Gilead (That's the lands right there where they are on the east side of the Jordan) were suitable for livestock." Okay, so these guys who already have their land kind of.
They come to Moses with an idea-a dumb idea. They said the land they were on was "suitable for livestock, and your servants have livestock...let this land be given to your servants as our possession. Do not make us cross the Jordan." Moses' answer cuts like steel: "Shall your countrymen go to war while you sit here?" They said, "How about we just settle down here, skip the battle, and root for you guys out there on the front lines? How does that sound?" Moses basically says: "No way, man. Every Marine a rifle. No watchers here; only warriors." These folks got the message. They said, "We would like to build pens here for our livestock and cities for our women and children." In other words, we'd like to stay here in our comfort zone-"but we are ready to arm ourselves and go ahead...every man armed for battle, will cross over to fight before the Lord." Good choice.
Now, about that battle for a lost and dying world from God's perspective, no one can just watch this battle. Every child of God is supposed to be a warrior in it...including you. You can't just send a check and consider yourself off the hook. You can't just support others who are fighting for lives Jesus died to save. You've got to be fighting for some yourself. You can't delegate Christ's world-reaching Great Commission to a few spiritual daredevils called missionaries or full-time workers. This call is for all of us, wherever we live, whatever we do. You may say, "Well, I don't have the gift to tell others." If you belong to Jesus, you have the assignment! Remember, "we are Christ's ambassadors" (2 Corinthians 5:20).
The truth is you're somebody's best chance of ever going to heaven, because you're the one with Jesus in their heart who is closest to that person at work, school, in your family, your neighborhood. If you don't tell them, chances are they'll never hear what Jesus did for them.
And your silence will be, in essence, an eternal death sentence for them. And beyond the people in your personal world, God wants you in the battle for the world beyond your own. You say, "Well, I can't possibly care about or support all the mission needs out there." That's right. But you know what you can do? You can say, "God, go ahead and place a piece of your broken heart for this world in my heart. Help me care about some need, and let me focus on that one." He'll do that, and you can begin to pray and give and help His soldiers who are fighting for those particular people.
No watchers in the battle for lost hearts, only warriors. Because everyone who belongs to Him, has a place on the front lines.
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
John 9:24-41, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: A HOPE-FILLED HEART
Jesus said, “Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar.”
In Gethsemane, Jesus faced betrayal on all levels. The disciples ran away. The people rejected him. And God didn’t answer his anguished appeal to avoid “the cup of suffering.” So, what did Christ do? He found enough good in the face of Judas to call him friend, and he can help us do the same with those who hurt us. He found purpose in the pain, seeing it as a necessary part of God’s greater plan.
Wouldn’t you love to have a hope-filled heart? God never promises to remove us from our struggles. He does promise, however, to change the way we look at them.
Read more Just Like Jesus
John 9:24-41
They called the man back a second time—the man who had been blind—and told him, “Give credit to God. We know this man is an impostor.”
25 He replied, “I know nothing about that one way or the other. But I know one thing for sure: I was blind . . . I now see.”
26 They said, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
27 “I’ve told you over and over and you haven’t listened. Why do you want to hear it again? Are you so eager to become his disciples?”
28-29 With that they jumped all over him. “You might be a disciple of that man, but we’re disciples of Moses. We know for sure that God spoke to Moses, but we have no idea where this man even comes from.”
30-33 The man replied, “This is amazing! You claim to know nothing about him, but the fact is, he opened my eyes! It’s well known that God isn’t at the beck and call of sinners, but listens carefully to anyone who lives in reverence and does his will. That someone opened the eyes of a man born blind has never been heard of—ever. If this man didn’t come from God, he wouldn’t be able to do anything.”
34 They said, “You’re nothing but dirt! How dare you take that tone with us!” Then they threw him out in the street.
35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and went and found him. He asked him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
36 The man said, “Point him out to me, sir, so that I can believe in him.”
37 Jesus said, “You’re looking right at him. Don’t you recognize my voice?”
38 “Master, I believe,” the man said, and worshiped him.
39 Jesus then said, “I came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day, making all the distinctions clear, so that those who have never seen will see, and those who have made a great pretense of seeing will be exposed as blind.”
40 Some Pharisees overheard him and said, “Does that mean you’re calling us blind?”
41 Jesus said, “If you were really blind, you would be blameless, but since you claim to see everything so well, you’re accountable for every fault and failure.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Today's Scripture: Proverbs 23:9–12 (NIV)
Don’t bother talking sense to fools;
they’ll only poke fun at your words.
10-11 Don’t stealthily move back the boundary lines
or cheat orphans out of their property,
For they have a powerful Advocate
who will go to bat for them.
12 Give yourselves to disciplined instruction;
open your ears to tested knowledge.
Insight
Proverbs 23:9–12 point to the interrelated principles of seeking wisdom from those who can be trusted (v. 12) while discerning who cannot be trusted (v. 9). This principle of discerning others’ character and limiting contact with the foolish—due to the profound influence of close relationships—is echoed in 26:4–5. However, these verses show a subtle difference of the principle by placing side by side opposite guidelines! First, we are told not to answer according to a foolish person’s folly (v. 4); then, we are told to answer, lest by silence we become complicit in their harmful ideas and character (v. 5).
These seemingly contradictory guidelines illustrate a principle central to the Proverbs: true wisdom is not a set of rules to be applied blindly but requires continual reliance on the Lord’s guidance to discern each situation. By: Monica Brands
Working off Bad Information
Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge. Proverbs 23:12
On a recent trip to New York City, my wife and I wanted to brave a snowy evening and hire a taxi for a three-mile ride from our hotel to a Cuban restaurant. After entering the details into the taxi service’s app, I gulped hard when the screen revealed the price for our short jaunt: $1,547.26. After recovering from the shock, I realized I had mistakenly requested a ride to our home—several hundred miles away!
If you’re working with the wrong information, you’re going to end up with disastrous results. Always. This is why Proverbs encourages us to “apply [our] heart to instruction and [our] ears to words of knowledge”—God’s wisdom (Proverbs 23:12). If we instead seek advice from those who are foolish, those who pretend to know more than they do and who have turned their back on God, we’ll be in trouble. They “scorn . . . prudent words” and can lead us astray with unhelpful, misguided, or even deceptive advice (v. 9).
Instead, we can bend our “ears to words of knowledge” (v. 12). We can open our heart and receive God’s liberating instruction, words of clarity and hope. When we listen to those who know the deep ways of God, they help us receive and follow divine wisdom. And God’s wisdom will never lead us astray but always encourages and leads us toward life and wholeness. By Winn Collier
Today's Reflection
God, bend my ears and heart toward wisdom. Help me be open to Your truth and push away every kind of foolishness.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Our Misgivings About Jesus
The woman said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw [water] with, and the well is deep." —John 4:11
Have you ever said to yourself, “I am impressed with the wonderful truths of God’s Word, but He can’t really expect me to live up to that and work all those details into my life!” When it comes to confronting Jesus Christ on the basis of His qualities and abilities, our attitudes reflect religious superiority. We think His ideals are lofty and they impress us, but we believe He is not in touch with reality— that what He says cannot actually be done. Each of us thinks this about Jesus in one area of our life or another. These doubts or misgivings about Jesus begin as we consider questions that divert our focus away from God. While we talk of our dealings with Him, others ask us, “Where are you going to get enough money to live? How will you live and who will take care of you?” Or our misgivings begin within ourselves when we tell Jesus that our circumstances are just a little too difficult for Him. We say, “It’s easy to say, ‘Trust in the Lord,’ but a person has to live; and besides, Jesus has nothing with which to draw water— no means to be able to give us these things.” And beware of exhibiting religious deceit by saying, “Oh, I have no misgivings about Jesus, only misgivings about myself.” If we are honest, we will admit that we never have misgivings or doubts about ourselves, because we know exactly what we are capable or incapable of doing. But we do have misgivings about Jesus. And our pride is hurt even at the thought that He can do what we can’t.
My misgivings arise from the fact that I search within to find how He will do what He says. My doubts spring from the depths of my own inferiority. If I detect these misgivings in myself, I should bring them into the light and confess them openly— “Lord, I have had misgivings about You. I have not believed in Your abilities, but only my own. And I have not believed in Your almighty power apart from my finite understanding of it.”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Defenders of the faith are inclined to be bitter until they learn to walk in the light of the Lord. When you have learned to walk in the light of the Lord, bitterness and contention are impossible. Biblical Psychology, 199 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Too Close To The Edge - #8382
No matter how big you expect the Grand Canyon to be, it's bigger. And when our family has had the privilege to visit there, we've all been impressed with this awesome, divine masterpiece. One big problem there though has been our boys, because they think they're part mountain goat. Of course, mountain goats cannot read the signs that tell you to stay behind the fences. Apparently, our boys couldn't read them either. They always had this irresistible urge to venture out as far as possible on those rocks that overlook the canyon. Of course, one false step, and it's over – actually, you're all over. All our lectures about going too far for safety's sake made a lot more sense the morning after we had stopped at one particular overlook. The morning paper reported that on the same afternoon we had been there, two young men went to that same overlook and one never came back. He ended up dead at the bottom of the canyon. The reason? Yeah, you know. He got too close to the edge.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Too Close To The Edge."
God has a word today for someone who's hurting, who's depressed and might be getting too close to the edge. Maybe there's this voice inside you, or someone you know, that's saying, "Life just hurts too much. Maybe I should just check out once and for all." You're looking over the edge of that abyss called suicide.
You need to know where that voice is coming from. Our word for today from the Word of God is John 10:10. "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." That was Jesus speaking. Two voices: one is the life-taker – that would be the devil, who wants to destroy you. The other is the life-giver – Jesus, who thought you were worth dying for. Any thoughts of ending your life, I can tell you, are from the Devil himself. And you cannot let him take you over the edge and rob you of all the tomorrows God has planned for you.
That edge of the cliff called suicide can only be a consideration if you do not realize how tragically expensive suicide is. First, it's the ultimate act of defiance toward the God who made you. In Psalm 139:13 and 16, it says, "You created my inmost being (God); You knit me together in my mother's womb... All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." Only the One who gave you your life has the right to end your life. And He's the One you meet the moment your life is over. You don't want to go into eternity defying the God you are about to meet.
Suicide, in many ways, is an ultimate act of selfishness toward the people who love you. You don't mean for it to be, but I've been on the other end of this. They never recover from the awful agony of this decision. Don't do this to them. You know, suicide is the ultimate waste of a life that Jesus actually gave His life for. He didn't die on the cross just to have us throw away the life He gave everything for. One last thing – suicide is an ultimate surrender to the spiritual enemy who hates you.
Look, maybe you've gotten too close to the edge recently. You've been thinking about suicide as an answer. A lot of people have, more than we realize. But, believe me, living is always better. Jesus said, "I have come that you might have life." Right now, instead of giving up, would you give it all over to Jesus? Pour out all that pain and all that struggle at the feet of this One who loves you most. He said, "I was sent to bind up the brokenhearted." And please talk to someone today about your struggle – a pastor, someone on a hot line, a counselor who's maybe walked through this with a lot of other people. Whatever the risks there are of you reaching out and talking about it, they can't be as expensive as giving up.
The Lord wants you to live – to have all your tomorrows. That's why He sent you this message of life today where you could hear it. Please get away from the edge. Don't go near it again! In God's own words from His book, "Choose life!"
Jesus said, “Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar.”
In Gethsemane, Jesus faced betrayal on all levels. The disciples ran away. The people rejected him. And God didn’t answer his anguished appeal to avoid “the cup of suffering.” So, what did Christ do? He found enough good in the face of Judas to call him friend, and he can help us do the same with those who hurt us. He found purpose in the pain, seeing it as a necessary part of God’s greater plan.
Wouldn’t you love to have a hope-filled heart? God never promises to remove us from our struggles. He does promise, however, to change the way we look at them.
Read more Just Like Jesus
John 9:24-41
They called the man back a second time—the man who had been blind—and told him, “Give credit to God. We know this man is an impostor.”
25 He replied, “I know nothing about that one way or the other. But I know one thing for sure: I was blind . . . I now see.”
26 They said, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
27 “I’ve told you over and over and you haven’t listened. Why do you want to hear it again? Are you so eager to become his disciples?”
28-29 With that they jumped all over him. “You might be a disciple of that man, but we’re disciples of Moses. We know for sure that God spoke to Moses, but we have no idea where this man even comes from.”
30-33 The man replied, “This is amazing! You claim to know nothing about him, but the fact is, he opened my eyes! It’s well known that God isn’t at the beck and call of sinners, but listens carefully to anyone who lives in reverence and does his will. That someone opened the eyes of a man born blind has never been heard of—ever. If this man didn’t come from God, he wouldn’t be able to do anything.”
34 They said, “You’re nothing but dirt! How dare you take that tone with us!” Then they threw him out in the street.
35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and went and found him. He asked him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
36 The man said, “Point him out to me, sir, so that I can believe in him.”
37 Jesus said, “You’re looking right at him. Don’t you recognize my voice?”
38 “Master, I believe,” the man said, and worshiped him.
39 Jesus then said, “I came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day, making all the distinctions clear, so that those who have never seen will see, and those who have made a great pretense of seeing will be exposed as blind.”
40 Some Pharisees overheard him and said, “Does that mean you’re calling us blind?”
41 Jesus said, “If you were really blind, you would be blameless, but since you claim to see everything so well, you’re accountable for every fault and failure.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Today's Scripture: Proverbs 23:9–12 (NIV)
Don’t bother talking sense to fools;
they’ll only poke fun at your words.
10-11 Don’t stealthily move back the boundary lines
or cheat orphans out of their property,
For they have a powerful Advocate
who will go to bat for them.
12 Give yourselves to disciplined instruction;
open your ears to tested knowledge.
Insight
Proverbs 23:9–12 point to the interrelated principles of seeking wisdom from those who can be trusted (v. 12) while discerning who cannot be trusted (v. 9). This principle of discerning others’ character and limiting contact with the foolish—due to the profound influence of close relationships—is echoed in 26:4–5. However, these verses show a subtle difference of the principle by placing side by side opposite guidelines! First, we are told not to answer according to a foolish person’s folly (v. 4); then, we are told to answer, lest by silence we become complicit in their harmful ideas and character (v. 5).
These seemingly contradictory guidelines illustrate a principle central to the Proverbs: true wisdom is not a set of rules to be applied blindly but requires continual reliance on the Lord’s guidance to discern each situation. By: Monica Brands
Working off Bad Information
Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge. Proverbs 23:12
On a recent trip to New York City, my wife and I wanted to brave a snowy evening and hire a taxi for a three-mile ride from our hotel to a Cuban restaurant. After entering the details into the taxi service’s app, I gulped hard when the screen revealed the price for our short jaunt: $1,547.26. After recovering from the shock, I realized I had mistakenly requested a ride to our home—several hundred miles away!
If you’re working with the wrong information, you’re going to end up with disastrous results. Always. This is why Proverbs encourages us to “apply [our] heart to instruction and [our] ears to words of knowledge”—God’s wisdom (Proverbs 23:12). If we instead seek advice from those who are foolish, those who pretend to know more than they do and who have turned their back on God, we’ll be in trouble. They “scorn . . . prudent words” and can lead us astray with unhelpful, misguided, or even deceptive advice (v. 9).
Instead, we can bend our “ears to words of knowledge” (v. 12). We can open our heart and receive God’s liberating instruction, words of clarity and hope. When we listen to those who know the deep ways of God, they help us receive and follow divine wisdom. And God’s wisdom will never lead us astray but always encourages and leads us toward life and wholeness. By Winn Collier
Today's Reflection
God, bend my ears and heart toward wisdom. Help me be open to Your truth and push away every kind of foolishness.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Our Misgivings About Jesus
The woman said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw [water] with, and the well is deep." —John 4:11
Have you ever said to yourself, “I am impressed with the wonderful truths of God’s Word, but He can’t really expect me to live up to that and work all those details into my life!” When it comes to confronting Jesus Christ on the basis of His qualities and abilities, our attitudes reflect religious superiority. We think His ideals are lofty and they impress us, but we believe He is not in touch with reality— that what He says cannot actually be done. Each of us thinks this about Jesus in one area of our life or another. These doubts or misgivings about Jesus begin as we consider questions that divert our focus away from God. While we talk of our dealings with Him, others ask us, “Where are you going to get enough money to live? How will you live and who will take care of you?” Or our misgivings begin within ourselves when we tell Jesus that our circumstances are just a little too difficult for Him. We say, “It’s easy to say, ‘Trust in the Lord,’ but a person has to live; and besides, Jesus has nothing with which to draw water— no means to be able to give us these things.” And beware of exhibiting religious deceit by saying, “Oh, I have no misgivings about Jesus, only misgivings about myself.” If we are honest, we will admit that we never have misgivings or doubts about ourselves, because we know exactly what we are capable or incapable of doing. But we do have misgivings about Jesus. And our pride is hurt even at the thought that He can do what we can’t.
My misgivings arise from the fact that I search within to find how He will do what He says. My doubts spring from the depths of my own inferiority. If I detect these misgivings in myself, I should bring them into the light and confess them openly— “Lord, I have had misgivings about You. I have not believed in Your abilities, but only my own. And I have not believed in Your almighty power apart from my finite understanding of it.”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Defenders of the faith are inclined to be bitter until they learn to walk in the light of the Lord. When you have learned to walk in the light of the Lord, bitterness and contention are impossible. Biblical Psychology, 199 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Too Close To The Edge - #8382
No matter how big you expect the Grand Canyon to be, it's bigger. And when our family has had the privilege to visit there, we've all been impressed with this awesome, divine masterpiece. One big problem there though has been our boys, because they think they're part mountain goat. Of course, mountain goats cannot read the signs that tell you to stay behind the fences. Apparently, our boys couldn't read them either. They always had this irresistible urge to venture out as far as possible on those rocks that overlook the canyon. Of course, one false step, and it's over – actually, you're all over. All our lectures about going too far for safety's sake made a lot more sense the morning after we had stopped at one particular overlook. The morning paper reported that on the same afternoon we had been there, two young men went to that same overlook and one never came back. He ended up dead at the bottom of the canyon. The reason? Yeah, you know. He got too close to the edge.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Too Close To The Edge."
God has a word today for someone who's hurting, who's depressed and might be getting too close to the edge. Maybe there's this voice inside you, or someone you know, that's saying, "Life just hurts too much. Maybe I should just check out once and for all." You're looking over the edge of that abyss called suicide.
You need to know where that voice is coming from. Our word for today from the Word of God is John 10:10. "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." That was Jesus speaking. Two voices: one is the life-taker – that would be the devil, who wants to destroy you. The other is the life-giver – Jesus, who thought you were worth dying for. Any thoughts of ending your life, I can tell you, are from the Devil himself. And you cannot let him take you over the edge and rob you of all the tomorrows God has planned for you.
That edge of the cliff called suicide can only be a consideration if you do not realize how tragically expensive suicide is. First, it's the ultimate act of defiance toward the God who made you. In Psalm 139:13 and 16, it says, "You created my inmost being (God); You knit me together in my mother's womb... All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." Only the One who gave you your life has the right to end your life. And He's the One you meet the moment your life is over. You don't want to go into eternity defying the God you are about to meet.
Suicide, in many ways, is an ultimate act of selfishness toward the people who love you. You don't mean for it to be, but I've been on the other end of this. They never recover from the awful agony of this decision. Don't do this to them. You know, suicide is the ultimate waste of a life that Jesus actually gave His life for. He didn't die on the cross just to have us throw away the life He gave everything for. One last thing – suicide is an ultimate surrender to the spiritual enemy who hates you.
Look, maybe you've gotten too close to the edge recently. You've been thinking about suicide as an answer. A lot of people have, more than we realize. But, believe me, living is always better. Jesus said, "I have come that you might have life." Right now, instead of giving up, would you give it all over to Jesus? Pour out all that pain and all that struggle at the feet of this One who loves you most. He said, "I was sent to bind up the brokenhearted." And please talk to someone today about your struggle – a pastor, someone on a hot line, a counselor who's maybe walked through this with a lot of other people. Whatever the risks there are of you reaching out and talking about it, they can't be as expensive as giving up.
The Lord wants you to live – to have all your tomorrows. That's why He sent you this message of life today where you could hear it. Please get away from the edge. Don't go near it again! In God's own words from His book, "Choose life!"
Monday, February 25, 2019
John 9:1-23, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: THE GREENHOUSE OF THE HEART
Proverbs 4:23 advises us, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Think of your heart as a greenhouse and consider your thoughts as seed. We must be selective about the seeds we allow to come into the greenhouse.
To have a pure heart, we must submit all thoughts to the authority of Christ. You see, your mind is the doorway to your heart. The Holy Spirit stands with you on the threshold, helping you manage and filter the thoughts that try to enter. If Jesus agrees with the thought, then let it in. If not, kick it out. How do you know if Jesus agrees or disagrees? You open your Bible. Armed with the opinion of Christ and the sword of the Spirit, guard the doorway of your heart. The more selective you are about seeds, the more delighted you will be with the crop.
Read more Just Like Jesus
John 9:1-23
Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked, “Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?”
3-5 Jesus said, “You’re asking the wrong question. You’re looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do. We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun shines. When night falls, the workday is over. For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world’s Light.”
6-7 He said this and then spit in the dust, made a clay paste with the saliva, rubbed the paste on the blind man’s eyes, and said, “Go, wash at the Pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “Sent”). The man went and washed—and saw.
8 Soon the town was buzzing. His relatives and those who year after year had seen him as a blind man begging were saying, “Why, isn’t this the man we knew, who sat here and begged?”
9 Others said, “It’s him all right!”
But others objected, “It’s not the same man at all. It just looks like him.”
He said, “It’s me, the very one.”
10 They said, “How did your eyes get opened?”
11 “A man named Jesus made a paste and rubbed it on my eyes and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ I did what he said. When I washed, I saw.”
12 “So where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
13-15 They marched the man to the Pharisees. This day when Jesus made the paste and healed his blindness was the Sabbath. The Pharisees grilled him again on how he had come to see. He said, “He put a clay paste on my eyes, and I washed, and now I see.”
16 Some of the Pharisees said, “Obviously, this man can’t be from God. He doesn’t keep the Sabbath.”
Others countered, “How can a bad man do miraculous, God-revealing things like this?” There was a split in their ranks.
17 They came back at the blind man, “You’re the expert. He opened your eyes. What do you say about him?”
He said, “He is a prophet.”
18-19 The Jews didn’t believe it, didn’t believe the man was blind to begin with. So they called the parents of the man now bright-eyed with sight. They asked them, “Is this your son, the one you say was born blind? So how is it that he now sees?”
20-23 His parents said, “We know he is our son, and we know he was born blind. But we don’t know how he came to see—haven’t a clue about who opened his eyes. Why don’t you ask him? He’s a grown man and can speak for himself.” (His parents were talking like this because they were intimidated by the Jewish leaders, who had already decided that anyone who took a stand that this was the Messiah would be kicked out of the meeting place. That’s why his parents said, “Ask him. He’s a grown man.”)
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, February 25, 2019
Today's Scripture: Luke 24:28–35 (NIV)
They came to the edge of the village where they were headed. He acted as if he were going on but they pressed him: “Stay and have supper with us. It’s nearly evening; the day is done.” So he went in with them. And here is what happened: He sat down at the table with them. Taking the bread, he blessed and broke and gave it to them. At that moment, open-eyed, wide-eyed, they recognized him. And then he disappeared.
32 Back and forth they talked. “Didn’t we feel on fire as he conversed with us on the road, as he opened up the Scriptures for us?”
33-34 They didn’t waste a minute. They were up and on their way back to Jerusalem. They found the Eleven and their friends gathered together, talking away: “It’s really happened! The Master has been raised up—Simon saw him!”
35 Then the two went over everything that happened on the road and how they recognized him when he broke the bread.
Insight
In the lands and times of the Bible, bread and table were symbols of relationship and a shared life. So when Jesus broke bread with His disciples on the night of His betrayal and said, “This is My body which is broken for you” (1 Corinthians 11:24 nkjv; see Luke 22:19), He was using words rich in meaning to communicate more than His disciples understood. Not until three days later when Jesus lifted His scarred hands to break bread at a table in the village of Emmaus did two disciples recognize the Stranger who had been opening their understanding of the Scriptures (Luke 24:13–32). They were among the first to witness what others would soon hear and see for themselves (vv. 33–43). The Bread had been broken on a dark Passover night. The news would soon spread of a bigger table, shared life, and a new way to read the Scriptures and story of God (vv. 45–49). By: Mart DeHaan
The Spirit of Fika
When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them.
Luke 24:30
The coffeehouse in the town near my house is named Fika. It’s a Swedish word meaning to take a break with coffee and a pastry, always with family, co-workers, or friends. I’m not Swedish, yet the spirit of fika describes one thing I love most about Jesus—His practice of taking a break to eat and relax with others.
Scholars say Jesus’s meals weren’t random. Theologian Mark Glanville calls them “the delightful ‘second course’” of Israel’s feasts and celebrations in the Old Testament. At the table, Jesus lived what God had intended Israel to be: “a center of joy, celebration and justice for the whole world.”
From the feeding of 5,000, to the Last Supper—even to the meal with two believers after His resurrection (Luke 24:30)—the table ministry of Jesus invites us to stop our constant striving and abide in Him. Indeed, not until eating with Jesus did the two believers recognize Him as the risen Lord. “He took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened” (vv. 30–31) to the living Christ.
Sitting with a friend recently at Fika, enjoying hot chocolate and rolls, we found ourselves also talking of Jesus. He is the Bread of Life. May we linger at His table and find more of Him. By Patricia Raybon
Today's Reflection
Lord, thank You for making time and room for us to abide at Your table.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, February 25, 2019
The Destitution of Service
…though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved. —2 Corinthians 12:15
Natural human love expects something in return. But Paul is saying, “It doesn’t really matter to me whether you love me or not. I am willing to be completely destitute anyway; willing to be poverty-stricken, not just for your sakes, but also that I may be able to get you to God.” “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor…” (2 Corinthians 8:9). And Paul’s idea of service was the same as our Lord’s. He did not care how high the cost was to himself— he would gladly pay it. It was a joyful thing to Paul.
The institutional church’s idea of a servant of God is not at all like Jesus Christ’s idea. His idea is that we serve Him by being the servants of others. Jesus Christ actually “out-socialized” the socialists. He said that in His kingdom the greatest one would be the servant of all (see Matthew 23:11). The real test of a saint is not one’s willingness to preach the gospel, but one’s willingness to do something like washing the disciples’ feet— that is, being willing to do those things that seem unimportant in human estimation but count as everything to God. It was Paul’s delight to spend his life for God’s interests in other people, and he did not care what it cost. But before we will serve, we stop to ponder our personal and financial concerns— “What if God wants me to go over there? And what about my salary? What is the climate like there? Who will take care of me? A person must consider all these things.” All that is an indication that we have reservations about serving God. But the apostle Paul had no conditions or reservations. Paul focused his life on Jesus Christ’s idea of a New Testament saint; that is, not one who merely proclaims the gospel, but one who becomes broken bread and poured-out wine in the hands of Jesus Christ for the sake of others.
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
Monday, February 25, 2019
You're In the Picture! - #8381
If you were a firstborn, or even a second born child, you might not understand this. But if you came after that in your family, you'll be able to empathize with our third and final born child. His frustration probably came to a head every Christmas when I'd pull out the old family movies...most of which he was not in. He's later observed that the number of photographs taken of a child seems to go down exponentially after the firstborn. It's like for every ten pictures of the first child, maybe there's five of the second, and if you're lucky, maybe one picture of the third. I can remember that he would sometimes leave the room for a little while during family movies. I mean, he had been patiently watching his older sister and brother's infant activities. When I'd ask him where he was going, he would reply matter-of-factly, "Call me when there's something I'm in."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "You're In the Picture!"
If we're honest, we know that we're most interested in the pictures we're in! Right? A lot of people have never taken a real personal look at the most important picture in history. Until they realize that they're in the picture. I hope you'll be able to see yourself in this picture today as you've never seen it before.
The scene is the brutal death of Jesus Christ on a Roman cross. You can probably bring up a mental image of that scene in your mind. The old spiritual asks, "Were you there when they crucified my Lord?" Actually, in a way, you were. All of us were, represented by one of two men. If you can figure out which one is you, you can figure out whether or not you're going to heaven when you die.
Jesus is being crucified between two hardened criminals. In Luke 23 beginning in verse 39, our word for today from the Word of God, the Bible says, "One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at Him: 'Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!' But the other criminal rebuked Him. 'Don't you fear God,' he said, 'since you are under the same sentence? We are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing.' Then he said, 'Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.' Jesus answered him, 'Today you will be with Me in paradise'."
There's the picture. Those two criminals represent the whole human race. And spiritually, one or the other represents you. Like them, we've all sinned. Our sins may not have been as dramatic, but all of us are rebels against God. Really, we've run our own lives, doing all kinds of things our way instead of His way. And like those two men, we all deserve the death penalty for what we've done. The Bible clearly states that the penalty for our sin is spiritual death, which means being separated from God forever (Romans 6:23).
And like one of them, many people see Jesus dying on that cross but they don't reach out to Him to be their Savior from their sin. You can reject Him aggressively like that one guy did, or passively just by simply failing to grab the Rescuer who came for you. And that might be you at Jesus' cross. You've never really placed your trust in Him as your only hope for getting to heaven.
If that's you, I pray you'll join the other man on the other cross, who's crying out to Jesus to be his personal Savior. Look, if you want this amazing relationship with this amazing Savior, would you tell Him that right now? You could pray to Him something like this, "Lord, I was made by you. I was made for you, and I've lived pretty much without you. I've pretty much run my own life, and I know there's a death penalty. But Lord, I believe you loved me so much you died to take that death penalty for me, and you rose again from the dead so you could give me life. Beginning right now, I turn from the running of my own life. I turn from the sin it's produced, and beginning right now, Lord, I am yours."
Man, it could be settled today. If you want that to happen, our website is a great place for you to go today. Because right there you will find the road to make sure you belong to Him. It is ANewStory.com. That's what it's about, and that's what it's called.
At the moment you open your heart to Jesus, the promise He made on that cross becomes your promise Here it is: "You will be with Me in paradise."
Proverbs 4:23 advises us, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Think of your heart as a greenhouse and consider your thoughts as seed. We must be selective about the seeds we allow to come into the greenhouse.
To have a pure heart, we must submit all thoughts to the authority of Christ. You see, your mind is the doorway to your heart. The Holy Spirit stands with you on the threshold, helping you manage and filter the thoughts that try to enter. If Jesus agrees with the thought, then let it in. If not, kick it out. How do you know if Jesus agrees or disagrees? You open your Bible. Armed with the opinion of Christ and the sword of the Spirit, guard the doorway of your heart. The more selective you are about seeds, the more delighted you will be with the crop.
Read more Just Like Jesus
John 9:1-23
Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked, “Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?”
3-5 Jesus said, “You’re asking the wrong question. You’re looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do. We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun shines. When night falls, the workday is over. For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world’s Light.”
6-7 He said this and then spit in the dust, made a clay paste with the saliva, rubbed the paste on the blind man’s eyes, and said, “Go, wash at the Pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “Sent”). The man went and washed—and saw.
8 Soon the town was buzzing. His relatives and those who year after year had seen him as a blind man begging were saying, “Why, isn’t this the man we knew, who sat here and begged?”
9 Others said, “It’s him all right!”
But others objected, “It’s not the same man at all. It just looks like him.”
He said, “It’s me, the very one.”
10 They said, “How did your eyes get opened?”
11 “A man named Jesus made a paste and rubbed it on my eyes and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ I did what he said. When I washed, I saw.”
12 “So where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
13-15 They marched the man to the Pharisees. This day when Jesus made the paste and healed his blindness was the Sabbath. The Pharisees grilled him again on how he had come to see. He said, “He put a clay paste on my eyes, and I washed, and now I see.”
16 Some of the Pharisees said, “Obviously, this man can’t be from God. He doesn’t keep the Sabbath.”
Others countered, “How can a bad man do miraculous, God-revealing things like this?” There was a split in their ranks.
17 They came back at the blind man, “You’re the expert. He opened your eyes. What do you say about him?”
He said, “He is a prophet.”
18-19 The Jews didn’t believe it, didn’t believe the man was blind to begin with. So they called the parents of the man now bright-eyed with sight. They asked them, “Is this your son, the one you say was born blind? So how is it that he now sees?”
20-23 His parents said, “We know he is our son, and we know he was born blind. But we don’t know how he came to see—haven’t a clue about who opened his eyes. Why don’t you ask him? He’s a grown man and can speak for himself.” (His parents were talking like this because they were intimidated by the Jewish leaders, who had already decided that anyone who took a stand that this was the Messiah would be kicked out of the meeting place. That’s why his parents said, “Ask him. He’s a grown man.”)
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, February 25, 2019
Today's Scripture: Luke 24:28–35 (NIV)
They came to the edge of the village where they were headed. He acted as if he were going on but they pressed him: “Stay and have supper with us. It’s nearly evening; the day is done.” So he went in with them. And here is what happened: He sat down at the table with them. Taking the bread, he blessed and broke and gave it to them. At that moment, open-eyed, wide-eyed, they recognized him. And then he disappeared.
32 Back and forth they talked. “Didn’t we feel on fire as he conversed with us on the road, as he opened up the Scriptures for us?”
33-34 They didn’t waste a minute. They were up and on their way back to Jerusalem. They found the Eleven and their friends gathered together, talking away: “It’s really happened! The Master has been raised up—Simon saw him!”
35 Then the two went over everything that happened on the road and how they recognized him when he broke the bread.
Insight
In the lands and times of the Bible, bread and table were symbols of relationship and a shared life. So when Jesus broke bread with His disciples on the night of His betrayal and said, “This is My body which is broken for you” (1 Corinthians 11:24 nkjv; see Luke 22:19), He was using words rich in meaning to communicate more than His disciples understood. Not until three days later when Jesus lifted His scarred hands to break bread at a table in the village of Emmaus did two disciples recognize the Stranger who had been opening their understanding of the Scriptures (Luke 24:13–32). They were among the first to witness what others would soon hear and see for themselves (vv. 33–43). The Bread had been broken on a dark Passover night. The news would soon spread of a bigger table, shared life, and a new way to read the Scriptures and story of God (vv. 45–49). By: Mart DeHaan
The Spirit of Fika
When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them.
Luke 24:30
The coffeehouse in the town near my house is named Fika. It’s a Swedish word meaning to take a break with coffee and a pastry, always with family, co-workers, or friends. I’m not Swedish, yet the spirit of fika describes one thing I love most about Jesus—His practice of taking a break to eat and relax with others.
Scholars say Jesus’s meals weren’t random. Theologian Mark Glanville calls them “the delightful ‘second course’” of Israel’s feasts and celebrations in the Old Testament. At the table, Jesus lived what God had intended Israel to be: “a center of joy, celebration and justice for the whole world.”
From the feeding of 5,000, to the Last Supper—even to the meal with two believers after His resurrection (Luke 24:30)—the table ministry of Jesus invites us to stop our constant striving and abide in Him. Indeed, not until eating with Jesus did the two believers recognize Him as the risen Lord. “He took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened” (vv. 30–31) to the living Christ.
Sitting with a friend recently at Fika, enjoying hot chocolate and rolls, we found ourselves also talking of Jesus. He is the Bread of Life. May we linger at His table and find more of Him. By Patricia Raybon
Today's Reflection
Lord, thank You for making time and room for us to abide at Your table.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, February 25, 2019
The Destitution of Service
…though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved. —2 Corinthians 12:15
Natural human love expects something in return. But Paul is saying, “It doesn’t really matter to me whether you love me or not. I am willing to be completely destitute anyway; willing to be poverty-stricken, not just for your sakes, but also that I may be able to get you to God.” “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor…” (2 Corinthians 8:9). And Paul’s idea of service was the same as our Lord’s. He did not care how high the cost was to himself— he would gladly pay it. It was a joyful thing to Paul.
The institutional church’s idea of a servant of God is not at all like Jesus Christ’s idea. His idea is that we serve Him by being the servants of others. Jesus Christ actually “out-socialized” the socialists. He said that in His kingdom the greatest one would be the servant of all (see Matthew 23:11). The real test of a saint is not one’s willingness to preach the gospel, but one’s willingness to do something like washing the disciples’ feet— that is, being willing to do those things that seem unimportant in human estimation but count as everything to God. It was Paul’s delight to spend his life for God’s interests in other people, and he did not care what it cost. But before we will serve, we stop to ponder our personal and financial concerns— “What if God wants me to go over there? And what about my salary? What is the climate like there? Who will take care of me? A person must consider all these things.” All that is an indication that we have reservations about serving God. But the apostle Paul had no conditions or reservations. Paul focused his life on Jesus Christ’s idea of a New Testament saint; that is, not one who merely proclaims the gospel, but one who becomes broken bread and poured-out wine in the hands of Jesus Christ for the sake of others.
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
Monday, February 25, 2019
You're In the Picture! - #8381
If you were a firstborn, or even a second born child, you might not understand this. But if you came after that in your family, you'll be able to empathize with our third and final born child. His frustration probably came to a head every Christmas when I'd pull out the old family movies...most of which he was not in. He's later observed that the number of photographs taken of a child seems to go down exponentially after the firstborn. It's like for every ten pictures of the first child, maybe there's five of the second, and if you're lucky, maybe one picture of the third. I can remember that he would sometimes leave the room for a little while during family movies. I mean, he had been patiently watching his older sister and brother's infant activities. When I'd ask him where he was going, he would reply matter-of-factly, "Call me when there's something I'm in."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "You're In the Picture!"
If we're honest, we know that we're most interested in the pictures we're in! Right? A lot of people have never taken a real personal look at the most important picture in history. Until they realize that they're in the picture. I hope you'll be able to see yourself in this picture today as you've never seen it before.
The scene is the brutal death of Jesus Christ on a Roman cross. You can probably bring up a mental image of that scene in your mind. The old spiritual asks, "Were you there when they crucified my Lord?" Actually, in a way, you were. All of us were, represented by one of two men. If you can figure out which one is you, you can figure out whether or not you're going to heaven when you die.
Jesus is being crucified between two hardened criminals. In Luke 23 beginning in verse 39, our word for today from the Word of God, the Bible says, "One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at Him: 'Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!' But the other criminal rebuked Him. 'Don't you fear God,' he said, 'since you are under the same sentence? We are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing.' Then he said, 'Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.' Jesus answered him, 'Today you will be with Me in paradise'."
There's the picture. Those two criminals represent the whole human race. And spiritually, one or the other represents you. Like them, we've all sinned. Our sins may not have been as dramatic, but all of us are rebels against God. Really, we've run our own lives, doing all kinds of things our way instead of His way. And like those two men, we all deserve the death penalty for what we've done. The Bible clearly states that the penalty for our sin is spiritual death, which means being separated from God forever (Romans 6:23).
And like one of them, many people see Jesus dying on that cross but they don't reach out to Him to be their Savior from their sin. You can reject Him aggressively like that one guy did, or passively just by simply failing to grab the Rescuer who came for you. And that might be you at Jesus' cross. You've never really placed your trust in Him as your only hope for getting to heaven.
If that's you, I pray you'll join the other man on the other cross, who's crying out to Jesus to be his personal Savior. Look, if you want this amazing relationship with this amazing Savior, would you tell Him that right now? You could pray to Him something like this, "Lord, I was made by you. I was made for you, and I've lived pretty much without you. I've pretty much run my own life, and I know there's a death penalty. But Lord, I believe you loved me so much you died to take that death penalty for me, and you rose again from the dead so you could give me life. Beginning right now, I turn from the running of my own life. I turn from the sin it's produced, and beginning right now, Lord, I am yours."
Man, it could be settled today. If you want that to happen, our website is a great place for you to go today. Because right there you will find the road to make sure you belong to Him. It is ANewStory.com. That's what it's about, and that's what it's called.
At the moment you open your heart to Jesus, the promise He made on that cross becomes your promise Here it is: "You will be with Me in paradise."
Sunday, February 24, 2019
Psalm 16, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: The Cause of Your Fatigue
Most people embrace the assumption that God saves good people. So be good. Be moral. Be honest. But for all the talk about being good-what level of good is good enough? It's an essential question; at stake is our eternal destination.
Paul said in Ephesians 2:8, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." We contribute nothing. Zilch. Salvation of the soul is unearned…it's a gift. Our merit means nothing. God's work merits everything.
Paul's message in Galatians 3:13 is this, "Christ redeemed us from that self-defeating, cursed life by absorbing it completely into himself." Translation- Say no to the rules and lists. Say no to slavery and performance. He asked, "Do you know what this means?" And I ask, "Do you?" If you don't, I know the cause of your fatigue. You need to trust God's grace.
From GRACE
Psalm 16
A David Song
16 1-2 Keep me safe, O God,
I’ve run for dear life to you.
I say to God, “Be my Lord!”
Without you, nothing makes sense.
3 And these God-chosen lives all around—
what splendid friends they make!
4 Don’t just go shopping for a god.
Gods are not for sale.
I swear I’ll never treat god-names
like brand-names.
5-6 My choice is you, God, first and only.
And now I find I’m your choice!
You set me up with a house and yard.
And then you made me your heir!
7-8 The wise counsel God gives when I’m awake
is confirmed by my sleeping heart.
Day and night I’ll stick with God;
I’ve got a good thing going and I’m not letting go.
9-10 I’m happy from the inside out,
and from the outside in, I’m firmly formed.
You canceled my ticket to hell—
that’s not my destination!
11 Now you’ve got my feet on the life path,
all radiant from the shining of your face.
Ever since you took my hand,
I’m on the right way.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, February 24, 2019
Today's Scripture: Psalm 104:10–24 (NIV)
O my soul, bless God!
God, my God, how great you are!
beautifully, gloriously robed,
Dressed up in sunshine,
and all heaven stretched out for your tent.
You built your palace on the ocean deeps,
made a chariot out of clouds and took off on wind-wings.
You commandeered winds as messengers,
appointed fire and flame as ambassadors.
You set earth on a firm foundation
so that nothing can shake it, ever.
You blanketed earth with ocean,
covered the mountains with deep waters;
Then you roared and the water ran away—
your thunder crash put it to flight.
Mountains pushed up, valleys spread out
in the places you assigned them.
You set boundaries between earth and sea;
never again will earth be flooded.
You started the springs and rivers,
sent them flowing among the hills.
All the wild animals now drink their fill,
wild donkeys quench their thirst.
Along the riverbanks the birds build nests,
ravens make their voices heard.
You water the mountains from your heavenly cisterns;
earth is supplied with plenty of water.
You make grass grow for the livestock,
hay for the animals that plow the ground.
14-23 Oh yes, God brings grain from the land,
wine to make people happy,
Their faces glowing with health,
a people well-fed and hearty.
God’s trees are well-watered—
the Lebanon cedars he planted.
Birds build their nests in those trees;
look—the stork at home in the treetop.
Mountain goats climb about the cliffs;
badgers burrow among the rocks.
The moon keeps track of the seasons,
the sun is in charge of each day.
When it’s dark and night takes over,
all the forest creatures come out.
The young lions roar for their prey,
clamoring to God for their supper.
When the sun comes up, they vanish,
lazily stretched out in their dens.
Meanwhile, men and women go out to work,
busy at their jobs until evening.
24-30 What a wildly wonderful world, God!
You made it all, with Wisdom at your side,
made earth overflow with your wonderful creations.
Oh, look—the deep, wide sea,
brimming with fish past counting,
sardines and sharks and salmon.
Ships plow those waters,
and Leviathan, your pet dragon, romps in them.
All the creatures look expectantly to you
to give them their meals on time.
You come, and they gather around;
you open your hand and they eat from it.
If you turned your back,
they’d die in a minute—
Take back your Spirit and they die,
revert to original mud;
Send out your Spirit and they spring to life—
the whole countryside in bloom and blossom.
Insight
In Psalm 104 the singer declares the power, greatness, and wonder of Israel’s God—a common theme in the psalms. In fact, Psalm 104 begins with the same refrain as Psalm 103: “Praise the Lord, my soul.” But, while much of Psalm 104 echoes other songs of praise, a feature that sets this song apart is that it’s two-directional in nature. The singer alternates between addressing God personally (the “you” sections, vv. 1–2, 24–30) and singing to the congregation about God (the “he” sections, vv. 3–23, 31–35). The psalmist praises God, while inviting his listeners—us among them—to join in! By: Bill Crowder
Quiet Awe
How many are your works, Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. Psalm 104:24
My life often feels frenzied and hectic. I hurry from one appointment to the next, returning phone calls and checking items off my seemingly infinite to-do list while on my way. Out of sheer exhaustion one Sunday, I collapsed into the hammock in our backyard. My phone was inside, as were my children and husband. At first I planned to sit for just a moment or two, but in the undistracted stillness, I began to notice things that invited me to linger longer. I could hear the creak of the hammock swinging gently, the buzz of a bee in the nearby lavender, and the flap of a bird’s wings overhead. The sky was a brilliant blue, and the clouds moved on the wind.
I found myself moved to tears in response to all God had made. When I slowed long enough to take in the many wonderful things within my eyesight and earshot, I was stirred to worship in gratitude for God’s creative power. The writer of Psalm 104 was equally humbled by the work of God’s hands, noting “you fill the earth with the fruit of your labor” (v. 13 nlt).
In the midst of a harried life, a quiet moment can remind us of God’s creative might! He surrounds us with evidence of His power and tenderness; He made both the high mountains and branches for birds. “In wisdom [He] made them all” (v. 24). By Kirsten Holmberg
Today's Reflection
Lord, Your creation amazes me. You made all things through Your limitless power, inviting us to enjoy the beauty You’ve surrounded us with. Help me to notice Your works and worship You in quiet moments.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, February 24, 2019
The Delight of Sacrifice
I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls… —2 Corinthians 12:15
Once “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit,” we deliberately begin to identify ourselves with Jesus Christ’s interests and purposes in others’ lives (Romans 5:5). And Jesus has an interest in every individual person. We have no right in Christian service to be guided by our own interests and desires. In fact, this is one of the greatest tests of our relationship with Jesus Christ. The delight of sacrifice is that I lay down my life for my Friend, Jesus (see John 15:13). I don’t throw my life away, but I willingly and deliberately lay it down for Him and His interests in other people. And I do this for no cause or purpose of my own. Paul spent his life for only one purpose— that he might win people to Jesus Christ. Paul always attracted people to his Lord, but never to himself. He said, “I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22).
When someone thinks that to develop a holy life he must always be alone with God, he is no longer of any use to others. This is like putting himself on a pedestal and isolating himself from the rest of society. Paul was a holy person, but wherever he went Jesus Christ was always allowed to help Himself to his life. Many of us are interested only in our own goals, and Jesus cannot help Himself to our lives. But if we are totally surrendered to Him, we have no goals of our own to serve. Paul said that he knew how to be a “doormat” without resenting it, because the motivation of his life was devotion to Jesus. We tend to be devoted, not to Jesus Christ, but to the things which allow us more spiritual freedom than total surrender to Him would allow. Freedom was not Paul’s motive at all. In fact, he stated, “I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren…” (Romans 9:3). Had Paul lost his ability to reason? Not at all! For someone who is in love, this is not an overstatement. And Paul was in love with Jesus Christ.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are not to preach the doing of good things; good deeds are not to be preached, they are to be performed.
So Send I You
Most people embrace the assumption that God saves good people. So be good. Be moral. Be honest. But for all the talk about being good-what level of good is good enough? It's an essential question; at stake is our eternal destination.
Paul said in Ephesians 2:8, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." We contribute nothing. Zilch. Salvation of the soul is unearned…it's a gift. Our merit means nothing. God's work merits everything.
Paul's message in Galatians 3:13 is this, "Christ redeemed us from that self-defeating, cursed life by absorbing it completely into himself." Translation- Say no to the rules and lists. Say no to slavery and performance. He asked, "Do you know what this means?" And I ask, "Do you?" If you don't, I know the cause of your fatigue. You need to trust God's grace.
From GRACE
Psalm 16
A David Song
16 1-2 Keep me safe, O God,
I’ve run for dear life to you.
I say to God, “Be my Lord!”
Without you, nothing makes sense.
3 And these God-chosen lives all around—
what splendid friends they make!
4 Don’t just go shopping for a god.
Gods are not for sale.
I swear I’ll never treat god-names
like brand-names.
5-6 My choice is you, God, first and only.
And now I find I’m your choice!
You set me up with a house and yard.
And then you made me your heir!
7-8 The wise counsel God gives when I’m awake
is confirmed by my sleeping heart.
Day and night I’ll stick with God;
I’ve got a good thing going and I’m not letting go.
9-10 I’m happy from the inside out,
and from the outside in, I’m firmly formed.
You canceled my ticket to hell—
that’s not my destination!
11 Now you’ve got my feet on the life path,
all radiant from the shining of your face.
Ever since you took my hand,
I’m on the right way.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, February 24, 2019
Today's Scripture: Psalm 104:10–24 (NIV)
O my soul, bless God!
God, my God, how great you are!
beautifully, gloriously robed,
Dressed up in sunshine,
and all heaven stretched out for your tent.
You built your palace on the ocean deeps,
made a chariot out of clouds and took off on wind-wings.
You commandeered winds as messengers,
appointed fire and flame as ambassadors.
You set earth on a firm foundation
so that nothing can shake it, ever.
You blanketed earth with ocean,
covered the mountains with deep waters;
Then you roared and the water ran away—
your thunder crash put it to flight.
Mountains pushed up, valleys spread out
in the places you assigned them.
You set boundaries between earth and sea;
never again will earth be flooded.
You started the springs and rivers,
sent them flowing among the hills.
All the wild animals now drink their fill,
wild donkeys quench their thirst.
Along the riverbanks the birds build nests,
ravens make their voices heard.
You water the mountains from your heavenly cisterns;
earth is supplied with plenty of water.
You make grass grow for the livestock,
hay for the animals that plow the ground.
14-23 Oh yes, God brings grain from the land,
wine to make people happy,
Their faces glowing with health,
a people well-fed and hearty.
God’s trees are well-watered—
the Lebanon cedars he planted.
Birds build their nests in those trees;
look—the stork at home in the treetop.
Mountain goats climb about the cliffs;
badgers burrow among the rocks.
The moon keeps track of the seasons,
the sun is in charge of each day.
When it’s dark and night takes over,
all the forest creatures come out.
The young lions roar for their prey,
clamoring to God for their supper.
When the sun comes up, they vanish,
lazily stretched out in their dens.
Meanwhile, men and women go out to work,
busy at their jobs until evening.
24-30 What a wildly wonderful world, God!
You made it all, with Wisdom at your side,
made earth overflow with your wonderful creations.
Oh, look—the deep, wide sea,
brimming with fish past counting,
sardines and sharks and salmon.
Ships plow those waters,
and Leviathan, your pet dragon, romps in them.
All the creatures look expectantly to you
to give them their meals on time.
You come, and they gather around;
you open your hand and they eat from it.
If you turned your back,
they’d die in a minute—
Take back your Spirit and they die,
revert to original mud;
Send out your Spirit and they spring to life—
the whole countryside in bloom and blossom.
Insight
In Psalm 104 the singer declares the power, greatness, and wonder of Israel’s God—a common theme in the psalms. In fact, Psalm 104 begins with the same refrain as Psalm 103: “Praise the Lord, my soul.” But, while much of Psalm 104 echoes other songs of praise, a feature that sets this song apart is that it’s two-directional in nature. The singer alternates between addressing God personally (the “you” sections, vv. 1–2, 24–30) and singing to the congregation about God (the “he” sections, vv. 3–23, 31–35). The psalmist praises God, while inviting his listeners—us among them—to join in! By: Bill Crowder
Quiet Awe
How many are your works, Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. Psalm 104:24
My life often feels frenzied and hectic. I hurry from one appointment to the next, returning phone calls and checking items off my seemingly infinite to-do list while on my way. Out of sheer exhaustion one Sunday, I collapsed into the hammock in our backyard. My phone was inside, as were my children and husband. At first I planned to sit for just a moment or two, but in the undistracted stillness, I began to notice things that invited me to linger longer. I could hear the creak of the hammock swinging gently, the buzz of a bee in the nearby lavender, and the flap of a bird’s wings overhead. The sky was a brilliant blue, and the clouds moved on the wind.
I found myself moved to tears in response to all God had made. When I slowed long enough to take in the many wonderful things within my eyesight and earshot, I was stirred to worship in gratitude for God’s creative power. The writer of Psalm 104 was equally humbled by the work of God’s hands, noting “you fill the earth with the fruit of your labor” (v. 13 nlt).
In the midst of a harried life, a quiet moment can remind us of God’s creative might! He surrounds us with evidence of His power and tenderness; He made both the high mountains and branches for birds. “In wisdom [He] made them all” (v. 24). By Kirsten Holmberg
Today's Reflection
Lord, Your creation amazes me. You made all things through Your limitless power, inviting us to enjoy the beauty You’ve surrounded us with. Help me to notice Your works and worship You in quiet moments.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, February 24, 2019
The Delight of Sacrifice
I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls… —2 Corinthians 12:15
Once “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit,” we deliberately begin to identify ourselves with Jesus Christ’s interests and purposes in others’ lives (Romans 5:5). And Jesus has an interest in every individual person. We have no right in Christian service to be guided by our own interests and desires. In fact, this is one of the greatest tests of our relationship with Jesus Christ. The delight of sacrifice is that I lay down my life for my Friend, Jesus (see John 15:13). I don’t throw my life away, but I willingly and deliberately lay it down for Him and His interests in other people. And I do this for no cause or purpose of my own. Paul spent his life for only one purpose— that he might win people to Jesus Christ. Paul always attracted people to his Lord, but never to himself. He said, “I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22).
When someone thinks that to develop a holy life he must always be alone with God, he is no longer of any use to others. This is like putting himself on a pedestal and isolating himself from the rest of society. Paul was a holy person, but wherever he went Jesus Christ was always allowed to help Himself to his life. Many of us are interested only in our own goals, and Jesus cannot help Himself to our lives. But if we are totally surrendered to Him, we have no goals of our own to serve. Paul said that he knew how to be a “doormat” without resenting it, because the motivation of his life was devotion to Jesus. We tend to be devoted, not to Jesus Christ, but to the things which allow us more spiritual freedom than total surrender to Him would allow. Freedom was not Paul’s motive at all. In fact, he stated, “I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren…” (Romans 9:3). Had Paul lost his ability to reason? Not at all! For someone who is in love, this is not an overstatement. And Paul was in love with Jesus Christ.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are not to preach the doing of good things; good deeds are not to be preached, they are to be performed.
So Send I You
Saturday, February 23, 2019
Psalm 15, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: We’ve Been Found Guilty
Romans 3:10 introduces an essential truth. “There is no one righteous, not even one. . .no one who seeks God. All have turned away, there is no one who does good, not even one.”
We must start where God starts. We won’t appreciate what grace does until we understand who we are. We are rebels. We deserve to die. Four prison walls, thickened with hurt, and hate, surround us. Incarcerated by our past, our low-road choices, and our high-minded pride. We have been found guilty.
Our executioner’s footsteps echo against stone walls. We don’t look up as he opens the door and begins to speak. We know what he’s going to say– “Time to pay for your sins.” But we hear something else. “You’re free to go. They took Jesus instead of you.” The light shines, the shackles are gone, and our crimes are pardoned.
What just happened? Grace happened!
From GRACE
Psalm 15
A David Psalm
15 God, who gets invited
to dinner at your place?
How do we get on your guest list?
2 “Walk straight,
act right,
tell the truth.
3-4 “Don’t hurt your friend,
don’t blame your neighbor;
despise the despicable.
5 “Keep your word even when it costs you,
make an honest living,
never take a bribe.
“You’ll never get
blacklisted
if you live like this.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, February 23, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Romans 13:8-14
Don’t run up debts, except for the huge debt of love you owe each other. When you love others, you complete what the law has been after all along. The law code—don’t sleep with another person’s spouse, don’t take someone’s life, don’t take what isn’t yours, don’t always be wanting what you don’t have, and any other “don’t” you can think of—finally adds up to this: Love other people as well as you do yourself. You can’t go wrong when you love others. When you add up everything in the law code, the sum total is love.
11-14 But make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can’t afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don’t loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!
Insight
In Romans 13, Paul describes the type of response Christians should have toward governing authorities, which includes submitting to them and paying taxes. Why? Because God has established these authorities (vv. 1–7). He then goes on to stress that we are to “let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another” (v. 8). By loving one another we fulfill the law summed up in the command, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (vv. 9–10).
Paul provides an additional reason why we are to love and why we are to strive to follow the principles for godly living described in chapters 12–13. “Because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed” (13:11). The time of Christ’s second coming, His return to earth, is nearer every day. Thus, we’re to “behave decently” and “clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ” (vv. 13–14). By: Alyson Kieda
Living in God’s Story
The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. Romans 13:12
Ernest Hemingway was asked if he could write a compelling story in six words. His response: “For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn.” Hemingway’s story is powerful because it inspires us to fill in the details. Were the shoes simply not needed by a healthy child? Or was there a tragic loss—something requiring God’s deep love and comfort?
The best stories pique our imagination, so it’s no surprise that the greatest story ever told stokes the fires of our creativity. God’s story has a central plot: He created all things; we (the human race) fell into sin; Jesus came to Earth and died and rose again to save us from our sins; and we now await His return and the restoration of all things.
Knowing what has come before and what lies ahead, how should we now live? If Jesus is restoring His entire creation from the clutches of evil, we must “put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:12). This includes turning from sin by God’s power and choosing to love Him and others well (vv. 8–10).
The specific ways we fight with Jesus against evil will depend on what gifts we have and what needs we see. Let’s use our imagination and look around us. Let’s seek out the wounded and weeping, and extend God’s justice, love, and comfort as He guides us. By Mike Wittmer
Today's Reflection
Father, may Your kingdom come and may it come in me.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, February 23, 2019
The Determination to Serve
The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve… —Matthew 20:28
Jesus also said, “Yet I am among you as the One who serves” (Luke 22:27). Paul’s idea of service was the same as our Lord’s— “…ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Corinthians 4:5). We somehow have the idea that a person called to the ministry is called to be different and above other people. But according to Jesus Christ, he is called to be a “doormat” for others— called to be their spiritual leader, but never their superior. Paul said, “I know how to be abased…” (Philippians 4:12). Paul’s idea of service was to pour his life out to the last drop for others. And whether he received praise or blame made no difference. As long as there was one human being who did not know Jesus, Paul felt a debt of service to that person until he did come to know Him. But the chief motivation behind Paul’s service was not love for others but love for his Lord. If our devotion is to the cause of humanity, we will be quickly defeated and broken-hearted, since we will often be confronted with a great deal of ingratitude from other people. But if we are motivated by our love for God, no amount of ingratitude will be able to hinder us from serving one another.
Paul’s understanding of how Christ had dealt with him is the secret behind his determination to serve others. “I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man…” (1 Timothy 1:13). In other words, no matter how badly others may have treated Paul, they could never have treated him with the same degree of spite and hatred with which he had treated Jesus Christ. Once we realize that Jesus has served us even to the depths of our meagerness, our selfishness, and our sin, nothing we encounter from others will be able to exhaust our determination to serve others for His sake.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Defenders of the faith are inclined to be bitter until they learn to walk in the light of the Lord. When you have learned to walk in the light of the Lord, bitterness and contention are impossible.
Biblical Psychology
Romans 3:10 introduces an essential truth. “There is no one righteous, not even one. . .no one who seeks God. All have turned away, there is no one who does good, not even one.”
We must start where God starts. We won’t appreciate what grace does until we understand who we are. We are rebels. We deserve to die. Four prison walls, thickened with hurt, and hate, surround us. Incarcerated by our past, our low-road choices, and our high-minded pride. We have been found guilty.
Our executioner’s footsteps echo against stone walls. We don’t look up as he opens the door and begins to speak. We know what he’s going to say– “Time to pay for your sins.” But we hear something else. “You’re free to go. They took Jesus instead of you.” The light shines, the shackles are gone, and our crimes are pardoned.
What just happened? Grace happened!
From GRACE
Psalm 15
A David Psalm
15 God, who gets invited
to dinner at your place?
How do we get on your guest list?
2 “Walk straight,
act right,
tell the truth.
3-4 “Don’t hurt your friend,
don’t blame your neighbor;
despise the despicable.
5 “Keep your word even when it costs you,
make an honest living,
never take a bribe.
“You’ll never get
blacklisted
if you live like this.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, February 23, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Romans 13:8-14
Don’t run up debts, except for the huge debt of love you owe each other. When you love others, you complete what the law has been after all along. The law code—don’t sleep with another person’s spouse, don’t take someone’s life, don’t take what isn’t yours, don’t always be wanting what you don’t have, and any other “don’t” you can think of—finally adds up to this: Love other people as well as you do yourself. You can’t go wrong when you love others. When you add up everything in the law code, the sum total is love.
11-14 But make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can’t afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don’t loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!
Insight
In Romans 13, Paul describes the type of response Christians should have toward governing authorities, which includes submitting to them and paying taxes. Why? Because God has established these authorities (vv. 1–7). He then goes on to stress that we are to “let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another” (v. 8). By loving one another we fulfill the law summed up in the command, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (vv. 9–10).
Paul provides an additional reason why we are to love and why we are to strive to follow the principles for godly living described in chapters 12–13. “Because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed” (13:11). The time of Christ’s second coming, His return to earth, is nearer every day. Thus, we’re to “behave decently” and “clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ” (vv. 13–14). By: Alyson Kieda
Living in God’s Story
The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. Romans 13:12
Ernest Hemingway was asked if he could write a compelling story in six words. His response: “For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn.” Hemingway’s story is powerful because it inspires us to fill in the details. Were the shoes simply not needed by a healthy child? Or was there a tragic loss—something requiring God’s deep love and comfort?
The best stories pique our imagination, so it’s no surprise that the greatest story ever told stokes the fires of our creativity. God’s story has a central plot: He created all things; we (the human race) fell into sin; Jesus came to Earth and died and rose again to save us from our sins; and we now await His return and the restoration of all things.
Knowing what has come before and what lies ahead, how should we now live? If Jesus is restoring His entire creation from the clutches of evil, we must “put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:12). This includes turning from sin by God’s power and choosing to love Him and others well (vv. 8–10).
The specific ways we fight with Jesus against evil will depend on what gifts we have and what needs we see. Let’s use our imagination and look around us. Let’s seek out the wounded and weeping, and extend God’s justice, love, and comfort as He guides us. By Mike Wittmer
Today's Reflection
Father, may Your kingdom come and may it come in me.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, February 23, 2019
The Determination to Serve
The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve… —Matthew 20:28
Jesus also said, “Yet I am among you as the One who serves” (Luke 22:27). Paul’s idea of service was the same as our Lord’s— “…ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Corinthians 4:5). We somehow have the idea that a person called to the ministry is called to be different and above other people. But according to Jesus Christ, he is called to be a “doormat” for others— called to be their spiritual leader, but never their superior. Paul said, “I know how to be abased…” (Philippians 4:12). Paul’s idea of service was to pour his life out to the last drop for others. And whether he received praise or blame made no difference. As long as there was one human being who did not know Jesus, Paul felt a debt of service to that person until he did come to know Him. But the chief motivation behind Paul’s service was not love for others but love for his Lord. If our devotion is to the cause of humanity, we will be quickly defeated and broken-hearted, since we will often be confronted with a great deal of ingratitude from other people. But if we are motivated by our love for God, no amount of ingratitude will be able to hinder us from serving one another.
Paul’s understanding of how Christ had dealt with him is the secret behind his determination to serve others. “I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man…” (1 Timothy 1:13). In other words, no matter how badly others may have treated Paul, they could never have treated him with the same degree of spite and hatred with which he had treated Jesus Christ. Once we realize that Jesus has served us even to the depths of our meagerness, our selfishness, and our sin, nothing we encounter from others will be able to exhaust our determination to serve others for His sake.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Defenders of the faith are inclined to be bitter until they learn to walk in the light of the Lord. When you have learned to walk in the light of the Lord, bitterness and contention are impossible.
Biblical Psychology
Friday, February 22, 2019
John 8:28-59, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: AN HONEST HEART
In Acts 1:8 Jesus says, “You will be my witnesses—in Jerusalem, in all of Judea, in Samaria, and in every part of the world.” We are God’s witnesses. And we are to speak truthfully. God loves the truth and God hates deceit. But Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that “the heart is deceitful above all things.” How do we explain our dishonesty?
Well, for one thing, we don’t like the truth because the truth isn’t always fun. The wages of deceit is death. Not death of the body, perhaps, but death of a marriage, a conscience, a career, or faith. But perhaps the most tragic death that occurs from deceit is our witness. Examine your heart. Do you tell the truth…always? If not, start today. Be just like Jesus. Tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Read more Just Like Jesus
John 8:28-59
They still didn’t get it, didn’t realize that he was referring to the Father. So Jesus tried again. “When you raise up the Son of Man, then you will know who I am—that I’m not making this up, but speaking only what the Father taught me. The One who sent me stays with me. He doesn’t abandon me. He sees how much joy I take in pleasing him.”
30 When he put it in these terms, many people decided to believe.
31-32 Then Jesus turned to the Jews who had claimed to believe in him. “If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you.”
33 Surprised, they said, “But we’re descendants of Abraham. We’ve never been slaves to anyone. How can you say, ‘The truth will free you’?”
34-38 Jesus said, “I tell you most solemnly that anyone who chooses a life of sin is trapped in a dead-end life and is, in fact, a slave. A slave is a transient, who can’t come and go at will. The Son, though, has an established position, the run of the house. So if the Son sets you free, you are free through and through. I know you are Abraham’s descendants. But I also know that you are trying to kill me because my message hasn’t yet penetrated your thick skulls. I’m talking about things I have seen while keeping company with the Father, and you just go on doing what you have heard from your father.”
39-41 They were indignant. “Our father is Abraham!”
Jesus said, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would have been doing the things Abraham did. And yet here you are trying to kill me, a man who has spoken to you the truth he got straight from God! Abraham never did that sort of thing. You persist in repeating the works of your father.”
They said, “We’re not bastards. We have a legitimate father: the one and only God.”
42-47 “If God were your father,” said Jesus, “you would love me, for I came from God and arrived here. I didn’t come on my own. He sent me. Why can’t you understand one word I say? Here’s why: You can’t handle it. You’re from your father, the Devil, and all you want to do is please him. He was a killer from the very start. He couldn’t stand the truth because there wasn’t a shred of truth in him. When the Liar speaks, he makes it up out of his lying nature and fills the world with lies. I arrive on the scene, tell you the plain truth, and you refuse to have a thing to do with me. Can any one of you convict me of a single misleading word, a single sinful act? But if I’m telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? Anyone on God’s side listens to God’s words. This is why you’re not listening—because you’re not on God’s side.”
48 The Jews then said, “That clinches it. We were right all along when we called you a Samaritan and said you were crazy—demon-possessed!”
49-51 Jesus said, “I’m not crazy. I simply honor my Father, while you dishonor me. I am not trying to get anything for myself. God intends something gloriously grand here and is making the decisions that will bring it about. I say this with absolute confidence. If you practice what I’m telling you, you’ll never have to look death in the face.”
52-53 At this point the Jews said, “Now we know you’re crazy. Abraham died. The prophets died. And you show up saying, ‘If you practice what I’m telling you, you’ll never have to face death, not even a taste.’ Are you greater than Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you think you are!”
54-56 Jesus said, “If I turned the spotlight on myself, it wouldn’t amount to anything. But my Father, the same One you say is your Father, put me here at this time and place of splendor. You haven’t recognized him in this. But I have. If I, in false modesty, said I didn’t know what was going on, I would be as much of a liar as you are. But I do know, and I am doing what he says. Abraham—your ‘father’—with jubilant faith looked down the corridors of history and saw my day coming. He saw it and cheered.”
57 The Jews said, “You’re not even fifty years old—and Abraham saw you?”
58 “Believe me,” said Jesus, “I am who I am long before Abraham was anything.”
59 That did it—pushed them over the edge. They picked up rocks to throw at him. But Jesus slipped away, getting out of the Temple.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, February 22, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Isaiah 41:8-13
“But you, Israel, are my servant.
You’re Jacob, my first choice,
descendants of my good friend Abraham.
I pulled you in from all over the world,
called you in from every dark corner of the earth,
Telling you, ‘You’re my servant, serving on my side.
I’ve picked you. I haven’t dropped you.’
Don’t panic. I’m with you.
There’s no need to fear for I’m your God.
I’ll give you strength. I’ll help you.
I’ll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you.
11-13 “Count on it: Everyone who had it in for you
will end up out in the cold—
real losers.
Those who worked against you
will end up empty-handed—
nothing to show for their lives.
When you go out looking for your old adversaries
you won’t find them—
Not a trace of your old enemies,
not even a memory.
That’s right. Because I, your God,
have a firm grip on you and I’m not letting go.
I’m telling you, ‘Don’t panic.
I’m right here to help you.’
Insight
God assures the Israelites they are “the apple of his eye” (Deuteronomy 32:10). Privileged to be “chosen . . . to be his people, his treasured possession” (7:6), He gave them the title of honor—“my servant”—just as He did their revered lawgiver, Moses (Malachi 4:4) and their beloved king, David (1 Chronicles 17:7). By physical offspring, they were the “descendants of Abraham my friend” (Isaiah 41:8). Abraham was one of only two people called God’s friend in the Old Testament; the other person is Moses, for God spoke to him “as one speaks to a friend” (Exodus 33:11). The patriarch Job wished he had an advocate and intercessor who would plead with God “as one pleads for a friend” (Job 16:21). Today we have such a Friend—our Lord Jesus (John 15:13–15). We have a “new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God” (Romans 5:11 nlt). By: K. T. Sim
He Holds Our Hand
I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10
The little girl who navigated the stairway one Sunday at church was cute, spunky, and independent. One by one the child—who appeared to be not much older than two years—took the steps down to the lower level. Descending the stairs was her mission and she accomplished it. I smiled to myself as I pondered the daring independence of this courageous toddler. The child wasn’t afraid because she knew her caring mother’s watchful eye was always on her and her loving hand was extended to help her. This aptly pictures the Lord’s readiness to help His children as they make their way through life with its varied uncertainties.
Today’s Scripture includes two “hand” references. After cautioning His ancient people not to fear or be dismayed, the Lord told them, “I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10). Many anxious and fearful children have been steadied by the strength of a parent. Here God’s power comes into view. In the second “hand” reference, once again it’s the Lord who acted to secure the safety of His own. “For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand” (v. 13). While life situations and times have changed, the Lord hasn’t. We need not despair (v. 10) because the Lord still assures us with the promise of His support and with the words we desperately need to hear: “Do not fear” (vv. 10, 13). By Arthur Jackson
Today's Reflection
Father, thank You for always watching over me.
For help, read Navigating the Storms of Life at discoveryseries.org/hp061.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, February 22, 2019
The Discipline of Spiritual Perseverance
Be still, and know that I am God… —Psalm 46:10
Perseverance is more than endurance. It is endurance combined with absolute assurance and certainty that what we are looking for is going to happen. Perseverance means more than just hanging on, which may be only exposing our fear of letting go and falling. Perseverance is our supreme effort of refusing to believe that our hero is going to be conquered. Our greatest fear is not that we will be damned, but that somehow Jesus Christ will be defeated. Also, our fear is that the very things our Lord stood for— love, justice, forgiveness, and kindness among men— will not win out in the end and will represent an unattainable goal for us. Then there is the call to spiritual perseverance. A call not to hang on and do nothing, but to work deliberately, knowing with certainty that God will never be defeated.
If our hopes seem to be experiencing disappointment right now, it simply means that they are being purified. Every hope or dream of the human mind will be fulfilled if it is noble and of God. But one of the greatest stresses in life is the stress of waiting for God. He brings fulfillment, “because you have kept My command to persevere…” (Revelation 3:10).
Continue to persevere spiritually.
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, February 22, 2019
Why Your Failure Doesn't Have To Be Final - #8380
We're not horse racing fans, but I happened to stumble onto a horse race on TV when I was looking for the evening news. It was a few years ago. It was The Preakness; the second race in that three-race series they call the Triple Crown. Those races are, in essence, horse racing's World Series. The first race in 2005 had been won by a horse whose odds of winning were 50 to 1, beating the odds-on favorite, Afleet Alex. Then came that second race, The Preakness. As the race passed the halfway point, Afleet Alex made his move. He quickly caught up with another horse who had been in the lead – who, for some reason, swerved unexpectedly right into his path, and both horses started to collide and stumble. Well, Afleet Alex's jockey ended up hanging onto his horse's neck, fully expecting to go down in a potentially deadly fall where they could all be trampled. But amazingly, Afleet Alex somehow managed to regain his balance, surge into the lead, and win the race in a dramatic finish. The headline the next day said it all: "From stumble to stunning finish."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have "A Word With You" today about "Why Your Failure Doesn't Have To Be Final."
That headline could be autobiographical for someone who's listening right now. You've stumbled spiritually, and you could go down and stay down. Or you could – because of the kind of Savior Jesus is – get up and go on to a stunning finish.
You wouldn't be the first one. Take Jesus' disciple, Peter, for example. He stumbled big-time. In the hours just before Jesus was arrested, tortured, and executed, Simon Peter pledged that he would follow his Lord to prison and to death. Jesus said, in essence, "No, you won't. You will deny me three times in the next few hours before the rooster crows." Sadly, that's exactly what Peter did right when Jesus needed him most. This man who had made such bold promises about his commitment to Jesus wouldn't even admit to a little girl that he even knew Jesus.
The Bible says that Jesus was led through the place where Peter was going down spiritually and "the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter." That rooster crowed and Peter "went outside and wept bitterly" (Luke 22:62). It was over – so it looked. He had stumbled majorly.
Fast forward only a few weeks later to the streets of Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. In our word for today from the Word of God in Acts 2, beginning with verse 14, the Bible says, "Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd... 'Let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ'" (verse 36). Man, talk about boldness! That day God used Peter's sermon to move 3,000 people to come to Jesus. Peter went on to run an amazing race for Jesus, all the way to his martyr's death for his Lord.
That same Jesus wants to pick you up from your fall and enable you to run an amazing race for Him. The devil's lie, of course, is that it's over; you failed and it's no use trying to go on with Jesus. But Peter's comeback is living proof that your failure doesn't have to be final if you'll do what he did. Realize how much your sin is hurting your Savior and repent of what you've done with all your heart. Let your sin break your heart.
Then, accept the forgiveness that He died to give you for that sin. And surrender to Jesus for whatever He wants you to do for Him, opening yourself up to a total Holy Spirit takeover. Let your stumble lead to surrender – not surrender to your failure but to your Savior. And let that surrender give birth to a holy determination to take some serious spiritual revenge on that devil by making him sorry he ever tried to bring you down.
A stumble can lead to a tragic and even permanent fall. Or it can set the stage for a stunning victory. Get up, get back into that race, and go on to an even more glorious victory!
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