Max Lucado Daily: A NEW CHAPTER FOR YOUR LIFE
Do you need encouragement right about now? Are you feeling anxious and uncertain? Do you find yourself in a season of isolation as events cancel, schools shift online, and even churches need to close their doors to large gatherings?
I know I could use some peace during these chaotic times. When I need to stay calm, I turn to this Scripture: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:6-7, NIV).
If you need help finding peace that transcends all understanding, I would like to invite you to join me for a special Facebook Live series we’re calling “Online Church.”
We know that many will be unable to worship with their local congregation, either because of the need to remain at home, or because their church is taking a hiatus from regular gathering. Or maybe you just need some extra support from a community of faith from around the world. We’ll meet online, via Facebook Live at 8:30 am Central on Sunday, March 15, for a few minutes of prayer and encouragement, and will continue for the next several Sundays. Join us and invite others as well at: www.facebook.com/maxlucado
As we spend time together over the next few Sundays, we can encourage one another to recognize that these times are tough, but God is tougher. These challenges are great, but God is greater.
Let us cast our worries on the Savior and Sustainer of our lives.
~ Max
Isaiah 6
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Master sitting on a throne—high, exalted!—and the train of his robes filled the Temple. Angel-seraphs hovered above him, each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two their feet, and with two they flew. And they called back and forth one to the other,
Holy, Holy, Holy is God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
His bright glory fills the whole earth.
The foundations trembled at the sound of the angel voices, and then the whole house filled with smoke. I said,
“Doom! It’s Doomsday!
I’m as good as dead!
Every word I’ve ever spoken is tainted—
blasphemous even!
And the people I live with talk the same way,
using words that corrupt and desecrate.
And here I’ve looked God in the face!
The King! God-of-the-Angel-Armies!”
Then one of the angel-seraphs flew to me. He held a live coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth with the coal and said,
“Look. This coal has touched your lips.
Gone your guilt,
your sins wiped out.”
And then I heard the voice of the Master:
“Whom shall I send?
Who will go for us?”
I spoke up,
“I’ll go.
Send me!”
9-10 He said, “Go and tell this people:
“‘Listen hard, but you aren’t going to get it;
look hard, but you won’t catch on.’
Make these people blockheads,
with fingers in their ears and blindfolds on their eyes,
So they won’t see a thing,
won’t hear a word,
So they won’t have a clue about what’s going on
and, yes, so they won’t turn around and be made whole.”
11-13 Astonished, I said,
“And Master, how long is this to go on?”
He said, “Until the cities are emptied out,
not a soul left in the cities—
Houses empty of people,
countryside empty of people.
Until I, God, get rid of everyone, sending them off,
the land totally empty.
And even if some should survive, say a tenth,
the devastation will start up again.
The country will look like pine and oak forest
with every tree cut down—
Every tree a stump, a huge field of stumps.
But there’s a holy seed in those stumps.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, March 18, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
1 Peter 1:3–9
Praise to God for a Living Hope
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!m In his great mercyn he has given us new birtho into a living hopep through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,q 4 and into an inheritancer that can never perish, spoil or fade.s This inheritance is kept in heaven for you,t 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s poweru until the coming of the salvationv that is ready to be revealedw in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice,x though now for a little whiley you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.z 7 These have come so that the proven genuinenessa of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fireb—may result in praise, glory and honorc when Jesus Christ is revealed.d 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in hime and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Insight
When reading 1 Peter 1:3–9, we may mistakenly think Peter was telling the recipients of his letter they should rejoice because of their suffering. A closer look at the text, however, indicates that Peter wanted the readers to rejoice that their suffering would result in “praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (v. 7). Later in this letter, Peter states that believers in Jesus shouldn’t be surprised when trials or “fiery ordeal[s]” happen to test them (4:12). Again, he states that suffering for Christ is a reason to be joyful because it means “the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you” (v. 14). Additionally, those trials are insignificant compared to the joy of the eternal glory they’d experience. Through trials, their faith would be proven genuine (1:7), and genuine faith would result in salvation (v. 9)—an excellent reason to rejoice!
Death Row Joy
Though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. 1 Peter 1:8
In 1985 Anthony Ray Hinton was charged with the murders of two restaurant managers. It was a set up—he’d been miles away when the crimes happened—but he was found guilty and sentenced to death. At the trial, Ray forgave those who lied about him, adding that he still had joy despite this injustice. “After my death, I’m going to heaven,” he said. “Where are you going?”
Life on death row was hard for Ray. Prison lights flickered whenever the electric chair was used for others, a grim reminder of what lay ahead. Ray passed a lie detector test but the results were ignored, one of many injustices he faced getting his case reheard.
Finally, on Good Friday 2015, Ray’s conviction was overturned by the US Supreme Court. He’d been on death row for nearly thirty years. His life is a testament to the reality of God. Because of his faith in Jesus, Ray had a hope beyond his trials (1 Peter 1:3–5) and experienced supernatural joy in the face of injustice (v. 8). “This joy that I have,” Ray said after his release, “they couldn’t ever take that away in prison.” Such joy proved his faith to be genuine (vv. 7–8).
Death row joy? That’s hard to fabricate. It points us to a God who exists even though He’s unseen and who’s ready to sustain us in our own ordeals. By: Sheridan Voysey
Reflect & Pray
Reflect on others who’ve experienced God’s joy in their ordeals. What have been the qualities of their faith? How can you bring God’s joy to someone facing injustice right now?
God of all hope, fill us with Your joy and peace as we trust in You despite our circumstances. We love You!
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, March 18, 2020
Will I Bring Myself Up to This Level?
…perfecting holiness in the fear of God. —2 Corinthians 7:1
“Therefore, having these promises….” I claim God’s promises for my life and look to their fulfillment, and rightly so, but that shows only the human perspective on them. God’s perspective is that through His promises I will come to recognize His claim of ownership on me. For example, do I realize that my “body is the temple of the Holy Spirit,” or am I condoning some habit in my body which clearly could not withstand the light of God on it? (1 Corinthians 6:19). God formed His Son in me through sanctification, setting me apart from sin and making me holy in His sight (see Galatians 4:19). But I must begin to transform my natural life into spiritual life by obedience to Him. God instructs us even in the smallest details of life. And when He brings you conviction of sin, do not “confer with flesh and blood,” but cleanse yourself from it at once (Galatians 1:16). Keep yourself cleansed in your daily walk.
I must cleanse myself from all filthiness in my flesh and my spirit until both are in harmony with the nature of God. Is the mind of my spirit in perfect agreement with the life of the Son of God in me, or am I mentally rebellious and defiant? Am I allowing the mind of Christ to be formed in me? (see Philippians 2:5). Christ never spoke of His right to Himself, but always maintained an inner vigilance to submit His spirit continually to His Father. I also have the responsibility to keep my spirit in agreement with His Spirit. And when I do, Jesus gradually lifts me up to the level where He lived— a level of perfect submission to His Father’s will— where I pay no attention to anything else. Am I perfecting this kind of holiness in the fear of God? Is God having His way with me, and are people beginning to see God in my life more and more?
Be serious in your commitment to God and gladly leave everything else alone. Literally put God first in your life.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
God engineers circumstances to see what we will do. Will we be the children of our Father in heaven, or will we go back again to the meaner, common-sense attitude? Will we stake all and stand true to Him? “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” The crown of life means I shall see that my Lord has got the victory after all, even in me. The Highest Good—The Pilgrim’s Song Book, 530 L
Bible in a Year: Deuteronomy 32-34; Mark 15:26-47
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, March 18, 2020
Two-Legged Bait - #8658
Frankly, I have never enjoyed eating worms. I don't know about you, but I assume you would agree with that. It's never really been appealing to me. But I know the saying, "The early bird gets the worm." Well, if that's the case, why would anyone would want to be the early bird? I mean, fish like worms. Oh, yeah! I never understood that, but they really do. I like pizza. But how would you like to go fishing and try to put a slice of pizza on the hook? See how many fish you catch when you use what you like to eat. Now, if you're not catching fish, I think any fisherman would tell you it's time to check your bait.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Two-Legged Bait."
Our word for today from the Word of God is about fishermen; in fact, James and John and Simon Peter, to be exact. And I'm reading from Luke 5:10 where Jesus says to Simon, "Don't be afraid. From now on, you will catch men." Now, I like that. That's an interesting image of your influence and my influence in the world. I'm sure that Jesus would walk up to you and maybe say much the same thing.
Now these guys had as their point of reference fishing. But He might walk up to you and say, "The real mission of the rest of your life is to catch men and women - spiritual fishing." You notice He doesn't just say, "I want you to go out and fish." He says, "I want you to catch fish." Sometimes we say, "Well, you know what? I'll just try to be a Christian influence, I'll just live the life in front of them." God says, "I don't want you to just go out there and fish. I want you to ask people to come to Christ. I want you to bring them home to me. I want you to catch them."
Sometimes Christians say, "Well, I'll just let them watch my life. You know, my life is a witness. I don't ever really tell them about Christ, but I know they're watching me." Well, that's really good because your life should back up your message. But, you know, never in a million years of watching you are they going to say, "You know, he is such a nice guy. I'll bet Jesus died on the cross for my sin." They're not going to figure that out! You have to tell them!
Now let me ask you this, "Who is it you really care enough about that you really want them in heaven with you?" The most appealing bait is not some clever witnessing gimmick, or some very contrived way to get into sharing Christ with them. See, the two-legged bait for the Gospel would be changes Christ could make in you that demand an explanation. That would get their attention. Look, what changes do your friends and family see in you that would make them want to have an explanation for those changes? That's how you draw men and women to Christ.
It's far more costly than handing out a tract or having a one-shot conversation. For example, what difference would your parents respect in you right now; something Jesus could change in you that would get their attention? How about your good friend? What change would be noticeable to those friends? What about your coworkers? They might not care about your beliefs or the meetings you go to, but they care about how you treat them. They care about how you handle office gossip. They care about how you act around the water cooler. They care about how you get your work done. How about your boss?
And then as you look at those friends, you say, "What's the hole in his life or her life that might show them that God's missing? Is he lonely? Is he trying to cope with pressure? Is he trying to keep a marriage together? Is he afraid of death? Is he having trouble with relationships? Is he stressed out? Start at that point. Your
loved ones will be attracted by your behavior much more than your beliefs.
Don't expect them to swim to a bare hook. You! Your winsome life, your Jesus-changing life. You're the lure that will attract them to your Jesus.
Wednesday, March 18, 2020
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
Isaiah 5, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: ANXIETY AIN’T FUN
Anxiety is a meteor shower of what-ifs. The sky is falling, and it’s falling disproportionately on you. Anxiety ain’t fun!
One would think Christians would be exempt from anxiety, but we are not. It’s enough to make us wonder if the apostle Paul was out of touch with reality when he wrote in Philippians 4:6, “Be anxious for nothing.”
Is that what he meant? Not exactly. He wrote the phrase in the present active tense— implying an ongoing state…as if to say Don’t let anything in life leave you perpetually breathless and in angst. The presence of anxiety is unavoidable, but the prison of anxiety is optional.
Could you use some calm? Of course you could. We all could! We all could use a word of comfort. And God is ready to give it.
Isaiah 5
I’ll sing a ballad to the one I love,
a love ballad about his vineyard:
The one I love had a vineyard,
a fine, well-placed vineyard.
He hoed the soil and pulled the weeds,
and planted the very best vines.
He built a lookout, built a winepress,
a vineyard to be proud of.
He looked for a vintage yield of grapes,
but for all his pains he got junk grapes.
3-4 “Now listen to what I’m telling you,
you who live in Jerusalem and Judah.
What do you think is going on
between me and my vineyard?
Can you think of anything I could have done
to my vineyard that I didn’t do?
When I expected good grapes,
why did I get bitter grapes?
5-6 “Well now, let me tell you
what I’ll do to my vineyard:
I’ll tear down its fence
and let it go to ruin.
I’ll knock down the gate
and let it be trampled.
I’ll turn it into a patch of weeds, untended, uncared for—
thistles and thorns will take over.
I’ll give orders to the clouds:
‘Don’t rain on that vineyard, ever!’”
7 Do you get it? The vineyard of God-of-the-Angel-Armies
is the country of Israel.
All the men and women of Judah
are the garden he was so proud of.
He looked for a crop of justice
and saw them murdering each other.
He looked for a harvest of righteousness
and heard only the moans of victims.
8-10 Doom to you who buy up all the houses
and grab all the land for yourselves—
Evicting the old owners,
posting no trespassing signs,
Taking over the country,
leaving everyone homeless and landless.
I overheard God-of-the-Angel-Armies say:
“Those mighty houses will end up empty.
Those extravagant estates will be deserted.
A ten-acre vineyard will produce a pint of wine,
a fifty-pound sack of seed, a quart of grain.”
11-17 Doom to those who get up early
and start drinking booze before breakfast,
Who stay up all hours of the night
drinking themselves into a stupor.
They make sure their banquets are well-furnished
with harps and flutes and plenty of wine,
But they’ll have nothing to do with the work of God,
pay no mind to what he is doing.
Therefore my people will end up in exile
because they don’t know the score.
Their “big men” will starve to death
and the common people die of thirst.
Sheol developed a huge appetite,
swallowing people nonstop!
Big people and little people alike
down that gullet, to say nothing of all the drunks.
The down-and-out on a par
with the high-and-mighty,
Windbag boasters crumpled,
flaccid as a punctured bladder.
But by working justice,
God-of-the-Angel-Armies will be a mountain.
By working righteousness,
Holy God will show what “holy” is.
And lambs will graze
as if they owned the place,
Kids and calves
right at home in the ruins.
18-19 Doom to you who use lies to sell evil,
who haul sin to market by the truckload,
Who say, “What’s God waiting for?
Let him get a move on so we can see it.
Whatever The Holy of Israel has cooked up,
we’d like to check it out.”
20 Doom to you who call evil good
and good evil,
Who put darkness in place of light
and light in place of darkness,
Who substitute bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!
21-23 Doom to you who think you’re so smart,
who hold such a high opinion of yourselves!
All you’re good at is drinking—champion boozers
who collect trophies from drinking bouts
And then line your pockets with bribes from the guilty
while you violate the rights of the innocent.
24 But they won’t get by with it. As fire eats stubble
and dry grass goes up in smoke,
Their souls will atrophy,
their achievements crumble into dust,
Because they said no to the revelation
of God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
Would have nothing to do
with The Holy of Israel.
25-30 That’s why God flamed out in anger against his people,
reached out and knocked them down.
The mountains trembled
as their dead bodies piled up in the streets.
But even after that, he was still angry,
his fist still raised, ready to hit them again.
He raises a flag, signaling a distant nation,
whistles for people at the ends of the earth.
And here they come—
on the run!
None drag their feet, no one stumbles,
no one sleeps or dawdles.
Shirts are on and pants buckled,
every boot is spit-polished and tied.
Their arrows are sharp,
bows strung,
The hooves of their horses shod,
chariot wheels greased.
Roaring like a pride of lions,
the full-throated roars of young lions,
They growl and seize their prey,
dragging it off—no rescue for that one!
They’ll roar and roar and roar on that Day,
like the roar of ocean billows.
Look as long and hard as you like at that land,
you’ll see nothing but darkness and trouble.
Every light in the sky
will be blacked out by the clouds.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Isaiah 65:17–25
New Heavens and a New Earth
17 “See, I will create
new heavens and a new earth.g
The former things will not be remembered,h
nor will they come to mind.
18 But be glad and rejoicei forever
in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalemj to be a delight
and its people a joy.
19 I will rejoicek over Jerusalem
and take delightl in my people;
the sound of weeping and of cryingm
will be heard in it no more.
20 “Never again will there be in it
an infantn who lives but a few days,
or an old man who does not live out his years;o
the one who dies at a hundred
will be thought a mere child;
the one who fails to reacha a hundred
will be considered accursed.
21 They will build housesp and dwell in them;
they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.q
22 No longer will they build houses and others live in them,r
or plant and others eat.
For as the days of a tree,s
so will be the dayst of my people;
my chosenu ones will long enjoy
the work of their hands.
23 They will not labor in vain,v
nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune;w
for they will be a people blessedx by the Lord,
they and their descendantsy with them.
24 Before they callz I will answer;a
while they are still speakingb I will hear.
25 The wolf and the lambc will feed together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox,d
and dust will be the serpent’se food.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,”f
says the Lord.
Insight
Although written to ancient Israel, Isaiah’s words anticipate a time we still await. The prophet writes, “The sound of weeping and crying will be heard in [the new Jerusalem] no more” (65:19). This matches well with John’s vision in Revelation 21, where John writes, “I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth’ ” (v. 1). In this future existence there “ ‘will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain” (v. 4).
Before You Even Ask
Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. Isaiah 65:24
My friends Robert and Colleen have experienced a healthy marriage for decades, and I love watching them interact. One will pass the butter to the other at dinner before being asked for it. The other will refill a glass at the perfect moment. When they tell stories, they finish each other’s sentences. Sometimes it seems they can read each other’s mind.
It’s comforting that God knows and cares for us even more than any person we know and love. When the prophet Isaiah describes the relationship between God and His people in the coming kingdom, he describes a tender, intimate relationship. God says about His people, “Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear” (Isaiah 65:24).
But how can this be true? There are things I’ve prayed about for years without receiving a response. I believe that as we grow in intimacy with God, aligning our hearts with His, we can learn to trust in His timing and care. We can begin to desire what God desires. When we pray, we ask for—among other things—the things that are part of God’s kingdom as described in Isaiah 65: An end to sorrow (v. 19). Safe homes and full bellies and meaningful work for all people (vv. 21–23). Peace in the natural world (v. 25). When God’s kingdom comes in its fullness, God will answer these prayers completely. By: Amy Peterson
Reflect & Pray
How might you participate in bringing God’s kingdom to earth? What will you ask God for today?
God, thank You for always hearing my prayers. I trust that You love me and are working all things together for good for those whom You’ve called. Please transform my desires so that I want what You want.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
The Servant’s Primary Goal
We make it our aim…to be well pleasing to Him. —2 Corinthians 5:9
“We make it our aim….” It requires a conscious decision and effort to keep our primary goal constantly in front of us. It means holding ourselves to the highest priority year in and year out; not making our first priority to win souls, or to establish churches, or to have revivals, but seeking only “to be well pleasing to Him.” It is not a lack of spiritual experience that leads to failure, but a lack of working to keep our eyes focused and on the right goal. At least once a week examine yourself before God to see if your life is measuring up to the standard He has for you. Paul was like a musician who gives no thought to audience approval, if he can only catch a look of approval from his Conductor.
Any goal we have that diverts us even to the slightest degree from the central goal of being “approved to God” (2 Timothy 2:15) may result in our rejection from further service for Him. When you discern where the goal leads, you will understand why it is so necessary to keep “looking unto Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2). Paul spoke of the importance of controlling his own body so that it would not take him in the wrong direction. He said, “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest…I myself should become disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:27).
I must learn to relate everything to the primary goal, maintaining it without interruption. My worth to God publicly is measured by what I really am in my private life. Is my primary goal in life to please Him and to be acceptable to Him, or is it something less, no matter how lofty it may sound?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
I have no right to say I believe in God unless I order my life as under His all-seeing Eye. Disciples Indeed, 385 L
Bible in a Year: Deuteronomy 30-31; Mark 15:1-25
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
The Evidence You Are Loved - #8657
Most of us don't have a friendly neighborhood blacksmith anymore. Some of us city folks might never see one if they didn't have them at historic sites and some old-time American theme parks. I'm pretty sure the first blacksmith our three-year-old granddaughter ever saw was the one at the park we took her to. When we stopped by the blacksmith's shop, we were the only ones there. Our granddaughter was really interested in his fire and how he pounded those hot, shapeless metal things into useful objects. Later, as we started to leave, Mr. Blacksmith stopped us. Even though he does some pretty tough work, he's obviously a caring man. He caught up with us because he wanted to do something special for our little girl - he handed her a nail that he had just made. She wouldn't let go of that nail for most of the rest of the day. And last I knew, it was still one of her treasures.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Evidence You Are Loved."
Our granddaughter carried a reminder of a blacksmith who took a special interest in her - the evidence was a nail. It's hard for me to think about that without thinking of the man who demonstrated His love for me with the same kind of evidence - a nail. Actually, three nails - the two they drove through His hands and the one they drove through His feet when they hung Him on a cross.
Jesus brought back to heaven only one thing from His visit to earth - the nail prints in His hands and feet. They are the unarguable evidence of how very much Jesus loves you. I don't know what your experiences with love have been in your life. Maybe you've been blessed to have lots of love over the years. You can still be missing the love you were made for - the love on which your eternity depends - the love of Jesus Christ. Or maybe love - or the absence of it - has been the source of a lot of hurt and disappointment in your life. Because we tend to expect from God the same kind of treatment we got from humans. Well, it just might be hard for you to believe that the greatest person in the universe deeply loves you.
Consider the nails. Consider His wounds. It was, in fact, the sight of those wounds that drove a man named Thomas to throw open his life to Jesus. Thomas had followed Jesus for three years. He had heard all the sermons, seen all the miracles, but apparently he had withheld his total commitment. When Jesus came back from the grave and appeared to all the disciples but Thomas, Thomas said he would not believe that Jesus was alive unless he touched the wounds from His death on the cross. When Jesus appeared a second time with Thomas in the room, He invited the doubter to come and touch the holes the nails and the spear had left. All Thomas could do was fall on his knees and cry out, "My Lord and My God." (John 20:28).
The awful punishment that Jesus submitted Himself to was, in reality, the punishment for my sin and for your sin. And the worst punishment wasn't what people could see. It was the Son of God being totally cut off from God the Father as He carried all the horror and all the hell of all our sin.
The certainty of His love is powerfully expressed in Isaiah 49:15-16, our word for today from the Word of God: "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands." Every time Jesus looks at His hands, He thinks of you and me because His love for us is engraved there in the print of the nails.
That's why it's so unforgivable to reject His love. You may not mean to reject Him, but if a gift is offered to you and you just sit there, you've rejected both the gift and the giver. Jesus is holding out to you eternal life in heaven; the forgiving of every sin of your life. The greatest mistake a person can make is to fail to respond to this love of Jesus. If you've never actually given yourself to this Savior who gave His life for you, don't risk one more day without Him. Today, tell Him , "Jesus, I am Yours."
We've set up our website as a bridge where you can go and find the biblical information that will help you be sure you now belong to Jesus. That website is ANewStory.com.
Jesus has been reaching for you for a long time. Isn't it time you grabbed His hand?
Anxiety is a meteor shower of what-ifs. The sky is falling, and it’s falling disproportionately on you. Anxiety ain’t fun!
One would think Christians would be exempt from anxiety, but we are not. It’s enough to make us wonder if the apostle Paul was out of touch with reality when he wrote in Philippians 4:6, “Be anxious for nothing.”
Is that what he meant? Not exactly. He wrote the phrase in the present active tense— implying an ongoing state…as if to say Don’t let anything in life leave you perpetually breathless and in angst. The presence of anxiety is unavoidable, but the prison of anxiety is optional.
Could you use some calm? Of course you could. We all could! We all could use a word of comfort. And God is ready to give it.
Isaiah 5
I’ll sing a ballad to the one I love,
a love ballad about his vineyard:
The one I love had a vineyard,
a fine, well-placed vineyard.
He hoed the soil and pulled the weeds,
and planted the very best vines.
He built a lookout, built a winepress,
a vineyard to be proud of.
He looked for a vintage yield of grapes,
but for all his pains he got junk grapes.
3-4 “Now listen to what I’m telling you,
you who live in Jerusalem and Judah.
What do you think is going on
between me and my vineyard?
Can you think of anything I could have done
to my vineyard that I didn’t do?
When I expected good grapes,
why did I get bitter grapes?
5-6 “Well now, let me tell you
what I’ll do to my vineyard:
I’ll tear down its fence
and let it go to ruin.
I’ll knock down the gate
and let it be trampled.
I’ll turn it into a patch of weeds, untended, uncared for—
thistles and thorns will take over.
I’ll give orders to the clouds:
‘Don’t rain on that vineyard, ever!’”
7 Do you get it? The vineyard of God-of-the-Angel-Armies
is the country of Israel.
All the men and women of Judah
are the garden he was so proud of.
He looked for a crop of justice
and saw them murdering each other.
He looked for a harvest of righteousness
and heard only the moans of victims.
8-10 Doom to you who buy up all the houses
and grab all the land for yourselves—
Evicting the old owners,
posting no trespassing signs,
Taking over the country,
leaving everyone homeless and landless.
I overheard God-of-the-Angel-Armies say:
“Those mighty houses will end up empty.
Those extravagant estates will be deserted.
A ten-acre vineyard will produce a pint of wine,
a fifty-pound sack of seed, a quart of grain.”
11-17 Doom to those who get up early
and start drinking booze before breakfast,
Who stay up all hours of the night
drinking themselves into a stupor.
They make sure their banquets are well-furnished
with harps and flutes and plenty of wine,
But they’ll have nothing to do with the work of God,
pay no mind to what he is doing.
Therefore my people will end up in exile
because they don’t know the score.
Their “big men” will starve to death
and the common people die of thirst.
Sheol developed a huge appetite,
swallowing people nonstop!
Big people and little people alike
down that gullet, to say nothing of all the drunks.
The down-and-out on a par
with the high-and-mighty,
Windbag boasters crumpled,
flaccid as a punctured bladder.
But by working justice,
God-of-the-Angel-Armies will be a mountain.
By working righteousness,
Holy God will show what “holy” is.
And lambs will graze
as if they owned the place,
Kids and calves
right at home in the ruins.
18-19 Doom to you who use lies to sell evil,
who haul sin to market by the truckload,
Who say, “What’s God waiting for?
Let him get a move on so we can see it.
Whatever The Holy of Israel has cooked up,
we’d like to check it out.”
20 Doom to you who call evil good
and good evil,
Who put darkness in place of light
and light in place of darkness,
Who substitute bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!
21-23 Doom to you who think you’re so smart,
who hold such a high opinion of yourselves!
All you’re good at is drinking—champion boozers
who collect trophies from drinking bouts
And then line your pockets with bribes from the guilty
while you violate the rights of the innocent.
24 But they won’t get by with it. As fire eats stubble
and dry grass goes up in smoke,
Their souls will atrophy,
their achievements crumble into dust,
Because they said no to the revelation
of God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
Would have nothing to do
with The Holy of Israel.
25-30 That’s why God flamed out in anger against his people,
reached out and knocked them down.
The mountains trembled
as their dead bodies piled up in the streets.
But even after that, he was still angry,
his fist still raised, ready to hit them again.
He raises a flag, signaling a distant nation,
whistles for people at the ends of the earth.
And here they come—
on the run!
None drag their feet, no one stumbles,
no one sleeps or dawdles.
Shirts are on and pants buckled,
every boot is spit-polished and tied.
Their arrows are sharp,
bows strung,
The hooves of their horses shod,
chariot wheels greased.
Roaring like a pride of lions,
the full-throated roars of young lions,
They growl and seize their prey,
dragging it off—no rescue for that one!
They’ll roar and roar and roar on that Day,
like the roar of ocean billows.
Look as long and hard as you like at that land,
you’ll see nothing but darkness and trouble.
Every light in the sky
will be blacked out by the clouds.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Isaiah 65:17–25
New Heavens and a New Earth
17 “See, I will create
new heavens and a new earth.g
The former things will not be remembered,h
nor will they come to mind.
18 But be glad and rejoicei forever
in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalemj to be a delight
and its people a joy.
19 I will rejoicek over Jerusalem
and take delightl in my people;
the sound of weeping and of cryingm
will be heard in it no more.
20 “Never again will there be in it
an infantn who lives but a few days,
or an old man who does not live out his years;o
the one who dies at a hundred
will be thought a mere child;
the one who fails to reacha a hundred
will be considered accursed.
21 They will build housesp and dwell in them;
they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.q
22 No longer will they build houses and others live in them,r
or plant and others eat.
For as the days of a tree,s
so will be the dayst of my people;
my chosenu ones will long enjoy
the work of their hands.
23 They will not labor in vain,v
nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune;w
for they will be a people blessedx by the Lord,
they and their descendantsy with them.
24 Before they callz I will answer;a
while they are still speakingb I will hear.
25 The wolf and the lambc will feed together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox,d
and dust will be the serpent’se food.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,”f
says the Lord.
Insight
Although written to ancient Israel, Isaiah’s words anticipate a time we still await. The prophet writes, “The sound of weeping and crying will be heard in [the new Jerusalem] no more” (65:19). This matches well with John’s vision in Revelation 21, where John writes, “I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth’ ” (v. 1). In this future existence there “ ‘will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain” (v. 4).
Before You Even Ask
Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. Isaiah 65:24
My friends Robert and Colleen have experienced a healthy marriage for decades, and I love watching them interact. One will pass the butter to the other at dinner before being asked for it. The other will refill a glass at the perfect moment. When they tell stories, they finish each other’s sentences. Sometimes it seems they can read each other’s mind.
It’s comforting that God knows and cares for us even more than any person we know and love. When the prophet Isaiah describes the relationship between God and His people in the coming kingdom, he describes a tender, intimate relationship. God says about His people, “Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear” (Isaiah 65:24).
But how can this be true? There are things I’ve prayed about for years without receiving a response. I believe that as we grow in intimacy with God, aligning our hearts with His, we can learn to trust in His timing and care. We can begin to desire what God desires. When we pray, we ask for—among other things—the things that are part of God’s kingdom as described in Isaiah 65: An end to sorrow (v. 19). Safe homes and full bellies and meaningful work for all people (vv. 21–23). Peace in the natural world (v. 25). When God’s kingdom comes in its fullness, God will answer these prayers completely. By: Amy Peterson
Reflect & Pray
How might you participate in bringing God’s kingdom to earth? What will you ask God for today?
God, thank You for always hearing my prayers. I trust that You love me and are working all things together for good for those whom You’ve called. Please transform my desires so that I want what You want.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
The Servant’s Primary Goal
We make it our aim…to be well pleasing to Him. —2 Corinthians 5:9
“We make it our aim….” It requires a conscious decision and effort to keep our primary goal constantly in front of us. It means holding ourselves to the highest priority year in and year out; not making our first priority to win souls, or to establish churches, or to have revivals, but seeking only “to be well pleasing to Him.” It is not a lack of spiritual experience that leads to failure, but a lack of working to keep our eyes focused and on the right goal. At least once a week examine yourself before God to see if your life is measuring up to the standard He has for you. Paul was like a musician who gives no thought to audience approval, if he can only catch a look of approval from his Conductor.
Any goal we have that diverts us even to the slightest degree from the central goal of being “approved to God” (2 Timothy 2:15) may result in our rejection from further service for Him. When you discern where the goal leads, you will understand why it is so necessary to keep “looking unto Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2). Paul spoke of the importance of controlling his own body so that it would not take him in the wrong direction. He said, “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest…I myself should become disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:27).
I must learn to relate everything to the primary goal, maintaining it without interruption. My worth to God publicly is measured by what I really am in my private life. Is my primary goal in life to please Him and to be acceptable to Him, or is it something less, no matter how lofty it may sound?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
I have no right to say I believe in God unless I order my life as under His all-seeing Eye. Disciples Indeed, 385 L
Bible in a Year: Deuteronomy 30-31; Mark 15:1-25
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
The Evidence You Are Loved - #8657
Most of us don't have a friendly neighborhood blacksmith anymore. Some of us city folks might never see one if they didn't have them at historic sites and some old-time American theme parks. I'm pretty sure the first blacksmith our three-year-old granddaughter ever saw was the one at the park we took her to. When we stopped by the blacksmith's shop, we were the only ones there. Our granddaughter was really interested in his fire and how he pounded those hot, shapeless metal things into useful objects. Later, as we started to leave, Mr. Blacksmith stopped us. Even though he does some pretty tough work, he's obviously a caring man. He caught up with us because he wanted to do something special for our little girl - he handed her a nail that he had just made. She wouldn't let go of that nail for most of the rest of the day. And last I knew, it was still one of her treasures.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Evidence You Are Loved."
Our granddaughter carried a reminder of a blacksmith who took a special interest in her - the evidence was a nail. It's hard for me to think about that without thinking of the man who demonstrated His love for me with the same kind of evidence - a nail. Actually, three nails - the two they drove through His hands and the one they drove through His feet when they hung Him on a cross.
Jesus brought back to heaven only one thing from His visit to earth - the nail prints in His hands and feet. They are the unarguable evidence of how very much Jesus loves you. I don't know what your experiences with love have been in your life. Maybe you've been blessed to have lots of love over the years. You can still be missing the love you were made for - the love on which your eternity depends - the love of Jesus Christ. Or maybe love - or the absence of it - has been the source of a lot of hurt and disappointment in your life. Because we tend to expect from God the same kind of treatment we got from humans. Well, it just might be hard for you to believe that the greatest person in the universe deeply loves you.
Consider the nails. Consider His wounds. It was, in fact, the sight of those wounds that drove a man named Thomas to throw open his life to Jesus. Thomas had followed Jesus for three years. He had heard all the sermons, seen all the miracles, but apparently he had withheld his total commitment. When Jesus came back from the grave and appeared to all the disciples but Thomas, Thomas said he would not believe that Jesus was alive unless he touched the wounds from His death on the cross. When Jesus appeared a second time with Thomas in the room, He invited the doubter to come and touch the holes the nails and the spear had left. All Thomas could do was fall on his knees and cry out, "My Lord and My God." (John 20:28).
The awful punishment that Jesus submitted Himself to was, in reality, the punishment for my sin and for your sin. And the worst punishment wasn't what people could see. It was the Son of God being totally cut off from God the Father as He carried all the horror and all the hell of all our sin.
The certainty of His love is powerfully expressed in Isaiah 49:15-16, our word for today from the Word of God: "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands." Every time Jesus looks at His hands, He thinks of you and me because His love for us is engraved there in the print of the nails.
That's why it's so unforgivable to reject His love. You may not mean to reject Him, but if a gift is offered to you and you just sit there, you've rejected both the gift and the giver. Jesus is holding out to you eternal life in heaven; the forgiving of every sin of your life. The greatest mistake a person can make is to fail to respond to this love of Jesus. If you've never actually given yourself to this Savior who gave His life for you, don't risk one more day without Him. Today, tell Him , "Jesus, I am Yours."
We've set up our website as a bridge where you can go and find the biblical information that will help you be sure you now belong to Jesus. That website is ANewStory.com.
Jesus has been reaching for you for a long time. Isn't it time you grabbed His hand?
Monday, March 16, 2020
2 Corinthians 12, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: NO ORDINARY NIGHT
Only one word describes the night Jesus came—ordinary. No reason to expect a surprise. An ordinary night with ordinary sheep and ordinary shepherds. And were it not for a God who loves to hook an extra on the front of the ordinary, the night would have gone unnoticed.
But God dances amid the common. And that night he did a waltz. The black sky exploded with brightness. Trees that had been shadows jumped into clarity. Sheep that had been silent became a chorus of curiosity. One minute the shepherd was dead asleep. The next he was rubbing his eyes and staring into the face of an angel who declared, “There is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11).
The night was ordinary no more. God had entered the world as a baby.
2 Corinthians 12
You’ve forced me to talk this way, and I do it against my better judgment. But now that we’re at it, I may as well bring up the matter of visions and revelations that God gave me. For instance, I know a man who, fourteen years ago, was seized by Christ and swept in ecstasy to the heights of heaven. I really don’t know if this took place in the body or out of it; only God knows. I also know that this man was hijacked into paradise—again, whether in or out of the body, I don’t know; God knows. There he heard the unspeakable spoken, but was forbidden to tell what he heard. This is the man I want to talk about. But about myself, I’m not saying another word apart from the humiliations.
6 If I had a mind to brag a little, I could probably do it without looking ridiculous, and I’d still be speaking plain truth all the way. But I’ll spare you. I don’t want anyone imagining me as anything other than the fool you’d encounter if you saw me on the street or heard me talk.
7-10 Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me,
My grace is enough; it’s all you need.
My strength comes into its own in your weakness.
Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.
11-13 Well, now I’ve done it! I’ve made a complete fool of myself by going on like this. But it’s not all my fault; you put me up to it. You should have been doing this for me, sticking up for me and commending me instead of making me do it for myself. You know from personal experience that even if I’m a nobody, a nothing, I wasn’t second-rate compared to those big-shot apostles you’re so taken with. All the signs that mark a true apostle were in evidence while I was with you through both good times and bad: signs of portent, signs of wonder, signs of power. Did you get less of me or of God than any of the other churches? The only thing you got less of was less responsibility for my upkeep. Well, I’m sorry. Forgive me for depriving you.
14-15 Everything is in readiness now for this, my third visit to you. But don’t worry about it; you won’t have to put yourselves out. I’ll be no more of a bother to you this time than on the other visits. I have no interest in what you have—only in you. Children shouldn’t have to look out for their parents; parents look out for the children. I’d be most happy to empty my pockets, even mortgage my life, for your good. So how does it happen that the more I love you, the less I’m loved?
16-18 And why is it that I keep coming across these whiffs of gossip about how my self-support was a front behind which I worked an elaborate scam? Where’s the evidence? Did I cheat or trick you through anyone I sent? I asked Titus to visit, and sent some brothers along. Did they swindle you out of anything? And haven’t we always been just as aboveboard, just as honest?
19 I hope you don’t think that all along we’ve been making our defense before you, the jury. You’re not the jury; God is the jury—God revealed in Christ—and we make our case before him. And we’ve gone to all the trouble of supporting ourselves so that we won’t be in the way or get in the way of your growing up.
20-21 I do admit that I have fears that when I come you’ll disappoint me and I’ll disappoint you, and in frustration with each other everything will fall to pieces—quarrels, jealousy, flaring tempers, taking sides, angry words, vicious rumors, swelled heads, and general bedlam. I don’t look forward to a second humiliation by God among you, compounded by hot tears over that crowd that keeps sinning over and over in the same old ways, who refuse to turn away from the pigsty of evil, sexual disorder, and indecency in which they wallow.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, March 16, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 139:7–16
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I fleep from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens,q you are there;
if I make my bedr in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,s
your right handt will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be darku to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;v
you knit me togetherw in my mother’s womb.x
14 I praise youy because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,z
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was madea in the secret place,
when I was woven togetherb in the depths of the earth.c
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordainedd for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
Insight
In this psalm, the author, King David, describes two of God’s fundamental characteristics: His omnipresence—God being present in all places at all times (vv. 1–6) and His omniscience—God’s knowledge of all things (vv. 7–18). The author describes his inability to go anyplace outside the presence of God: “If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast” (vv. 9–10). But then there comes an interesting turn in verse 13: the author connects God’s constant presence to God’s creation of him. God is even present in the womb and will continue to be with us everywhere we go.
Amazing Skill
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:14
The leader of our college singing group directed the group and accompanied us on the piano at the same time, skillfully balancing those responsibilities. At the close of one concert, he looked particularly weary, so I asked him if he was okay. He responded, “I’ve never had to do that before.” Then he explained. “The piano was so out of tune that I had to play the whole concert in two different keys—my left hand playing in one key and my right hand in another!” I was blown away by the startling skill he displayed, and I was amazed at the One who creates humans to be capable of such things.
King David expressed an even greater sense of wonder when he wrote, “Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it” (Psalm 139:14 nlt). Whether in people’s abilities or nature’s marvels, the wonders of creation point us to the majesty of our Creator.
One day, when we’re in God’s presence, people from every generation will worship Him with the words, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being” (Revelation 4:11). The amazing skills God gives us and the great beauty God has created are ample reason to worship Him. By: Bill Crowder
Reflect & Pray
What parts of God’s creation cause you to respond in worship? Why is it important for you to thank and praise God for the skills He’s given you?
How wonderful You are, God! I see Your fingerprints everywhere. Thank You for all that You’ve made.
To learn more about Psalm 139, listen to discovertheword.org/series/search-me.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, March 16, 2020
The Master Will Judge
We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ… —2 Corinthians 5:10
Paul says that we must all, preachers and other people alike, “appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” But if you will learn here and now to live under the scrutiny of Christ’s pure light, your final judgment will bring you only delight in seeing the work God has done in you. Live constantly reminding yourself of the judgment seat of Christ, and walk in the knowledge of the holiness He has given you. Tolerating a wrong attitude toward another person causes you to follow the spirit of the devil, no matter how saintly you are. One carnal judgment of another person only serves the purposes of hell in you. Bring it immediately into the light and confess, “Oh, Lord, I have been guilty there.” If you don’t, your heart will become hardened through and through. One of the penalties of sin is our acceptance of it. It is not only God who punishes for sin, but sin establishes itself in the sinner and takes its toll. No struggling or praying will enable you to stop doing certain things, and the penalty of sin is that you gradually get used to it, until you finally come to the place where you no longer even realize that it is sin. No power, except the power that comes from being filled with the Holy Spirit, can change or prevent the inherent consequences of sin.
“If we walk in the light as He is in the light…” (1 John 1:7). For many of us, walking in the light means walking according to the standard we have set up for another person. The deadliest attitude of the Pharisees that we exhibit today is not hypocrisy but that which comes from unconsciously living a lie.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
If a man cannot prove his religion in the valley, it is not worth anything. Shade of His Hand, 1200 L
Bible in a Year: Deuteronomy 28-29; Mark 14:54-72
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, March 16, 2020
A Morsel for Me - #8656
Snacks. Oh, I know a lot of them aren't the most healthy stuff in the world to put in your body. But when you're driving, I view them as something that helps with an essential function. It's called staying alive. As in staying awake at the wheel, you know. A number of times I've asked my wife to open up some cookies or chips or some other goodies for me, only to find that when she passed them to me that they weren't all there. At first, I thought maybe the company had robbed me. No. No, see, I only had to look across the seat to the passenger side to find the culprit. It was the woman I love. Yeah, the crumbs on her lip and the chewing in her mouth; that was my first clue. Our conversation predictably would go like this: I would say, "What happened?" Then, with a whimsical smile, she would answer: "Tax. There was a small service tax." Right!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Morsel for Me."
It's no big deal when your spouse snatches a little of what's yours. It's a very big deal when you do that with something that belongs to God; which a whole lot of us do, maybe without even knowing it. That's why we need the story in our word for today from the Word of God. It's in 1 Samuel 2, beginning with verse 12. It's more than a story. It is a sober warning.
Eli was the Chief Jewish Priest, and the Bible says, "Eli's sons were wicked men; they had no regard for the Lord. Now it was the practice of the priests with the people that whenever anyone offered a sacrifice and while the meat was being boiled, the servant of the priest would come with a three-pronged fork in his hand. He would plunge it into the pan...and the priest would take for himself whatever the fork brought up."
Now remember, this is a sacrifice that belongs totally to the Lord. The Bible goes on: "The sin of the young men was very great in the Lord's sight, for they were treating the Lord's offering with contempt." And then Eli learns how his sons have even "slept with the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting."
God announces the price tag to Eli: "Your two sons...will both die on the same day. I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will do according to what is in my heart and mind." I told you the lesson here was sobering. God will not continue to tolerate someone who is using what is God's for their own benefit.
Does that happen today? Oh, way too much! It's so easy to be serving the Lord while sticking your fork in to get something for yourself. Some people stick their fork into God's work or God's people to get a little glory for themselves, to get a little attention or recognition for themselves; maybe some money or some strokes. Jesus taught us to pray to God, "Thy Kingdom come." Well, for too many, it's all about, "My kingdom come."
If you're using what is God's to meet your needs, to somehow advance yourself, you are stealing from the Lord God Almighty. That can't have a happy ending. God's work, God's people were never meant to be a base from which you could have some personal power trip, a place to feed your ego, your lust, your selfishness. That's holy ground you're on!
Jesus modeled something so radically different from being a self-serving servant. The Bible says, "He made Himself nothing...He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:7-8). How dare we, in the name of this One who gave up everything for us, try taking for ourselves?
Look in the mirror. Search your heart. Search your motives. Have you been using
the work of God or the people of God to get something for yourself? Face it. Repent of it before God comes to take back what you have stolen from Him.
Only one word describes the night Jesus came—ordinary. No reason to expect a surprise. An ordinary night with ordinary sheep and ordinary shepherds. And were it not for a God who loves to hook an extra on the front of the ordinary, the night would have gone unnoticed.
But God dances amid the common. And that night he did a waltz. The black sky exploded with brightness. Trees that had been shadows jumped into clarity. Sheep that had been silent became a chorus of curiosity. One minute the shepherd was dead asleep. The next he was rubbing his eyes and staring into the face of an angel who declared, “There is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11).
The night was ordinary no more. God had entered the world as a baby.
2 Corinthians 12
You’ve forced me to talk this way, and I do it against my better judgment. But now that we’re at it, I may as well bring up the matter of visions and revelations that God gave me. For instance, I know a man who, fourteen years ago, was seized by Christ and swept in ecstasy to the heights of heaven. I really don’t know if this took place in the body or out of it; only God knows. I also know that this man was hijacked into paradise—again, whether in or out of the body, I don’t know; God knows. There he heard the unspeakable spoken, but was forbidden to tell what he heard. This is the man I want to talk about. But about myself, I’m not saying another word apart from the humiliations.
6 If I had a mind to brag a little, I could probably do it without looking ridiculous, and I’d still be speaking plain truth all the way. But I’ll spare you. I don’t want anyone imagining me as anything other than the fool you’d encounter if you saw me on the street or heard me talk.
7-10 Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me,
My grace is enough; it’s all you need.
My strength comes into its own in your weakness.
Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.
11-13 Well, now I’ve done it! I’ve made a complete fool of myself by going on like this. But it’s not all my fault; you put me up to it. You should have been doing this for me, sticking up for me and commending me instead of making me do it for myself. You know from personal experience that even if I’m a nobody, a nothing, I wasn’t second-rate compared to those big-shot apostles you’re so taken with. All the signs that mark a true apostle were in evidence while I was with you through both good times and bad: signs of portent, signs of wonder, signs of power. Did you get less of me or of God than any of the other churches? The only thing you got less of was less responsibility for my upkeep. Well, I’m sorry. Forgive me for depriving you.
14-15 Everything is in readiness now for this, my third visit to you. But don’t worry about it; you won’t have to put yourselves out. I’ll be no more of a bother to you this time than on the other visits. I have no interest in what you have—only in you. Children shouldn’t have to look out for their parents; parents look out for the children. I’d be most happy to empty my pockets, even mortgage my life, for your good. So how does it happen that the more I love you, the less I’m loved?
16-18 And why is it that I keep coming across these whiffs of gossip about how my self-support was a front behind which I worked an elaborate scam? Where’s the evidence? Did I cheat or trick you through anyone I sent? I asked Titus to visit, and sent some brothers along. Did they swindle you out of anything? And haven’t we always been just as aboveboard, just as honest?
19 I hope you don’t think that all along we’ve been making our defense before you, the jury. You’re not the jury; God is the jury—God revealed in Christ—and we make our case before him. And we’ve gone to all the trouble of supporting ourselves so that we won’t be in the way or get in the way of your growing up.
20-21 I do admit that I have fears that when I come you’ll disappoint me and I’ll disappoint you, and in frustration with each other everything will fall to pieces—quarrels, jealousy, flaring tempers, taking sides, angry words, vicious rumors, swelled heads, and general bedlam. I don’t look forward to a second humiliation by God among you, compounded by hot tears over that crowd that keeps sinning over and over in the same old ways, who refuse to turn away from the pigsty of evil, sexual disorder, and indecency in which they wallow.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, March 16, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 139:7–16
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I fleep from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens,q you are there;
if I make my bedr in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,s
your right handt will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be darku to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;v
you knit me togetherw in my mother’s womb.x
14 I praise youy because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,z
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was madea in the secret place,
when I was woven togetherb in the depths of the earth.c
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordainedd for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
Insight
In this psalm, the author, King David, describes two of God’s fundamental characteristics: His omnipresence—God being present in all places at all times (vv. 1–6) and His omniscience—God’s knowledge of all things (vv. 7–18). The author describes his inability to go anyplace outside the presence of God: “If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast” (vv. 9–10). But then there comes an interesting turn in verse 13: the author connects God’s constant presence to God’s creation of him. God is even present in the womb and will continue to be with us everywhere we go.
Amazing Skill
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:14
The leader of our college singing group directed the group and accompanied us on the piano at the same time, skillfully balancing those responsibilities. At the close of one concert, he looked particularly weary, so I asked him if he was okay. He responded, “I’ve never had to do that before.” Then he explained. “The piano was so out of tune that I had to play the whole concert in two different keys—my left hand playing in one key and my right hand in another!” I was blown away by the startling skill he displayed, and I was amazed at the One who creates humans to be capable of such things.
King David expressed an even greater sense of wonder when he wrote, “Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it” (Psalm 139:14 nlt). Whether in people’s abilities or nature’s marvels, the wonders of creation point us to the majesty of our Creator.
One day, when we’re in God’s presence, people from every generation will worship Him with the words, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being” (Revelation 4:11). The amazing skills God gives us and the great beauty God has created are ample reason to worship Him. By: Bill Crowder
Reflect & Pray
What parts of God’s creation cause you to respond in worship? Why is it important for you to thank and praise God for the skills He’s given you?
How wonderful You are, God! I see Your fingerprints everywhere. Thank You for all that You’ve made.
To learn more about Psalm 139, listen to discovertheword.org/series/search-me.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, March 16, 2020
The Master Will Judge
We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ… —2 Corinthians 5:10
Paul says that we must all, preachers and other people alike, “appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” But if you will learn here and now to live under the scrutiny of Christ’s pure light, your final judgment will bring you only delight in seeing the work God has done in you. Live constantly reminding yourself of the judgment seat of Christ, and walk in the knowledge of the holiness He has given you. Tolerating a wrong attitude toward another person causes you to follow the spirit of the devil, no matter how saintly you are. One carnal judgment of another person only serves the purposes of hell in you. Bring it immediately into the light and confess, “Oh, Lord, I have been guilty there.” If you don’t, your heart will become hardened through and through. One of the penalties of sin is our acceptance of it. It is not only God who punishes for sin, but sin establishes itself in the sinner and takes its toll. No struggling or praying will enable you to stop doing certain things, and the penalty of sin is that you gradually get used to it, until you finally come to the place where you no longer even realize that it is sin. No power, except the power that comes from being filled with the Holy Spirit, can change or prevent the inherent consequences of sin.
“If we walk in the light as He is in the light…” (1 John 1:7). For many of us, walking in the light means walking according to the standard we have set up for another person. The deadliest attitude of the Pharisees that we exhibit today is not hypocrisy but that which comes from unconsciously living a lie.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
If a man cannot prove his religion in the valley, it is not worth anything. Shade of His Hand, 1200 L
Bible in a Year: Deuteronomy 28-29; Mark 14:54-72
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, March 16, 2020
A Morsel for Me - #8656
Snacks. Oh, I know a lot of them aren't the most healthy stuff in the world to put in your body. But when you're driving, I view them as something that helps with an essential function. It's called staying alive. As in staying awake at the wheel, you know. A number of times I've asked my wife to open up some cookies or chips or some other goodies for me, only to find that when she passed them to me that they weren't all there. At first, I thought maybe the company had robbed me. No. No, see, I only had to look across the seat to the passenger side to find the culprit. It was the woman I love. Yeah, the crumbs on her lip and the chewing in her mouth; that was my first clue. Our conversation predictably would go like this: I would say, "What happened?" Then, with a whimsical smile, she would answer: "Tax. There was a small service tax." Right!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Morsel for Me."
It's no big deal when your spouse snatches a little of what's yours. It's a very big deal when you do that with something that belongs to God; which a whole lot of us do, maybe without even knowing it. That's why we need the story in our word for today from the Word of God. It's in 1 Samuel 2, beginning with verse 12. It's more than a story. It is a sober warning.
Eli was the Chief Jewish Priest, and the Bible says, "Eli's sons were wicked men; they had no regard for the Lord. Now it was the practice of the priests with the people that whenever anyone offered a sacrifice and while the meat was being boiled, the servant of the priest would come with a three-pronged fork in his hand. He would plunge it into the pan...and the priest would take for himself whatever the fork brought up."
Now remember, this is a sacrifice that belongs totally to the Lord. The Bible goes on: "The sin of the young men was very great in the Lord's sight, for they were treating the Lord's offering with contempt." And then Eli learns how his sons have even "slept with the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting."
God announces the price tag to Eli: "Your two sons...will both die on the same day. I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will do according to what is in my heart and mind." I told you the lesson here was sobering. God will not continue to tolerate someone who is using what is God's for their own benefit.
Does that happen today? Oh, way too much! It's so easy to be serving the Lord while sticking your fork in to get something for yourself. Some people stick their fork into God's work or God's people to get a little glory for themselves, to get a little attention or recognition for themselves; maybe some money or some strokes. Jesus taught us to pray to God, "Thy Kingdom come." Well, for too many, it's all about, "My kingdom come."
If you're using what is God's to meet your needs, to somehow advance yourself, you are stealing from the Lord God Almighty. That can't have a happy ending. God's work, God's people were never meant to be a base from which you could have some personal power trip, a place to feed your ego, your lust, your selfishness. That's holy ground you're on!
Jesus modeled something so radically different from being a self-serving servant. The Bible says, "He made Himself nothing...He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:7-8). How dare we, in the name of this One who gave up everything for us, try taking for ourselves?
Look in the mirror. Search your heart. Search your motives. Have you been using
the work of God or the people of God to get something for yourself? Face it. Repent of it before God comes to take back what you have stolen from Him.
Sunday, March 15, 2020
Isaiah 4, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: What’s Done is Done
What do you do with your failures? Could you do it all over again, you’d do it differently. You’d be more patient. You’d control your tongue. You’d finish what you started. You’d get married first. But as many times as you tell yourself, “What’s done is done,” what you did can’t be undone.
That’s part of what the apostle Paul meant when he said, “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23). He didn’t say, “The wages of sin is a bad mood.” Or “The wages of sin is a hard day.” Read it again. “The wages of sin is death.” Sin is fatal.
What do you do? Don’t we all long for a father who will love us? A father who cares for us in spite of our failures? We have that kind of a father. A father whose grace is strongest when our devotion is weakest. Your failures are not fatal, my friend!
from Six Hours One Friday
Isaiah 4
That will be the day when seven women
will gang up on one man, saying,
“We’ll take care of ourselves,
get our own food and clothes.
Just give us a child. Make us pregnant
so we’ll have something to live for!”
2-4 And that’s when God’s Branch will sprout green and lush. The produce of the country will give Israel’s survivors something to be proud of again. Oh, they’ll hold their heads high! Everyone left behind in Zion, all the discards and rejects in Jerusalem, will be reclassified as “holy”—alive and therefore precious. God will give Zion’s women a good bath. He’ll scrub the bloodstained city of its violence and brutality, purge the place with a firestorm of judgment.
5-6 Then God will bring back the ancient pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night and mark Mount Zion and everyone in it with his glorious presence, his immense, protective presence, shade from the burning sun and shelter from the driving rain.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, March 15, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight: Deuteronomy 26:12–15
hen you have finished setting aside a tenthk of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe,l you shall give it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied. 13 Then say to the Lord your God: “I have removed from my house the sacred portion and have given it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, according to all you commanded. I have not turned aside from your commands nor have I forgotten any of them.m 14 I have not eaten any of the sacred portion while I was in mourning, nor have I removed any of it while I was unclean,n nor have I offered any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the Lord my God; I have done everything you commanded me. 15 Look down from heaven,o your holy dwelling place, and blessp your people Israel and the land you have given us as you promised on oath to our ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey.”
Insight
In the Hebrew Bible, books are generally named on the basis of their opening words. The book of Deuteronomy is referred to in the Hebrew Bible as “these are the words”—the opening statement of Deuteronomy 1:1. The title speaks more to the book’s function, for the word Deuteronomy comes from two Greek words deuteros (second) and nomos (law). This book, then, serves as a second telling of the law by Moses just prior to his death and Israel’s passage into the promised land. It reminds them of their covenant agreement with God—a covenant they were called to live out in the land. The book divides into three parts: the historical context (1:1–4), the restatement of the law (1:5–30:20), and the appointment of Joshua in preparation for the death of Moses (chs. 31–34). Clearly, this “second telling” of the law is the main purpose of the book of Deuteronomy.
The Bill Is Paid
You shall give it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. Deuteronomy 26:12
“What happened to you?” asked Zeal, a Nigerian businessman, as he bent over a hospital bed in Lagos. “Someone shot me,” replied the young man, his thigh bandaged. Although the injured man was well enough to return home, he wouldn’t be released until he settled his bill—a policy that many government hospitals in the region follow. After consulting with a social worker, Zeal anonymously covered the bill through the charitable fund he’d earlier set up as a way to express his Christian faith. In return, he hopes that those receiving the gift of release will one day give to others too.
The theme of giving from God’s bounty pulses throughout the Bible. For instance, when Moses instructed the Israelites on how to live in the Promised Land, he told them to give back to God first (see Deuteronomy 26:1–3) and to care for those in need—the foreigners, orphans, and widows (v. 12). Because they dwelled in a “land flowing with milk and honey” (v. 15), they were to express God’s love to the needy.
We too can spread God’s love through sharing our material goods, whether big or small. We might not have the opportunity to personally give exactly like Zeal did, but we can ask God to show us how to give or who needs our help. By: Amy Boucher Pye
Reflect & Pray
How do you think the patients felt who were released because of Zeal? If you’ve experienced an unexpected gift of grace, how did you respond?
God, thank You for caring for those in need. Open my eyes to the material and spiritual needs of those near and far to me, and help me to know how to respond.
To learn more about finances and the Christian life, visit christianuniversity.org/ML101.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, March 15, 2020
The Discipline of Dismay
As they followed they were afraid. —Mark 10:32
At the beginning of our life with Jesus Christ, we were sure we knew all there was to know about following Him. It was a delight to forsake everything else and to throw ourselves before Him in a fearless statement of love. But now we are not quite so sure. Jesus is far ahead of us and is beginning to seem different and unfamiliar— “Jesus was going before them; and they were amazed” (Mark 10:32).
There is an aspect of Jesus that chills even a disciple’s heart to its depth and makes his entire spiritual life gasp for air. This unusual Person with His face set “like a flint” (Isaiah 50:7) is walking with great determination ahead of me, and He strikes terror right through me. He no longer seems to be my Counselor and Friend and has a point of view about which I know nothing. All I can do is stand and stare at Him in amazement. At first I was confident that I understood Him, but now I am not so sure. I begin to realize that there is a distance between Jesus and me and I can no longer be intimate with Him. I have no idea where He is going, and the goal has become strangely distant.
Jesus Christ had to understand fully every sin and sorrow that human beings could experience, and that is what makes Him seem unfamiliar. When we see this aspect of Him, we realize we really don’t know Him. We don’t recognize even one characteristic of His life, and we don’t know how to begin to follow Him. He is far ahead of us, a Leader who seems totally unfamiliar, and we have no friendship with Him.
The discipline of dismay is an essential lesson which a disciple must learn. The danger is that we tend to look back on our times of obedience and on our past sacrifices to God in an effort to keep our enthusiasm for Him strong (see Isaiah 50:10-11). But when the darkness of dismay comes, endure until it is over, because out of it will come the ability to follow Jesus truly, which brings inexpressibly wonderful joy.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are not to preach the doing of good things; good deeds are not to be preached, they are to be performed. So Send I You, 1330 L
Bible in a Year: Deuteronomy 26-27; Mark 14:27-53
What do you do with your failures? Could you do it all over again, you’d do it differently. You’d be more patient. You’d control your tongue. You’d finish what you started. You’d get married first. But as many times as you tell yourself, “What’s done is done,” what you did can’t be undone.
That’s part of what the apostle Paul meant when he said, “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23). He didn’t say, “The wages of sin is a bad mood.” Or “The wages of sin is a hard day.” Read it again. “The wages of sin is death.” Sin is fatal.
What do you do? Don’t we all long for a father who will love us? A father who cares for us in spite of our failures? We have that kind of a father. A father whose grace is strongest when our devotion is weakest. Your failures are not fatal, my friend!
from Six Hours One Friday
Isaiah 4
That will be the day when seven women
will gang up on one man, saying,
“We’ll take care of ourselves,
get our own food and clothes.
Just give us a child. Make us pregnant
so we’ll have something to live for!”
2-4 And that’s when God’s Branch will sprout green and lush. The produce of the country will give Israel’s survivors something to be proud of again. Oh, they’ll hold their heads high! Everyone left behind in Zion, all the discards and rejects in Jerusalem, will be reclassified as “holy”—alive and therefore precious. God will give Zion’s women a good bath. He’ll scrub the bloodstained city of its violence and brutality, purge the place with a firestorm of judgment.
5-6 Then God will bring back the ancient pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night and mark Mount Zion and everyone in it with his glorious presence, his immense, protective presence, shade from the burning sun and shelter from the driving rain.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, March 15, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight: Deuteronomy 26:12–15
hen you have finished setting aside a tenthk of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe,l you shall give it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied. 13 Then say to the Lord your God: “I have removed from my house the sacred portion and have given it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, according to all you commanded. I have not turned aside from your commands nor have I forgotten any of them.m 14 I have not eaten any of the sacred portion while I was in mourning, nor have I removed any of it while I was unclean,n nor have I offered any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the Lord my God; I have done everything you commanded me. 15 Look down from heaven,o your holy dwelling place, and blessp your people Israel and the land you have given us as you promised on oath to our ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey.”
Insight
In the Hebrew Bible, books are generally named on the basis of their opening words. The book of Deuteronomy is referred to in the Hebrew Bible as “these are the words”—the opening statement of Deuteronomy 1:1. The title speaks more to the book’s function, for the word Deuteronomy comes from two Greek words deuteros (second) and nomos (law). This book, then, serves as a second telling of the law by Moses just prior to his death and Israel’s passage into the promised land. It reminds them of their covenant agreement with God—a covenant they were called to live out in the land. The book divides into three parts: the historical context (1:1–4), the restatement of the law (1:5–30:20), and the appointment of Joshua in preparation for the death of Moses (chs. 31–34). Clearly, this “second telling” of the law is the main purpose of the book of Deuteronomy.
The Bill Is Paid
You shall give it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. Deuteronomy 26:12
“What happened to you?” asked Zeal, a Nigerian businessman, as he bent over a hospital bed in Lagos. “Someone shot me,” replied the young man, his thigh bandaged. Although the injured man was well enough to return home, he wouldn’t be released until he settled his bill—a policy that many government hospitals in the region follow. After consulting with a social worker, Zeal anonymously covered the bill through the charitable fund he’d earlier set up as a way to express his Christian faith. In return, he hopes that those receiving the gift of release will one day give to others too.
The theme of giving from God’s bounty pulses throughout the Bible. For instance, when Moses instructed the Israelites on how to live in the Promised Land, he told them to give back to God first (see Deuteronomy 26:1–3) and to care for those in need—the foreigners, orphans, and widows (v. 12). Because they dwelled in a “land flowing with milk and honey” (v. 15), they were to express God’s love to the needy.
We too can spread God’s love through sharing our material goods, whether big or small. We might not have the opportunity to personally give exactly like Zeal did, but we can ask God to show us how to give or who needs our help. By: Amy Boucher Pye
Reflect & Pray
How do you think the patients felt who were released because of Zeal? If you’ve experienced an unexpected gift of grace, how did you respond?
God, thank You for caring for those in need. Open my eyes to the material and spiritual needs of those near and far to me, and help me to know how to respond.
To learn more about finances and the Christian life, visit christianuniversity.org/ML101.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, March 15, 2020
The Discipline of Dismay
As they followed they were afraid. —Mark 10:32
At the beginning of our life with Jesus Christ, we were sure we knew all there was to know about following Him. It was a delight to forsake everything else and to throw ourselves before Him in a fearless statement of love. But now we are not quite so sure. Jesus is far ahead of us and is beginning to seem different and unfamiliar— “Jesus was going before them; and they were amazed” (Mark 10:32).
There is an aspect of Jesus that chills even a disciple’s heart to its depth and makes his entire spiritual life gasp for air. This unusual Person with His face set “like a flint” (Isaiah 50:7) is walking with great determination ahead of me, and He strikes terror right through me. He no longer seems to be my Counselor and Friend and has a point of view about which I know nothing. All I can do is stand and stare at Him in amazement. At first I was confident that I understood Him, but now I am not so sure. I begin to realize that there is a distance between Jesus and me and I can no longer be intimate with Him. I have no idea where He is going, and the goal has become strangely distant.
Jesus Christ had to understand fully every sin and sorrow that human beings could experience, and that is what makes Him seem unfamiliar. When we see this aspect of Him, we realize we really don’t know Him. We don’t recognize even one characteristic of His life, and we don’t know how to begin to follow Him. He is far ahead of us, a Leader who seems totally unfamiliar, and we have no friendship with Him.
The discipline of dismay is an essential lesson which a disciple must learn. The danger is that we tend to look back on our times of obedience and on our past sacrifices to God in an effort to keep our enthusiasm for Him strong (see Isaiah 50:10-11). But when the darkness of dismay comes, endure until it is over, because out of it will come the ability to follow Jesus truly, which brings inexpressibly wonderful joy.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are not to preach the doing of good things; good deeds are not to be preached, they are to be performed. So Send I You, 1330 L
Bible in a Year: Deuteronomy 26-27; Mark 14:27-53
Saturday, March 14, 2020
Isaiah 3, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: An Advocate
Not all guilt is bad. God uses appropriate doses of guilt to awaken us to sin! God's guilt brings enough regret to change us! Satan's guilt, on the other hand, brings enough regret to enslave us. Don't let Satan lock his shackles on you!
Colossians 3:3 reminds us, "your life is hidden with Christ in God." When God looks at you, he sees Jesus first. In the Chinese language the word for "righteousness" is a combination of two characters, the figure of a lamb and a person. The lamb is on top, covering the person. Whenever God looks down at you, this is what he sees: The perfect Lamb of God covering you.
So, do you trust your Advocate, Jesus, or do you trust your Accuser-Satan? Give no heed to Satan's voice! You have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous! (I John 2:1).
From GRACE
Isaiah 3
The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
is emptying Jerusalem and Judah
Of all the basic necessities,
plain bread and water to begin with.
He’s withdrawing police and protection,
judges and courts,
pastors and teachers,
captains and generals,
doctors and nurses,
and, yes, even the repairmen and jacks-of-all-trades.
He says, “I’ll put little kids in charge of the city.
Schoolboys and schoolgirls will order everyone around.
People will be at each other’s throats,
stabbing one another in the back:
Neighbor against neighbor, young against old,
the no-account against the well-respected.
One brother will grab another and say,
‘You look like you’ve got a head on your shoulders.
Do something!
Get us out of this mess.’
And he’ll say, ‘Me? Not me! I don’t have a clue.
Don’t put me in charge of anything.’
8-9 “Jerusalem’s on its last legs.
Judah is soon down for the count.
Everything people say and do
is at cross-purposes with God,
a slap in my face.
Brazen in their depravity,
they flaunt their sins like degenerate Sodom.
Doom to their eternal souls! They’ve made their bed;
now they’ll sleep in it.
10-11 “Reassure the righteous
that their good living will pay off.
But doom to the wicked! Disaster!
Everything they did will be done to them.
12 “Skinny kids terrorize my people.
Silly girls bully them around.
My dear people! Your leaders are taking you down a blind alley.
They’re sending you off on a wild-goose chase.”
13-15 God enters the courtroom.
He takes his place at the bench to judge his people.
God calls for order in the court,
hauls the leaders of his people into the dock:
“You’ve played havoc with this country.
Your houses are stuffed with what you’ve stolen from the poor.
What is this anyway? Stomping on my people,
grinding the faces of the poor into the dirt?”
That’s what the Master,
God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says.
16-17 God says, “Zion women are stuck-up,
prancing around in their high heels,
Making eyes at all the men in the street,
swinging their hips,
Tossing their hair,
gaudy and garish in cheap jewelry.”
The Master will fix it so those Zion women
will all turn bald—
Scabby, bald-headed women.
The Master will do it.
18-23 The time is coming when the Master will strip them of their fancy baubles—the dangling earrings, anklets and bracelets, combs and mirrors and silk scarves, diamond brooches and pearl necklaces, the rings on their fingers and the rings on their toes, the latest fashions in hats, exotic perfumes and aphrodisiacs, gowns and capes, all the world’s finest in fabrics and design.
24 Instead of wearing seductive scents,
these women are going to smell like rotting cabbages;
Instead of modeling flowing gowns,
they’ll be sporting rags;
Instead of their stylish hairdos,
scruffy heads;
Instead of beauty marks,
scabs and scars.
25-26 Your finest fighting men will be killed,
your soldiers left dead on the battlefield.
The entrance gate to Zion will be clotted
with people mourning their dead—
A city stooped under the weight of her loss,
brought to her knees by her sorrows.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, March 14, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 63:1–8
You, God, are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,m
my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
where there is no water.n
2 I have seen you in the sanctuaryo
and beheld your power and your glory.p
3 Because your love is better than life,q
my lips will glorify you.
4 I will praise you as long as I live,r
and in your name I will lift up my hands.s
5 I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;t
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
6 On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.u
7 Because you are my help,v
I sing in the shadow of your wings.w
8 I cling to you; your right hand upholds me.
Insight
The superscription to Psalm 63 provides the author and setting: “A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah.” In verse 11, David refers to himself as “the king,” so we know it wasn’t written when King Saul was pursuing him. Instead it likely was written later during the events of 2 Samuel 15 when David’s son Absalom conspired against his father to gain the throne, gathered supporters, and even enlisted David’s close friend and counselor Ahithophel (vv. 10–12). These events drove David in haste from Jerusalem into the desert (vv. 14, 23).
Better than Life
Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. Psalm 63:3
Though Mary loved Jesus—life was hard, real hard. Two sons preceded her in death as did two grandsons, both victims of shootings. And Mary herself suffered a crippling stroke that left her paralyzed on one side. Yet, as soon as she was able she made her way to church services where it wasn’t uncommon for her—with fractured speech—to express praise to the Lord with words like, “My soul loves Jesus; bless His name!”
Long before Mary expressed her praise to God, David penned the words of Psalm 63. The heading of the psalm notes that David wrote it “when he was in the Desert of Judah.” Though in a less than desirable—even desperate—situation, he didn’t despair because he hoped in God. “You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you . . . in a dry and parched land where there is no water” (v. 1).
Perhaps you’ve found yourself in a place of difficulty, without clear direction or adequate resources. Uncomfortable situations can confuse us, but they need not derail us when we cling to the One who loves us (v. 3), satisfies us (v. 5), helps us (v. 7), and whose right hand upholds us (v. 8). Because God’s love is better than life, like Mary and David, we can express our satisfaction with lips that praise and honor God (vv. 3–5). By: Arthur Jackson
Reflect & Pray
How would you describe your attitude when you find yourself in a “desert season” of life? How can Psalm 63 help you to better prepare for such seasons?
Jesus, I’m so grateful that I can praise You in the dry, desperate times of my life because Your love is better than life!
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, March 14, 2020
Yielding
…you are that one’s slaves whom you obey… —Romans 6:16
The first thing I must be willing to admit when I begin to examine what controls and dominates me is that I am the one responsible for having yielded myself to whatever it may be. If I am a slave to myself, I am to blame because somewhere in the past I yielded to myself. Likewise, if I obey God I do so because at some point in my life I yielded myself to Him.
If a child gives in to selfishness, he will find it to be the most enslaving tyranny on earth. There is no power within the human soul itself that is capable of breaking the bondage of the nature created by yielding. For example, yield for one second to anything in the nature of lust, and although you may hate yourself for having yielded, you become enslaved to that thing. (Remember what lust is— “I must have it now,” whether it is the lust of the flesh or the lust of the mind.) No release or escape from it will ever come from any human power, but only through the power of redemption. You must yield yourself in utter humiliation to the only One who can break the dominating power in your life, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ. “…He has anointed Me…to proclaim liberty to the captives…” (Luke 4:18 and Isaiah 61:1).
When you yield to something, you will soon realize the tremendous control it has over you. Even though you say, “Oh, I can give up that habit whenever I like,” you will know you can’t. You will find that the habit absolutely dominates you because you willingly yielded to it. It is easy to sing, “He will break every fetter,” while at the same time living a life of obvious slavery to yourself. But yielding to Jesus will break every kind of slavery in any person’s life.
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, 565 R
Bible in a Year: Deuteronomy 23-25; Mark 14:1-26
Friday, March 13, 2020
2 Corinthians 11:16-33, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: A GREAT DESCENT
Gabriel had his orders. Take the message to Mary. She must be a special girl, he assumed. But Gabriel was in for a shock. Mary was a Jewish peasant who’d barely outgrown her acne and had a crush on a guy named Joe.
But Gabriel followed through with his assignment. He wasn’t about to rebel against his boss, who also happened to control the universe. He visited Mary and told her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS” (Luke 1:30–31).
The story of Jesus begins with the story of a great descent. The Son of God became the child of Mary. He became one of us so we might become one with Him. He entered our world in the high hope that we will enter his.
2 Corinthians 11:16-33
Let me come back to where I started—and don’t hold it against me if I continue to sound a little foolish. Or if you’d rather, just accept that I am a fool and let me rant on a little. I didn’t learn this kind of talk from Christ. Oh, no, it’s a bad habit I picked up from the three-ring preachers that are so popular these days. Since you sit there in the judgment seat observing all these shenanigans, you can afford to humor an occasional fool who happens along. You have such admirable tolerance for impostors who rob your freedom, rip you off, steal you blind, put you down—even slap your face! I shouldn’t admit it to you, but our stomachs aren’t strong enough to tolerate that kind of stuff.
21-23 Since you admire the egomaniacs of the pulpit so much (remember, this is your old friend, the fool, talking), let me try my hand at it. Do they brag of being Hebrews, Israelites, the pure race of Abraham? I’m their match. Are they servants of Christ? I can go them one better. (I can’t believe I’m saying these things. It’s crazy to talk this way! But I started, and I’m going to finish.)
23-27 I’ve worked much harder, been jailed more often, beaten up more times than I can count, and at death’s door time after time. I’ve been flogged five times with the Jews’ thirty-nine lashes, beaten by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks once. I’ve been shipwrecked three times, and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day. In hard traveling year in and year out, I’ve had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes. I’ve been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by desert sun and sea storm, and betrayed by those I thought were my brothers. I’ve known drudgery and hard labor, many a long and lonely night without sleep, many a missed meal, blasted by the cold, naked to the weather.
28-29 And that’s not the half of it, when you throw in the daily pressures and anxieties of all the churches. When someone gets to the end of his rope, I feel the desperation in my bones. When someone is duped into sin, an angry fire burns in my gut.
30-33 If I have to “brag” about myself, I’ll brag about the humiliations that make me like Jesus. The eternal and blessed God and Father of our Master Jesus knows I’m not lying. Remember the time I was in Damascus and the governor of King Aretas posted guards at the city gates to arrest me? I crawled through a window in the wall, was let down in a basket, and had to run for my life.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, March 13, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Philippians 4:10–20
Thanks for Their Gifts
10 I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me.w Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. 11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be contentx whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry,y whether living in plenty or in want.z 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.a
14 Yet it was good of you to shareb in my troubles. 15 Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early daysc of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia,d not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only;e 16 for even when I was in Thessalonica,f you sent me aid more than once when I was in need.g 17 Not that I desire your gifts; what I desire is that more be credited to your account.h 18 I have received full payment and have more than enough. I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditusi the gifts you sent. They are a fragrantj offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. 19 And my God will meet all your needsk according to the riches of his gloryl in Christ Jesus.
20 To our God and Fatherm be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Insight
Philippians 4:10–20 is one of Paul’s great expositions on contentment, along with 1 Timothy 6:2–10. It’s clear from both passages that Paul isn’t concerned about wealth. Indeed, his focus isn’t on his own needs but on the benefit provided to the generous givers, “God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi” (Philippians 1:1). Paul says, “Not that I desire your gifts; what I desire is that more be credited to your account” (4:17). He saw their generous contributions as a sacrifice to God and noted that it was God who would meet their needs (vv. 18–19).
Whack-a-Mole
Godliness with contentment is great gain. 1 Timothy 6:6
You might know what it’s like. The bills keep arriving after a medical procedure—from the anesthesiologist, the surgeon, the lab, the facility. Jason experienced this after an emergency surgery. He complained, “We owe thousands of dollars after insurance. If only we can get these bills paid, then life will be good and I’ll be content! I feel like I’m playing the arcade game Whack-a-Mole”—where plastic moles pop up from their holes, and the player hits them wildly with a mallet.
Life comes at us like that at times. The apostle Paul certainly could relate. He said, “I know what it is to be in need,” yet he’d “learned the secret of being content in any and every situation” (Philippians 4:12). His secret? “I can do all this through him who gives me strength” (v. 13). When I was going through a particularly discontented time, I read this on a greeting card: “If it isn’t here, where is it?” That was a powerful reminder that if I’m not content here and now, what makes me think I’d be if only I were in another situation?
How do we learn to rest in Jesus? Maybe it’s a matter of focus. Of enjoying and being thankful for the good. Of learning more about a faithful Father. Of growing in trust and patience. Of recognizing that life is about God and not me. Of asking Him to teach me contentment in Him. By: Anne Cetas
Reflect & Pray
In what areas of your life do you need to grow in contentment? How might you change your focus?
God, You are good and all You do is good. Teach me contentment in You. I want to learn.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, March 13, 2020
God’s Total Surrender to Us
For God so loved the world that He gave… —John 3:16
Salvation does not mean merely deliverance from sin or the experience of personal holiness. The salvation which comes from God means being completely delivered from myself, and being placed into perfect union with Him. When I think of my salvation experience, I think of being delivered from sin and gaining personal holiness. But salvation is so much more! It means that the Spirit of God has brought me into intimate contact with the true Person of God Himself. And as I am caught up into total surrender to God, I become thrilled with something infinitely greater than myself.
To say that we are called to preach holiness or sanctification is to miss the main point. We are called to proclaim Jesus Christ (see 1 Corinthians 2:2). The fact that He saves from sin and makes us holy is actually part of the effect of His wonderful and total surrender to us.
If we are truly surrendered, we will never be aware of our own efforts to remain surrendered. Our entire life will be consumed with the One to whom we surrender. Beware of talking about surrender if you know nothing about it. In fact, you will never know anything about it until you understand that John 3:16 means that God completely and absolutely gave Himself to us. In our surrender, we must give ourselves to God in the same way He gave Himself for us— totally, unconditionally, and without reservation. The consequences and circumstances resulting from our surrender will never even enter our mind, because our life will be totally consumed with Him.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The fiery furnaces are there by God’s direct permission. It is misleading to imagine that we are developed in spite of our circumstances; we are developed because of them. It is mastery in circumstances that is needed, not mastery over them. The Love of God—The Message of Invincible Consolation, 674 R
Bible in a Year: Deuteronomy 20-22; Mark 13:21-37
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, March 13, 2020
The "Go To" god That's Got To Go - #8655
Who has any idea when they're standing there at the altar looking all goo-goo eyed at each other what those vows really mean? But there's a reason for those vows. They anticipate what a marriage commitment to someone really means over a lifetime. I'm glad they video record or audio record weddings. As the years unfold, you need to listen again to what you promised. Our wedding was recorded. Actually it was chiseled on stone tablets by a stenographer. It was a long time ago, but it wasn't that long. No, really. It was too soon for a video tape, but we did get an audio tape. We had the privilege of writing our wedding ceremony, so we got to make a very personal commitment to each other in our vows. But for all the words we said that day, three words capture the essence of what it means to totally commit the rest of your life to someone: "forsaking all others."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The 'Go To' god That's Got To Go."
The night I married the precious love of my life, I wasn't only committing myself to love her. I was abandoning any other love - past, present or future. I hadn't met all the other women I would meet in my life, but that didn't matter. Sight unseen, not knowing what would come up, I was forsaking any other partner and committing everything I had to one woman for my whole life.
Your marriage commitment, as important as that is, is the second most important commitment in your life. And it's far behind the most important one. The most important commitment of your life is the one you make to Jesus Christ, because He's the One who died for you. He is your only hope for now and forever. He's the One you were made by, He's the One you were made for. As the Bible says, "All things were created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16). That includes you. He's your reason for living; He's your destiny. If you don't belong to Him, you're literally missing the reason there's a you.
But here's the problem. Many people look at the incredible love Jesus showed for them by dying for them on the cross. They look at the awesome power He has proven by His resurrection from the dead and they say, "Yep, I want to belong to Him." And then make a commitment to Jesus.
But many miss the "forsaking all others" part of a lifetime commitment - the abandoning of all other gods. In other words, you can't have a one-hand Savior - a Savior you grab with just one hand while you keep your other hand on another god. I call it your "go to" god - whatever you go to when the pressure's on, when the feeling's gone, when you're hurting, when you're restless. It could be a guy or girl you hang onto or something you use to relieve your pain, or it could be old friends, or old habits, pornography, a religion or spirituality that's just not about Jesus being your only hope, things you do to feel loved or accepted or significant.
When you do that, you're slapping Jesus with the ultimate insult, "You're not enough, Jesus. I need this, too." "Jesus and..." That just doesn't cut it anymore than having told my wife that I needed my wife and someone else. That wouldn't cut it. When Jesus has sacrificed His life for you, when He has all the power and all the love in the universe, how could you need something or someone else to fall back on?
Not long ago, at a conference for young people, I asked them to write their "other gods" on a card - the things or people that they tend to go to when the going gets tough. There was a cross at the front of the auditorium. At the end of the meeting, I asked them to bring the card that represented their other gods and, if they were willing to do this before the Savior who would never forget what they did, to tear up that card and leave the fragments of their other gods at the foot of the cross.
Look, you don't have a card, but I'm asking you to make that same kind of
surrender to Jesus where you are. To finally make Jesus your two-hand Savior - the One you're holding with both hands because you've abandoned what's always been in the other hand.
Look, this total commitment to Him is where you begin to experience all His love and His power. Go there today. Get this done. Our website will help you with it. Go there today. It's ANewStory.com. Let this be the beginning of your new story.
He surrendered everything for you. Can you do less for Him?
Gabriel had his orders. Take the message to Mary. She must be a special girl, he assumed. But Gabriel was in for a shock. Mary was a Jewish peasant who’d barely outgrown her acne and had a crush on a guy named Joe.
But Gabriel followed through with his assignment. He wasn’t about to rebel against his boss, who also happened to control the universe. He visited Mary and told her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS” (Luke 1:30–31).
The story of Jesus begins with the story of a great descent. The Son of God became the child of Mary. He became one of us so we might become one with Him. He entered our world in the high hope that we will enter his.
2 Corinthians 11:16-33
Let me come back to where I started—and don’t hold it against me if I continue to sound a little foolish. Or if you’d rather, just accept that I am a fool and let me rant on a little. I didn’t learn this kind of talk from Christ. Oh, no, it’s a bad habit I picked up from the three-ring preachers that are so popular these days. Since you sit there in the judgment seat observing all these shenanigans, you can afford to humor an occasional fool who happens along. You have such admirable tolerance for impostors who rob your freedom, rip you off, steal you blind, put you down—even slap your face! I shouldn’t admit it to you, but our stomachs aren’t strong enough to tolerate that kind of stuff.
21-23 Since you admire the egomaniacs of the pulpit so much (remember, this is your old friend, the fool, talking), let me try my hand at it. Do they brag of being Hebrews, Israelites, the pure race of Abraham? I’m their match. Are they servants of Christ? I can go them one better. (I can’t believe I’m saying these things. It’s crazy to talk this way! But I started, and I’m going to finish.)
23-27 I’ve worked much harder, been jailed more often, beaten up more times than I can count, and at death’s door time after time. I’ve been flogged five times with the Jews’ thirty-nine lashes, beaten by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks once. I’ve been shipwrecked three times, and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day. In hard traveling year in and year out, I’ve had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes. I’ve been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by desert sun and sea storm, and betrayed by those I thought were my brothers. I’ve known drudgery and hard labor, many a long and lonely night without sleep, many a missed meal, blasted by the cold, naked to the weather.
28-29 And that’s not the half of it, when you throw in the daily pressures and anxieties of all the churches. When someone gets to the end of his rope, I feel the desperation in my bones. When someone is duped into sin, an angry fire burns in my gut.
30-33 If I have to “brag” about myself, I’ll brag about the humiliations that make me like Jesus. The eternal and blessed God and Father of our Master Jesus knows I’m not lying. Remember the time I was in Damascus and the governor of King Aretas posted guards at the city gates to arrest me? I crawled through a window in the wall, was let down in a basket, and had to run for my life.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, March 13, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Philippians 4:10–20
Thanks for Their Gifts
10 I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me.w Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. 11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be contentx whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry,y whether living in plenty or in want.z 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.a
14 Yet it was good of you to shareb in my troubles. 15 Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early daysc of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia,d not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only;e 16 for even when I was in Thessalonica,f you sent me aid more than once when I was in need.g 17 Not that I desire your gifts; what I desire is that more be credited to your account.h 18 I have received full payment and have more than enough. I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditusi the gifts you sent. They are a fragrantj offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. 19 And my God will meet all your needsk according to the riches of his gloryl in Christ Jesus.
20 To our God and Fatherm be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Insight
Philippians 4:10–20 is one of Paul’s great expositions on contentment, along with 1 Timothy 6:2–10. It’s clear from both passages that Paul isn’t concerned about wealth. Indeed, his focus isn’t on his own needs but on the benefit provided to the generous givers, “God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi” (Philippians 1:1). Paul says, “Not that I desire your gifts; what I desire is that more be credited to your account” (4:17). He saw their generous contributions as a sacrifice to God and noted that it was God who would meet their needs (vv. 18–19).
Whack-a-Mole
Godliness with contentment is great gain. 1 Timothy 6:6
You might know what it’s like. The bills keep arriving after a medical procedure—from the anesthesiologist, the surgeon, the lab, the facility. Jason experienced this after an emergency surgery. He complained, “We owe thousands of dollars after insurance. If only we can get these bills paid, then life will be good and I’ll be content! I feel like I’m playing the arcade game Whack-a-Mole”—where plastic moles pop up from their holes, and the player hits them wildly with a mallet.
Life comes at us like that at times. The apostle Paul certainly could relate. He said, “I know what it is to be in need,” yet he’d “learned the secret of being content in any and every situation” (Philippians 4:12). His secret? “I can do all this through him who gives me strength” (v. 13). When I was going through a particularly discontented time, I read this on a greeting card: “If it isn’t here, where is it?” That was a powerful reminder that if I’m not content here and now, what makes me think I’d be if only I were in another situation?
How do we learn to rest in Jesus? Maybe it’s a matter of focus. Of enjoying and being thankful for the good. Of learning more about a faithful Father. Of growing in trust and patience. Of recognizing that life is about God and not me. Of asking Him to teach me contentment in Him. By: Anne Cetas
Reflect & Pray
In what areas of your life do you need to grow in contentment? How might you change your focus?
God, You are good and all You do is good. Teach me contentment in You. I want to learn.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, March 13, 2020
God’s Total Surrender to Us
For God so loved the world that He gave… —John 3:16
Salvation does not mean merely deliverance from sin or the experience of personal holiness. The salvation which comes from God means being completely delivered from myself, and being placed into perfect union with Him. When I think of my salvation experience, I think of being delivered from sin and gaining personal holiness. But salvation is so much more! It means that the Spirit of God has brought me into intimate contact with the true Person of God Himself. And as I am caught up into total surrender to God, I become thrilled with something infinitely greater than myself.
To say that we are called to preach holiness or sanctification is to miss the main point. We are called to proclaim Jesus Christ (see 1 Corinthians 2:2). The fact that He saves from sin and makes us holy is actually part of the effect of His wonderful and total surrender to us.
If we are truly surrendered, we will never be aware of our own efforts to remain surrendered. Our entire life will be consumed with the One to whom we surrender. Beware of talking about surrender if you know nothing about it. In fact, you will never know anything about it until you understand that John 3:16 means that God completely and absolutely gave Himself to us. In our surrender, we must give ourselves to God in the same way He gave Himself for us— totally, unconditionally, and without reservation. The consequences and circumstances resulting from our surrender will never even enter our mind, because our life will be totally consumed with Him.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The fiery furnaces are there by God’s direct permission. It is misleading to imagine that we are developed in spite of our circumstances; we are developed because of them. It is mastery in circumstances that is needed, not mastery over them. The Love of God—The Message of Invincible Consolation, 674 R
Bible in a Year: Deuteronomy 20-22; Mark 13:21-37
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, March 13, 2020
The "Go To" god That's Got To Go - #8655
Who has any idea when they're standing there at the altar looking all goo-goo eyed at each other what those vows really mean? But there's a reason for those vows. They anticipate what a marriage commitment to someone really means over a lifetime. I'm glad they video record or audio record weddings. As the years unfold, you need to listen again to what you promised. Our wedding was recorded. Actually it was chiseled on stone tablets by a stenographer. It was a long time ago, but it wasn't that long. No, really. It was too soon for a video tape, but we did get an audio tape. We had the privilege of writing our wedding ceremony, so we got to make a very personal commitment to each other in our vows. But for all the words we said that day, three words capture the essence of what it means to totally commit the rest of your life to someone: "forsaking all others."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The 'Go To' god That's Got To Go."
The night I married the precious love of my life, I wasn't only committing myself to love her. I was abandoning any other love - past, present or future. I hadn't met all the other women I would meet in my life, but that didn't matter. Sight unseen, not knowing what would come up, I was forsaking any other partner and committing everything I had to one woman for my whole life.
Your marriage commitment, as important as that is, is the second most important commitment in your life. And it's far behind the most important one. The most important commitment of your life is the one you make to Jesus Christ, because He's the One who died for you. He is your only hope for now and forever. He's the One you were made by, He's the One you were made for. As the Bible says, "All things were created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16). That includes you. He's your reason for living; He's your destiny. If you don't belong to Him, you're literally missing the reason there's a you.
But here's the problem. Many people look at the incredible love Jesus showed for them by dying for them on the cross. They look at the awesome power He has proven by His resurrection from the dead and they say, "Yep, I want to belong to Him." And then make a commitment to Jesus.
But many miss the "forsaking all others" part of a lifetime commitment - the abandoning of all other gods. In other words, you can't have a one-hand Savior - a Savior you grab with just one hand while you keep your other hand on another god. I call it your "go to" god - whatever you go to when the pressure's on, when the feeling's gone, when you're hurting, when you're restless. It could be a guy or girl you hang onto or something you use to relieve your pain, or it could be old friends, or old habits, pornography, a religion or spirituality that's just not about Jesus being your only hope, things you do to feel loved or accepted or significant.
When you do that, you're slapping Jesus with the ultimate insult, "You're not enough, Jesus. I need this, too." "Jesus and..." That just doesn't cut it anymore than having told my wife that I needed my wife and someone else. That wouldn't cut it. When Jesus has sacrificed His life for you, when He has all the power and all the love in the universe, how could you need something or someone else to fall back on?
Not long ago, at a conference for young people, I asked them to write their "other gods" on a card - the things or people that they tend to go to when the going gets tough. There was a cross at the front of the auditorium. At the end of the meeting, I asked them to bring the card that represented their other gods and, if they were willing to do this before the Savior who would never forget what they did, to tear up that card and leave the fragments of their other gods at the foot of the cross.
Look, you don't have a card, but I'm asking you to make that same kind of
surrender to Jesus where you are. To finally make Jesus your two-hand Savior - the One you're holding with both hands because you've abandoned what's always been in the other hand.
Look, this total commitment to Him is where you begin to experience all His love and His power. Go there today. Get this done. Our website will help you with it. Go there today. It's ANewStory.com. Let this be the beginning of your new story.
He surrendered everything for you. Can you do less for Him?
Thursday, March 12, 2020
Isaiah 2, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: GOD BECAME A BABY
Prior to Bethlehem God gave us his messengers, his teachers, and his words. But in the manger, God gave us himself. Extraordinary, don’t you think?
I imagine even Gabriel scratched his head at the idea of “God with us.” Gabriel surely was not one to question his God-given missions. When God sent, Gabriel went. And when the word got out that God was to become a human, Gabriel was no doubt enthused. He could envision the moment! The Messiah in a blazing chariot. The King descending on a fiery cloud. An explosion of light from which the Messiah would emerge.
What he never expected, however, was a slip of paper with a Nazarene address. “God will become a baby,” it read. “Tell the mother to name the child Jesus. And tell her not to be afraid.”
Isaiah 2
The Message Isaiah got regarding Judah and Jerusalem:
There’s a day coming
when the mountain of God’s House
Will be The Mountain—
solid, towering over all mountains.
All nations will river toward it,
people from all over set out for it.
They’ll say, “Come,
let’s climb God’s Mountain,
go to the House of the God of Jacob.
He’ll show us the way he works
so we can live the way we’re made.”
Zion’s the source of the revelation.
God’s Message comes from Jerusalem.
He’ll settle things fairly between nations.
He’ll make things right between many peoples.
They’ll turn their swords into shovels,
their spears into hoes.
No more will nation fight nation;
they won’t play war anymore.
Come, family of Jacob,
let’s live in the light of God.
6-9 God, you’ve walked out on your family Jacob
because their world is full of hokey religion,
Philistine witchcraft, and pagan hocus-pocus,
a world rolling in wealth,
Stuffed with things,
no end to its machines and gadgets,
And gods—gods of all sorts and sizes.
These people make their own gods and worship what they make.
A degenerate race, facedown in the gutter.
Don’t bother with them! They’re not worth forgiving!
10 Head for the hills,
hide in the caves
From the terror of God,
from his dazzling presence.
11-17 People with a big head are headed for a fall,
pretentious egos brought down a peg.
It’s God alone at front-and-center
on the Day we’re talking about,
The Day that God-of-the-Angel-Armies
is matched against all big-talking rivals,
against all swaggering big names;
Against all giant sequoias
hugely towering,
and against the expansive chestnut;
Against Kilimanjaro and Annapurna,
against the ranges of Alps and Andes;
Against every soaring skyscraper,
against all proud obelisks and statues;
Against ocean-going luxury liners,
against elegant three-masted schooners.
The swelled big heads will be punctured bladders,
the pretentious egos brought down to earth,
Leaving God alone at front-and-center
on the Day we’re talking about.
18 And all those sticks and stones
dressed up to look like gods
will be gone for good.
19 Clamber into caves in the cliffs,
duck into any hole you can find.
Hide from the terror of God,
from his dazzling presence,
When he assumes his full stature on earth,
towering and terrifying.
20-21 On that Day men and women will take
the sticks and stones
They’ve decked out in gold and silver
to look like gods and then worshiped,
And they will dump them
in any ditch or gully,
Then run for rock caves
and cliff hideouts
To hide from the terror of God,
from his dazzling presence,
When he assumes his full stature on earth,
towering and terrifying.
22 Quit scraping and fawning over mere humans,
so full of themselves, so full of hot air!
Can’t you see there’s nothing to them?
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, March 12, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Colossians 4:2–6
Further Instructions
2 Devote yourselves to prayer,p being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a doorq for our message, so that we may proclaim the mysteryr of Christ, for which I am in chains.s 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5 Be wiset in the way you act toward outsiders;u make the most of every opportunity.v 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace,w seasoned with salt,x so that you may know how to answer everyone.
Insight
While under house arrest in Rome, Paul composed what are commonly referred to as his Prison Letters: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. Although grouped together because all were written from Paul’s place of confinement, these four letters each have their own distinct audience and purpose. One of the Prison Letters (Philippians) was directed to Greece while the other three epistles were sent to Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). Ephesians and Colossians present the theme of the body of Christ and Christ the head of the church (Christ’s headship)—though from different perspectives. Ephesians focuses on His headship, while Colossians looks more closely at the church. Philippians, written to the members of Paul’s first church plant on European soil, describes how believers can experience joy even in the midst of difficult circumstances. Philemon is the only personal letter of the group, encouraging his dear friend to deal kindly with a recently converted runaway slave, Onesimus.
Every Opportunity
Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Colossians 4:5
Ever caught a dragon? I hadn’t until my son convinced me to download a game on my phone. Producing a digital map mirroring the real world, the game allows you to catch colorful creatures near you.
Unlike most mobile games, this one requires movement. Anywhere you go is part of the game’s playing field. The result? I’m doing a lot more walking! Anytime my son and I play, we strive to maximize every opportunity to nab the critters that pop up around us.
It’s easy to focus on, even obsess over, a game that’s crafted to captivate users. But as I played the game, I was convicted with this question: Am I this intentional about maximizing the spiritual opportunities around me?
Paul knew the need to be alert to God’s work around us. In Colossians 4, he asked for prayer for an opportunity to share the gospel (v. 3). Then he challenged, “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity” (v. 5). Paul didn’t want the Colossians to miss any chance of influencing others toward Christ. But doing so would require truly seeing them and their needs, then engaging in ways “full of grace” (v. 6).
In our world, far more things vie for our time and attention than a game’s imaginary dragons. But God invites us to navigate a real-world adventure, every day seeking opportunities to point to Him. By: Adam R. Holz
Reflect & Pray
When did God use someone in an unexpected way to bring you into deeper relationship with Him? When has He used you to impact someone’s life during an ordinary day?
Jesus, thank You that You’re constantly at work in the people around me. Help me to make the most of every opportunity I have to demonstrate Your love and grace.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, March 12, 2020
Total Surrender
Peter began to say to Him, "See, we have left all and followed You." —Mark 10:28
Our Lord replies to this statement of Peter by saying that this surrender is “for My sake and the gospel’s” (Mark 10:29). It was not for the purpose of what the disciples themselves would get out of it. Beware of surrender that is motivated by personal benefits that may result. For example, “I’m going to give myself to God because I want to be delivered from sin, because I want to be made holy.” Being delivered from sin and being made holy are the result of being right with God, but surrender resulting from this kind of thinking is certainly not the true nature of Christianity. Our motive for surrender should not be for any personal gain at all. We have become so self-centered that we go to God only for something from Him, and not for God Himself. It is like saying, “No, Lord, I don’t want you; I want myself. But I do want You to clean me and fill me with Your Holy Spirit. I want to be on display in Your showcase so I can say, ‘This is what God has done for me.’ ” Gaining heaven, being delivered from sin, and being made useful to God are things that should never even be a consideration in real surrender. Genuine total surrender is a personal sovereign preference for Jesus Christ Himself.
Where does Jesus Christ figure in when we have a concern about our natural relationships? Most of us will desert Him with this excuse— “Yes, Lord, I heard you call me, but my family needs me and I have my own interests. I just can’t go any further” (see Luke 9:57-62). “Then,” Jesus says, “you ‘cannot be My disciple’ ” (see Luke 14:26-33).
True surrender will always go beyond natural devotion. If we will only give up, God will surrender Himself to embrace all those around us and will meet their needs, which were created by our surrender. Beware of stopping anywhere short of total surrender to God. Most of us have only a vision of what this really means, but have never truly experienced it.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
God engineers circumstances to see what we will do. Will we be the children of our Father in heaven, or will we go back again to the meaner, common-sense attitude? Will we stake all and stand true to Him? “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” The crown of life means I shall see that my Lord has got the victory after all, even in me. The Highest Good—The Pilgrim’s Song Book, 530 L
Bible in a Year: Deuteronomy 17-19; Mark 13:1-20
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, March 12, 2020
No Torpedoes in the Harbor - #8654
My oldest son was always a challenging child: creative, active, a mind of his own, a different drummer he marched to than his sister or brother. But we had our share of tender moments, too. Some of the ones I treasure in the photo album in my mind are the times he'd slow down a little and climb into his Daddy's lap. And we'd just cuddle for a while. Sometimes I wasn't sure how he could breathe, he had his head so buried in my chest. And then he'd look up at me with those big blue eyes and he'd say something I've obviously never forgotten, "When I'm in your arms, Daddy, I feel so safe."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Torpedoes in the Harbor."
So safe. That's not only how a child is supposed to feel with his father, it's how a wife is supposed to feel with her husband. When a man is really a man (at least as God defines manhood) his wife can always say, "When I'm with you, I feel so safe." Sadly, a lot of the time the one we promised to cherish or protect feels anything but safe with us, guys. She feels wounded, attacked, criticized and devalued. And that's just wrong.
Listen to our word for today from the Word of God. It's in Colossians 3:19 - "Husbands, love your wives." Now we might be OK if it stopped there. We could pipe up and say, "Hey, no problemo. I love my wife." Sorry, but the verse doesn't stop there. It goes on to say, "...and do not be harsh with them." It's pretty plain, isn't it? Love and harshness don't go together. Love makes a woman feel safe. Harshness makes a woman feel anything but safe.
I wonder if maybe you've gotten so busy, so stressed, so uptight that you've been spilling all over the one you love the most. She gets the meanness that you can't let other people see, and she doesn't deserve it! You stood at an altar one day, man, and you pledged before God that you would honor her and protect her. But you're not protecting her from you! Sometimes, we just get all self-absorbed. I tend to drift into self-absorption when I'm feeling really squeezed by all I've got to do, when I'm really tired, when I'm on overload. And that's when the harsh words are most likely to come.
Which is the total opposite of God's directive on how a man is supposed to treat his lifetime partner. In 1 Peter 3:7, He tells us, "Husbands...be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers." God cares so much about how you treat your wife that it can literally be the difference in whether or not He responds to your prayers!
Certain packages carry a sign that says "Handle with care." Wives should come with a sign like that. That's what they need. It's what they're supposed to get. It's the treatment God expects us to give them. Frankly, a woman who is being spoken to or treated harshly by her husband has an understandable feeling of betrayal. Why? Because her husband's love was supposed to be the harbor for which the heart of a woman truly longs. That's harbor as in the one place wher
e you're finally safe - the one place you won't be attacked.
No woman should be hit with torpedoes in the harbor because the man who loves her is being harsh with her. Man, when she's with you, would you let her know that she is really safe.
Prior to Bethlehem God gave us his messengers, his teachers, and his words. But in the manger, God gave us himself. Extraordinary, don’t you think?
I imagine even Gabriel scratched his head at the idea of “God with us.” Gabriel surely was not one to question his God-given missions. When God sent, Gabriel went. And when the word got out that God was to become a human, Gabriel was no doubt enthused. He could envision the moment! The Messiah in a blazing chariot. The King descending on a fiery cloud. An explosion of light from which the Messiah would emerge.
What he never expected, however, was a slip of paper with a Nazarene address. “God will become a baby,” it read. “Tell the mother to name the child Jesus. And tell her not to be afraid.”
Isaiah 2
The Message Isaiah got regarding Judah and Jerusalem:
There’s a day coming
when the mountain of God’s House
Will be The Mountain—
solid, towering over all mountains.
All nations will river toward it,
people from all over set out for it.
They’ll say, “Come,
let’s climb God’s Mountain,
go to the House of the God of Jacob.
He’ll show us the way he works
so we can live the way we’re made.”
Zion’s the source of the revelation.
God’s Message comes from Jerusalem.
He’ll settle things fairly between nations.
He’ll make things right between many peoples.
They’ll turn their swords into shovels,
their spears into hoes.
No more will nation fight nation;
they won’t play war anymore.
Come, family of Jacob,
let’s live in the light of God.
6-9 God, you’ve walked out on your family Jacob
because their world is full of hokey religion,
Philistine witchcraft, and pagan hocus-pocus,
a world rolling in wealth,
Stuffed with things,
no end to its machines and gadgets,
And gods—gods of all sorts and sizes.
These people make their own gods and worship what they make.
A degenerate race, facedown in the gutter.
Don’t bother with them! They’re not worth forgiving!
10 Head for the hills,
hide in the caves
From the terror of God,
from his dazzling presence.
11-17 People with a big head are headed for a fall,
pretentious egos brought down a peg.
It’s God alone at front-and-center
on the Day we’re talking about,
The Day that God-of-the-Angel-Armies
is matched against all big-talking rivals,
against all swaggering big names;
Against all giant sequoias
hugely towering,
and against the expansive chestnut;
Against Kilimanjaro and Annapurna,
against the ranges of Alps and Andes;
Against every soaring skyscraper,
against all proud obelisks and statues;
Against ocean-going luxury liners,
against elegant three-masted schooners.
The swelled big heads will be punctured bladders,
the pretentious egos brought down to earth,
Leaving God alone at front-and-center
on the Day we’re talking about.
18 And all those sticks and stones
dressed up to look like gods
will be gone for good.
19 Clamber into caves in the cliffs,
duck into any hole you can find.
Hide from the terror of God,
from his dazzling presence,
When he assumes his full stature on earth,
towering and terrifying.
20-21 On that Day men and women will take
the sticks and stones
They’ve decked out in gold and silver
to look like gods and then worshiped,
And they will dump them
in any ditch or gully,
Then run for rock caves
and cliff hideouts
To hide from the terror of God,
from his dazzling presence,
When he assumes his full stature on earth,
towering and terrifying.
22 Quit scraping and fawning over mere humans,
so full of themselves, so full of hot air!
Can’t you see there’s nothing to them?
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, March 12, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Colossians 4:2–6
Further Instructions
2 Devote yourselves to prayer,p being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a doorq for our message, so that we may proclaim the mysteryr of Christ, for which I am in chains.s 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5 Be wiset in the way you act toward outsiders;u make the most of every opportunity.v 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace,w seasoned with salt,x so that you may know how to answer everyone.
Insight
While under house arrest in Rome, Paul composed what are commonly referred to as his Prison Letters: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. Although grouped together because all were written from Paul’s place of confinement, these four letters each have their own distinct audience and purpose. One of the Prison Letters (Philippians) was directed to Greece while the other three epistles were sent to Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). Ephesians and Colossians present the theme of the body of Christ and Christ the head of the church (Christ’s headship)—though from different perspectives. Ephesians focuses on His headship, while Colossians looks more closely at the church. Philippians, written to the members of Paul’s first church plant on European soil, describes how believers can experience joy even in the midst of difficult circumstances. Philemon is the only personal letter of the group, encouraging his dear friend to deal kindly with a recently converted runaway slave, Onesimus.
Every Opportunity
Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Colossians 4:5
Ever caught a dragon? I hadn’t until my son convinced me to download a game on my phone. Producing a digital map mirroring the real world, the game allows you to catch colorful creatures near you.
Unlike most mobile games, this one requires movement. Anywhere you go is part of the game’s playing field. The result? I’m doing a lot more walking! Anytime my son and I play, we strive to maximize every opportunity to nab the critters that pop up around us.
It’s easy to focus on, even obsess over, a game that’s crafted to captivate users. But as I played the game, I was convicted with this question: Am I this intentional about maximizing the spiritual opportunities around me?
Paul knew the need to be alert to God’s work around us. In Colossians 4, he asked for prayer for an opportunity to share the gospel (v. 3). Then he challenged, “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity” (v. 5). Paul didn’t want the Colossians to miss any chance of influencing others toward Christ. But doing so would require truly seeing them and their needs, then engaging in ways “full of grace” (v. 6).
In our world, far more things vie for our time and attention than a game’s imaginary dragons. But God invites us to navigate a real-world adventure, every day seeking opportunities to point to Him. By: Adam R. Holz
Reflect & Pray
When did God use someone in an unexpected way to bring you into deeper relationship with Him? When has He used you to impact someone’s life during an ordinary day?
Jesus, thank You that You’re constantly at work in the people around me. Help me to make the most of every opportunity I have to demonstrate Your love and grace.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, March 12, 2020
Total Surrender
Peter began to say to Him, "See, we have left all and followed You." —Mark 10:28
Our Lord replies to this statement of Peter by saying that this surrender is “for My sake and the gospel’s” (Mark 10:29). It was not for the purpose of what the disciples themselves would get out of it. Beware of surrender that is motivated by personal benefits that may result. For example, “I’m going to give myself to God because I want to be delivered from sin, because I want to be made holy.” Being delivered from sin and being made holy are the result of being right with God, but surrender resulting from this kind of thinking is certainly not the true nature of Christianity. Our motive for surrender should not be for any personal gain at all. We have become so self-centered that we go to God only for something from Him, and not for God Himself. It is like saying, “No, Lord, I don’t want you; I want myself. But I do want You to clean me and fill me with Your Holy Spirit. I want to be on display in Your showcase so I can say, ‘This is what God has done for me.’ ” Gaining heaven, being delivered from sin, and being made useful to God are things that should never even be a consideration in real surrender. Genuine total surrender is a personal sovereign preference for Jesus Christ Himself.
Where does Jesus Christ figure in when we have a concern about our natural relationships? Most of us will desert Him with this excuse— “Yes, Lord, I heard you call me, but my family needs me and I have my own interests. I just can’t go any further” (see Luke 9:57-62). “Then,” Jesus says, “you ‘cannot be My disciple’ ” (see Luke 14:26-33).
True surrender will always go beyond natural devotion. If we will only give up, God will surrender Himself to embrace all those around us and will meet their needs, which were created by our surrender. Beware of stopping anywhere short of total surrender to God. Most of us have only a vision of what this really means, but have never truly experienced it.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
God engineers circumstances to see what we will do. Will we be the children of our Father in heaven, or will we go back again to the meaner, common-sense attitude? Will we stake all and stand true to Him? “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” The crown of life means I shall see that my Lord has got the victory after all, even in me. The Highest Good—The Pilgrim’s Song Book, 530 L
Bible in a Year: Deuteronomy 17-19; Mark 13:1-20
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, March 12, 2020
No Torpedoes in the Harbor - #8654
My oldest son was always a challenging child: creative, active, a mind of his own, a different drummer he marched to than his sister or brother. But we had our share of tender moments, too. Some of the ones I treasure in the photo album in my mind are the times he'd slow down a little and climb into his Daddy's lap. And we'd just cuddle for a while. Sometimes I wasn't sure how he could breathe, he had his head so buried in my chest. And then he'd look up at me with those big blue eyes and he'd say something I've obviously never forgotten, "When I'm in your arms, Daddy, I feel so safe."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Torpedoes in the Harbor."
So safe. That's not only how a child is supposed to feel with his father, it's how a wife is supposed to feel with her husband. When a man is really a man (at least as God defines manhood) his wife can always say, "When I'm with you, I feel so safe." Sadly, a lot of the time the one we promised to cherish or protect feels anything but safe with us, guys. She feels wounded, attacked, criticized and devalued. And that's just wrong.
Listen to our word for today from the Word of God. It's in Colossians 3:19 - "Husbands, love your wives." Now we might be OK if it stopped there. We could pipe up and say, "Hey, no problemo. I love my wife." Sorry, but the verse doesn't stop there. It goes on to say, "...and do not be harsh with them." It's pretty plain, isn't it? Love and harshness don't go together. Love makes a woman feel safe. Harshness makes a woman feel anything but safe.
I wonder if maybe you've gotten so busy, so stressed, so uptight that you've been spilling all over the one you love the most. She gets the meanness that you can't let other people see, and she doesn't deserve it! You stood at an altar one day, man, and you pledged before God that you would honor her and protect her. But you're not protecting her from you! Sometimes, we just get all self-absorbed. I tend to drift into self-absorption when I'm feeling really squeezed by all I've got to do, when I'm really tired, when I'm on overload. And that's when the harsh words are most likely to come.
Which is the total opposite of God's directive on how a man is supposed to treat his lifetime partner. In 1 Peter 3:7, He tells us, "Husbands...be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers." God cares so much about how you treat your wife that it can literally be the difference in whether or not He responds to your prayers!
Certain packages carry a sign that says "Handle with care." Wives should come with a sign like that. That's what they need. It's what they're supposed to get. It's the treatment God expects us to give them. Frankly, a woman who is being spoken to or treated harshly by her husband has an understandable feeling of betrayal. Why? Because her husband's love was supposed to be the harbor for which the heart of a woman truly longs. That's harbor as in the one place wher
e you're finally safe - the one place you won't be attacked.
No woman should be hit with torpedoes in the harbor because the man who loves her is being harsh with her. Man, when she's with you, would you let her know that she is really safe.
Wednesday, March 11, 2020
Isaiah 1, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: GOD IS WITH US
Jesus understands you. He’s faced hunger, sorrow, and death and wants to face them with you. Scripture says Jesus “understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
If Jesus understands our weaknesses, then so does God. Jesus was God in human form. He was God with us. That is why Jesus is called Immanuel. Immanu means “with us.” El refers to Elohim, or God. So Immanuel is not an “above-us God” or a “somewhere-in-the-neighborhood God.” He came as the “with-us God.” All of us.
“I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Search for restrictions on the promise and you’ll find none. There’s no withholding tax on God’s “with us” promise. God is with us. What great news.
Isaiah 1
Messages of Judgment
The vision that Isaiah son of Amoz saw regarding Judah and Jerusalem during the times of the kings of Judah: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.
2-4 Heaven and earth, you’re the jury.
Listen to God’s case:
“I had children and raised them well,
and they turned on me.
The ox knows who’s boss,
the mule knows the hand that feeds him,
But not Israel.
My people don’t know up from down.
Shame! Misguided God-dropouts,
staggering under their guilt-baggage,
Gang of miscreants,
band of vandals—
My people have walked out on me, their God,
turned their backs on The Holy of Israel,
walked off and never looked back.
5-9 “Why bother even trying to do anything with you
when you just keep to your bullheaded ways?
You keep beating your heads against brick walls.
Everything within you protests against you.
From the bottom of your feet to the top of your head,
nothing’s working right.
Wounds and bruises and running sores—
untended, unwashed, unbandaged.
Your country is laid waste,
your cities burned down.
Your land is destroyed by outsiders while you watch,
reduced to rubble by barbarians.
Daughter Zion is deserted—
like a tumbledown shack on a dead-end street,
Like a tarpaper shanty on the wrong side of the tracks,
like a sinking ship abandoned by the rats.
If God-of-the-Angel-Armies hadn’t left us a few survivors,
we’d be as desolate as Sodom, doomed just like Gomorrah.
10 “Listen to my Message,
you Sodom-schooled leaders.
Receive God’s revelation,
you Gomorrah-schooled people.
11-12 “Why this frenzy of sacrifices?”
God’s asking.
“Don’t you think I’ve had my fill of burnt sacrifices,
rams and plump grain-fed calves?
Don’t you think I’ve had my fill
of blood from bulls, lambs, and goats?
When you come before me,
whoever gave you the idea of acting like this,
Running here and there, doing this and that—
all this sheer commotion in the place provided for worship?
13-17 “Quit your worship charades.
I can’t stand your trivial religious games:
Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings—
meetings, meetings, meetings—I can’t stand one more!
Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them!
You’ve worn me out!
I’m sick of your religion, religion, religion,
while you go right on sinning.
When you put on your next prayer-performance,
I’ll be looking the other way.
No matter how long or loud or often you pray,
I’ll not be listening.
And do you know why? Because you’ve been tearing
people to pieces, and your hands are bloody.
Go home and wash up.
Clean up your act.
Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings
so I don’t have to look at them any longer.
Say no to wrong.
Learn to do good.
Work for justice.
Help the down-and-out.
Stand up for the homeless.
Go to bat for the defenseless.
18-20 “Come. Sit down. Let’s argue this out.”
This is God’s Message:
“If your sins are blood-red,
they’ll be snow-white.
If they’re red like crimson,
they’ll be like wool.
If you’ll willingly obey,
you’ll feast like kings.
But if you’re willful and stubborn,
you’ll die like dogs.”
That’s right. God says so.
21-23 Oh! Can you believe it? The chaste city
has become a whore!
She was once all justice,
everyone living as good neighbors,
And now they’re all
at one another’s throats.
Your coins are all counterfeits.
Your wine is watered down.
Your leaders are turncoats
who keep company with crooks.
They sell themselves to the highest bidder
and grab anything not nailed down.
They never stand up for the homeless,
never stick up for the defenseless.
24-31 This Decree, therefore, of the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
the Strong One of Israel:
“This is it! I’ll get my oppressors off my back.
I’ll get back at my enemies.
I’ll give you the back of my hand,
purge the junk from your life, clean you up.
I’ll set honest judges and wise counselors among you
just like it was back in the beginning.
Then you’ll be renamed
City-That-Treats-People-Right, the True-Blue City.”
God’s right ways will put Zion right again.
God’s right actions will restore her penitents.
But it’s curtains for rebels and God-traitors,
a dead end for those who walk out on God.
“Your dalliances in those oak grove shrines
will leave you looking mighty foolish,
All that fooling around in god and goddess gardens
that you thought was the latest thing.
You’ll end up like an oak tree
with all its leaves falling off,
Like an unwatered garden,
withered and brown.
‘The Big Man’ will turn out to be dead bark and twigs,
and his ‘work,’ the spark that starts the fire
That exposes man and work both
as nothing but cinders and smoke.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, March 11, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Mark 12:41–44
The Widow’s Offering
Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were puty and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.
43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”
Insight
The word treasury in Mark 12:41 and 43 translates the word gazophulakion; this compound word is from gaza, “a treasure” and phulake, “a place where something is guarded.” Together they carry the meaning “treasure house.” The word was used by the first-century Jewish historian Josephus to refer to “a special room in the women’s court of the Temple in which gold and silver bullion was kept” (Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary). Gentiles were allowed within the confines of the temple but they were restricted to the space known as the Court of the Gentiles. Women could go farther but not beyond the Women’s Court. Inside the Women’s Court were thirteen trumpet-shaped chests where the offerings of the people were deposited. It’s been noted that of the thirteen chests, six were for gifts in general and seven were for distinct purposes. The widow that Jesus witnessed in the temple made her deposit into one of those receptacles.
He Knows All About It
His understanding has no limit. Psalm 147:5
Finn, a Siamese fighting fish, lived at our house for two years. My young daughter would often bend down to talk with him after dropping food into his tank. When the topic of pets came up in kindergarten, she proudly claimed him as her own. Eventually, Finn passed away, and my daughter was heartbroken.
My mother advised me to listen closely to my daughter’s feelings and tell her, “God knows all about it.” I agreed that God knows everything, yet wondered, How will that be comforting? Then it occurred to me that God isn’t simply aware of the events in our lives—He compassionately sees into our souls and knows how they affect us. He understands that “little things” can feel like big things depending on our age, past wounds, or lack of resources.
Jesus saw the real size of a widow’s gift—and heart—as she dropped two coins into a temple collection box. He described what it meant for her as He said, “This poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. . . . [She put in] all she had to live on” (Mark 12:43–44).
The widow kept quiet about her situation but Jesus recognized that what others considered a tiny donation was a sacrifice to her. He sees our lives in the same way. May we find comfort in His limitless understanding. By: Jennifer Benson Schuldt
Reflect & Pray
How might you show compassion to someone who is upset about a “small” problem? How does God respond when you tell Him about your problems?
God, thank You for knowing me completely and loving me. Help me to feel Your comfort when I consider Your infinite knowledge of my life.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, March 11, 2020
Obedience to the “Heavenly Vision”
I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. —Acts 26:19
If we lose “the heavenly vision” God has given us, we alone are responsible— not God. We lose the vision because of our own lack of spiritual growth. If we do not apply our beliefs about God to the issues of everyday life, the vision God has given us will never be fulfilled. The only way to be obedient to “the heavenly vision” is to give our utmost for His highest— our best for His glory. This can be accomplished only when we make a determination to continually remember God’s vision. But the acid test is obedience to the vision in the details of our everyday life— sixty seconds out of every minute, and sixty minutes out of every hour, not just during times of personal prayer or public meetings.
“Though it tarries, wait for it…” (Habakkuk 2:3). We cannot bring the vision to fulfillment through our own efforts, but must live under its inspiration until it fulfills itself. We try to be so practical that we forget the vision. At the very beginning we saw the vision but did not wait for it. We rushed off to do our practical work, and once the vision was fulfilled we could no longer even see it. Waiting for a vision that “tarries” is the true test of our faithfulness to God. It is at the risk of our own soul’s welfare that we get caught up in practical busy-work, only to miss the fulfillment of the vision.
Watch for the storms of God. The only way God plants His saints is through the whirlwind of His storms. Will you be proven to be an empty pod with no seed inside? That will depend on whether or not you are actually living in the light of the vision you have seen. Let God send you out through His storm, and don’t go until He does. If you select your own spot to be planted, you will prove yourself to be an unproductive, empty pod. However, if you allow God to plant you, you will “bear much fruit” (John 15:8).
It is essential that we live and “walk in the light” of God’s vision for us (1 John 1:7).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is in the middle that human choices are made; the beginning and the end remain with God. The decrees of God are birth and death, and in between those limits man makes his own distress or joy. Shade of His Hand, 1223 L
Bible in a Year: Deuteronomy 14-16; Mark 12:28-44
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, March 11, 2020
The King's Speech - #8653
Now, I don't really go see many movies. I mean, my popcorn is much cheaper than theirs, and actually, I don't like the sticky "cinemuck" on the floor. Now, I haven't seen this movie, but the story's fascinating. I read about it. It was called The King's Speech, and that year it walked off with all kinds of Academy Awards.
King George VI was handicapped with a stutter, and he had to go on radio to give the speech of his life. Great Britain is about to go to war, and their king must rally them. Ultimately he is able to say what he needs to say to the people, and they need to hear it. It was because of the man who gave him the coaching and the help he needed.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The King's Speech."
Now, I'm personally familiar with that story line. Well, actually, every follower of Jesus should be. Because we've all been positioned by Him to deliver a message from the King of all kings, with all the help we'll need. It's a message people must hear, because their eternity depends on it.
But we hold back because we're afraid we'll fail, we'll mess it up, or people won't like us. What we're missing is that we're not in this alone. There is someone who has promised to give us everything we will need if we'll just open our mouth.
Our word for today from the Word of God is found in 2 Corinthians 5:19. It says, "God was in Christ, restoring the world to Himself, no longer counting men's sins against them but blotting them out." That's a wonderful message, and He's given it to us to tell others. And He says, "We are Christ's ambassadors..." Now, if you belong to Jesus, the King Himself has given you a life-changing trust. He has given you a message to deliver. He's counting on you.
Since the eternal destinies of the people around us depend on hearing the King's message, our silence could be for them a silent death sentence. God told me, so I would tell them, and I don't. So they may live and die without ever hearing what Jesus did on the cross for them because I failed them, and I failed Him.
As bold as I am speaking on a platform, I know, as most believers do. I know the fear that keeps us from telling people close to us about our Jesus. I still experience that. But in those moments of fear and holding back this life-saving message, we can experience the wonder of what God promised to a reluctant, inadequate Moses. He said, "I will be with you...Now, go; I will help you speak. I will teach you what to say" (Exodus 3:11, 4:12).
You know, so often I have failed to deliver the message of Jesus because I was afraid of what might happen to me if I told them. That's wrong! Isn't the greater fear what will happen to them if I don't tell them?
The lepers in the book of 2 Kings, who had found all this food at an enemy camp
at a time when all the people in the city were dying of starvation, after stuffing themselves made this realization. They said, and I quote, "This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves...We're not doing right" (2 Kings 7:9). And I'm thinking, "Man, could that be us?"
Hey, the King will go with me. The King will give me the words to say. He's the hand, I'm just His glove.
Jesus understands you. He’s faced hunger, sorrow, and death and wants to face them with you. Scripture says Jesus “understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
If Jesus understands our weaknesses, then so does God. Jesus was God in human form. He was God with us. That is why Jesus is called Immanuel. Immanu means “with us.” El refers to Elohim, or God. So Immanuel is not an “above-us God” or a “somewhere-in-the-neighborhood God.” He came as the “with-us God.” All of us.
“I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Search for restrictions on the promise and you’ll find none. There’s no withholding tax on God’s “with us” promise. God is with us. What great news.
Isaiah 1
Messages of Judgment
The vision that Isaiah son of Amoz saw regarding Judah and Jerusalem during the times of the kings of Judah: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.
2-4 Heaven and earth, you’re the jury.
Listen to God’s case:
“I had children and raised them well,
and they turned on me.
The ox knows who’s boss,
the mule knows the hand that feeds him,
But not Israel.
My people don’t know up from down.
Shame! Misguided God-dropouts,
staggering under their guilt-baggage,
Gang of miscreants,
band of vandals—
My people have walked out on me, their God,
turned their backs on The Holy of Israel,
walked off and never looked back.
5-9 “Why bother even trying to do anything with you
when you just keep to your bullheaded ways?
You keep beating your heads against brick walls.
Everything within you protests against you.
From the bottom of your feet to the top of your head,
nothing’s working right.
Wounds and bruises and running sores—
untended, unwashed, unbandaged.
Your country is laid waste,
your cities burned down.
Your land is destroyed by outsiders while you watch,
reduced to rubble by barbarians.
Daughter Zion is deserted—
like a tumbledown shack on a dead-end street,
Like a tarpaper shanty on the wrong side of the tracks,
like a sinking ship abandoned by the rats.
If God-of-the-Angel-Armies hadn’t left us a few survivors,
we’d be as desolate as Sodom, doomed just like Gomorrah.
10 “Listen to my Message,
you Sodom-schooled leaders.
Receive God’s revelation,
you Gomorrah-schooled people.
11-12 “Why this frenzy of sacrifices?”
God’s asking.
“Don’t you think I’ve had my fill of burnt sacrifices,
rams and plump grain-fed calves?
Don’t you think I’ve had my fill
of blood from bulls, lambs, and goats?
When you come before me,
whoever gave you the idea of acting like this,
Running here and there, doing this and that—
all this sheer commotion in the place provided for worship?
13-17 “Quit your worship charades.
I can’t stand your trivial religious games:
Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings—
meetings, meetings, meetings—I can’t stand one more!
Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them!
You’ve worn me out!
I’m sick of your religion, religion, religion,
while you go right on sinning.
When you put on your next prayer-performance,
I’ll be looking the other way.
No matter how long or loud or often you pray,
I’ll not be listening.
And do you know why? Because you’ve been tearing
people to pieces, and your hands are bloody.
Go home and wash up.
Clean up your act.
Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings
so I don’t have to look at them any longer.
Say no to wrong.
Learn to do good.
Work for justice.
Help the down-and-out.
Stand up for the homeless.
Go to bat for the defenseless.
18-20 “Come. Sit down. Let’s argue this out.”
This is God’s Message:
“If your sins are blood-red,
they’ll be snow-white.
If they’re red like crimson,
they’ll be like wool.
If you’ll willingly obey,
you’ll feast like kings.
But if you’re willful and stubborn,
you’ll die like dogs.”
That’s right. God says so.
21-23 Oh! Can you believe it? The chaste city
has become a whore!
She was once all justice,
everyone living as good neighbors,
And now they’re all
at one another’s throats.
Your coins are all counterfeits.
Your wine is watered down.
Your leaders are turncoats
who keep company with crooks.
They sell themselves to the highest bidder
and grab anything not nailed down.
They never stand up for the homeless,
never stick up for the defenseless.
24-31 This Decree, therefore, of the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
the Strong One of Israel:
“This is it! I’ll get my oppressors off my back.
I’ll get back at my enemies.
I’ll give you the back of my hand,
purge the junk from your life, clean you up.
I’ll set honest judges and wise counselors among you
just like it was back in the beginning.
Then you’ll be renamed
City-That-Treats-People-Right, the True-Blue City.”
God’s right ways will put Zion right again.
God’s right actions will restore her penitents.
But it’s curtains for rebels and God-traitors,
a dead end for those who walk out on God.
“Your dalliances in those oak grove shrines
will leave you looking mighty foolish,
All that fooling around in god and goddess gardens
that you thought was the latest thing.
You’ll end up like an oak tree
with all its leaves falling off,
Like an unwatered garden,
withered and brown.
‘The Big Man’ will turn out to be dead bark and twigs,
and his ‘work,’ the spark that starts the fire
That exposes man and work both
as nothing but cinders and smoke.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, March 11, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Mark 12:41–44
The Widow’s Offering
Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were puty and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.
43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”
Insight
The word treasury in Mark 12:41 and 43 translates the word gazophulakion; this compound word is from gaza, “a treasure” and phulake, “a place where something is guarded.” Together they carry the meaning “treasure house.” The word was used by the first-century Jewish historian Josephus to refer to “a special room in the women’s court of the Temple in which gold and silver bullion was kept” (Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary). Gentiles were allowed within the confines of the temple but they were restricted to the space known as the Court of the Gentiles. Women could go farther but not beyond the Women’s Court. Inside the Women’s Court were thirteen trumpet-shaped chests where the offerings of the people were deposited. It’s been noted that of the thirteen chests, six were for gifts in general and seven were for distinct purposes. The widow that Jesus witnessed in the temple made her deposit into one of those receptacles.
He Knows All About It
His understanding has no limit. Psalm 147:5
Finn, a Siamese fighting fish, lived at our house for two years. My young daughter would often bend down to talk with him after dropping food into his tank. When the topic of pets came up in kindergarten, she proudly claimed him as her own. Eventually, Finn passed away, and my daughter was heartbroken.
My mother advised me to listen closely to my daughter’s feelings and tell her, “God knows all about it.” I agreed that God knows everything, yet wondered, How will that be comforting? Then it occurred to me that God isn’t simply aware of the events in our lives—He compassionately sees into our souls and knows how they affect us. He understands that “little things” can feel like big things depending on our age, past wounds, or lack of resources.
Jesus saw the real size of a widow’s gift—and heart—as she dropped two coins into a temple collection box. He described what it meant for her as He said, “This poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. . . . [She put in] all she had to live on” (Mark 12:43–44).
The widow kept quiet about her situation but Jesus recognized that what others considered a tiny donation was a sacrifice to her. He sees our lives in the same way. May we find comfort in His limitless understanding. By: Jennifer Benson Schuldt
Reflect & Pray
How might you show compassion to someone who is upset about a “small” problem? How does God respond when you tell Him about your problems?
God, thank You for knowing me completely and loving me. Help me to feel Your comfort when I consider Your infinite knowledge of my life.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, March 11, 2020
Obedience to the “Heavenly Vision”
I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. —Acts 26:19
If we lose “the heavenly vision” God has given us, we alone are responsible— not God. We lose the vision because of our own lack of spiritual growth. If we do not apply our beliefs about God to the issues of everyday life, the vision God has given us will never be fulfilled. The only way to be obedient to “the heavenly vision” is to give our utmost for His highest— our best for His glory. This can be accomplished only when we make a determination to continually remember God’s vision. But the acid test is obedience to the vision in the details of our everyday life— sixty seconds out of every minute, and sixty minutes out of every hour, not just during times of personal prayer or public meetings.
“Though it tarries, wait for it…” (Habakkuk 2:3). We cannot bring the vision to fulfillment through our own efforts, but must live under its inspiration until it fulfills itself. We try to be so practical that we forget the vision. At the very beginning we saw the vision but did not wait for it. We rushed off to do our practical work, and once the vision was fulfilled we could no longer even see it. Waiting for a vision that “tarries” is the true test of our faithfulness to God. It is at the risk of our own soul’s welfare that we get caught up in practical busy-work, only to miss the fulfillment of the vision.
Watch for the storms of God. The only way God plants His saints is through the whirlwind of His storms. Will you be proven to be an empty pod with no seed inside? That will depend on whether or not you are actually living in the light of the vision you have seen. Let God send you out through His storm, and don’t go until He does. If you select your own spot to be planted, you will prove yourself to be an unproductive, empty pod. However, if you allow God to plant you, you will “bear much fruit” (John 15:8).
It is essential that we live and “walk in the light” of God’s vision for us (1 John 1:7).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is in the middle that human choices are made; the beginning and the end remain with God. The decrees of God are birth and death, and in between those limits man makes his own distress or joy. Shade of His Hand, 1223 L
Bible in a Year: Deuteronomy 14-16; Mark 12:28-44
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, March 11, 2020
The King's Speech - #8653
Now, I don't really go see many movies. I mean, my popcorn is much cheaper than theirs, and actually, I don't like the sticky "cinemuck" on the floor. Now, I haven't seen this movie, but the story's fascinating. I read about it. It was called The King's Speech, and that year it walked off with all kinds of Academy Awards.
King George VI was handicapped with a stutter, and he had to go on radio to give the speech of his life. Great Britain is about to go to war, and their king must rally them. Ultimately he is able to say what he needs to say to the people, and they need to hear it. It was because of the man who gave him the coaching and the help he needed.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The King's Speech."
Now, I'm personally familiar with that story line. Well, actually, every follower of Jesus should be. Because we've all been positioned by Him to deliver a message from the King of all kings, with all the help we'll need. It's a message people must hear, because their eternity depends on it.
But we hold back because we're afraid we'll fail, we'll mess it up, or people won't like us. What we're missing is that we're not in this alone. There is someone who has promised to give us everything we will need if we'll just open our mouth.
Our word for today from the Word of God is found in 2 Corinthians 5:19. It says, "God was in Christ, restoring the world to Himself, no longer counting men's sins against them but blotting them out." That's a wonderful message, and He's given it to us to tell others. And He says, "We are Christ's ambassadors..." Now, if you belong to Jesus, the King Himself has given you a life-changing trust. He has given you a message to deliver. He's counting on you.
Since the eternal destinies of the people around us depend on hearing the King's message, our silence could be for them a silent death sentence. God told me, so I would tell them, and I don't. So they may live and die without ever hearing what Jesus did on the cross for them because I failed them, and I failed Him.
As bold as I am speaking on a platform, I know, as most believers do. I know the fear that keeps us from telling people close to us about our Jesus. I still experience that. But in those moments of fear and holding back this life-saving message, we can experience the wonder of what God promised to a reluctant, inadequate Moses. He said, "I will be with you...Now, go; I will help you speak. I will teach you what to say" (Exodus 3:11, 4:12).
You know, so often I have failed to deliver the message of Jesus because I was afraid of what might happen to me if I told them. That's wrong! Isn't the greater fear what will happen to them if I don't tell them?
The lepers in the book of 2 Kings, who had found all this food at an enemy camp
at a time when all the people in the city were dying of starvation, after stuffing themselves made this realization. They said, and I quote, "This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves...We're not doing right" (2 Kings 7:9). And I'm thinking, "Man, could that be us?"
Hey, the King will go with me. The King will give me the words to say. He's the hand, I'm just His glove.
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