Max Lucado Daily: THE OTHER SIDE OF DEATH’S RIVER
A missionary in Brazil discovered a tribe of Indians in a remote area. A contagious disease was ravaging the population. To get medical attention they would need to cross a river—a river, they believed, was inhabited by evil spirits. The missionary told them how he had crossed the river unharmed. No luck. Finally, he swam beneath the surface and emerged on the other side. Then the Indians followed him.
Jesus saw people enslaved by their fear of death. He explained that death was nothing to fear. He called Lazarus out of the grave yet they were still cynical. He had to submerge himself in the water of death before people would believe that death had been conquered. And he came out on the other side of death’s river. He proved once and for all, our death, is not final.
Read more Six Hours One Friday
1 Kings 4
King Solomon was off to a good start ruling Israel.
These were the leaders in his government:
2-6 Azariah son of Zadok—the priest;
Elihoreph and Ahijah, sons of Shisha—secretaries;
Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud—historian;
Benaiah son of Jehoiada—commander of the army;
Zadok and Abiathar—priests;
Azariah son of Nathan—in charge of the regional managers;
Zabud son of Nathan—priest and friend to the king;
Ahishar—manager of the palace;
Adoniram son of Abda—manager of the slave labor.
7-19 Solomon had twelve regional managers distributed throughout Israel. They were responsible for supplying provisions for the king and his administration. Each was in charge of bringing supplies for one month of the year. These are the names:
Ben-Hur in the Ephraim hills;
Ben-Deker in Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth Shemesh, and Elon Bethhanan;
Ben-Hesed in Arubboth—this included Socoh and all of Hepher;
Ben-Abinadab in Naphoth Dor (he was married to Solomon’s daughter Taphath);
Baana son of Ahilud in Taanach and Megiddo, all of Beth Shan next to Zarethan below Jezreel, and from Beth Shan to Abel Meholah over to Jokmeam;
Ben-Geber in Ramoth Gilead—this included the villages of Jair son of Manasseh in Gilead and the region of Argob in Bashan with its sixty large walled cities with bronze-studded gates;
Ahinadab son of Iddo in Mahanaim;
Ahimaaz in Naphtali (he was married to Solomon’s daughter Basemath);
Baana son of Hushai in Asher and Aloth;
Jehoshaphat son of Paruah in Issachar;
Shimei son of Ela in Benjamin;
Geber son of Uri in Gilead—this was the country of Sihon king of the Amorites and also of Og king of Bashan; he managed the whole district by himself.
20-21 Judah and Israel were densely populated—like sand on an ocean beach! All their needs were met; they ate and drank and were happy. Solomon was sovereign over all the kingdoms from the River Euphrates in the east to the country of the Philistines in the west, all the way to the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and were vassals of Solomon all his life.
22-23 One day’s food supply for Solomon’s household was:
185 bushels of fine flour
375 bushels of meal
10 grain-fed cattle
20 range cattle
100 sheep
and miscellaneous deer, gazelles, roebucks, and choice fowl.
24-25 Solomon was sovereign over everything, countries and kings, west of the River Euphrates from Tiphsah to Gaza. Peace reigned everywhere. Throughout Solomon’s life, everyone in Israel and Judah lived safe and sound, all of them from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south—content with what they had.
26-28 Solomon had forty thousand stalls for chariot horses and twelve thousand horsemen. The district managers, each according to his assigned month, delivered food supplies for King Solomon and all who sat at the king’s table; there was always plenty. They also brought to the designated place their assigned quota of barley and straw for the horses.
29-34 God gave Solomon wisdom—the deepest of understanding and the largest of hearts. There was nothing beyond him, nothing he couldn’t handle. Solomon’s wisdom outclassed the vaunted wisdom of wise men of the East, outshone the famous wisdom of Egypt. He was wiser than anyone—wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, wiser than Heman, wiser than Calcol and Darda the sons of Mahol. He became famous among all the surrounding nations. He created 3,000 proverbs; his songs added up to 1,005. He knew all about plants, from the huge cedar that grows in Lebanon to the tiny hyssop that grows in the cracks of a wall. He understood everything about animals and birds, reptiles and fish. Sent by kings from all over the earth who had heard of his reputation, people came from far and near to listen to the wisdom of Solomon.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, April 25, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Matthew 4:1–11
Next Jesus was taken into the wild by the Spirit for the Test. The Devil was ready to give it. Jesus prepared for the Test by fasting forty days and forty nights. That left him, of course, in a state of extreme hunger, which the Devil took advantage of in the first test: “Since you are God’s Son, speak the word that will turn these stones into loaves of bread.”
4 Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: “It takes more than bread to stay alive. It takes a steady stream of words from God’s mouth.”
5-6 For the second test the Devil took him to the Holy City. He sat him on top of the Temple and said, “Since you are God’s Son, jump.” The Devil goaded him by quoting Psalm 91: “He has placed you in the care of angels. They will catch you so that you won’t so much as stub your toe on a stone.”
7 Jesus countered with another citation from Deuteronomy: “Don’t you dare test the Lord your God.”
8-9 For the third test, the Devil took him to the peak of a huge mountain. He gestured expansively, pointing out all the earth’s kingdoms, how glorious they all were. Then he said, “They’re yours—lock, stock, and barrel. Just go down on your knees and worship me, and they’re yours.”
10 Jesus’ refusal was curt: “Beat it, Satan!” He backed his rebuke with a third quotation from Deuteronomy: “Worship the Lord your God, and only him. Serve him with absolute single-heartedness.”
11 The Test was over. The Devil left. And in his place, angels! Angels came and took care of Jesus’ needs.
Insight
Jesus’s forty days without food in the wilderness of Judea comes with echoes of Israel’s forty years in the wilderness of Sinai. Recalling how the Spirit led the Israelites into an uninhabitable no-man’s land, Jesus quoted repeatedly from their wilderness experience (Deuteronomy 6:16; 8:3; 10:20) as He too faced challenges that tested His trust in God to provide the bread and faithfulness on which His life and mission depended (Matthew 4:1–2; Deuteronomy 8:3). In each case, Jesus chose to trust the goodness of the Father He knew rather than the satisfaction (Matthew 4:3), help (v. 6), and compromise (vv. 8–9) suggested by His enemy (v. 10).
Not Like Yesterday
Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Deuteronomy 8:3
When our grandson Jay was a child his parents gave him a new T-shirt for his birthday. He put it on right away and proudly wore it all day.
When he appeared the next morning in the shirt, his dad asked him, “Jay, does that shirt make you happy?”
“Not as much as yesterday,” Jay replied.
That’s the problem with material acquisition: Even the good things of life can’t give us the deep, lasting happiness we so strongly desire. Though we may have many possessions, we may still be unhappy.
The world offers happiness through material accumulation: new clothes, a new automobile, an update to our phone or watch. But no material acquisition can make us as happy as it did yesterday. That’s because we were made for God and nothing less will do.
One day, when Jesus was fasting and faint with hunger, Satan approached Him and tempted Him to satisfy His hunger by creating bread. Jesus countered by quoting from Deuteronomy 8:3: “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).
Jesus didn’t mean that we shouldn’t live only on bread. He’s rather stating a fact: We’re spiritual beings and thus we can’t exist on material goods alone.
True satisfaction is found in God and His riches. By David H. Roper
Today's Reflection
Why do material acquisitions not provide long-term happiness? What have you learned from past expectations?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, April 25, 2019
“Ready in Season”
Be ready in season and out of season. —2 Timothy 4:2
Many of us suffer from the unbalanced tendency to “be ready” only “out of season.” The season does not refer to time; it refers to us. This verse says, “Preach the Word! Be ready in season and out of season.” In other words, we should “be ready” whether we feel like it or not. If we do only what we feel inclined to do, some of us would never do anything. There are some people who are totally unemployable in the spiritual realm. They are spiritually feeble and weak, and they refuse to do anything unless they are supernaturally inspired. The proof that our relationship is right with God is that we do our best whether we feel inspired or not.
One of the worst traps a Christian worker can fall into is to become obsessed with his own exceptional moments of inspiration. When the Spirit of God gives you a time of inspiration and insight, you tend to say, “Now that I’ve experienced this moment, I will always be like this for God.” No, you will not, and God will make sure of that. Those times are entirely the gift of God. You cannot give them to yourself when you choose. If you say you will only be at your best for God, as during those exceptional times, you actually become an intolerable burden on Him. You will never do anything unless God keeps you consciously aware of His inspiration to you at all times. If you make a god out of your best moments, you will find that God will fade out of your life, never to return until you are obedient in the work He has placed closest to you, and until you have learned not to be obsessed with those exceptional moments He has given you.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The emphasis to-day is placed on the furtherance of an organization; the note is, “We must keep this thing going.” If we are in God’s order the thing will go; if we are not in His order, it won’t. Conformed to His Image, 357 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, April 25, 2019
The "Unprepared" Nightmare - #8424
It's one nightmare that is sure to either wake me up or ruin my sleep. I'm about to be introduced to speak at a very important gathering. I have nothing to say. I've run out of time to prepare anything, and they are introducing a man who has no idea what he's going to talk about. But, you know, I'm not the only one who has nightmares like that about not being prepared. In fact, they say it's one of the more common themes of our bad dreams. Now, what you're unprepared for depends on your situation at that point. Some people have nightmares about not being prepared for an exam, or to give a report, or to conduct an important meeting, or to have important guests arrive at your house. Whatever your thing is, that "not ready" thing is real nightmare material.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The 'Unprepared' Nightmare."
For most of us, there's one "not ready" scenario that should be our ultimate nightmare; the nightmare of suddenly having our life end and being unprepared to stand before God; to be unprepared to enter eternity. That nightmare is really going to happen unless we prepare in the only way God says we can.
Jesus portrayed this nightmare scenario actually in Luke 12:16-20. It's our word for today from the Word of God. He described a rich man whose business was booming who said, "'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself 'You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.' But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you.'"
Here's a man who's put a lot of time and energy into being prepared for living his life and no preparation into being prepared for losing his life. Maybe like someone who's listening today. For you, for me, there will come a day when God will say, "This very night, this very day your life will be demanded from you." Only He knows when your appointment with Him is. And it can't be rescheduled, it can't be cancelled, or it can't be postponed.
And standing before God at that moment is the worst nightmare of all if we have not had our sins forgiven by Him. If we're still carrying the sins of our life, we have no hope of entering God's perfect heaven; we have no hope of avoiding hell. But you don't have to be unprepared because Jesus Christ has died to pay for every wrong thing, every selfish thing, every hurting thing you've ever done. And when you reach out to Him to be your personal Rescuer from your sin and from its penalty, you are forgiven of your sin and you are made ready to meet God, whenever that is.
But maybe you've been putting a lot of other things ahead of dealing with Jesus; things that will seem so trivial in light of eternity. Maybe you've never really rejected Jesus, but then you've never really accepted Him for yourself either. Well, not to decide is to decide. I mean, if you don't grab a rescuer's hand, you are deciding to die. Maybe you've been relying on your Christianity to save you but not on Christ. Then you're not ready to meet God.
But you can be this very day. Jesus has said, "He that comes to Me, I will never cast out" (John 6:37). And this is your day to come home to Him. Would you tell Him right where you are, "Jesus, I am Yours from this moment on. You went to a cross to pay the penalty for every wrong thing I have ever done against God. You walked out of your grave under your own power. You're alive today, and I want to belong to you from today on. I am putting all my trust in You, who died for me."
You are at the crossroads where there is a cross, and your decision there literally determines your eternity. I want to do everything I can to help you cross that line today. And that's what our website is for. It's called ANewStory.com. I would urge you to get there as soon as you can today and find there the information that will help you secure once and for all your eternity.
Jesus came to take your hell so He could give you His heaven.
Thursday, April 25, 2019
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
1 Kings 3, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: A SILENCED BOAST
A Hanoverian countess was known for her disbelief in God and her conviction that no one could call life from a tomb. Before her death, she ensured that her tomb would be a mockery to belief in the resurrection. It was sealed with a slab of granite. Blocks of stone were placed around her tomb. Heavy iron clamps fastened the blocks together and to the granite slab. The inscription read:
This burial place,
purchased to all eternity,
must never be opened.
However, a small birch tree had other plans. Over the years it forced its way until the iron clamps popped loose, and the granite lid was raised. Now the stone cover rests again the trunk of the birch. Its boastful epitaph has been permanently silenced by the work of a determined tree…or a powerful God.
Read more Six Hours One Friday
1 Kings 3
Solomon arranged a marriage contract with Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He married Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her to the City of David until he had completed building his royal palace and God’s Temple and the wall around Jerusalem. Meanwhile, the people were worshiping at local shrines because at that time no temple had yet been built to the Name of God. Solomon loved God and continued to live in the God-honoring ways of David his father, except that he also worshiped at the local shrines, offering sacrifices and burning incense.
4-5 The king went to Gibeon, the most prestigious of the local shrines, to worship. He sacrificed a thousand Whole-Burnt-Offerings on that altar. That night, there in Gibeon, God appeared to Solomon in a dream: God said, “What can I give you? Ask.”
6 Solomon said, “You were extravagantly generous in love with David my father, and he lived faithfully in your presence, his relationships were just and his heart right. And you have persisted in this great and generous love by giving him—and this very day!—a son to sit on his throne.
7-8 “And now here I am: God, my God, you have made me, your servant, ruler of the kingdom in place of David my father. I’m too young for this, a mere child! I don’t know the ropes, hardly know the ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ of this job. And here I am, set down in the middle of the people you’ve chosen, a great people—far too many to ever count.
9 “Here’s what I want: Give me a God-listening heart so I can lead your people well, discerning the difference between good and evil. For who on their own is capable of leading your glorious people?”
10-14 God, the Master, was delighted with Solomon’s response. And God said to him, “Because you have asked for this and haven’t grasped after a long life, or riches, or the doom of your enemies, but you have asked for the ability to lead and govern well, I’ll give you what you’ve asked for—I’m giving you a wise and mature heart. There’s never been one like you before; and there’ll be no one after. As a bonus, I’m giving you both the wealth and glory you didn’t ask for—there’s not a king anywhere who will come up to your mark. And if you stay on course, keeping your eye on the life-map and the God-signs as your father David did, I’ll also give you a long life.”
15 Solomon woke up—what a dream! He returned to Jerusalem, took his place before the Chest of the Covenant of God, and worshiped by sacrificing Whole-Burnt-Offerings and Peace-Offerings. Then he laid out a banquet for everyone in his service.
16-21 The very next thing, two prostitutes showed up before the king. The one woman said, “My master, this woman and I live in the same house. While we were living together, I had a baby. Three days after I gave birth, this woman also had a baby. We were alone—there wasn’t anyone else in the house except for the two of us. The infant son of this woman died one night when she rolled over on him in her sleep. She got up in the middle of the night and took my son—I was sound asleep, mind you!—and put him at her breast and put her dead son at my breast. When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, here was this dead baby! But when I looked at him in the morning light, I saw immediately that he wasn’t my baby.”
22 “Not so!” said the other woman. “The living one’s mine; the dead one’s yours.”
The first woman countered, “No! Your son’s the dead one; mine’s the living one.”
They went back and forth this way in front of the king.
23 The king said, “What are we to do? This woman says, ‘The living son is mine and the dead one is yours,’ and this woman says, ‘No, the dead one’s yours and the living one’s mine.’”
24 After a moment the king said, “Bring me a sword.” They brought the sword to the king.
25 Then he said, “Cut the living baby in two—give half to one and half to the other.”
26 The real mother of the living baby was overcome with emotion for her son and said, “Oh no, master! Give her the whole baby alive; don’t kill him!”
But the other one said, “If I can’t have him, you can’t have him—cut away!”
27 The king gave his decision: “Give the living baby to the first woman. Nobody is going to kill this baby. She is the real mother.”
28 The word got around—everyone in Israel heard of the king’s judgment. They were all in awe of the king, realizing that it was God’s wisdom that enabled him to judge truly.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Luke 14:15–23
That triggered a response from one of the guests: “How fortunate the one who gets to eat dinner in God’s kingdom!”
16-17 Jesus followed up. “Yes. For there was once a man who threw a great dinner party and invited many. When it was time for dinner, he sent out his servant to the invited guests, saying, ‘Come on in; the food’s on the table.’
18 “Then they all began to beg off, one after another making excuses. The first said, ‘I bought a piece of property and need to look it over. Send my regrets.’
19 “Another said, ‘I just bought five teams of oxen, and I really need to check them out. Send my regrets.’
20 “And yet another said, ‘I just got married and need to get home to my wife.’
21 “The servant went back and told the master what had happened. He was outraged and told the servant, ‘Quickly, get out into the city streets and alleys. Collect all who look like they need a square meal, all the misfits and homeless and wretched you can lay your hands on, and bring them here.’
22 “The servant reported back, ‘Master, I did what you commanded—and there’s still room.’
23-24 “The master said, ‘Then go to the country roads. Whoever you find, drag them in. I want my house full! Let me tell you, not one of those originally invited is going to get so much as a bite at my dinner party.’”
Insight
The Bible uses the banquet or feast metaphor to symbolize God’s offer of salvation to the world. Isaiah proclaimed that “the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples” (25:6). Luke uses the metaphor of a man who invited guests to “a great banquet” (14:16–17). Matthew likens it to the week-long celebratory “wedding banquet” for the king’s son (22:2). John speaks of a “wedding supper of the Lamb” (Revelation 19:9), where believers from every nation will gather to celebrate God’s final salvation. They will come “from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (Matthew 8:11). “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God” (Luke 14:15).
Serving the Smallest
God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things. 1 Corinthians 1:28
The video showed a man kneeling beside a busy freeway during an out-of-control brush fire. He was clapping his hands and pleading with something to come. What was it? A dog? Moments later a bunny hopped into the picture. The man scooped up the scared rabbit and sprinted to safety.
How did the rescue of such a small thing make national news? That’s why. There’s something endearing about compassion shown to the least of these. It takes a big heart to make room for the smallest creature.
Jesus said the kingdom of God is like a man who gave a banquet and made room for everyone who was willing to come. Not just the movers and shakers but also “the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame” (Luke 14:21). I’m thankful that God targets the weak and the seemingly insignificant, because otherwise I’d have no shot. Paul said, “God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things . . . so that no one may boast before him” (1 Corinthians 1:27–29).
How big must God’s heart be to save a small person like me! In response, how large has my heart grown to be? I can easily tell, not by how I please the “important people,” but by how I serve the ones society might deem the least important. By Mike Wittmer
Today's Reflection
What types of people do you have a hard time valuing? In what ways might God want you to change that?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
The Warning Against Desiring Spiritual Success
Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you… —Luke 10:20
Worldliness is not the trap that most endangers us as Christian workers; nor is it sin. The trap we fall into is extravagantly desiring spiritual success; that is, success measured by, and patterned after, the form set by this religious age in which we now live. Never seek after anything other than the approval of God, and always be willing to go “outside the camp, bearing His reproach” (Hebrews 13:13). In Luke 10:20, Jesus told the disciples not to rejoice in successful service, and yet this seems to be the one thing in which most of us do rejoice. We have a commercialized view— we count how many souls have been saved and sanctified, we thank God, and then we think everything is all right. Yet our work only begins where God’s grace has laid the foundation. Our work is not to save souls, but to disciple them. Salvation and sanctification are the work of God’s sovereign grace, and our work as His disciples is to disciple others’ lives until they are totally yielded to God. One life totally devoted to God is of more value to Him than one hundred lives which have been simply awakened by His Spirit. As workers for God, we must reproduce our own kind spiritually, and those lives will be God’s testimony to us as His workers. God brings us up to a standard of life through His grace, and we are responsible for reproducing that same standard in others.
Unless the worker lives a life that “is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3), he is apt to become an irritating dictator to others, instead of an active, living disciple. Many of us are dictators, dictating our desires to individuals and to groups. But Jesus never dictates to us in that way. Whenever our Lord talked about discipleship, He always prefaced His words with an “if,” never with the forceful or dogmatic statement— “You must.” Discipleship carries with it an option.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The great point of Abraham’s faith in God was that he was prepared to do anything for God.
Not Knowing Whither
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
The Angel in the Flames - #8423
It started out like just another day driving a school bus for Ponderosa Elementary. But that night, Kevin McKay would be hailed as "the bus driver from heaven." In between, came the most deadly wildfire in California's history.
On the morning of November 8, McKay had just dropped off his students when he saw the smoke. Ten minutes later, the evacuation order. Ultimately - and quickly - you know, the entire community would be consumed by flames. Most parents made it to the school to quickly pick up their child. But as the fire was, in McKay's words, "coming down in a thousand places," there were 22 children still left at the school.
Since he had just unloaded, he had an empty bus. Within minutes, he had them aboard that bus with the help of two teachers, Abbie Davis and Mary Ludwig. That's when they began what became their five-hour journey through what Ludwig said "felt like Armageddon." The smoke and gridlock was so heavy they only traveled an eighth of a mile in the first hour.
They continued to navigate the wall of cars ahead, and McKay could see the fire was creeping ever closer to the road. One fourth-grader said, "There were fires left and right, everywhere you looked." Abbie Davis confessed that she thought they were going to die at several points along the journey. But they didn't, because of one man's courage and determination to save lives from those relentless flames.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Angel in the Flames."
I was really moved as I read his story. Yes, because of Kevin McKay's selfless heroism. But also because of that Scripture that kept playing back in my heart in the midst of that conflagration. "Save others by snatching them from the fire." That's in Jude 23. Jesus left heaven on that rescue mission - to save us "from the fire." The fire of God's judgment for defying our Creator to, in essence, be our own "God." Running our own life. The "fire" I deserve that fell on Jesus on the cross as He, in the words of the Bible, "gave Himself for our sins to rescue us" (Galatians 1:4).
But I know people who don't even know the fire is coming. Let alone, that Jesus loved them enough to take the fire for them. Most of us know folks like that. Someone needs to "snatch them from the fire." Someone needs to do what a courageous bus driver did as Paradise went up in flames. Use whatever vehicle we have to save lives!
Like our influence, for example. In someone's life. Our connection, our relationship with someone who, each day, is one day closer to a judgment Jesus died to save them from. We know them, and we know Jesus. They don't know Jesus. Could our responsibility be any clearer? Is it any wonder God says in Ezekiel 3:18, "if you do not...speak out...I will hold you accountable for their blood"?
When God called Moses to join Him in rescuing his people, He asked Moses a probing question, and it's our word for today from the Word of God in Exodus 4:2. "What is that in your hand?" It was only a shepherd's rod, but God told him to "throw it down" so He could transform it into something that would set people free. And that piece of wood, super-naturalized by God, helped liberate a nation.
When God asks me and each of His people, "What is that in your hand?" You got a home? A job? A computer? A Facebook page? A Bible study? Do you have a membership at the gym? A school or service club you're in? You have money in the bank? You have some respect at work or in the community? You have musical ability? A gift for writing or art? Do you have a relationship with a coworker, a neighbor, someone with a common interest?
God has heard the cries of the lost hearts around you and me and He's coming to rescue them. But He's asking you to use whatever has been trusted to you to save the ones you know; whatever's in your hand. There's one vehicle we all have. Our most powerful vehicle - our story. Your life, your background, your battles, your pain, your failures, and how Jesus has healed, changed and redeemed what no one else ever could. Your story, interwoven with His Story, could change their story forever!
The heroism of a man who saved lives with the vehicle he had makes me do some soul-searching. What do I have that God wants me to surrender so He can use it to change someone's eternity?
I can't imagine that bus driver simply driving off in that bus to save only himself. Not when there were people he could save from an unthinkable fate. I don't want to arrive in heaven with an "empty bus."
A Hanoverian countess was known for her disbelief in God and her conviction that no one could call life from a tomb. Before her death, she ensured that her tomb would be a mockery to belief in the resurrection. It was sealed with a slab of granite. Blocks of stone were placed around her tomb. Heavy iron clamps fastened the blocks together and to the granite slab. The inscription read:
This burial place,
purchased to all eternity,
must never be opened.
However, a small birch tree had other plans. Over the years it forced its way until the iron clamps popped loose, and the granite lid was raised. Now the stone cover rests again the trunk of the birch. Its boastful epitaph has been permanently silenced by the work of a determined tree…or a powerful God.
Read more Six Hours One Friday
1 Kings 3
Solomon arranged a marriage contract with Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He married Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her to the City of David until he had completed building his royal palace and God’s Temple and the wall around Jerusalem. Meanwhile, the people were worshiping at local shrines because at that time no temple had yet been built to the Name of God. Solomon loved God and continued to live in the God-honoring ways of David his father, except that he also worshiped at the local shrines, offering sacrifices and burning incense.
4-5 The king went to Gibeon, the most prestigious of the local shrines, to worship. He sacrificed a thousand Whole-Burnt-Offerings on that altar. That night, there in Gibeon, God appeared to Solomon in a dream: God said, “What can I give you? Ask.”
6 Solomon said, “You were extravagantly generous in love with David my father, and he lived faithfully in your presence, his relationships were just and his heart right. And you have persisted in this great and generous love by giving him—and this very day!—a son to sit on his throne.
7-8 “And now here I am: God, my God, you have made me, your servant, ruler of the kingdom in place of David my father. I’m too young for this, a mere child! I don’t know the ropes, hardly know the ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ of this job. And here I am, set down in the middle of the people you’ve chosen, a great people—far too many to ever count.
9 “Here’s what I want: Give me a God-listening heart so I can lead your people well, discerning the difference between good and evil. For who on their own is capable of leading your glorious people?”
10-14 God, the Master, was delighted with Solomon’s response. And God said to him, “Because you have asked for this and haven’t grasped after a long life, or riches, or the doom of your enemies, but you have asked for the ability to lead and govern well, I’ll give you what you’ve asked for—I’m giving you a wise and mature heart. There’s never been one like you before; and there’ll be no one after. As a bonus, I’m giving you both the wealth and glory you didn’t ask for—there’s not a king anywhere who will come up to your mark. And if you stay on course, keeping your eye on the life-map and the God-signs as your father David did, I’ll also give you a long life.”
15 Solomon woke up—what a dream! He returned to Jerusalem, took his place before the Chest of the Covenant of God, and worshiped by sacrificing Whole-Burnt-Offerings and Peace-Offerings. Then he laid out a banquet for everyone in his service.
16-21 The very next thing, two prostitutes showed up before the king. The one woman said, “My master, this woman and I live in the same house. While we were living together, I had a baby. Three days after I gave birth, this woman also had a baby. We were alone—there wasn’t anyone else in the house except for the two of us. The infant son of this woman died one night when she rolled over on him in her sleep. She got up in the middle of the night and took my son—I was sound asleep, mind you!—and put him at her breast and put her dead son at my breast. When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, here was this dead baby! But when I looked at him in the morning light, I saw immediately that he wasn’t my baby.”
22 “Not so!” said the other woman. “The living one’s mine; the dead one’s yours.”
The first woman countered, “No! Your son’s the dead one; mine’s the living one.”
They went back and forth this way in front of the king.
23 The king said, “What are we to do? This woman says, ‘The living son is mine and the dead one is yours,’ and this woman says, ‘No, the dead one’s yours and the living one’s mine.’”
24 After a moment the king said, “Bring me a sword.” They brought the sword to the king.
25 Then he said, “Cut the living baby in two—give half to one and half to the other.”
26 The real mother of the living baby was overcome with emotion for her son and said, “Oh no, master! Give her the whole baby alive; don’t kill him!”
But the other one said, “If I can’t have him, you can’t have him—cut away!”
27 The king gave his decision: “Give the living baby to the first woman. Nobody is going to kill this baby. She is the real mother.”
28 The word got around—everyone in Israel heard of the king’s judgment. They were all in awe of the king, realizing that it was God’s wisdom that enabled him to judge truly.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Luke 14:15–23
That triggered a response from one of the guests: “How fortunate the one who gets to eat dinner in God’s kingdom!”
16-17 Jesus followed up. “Yes. For there was once a man who threw a great dinner party and invited many. When it was time for dinner, he sent out his servant to the invited guests, saying, ‘Come on in; the food’s on the table.’
18 “Then they all began to beg off, one after another making excuses. The first said, ‘I bought a piece of property and need to look it over. Send my regrets.’
19 “Another said, ‘I just bought five teams of oxen, and I really need to check them out. Send my regrets.’
20 “And yet another said, ‘I just got married and need to get home to my wife.’
21 “The servant went back and told the master what had happened. He was outraged and told the servant, ‘Quickly, get out into the city streets and alleys. Collect all who look like they need a square meal, all the misfits and homeless and wretched you can lay your hands on, and bring them here.’
22 “The servant reported back, ‘Master, I did what you commanded—and there’s still room.’
23-24 “The master said, ‘Then go to the country roads. Whoever you find, drag them in. I want my house full! Let me tell you, not one of those originally invited is going to get so much as a bite at my dinner party.’”
Insight
The Bible uses the banquet or feast metaphor to symbolize God’s offer of salvation to the world. Isaiah proclaimed that “the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples” (25:6). Luke uses the metaphor of a man who invited guests to “a great banquet” (14:16–17). Matthew likens it to the week-long celebratory “wedding banquet” for the king’s son (22:2). John speaks of a “wedding supper of the Lamb” (Revelation 19:9), where believers from every nation will gather to celebrate God’s final salvation. They will come “from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (Matthew 8:11). “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God” (Luke 14:15).
Serving the Smallest
God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things. 1 Corinthians 1:28
The video showed a man kneeling beside a busy freeway during an out-of-control brush fire. He was clapping his hands and pleading with something to come. What was it? A dog? Moments later a bunny hopped into the picture. The man scooped up the scared rabbit and sprinted to safety.
How did the rescue of such a small thing make national news? That’s why. There’s something endearing about compassion shown to the least of these. It takes a big heart to make room for the smallest creature.
Jesus said the kingdom of God is like a man who gave a banquet and made room for everyone who was willing to come. Not just the movers and shakers but also “the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame” (Luke 14:21). I’m thankful that God targets the weak and the seemingly insignificant, because otherwise I’d have no shot. Paul said, “God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things . . . so that no one may boast before him” (1 Corinthians 1:27–29).
How big must God’s heart be to save a small person like me! In response, how large has my heart grown to be? I can easily tell, not by how I please the “important people,” but by how I serve the ones society might deem the least important. By Mike Wittmer
Today's Reflection
What types of people do you have a hard time valuing? In what ways might God want you to change that?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
The Warning Against Desiring Spiritual Success
Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you… —Luke 10:20
Worldliness is not the trap that most endangers us as Christian workers; nor is it sin. The trap we fall into is extravagantly desiring spiritual success; that is, success measured by, and patterned after, the form set by this religious age in which we now live. Never seek after anything other than the approval of God, and always be willing to go “outside the camp, bearing His reproach” (Hebrews 13:13). In Luke 10:20, Jesus told the disciples not to rejoice in successful service, and yet this seems to be the one thing in which most of us do rejoice. We have a commercialized view— we count how many souls have been saved and sanctified, we thank God, and then we think everything is all right. Yet our work only begins where God’s grace has laid the foundation. Our work is not to save souls, but to disciple them. Salvation and sanctification are the work of God’s sovereign grace, and our work as His disciples is to disciple others’ lives until they are totally yielded to God. One life totally devoted to God is of more value to Him than one hundred lives which have been simply awakened by His Spirit. As workers for God, we must reproduce our own kind spiritually, and those lives will be God’s testimony to us as His workers. God brings us up to a standard of life through His grace, and we are responsible for reproducing that same standard in others.
Unless the worker lives a life that “is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3), he is apt to become an irritating dictator to others, instead of an active, living disciple. Many of us are dictators, dictating our desires to individuals and to groups. But Jesus never dictates to us in that way. Whenever our Lord talked about discipleship, He always prefaced His words with an “if,” never with the forceful or dogmatic statement— “You must.” Discipleship carries with it an option.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The great point of Abraham’s faith in God was that he was prepared to do anything for God.
Not Knowing Whither
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
The Angel in the Flames - #8423
It started out like just another day driving a school bus for Ponderosa Elementary. But that night, Kevin McKay would be hailed as "the bus driver from heaven." In between, came the most deadly wildfire in California's history.
On the morning of November 8, McKay had just dropped off his students when he saw the smoke. Ten minutes later, the evacuation order. Ultimately - and quickly - you know, the entire community would be consumed by flames. Most parents made it to the school to quickly pick up their child. But as the fire was, in McKay's words, "coming down in a thousand places," there were 22 children still left at the school.
Since he had just unloaded, he had an empty bus. Within minutes, he had them aboard that bus with the help of two teachers, Abbie Davis and Mary Ludwig. That's when they began what became their five-hour journey through what Ludwig said "felt like Armageddon." The smoke and gridlock was so heavy they only traveled an eighth of a mile in the first hour.
They continued to navigate the wall of cars ahead, and McKay could see the fire was creeping ever closer to the road. One fourth-grader said, "There were fires left and right, everywhere you looked." Abbie Davis confessed that she thought they were going to die at several points along the journey. But they didn't, because of one man's courage and determination to save lives from those relentless flames.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Angel in the Flames."
I was really moved as I read his story. Yes, because of Kevin McKay's selfless heroism. But also because of that Scripture that kept playing back in my heart in the midst of that conflagration. "Save others by snatching them from the fire." That's in Jude 23. Jesus left heaven on that rescue mission - to save us "from the fire." The fire of God's judgment for defying our Creator to, in essence, be our own "God." Running our own life. The "fire" I deserve that fell on Jesus on the cross as He, in the words of the Bible, "gave Himself for our sins to rescue us" (Galatians 1:4).
But I know people who don't even know the fire is coming. Let alone, that Jesus loved them enough to take the fire for them. Most of us know folks like that. Someone needs to "snatch them from the fire." Someone needs to do what a courageous bus driver did as Paradise went up in flames. Use whatever vehicle we have to save lives!
Like our influence, for example. In someone's life. Our connection, our relationship with someone who, each day, is one day closer to a judgment Jesus died to save them from. We know them, and we know Jesus. They don't know Jesus. Could our responsibility be any clearer? Is it any wonder God says in Ezekiel 3:18, "if you do not...speak out...I will hold you accountable for their blood"?
When God called Moses to join Him in rescuing his people, He asked Moses a probing question, and it's our word for today from the Word of God in Exodus 4:2. "What is that in your hand?" It was only a shepherd's rod, but God told him to "throw it down" so He could transform it into something that would set people free. And that piece of wood, super-naturalized by God, helped liberate a nation.
When God asks me and each of His people, "What is that in your hand?" You got a home? A job? A computer? A Facebook page? A Bible study? Do you have a membership at the gym? A school or service club you're in? You have money in the bank? You have some respect at work or in the community? You have musical ability? A gift for writing or art? Do you have a relationship with a coworker, a neighbor, someone with a common interest?
God has heard the cries of the lost hearts around you and me and He's coming to rescue them. But He's asking you to use whatever has been trusted to you to save the ones you know; whatever's in your hand. There's one vehicle we all have. Our most powerful vehicle - our story. Your life, your background, your battles, your pain, your failures, and how Jesus has healed, changed and redeemed what no one else ever could. Your story, interwoven with His Story, could change their story forever!
The heroism of a man who saved lives with the vehicle he had makes me do some soul-searching. What do I have that God wants me to surrender so He can use it to change someone's eternity?
I can't imagine that bus driver simply driving off in that bus to save only himself. Not when there were people he could save from an unthinkable fate. I don't want to arrive in heaven with an "empty bus."
Tuesday, April 23, 2019
John 18:19-40 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: MOVE THE STONE
Standing in a cemetery, Jesus issued a command, “Move the stone.”
There was no singing at the funeral Jesus attended. Mourning. Weeping. Wailing. People shuffled about aimlessly, their eyes full of fear. The foreboding news reminded them of their own fate. Another prisoner had been marched from death row to the gallows. Lazarus was dead.
And Jesus wept—not for the dead but for the living. He wept not for the one in the cave of death but for those in the cave of fear. He wept for those who, though alive, were dead. He wept for those who, though free, were prisoners, held captive by their fear of death.
Stones have never stood in God’s way. They didn’t in Bethany two thousand years ago. And stones don’t stand in His way today. He called Lazarus out of the grave of death. And He calls us out of the grave of fear.
Read more Six Hours One Friday
John 18:19-40
Annas interrogated Jesus regarding his disciples and his teaching. Jesus answered, “I’ve spoken openly in public. I’ve taught regularly in meeting places and the Temple, where the Jews all come together. Everything has been out in the open. I’ve said nothing in secret. So why are you treating me like a conspirator? Question those who have been listening to me. They know well what I have said. My teachings have all been aboveboard.”
22 When he said this, one of the policemen standing there slapped Jesus across the face, saying, “How dare you speak to the Chief Priest like that!”
23 Jesus replied, “If I’ve said something wrong, prove it. But if I’ve spoken the plain truth, why this slapping around?”
24 Then Annas sent him, still tied up, to the Chief Priest Caiaphas.
25 Meanwhile, Simon Peter was back at the fire, still trying to get warm. The others there said to him, “Aren’t you one of his disciples?”
He denied it, “Not me.”
26 One of the Chief Priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said, “Didn’t I see you in the garden with him?”
27 Again, Peter denied it. Just then a rooster crowed.
28-29 They led Jesus then from Caiaphas to the Roman governor’s palace. It was early morning. They themselves didn’t enter the palace because they didn’t want to be disqualified from eating the Passover. So Pilate came out to them and spoke. “What charge do you bring against this man?”
30 They said, “If he hadn’t been doing something evil, do you think we’d be here bothering you?”
31-32 Pilate said, “You take him. Judge him by your law.”
The Jews said, “We’re not allowed to kill anyone.” (This would confirm Jesus’ word indicating the way he would die.)
33 Pilate went back into the palace and called for Jesus. He said, “Are you the ‘King of the Jews’?”
34 Jesus answered, “Are you saying this on your own, or did others tell you this about me?”
35 Pilate said, “Do I look like a Jew? Your people and your high priests turned you over to me. What did you do?”
36 “My kingdom,” said Jesus, “doesn’t consist of what you see around you. If it did, my followers would fight so that I wouldn’t be handed over to the Jews. But I’m not that kind of king, not the world’s kind of king.”
37 Then Pilate said, “So, are you a king or not?”
Jesus answered, “You tell me. Because I am King, I was born and entered the world so that I could witness to the truth. Everyone who cares for truth, who has any feeling for the truth, recognizes my voice.”
38-39 Pilate said, “What is truth?”
Then he went back out to the Jews and told them, “I find nothing wrong in this man. It’s your custom that I pardon one prisoner at Passover. Do you want me to pardon the ‘King of the Jews’?”
40 They shouted back, “Not this one, but Barabbas!” Barabbas was a Jewish freedom fighter.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, April 23, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:Matthew 4:12–25
When Jesus got word that John had been arrested, he returned to Galilee. He moved from his hometown, Nazareth, to the lakeside village Capernaum, nestled at the base of the Zebulun and Naphtali hills. This move completed Isaiah’s sermon:
Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,
road to the sea, over Jordan,
Galilee, crossroads for the nations.
People sitting out their lives in the dark
saw a huge light;
Sitting in that dark, dark country of death,
they watched the sun come up.
This Isaiah-prophesied sermon came to life in Galilee the moment Jesus started preaching. He picked up where John left off: “Change your life. God’s kingdom is here.”
18-20 Walking along the beach of Lake Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers: Simon (later called Peter) and Andrew. They were fishing, throwing their nets into the lake. It was their regular work. Jesus said to them, “Come with me. I’ll make a new kind of fisherman out of you. I’ll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass.” They didn’t ask questions, but simply dropped their nets and followed.
21-22 A short distance down the beach they came upon another pair of brothers, James and John, Zebedee’s sons. These two were sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, mending their fishnets. Jesus made the same offer to them, and they were just as quick to follow, abandoning boat and father.
23-25 From there he went all over Galilee. He used synagogues for meeting places and taught people the truth of God. God’s kingdom was his theme—that beginning right now they were under God’s government, a good government! He also healed people of their diseases and of the bad effects of their bad lives. Word got around the entire Roman province of Syria. People brought anybody with an ailment, whether mental, emotional, or physical. Jesus healed them, one and all. More and more people came, the momentum gathering. Besides those from Galilee, crowds came from the “Ten Towns” across the lake, others up from Jerusalem and Judea, still others from across the Jordan.
Insight
God’s kingdom is an alternative way of life to that imposed by the “empire”—the dominant cultural forces determined by those in power. While the Roman Empire proclaimed that its reign was the gospel (literally “good news”), Christ insisted that only God’s reign is good news.
Seeing the Light
On those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. Isaiah 9:2
On the streets of Los Angeles, a homeless man struggling with addictions stepped into The Midnight Mission and asked for help. Thus began Brian’s long road to recovery.
In the process Brian rediscovered his love for music. Eventually he joined Street Symphony—a group of music professionals with a heart for the homeless. They asked Brian to perform a solo from Handel’s Messiah known as “The People That Walked in Darkness.” In words written by the prophet Isaiah during a dark period of Israel’s history, he sang, “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined” (Isaiah 9:2 kjv). A music critic for The New Yorker magazine wrote that Brian “made the text sound as though it had been taken from his own life.”
The gospel writer Matthew quoted that same passage. Called by Jesus from a life of cheating his fellow Israelites, Matthew describes how Jesus fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy by taking His salvation “beyond the Jordan” to “Galilee of the Gentiles” (Matthew 4:13–15).
Who would have believed one of Caesar’s tax collector thugs (see Matthew 9:9), a street addict like Brian, or people like us would get a chance to show the difference between light and darkness in our own lives? By Mart DeHaan
Today's Reflection
How has the light of Christ affected you? In what ways are you reflecting it to others?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, April 23, 2019
Do You Worship The Work?
We are God’s fellow workers… —1 Corinthians 3:9
Beware of any work for God that causes or allows you to avoid concentrating on Him. A great number of Christian workers worship their work. The only concern of Christian workers should be their concentration on God. This will mean that all the other boundaries of life, whether they are mental, moral, or spiritual limits, are completely free with the freedom God gives His child; that is, a worshiping child, not a wayward one. A worker who lacks this serious controlling emphasis of concentration on God is apt to become overly burdened by his work. He is a slave to his own limits, having no freedom of his body, mind, or spirit. Consequently, he becomes burned out and defeated. There is no freedom and no delight in life at all. His nerves, mind, and heart are so overwhelmed that God’s blessing cannot rest on him.
But the opposite case is equally true– once our concentration is on God, all the limits of our life are free and under the control and mastery of God alone. There is no longer any responsibility on you for the work. The only responsibility you have is to stay in living constant touch with God, and to see that you allow nothing to hinder your cooperation with Him. The freedom that comes after sanctification is the freedom of a child, and the things that used to hold your life down are gone. But be careful to remember that you have been freed for only one thing– to be absolutely devoted to your co-Worker.
We have no right to decide where we should be placed, or to have preconceived ideas as to what God is preparing us to do. God engineers everything; and wherever He places us, our one supreme goal should be to pour out our lives in wholehearted devotion to Him in that particular work. “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might…” (Ecclesiastes 9:10).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is nothing, naturally speaking, that makes us lose heart quicker than decay—the decay of bodily beauty, of natural life, of friendship, of associations, all these things make a man lose heart; but Paul says when we are trusting in Jesus Christ these things do not find us discouraged, light comes through them. The Place of Help, 1032 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, April 23, 2019
Poison in a Package Called Love - #8422
It was the fastest-moving, hardest-hitting, most widespread computer virus there'd ever been up to that time, and it was called of all things, the love bug. It came cleverly wrapped in an email that was designed to look like a love letter. So, of course, people wanted to open it. When the email was opened, the virus was activated, and it spread rapidly. In fact, it even sent copies of itself to everyone in the email address book on that computer. So, it jammed computers and damaged files in Asia, Europe, North and South America and companies and organizations from one end of the earth to the other. They had to shut down their email. The list included the Pentagon, Congress, and the British Parliament. Oh, it advertised love, but in the long run, it just delivered destruction.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Poison in a Package Called Love."
Long before there were computers, people have been opening up to things that seemed to promise love but ultimately delivered destruction. In fact, it could be a mistake you're in the process of making right now.
King David sure fell for a package called love, and he paid for it the rest of his life. Our word for today from the Word of God is one of the saddest chapters in the Bible. Before it, David's life is all about great victories and great successes. After the incident recorded here, his life is filled with death, tragedy, defeat, even the rebellion in his own family. The turning point is the day David fell for what destroyed him. It was a virus that could have been called the love bug.
Second Samuel 11:2 says, "One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing." It makes me sad to even read these scriptures. I know what happened. Well, the king sends someone to find out who this woman is and he learns it's Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, one of his most trusted and loyal soldiers. The Bible says in verse 3, "and David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her." Now, when he goes for what probably felt like love, he opens up a virus that eventually causes him to plot Uriah's death to cover up his sin. And the word from heaven in 2 Samuel 11:27 is, "The thing David had done displeased the Lord."
Later, David will cry out in Psalm 51, "My sin is always before me...create in me a pure heart, O God...restore to me the joy of my salvation." His sin is haunting him all the time, he's lost the joy of his relationship with God and, though he is totally forgiven, his life is never the same.
David opened himself up to something that advertised love and delivered destruction. That tragic mistake might be a personal warning from God to you. Maybe you're considering, or you're already involved in, a sexual relationship - not so much for the sex, but for the love you hope it will give you. Or maybe you're flirting with an adulterous relationship - again, because it seems to offer love.
Maybe the temptation is to get romantically involved or even married to someone who doesn't know Christ as you do. The Bible calls that being unequally yoked. It's for love, right? Even though God forbids it. Or it could be you're doing what your friends or associates want you to do even though you know it's wrong, because you don't want them to stop loving you.
You're walking on that same mine-filled ground that David did. You're getting into something that one day will deeply hurt you, it will hurt the people you love, it will hurt Jesus - the one who loves you most - all because it's advertised as love. Some of life's biggest, most devastating mistakes have been made for love, or what looked like it would be love. But take it from David and millions who have fallen for a love bug. The destruction it will cause just isn't worth it.
Standing in a cemetery, Jesus issued a command, “Move the stone.”
There was no singing at the funeral Jesus attended. Mourning. Weeping. Wailing. People shuffled about aimlessly, their eyes full of fear. The foreboding news reminded them of their own fate. Another prisoner had been marched from death row to the gallows. Lazarus was dead.
And Jesus wept—not for the dead but for the living. He wept not for the one in the cave of death but for those in the cave of fear. He wept for those who, though alive, were dead. He wept for those who, though free, were prisoners, held captive by their fear of death.
Stones have never stood in God’s way. They didn’t in Bethany two thousand years ago. And stones don’t stand in His way today. He called Lazarus out of the grave of death. And He calls us out of the grave of fear.
Read more Six Hours One Friday
John 18:19-40
Annas interrogated Jesus regarding his disciples and his teaching. Jesus answered, “I’ve spoken openly in public. I’ve taught regularly in meeting places and the Temple, where the Jews all come together. Everything has been out in the open. I’ve said nothing in secret. So why are you treating me like a conspirator? Question those who have been listening to me. They know well what I have said. My teachings have all been aboveboard.”
22 When he said this, one of the policemen standing there slapped Jesus across the face, saying, “How dare you speak to the Chief Priest like that!”
23 Jesus replied, “If I’ve said something wrong, prove it. But if I’ve spoken the plain truth, why this slapping around?”
24 Then Annas sent him, still tied up, to the Chief Priest Caiaphas.
25 Meanwhile, Simon Peter was back at the fire, still trying to get warm. The others there said to him, “Aren’t you one of his disciples?”
He denied it, “Not me.”
26 One of the Chief Priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said, “Didn’t I see you in the garden with him?”
27 Again, Peter denied it. Just then a rooster crowed.
28-29 They led Jesus then from Caiaphas to the Roman governor’s palace. It was early morning. They themselves didn’t enter the palace because they didn’t want to be disqualified from eating the Passover. So Pilate came out to them and spoke. “What charge do you bring against this man?”
30 They said, “If he hadn’t been doing something evil, do you think we’d be here bothering you?”
31-32 Pilate said, “You take him. Judge him by your law.”
The Jews said, “We’re not allowed to kill anyone.” (This would confirm Jesus’ word indicating the way he would die.)
33 Pilate went back into the palace and called for Jesus. He said, “Are you the ‘King of the Jews’?”
34 Jesus answered, “Are you saying this on your own, or did others tell you this about me?”
35 Pilate said, “Do I look like a Jew? Your people and your high priests turned you over to me. What did you do?”
36 “My kingdom,” said Jesus, “doesn’t consist of what you see around you. If it did, my followers would fight so that I wouldn’t be handed over to the Jews. But I’m not that kind of king, not the world’s kind of king.”
37 Then Pilate said, “So, are you a king or not?”
Jesus answered, “You tell me. Because I am King, I was born and entered the world so that I could witness to the truth. Everyone who cares for truth, who has any feeling for the truth, recognizes my voice.”
38-39 Pilate said, “What is truth?”
Then he went back out to the Jews and told them, “I find nothing wrong in this man. It’s your custom that I pardon one prisoner at Passover. Do you want me to pardon the ‘King of the Jews’?”
40 They shouted back, “Not this one, but Barabbas!” Barabbas was a Jewish freedom fighter.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, April 23, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:Matthew 4:12–25
When Jesus got word that John had been arrested, he returned to Galilee. He moved from his hometown, Nazareth, to the lakeside village Capernaum, nestled at the base of the Zebulun and Naphtali hills. This move completed Isaiah’s sermon:
Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,
road to the sea, over Jordan,
Galilee, crossroads for the nations.
People sitting out their lives in the dark
saw a huge light;
Sitting in that dark, dark country of death,
they watched the sun come up.
This Isaiah-prophesied sermon came to life in Galilee the moment Jesus started preaching. He picked up where John left off: “Change your life. God’s kingdom is here.”
18-20 Walking along the beach of Lake Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers: Simon (later called Peter) and Andrew. They were fishing, throwing their nets into the lake. It was their regular work. Jesus said to them, “Come with me. I’ll make a new kind of fisherman out of you. I’ll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass.” They didn’t ask questions, but simply dropped their nets and followed.
21-22 A short distance down the beach they came upon another pair of brothers, James and John, Zebedee’s sons. These two were sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, mending their fishnets. Jesus made the same offer to them, and they were just as quick to follow, abandoning boat and father.
23-25 From there he went all over Galilee. He used synagogues for meeting places and taught people the truth of God. God’s kingdom was his theme—that beginning right now they were under God’s government, a good government! He also healed people of their diseases and of the bad effects of their bad lives. Word got around the entire Roman province of Syria. People brought anybody with an ailment, whether mental, emotional, or physical. Jesus healed them, one and all. More and more people came, the momentum gathering. Besides those from Galilee, crowds came from the “Ten Towns” across the lake, others up from Jerusalem and Judea, still others from across the Jordan.
Insight
God’s kingdom is an alternative way of life to that imposed by the “empire”—the dominant cultural forces determined by those in power. While the Roman Empire proclaimed that its reign was the gospel (literally “good news”), Christ insisted that only God’s reign is good news.
Seeing the Light
On those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. Isaiah 9:2
On the streets of Los Angeles, a homeless man struggling with addictions stepped into The Midnight Mission and asked for help. Thus began Brian’s long road to recovery.
In the process Brian rediscovered his love for music. Eventually he joined Street Symphony—a group of music professionals with a heart for the homeless. They asked Brian to perform a solo from Handel’s Messiah known as “The People That Walked in Darkness.” In words written by the prophet Isaiah during a dark period of Israel’s history, he sang, “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined” (Isaiah 9:2 kjv). A music critic for The New Yorker magazine wrote that Brian “made the text sound as though it had been taken from his own life.”
The gospel writer Matthew quoted that same passage. Called by Jesus from a life of cheating his fellow Israelites, Matthew describes how Jesus fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy by taking His salvation “beyond the Jordan” to “Galilee of the Gentiles” (Matthew 4:13–15).
Who would have believed one of Caesar’s tax collector thugs (see Matthew 9:9), a street addict like Brian, or people like us would get a chance to show the difference between light and darkness in our own lives? By Mart DeHaan
Today's Reflection
How has the light of Christ affected you? In what ways are you reflecting it to others?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, April 23, 2019
Do You Worship The Work?
We are God’s fellow workers… —1 Corinthians 3:9
Beware of any work for God that causes or allows you to avoid concentrating on Him. A great number of Christian workers worship their work. The only concern of Christian workers should be their concentration on God. This will mean that all the other boundaries of life, whether they are mental, moral, or spiritual limits, are completely free with the freedom God gives His child; that is, a worshiping child, not a wayward one. A worker who lacks this serious controlling emphasis of concentration on God is apt to become overly burdened by his work. He is a slave to his own limits, having no freedom of his body, mind, or spirit. Consequently, he becomes burned out and defeated. There is no freedom and no delight in life at all. His nerves, mind, and heart are so overwhelmed that God’s blessing cannot rest on him.
But the opposite case is equally true– once our concentration is on God, all the limits of our life are free and under the control and mastery of God alone. There is no longer any responsibility on you for the work. The only responsibility you have is to stay in living constant touch with God, and to see that you allow nothing to hinder your cooperation with Him. The freedom that comes after sanctification is the freedom of a child, and the things that used to hold your life down are gone. But be careful to remember that you have been freed for only one thing– to be absolutely devoted to your co-Worker.
We have no right to decide where we should be placed, or to have preconceived ideas as to what God is preparing us to do. God engineers everything; and wherever He places us, our one supreme goal should be to pour out our lives in wholehearted devotion to Him in that particular work. “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might…” (Ecclesiastes 9:10).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is nothing, naturally speaking, that makes us lose heart quicker than decay—the decay of bodily beauty, of natural life, of friendship, of associations, all these things make a man lose heart; but Paul says when we are trusting in Jesus Christ these things do not find us discouraged, light comes through them. The Place of Help, 1032 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, April 23, 2019
Poison in a Package Called Love - #8422
It was the fastest-moving, hardest-hitting, most widespread computer virus there'd ever been up to that time, and it was called of all things, the love bug. It came cleverly wrapped in an email that was designed to look like a love letter. So, of course, people wanted to open it. When the email was opened, the virus was activated, and it spread rapidly. In fact, it even sent copies of itself to everyone in the email address book on that computer. So, it jammed computers and damaged files in Asia, Europe, North and South America and companies and organizations from one end of the earth to the other. They had to shut down their email. The list included the Pentagon, Congress, and the British Parliament. Oh, it advertised love, but in the long run, it just delivered destruction.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Poison in a Package Called Love."
Long before there were computers, people have been opening up to things that seemed to promise love but ultimately delivered destruction. In fact, it could be a mistake you're in the process of making right now.
King David sure fell for a package called love, and he paid for it the rest of his life. Our word for today from the Word of God is one of the saddest chapters in the Bible. Before it, David's life is all about great victories and great successes. After the incident recorded here, his life is filled with death, tragedy, defeat, even the rebellion in his own family. The turning point is the day David fell for what destroyed him. It was a virus that could have been called the love bug.
Second Samuel 11:2 says, "One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing." It makes me sad to even read these scriptures. I know what happened. Well, the king sends someone to find out who this woman is and he learns it's Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, one of his most trusted and loyal soldiers. The Bible says in verse 3, "and David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her." Now, when he goes for what probably felt like love, he opens up a virus that eventually causes him to plot Uriah's death to cover up his sin. And the word from heaven in 2 Samuel 11:27 is, "The thing David had done displeased the Lord."
Later, David will cry out in Psalm 51, "My sin is always before me...create in me a pure heart, O God...restore to me the joy of my salvation." His sin is haunting him all the time, he's lost the joy of his relationship with God and, though he is totally forgiven, his life is never the same.
David opened himself up to something that advertised love and delivered destruction. That tragic mistake might be a personal warning from God to you. Maybe you're considering, or you're already involved in, a sexual relationship - not so much for the sex, but for the love you hope it will give you. Or maybe you're flirting with an adulterous relationship - again, because it seems to offer love.
Maybe the temptation is to get romantically involved or even married to someone who doesn't know Christ as you do. The Bible calls that being unequally yoked. It's for love, right? Even though God forbids it. Or it could be you're doing what your friends or associates want you to do even though you know it's wrong, because you don't want them to stop loving you.
You're walking on that same mine-filled ground that David did. You're getting into something that one day will deeply hurt you, it will hurt the people you love, it will hurt Jesus - the one who loves you most - all because it's advertised as love. Some of life's biggest, most devastating mistakes have been made for love, or what looked like it would be love. But take it from David and millions who have fallen for a love bug. The destruction it will cause just isn't worth it.
Monday, April 22, 2019
1 Kings 2, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: THE SPARKLE OF ETERNITY
The fifth chapter of Mark tells the story of a synagogue leader who reached the point where desperation exceeded dignity. He begged Jesus to heal his dying daughter. And Jesus did, with a look on his face that said, Come here. I’ve got a secret.
I’ve seen that sparkle of eternity in the eyes of a cancer patient who said, “I’m ready to go.” I saw it at a funeral. The widower didn’t weep like the others. “Don’t worry about me,” he said. “I know where she is.” Peace where there should be pain. Hope defying despair. That’s what that look says. It is a look that knows the answer to the question asked by every mortal: Does death have the last word? I can see Jesus wink as he answers, “Not on your life.”
Read more Six Hours One Friday
1 Kings 2
When David’s time to die approached, he charged his son Solomon, saying, “I’m about to go the way of all the earth, but you—be strong; show what you’re made of! Do what God tells you. Walk in the paths he shows you: Follow the life-map absolutely, keep an eye out for the signposts, his course for life set out in the revelation to Moses; then you’ll get on well in whatever you do and wherever you go. Then God will confirm what he promised me when he said, ‘If your sons watch their step, staying true to me heart and soul, you’ll always have a successor on Israel’s throne.’
5-6 “And don’t forget what Joab son of Zeruiah did to the two commanders of Israel’s army, to Abner son of Ner and to Amasa son of Jether. He murdered them in cold blood, acting in peacetime as if he were at war, and has been stained with that blood ever since. Do what you think best with him, but by no means let him get off scot-free—make him pay.
7 “But be generous to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite—extend every hospitality to them; that’s the way they treated me when I was running for my life from Absalom your brother.
8-9 “You also will have to deal with Shimei son of Gera the Benjaminite from Bahurim, the one who cursed me so viciously when I was on my way to Mahanaim. Later, when he welcomed me back at the Jordan, I promised him under God, ‘I won’t put you to death.’ But neither should you treat him as if nothing ever happened. You’re wise, you know how to handle these things. You’ll know what to do to make him pay before he dies.”
10-12 Then David joined his ancestors. He was buried in the City of David. David ruled Israel for forty years—seven years in Hebron and another thirty-three in Jerusalem. Solomon took over on the throne of his father David; he had a firm grip on the kingdom.
13-14 Adonijah son of Haggith came to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother. She said, “Do you come in peace?”
He said, “In peace.” And then, “May I say something to you?”
“Go ahead,” she said, “speak.”
15-16 “You know that I had the kingdom right in my hands and everyone expected me to be king, and then the whole thing backfired and the kingdom landed in my brother’s lap—God’s doing. So now I have one request to ask of you; please don’t refuse me.”
“Go ahead, ask,” she said.
17 “Ask King Solomon—he won’t turn you down—to give me Abishag the Shunammite as my wife.”
18 “Certainly,” said Bathsheba. “I’ll speak to the king for you.”
19 Bathsheba went to King Solomon to present Adonijah’s request. The king got up and welcomed her, bowing respectfully, and returned to his throne. Then he had a throne put in place for his mother, and she sat at his right hand.
20 She said, “I have a small favor to ask of you. Don’t refuse me.”
The king replied, “Go ahead, Mother; of course I won’t refuse you.”
21 She said, “Give Abishag the Shunammite to your brother Adonijah as his wife.”
22 King Solomon answered his mother, “What kind of favor is this, asking that Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah? Why don’t you just ask me to hand over the whole kingdom to him on a platter since he is my older brother and has Abiathar the priest and Joab son of Zeruiah on his side!”
23-24 Then King Solomon swore under God, “May God do his worst to me if Adonijah doesn’t pay for this with his life! As surely as God lives, the God who has set me firmly on the throne of my father David and has put me in charge of the kingdom just as he promised, Adonijah will die for this—today!”
25 King Solomon dispatched Benaiah son of Jehoiada; he struck Adonijah and he died.
26 The king then told Abiathar the priest, “You’re exiled to your place in Anathoth. You deserve death but I’m not going to kill you—for now anyway—because you were in charge of the Chest of our ruling God in the company of David my father, and because you shared all the hard times with my father.”
27 Solomon stripped Abiathar of his priesthood, fulfilling God’s word at Shiloh regarding the family of Eli.
28-29 When this news reached Joab, this Joab who had conspired with Adonijah (although he had remained loyal in the Absalom affair), he took refuge in the sanctuary of God, seizing the horns of the Altar and holding on for dear life. King Solomon was told that Joab had escaped to the sanctuary of God and was clinging to the Altar; he immediately sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada with orders, “Kill him.”
30 Benaiah went to the sanctuary of God and said, “King’s orders: Come out.”
He said, “No—I’ll die right here.”
Benaiah went back to the king and reported, “This was Joab’s answer.”
31-33 The king said, “Go ahead then, do what he says: Kill him and bury him. Absolve me and my father’s family of the guilt from Joab’s senseless murders. God is avenging those bloody murders on Joab’s head. Two men he murdered, men better by far than he ever was: Behind my father’s back he brutally murdered Abner son of Ner, commander of Israel’s army, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of Judah’s army. Responsibility for their murders is forever fixed on Joab and his descendants; but for David and his descendants, his family and kingdom, the final verdict is God’s peace.”
34-35 So Benaiah son of Jehoiada went back, struck Joab, and killed him. He was buried in his family plot out in the desert. The king appointed Benaiah son of Jehoiada over the army in place of Joab, and replaced Abiathar with Zadok the priest.
36-37 The king next called in Shimei and told him, “Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and live there, but you are not to leave the area. If you so much as cross the Brook Kidron, you’re as good as dead—you will have decreed your own death sentence.”
38 Shimei answered the king, “Oh, thank you! Your servant will do exactly as my master the king says.” Shimei lived in Jerusalem a long time.
39-40 But it so happened that three years later, two of Shimei’s slaves ran away to Achish son of Maacah, king of Gath. Shimei was told, “Your slaves are in Gath.” Shimei sprang into action, saddled his donkey, and went to Achish in Gath looking for his slaves. And then he came back, bringing his slaves.
41 Solomon was told, “Shimei left Jerusalem for Gath, and now he’s back.”
42-43 Solomon then called for Shimei and said, “Didn’t I make you promise me under God, and give you a good warning besides, that you would not leave this area? That if you left you would have decreed your own death sentence? And didn’t you say, ‘Oh, thank you—I’ll do exactly as you say’? So why didn’t you keep your sacred promise and do what I ordered?”
44-45 Then the king told Shimei, “Deep in your heart you know all the evil that you did to my father David; God will now avenge that evil on you. But King Solomon will be blessed and the rule of David will be a sure thing under God forever.”
46 The king then gave orders to Benaiah son of Jehoiada; he went out and struck Shimei dead.
The kingdom was now securely in Solomon’s grasp.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, April 22, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Isaiah 40:27–31
Why would you ever complain, O Jacob,
or, whine, Israel, saying,
“God has lost track of me.
He doesn’t care what happens to me”?
Don’t you know anything? Haven’t you been listening?
God doesn’t come and go. God lasts.
He’s Creator of all you can see or imagine.
He doesn’t get tired out, doesn’t pause to catch his breath.
And he knows everything, inside and out.
He energizes those who get tired,
gives fresh strength to dropouts.
For even young people tire and drop out,
young folk in their prime stumble and fall.
But those who wait upon God get fresh strength.
They spread their wings and soar like eagles,
They run and don’t get tired,
they walk and don’t lag behind.
Insight
Isaiah, whose name means “The Lord saves,” warns an unrepentant Judah that God will use two foreign pagan superpowers, the Assyrians and the Babylonians, to discipline them for their idolatrous unfaithfulness (Isaiah 1–39). Isaiah also comforts Judah with the promise that God will restore and bless them once the punishment is complete (chs. 40–66). In chapter 40, Isaiah draws their attention to God’s authority, sovereignty, majesty, and glory (vv. 1–26) and tenderly speaks of God’s loving, providential care (vv. 11, 27–31). Addressing their sense of abandonment (v. 27), Isaiah assures them that God is not only resolute in blessing them, but also has the absolute power to do so (v. 28). As the everlasting, omnipotent Creator God, He is the source of their strength (v. 29). Isaiah calls on these despondent Jews to rise to a new level of commitment as they trust God to carry out His promises (vv. 30–31).
Second-Wind Strength
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28
At the age of fifty-four I entered the Milwaukee marathon with two goals—to finish the race and to do it under five hours. My time would have been amazing if the second 13.1 miles went as well as the first. But the race was grueling, and the second-wind strength I’d hoped for never came. By the time I made it to the finish line, my steady stride had morphed into a painful walk.
Footraces aren’t the only things that require second-wind strength—life’s race does too. To endure, tired, weary people need God’s help. Isaiah 40:27–31 beautifully weds poetry and prophecy to comfort and motivate people who need strength to keep going. Timeless words remind fatigued and discouraged people that the Lord isn’t detached or uncaring (v. 27), that our plight doesn’t escape His notice. These words breathe comfort and assurance, and remind us of God’s limitless power and bottomless knowledge (v. 28).
The second-wind strength described in verses 29–31 is just right for us—whether we’re in the throes of raising and providing for our families, struggling through life under the weight of physical or financial burdens, or discouraged by relational tensions or spiritual challenges. Such is the strength that awaits those who—through meditating on the Scriptures and prayer—wait upon the Lord. By Arthur Jackson
Today's Reflection
When have life circumstances taken the wind out of you? In what particular area do you need God’s strength today?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, April 22, 2019
The Light That Never Fails
We all, with unveiled face, beholding…the glory of the Lord… —2 Corinthians 3:18
A servant of God must stand so very much alone that he never realizes he is alone. In the early stages of the Christian life, disappointments will come— people who used to be lights will flicker out, and those who used to stand with us will turn away. We have to get so used to it that we will not even realize we are standing alone. Paul said, “…no one stood with me, but all forsook me….But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me…” (2 Timothy 4:16-17). We must build our faith not on fading lights but on the Light that never fails. When “important” individuals go away we are sad, until we see that they are meant to go, so that only one thing is left for us to do— to look into the face of God for ourselves.
Allow nothing to keep you from looking with strong determination into the face of God regarding yourself and your doctrine. And every time you preach make sure you look God in the face about the message first, then the glory will remain through all of it. A Christian servant is one who perpetually looks into the face of God and then goes forth to talk to others. The ministry of Christ is characterized by an abiding glory of which the servant is totally unaware— “…Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him” (Exodus 34:29).
We are never called on to display our doubts openly or to express the hidden joys and delights of our life with God. The secret of the servant’s life is that he stays in tune with God all the time.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Wherever the providence of God may dump us down, in a slum, in a shop, in the desert, we have to labour along the line of His direction. Never allow this thought—“I am of no use where I am,” because you certainly can be of no use where you are not! Wherever He has engineered your circumstances, pray. So Send I You, 1325 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, April 22, 2019
One Way to God - Or Many? - #8421
A ten-year-old boy who never should have waded out into Lake Michigan without knowing how to swim. Me. I can still remember the terror and the helplessness of going under for the second time. I'm alive today because someone on the shore saw me drowning. He jumped in and he saved my life.
Then there were those 33 Chilean miners, trapped for 69 days in a collapsed mine a half mile down. Remember, that rescue capsule was lowered down that newly-created shaft, and the rescuers brought every miner out alive. Or Houston. Hurricane Harvey. Whole neighborhoods, suddenly a lake - and people stranded on their rooftops. Until that rescue chopper came and lifted them to safety.
A makeshift mine shaft and a rescue capsule. A chopper hovering above a house surrounded by floodwaters. And a man reaching to rescue a drowning boy. Oh, and a man nailed to a cross on a skull-shaped hill near Jerusalem. Where the only Son God has gave His life for the greatest rescue mission in history. They all have this in common: people would have died except someone stepped in with a way to live. There were not many ways for them to be saved. Just one. But, thank God, there was one!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "One Way to God - Or Many?"
There may be no more audacious - and controversial - statement Jesus ever made than the one recorded in our word for today in the Word of God in John 14:6. "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except by Me." As I delve more deeply into the teaching of Scripture, it's clear there's no convenient "off ramp" from that claim.
The apostles declared, "There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Then it says, "There is only one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity - the man Christ Jesus. He gave His life to purchase freedom for everyone" (1 Timothy 2:5).
But see, in our tolerant, inclusive, open-minded culture, those are fighting words! "How can you say there's only one way?" Even those Bible folks - "evangelical Christians" - are retreating from that exclusive claim. Fifty-six percent believe there are many paths to God other than faith in Jesus Christ. This is not a casual issue. Eternity never is. I can be wrong about a lot of things and not pay an awful price. But not being right with God when I die? That is a price too high to pay.
There's a reason an instrument of torture and shame - the cross - has been the identifying symbol of Jesus' followers from the beginning. Because as the Bible says, "this is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him...He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:9-10).
Among all the great religions of the world, no one else even claimed to die for our sins. Every religion, including the Christian faith, gives us a moral code to follow. And if God-pleasing goodness is what it takes to get to God's heaven, take your pick from the menu of religions. But the Bible makes it clear that human sin is not a matter of breaking some religion's rules. It is, in essence, my raising my fist and saying, "God, You run the universe. I'm running me, thank You." It is refusing to let the God who gave me my life be God in my life. Spiritual hijacking. Punishable by death.
The Bible says, "The wages of sin is death...the soul that sins shall die...your sins have separated you from your God" (Romans 6:23, Ezekiel 18:20, Isaiah 59:2). There's only one way to pay a death penalty. Somebody's got to die. And Somebody did. God's one and only Son. He - and He alone - could and did take our place and pay for our sin. The only One who could forgive my sin is the One who paid for it with His life.
Before there were churches. Before there was Christianity. Before anyone had been called a Christian, there was a cross - where the very One I defied and denied paid my death penalty. That's the unspeakable love that captured my heart.
So, it isn't about which religion is right. No religion could die for our sins. I don't need a religion. I need a rescuer! His name is Jesus, who paid the price for every person's sins, whatever their religion. The Bible says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His...Son..." (John 3:16). There are many religions. There's only one Savior.
If there had been any other way to remove the sin that keeps us out of heaven, why would God have ever sent His Son to die that brutal death? I can't imagine walking up to that bloody cross, looking Jesus in the eyes, and saying, "By the way, Jesus - there are other ways." For me, the issue is not "why is there only one way?" It's that there is a way where there was no way. I was drowning. And the Rescuer came and died so I could live and so you could live.
I want you to go to our website and find a way to begin that relationship today; the rescue relationship with Jesus. It's ANewStory.com where your new story can begin.
The fifth chapter of Mark tells the story of a synagogue leader who reached the point where desperation exceeded dignity. He begged Jesus to heal his dying daughter. And Jesus did, with a look on his face that said, Come here. I’ve got a secret.
I’ve seen that sparkle of eternity in the eyes of a cancer patient who said, “I’m ready to go.” I saw it at a funeral. The widower didn’t weep like the others. “Don’t worry about me,” he said. “I know where she is.” Peace where there should be pain. Hope defying despair. That’s what that look says. It is a look that knows the answer to the question asked by every mortal: Does death have the last word? I can see Jesus wink as he answers, “Not on your life.”
Read more Six Hours One Friday
1 Kings 2
When David’s time to die approached, he charged his son Solomon, saying, “I’m about to go the way of all the earth, but you—be strong; show what you’re made of! Do what God tells you. Walk in the paths he shows you: Follow the life-map absolutely, keep an eye out for the signposts, his course for life set out in the revelation to Moses; then you’ll get on well in whatever you do and wherever you go. Then God will confirm what he promised me when he said, ‘If your sons watch their step, staying true to me heart and soul, you’ll always have a successor on Israel’s throne.’
5-6 “And don’t forget what Joab son of Zeruiah did to the two commanders of Israel’s army, to Abner son of Ner and to Amasa son of Jether. He murdered them in cold blood, acting in peacetime as if he were at war, and has been stained with that blood ever since. Do what you think best with him, but by no means let him get off scot-free—make him pay.
7 “But be generous to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite—extend every hospitality to them; that’s the way they treated me when I was running for my life from Absalom your brother.
8-9 “You also will have to deal with Shimei son of Gera the Benjaminite from Bahurim, the one who cursed me so viciously when I was on my way to Mahanaim. Later, when he welcomed me back at the Jordan, I promised him under God, ‘I won’t put you to death.’ But neither should you treat him as if nothing ever happened. You’re wise, you know how to handle these things. You’ll know what to do to make him pay before he dies.”
10-12 Then David joined his ancestors. He was buried in the City of David. David ruled Israel for forty years—seven years in Hebron and another thirty-three in Jerusalem. Solomon took over on the throne of his father David; he had a firm grip on the kingdom.
13-14 Adonijah son of Haggith came to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother. She said, “Do you come in peace?”
He said, “In peace.” And then, “May I say something to you?”
“Go ahead,” she said, “speak.”
15-16 “You know that I had the kingdom right in my hands and everyone expected me to be king, and then the whole thing backfired and the kingdom landed in my brother’s lap—God’s doing. So now I have one request to ask of you; please don’t refuse me.”
“Go ahead, ask,” she said.
17 “Ask King Solomon—he won’t turn you down—to give me Abishag the Shunammite as my wife.”
18 “Certainly,” said Bathsheba. “I’ll speak to the king for you.”
19 Bathsheba went to King Solomon to present Adonijah’s request. The king got up and welcomed her, bowing respectfully, and returned to his throne. Then he had a throne put in place for his mother, and she sat at his right hand.
20 She said, “I have a small favor to ask of you. Don’t refuse me.”
The king replied, “Go ahead, Mother; of course I won’t refuse you.”
21 She said, “Give Abishag the Shunammite to your brother Adonijah as his wife.”
22 King Solomon answered his mother, “What kind of favor is this, asking that Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah? Why don’t you just ask me to hand over the whole kingdom to him on a platter since he is my older brother and has Abiathar the priest and Joab son of Zeruiah on his side!”
23-24 Then King Solomon swore under God, “May God do his worst to me if Adonijah doesn’t pay for this with his life! As surely as God lives, the God who has set me firmly on the throne of my father David and has put me in charge of the kingdom just as he promised, Adonijah will die for this—today!”
25 King Solomon dispatched Benaiah son of Jehoiada; he struck Adonijah and he died.
26 The king then told Abiathar the priest, “You’re exiled to your place in Anathoth. You deserve death but I’m not going to kill you—for now anyway—because you were in charge of the Chest of our ruling God in the company of David my father, and because you shared all the hard times with my father.”
27 Solomon stripped Abiathar of his priesthood, fulfilling God’s word at Shiloh regarding the family of Eli.
28-29 When this news reached Joab, this Joab who had conspired with Adonijah (although he had remained loyal in the Absalom affair), he took refuge in the sanctuary of God, seizing the horns of the Altar and holding on for dear life. King Solomon was told that Joab had escaped to the sanctuary of God and was clinging to the Altar; he immediately sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada with orders, “Kill him.”
30 Benaiah went to the sanctuary of God and said, “King’s orders: Come out.”
He said, “No—I’ll die right here.”
Benaiah went back to the king and reported, “This was Joab’s answer.”
31-33 The king said, “Go ahead then, do what he says: Kill him and bury him. Absolve me and my father’s family of the guilt from Joab’s senseless murders. God is avenging those bloody murders on Joab’s head. Two men he murdered, men better by far than he ever was: Behind my father’s back he brutally murdered Abner son of Ner, commander of Israel’s army, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of Judah’s army. Responsibility for their murders is forever fixed on Joab and his descendants; but for David and his descendants, his family and kingdom, the final verdict is God’s peace.”
34-35 So Benaiah son of Jehoiada went back, struck Joab, and killed him. He was buried in his family plot out in the desert. The king appointed Benaiah son of Jehoiada over the army in place of Joab, and replaced Abiathar with Zadok the priest.
36-37 The king next called in Shimei and told him, “Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and live there, but you are not to leave the area. If you so much as cross the Brook Kidron, you’re as good as dead—you will have decreed your own death sentence.”
38 Shimei answered the king, “Oh, thank you! Your servant will do exactly as my master the king says.” Shimei lived in Jerusalem a long time.
39-40 But it so happened that three years later, two of Shimei’s slaves ran away to Achish son of Maacah, king of Gath. Shimei was told, “Your slaves are in Gath.” Shimei sprang into action, saddled his donkey, and went to Achish in Gath looking for his slaves. And then he came back, bringing his slaves.
41 Solomon was told, “Shimei left Jerusalem for Gath, and now he’s back.”
42-43 Solomon then called for Shimei and said, “Didn’t I make you promise me under God, and give you a good warning besides, that you would not leave this area? That if you left you would have decreed your own death sentence? And didn’t you say, ‘Oh, thank you—I’ll do exactly as you say’? So why didn’t you keep your sacred promise and do what I ordered?”
44-45 Then the king told Shimei, “Deep in your heart you know all the evil that you did to my father David; God will now avenge that evil on you. But King Solomon will be blessed and the rule of David will be a sure thing under God forever.”
46 The king then gave orders to Benaiah son of Jehoiada; he went out and struck Shimei dead.
The kingdom was now securely in Solomon’s grasp.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, April 22, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Isaiah 40:27–31
Why would you ever complain, O Jacob,
or, whine, Israel, saying,
“God has lost track of me.
He doesn’t care what happens to me”?
Don’t you know anything? Haven’t you been listening?
God doesn’t come and go. God lasts.
He’s Creator of all you can see or imagine.
He doesn’t get tired out, doesn’t pause to catch his breath.
And he knows everything, inside and out.
He energizes those who get tired,
gives fresh strength to dropouts.
For even young people tire and drop out,
young folk in their prime stumble and fall.
But those who wait upon God get fresh strength.
They spread their wings and soar like eagles,
They run and don’t get tired,
they walk and don’t lag behind.
Insight
Isaiah, whose name means “The Lord saves,” warns an unrepentant Judah that God will use two foreign pagan superpowers, the Assyrians and the Babylonians, to discipline them for their idolatrous unfaithfulness (Isaiah 1–39). Isaiah also comforts Judah with the promise that God will restore and bless them once the punishment is complete (chs. 40–66). In chapter 40, Isaiah draws their attention to God’s authority, sovereignty, majesty, and glory (vv. 1–26) and tenderly speaks of God’s loving, providential care (vv. 11, 27–31). Addressing their sense of abandonment (v. 27), Isaiah assures them that God is not only resolute in blessing them, but also has the absolute power to do so (v. 28). As the everlasting, omnipotent Creator God, He is the source of their strength (v. 29). Isaiah calls on these despondent Jews to rise to a new level of commitment as they trust God to carry out His promises (vv. 30–31).
Second-Wind Strength
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28
At the age of fifty-four I entered the Milwaukee marathon with two goals—to finish the race and to do it under five hours. My time would have been amazing if the second 13.1 miles went as well as the first. But the race was grueling, and the second-wind strength I’d hoped for never came. By the time I made it to the finish line, my steady stride had morphed into a painful walk.
Footraces aren’t the only things that require second-wind strength—life’s race does too. To endure, tired, weary people need God’s help. Isaiah 40:27–31 beautifully weds poetry and prophecy to comfort and motivate people who need strength to keep going. Timeless words remind fatigued and discouraged people that the Lord isn’t detached or uncaring (v. 27), that our plight doesn’t escape His notice. These words breathe comfort and assurance, and remind us of God’s limitless power and bottomless knowledge (v. 28).
The second-wind strength described in verses 29–31 is just right for us—whether we’re in the throes of raising and providing for our families, struggling through life under the weight of physical or financial burdens, or discouraged by relational tensions or spiritual challenges. Such is the strength that awaits those who—through meditating on the Scriptures and prayer—wait upon the Lord. By Arthur Jackson
Today's Reflection
When have life circumstances taken the wind out of you? In what particular area do you need God’s strength today?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, April 22, 2019
The Light That Never Fails
We all, with unveiled face, beholding…the glory of the Lord… —2 Corinthians 3:18
A servant of God must stand so very much alone that he never realizes he is alone. In the early stages of the Christian life, disappointments will come— people who used to be lights will flicker out, and those who used to stand with us will turn away. We have to get so used to it that we will not even realize we are standing alone. Paul said, “…no one stood with me, but all forsook me….But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me…” (2 Timothy 4:16-17). We must build our faith not on fading lights but on the Light that never fails. When “important” individuals go away we are sad, until we see that they are meant to go, so that only one thing is left for us to do— to look into the face of God for ourselves.
Allow nothing to keep you from looking with strong determination into the face of God regarding yourself and your doctrine. And every time you preach make sure you look God in the face about the message first, then the glory will remain through all of it. A Christian servant is one who perpetually looks into the face of God and then goes forth to talk to others. The ministry of Christ is characterized by an abiding glory of which the servant is totally unaware— “…Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him” (Exodus 34:29).
We are never called on to display our doubts openly or to express the hidden joys and delights of our life with God. The secret of the servant’s life is that he stays in tune with God all the time.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Wherever the providence of God may dump us down, in a slum, in a shop, in the desert, we have to labour along the line of His direction. Never allow this thought—“I am of no use where I am,” because you certainly can be of no use where you are not! Wherever He has engineered your circumstances, pray. So Send I You, 1325 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, April 22, 2019
One Way to God - Or Many? - #8421
A ten-year-old boy who never should have waded out into Lake Michigan without knowing how to swim. Me. I can still remember the terror and the helplessness of going under for the second time. I'm alive today because someone on the shore saw me drowning. He jumped in and he saved my life.
Then there were those 33 Chilean miners, trapped for 69 days in a collapsed mine a half mile down. Remember, that rescue capsule was lowered down that newly-created shaft, and the rescuers brought every miner out alive. Or Houston. Hurricane Harvey. Whole neighborhoods, suddenly a lake - and people stranded on their rooftops. Until that rescue chopper came and lifted them to safety.
A makeshift mine shaft and a rescue capsule. A chopper hovering above a house surrounded by floodwaters. And a man reaching to rescue a drowning boy. Oh, and a man nailed to a cross on a skull-shaped hill near Jerusalem. Where the only Son God has gave His life for the greatest rescue mission in history. They all have this in common: people would have died except someone stepped in with a way to live. There were not many ways for them to be saved. Just one. But, thank God, there was one!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "One Way to God - Or Many?"
There may be no more audacious - and controversial - statement Jesus ever made than the one recorded in our word for today in the Word of God in John 14:6. "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except by Me." As I delve more deeply into the teaching of Scripture, it's clear there's no convenient "off ramp" from that claim.
The apostles declared, "There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Then it says, "There is only one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity - the man Christ Jesus. He gave His life to purchase freedom for everyone" (1 Timothy 2:5).
But see, in our tolerant, inclusive, open-minded culture, those are fighting words! "How can you say there's only one way?" Even those Bible folks - "evangelical Christians" - are retreating from that exclusive claim. Fifty-six percent believe there are many paths to God other than faith in Jesus Christ. This is not a casual issue. Eternity never is. I can be wrong about a lot of things and not pay an awful price. But not being right with God when I die? That is a price too high to pay.
There's a reason an instrument of torture and shame - the cross - has been the identifying symbol of Jesus' followers from the beginning. Because as the Bible says, "this is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him...He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:9-10).
Among all the great religions of the world, no one else even claimed to die for our sins. Every religion, including the Christian faith, gives us a moral code to follow. And if God-pleasing goodness is what it takes to get to God's heaven, take your pick from the menu of religions. But the Bible makes it clear that human sin is not a matter of breaking some religion's rules. It is, in essence, my raising my fist and saying, "God, You run the universe. I'm running me, thank You." It is refusing to let the God who gave me my life be God in my life. Spiritual hijacking. Punishable by death.
The Bible says, "The wages of sin is death...the soul that sins shall die...your sins have separated you from your God" (Romans 6:23, Ezekiel 18:20, Isaiah 59:2). There's only one way to pay a death penalty. Somebody's got to die. And Somebody did. God's one and only Son. He - and He alone - could and did take our place and pay for our sin. The only One who could forgive my sin is the One who paid for it with His life.
Before there were churches. Before there was Christianity. Before anyone had been called a Christian, there was a cross - where the very One I defied and denied paid my death penalty. That's the unspeakable love that captured my heart.
So, it isn't about which religion is right. No religion could die for our sins. I don't need a religion. I need a rescuer! His name is Jesus, who paid the price for every person's sins, whatever their religion. The Bible says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His...Son..." (John 3:16). There are many religions. There's only one Savior.
If there had been any other way to remove the sin that keeps us out of heaven, why would God have ever sent His Son to die that brutal death? I can't imagine walking up to that bloody cross, looking Jesus in the eyes, and saying, "By the way, Jesus - there are other ways." For me, the issue is not "why is there only one way?" It's that there is a way where there was no way. I was drowning. And the Rescuer came and died so I could live and so you could live.
I want you to go to our website and find a way to begin that relationship today; the rescue relationship with Jesus. It's ANewStory.com where your new story can begin.
Sunday, April 21, 2019
1 Kings 1, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Potential Time with God
Psalm 46:10 says, "Be still and know that I am God." Imagine considering every moment as a potential time of communion with God. Try being silent with God.
By the time your life is over, you'll have spent six months at stoplights, eight months opening junk mail, a year and a half looking for lost stuff (double that in my case), and a whopping five years standing in various lines.
Why don't you give these moments to God? By giving God your whispering thoughts, the common becomes uncommon. Simple phrases such as "Thank you, Father"…"Be sovereign in this hour, O Lord"… "You are my resting place, Jesus"…can turn a commute into a pilgrimage. You don't have to leave your office or your kitchen. Just pray where you are. Let the kitchen become a cathedral or the classroom a chapel. Give God your whispering thoughts.
From Just Like Jesus
1 Kings 1
King David grew old. The years had caught up with him. Even though they piled blankets on him, he couldn’t keep warm. So his servants said to him, “We’re going to get a young virgin for our master the king to be at his side and look after him; she’ll get in bed with you and arouse our master the king.” So they searched the country of Israel for the most ravishing girl they could find; they found Abishag the Shunammite and brought her to the king. The girl was stunningly beautiful; she stayed at his side and looked after the king, but the king did not have sex with her.
5-6 At this time Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith, puffed himself up saying, “I’m the next king!” He made quite a splash, with chariots and riders and fifty men to run ahead of him. His father had spoiled him rotten as a child, never once reprimanding him. Besides that, he was very good-looking and the next in line after Absalom.
7-8 Adonijah talked with Joab son of Zeruiah and with Abiathar the priest, and they threw their weight on his side. But neither the priest Zadok, nor Benaiah son of Jehoiada, nor Nathan the prophet, nor Shimei and Rei, nor David’s personal bodyguards supported Adonijah.
9-10 Next Adonijah held a coronation feast, sacrificing sheep, cattle, and grain-fed heifers at the Stone of Zoheleth near the Rogel Spring. He invited all his brothers, the king’s sons, and everyone in Judah who had position and influence—but he did not invite the prophet Nathan, Benaiah, the bodyguards, or his brother Solomon.
11-14 Nathan went to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother, “Did you know that Adonijah, Haggith’s son, has taken over as king, and our master David doesn’t know a thing about it? Quickly now, let me tell you how you can save both your own life and Solomon’s. Go immediately to King David. Speak up: ‘Didn’t you, my master the king, promise me, “Your son Solomon will be king after me and sit on my throne”? So why is Adonijah now king?’ While you’re there talking with the king, I’ll come in and corroborate your story.”
15-16 Bathsheba went at once to the king in his palace bedroom. He was so old! Abishag was at his side making him comfortable. As Bathsheba bowed low, honoring the king, he said, “What do you want?”
17-21 “My master,” she said, “you promised me in God’s name, ‘Your son Solomon will be king after me and sit on my throne.’ And now look what’s happened—Adonijah has taken over as king, and my master the king doesn’t even know it! He has thrown a huge coronation feast—cattle and grain-fed heifers and sheep—inviting all the king’s sons, the priest Abiathar, and Joab head of the army. But your servant Solomon was not invited. My master the king, every eye in Israel is watching you to see what you’ll do—to see who will sit on the throne of my master the king after him. If you fail to act, the moment you’re buried my son Solomon and I are as good as dead.”
22-23 Abruptly, while she was telling the king all this, Nathan the prophet came in and was announced: “Nathan the prophet is here.” He came before the king, honoring him by bowing deeply, his face touching the ground.
24-27 “My master the king,” Nathan began, “did you say, ‘Adonijah shall be king after me and sit on my throne’? Because that’s what’s happening. He’s thrown a huge coronation feast—cattle, grain-fed heifers, sheep—inviting all the king’s sons, the army officers, and Abiathar the priest. They’re having a grand time, eating and drinking and shouting, ‘Long live King Adonijah!’ But I wasn’t invited, nor was the priest Zadok, nor Benaiah son of Jehoiada, nor your servant Solomon. Is this something that my master the king has done behind our backs, not telling your servants who you intended to be king after you?”
28 King David took action: “Get Bathsheba back in here.” She entered and stood before the king.
29-30 The king solemnly promised, “As God lives, the God who delivered me from every kind of trouble, I’ll do exactly what I promised in God’s name, the God of Israel: Your son Solomon will be king after me and take my place on the throne. And I’ll make sure it happens this very day.”
31 Bathsheba bowed low, her face to the ground. Kneeling in reverence before the king she said, “Oh, may my master, King David, live forever!”
32 King David said, “Call Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada.” They came to the king.
33-35 Then he ordered, “Gather my servants, then mount my son Solomon on my royal mule and lead him in procession down to Gihon. When you get there, Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet will anoint him king over Israel. Then blow the ram’s horn trumpet and shout, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ You will then accompany him as he enters and takes his place on my throne, succeeding me as king. I have named him ruler over Israel and Judah.”
36-37 Benaiah son of Jehoiada backed the king: “Yes! And may God, the God of my master the king, confirm it! Just as God has been with my master the king, may he also be with Solomon and make his rule even greater than that of my master King David!”
38-40 Then Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and the king’s personal bodyguard (the Kerethites and Pelethites) went down, mounted Solomon on King David’s mule, and paraded with him to Gihon. Zadok the priest brought a flask of oil from the sanctuary and anointed Solomon. They blew the ram’s horn trumpet and everyone shouted, “Long live King Solomon!” Everyone joined the fanfare, the band playing and the people singing, the very earth reverberating to the sound.
41 Adonijah and his retinue of guests were just finishing their “coronation” feast when they heard it. When Joab heard the blast of the ram’s horn trumpet he said, “What’s going on here? What’s all this uproar?”
42 Suddenly, in the midst of the questioning, Jonathan son of Abiathar the priest, showed up. Adonijah said, “Welcome! A brave and good man like you must have good news.”
43-48 But Jonathan answered, “Hardly! Our master King David has just made Solomon king! And the king has surrounded him with Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, with the Kerethites and Pelethites; and they’ve mounted Solomon on the royal mule. Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king at Gihon and the parade is headed up this way singing—a great fanfare! The city is rocking! That’s what you’re hearing. Here’s the crowning touch—Solomon is seated on the throne of the kingdom! And that’s not all: The king’s servants have come to give their blessing to our master King David saying, ‘God make Solomon’s name even more honored than yours, and make his rule greater than yours!’ On his deathbed the king worshiped God and prayed, ‘Blessed be God, Israel’s God, who has provided a successor to my throne, and I’ve lived to see it!’”
49-50 Panicked, Adonijah’s guests got out of there, scattering every which way. But Adonijah himself, afraid for his life because of Solomon, fled to the sanctuary and grabbed the horns of the Altar.
51 Solomon was told, “Adonijah, fearful of King Solomon, has taken sanctuary and seized the horns of the Altar and is saying, ‘I’m not leaving until King Solomon promises that he won’t kill me.’”
52-53 Solomon then said, “If he proves to be a man of honor, not a hair of his head will be hurt; but if there is evil in him, he’ll die.” Solomon summoned him and they brought him from the Altar. Adonijah came and bowed down, honoring the king. Solomon dismissed him, “Go home.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, April 21, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Jeremiah 2:13, 20–22
“Stand in shock, heavens, at what you see!
Throw up your hands in disbelief—this can’t be!”
God’s Decree.
“My people have committed a compound sin:
they’ve walked out on me, the fountain
Of fresh flowing waters, and then dug cisterns—
cisterns that leak, cisterns that are no better than sieves.
Jeremiah 2:20-22 The Message (MSG)
20-22 “A long time ago you broke out of the harness.
You shook off all restraints.
You said, ‘I will not serve!’
and off you went,
Visiting every sex-and-religion shrine on the way,
like a common whore.
You were a select vine when I planted you
from completely reliable stock.
And look how you’ve turned out—
a tangle of rancid growth, a poor excuse for a vine.
Scrub, using the strongest soaps.
Scour your skin raw.
The sin-grease won’t come out. I can’t stand to even look at you!”
God’s Decree, the Master’s Decree.
Insight
There are several different words for sin in Scripture, each with its own meaning. In today’s reading, Jeremiah uses a word which means “bad” or “evil” and is often used to denote something that has a negative effect. However, while definitions give us a technical understanding of what sin is, they often fail to paint an adequate image of its reality.
In today’s passage, Jeremiah uses four metaphors to describe the detestable nature of Israel’s sin against God—digging cisterns (v. 13), breaking yoke and bonds (v. 20), prostitution (v. 20), and a wild vine (v. 21). When we describe sin as just “missing the mark” (it was a good shot but not perfect), it’s easier to justify. But the image of prostitution to describe our sin is more difficult to gloss over. Jeremiah says Israel’s actions were so heinous that no matter how they tried to clean themselves, their guilt remained.
Washed Clean
The blood of Jesus, [God’s] Son, purifies us from all sin. 1 John 1:7
I couldn’t believe it. A blue gel pen had hidden itself in the folds of my white towels and survived the washing machine, only to explode in the dryer. Ugly blue stains were everywhere. My white towels were ruined. No amount of bleach would be able to remove the dark stains.
As I reluctantly consigned the towels to the rag pile, I was reminded of the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah’s lament describing the damaging effects of sin. By rejecting God and turning to idols (Jeremiah 2:13), Jeremiah declared that the people of Israel had caused a permanent stain in their relationship with God: “‘Although you wash yourself with soap and use an abundance of cleansing powder, the stain of your guilt is still before me,’ declares the Sovereign Lord” (v. 22). They were powerless to undo the damage they’d done.
On our own, it is impossible to remove the stain of our sin. But Jesus has done what we could not. Through the power of His death and resurrection, He “purifies [believers] from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
Even when it’s hard to believe, cling to this beautiful truth: there’s no damage from sin that Jesus can’t totally remove. God is willing and ready to wash away the effects of sin for anyone willing to return to Him (v. 9). Through Christ, we can live each day in freedom and hope. By Lisa M. Samra
Today's Reflection
Where do you go with your guilt? How might you live differently today knowing that Jesus’s death has the power to completely remove the guilt and “stain” of your sin?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, April 21, 2019
Don’t Hurt the Lord
Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? —John 14:9
Our Lord must be repeatedly astounded at us— astounded at how “un-simple” we are. It is our own opinions that make us dense and slow to understand, but when we are simple we are never dense; we have discernment all the time. Philip expected the future revelation of a tremendous mystery, but not in Jesus, the Person he thought he already knew. The mystery of God is not in what is going to be— it is now, though we look for it to be revealed in the future in some overwhelming, momentous event. We have no reluctance to obey Jesus, but it is highly probable that we are hurting Him by what we ask— “Lord, show us the Father…” (John 14:8). His response immediately comes back to us as He says, “Can’t you see Him? He is always right here or He is nowhere to be found.” We look for God to exhibit Himself to His children, but God only exhibits Himself in His children. And while others see the evidence, the child of God does not. We want to be fully aware of what God is doing in us, but we cannot have complete awareness and expect to remain reasonable or balanced in our expectations of Him. If all we are asking God to give us is experiences, and the awareness of those experiences is blocking our way, we hurt the Lord. The very questions we ask hurt Jesus, because they are not the questions of a child.
“Let not your heart be troubled…” (14:1, 27). Am I then hurting Jesus by allowing my heart to be troubled? If I believe in Jesus and His attributes, am I living up to my belief? Am I allowing anything to disturb my heart, or am I allowing any questions to come in which are unsound or unbalanced? I have to get to the point of the absolute and unquestionable relationship that takes everything exactly as it comes from Him. God never guides us at some time in the future, but always here and now. Realize that the Lord is here now, and the freedom you receive is immediate.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We never enter into the Kingdom of God by having our head questions answered, but only by commitment.
The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption
Psalm 46:10 says, "Be still and know that I am God." Imagine considering every moment as a potential time of communion with God. Try being silent with God.
By the time your life is over, you'll have spent six months at stoplights, eight months opening junk mail, a year and a half looking for lost stuff (double that in my case), and a whopping five years standing in various lines.
Why don't you give these moments to God? By giving God your whispering thoughts, the common becomes uncommon. Simple phrases such as "Thank you, Father"…"Be sovereign in this hour, O Lord"… "You are my resting place, Jesus"…can turn a commute into a pilgrimage. You don't have to leave your office or your kitchen. Just pray where you are. Let the kitchen become a cathedral or the classroom a chapel. Give God your whispering thoughts.
From Just Like Jesus
1 Kings 1
King David grew old. The years had caught up with him. Even though they piled blankets on him, he couldn’t keep warm. So his servants said to him, “We’re going to get a young virgin for our master the king to be at his side and look after him; she’ll get in bed with you and arouse our master the king.” So they searched the country of Israel for the most ravishing girl they could find; they found Abishag the Shunammite and brought her to the king. The girl was stunningly beautiful; she stayed at his side and looked after the king, but the king did not have sex with her.
5-6 At this time Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith, puffed himself up saying, “I’m the next king!” He made quite a splash, with chariots and riders and fifty men to run ahead of him. His father had spoiled him rotten as a child, never once reprimanding him. Besides that, he was very good-looking and the next in line after Absalom.
7-8 Adonijah talked with Joab son of Zeruiah and with Abiathar the priest, and they threw their weight on his side. But neither the priest Zadok, nor Benaiah son of Jehoiada, nor Nathan the prophet, nor Shimei and Rei, nor David’s personal bodyguards supported Adonijah.
9-10 Next Adonijah held a coronation feast, sacrificing sheep, cattle, and grain-fed heifers at the Stone of Zoheleth near the Rogel Spring. He invited all his brothers, the king’s sons, and everyone in Judah who had position and influence—but he did not invite the prophet Nathan, Benaiah, the bodyguards, or his brother Solomon.
11-14 Nathan went to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother, “Did you know that Adonijah, Haggith’s son, has taken over as king, and our master David doesn’t know a thing about it? Quickly now, let me tell you how you can save both your own life and Solomon’s. Go immediately to King David. Speak up: ‘Didn’t you, my master the king, promise me, “Your son Solomon will be king after me and sit on my throne”? So why is Adonijah now king?’ While you’re there talking with the king, I’ll come in and corroborate your story.”
15-16 Bathsheba went at once to the king in his palace bedroom. He was so old! Abishag was at his side making him comfortable. As Bathsheba bowed low, honoring the king, he said, “What do you want?”
17-21 “My master,” she said, “you promised me in God’s name, ‘Your son Solomon will be king after me and sit on my throne.’ And now look what’s happened—Adonijah has taken over as king, and my master the king doesn’t even know it! He has thrown a huge coronation feast—cattle and grain-fed heifers and sheep—inviting all the king’s sons, the priest Abiathar, and Joab head of the army. But your servant Solomon was not invited. My master the king, every eye in Israel is watching you to see what you’ll do—to see who will sit on the throne of my master the king after him. If you fail to act, the moment you’re buried my son Solomon and I are as good as dead.”
22-23 Abruptly, while she was telling the king all this, Nathan the prophet came in and was announced: “Nathan the prophet is here.” He came before the king, honoring him by bowing deeply, his face touching the ground.
24-27 “My master the king,” Nathan began, “did you say, ‘Adonijah shall be king after me and sit on my throne’? Because that’s what’s happening. He’s thrown a huge coronation feast—cattle, grain-fed heifers, sheep—inviting all the king’s sons, the army officers, and Abiathar the priest. They’re having a grand time, eating and drinking and shouting, ‘Long live King Adonijah!’ But I wasn’t invited, nor was the priest Zadok, nor Benaiah son of Jehoiada, nor your servant Solomon. Is this something that my master the king has done behind our backs, not telling your servants who you intended to be king after you?”
28 King David took action: “Get Bathsheba back in here.” She entered and stood before the king.
29-30 The king solemnly promised, “As God lives, the God who delivered me from every kind of trouble, I’ll do exactly what I promised in God’s name, the God of Israel: Your son Solomon will be king after me and take my place on the throne. And I’ll make sure it happens this very day.”
31 Bathsheba bowed low, her face to the ground. Kneeling in reverence before the king she said, “Oh, may my master, King David, live forever!”
32 King David said, “Call Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada.” They came to the king.
33-35 Then he ordered, “Gather my servants, then mount my son Solomon on my royal mule and lead him in procession down to Gihon. When you get there, Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet will anoint him king over Israel. Then blow the ram’s horn trumpet and shout, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ You will then accompany him as he enters and takes his place on my throne, succeeding me as king. I have named him ruler over Israel and Judah.”
36-37 Benaiah son of Jehoiada backed the king: “Yes! And may God, the God of my master the king, confirm it! Just as God has been with my master the king, may he also be with Solomon and make his rule even greater than that of my master King David!”
38-40 Then Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and the king’s personal bodyguard (the Kerethites and Pelethites) went down, mounted Solomon on King David’s mule, and paraded with him to Gihon. Zadok the priest brought a flask of oil from the sanctuary and anointed Solomon. They blew the ram’s horn trumpet and everyone shouted, “Long live King Solomon!” Everyone joined the fanfare, the band playing and the people singing, the very earth reverberating to the sound.
41 Adonijah and his retinue of guests were just finishing their “coronation” feast when they heard it. When Joab heard the blast of the ram’s horn trumpet he said, “What’s going on here? What’s all this uproar?”
42 Suddenly, in the midst of the questioning, Jonathan son of Abiathar the priest, showed up. Adonijah said, “Welcome! A brave and good man like you must have good news.”
43-48 But Jonathan answered, “Hardly! Our master King David has just made Solomon king! And the king has surrounded him with Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, with the Kerethites and Pelethites; and they’ve mounted Solomon on the royal mule. Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king at Gihon and the parade is headed up this way singing—a great fanfare! The city is rocking! That’s what you’re hearing. Here’s the crowning touch—Solomon is seated on the throne of the kingdom! And that’s not all: The king’s servants have come to give their blessing to our master King David saying, ‘God make Solomon’s name even more honored than yours, and make his rule greater than yours!’ On his deathbed the king worshiped God and prayed, ‘Blessed be God, Israel’s God, who has provided a successor to my throne, and I’ve lived to see it!’”
49-50 Panicked, Adonijah’s guests got out of there, scattering every which way. But Adonijah himself, afraid for his life because of Solomon, fled to the sanctuary and grabbed the horns of the Altar.
51 Solomon was told, “Adonijah, fearful of King Solomon, has taken sanctuary and seized the horns of the Altar and is saying, ‘I’m not leaving until King Solomon promises that he won’t kill me.’”
52-53 Solomon then said, “If he proves to be a man of honor, not a hair of his head will be hurt; but if there is evil in him, he’ll die.” Solomon summoned him and they brought him from the Altar. Adonijah came and bowed down, honoring the king. Solomon dismissed him, “Go home.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, April 21, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Jeremiah 2:13, 20–22
“Stand in shock, heavens, at what you see!
Throw up your hands in disbelief—this can’t be!”
God’s Decree.
“My people have committed a compound sin:
they’ve walked out on me, the fountain
Of fresh flowing waters, and then dug cisterns—
cisterns that leak, cisterns that are no better than sieves.
Jeremiah 2:20-22 The Message (MSG)
20-22 “A long time ago you broke out of the harness.
You shook off all restraints.
You said, ‘I will not serve!’
and off you went,
Visiting every sex-and-religion shrine on the way,
like a common whore.
You were a select vine when I planted you
from completely reliable stock.
And look how you’ve turned out—
a tangle of rancid growth, a poor excuse for a vine.
Scrub, using the strongest soaps.
Scour your skin raw.
The sin-grease won’t come out. I can’t stand to even look at you!”
God’s Decree, the Master’s Decree.
Insight
There are several different words for sin in Scripture, each with its own meaning. In today’s reading, Jeremiah uses a word which means “bad” or “evil” and is often used to denote something that has a negative effect. However, while definitions give us a technical understanding of what sin is, they often fail to paint an adequate image of its reality.
In today’s passage, Jeremiah uses four metaphors to describe the detestable nature of Israel’s sin against God—digging cisterns (v. 13), breaking yoke and bonds (v. 20), prostitution (v. 20), and a wild vine (v. 21). When we describe sin as just “missing the mark” (it was a good shot but not perfect), it’s easier to justify. But the image of prostitution to describe our sin is more difficult to gloss over. Jeremiah says Israel’s actions were so heinous that no matter how they tried to clean themselves, their guilt remained.
Washed Clean
The blood of Jesus, [God’s] Son, purifies us from all sin. 1 John 1:7
I couldn’t believe it. A blue gel pen had hidden itself in the folds of my white towels and survived the washing machine, only to explode in the dryer. Ugly blue stains were everywhere. My white towels were ruined. No amount of bleach would be able to remove the dark stains.
As I reluctantly consigned the towels to the rag pile, I was reminded of the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah’s lament describing the damaging effects of sin. By rejecting God and turning to idols (Jeremiah 2:13), Jeremiah declared that the people of Israel had caused a permanent stain in their relationship with God: “‘Although you wash yourself with soap and use an abundance of cleansing powder, the stain of your guilt is still before me,’ declares the Sovereign Lord” (v. 22). They were powerless to undo the damage they’d done.
On our own, it is impossible to remove the stain of our sin. But Jesus has done what we could not. Through the power of His death and resurrection, He “purifies [believers] from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
Even when it’s hard to believe, cling to this beautiful truth: there’s no damage from sin that Jesus can’t totally remove. God is willing and ready to wash away the effects of sin for anyone willing to return to Him (v. 9). Through Christ, we can live each day in freedom and hope. By Lisa M. Samra
Today's Reflection
Where do you go with your guilt? How might you live differently today knowing that Jesus’s death has the power to completely remove the guilt and “stain” of your sin?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, April 21, 2019
Don’t Hurt the Lord
Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? —John 14:9
Our Lord must be repeatedly astounded at us— astounded at how “un-simple” we are. It is our own opinions that make us dense and slow to understand, but when we are simple we are never dense; we have discernment all the time. Philip expected the future revelation of a tremendous mystery, but not in Jesus, the Person he thought he already knew. The mystery of God is not in what is going to be— it is now, though we look for it to be revealed in the future in some overwhelming, momentous event. We have no reluctance to obey Jesus, but it is highly probable that we are hurting Him by what we ask— “Lord, show us the Father…” (John 14:8). His response immediately comes back to us as He says, “Can’t you see Him? He is always right here or He is nowhere to be found.” We look for God to exhibit Himself to His children, but God only exhibits Himself in His children. And while others see the evidence, the child of God does not. We want to be fully aware of what God is doing in us, but we cannot have complete awareness and expect to remain reasonable or balanced in our expectations of Him. If all we are asking God to give us is experiences, and the awareness of those experiences is blocking our way, we hurt the Lord. The very questions we ask hurt Jesus, because they are not the questions of a child.
“Let not your heart be troubled…” (14:1, 27). Am I then hurting Jesus by allowing my heart to be troubled? If I believe in Jesus and His attributes, am I living up to my belief? Am I allowing anything to disturb my heart, or am I allowing any questions to come in which are unsound or unbalanced? I have to get to the point of the absolute and unquestionable relationship that takes everything exactly as it comes from Him. God never guides us at some time in the future, but always here and now. Realize that the Lord is here now, and the freedom you receive is immediate.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We never enter into the Kingdom of God by having our head questions answered, but only by commitment.
The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption
Saturday, April 20, 2019
John 18:1-18 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: God's Translator
When he walked this earth, Jesus was so in sync with the Father that he could say in John 14:11, "I am in the Father and the Father is in me." It was if he heard a voice that was missing.
Remember when everyone was distraught about Lazarus's illness? Jesus wasn't. Rather than hurry to his friend's bedside, he said, "This sickness will not end in death. It is for the glory of God." Jesus had unbroken communion with his Father. It was as if Jesus could hear what no one else could. How could a relationship be more intimate?
Do you suppose the Father desires the same for us? Absolutely! God desires the same abiding intimacy with you that he had with his Son. Paul says in Romans 8:29 that we have been "predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son."
From Just Like Jesus
John 18:1-18
Jesus, having prayed this prayer, left with his disciples and crossed over the brook Kidron at a place where there was a garden. He and his disciples entered it.
2-4 Judas, his betrayer, knew the place because Jesus and his disciples went there often. So Judas led the way to the garden, and the Roman soldiers and police sent by the high priests and Pharisees followed. They arrived there with lanterns and torches and swords. Jesus, knowing by now everything that was coming down on him, went out and met them. He said, “Who are you after?”
They answered, “Jesus the Nazarene.”
5-6 He said, “That’s me.” The soldiers recoiled, totally taken aback. Judas, his betrayer, stood out like a sore thumb.
7 Jesus asked again, “Who are you after?”
They answered, “Jesus the Nazarene.”
8-9 “I told you,” said Jesus, “that’s me. I’m the one. So if it’s me you’re after, let these others go.” (This validated the words in his prayer, “I didn’t lose one of those you gave.”)
10 Just then Simon Peter, who was carrying a sword, pulled it from its sheath and struck the Chief Priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. Malchus was the servant’s name.
11 Jesus ordered Peter, “Put back your sword. Do you think for a minute I’m not going to drink this cup the Father gave me?”
12-14 Then the Roman soldiers under their commander, joined by the Jewish police, seized Jesus and tied him up. They took him first to Annas, father-in-law of Caiaphas. Caiaphas was the Chief Priest that year. It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it was to their advantage that one man die for the people.
15-16 Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. That other disciple was known to the Chief Priest, and so he went in with Jesus to the Chief Priest’s courtyard. Peter had to stay outside. Then the other disciple went out, spoke to the doorkeeper, and got Peter in.
17 The young woman who was the doorkeeper said to Peter, “Aren’t you one of this man’s disciples?”
He said, “No, I’m not.”
18 The servants and police had made a fire because of the cold and were huddled there warming themselves. Peter stood with them, trying to get warm.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, April 20, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:2 Samuel 12:1–14
and sent Nathan to David. Nathan said to him, “There were two men in the same city—one rich, the other poor. The rich man had huge flocks of sheep, herds of cattle. The poor man had nothing but one little female lamb, which he had bought and raised. It grew up with him and his children as a member of the family. It ate off his plate and drank from his cup and slept on his bed. It was like a daughter to him.
4 “One day a traveler dropped in on the rich man. He was too stingy to take an animal from his own herds or flocks to make a meal for his visitor, so he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared a meal to set before his guest.”
5-6 David exploded in anger. “As surely as God lives,” he said to Nathan, “the man who did this ought to be lynched! He must repay for the lamb four times over for his crime and his stinginess!”
7-12 “You’re the man!” said Nathan. “And here’s what God, the God of Israel, has to say to you: I made you king over Israel. I freed you from the fist of Saul. I gave you your master’s daughter and other wives to have and to hold. I gave you both Israel and Judah. And if that hadn’t been enough, I’d have gladly thrown in much more. So why have you treated the word of God with brazen contempt, doing this great evil? You murdered Uriah the Hittite, then took his wife as your wife. Worse, you killed him with an Ammonite sword! And now, because you treated God with such contempt and took Uriah the Hittite’s wife as your wife, killing and murder will continually plague your family. This is God speaking, remember! I’ll make trouble for you out of your own family. I’ll take your wives from right out in front of you. I’ll give them to some neighbor, and he’ll go to bed with them openly. You did your deed in secret; I’m doing mine with the whole country watching!”
13-14 Then David confessed to Nathan, “I’ve sinned against God.”
Nathan pronounced, “Yes, but that’s not the last word. God forgives your sin. You won’t die for it. But because of your blasphemous behavior, the son born to you will die.”
Insight
Nathan’s confrontation of David’s adultery, conspiracy to commit murder, and cover-up recorded in 2 Samuel 12 could have been withheld by the historians of Israel. But the record of David’s crimes remains in our Bibles as evidence of the credibility of a Book that doesn’t hide the moral failures of its heroes, while assuring us of God’s readiness to forgive without suspending the consequences of our wrongs.
Who Is That?
David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin.” 2 Samuel 12:13
When a man installed a security camera outside his house, he checked the video feature to ensure that the system was working. He was alarmed to see a broad-shouldered figure in dark clothing wandering around his yard. He watched intently to see what the man would do. The interloper seemed familiar, however. Finally he realized he wasn’t watching a stranger roam his property, but a recording of himself in his own backyard!
What might we see if we could step out of our skin and observe ourselves in certain situations? When David’s heart was hardened and he needed an outside perspective—a godly perspective—on his involvement with Bathsheba, God sent Nathan to the rescue (2 Samuel 12).
Nathan told David a story about a rich man who robbed a poor man of his only lamb. Though the rich man owned herds of animals, he slaughtered the poor man’s lone sheep and made it into a meal. When Nathan revealed that the story illustrated David’s actions, David saw how he had harmed Uriah. Nathan explained the consequences, but more important he assured David, “The Lord has taken away your sin” (v. 13).
If God reveals sin in our lives, His ultimate purpose isn’t to condemn us, but to restore us and to help us reconcile with those we’ve hurt. Repentance clears the way for renewed closeness with God through the power of His forgiveness and grace. By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
Today's Reflection
What sin(s) do you need to bring to God today in repentance? How does His grace encourage you to come before Him in honesty?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, April 20, 2019
Can a Saint Falsely Accuse God?
All the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen… —2 Corinthians 1:20
Jesus’ parable of the talents recorded in Matthew 25:14-30 was a warning that it is possible for us to misjudge our capacities. This parable has nothing to do with natural gifts and abilities, but relates to the gift of the Holy Spirit as He was first given at Pentecost. We must never measure our spiritual capacity on the basis of our education or our intellect; our capacity in spiritual things is measured on the basis of the promises of God. If we get less than God wants us to have, we will falsely accuse Him as the servant falsely accused his master when he said, “You expect more of me than you gave me the power to do. You demand too much of me, and I cannot stand true to you here where you have placed me.” When it is a question of God’s Almighty Spirit, never say, “I can’t.” Never allow the limitation of your own natural ability to enter into the matter. If we have received the Holy Spirit, God expects the work of the Holy Spirit to be exhibited in us.
The servant justified himself, while condemning his lord on every point, as if to say, “Your demand on me is way out of proportion to what you gave to me.” Have we been falsely accusing God by daring to worry after He has said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you”? (Matthew 6:33). Worrying means exactly what this servant implied— “I know your intent is to leave me unprotected and vulnerable.” A person who is lazy in the natural realm is always critical, saying, “I haven’t had a decent chance,” and someone who is lazy in the spiritual realm is critical of God. Lazy people always strike out at others in an independent way.
Never forget that our capacity and capability in spiritual matters is measured by, and based on, the promises of God. Is God able to fulfill His promises? Our answer depends on whether or not we have received the Holy Spirit.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
God does not further our spiritual life in spite of our circumstances, but in and by our circumstances. Not Knowing Whither, 900 L
When he walked this earth, Jesus was so in sync with the Father that he could say in John 14:11, "I am in the Father and the Father is in me." It was if he heard a voice that was missing.
Remember when everyone was distraught about Lazarus's illness? Jesus wasn't. Rather than hurry to his friend's bedside, he said, "This sickness will not end in death. It is for the glory of God." Jesus had unbroken communion with his Father. It was as if Jesus could hear what no one else could. How could a relationship be more intimate?
Do you suppose the Father desires the same for us? Absolutely! God desires the same abiding intimacy with you that he had with his Son. Paul says in Romans 8:29 that we have been "predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son."
From Just Like Jesus
John 18:1-18
Jesus, having prayed this prayer, left with his disciples and crossed over the brook Kidron at a place where there was a garden. He and his disciples entered it.
2-4 Judas, his betrayer, knew the place because Jesus and his disciples went there often. So Judas led the way to the garden, and the Roman soldiers and police sent by the high priests and Pharisees followed. They arrived there with lanterns and torches and swords. Jesus, knowing by now everything that was coming down on him, went out and met them. He said, “Who are you after?”
They answered, “Jesus the Nazarene.”
5-6 He said, “That’s me.” The soldiers recoiled, totally taken aback. Judas, his betrayer, stood out like a sore thumb.
7 Jesus asked again, “Who are you after?”
They answered, “Jesus the Nazarene.”
8-9 “I told you,” said Jesus, “that’s me. I’m the one. So if it’s me you’re after, let these others go.” (This validated the words in his prayer, “I didn’t lose one of those you gave.”)
10 Just then Simon Peter, who was carrying a sword, pulled it from its sheath and struck the Chief Priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. Malchus was the servant’s name.
11 Jesus ordered Peter, “Put back your sword. Do you think for a minute I’m not going to drink this cup the Father gave me?”
12-14 Then the Roman soldiers under their commander, joined by the Jewish police, seized Jesus and tied him up. They took him first to Annas, father-in-law of Caiaphas. Caiaphas was the Chief Priest that year. It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it was to their advantage that one man die for the people.
15-16 Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. That other disciple was known to the Chief Priest, and so he went in with Jesus to the Chief Priest’s courtyard. Peter had to stay outside. Then the other disciple went out, spoke to the doorkeeper, and got Peter in.
17 The young woman who was the doorkeeper said to Peter, “Aren’t you one of this man’s disciples?”
He said, “No, I’m not.”
18 The servants and police had made a fire because of the cold and were huddled there warming themselves. Peter stood with them, trying to get warm.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, April 20, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:2 Samuel 12:1–14
and sent Nathan to David. Nathan said to him, “There were two men in the same city—one rich, the other poor. The rich man had huge flocks of sheep, herds of cattle. The poor man had nothing but one little female lamb, which he had bought and raised. It grew up with him and his children as a member of the family. It ate off his plate and drank from his cup and slept on his bed. It was like a daughter to him.
4 “One day a traveler dropped in on the rich man. He was too stingy to take an animal from his own herds or flocks to make a meal for his visitor, so he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared a meal to set before his guest.”
5-6 David exploded in anger. “As surely as God lives,” he said to Nathan, “the man who did this ought to be lynched! He must repay for the lamb four times over for his crime and his stinginess!”
7-12 “You’re the man!” said Nathan. “And here’s what God, the God of Israel, has to say to you: I made you king over Israel. I freed you from the fist of Saul. I gave you your master’s daughter and other wives to have and to hold. I gave you both Israel and Judah. And if that hadn’t been enough, I’d have gladly thrown in much more. So why have you treated the word of God with brazen contempt, doing this great evil? You murdered Uriah the Hittite, then took his wife as your wife. Worse, you killed him with an Ammonite sword! And now, because you treated God with such contempt and took Uriah the Hittite’s wife as your wife, killing and murder will continually plague your family. This is God speaking, remember! I’ll make trouble for you out of your own family. I’ll take your wives from right out in front of you. I’ll give them to some neighbor, and he’ll go to bed with them openly. You did your deed in secret; I’m doing mine with the whole country watching!”
13-14 Then David confessed to Nathan, “I’ve sinned against God.”
Nathan pronounced, “Yes, but that’s not the last word. God forgives your sin. You won’t die for it. But because of your blasphemous behavior, the son born to you will die.”
Insight
Nathan’s confrontation of David’s adultery, conspiracy to commit murder, and cover-up recorded in 2 Samuel 12 could have been withheld by the historians of Israel. But the record of David’s crimes remains in our Bibles as evidence of the credibility of a Book that doesn’t hide the moral failures of its heroes, while assuring us of God’s readiness to forgive without suspending the consequences of our wrongs.
Who Is That?
David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin.” 2 Samuel 12:13
When a man installed a security camera outside his house, he checked the video feature to ensure that the system was working. He was alarmed to see a broad-shouldered figure in dark clothing wandering around his yard. He watched intently to see what the man would do. The interloper seemed familiar, however. Finally he realized he wasn’t watching a stranger roam his property, but a recording of himself in his own backyard!
What might we see if we could step out of our skin and observe ourselves in certain situations? When David’s heart was hardened and he needed an outside perspective—a godly perspective—on his involvement with Bathsheba, God sent Nathan to the rescue (2 Samuel 12).
Nathan told David a story about a rich man who robbed a poor man of his only lamb. Though the rich man owned herds of animals, he slaughtered the poor man’s lone sheep and made it into a meal. When Nathan revealed that the story illustrated David’s actions, David saw how he had harmed Uriah. Nathan explained the consequences, but more important he assured David, “The Lord has taken away your sin” (v. 13).
If God reveals sin in our lives, His ultimate purpose isn’t to condemn us, but to restore us and to help us reconcile with those we’ve hurt. Repentance clears the way for renewed closeness with God through the power of His forgiveness and grace. By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
Today's Reflection
What sin(s) do you need to bring to God today in repentance? How does His grace encourage you to come before Him in honesty?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, April 20, 2019
Can a Saint Falsely Accuse God?
All the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen… —2 Corinthians 1:20
Jesus’ parable of the talents recorded in Matthew 25:14-30 was a warning that it is possible for us to misjudge our capacities. This parable has nothing to do with natural gifts and abilities, but relates to the gift of the Holy Spirit as He was first given at Pentecost. We must never measure our spiritual capacity on the basis of our education or our intellect; our capacity in spiritual things is measured on the basis of the promises of God. If we get less than God wants us to have, we will falsely accuse Him as the servant falsely accused his master when he said, “You expect more of me than you gave me the power to do. You demand too much of me, and I cannot stand true to you here where you have placed me.” When it is a question of God’s Almighty Spirit, never say, “I can’t.” Never allow the limitation of your own natural ability to enter into the matter. If we have received the Holy Spirit, God expects the work of the Holy Spirit to be exhibited in us.
The servant justified himself, while condemning his lord on every point, as if to say, “Your demand on me is way out of proportion to what you gave to me.” Have we been falsely accusing God by daring to worry after He has said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you”? (Matthew 6:33). Worrying means exactly what this servant implied— “I know your intent is to leave me unprotected and vulnerable.” A person who is lazy in the natural realm is always critical, saying, “I haven’t had a decent chance,” and someone who is lazy in the spiritual realm is critical of God. Lazy people always strike out at others in an independent way.
Never forget that our capacity and capability in spiritual matters is measured by, and based on, the promises of God. Is God able to fulfill His promises? Our answer depends on whether or not we have received the Holy Spirit.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
God does not further our spiritual life in spite of our circumstances, but in and by our circumstances. Not Knowing Whither, 900 L
Friday, April 19, 2019
Psalm 145, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: DON’T CRY
Jesus and his disciples stop as the funeral procession passes by. The widow at the back of the procession is burying her only son. Tonight she will make dinner for one and conversation with none.
When Jesus sees the mother, his heart begins to break, and he tells her, “Don’t cry.” The pallbearers stop marching, and Jesus turns his attention to the dead boy and calmly says, “Young man, come back to life again.” Gray-pale cheeks blush. The dead man sits up.
Luke’s description of what happens next is captivating. “Jesus gave him back to his mother.” Jesus must have smiled as the two embraced. Stunned, the crowd breaks into cheers and applause. And someone proclaims the undeniable, “God has come to help his people” (Luke 7:15-16).
Read more Six Hours One Friday
Psalm 145
David’s Praise
145 I lift you high in praise, my God, O my King!
and I’ll bless your name into eternity.
2 I’ll bless you every day,
and keep it up from now to eternity.
3 God is magnificent; he can never be praised enough.
There are no boundaries to his greatness.
4 Generation after generation stands in awe of your work;
each one tells stories of your mighty acts.
5 Your beauty and splendor have everyone talking;
I compose songs on your wonders.
6 Your marvelous doings are headline news;
I could write a book full of the details of your greatness.
7 The fame of your goodness spreads across the country;
your righteousness is on everyone’s lips.
8 God is all mercy and grace—
not quick to anger, is rich in love.
9 God is good to one and all;
everything he does is suffused with grace.
10-11 Creation and creatures applaud you, God;
your holy people bless you.
They talk about the glories of your rule,
they exclaim over your splendor,
12 Letting the world know of your power for good,
the lavish splendor of your kingdom.
13 Your kingdom is a kingdom eternal;
you never get voted out of office.
God always does what he says,
and is gracious in everything he does.
14 God gives a hand to those down on their luck,
gives a fresh start to those ready to quit.
15 All eyes are on you, expectant;
you give them their meals on time.
16 Generous to a fault,
you lavish your favor on all creatures.
17 Everything God does is right—
the trademark on all his works is love.
18 God’s there, listening for all who pray,
for all who pray and mean it.
19 He does what’s best for those who fear him—
hears them call out, and saves them.
20 God sticks by all who love him,
but it’s all over for those who don’t.
21 My mouth is filled with God’s praise.
Let everything living bless him,
bless his holy name from now to eternity!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, April 19, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Hebrews 10:10–23
The old plan was only a hint of the good things in the new plan. Since that old “law plan” wasn’t complete in itself, it couldn’t complete those who followed it. No matter how many sacrifices were offered year after year, they never added up to a complete solution. If they had, the worshipers would have gone merrily on their way, no longer dragged down by their sins. But instead of removing awareness of sin, when those animal sacrifices were repeated over and over they actually heightened awareness and guilt. The plain fact is that bull and goat blood can’t get rid of sin. That is what is meant by this prophecy, put in the mouth of Christ:
You don’t want sacrifices and offerings year after year;
you’ve prepared a body for me for a sacrifice.
It’s not fragrance and smoke from the altar
that whet your appetite.
So I said, “I’m here to do it your way, O God,
the way it’s described in your Book.”
When he said, “You don’t want sacrifices and offerings,” he was referring to practices according to the old plan. When he added, “I’m here to do it your way,” he set aside the first in order to enact the new plan—God’s way—by which we are made fit for God by the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus.
11-18 Every priest goes to work at the altar each day, offers the same old sacrifices year in, year out, and never makes a dent in the sin problem. As a priest, Christ made a single sacrifice for sins, and that was it! Then he sat down right beside God and waited for his enemies to cave in. It was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people. By that single offering, he did everything that needed to be done for everyone who takes part in the purifying process. The Holy Spirit confirms this:
This new plan I’m making with Israel
isn’t going to be written on paper,
isn’t going to be chiseled in stone;
This time “I’m writing out the plan in them,
carving it on the lining of their hearts.”
He concludes,
I’ll forever wipe the slate clean of their sins.
Once sins are taken care of for good, there’s no longer any need to offer sacrifices for them.
19-21 So, friends, we can now—without hesitation—walk right up to God, into “the Holy Place.” Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice, acting as our priest before God. The “curtain” into God’s presence is his body.
22-25 So let’s do it—full of belief, confident that we’re presentable inside and out. Let’s keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.
Insight
Jesus’s ministry as priest in Hebrews is prominent, first referenced in Hebrews 1:3: “After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” Chapter 13 also includes this theme: “The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering . . . . And so Jesus also suffered . . . to make the people holy through his own blood” (vv. 11–12).
The Torn Veil
We have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body. Hebrews 10:19–20
It was a dark and somber day in the outskirts of Jerusalem. On a hill just outside the city walls, a Man who’d been attracting crowds of eager followers for the past three years hung in disgrace and pain on a rough wooden cross. Mourners wept and wailed in sorrow. The light of the sun no longer brightened the afternoon sky. And the intense suffering of the Man on the cross ended when He cried out in a loud voice, “It is finished” (Matthew 27:50; John 19:30).
At that very moment, another sound came from the great temple across town—the sound of ripping fabric. Miraculously, without human intervention, the huge, thick veil that separated the outer temple from the holy of holies tore in two from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51).
That torn curtain symbolized the reality of the cross: a new way was now open to God! Jesus, the Man on the cross, had shed His blood as the last sacrifice—the one true and sufficient sacrifice (Hebrews 10:10)—which allows all who believe in Him to enjoy forgiveness and enter into a relationship with God (Romans 5:6–11).
Amidst the darkness of that original Good Friday, we received the best news ever—Jesus opened a way for us to be saved from our sins and to experience fellowship with God forever (Hebrews 10:19–22). Thank God for the message of the torn veil! By Dave Branon
Today's Reflection
How has the reality of what happened on Good Friday brought you from darkness to light? What does it mean for you to experience a relationship with God?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, April 19, 2019
Beware of the Least Likely Temptation
Joab had defected to Adonijah, though he had not defected to Absalom. —1 Kings 2:28
Joab withstood the greatest test of his life, remaining absolutely loyal to David by not turning to follow after the fascinating and ambitious Absalom. Yet toward the end of his life he turned to follow after the weak and cowardly Adonijah. Always remain alert to the fact that where one person has turned back is exactly where anyone may be tempted to turn back (see 1 Corinthians 10:11-13). You may have just victoriously gone through a great crisis, but now be alert about the things that may appear to be the least likely to tempt you. Beware of thinking that the areas of your life where you have experienced victory in the past are now the least likely to cause you to stumble and fall.
We are apt to say, “It is not at all likely that having been through the greatest crisis of my life I would now turn back to the things of the world.” Do not try to predict where the temptation will come; it is the least likely thing that is the real danger. It is in the aftermath of a great spiritual event that the least likely things begin to have an effect. They may not be forceful and dominant, but they are there. And if you are not careful to be forewarned, they will trip you. You have remained true to God under great and intense trials— now beware of the undercurrent. Do not be abnormally examining your inner self, looking forward with dread, but stay alert; keep your memory sharp before God. Unguarded strength is actually a double weakness, because that is where the least likely temptations will be effective in sapping strength. The Bible characters stumbled over their strong points, never their weak ones.
“…kept by the power of God…”— that is the only safety. (1 Peter 1:5).
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
Friday, April 19, 2019
The Battle for Your Life - #8420
A listener shared a story with me that's just too powerful not to share with you. A man named George Thomas was a pastor in a small New England town. One Easter Sunday morning, he got up to speak and he set a rusty, bent-up old bird cage next to the pulpit. You could tell by people's faces that the pastor had some explaining to do. He said, "Well, I was walking through town yesterday when I saw a young boy coming toward me, swinging this bird cage. On the bottom of the cage were three little birds who were shivering with cold and fear. So I asked the boy, "What you got there?" He said, "Just some old birds." The pastor then asked, "What are you going to do with them?" The boy said, "Well, I'm gonna tease 'em and pull out their feathers to make 'em fight. Then I'm gonna have a real good time." The pastor pointed out that the boy would soon get tired of those birds and he said, "What are you going to do with them then?" "Oh, I've got some cats," the boy said. "They like birds." What happened next is what puts you and me into this picture.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Battle for Your Life."
The pastor had a question for the boy who had nothing but hurtful plans for those little birds. "How much do you want for them, son?" The boy couldn't believe it. These were just plain old field birds who weren't very pretty and they couldn't sing. When the pastor pressed his question, the boy finally answered, "Uh, ten dollars?" The pastor reached into his pocket and pulled out a $10 bill, and the boy took his money and ran off.
The pastor picked up the cage, he gently carried it to the end of the alley where there was a tree and a grassy spot. He opened the cage door, softly tapped the bars to persuade the birds to come out, and you know what happened. He set them free.
Now the folks at church understood at this point why there was an empty cage on the pulpit. Then the pastor began to tell a story of a conversation between Jesus and Satan, who had just come from his victory with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The devil was boasting, "Yes, sir, I just caught me a world full of people down there. I set me a trap and they fell for the bait. Got 'em all!" Jesus asked him, "What are you going to do with them?" "I'm gonna have some fun with them," Satan replied. "I'm gonna teach them how to marry and divorce each other, how to hurt and hate each other, and how to get hooked on habits that will destroy them. I'm going to teach them to deceive each other, abuse each other, and even kill each other."
When Jesus asked what he would do when he was done with them, Satan said, "Oh, I'll kill them." "How much do you want for them?" Jesus asked. The devil said, "You don't want them. They'll just spit on you. They'll just curse you. They'll kill you!" Jesus asked again, "How much?" Satan sneered, "All your tears and all your blood!" "Done!" Jesus said, and then He paid the price. Now our word for today from the Word of God in John 10:10, "The thief (that's Satan) comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."
This very day the life-taker, the devil himself, is trying to hold onto you. He wants to keep you away from Jesus until your last heartbeat, and then you'll be his forever. But the Life-Giver, Jesus Christ, is fighting for your soul this very moment where you are. He paid the price for your sin on the cross. And now you are in the middle of a tug-of-war on which your eternity depends - Satan trying to keep you on his path to kill you, and Jesus inviting you to give yourself to Him so He can give you life. They won't decide whether you go to heaven or hell though - you will.
You want to belong to this Jesus? I mean, nobody has ever loved you like He does. No one has the power to walk out of his grave and give eternal life but Him. Go to our website, please. Many people have gone there and found there the assurance that they belong to Jesus Christ from that day on. It's ANewStory.com.
For 2,000 years, Jesus has been unlocking that cage door of sin and letting its captives go free. He's waiting to do that for you this very day, this Good Friday.
Jesus and his disciples stop as the funeral procession passes by. The widow at the back of the procession is burying her only son. Tonight she will make dinner for one and conversation with none.
When Jesus sees the mother, his heart begins to break, and he tells her, “Don’t cry.” The pallbearers stop marching, and Jesus turns his attention to the dead boy and calmly says, “Young man, come back to life again.” Gray-pale cheeks blush. The dead man sits up.
Luke’s description of what happens next is captivating. “Jesus gave him back to his mother.” Jesus must have smiled as the two embraced. Stunned, the crowd breaks into cheers and applause. And someone proclaims the undeniable, “God has come to help his people” (Luke 7:15-16).
Read more Six Hours One Friday
Psalm 145
David’s Praise
145 I lift you high in praise, my God, O my King!
and I’ll bless your name into eternity.
2 I’ll bless you every day,
and keep it up from now to eternity.
3 God is magnificent; he can never be praised enough.
There are no boundaries to his greatness.
4 Generation after generation stands in awe of your work;
each one tells stories of your mighty acts.
5 Your beauty and splendor have everyone talking;
I compose songs on your wonders.
6 Your marvelous doings are headline news;
I could write a book full of the details of your greatness.
7 The fame of your goodness spreads across the country;
your righteousness is on everyone’s lips.
8 God is all mercy and grace—
not quick to anger, is rich in love.
9 God is good to one and all;
everything he does is suffused with grace.
10-11 Creation and creatures applaud you, God;
your holy people bless you.
They talk about the glories of your rule,
they exclaim over your splendor,
12 Letting the world know of your power for good,
the lavish splendor of your kingdom.
13 Your kingdom is a kingdom eternal;
you never get voted out of office.
God always does what he says,
and is gracious in everything he does.
14 God gives a hand to those down on their luck,
gives a fresh start to those ready to quit.
15 All eyes are on you, expectant;
you give them their meals on time.
16 Generous to a fault,
you lavish your favor on all creatures.
17 Everything God does is right—
the trademark on all his works is love.
18 God’s there, listening for all who pray,
for all who pray and mean it.
19 He does what’s best for those who fear him—
hears them call out, and saves them.
20 God sticks by all who love him,
but it’s all over for those who don’t.
21 My mouth is filled with God’s praise.
Let everything living bless him,
bless his holy name from now to eternity!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, April 19, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Hebrews 10:10–23
The old plan was only a hint of the good things in the new plan. Since that old “law plan” wasn’t complete in itself, it couldn’t complete those who followed it. No matter how many sacrifices were offered year after year, they never added up to a complete solution. If they had, the worshipers would have gone merrily on their way, no longer dragged down by their sins. But instead of removing awareness of sin, when those animal sacrifices were repeated over and over they actually heightened awareness and guilt. The plain fact is that bull and goat blood can’t get rid of sin. That is what is meant by this prophecy, put in the mouth of Christ:
You don’t want sacrifices and offerings year after year;
you’ve prepared a body for me for a sacrifice.
It’s not fragrance and smoke from the altar
that whet your appetite.
So I said, “I’m here to do it your way, O God,
the way it’s described in your Book.”
When he said, “You don’t want sacrifices and offerings,” he was referring to practices according to the old plan. When he added, “I’m here to do it your way,” he set aside the first in order to enact the new plan—God’s way—by which we are made fit for God by the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus.
11-18 Every priest goes to work at the altar each day, offers the same old sacrifices year in, year out, and never makes a dent in the sin problem. As a priest, Christ made a single sacrifice for sins, and that was it! Then he sat down right beside God and waited for his enemies to cave in. It was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people. By that single offering, he did everything that needed to be done for everyone who takes part in the purifying process. The Holy Spirit confirms this:
This new plan I’m making with Israel
isn’t going to be written on paper,
isn’t going to be chiseled in stone;
This time “I’m writing out the plan in them,
carving it on the lining of their hearts.”
He concludes,
I’ll forever wipe the slate clean of their sins.
Once sins are taken care of for good, there’s no longer any need to offer sacrifices for them.
19-21 So, friends, we can now—without hesitation—walk right up to God, into “the Holy Place.” Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice, acting as our priest before God. The “curtain” into God’s presence is his body.
22-25 So let’s do it—full of belief, confident that we’re presentable inside and out. Let’s keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.
Insight
Jesus’s ministry as priest in Hebrews is prominent, first referenced in Hebrews 1:3: “After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” Chapter 13 also includes this theme: “The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering . . . . And so Jesus also suffered . . . to make the people holy through his own blood” (vv. 11–12).
The Torn Veil
We have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body. Hebrews 10:19–20
It was a dark and somber day in the outskirts of Jerusalem. On a hill just outside the city walls, a Man who’d been attracting crowds of eager followers for the past three years hung in disgrace and pain on a rough wooden cross. Mourners wept and wailed in sorrow. The light of the sun no longer brightened the afternoon sky. And the intense suffering of the Man on the cross ended when He cried out in a loud voice, “It is finished” (Matthew 27:50; John 19:30).
At that very moment, another sound came from the great temple across town—the sound of ripping fabric. Miraculously, without human intervention, the huge, thick veil that separated the outer temple from the holy of holies tore in two from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51).
That torn curtain symbolized the reality of the cross: a new way was now open to God! Jesus, the Man on the cross, had shed His blood as the last sacrifice—the one true and sufficient sacrifice (Hebrews 10:10)—which allows all who believe in Him to enjoy forgiveness and enter into a relationship with God (Romans 5:6–11).
Amidst the darkness of that original Good Friday, we received the best news ever—Jesus opened a way for us to be saved from our sins and to experience fellowship with God forever (Hebrews 10:19–22). Thank God for the message of the torn veil! By Dave Branon
Today's Reflection
How has the reality of what happened on Good Friday brought you from darkness to light? What does it mean for you to experience a relationship with God?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, April 19, 2019
Beware of the Least Likely Temptation
Joab had defected to Adonijah, though he had not defected to Absalom. —1 Kings 2:28
Joab withstood the greatest test of his life, remaining absolutely loyal to David by not turning to follow after the fascinating and ambitious Absalom. Yet toward the end of his life he turned to follow after the weak and cowardly Adonijah. Always remain alert to the fact that where one person has turned back is exactly where anyone may be tempted to turn back (see 1 Corinthians 10:11-13). You may have just victoriously gone through a great crisis, but now be alert about the things that may appear to be the least likely to tempt you. Beware of thinking that the areas of your life where you have experienced victory in the past are now the least likely to cause you to stumble and fall.
We are apt to say, “It is not at all likely that having been through the greatest crisis of my life I would now turn back to the things of the world.” Do not try to predict where the temptation will come; it is the least likely thing that is the real danger. It is in the aftermath of a great spiritual event that the least likely things begin to have an effect. They may not be forceful and dominant, but they are there. And if you are not careful to be forewarned, they will trip you. You have remained true to God under great and intense trials— now beware of the undercurrent. Do not be abnormally examining your inner self, looking forward with dread, but stay alert; keep your memory sharp before God. Unguarded strength is actually a double weakness, because that is where the least likely temptations will be effective in sapping strength. The Bible characters stumbled over their strong points, never their weak ones.
“…kept by the power of God…”— that is the only safety. (1 Peter 1:5).
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
Friday, April 19, 2019
The Battle for Your Life - #8420
A listener shared a story with me that's just too powerful not to share with you. A man named George Thomas was a pastor in a small New England town. One Easter Sunday morning, he got up to speak and he set a rusty, bent-up old bird cage next to the pulpit. You could tell by people's faces that the pastor had some explaining to do. He said, "Well, I was walking through town yesterday when I saw a young boy coming toward me, swinging this bird cage. On the bottom of the cage were three little birds who were shivering with cold and fear. So I asked the boy, "What you got there?" He said, "Just some old birds." The pastor then asked, "What are you going to do with them?" The boy said, "Well, I'm gonna tease 'em and pull out their feathers to make 'em fight. Then I'm gonna have a real good time." The pastor pointed out that the boy would soon get tired of those birds and he said, "What are you going to do with them then?" "Oh, I've got some cats," the boy said. "They like birds." What happened next is what puts you and me into this picture.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Battle for Your Life."
The pastor had a question for the boy who had nothing but hurtful plans for those little birds. "How much do you want for them, son?" The boy couldn't believe it. These were just plain old field birds who weren't very pretty and they couldn't sing. When the pastor pressed his question, the boy finally answered, "Uh, ten dollars?" The pastor reached into his pocket and pulled out a $10 bill, and the boy took his money and ran off.
The pastor picked up the cage, he gently carried it to the end of the alley where there was a tree and a grassy spot. He opened the cage door, softly tapped the bars to persuade the birds to come out, and you know what happened. He set them free.
Now the folks at church understood at this point why there was an empty cage on the pulpit. Then the pastor began to tell a story of a conversation between Jesus and Satan, who had just come from his victory with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The devil was boasting, "Yes, sir, I just caught me a world full of people down there. I set me a trap and they fell for the bait. Got 'em all!" Jesus asked him, "What are you going to do with them?" "I'm gonna have some fun with them," Satan replied. "I'm gonna teach them how to marry and divorce each other, how to hurt and hate each other, and how to get hooked on habits that will destroy them. I'm going to teach them to deceive each other, abuse each other, and even kill each other."
When Jesus asked what he would do when he was done with them, Satan said, "Oh, I'll kill them." "How much do you want for them?" Jesus asked. The devil said, "You don't want them. They'll just spit on you. They'll just curse you. They'll kill you!" Jesus asked again, "How much?" Satan sneered, "All your tears and all your blood!" "Done!" Jesus said, and then He paid the price. Now our word for today from the Word of God in John 10:10, "The thief (that's Satan) comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."
This very day the life-taker, the devil himself, is trying to hold onto you. He wants to keep you away from Jesus until your last heartbeat, and then you'll be his forever. But the Life-Giver, Jesus Christ, is fighting for your soul this very moment where you are. He paid the price for your sin on the cross. And now you are in the middle of a tug-of-war on which your eternity depends - Satan trying to keep you on his path to kill you, and Jesus inviting you to give yourself to Him so He can give you life. They won't decide whether you go to heaven or hell though - you will.
You want to belong to this Jesus? I mean, nobody has ever loved you like He does. No one has the power to walk out of his grave and give eternal life but Him. Go to our website, please. Many people have gone there and found there the assurance that they belong to Jesus Christ from that day on. It's ANewStory.com.
For 2,000 years, Jesus has been unlocking that cage door of sin and letting its captives go free. He's waiting to do that for you this very day, this Good Friday.
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