Max Lucado Daily: IT IS WELL
Sometime ago I made a special visit to the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem. I wanted to see the handwritten lyrics that hang on the wall, framed and visible for all to see. Horatio Spafford wrote them, never imagining they would become the words to one of the world’s best-loved hymns.
On December 2, 1873, he received a telegram from his wife that began, “Saved alone. What shall I do?” The ship she was on had collided with another ship and had sunk. Their four daughters drowned and Anna survived. While sailing on the ship to bring her home, Spafford wrote the lyrics to a song that would become an anthem to the providence of God. “Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say. . .it is well with my soul!”
Isaiah 20
In the year the field commander, sent by King Sargon of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought and took it, God told Isaiah son of Amoz, “Go, take off your clothes and sandals,” and Isaiah did it, going about naked and barefooted.
3-6 Then God said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has walked around town naked and barefooted for three years as a warning sign to Egypt and Ethiopia, so the king of Assyria is going to come and take the Egyptians as captives and the Ethiopians as exiles. He’ll take young and old alike and march them out of there naked and barefooted, exposed to mockery and jeers—the bared buttocks of Egypt on parade! Everyone who has put hope in Ethiopia and expected help from Egypt will be thrown into confusion. Everyone who lives along this coast will say, ‘Look at them! Naked and barefooted, shuffling off to exile! And we thought they were our best hope, that they’d rescue us from the king of Assyria. Now what’s going to happen to us? How are we going to get out of this?’”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, April 16, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Jeremiah 15:15–21
Lord, you understand;
remember me and care for me.
Avenge me on my persecutors.p
You are long-sufferingq—do not take me away;
think of how I suffer reproach for your sake.r
16 When your words came, I ates them;
they were my joy and my heart’s delight,t
for I bear your name,u
Lord God Almighty.
17 I never satv in the company of revelers,
never made merry with them;
I sat alone because your handw was on me
and you had filled me with indignation.
18 Why is my pain unending
and my wound grievous and incurable?x
You are to me like a deceptive brook,
like a spring that fails.y
19 Therefore this is what the Lord says:
“If you repent, I will restore you
that you may servez me;
if you utter worthy, not worthless, words,
you will be my spokesman.a
Let this people turn to you,
but you must not turn to them.
20 I will make you a wallb to this people,
a fortified wall of bronze;
they will fight against you
but will not overcomec you,
for I am with you
to rescue and save you,”d
declares the Lord.
21 “I will savee you from the hands of the wickedf
and deliverg you from the grasp of the cruel.”
Insight
The prophet Jeremiah is known as “the weeping prophet.” One reason is that he openly weeps over his wayward Jewish brothers and sisters and the discipline their disobedience requires. The word weep appears twelve times in Jeremiah, including 9:1: “Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people.” Jeremiah also bears this title due to his book of laments, which we call Lamentations. In the book, Jeremiah uses the word weep three times, including Lamentations 2:11: “My eyes fail from weeping, I am in torment within; my heart is poured out on the ground because my people are destroyed.”
Hungry for God
When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight. Jeremiah 15:16
A new believer in Jesus was desperate to read the Bible. However, he’d lost his eyesight and both hands in an explosion. When he heard about a woman who read Braille with her lips, he tried to do the same—only to discover that the nerve endings of his lips had also been destroyed. Later, he was filled with joy when he discovered that he could feel the Braille characters with his tongue! He had found a way to read and enjoy the Scriptures.
Joy and delight were the emotions the prophet Jeremiah experienced when he received God’s words. “When your words came, I ate them,” he said, “they were my joy and my heart’s delight” (Jeremiah 15:16). Unlike the people of Judah who despised His words (8:9), Jeremiah had been obedient and rejoiced in them. His obedience, however, also led to the prophet being rejected by his own people and persecuted unfairly (15:17).
Some of us may have experienced something similar. We once read the Bible with joy, but obedience to God led to suffering and rejection from others. Like Jeremiah, we can bring our confusion to God. He answered Jeremiah by repeating the promise He gave him when He first called him to be a prophet (vv. 19-21; see 1:18–19). God reminded him that He never lets His people down. We can have this same confidence too. He’s faithful and will never abandon us. By: Poh Fang Chia
Reflect & Pray
When have you experienced joy in reading the Scriptures? What can help you regain your hunger and thirst for God?
Faithful God, thank You for speaking to me through the words of the Bible. Help me to seek You earnestly and to obey You faithfully.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, April 16, 2020
Can You Come Down From the Mountain?
While you have the light, believe in the light… —John 12:36
We all have moments when we feel better than ever before, and we say, “I feel fit for anything; if only I could always be like this!” We are not meant to be. Those moments are moments of insight which we have to live up to even when we do not feel like it. Many of us are no good for the everyday world when we are not on the mountaintop. Yet we must bring our everyday life up to the standard revealed to us on the mountaintop when we were there.
Never allow a feeling that was awakened in you on the mountaintop to evaporate. Don’t place yourself on the shelf by thinking, “How great to be in such a wonderful state of mind!” Act immediately— do something, even if your only reason to act is that you would rather not. If, during a prayer meeting, God shows you something to do, don’t say, “I’ll do it”— just do it! Pick yourself up by the back of the neck and shake off your fleshly laziness. Laziness can always be seen in our cravings for a mountaintop experience; all we talk about is our planning for our time on the mountain. We must learn to live in the ordinary “gray” day according to what we saw on the mountain.
Don’t give up because you have been blocked and confused once— go after it again. Burn your bridges behind you, and stand committed to God by an act of your own will. Never change your decisions, but be sure to make your decisions in the light of what you saw and learned on the mountain.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is perilously possible to make our conceptions of God like molten lead poured into a specially designed mould, and when it is cold and hard we fling it at the heads of the religious people who don’t agree with us.
Disciples Indeed
Bible in a Year: 1 Samuel 30-31; Luke 13:23-35
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, April 16, 2020
Who You Are and What You Do - #8679
Our four-year-old grandson loved that Sunday night program the church had for boys his age. He learned lots of Bible verses there, he made friends, and he participated enthusiastically in the special activities they offered. And then they announced that the next week the kids should come dressed as what they wanted to be when they grew up. Our daughter asked our grandson what he wanted to be. He said, "I want to be a grandfather." She shouldn't have told me. I know, that kind of made me melted grandfather all over our carpet. I expect his other grandfather probably felt the same way. They borrowed some of my clothes and they went to work making a grandson into a grandfather. He said, "I even smell like Grandpa!" I'm not sure what that meant. But it did feel good that a grandfather is what he wants to be.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Who You Are and What You Do."
It could be that that four-year-old has actually figured out something about who we really are that has eluded some of us older folks. When he was asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, he didn't answer with something he wants to do. That distinction is really easy to miss in a world that seems to be all about winning and achieving and doing. Years ago, people even got their name from what they did: baker, fisher, tanner, weaver. But God never meant for you to anchor your identity to the work you do, the position you hold, the milestones you accomplish.
Those sources of identity all have one thing in common: they're all "losable." Just ask anyone who's been downsized, or disabled, or demoted, or dumped. Now a daddy, or a granddaddy, that's something you are and no one can take that away from you. Generous, compassionate, honest, humble, and godly, those are things you are; things no one can take from you.
You have to go all the way back to the beginning to get a clear picture of what we're supposed to get our worth from and our identity, and it is not from our work. Our word for today from the Word of God comes from the first book in the Bible, Genesis, and takes us back to the creation of the first human being. Genesis 1:27 says, "God created man in His own image ... male and female He created them." It is that image of God that ultimately defines who you are and that's something no one can take from you.
Then, in Genesis 2:18, "The Lord God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." First, the vertical relationship with God, then horizontal relationships with others. It wasn't until after man sinned in Genesis 3 that God said, "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life ... by the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground." (Genesis 3:17-19) So, for a person to be defined by what they do is part of the curse of the fall.
But it's clear that your Creator meant for you to be defined by your relationships, not your occupation. You're a child of Almighty God. You're a son or daughter, a husband or wife, and in case my grandson is listening, a grandparent, a friend, an aunt or uncle. After all my dad did in his life, only two words sum up his life on his tombstone "Husband - father."
When you are what you do and you lose your job, or your capabilities, your sport, your career, then in fact, you've lost you. But, in fact, you've not even lost a tiny fraction of who you are. No one can take that from you unless you forget who you really are. And when you realize who you really are, then you know what really matters.
You know how to set your priorities, and you're anchored to a meaning in life that you cannot lose. Because it isn't about what you do, it's about who you are.
Thursday, April 16, 2020
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Ephesians 4, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: GOD IS NOT FINISHED
In the famous lace shops of Brussels, Belgium, certain rooms are dedicated to the spinning of the finest lace, with the most delicate of patterns. These rooms are completely dark, except for a shaft of natural light from a solitary window. Only one spinner sits in the room. The light falls on the pattern while the worker remains in the dark.
Has God permitted a time of darkness in your world? You look but you cannot see him. You see only the fabric of circumstances woven and interlaced. You might question the purpose behind this thread or that. But be assured, God has a pattern. He has a plan. The Bible says in Romans 8:28, “In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” He is not finished. But when he is, the lace will be beautiful!
Ephesians 4
In light of all this, here’s what I want you to do. While I’m locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.
4-6 You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly. You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.
7-13 But that doesn’t mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift. The text for this is,
He climbed the high mountain,
He captured the enemy and seized the booty,
He handed it all out in gifts to the people.
Is it not true that the One who climbed up also climbed down, down to the valley of earth? And the One who climbed down is the One who climbed back up, up to highest heaven. He handed out gifts above and below, filled heaven with his gifts, filled earth with his gifts. He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher to train Christ’s followers in skilled servant work, working within Christ’s body, the church, until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ.
14-16 No prolonged infancies among us, please. We’ll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.
17-19 And so I insist—and God backs me up on this—that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd. They’ve refused for so long to deal with God that they’ve lost touch not only with God but with reality itself. They can’t think straight anymore. Feeling no pain, they let themselves go in sexual obsession, addicted to every sort of perversion.
20-24 But that’s no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.
25 What this adds up to, then, is this: no more lies, no more pretense. Tell your neighbor the truth. In Christ’s body we’re all connected to each other, after all. When you lie to others, you end up lying to yourself.
26-27 Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry—but don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don’t stay angry. Don’t go to bed angry. Don’t give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life.
28 Did you use to make ends meet by stealing? Well, no more! Get an honest job so that you can help others who can’t work.
29 Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift.
30 Don’t grieve God. Don’t break his heart. His Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself. Don’t take such a gift for granted.
31-32 Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk. Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
2 Timothy 4:9–18
Personal Remarks
9 Do your best to come to me quickly,l 10 for Demas,m because he loved this world,n has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica.o Crescens has gone to Galatia,p and Titusq to Dalmatia. 11 Only Luker is with me.s Get Markt and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. 12 I sent Tychicusu to Ephesus.v 13 When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas,w and my scrolls, especially the parchments.
14 Alexanderx the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done.y 15 You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message.
16 At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them.z 17 But the Lord stood at my sidea and gave me strength,b so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it.c And I was delivered from the lion’s mouth.d 18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil attacke and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom.f To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Insight
The book of 2 Timothy was written from Rome as Paul was awaiting execution. The clear sense of his impending death is seen in 2 Timothy 4:6: “For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near.” His tone is very different in his prison letters (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon), where he’s under house arrest awaiting trial (see Acts 28:30–31). This difference of tone contributes to the view of many scholars that Paul experienced two imprisonments—the first leading to trial and the second (seen here) leading to execution.
From Pity to Praise
But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength. 2 Timothy 4:17
At a coat drive for children, excited kids searched gratefully for their favorite colors and proper sizes. They also gained self-esteem, an organizer said, with new coats boosting their acceptance by peers and school attendance on winter days.
The apostle Paul seemed to need a coat, as well, when he wrote Timothy, “Bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas” (2 Timothy 4:13). Held in a cold Roman prison, Paul needed warmth but also companionship. “No one came to my support, but everyone deserted me,” he lamented, when he faced a Roman judge (v. 16). His words pierce our hearts with the honesty of this great missionary’s pain.
Yet in these final words of Paul’s last recorded letter—his closing thoughts after an astounding ministry—he moves from pity to praise. “But the Lord stood at my side,” he adds (v. 17), and his words rally our hearts. As Paul declared, “[God] gave me strength so that I might preach the Good News in its entirety for all the Gentiles to hear. And he rescued me from certain death” (v. 17 nlt).
If you’re facing a crisis, lacking even the right clothing for warmth or close friends to help, remember God. He’s faithful to revive, provide, and deliver. Why? For His glory and for our purpose in His kingdom. By: Patricia Raybon
Reflect & Pray
In what “cold” area of your life do you need God’s great and warming strength? As you praise Him, how does your outlook change?
Our strong God, when life’s circumstances overwhelm us, stand with us, stir our praise, giving us Your strength to overcome.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
The Failure To Pay Close Attention
The high places were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was loyal all his days. —2 Chronicles 15:17
Asa was not completely obedient in the outward, visible areas of his life. He was obedient in what he considered the most important areas, but he was not entirely right. Beware of ever thinking, “Oh, that thing in my life doesn’t matter much.” The fact that it doesn’t matter much to you may mean that it matters a great deal to God. Nothing should be considered a trivial matter by a child of God. How much longer are we going to prevent God from teaching us even one thing? But He keeps trying to teach us and He never loses patience. You say, “I know I am right with God”— yet the “high places” still remain in your life. There is still an area of disobedience. Do you protest that your heart is right with God, and yet there is something in your life He causes you to doubt? Whenever God causes a doubt about something, stop it immediately, no matter what it may be. Nothing in our lives is a mere insignificant detail to God.
Are there some things regarding your physical or intellectual life to which you have been paying no attention at all? If so, you may think you are all correct in the important areas, but you are careless— you are failing to concentrate or to focus properly. You no more need a day off from spiritual concentration on matters in your life than your heart needs a day off from beating. As you cannot take a day off morally and remain moral, neither can you take a day off spiritually and remain spiritual. God wants you to be entirely His, and it requires paying close attention to keep yourself fit. It also takes a tremendous amount of time. Yet some of us expect to rise above all of our problems, going from one mountaintop experience to another, with only a few minutes’ effort.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are only what we are in the dark; all the rest is reputation. What God looks at is what we are in the dark—the imaginations of our minds; the thoughts of our heart; the habits of our bodies; these are the things that mark us in God’s sight. The Love of God—The Ministry of the Unnoticed, 669 L
Bible in a Year: 1 Samuel 27-29; Luke 13:1-22
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Your Battle, Their Hope - #8678
It started out as a major battle for Jason. It turned out to be a major blessing for someone else. In early March, Jason's symptoms were just a mild cough and congestion. Then the headaches. Then the fever, the body aches, and the shortness of breath. And, you guessed it, by mid-March the test showed he had coronavirus. He isolated himself for ten days to protect his wife and his 11-month-old daughter. Finally, he was able to announce on social media that the medical folks said he had beaten it. It was about that time, there was another COVID patient, though, in his area who was in dire condition and not responding to medications. That's when they contacted Jason to see if he'd be willing to help with an experimental treatment - donating his plasma to be given to the endangered patient. Hoping Jason's antibodies from fighting COVID might help, they gave him those antibodies. They gave him that plasma. Last report - that patient was breathing better each day and starting to recover. Jason looked back on his COVID battle and said: "This thing ended up possibly saving someone's life."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I'd like to have A Word With You today about "Your Battle, Their Hope."
Hopefully, you haven't had to battle coronavirus. But I'm sure you've had plenty of battles. Haven't we all? Fighting loneliness or grief. Depression. Addiction. A lot of battles. Anger. A broken relationship. Maybe a disease or a disability or a divorce. Sometimes it's a battle to stop a habit or an attitude or a way we treat people.
Those kinds of battles are one reason the message of Jesus Christ is called "Gospel" which means "good news"! Because, in the Bible's words, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone; a new life has begun" (2 Corinthians 5:17). That cross where Jesus died for the sin and the brokenness of your life...that empty tomb where Jesus proved His power to conquer every enemy - they have the power to change what no one else can change. To heal what no one else can heal. To bring hope where there was no hope.
So as a follower of Jesus, you are actually living proof of a living Savior! And there are battles in your life that couldn't have been won except for Jesus. Which means you represent hope to someone who battles a battle like yours - but they have no Savior to win those battles.
Just like a recovered COVID patient, you have what someone else needs to be healed. It's in what I call your Hope Story! Listen to this statement from the Bible that reveals what can open the heart of someone you care about to Jesus. It's in 1 Peter 3:15, our word for today from the Word of God.
"Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." Did you get that... "the hope that you have." Your story of how Jesus made all the difference in your battle. How what happened on that middle cross tore down the wall between you and God so you could have a love relationship with your Creator. And how that love has changed everything! Including the outcome of your battle.
Someone you care about needs to hear how Jesus' story changed your story - and could change their story forever! People can argue with your beliefs - but they can't argue with your personal Hope Story. And because you're talking about you, they don't have to get defensive.
It is your best possible way to explain the life-changing difference Jesus makes!
So start praying today for God to open doors - natural opportunities - for you to share His story through your story. Pray for God to open their heart - and your mouth. What was your battle can become their hope. Their hope of having their sins forgiven. Of winning their battle. Of going to heaven with you someday. You have a powerful tool in your hope story.
And one day maybe you'll be able to say, like that COVID patient said when he was able to give healing help to another person. You'll be able to say about that battle in your life - "This thing ended up saving someone's life!"
In the famous lace shops of Brussels, Belgium, certain rooms are dedicated to the spinning of the finest lace, with the most delicate of patterns. These rooms are completely dark, except for a shaft of natural light from a solitary window. Only one spinner sits in the room. The light falls on the pattern while the worker remains in the dark.
Has God permitted a time of darkness in your world? You look but you cannot see him. You see only the fabric of circumstances woven and interlaced. You might question the purpose behind this thread or that. But be assured, God has a pattern. He has a plan. The Bible says in Romans 8:28, “In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” He is not finished. But when he is, the lace will be beautiful!
Ephesians 4
In light of all this, here’s what I want you to do. While I’m locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.
4-6 You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly. You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.
7-13 But that doesn’t mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift. The text for this is,
He climbed the high mountain,
He captured the enemy and seized the booty,
He handed it all out in gifts to the people.
Is it not true that the One who climbed up also climbed down, down to the valley of earth? And the One who climbed down is the One who climbed back up, up to highest heaven. He handed out gifts above and below, filled heaven with his gifts, filled earth with his gifts. He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher to train Christ’s followers in skilled servant work, working within Christ’s body, the church, until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ.
14-16 No prolonged infancies among us, please. We’ll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.
17-19 And so I insist—and God backs me up on this—that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd. They’ve refused for so long to deal with God that they’ve lost touch not only with God but with reality itself. They can’t think straight anymore. Feeling no pain, they let themselves go in sexual obsession, addicted to every sort of perversion.
20-24 But that’s no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.
25 What this adds up to, then, is this: no more lies, no more pretense. Tell your neighbor the truth. In Christ’s body we’re all connected to each other, after all. When you lie to others, you end up lying to yourself.
26-27 Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry—but don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don’t stay angry. Don’t go to bed angry. Don’t give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life.
28 Did you use to make ends meet by stealing? Well, no more! Get an honest job so that you can help others who can’t work.
29 Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift.
30 Don’t grieve God. Don’t break his heart. His Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself. Don’t take such a gift for granted.
31-32 Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk. Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
2 Timothy 4:9–18
Personal Remarks
9 Do your best to come to me quickly,l 10 for Demas,m because he loved this world,n has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica.o Crescens has gone to Galatia,p and Titusq to Dalmatia. 11 Only Luker is with me.s Get Markt and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. 12 I sent Tychicusu to Ephesus.v 13 When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas,w and my scrolls, especially the parchments.
14 Alexanderx the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done.y 15 You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message.
16 At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them.z 17 But the Lord stood at my sidea and gave me strength,b so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it.c And I was delivered from the lion’s mouth.d 18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil attacke and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom.f To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Insight
The book of 2 Timothy was written from Rome as Paul was awaiting execution. The clear sense of his impending death is seen in 2 Timothy 4:6: “For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near.” His tone is very different in his prison letters (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon), where he’s under house arrest awaiting trial (see Acts 28:30–31). This difference of tone contributes to the view of many scholars that Paul experienced two imprisonments—the first leading to trial and the second (seen here) leading to execution.
From Pity to Praise
But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength. 2 Timothy 4:17
At a coat drive for children, excited kids searched gratefully for their favorite colors and proper sizes. They also gained self-esteem, an organizer said, with new coats boosting their acceptance by peers and school attendance on winter days.
The apostle Paul seemed to need a coat, as well, when he wrote Timothy, “Bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas” (2 Timothy 4:13). Held in a cold Roman prison, Paul needed warmth but also companionship. “No one came to my support, but everyone deserted me,” he lamented, when he faced a Roman judge (v. 16). His words pierce our hearts with the honesty of this great missionary’s pain.
Yet in these final words of Paul’s last recorded letter—his closing thoughts after an astounding ministry—he moves from pity to praise. “But the Lord stood at my side,” he adds (v. 17), and his words rally our hearts. As Paul declared, “[God] gave me strength so that I might preach the Good News in its entirety for all the Gentiles to hear. And he rescued me from certain death” (v. 17 nlt).
If you’re facing a crisis, lacking even the right clothing for warmth or close friends to help, remember God. He’s faithful to revive, provide, and deliver. Why? For His glory and for our purpose in His kingdom. By: Patricia Raybon
Reflect & Pray
In what “cold” area of your life do you need God’s great and warming strength? As you praise Him, how does your outlook change?
Our strong God, when life’s circumstances overwhelm us, stand with us, stir our praise, giving us Your strength to overcome.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
The Failure To Pay Close Attention
The high places were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was loyal all his days. —2 Chronicles 15:17
Asa was not completely obedient in the outward, visible areas of his life. He was obedient in what he considered the most important areas, but he was not entirely right. Beware of ever thinking, “Oh, that thing in my life doesn’t matter much.” The fact that it doesn’t matter much to you may mean that it matters a great deal to God. Nothing should be considered a trivial matter by a child of God. How much longer are we going to prevent God from teaching us even one thing? But He keeps trying to teach us and He never loses patience. You say, “I know I am right with God”— yet the “high places” still remain in your life. There is still an area of disobedience. Do you protest that your heart is right with God, and yet there is something in your life He causes you to doubt? Whenever God causes a doubt about something, stop it immediately, no matter what it may be. Nothing in our lives is a mere insignificant detail to God.
Are there some things regarding your physical or intellectual life to which you have been paying no attention at all? If so, you may think you are all correct in the important areas, but you are careless— you are failing to concentrate or to focus properly. You no more need a day off from spiritual concentration on matters in your life than your heart needs a day off from beating. As you cannot take a day off morally and remain moral, neither can you take a day off spiritually and remain spiritual. God wants you to be entirely His, and it requires paying close attention to keep yourself fit. It also takes a tremendous amount of time. Yet some of us expect to rise above all of our problems, going from one mountaintop experience to another, with only a few minutes’ effort.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are only what we are in the dark; all the rest is reputation. What God looks at is what we are in the dark—the imaginations of our minds; the thoughts of our heart; the habits of our bodies; these are the things that mark us in God’s sight. The Love of God—The Ministry of the Unnoticed, 669 L
Bible in a Year: 1 Samuel 27-29; Luke 13:1-22
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Your Battle, Their Hope - #8678
It started out as a major battle for Jason. It turned out to be a major blessing for someone else. In early March, Jason's symptoms were just a mild cough and congestion. Then the headaches. Then the fever, the body aches, and the shortness of breath. And, you guessed it, by mid-March the test showed he had coronavirus. He isolated himself for ten days to protect his wife and his 11-month-old daughter. Finally, he was able to announce on social media that the medical folks said he had beaten it. It was about that time, there was another COVID patient, though, in his area who was in dire condition and not responding to medications. That's when they contacted Jason to see if he'd be willing to help with an experimental treatment - donating his plasma to be given to the endangered patient. Hoping Jason's antibodies from fighting COVID might help, they gave him those antibodies. They gave him that plasma. Last report - that patient was breathing better each day and starting to recover. Jason looked back on his COVID battle and said: "This thing ended up possibly saving someone's life."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I'd like to have A Word With You today about "Your Battle, Their Hope."
Hopefully, you haven't had to battle coronavirus. But I'm sure you've had plenty of battles. Haven't we all? Fighting loneliness or grief. Depression. Addiction. A lot of battles. Anger. A broken relationship. Maybe a disease or a disability or a divorce. Sometimes it's a battle to stop a habit or an attitude or a way we treat people.
Those kinds of battles are one reason the message of Jesus Christ is called "Gospel" which means "good news"! Because, in the Bible's words, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone; a new life has begun" (2 Corinthians 5:17). That cross where Jesus died for the sin and the brokenness of your life...that empty tomb where Jesus proved His power to conquer every enemy - they have the power to change what no one else can change. To heal what no one else can heal. To bring hope where there was no hope.
So as a follower of Jesus, you are actually living proof of a living Savior! And there are battles in your life that couldn't have been won except for Jesus. Which means you represent hope to someone who battles a battle like yours - but they have no Savior to win those battles.
Just like a recovered COVID patient, you have what someone else needs to be healed. It's in what I call your Hope Story! Listen to this statement from the Bible that reveals what can open the heart of someone you care about to Jesus. It's in 1 Peter 3:15, our word for today from the Word of God.
"Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." Did you get that... "the hope that you have." Your story of how Jesus made all the difference in your battle. How what happened on that middle cross tore down the wall between you and God so you could have a love relationship with your Creator. And how that love has changed everything! Including the outcome of your battle.
Someone you care about needs to hear how Jesus' story changed your story - and could change their story forever! People can argue with your beliefs - but they can't argue with your personal Hope Story. And because you're talking about you, they don't have to get defensive.
It is your best possible way to explain the life-changing difference Jesus makes!
So start praying today for God to open doors - natural opportunities - for you to share His story through your story. Pray for God to open their heart - and your mouth. What was your battle can become their hope. Their hope of having their sins forgiven. Of winning their battle. Of going to heaven with you someday. You have a powerful tool in your hope story.
And one day maybe you'll be able to say, like that COVID patient said when he was able to give healing help to another person. You'll be able to say about that battle in your life - "This thing ended up saving someone's life!"
Tuesday, April 14, 2020
Isaiah 19, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: GOD HAS A HIGHER PURPOSE
No moment, event, or detail falls outside of God’s supervision. God is the one who “causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45). He isn’t making up this plan as he goes along. Daniel 5:21 says, “The most High God rules the kingdom of men, and sets over it whom he will.”
So if God is in charge, why does he permit challenges to come our way? Wouldn’t an almighty God prevent them? Not if they serve his higher purpose! The ultimate example is the death of Christ on the cross. Everyone thought the life of Jesus was over. Jesus was dead and buried, but God raised him from the dead. God took the crucifixion of Friday and turned it into the celebration of Sunday. Can he not do a reversal for you?
Isaiah 19
A Message concerning Egypt:
Watch this! God riding on a fast-moving cloud,
moving in on Egypt!
The god-idols of Egypt shudder and shake,
Egyptians paralyzed by panic.
2-4 God says, “I’ll make Egyptian fight Egyptian,
brother fight brother, neighbor fight neighbor,
City fight city, kingdom fight kingdom—
anarchy and chaos and killing!
I’ll knock the wind out of the Egyptians.
They won’t know coming from going.
They’ll go to their god-idols for answers;
they’ll conjure ghosts and hold séances, desperate for answers.
But I’ll turn the Egyptians
over to a tyrant most cruel.
I’ll put them under the rule of a mean, merciless king.”
Decree of the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
5-10 The River Nile will dry up,
the riverbed baked dry in the sun.
The canals will become stagnant and stink,
every stream touching the Nile dry up.
River vegetation will rot away
the banks of the Nile-baked clay,
The riverbed hard and smooth,
river grasses dried up and gone with the wind.
Fishermen will complain
that the fishing’s been ruined.
Textile workers will be out of work, all weavers
and workers in linen and cotton and wool
Dispirited, depressed in their forced idleness—
everyone who works for a living, jobless.
11-15 The princes of Zoan are fools,
the advisors of Pharaoh stupid.
How could any of you dare tell Pharaoh,
“Trust me: I’m wise. I know what’s going on.
Why, I’m descended from the old wisdom of Egypt”?
There’s not a wise man or woman left in the country.
If there were, one of them would tell you
what God-of-the-Angel-Armies has in mind for Egypt.
As it is, the princes of Zoan are all fools
and the princes of Memphis, dunces.
The honored pillars of your society
have led Egypt into detours and dead ends.
God has scrambled their brains,
Egypt’s become a falling-down-in-his-own-vomit drunk.
Egypt’s hopeless, past helping,
a senile, doddering old fool.
16-17 On that Day, Egyptians will be like hysterical schoolgirls, screaming at the first hint of action from God-of-the-Angel-Armies. Little Judah will strike terror in Egyptians! Say “Judah” to an Egyptian and see panic. The word triggers fear of the God-of-the-Angel-Armies’ plan against Egypt.
18 On that Day, more than one city in Egypt will learn to speak the language of faith and promise to follow God-of-the-Angel-Armies. One of these cities will be honored with the title “City of the Sun.”
19-22 On that Day, there will be a place of worship to God in the center of Egypt and a monument to God at its border. It will show how the God-of-the-Angel-Armies has helped the Egyptians. When they cry out in prayer to God because of oppressors, he’ll send them help, a savior who will keep them safe and take care of them. God will openly show himself to the Egyptians and they’ll get to know him on that Day. They’ll worship him seriously with sacrifices and burnt offerings. They’ll make vows and keep them. God will wound Egypt, first hit and then heal. Egypt will come back to God, and God will listen to their prayers and heal them, heal them from head to toe.
23 On that Day, there will be a highway all the way from Egypt to Assyria: Assyrians will have free range in Egypt and Egyptians in Assyria. No longer rivals, they’ll worship together, Egyptians and Assyrians!
24-25 On that Day, Israel will take its place alongside Egypt and Assyria, sharing the blessing from the center. God-of-the-Angel-Armies, who blessed Israel, will generously bless them all: “Blessed be Egypt, my people! . . . Blessed be Assyria, work of my hands! . . . Blessed be Israel, my heritage!”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, April 14, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Proverbs 16:20–24
Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers,a x
and blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord.y
21 The wise in heart are called discerning,
and gracious words promote instruction.b z
22 Prudence is a fountain of life to the prudent,a
but folly brings punishment to fools.
23 The hearts of the wise make their mouths prudent,b
and their lips promote instruction.c c
24 Gracious words are a honeycomb,d
sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
Insight
In Proverbs 16 we find two examples of Hebrew poetry. In verse 20, we see “synonymous parallelism,” in which the same idea is repeated using slightly different words. The key connector for the comparison is the word and. Verse 22 is an example of “antithetical parallelism,” a device that uses opposite ideas set in terms of contrast. Here the key connector for the contrast is the word but. See if you can find other examples of these poetic devices in Proverbs 16.
Healing Words
Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. Proverbs 16:24
A recent study has shown that encouraging words from a health-care provider can help patients recuperate faster from their ailments. A simple experiment exposed volunteer study participants to a skin allergen to make them itch and then compared the reactions between those who received assurance from their physician and those who didn’t. Patients who received encouragement from their doctors had less discomfort and itching than their counterparts.
The writer of Proverbs knew how important encouraging words are. “Gracious words” bring “healing to the bones,” he wrote (Proverbs 16:24). The positive effect of words isn’t limited to our health: when we heed the wisdom of instruction, we’re also more likely to prosper in our efforts (v. 20). So too encouragement buoys us for the challenges we face now and may encounter in the future.
We may not yet fully understand why or even how much wisdom and encouragement bring strength and healing to our daily lives. Yet the cheers and guidance of our parents, coaches, and colleagues seem to help us endure difficulty and steer us toward success. Similarly, the Bible brings us encouragement when we face trials, equipping us to bear up under even the most unthinkable circumstances. Help us, God, to be strengthened by Your wisdom and to, in turn, offer the healing and hope of “gracious words” to those You’ve placed in our lives. By: Kirsten Holmberg
Reflect & Pray
Who has spoken “gracious words” into your life? Why is it vital for you to share words of encouragement with others?
Dear Father, thank You for Your words of healing and hope.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, April 14, 2020
Inner Invincibility
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me… —Matthew 11:29
“Whom the Lord loves He chastens…” (Hebrews 12:6). How petty our complaining is! Our Lord begins to bring us to the point where we can have fellowship with Him, only to hear us moan and groan, saying, “Oh Lord, just let me be like other people!” Jesus is asking us to get beside Him and take one end of the yoke, so that we can pull together. That’s why Jesus says to us, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). Are you closely identified with the Lord Jesus like that? If so, you will thank God when you feel the pressure of His hand upon you.
“…to those who have no might He increases strength” (Isaiah 40:29). God comes and takes us out of our emotionalism, and then our complaining turns into a hymn of praise. The only way to know the strength of God is to take the yoke of Jesus upon us and to learn from Him.
“…the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). Where do the saints get their joy? If we did not know some Christians well, we might think from just observing them that they have no burdens at all to bear. But we must lift the veil from our eyes. The fact that the peace, light, and joy of God is in them is proof that a burden is there as well. The burden that God places on us squeezes the grapes in our lives and produces the wine, but most of us see only the wine and not the burden. No power on earth or in hell can conquer the Spirit of God living within the human spirit; it creates an inner invincibility.
If your life is producing only a whine, instead of the wine, then ruthlessly kick it out. It is definitely a crime for a Christian to be weak in God’s strength.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The great thing about faith in God is that it keeps a man undisturbed in the midst of disturbance. Notes on Isaiah, 1376 R
Bible in a Year: 1 Samuel 25-26; Luke 12:32-59
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, April 14, 2020
The Secret Plan for Keeping People Out of Heaven - #8677
Magicians are a sneaky bunch. Many of them might better be called illusionists. Oh, l know it looks like they made something disappear or turned into something else. But there's this little secret that's behind a lot of those tricks. It's called misdirection. See, when magicians learn to keep talking - talking fast, mostly. Like me. They call it patter. Purpose: to distract unsuspecting folks like me to look over there while the real trick is being done over here. Just get me looking in a different direction and you can probably fool me.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Secret Plan for Keeping People Out of Heaven."
There's someone who's the master of misdirection. He just happens to be the master deceiver of the universe. Yes, the devil. Whose goal is simple - keeping people out of God's heaven, including you and me. He knows his plan has to be very clever. And it is. We'd never know what it was if it weren't for the divine intel in the Word of God. We're about to blow his cover right now, and possibly expose what he's trying to do in the heart of someone who's listening right now - maybe even you.
His secret plan for keeping people out of heaven is revealed in 2 Corinthians 4, beginning with verse 4. It's our word for today from the Word of God. "The god of this age (that's small "g" god) has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."
Here's the life-saving truth: if a person ever really gets a clear look at who Jesus really is and what He can do, the devil's probably lost them. If you really see how awesome, how deep, how unloseable His love for you is, you won't want to go much longer without Him in your life. And the place where your heart-eyes see that love is when you look at that bloody cross where God's Son is dying on a tree He made, crucified by men He created. For you, taking all the hell for all your sin so you'd never have to.
That love stole my heart away - as it has millions of others. And when you see that Jesus crushed death three days later when He blasted out of His grave, you realize He has all the power you will ever need to fix what you could never fix and change what you could never change.
So the enemy of your soul says, "Anything but Jesus. I've got to get them looking at something other than Jesus. Anything." That's how he can blind you to what the Bible calls "the glory of Christ." If he can keep you blinded until your last breath, he'll win. You'll be lost forever.
So here's the question - what's between you and Jesus, blinding you to His love and His power? Christians who are hypocrites? The ways Christians or religion have hurt you? Or maybe he's got you pinning your hopes on a religion that's about Jesus - but you're missing that your eternity depends on a relationship with Jesus!
Maybe there's a guy, or a girl, or your family standing between you and Jesus. Or something you don't want to give up. Maybe a tragedy in your life that you blame God for. Or your intellectual pride. All I know is, the enemy of your soul is trying to use someone or something to keep you from seeing Jesus. To misdirect your attention to something that can never satisfy your soul, and certainly never get you to heaven.
But the issue of your eternity is all about one thing - one Person. It's all about Jesus. Just Jesus. The One who loved you enough to die for you. The one who's powerful enough to walk out of His grave, who's waiting to walk into your life right now. And loves you as you have never been loved. And He wants to change your eternal destination from hell to heaven. Don't you want this? It's Jesus! That's all it's about.
You ready to begin a relationship with the One who loves you most? Tell Him that right where you are. And listen, go to our website as soon as possible. It will help you be sure you belong to Him. That's ANewStory.com.
If you miss Jesus, you miss heaven. He's close today, arms wide open. Please - don't miss Him!
No moment, event, or detail falls outside of God’s supervision. God is the one who “causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45). He isn’t making up this plan as he goes along. Daniel 5:21 says, “The most High God rules the kingdom of men, and sets over it whom he will.”
So if God is in charge, why does he permit challenges to come our way? Wouldn’t an almighty God prevent them? Not if they serve his higher purpose! The ultimate example is the death of Christ on the cross. Everyone thought the life of Jesus was over. Jesus was dead and buried, but God raised him from the dead. God took the crucifixion of Friday and turned it into the celebration of Sunday. Can he not do a reversal for you?
Isaiah 19
A Message concerning Egypt:
Watch this! God riding on a fast-moving cloud,
moving in on Egypt!
The god-idols of Egypt shudder and shake,
Egyptians paralyzed by panic.
2-4 God says, “I’ll make Egyptian fight Egyptian,
brother fight brother, neighbor fight neighbor,
City fight city, kingdom fight kingdom—
anarchy and chaos and killing!
I’ll knock the wind out of the Egyptians.
They won’t know coming from going.
They’ll go to their god-idols for answers;
they’ll conjure ghosts and hold séances, desperate for answers.
But I’ll turn the Egyptians
over to a tyrant most cruel.
I’ll put them under the rule of a mean, merciless king.”
Decree of the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
5-10 The River Nile will dry up,
the riverbed baked dry in the sun.
The canals will become stagnant and stink,
every stream touching the Nile dry up.
River vegetation will rot away
the banks of the Nile-baked clay,
The riverbed hard and smooth,
river grasses dried up and gone with the wind.
Fishermen will complain
that the fishing’s been ruined.
Textile workers will be out of work, all weavers
and workers in linen and cotton and wool
Dispirited, depressed in their forced idleness—
everyone who works for a living, jobless.
11-15 The princes of Zoan are fools,
the advisors of Pharaoh stupid.
How could any of you dare tell Pharaoh,
“Trust me: I’m wise. I know what’s going on.
Why, I’m descended from the old wisdom of Egypt”?
There’s not a wise man or woman left in the country.
If there were, one of them would tell you
what God-of-the-Angel-Armies has in mind for Egypt.
As it is, the princes of Zoan are all fools
and the princes of Memphis, dunces.
The honored pillars of your society
have led Egypt into detours and dead ends.
God has scrambled their brains,
Egypt’s become a falling-down-in-his-own-vomit drunk.
Egypt’s hopeless, past helping,
a senile, doddering old fool.
16-17 On that Day, Egyptians will be like hysterical schoolgirls, screaming at the first hint of action from God-of-the-Angel-Armies. Little Judah will strike terror in Egyptians! Say “Judah” to an Egyptian and see panic. The word triggers fear of the God-of-the-Angel-Armies’ plan against Egypt.
18 On that Day, more than one city in Egypt will learn to speak the language of faith and promise to follow God-of-the-Angel-Armies. One of these cities will be honored with the title “City of the Sun.”
19-22 On that Day, there will be a place of worship to God in the center of Egypt and a monument to God at its border. It will show how the God-of-the-Angel-Armies has helped the Egyptians. When they cry out in prayer to God because of oppressors, he’ll send them help, a savior who will keep them safe and take care of them. God will openly show himself to the Egyptians and they’ll get to know him on that Day. They’ll worship him seriously with sacrifices and burnt offerings. They’ll make vows and keep them. God will wound Egypt, first hit and then heal. Egypt will come back to God, and God will listen to their prayers and heal them, heal them from head to toe.
23 On that Day, there will be a highway all the way from Egypt to Assyria: Assyrians will have free range in Egypt and Egyptians in Assyria. No longer rivals, they’ll worship together, Egyptians and Assyrians!
24-25 On that Day, Israel will take its place alongside Egypt and Assyria, sharing the blessing from the center. God-of-the-Angel-Armies, who blessed Israel, will generously bless them all: “Blessed be Egypt, my people! . . . Blessed be Assyria, work of my hands! . . . Blessed be Israel, my heritage!”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, April 14, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Proverbs 16:20–24
Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers,a x
and blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord.y
21 The wise in heart are called discerning,
and gracious words promote instruction.b z
22 Prudence is a fountain of life to the prudent,a
but folly brings punishment to fools.
23 The hearts of the wise make their mouths prudent,b
and their lips promote instruction.c c
24 Gracious words are a honeycomb,d
sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
Insight
In Proverbs 16 we find two examples of Hebrew poetry. In verse 20, we see “synonymous parallelism,” in which the same idea is repeated using slightly different words. The key connector for the comparison is the word and. Verse 22 is an example of “antithetical parallelism,” a device that uses opposite ideas set in terms of contrast. Here the key connector for the contrast is the word but. See if you can find other examples of these poetic devices in Proverbs 16.
Healing Words
Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. Proverbs 16:24
A recent study has shown that encouraging words from a health-care provider can help patients recuperate faster from their ailments. A simple experiment exposed volunteer study participants to a skin allergen to make them itch and then compared the reactions between those who received assurance from their physician and those who didn’t. Patients who received encouragement from their doctors had less discomfort and itching than their counterparts.
The writer of Proverbs knew how important encouraging words are. “Gracious words” bring “healing to the bones,” he wrote (Proverbs 16:24). The positive effect of words isn’t limited to our health: when we heed the wisdom of instruction, we’re also more likely to prosper in our efforts (v. 20). So too encouragement buoys us for the challenges we face now and may encounter in the future.
We may not yet fully understand why or even how much wisdom and encouragement bring strength and healing to our daily lives. Yet the cheers and guidance of our parents, coaches, and colleagues seem to help us endure difficulty and steer us toward success. Similarly, the Bible brings us encouragement when we face trials, equipping us to bear up under even the most unthinkable circumstances. Help us, God, to be strengthened by Your wisdom and to, in turn, offer the healing and hope of “gracious words” to those You’ve placed in our lives. By: Kirsten Holmberg
Reflect & Pray
Who has spoken “gracious words” into your life? Why is it vital for you to share words of encouragement with others?
Dear Father, thank You for Your words of healing and hope.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, April 14, 2020
Inner Invincibility
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me… —Matthew 11:29
“Whom the Lord loves He chastens…” (Hebrews 12:6). How petty our complaining is! Our Lord begins to bring us to the point where we can have fellowship with Him, only to hear us moan and groan, saying, “Oh Lord, just let me be like other people!” Jesus is asking us to get beside Him and take one end of the yoke, so that we can pull together. That’s why Jesus says to us, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). Are you closely identified with the Lord Jesus like that? If so, you will thank God when you feel the pressure of His hand upon you.
“…to those who have no might He increases strength” (Isaiah 40:29). God comes and takes us out of our emotionalism, and then our complaining turns into a hymn of praise. The only way to know the strength of God is to take the yoke of Jesus upon us and to learn from Him.
“…the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). Where do the saints get their joy? If we did not know some Christians well, we might think from just observing them that they have no burdens at all to bear. But we must lift the veil from our eyes. The fact that the peace, light, and joy of God is in them is proof that a burden is there as well. The burden that God places on us squeezes the grapes in our lives and produces the wine, but most of us see only the wine and not the burden. No power on earth or in hell can conquer the Spirit of God living within the human spirit; it creates an inner invincibility.
If your life is producing only a whine, instead of the wine, then ruthlessly kick it out. It is definitely a crime for a Christian to be weak in God’s strength.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The great thing about faith in God is that it keeps a man undisturbed in the midst of disturbance. Notes on Isaiah, 1376 R
Bible in a Year: 1 Samuel 25-26; Luke 12:32-59
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, April 14, 2020
The Secret Plan for Keeping People Out of Heaven - #8677
Magicians are a sneaky bunch. Many of them might better be called illusionists. Oh, l know it looks like they made something disappear or turned into something else. But there's this little secret that's behind a lot of those tricks. It's called misdirection. See, when magicians learn to keep talking - talking fast, mostly. Like me. They call it patter. Purpose: to distract unsuspecting folks like me to look over there while the real trick is being done over here. Just get me looking in a different direction and you can probably fool me.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Secret Plan for Keeping People Out of Heaven."
There's someone who's the master of misdirection. He just happens to be the master deceiver of the universe. Yes, the devil. Whose goal is simple - keeping people out of God's heaven, including you and me. He knows his plan has to be very clever. And it is. We'd never know what it was if it weren't for the divine intel in the Word of God. We're about to blow his cover right now, and possibly expose what he's trying to do in the heart of someone who's listening right now - maybe even you.
His secret plan for keeping people out of heaven is revealed in 2 Corinthians 4, beginning with verse 4. It's our word for today from the Word of God. "The god of this age (that's small "g" god) has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."
Here's the life-saving truth: if a person ever really gets a clear look at who Jesus really is and what He can do, the devil's probably lost them. If you really see how awesome, how deep, how unloseable His love for you is, you won't want to go much longer without Him in your life. And the place where your heart-eyes see that love is when you look at that bloody cross where God's Son is dying on a tree He made, crucified by men He created. For you, taking all the hell for all your sin so you'd never have to.
That love stole my heart away - as it has millions of others. And when you see that Jesus crushed death three days later when He blasted out of His grave, you realize He has all the power you will ever need to fix what you could never fix and change what you could never change.
So the enemy of your soul says, "Anything but Jesus. I've got to get them looking at something other than Jesus. Anything." That's how he can blind you to what the Bible calls "the glory of Christ." If he can keep you blinded until your last breath, he'll win. You'll be lost forever.
So here's the question - what's between you and Jesus, blinding you to His love and His power? Christians who are hypocrites? The ways Christians or religion have hurt you? Or maybe he's got you pinning your hopes on a religion that's about Jesus - but you're missing that your eternity depends on a relationship with Jesus!
Maybe there's a guy, or a girl, or your family standing between you and Jesus. Or something you don't want to give up. Maybe a tragedy in your life that you blame God for. Or your intellectual pride. All I know is, the enemy of your soul is trying to use someone or something to keep you from seeing Jesus. To misdirect your attention to something that can never satisfy your soul, and certainly never get you to heaven.
But the issue of your eternity is all about one thing - one Person. It's all about Jesus. Just Jesus. The One who loved you enough to die for you. The one who's powerful enough to walk out of His grave, who's waiting to walk into your life right now. And loves you as you have never been loved. And He wants to change your eternal destination from hell to heaven. Don't you want this? It's Jesus! That's all it's about.
You ready to begin a relationship with the One who loves you most? Tell Him that right where you are. And listen, go to our website as soon as possible. It will help you be sure you belong to Him. That's ANewStory.com.
If you miss Jesus, you miss heaven. He's close today, arms wide open. Please - don't miss Him!
Monday, April 13, 2020
Isaiah 18, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: REJOICE, GOD IS ALWAYS SOVEREIGN
Paul urges us to “rejoice in the Lord always!” (Philippians 4:4). Not just on paydays, good days, or birthdays. But rejoice in the Lord always. Rejoice in the Lord always? Yeah, right, mumbles the person from the hospital bed. How? sighs the unemployed dad. Always? questions the mother of the baby born with a disability.
It’s one thing to rejoice in the Lord when life is good, but when the odds are against you? It’s not easy, but it is possible. Lay claim to the promise of God in Colossians 1:17: “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Rejoice in the sovereignty of God. His throne is still occupied; his will is still perfect. Rejoice in the Lord always. God uses everything to accomplish his will!
Isaiah 18
Doom to the land of flies and mosquitoes
beyond the Ethiopian rivers,
Shipping emissaries all over the world,
down rivers and across seas.
Go, swift messengers,
go to this people tall and handsome,
This people held in respect everywhere,
this people mighty and merciless,
from the land crisscrossed with rivers.
3 Everybody everywhere,
all earth-dwellers:
When you see a flag flying on the mountain, look!
When you hear the trumpet blown, listen!
4-6 For here’s what God told me:
“I’m not going to say anything,
but simply look on from where I live,
Quiet as warmth that comes from the sun,
silent as dew during harvest.”
And then, just before harvest, after the blossom
has turned into a maturing grape,
He’ll step in and prune back the new shoots,
ruthlessly hack off all the growing branches.
He’ll leave them piled on the ground
for birds and animals to feed on—
Fodder for the summering birds,
fodder for the wintering animals.
7 Then tribute will be brought to God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
brought from this people tall and handsome,
This people once held in respect everywhere,
this people once mighty and merciless,
From the land crisscrossed with rivers,
to Mount Zion, God’s place.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, April 13, 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;x
your right hand upholds me.
Insight
Cause and effect. That’s what forms the pattern of Psalm 63:1–8, which traces David’s inner spiritual journey while in the wilderness of Judah. Verse 1 is the acknowledgment of his need for the presence and power of God. David’s need is deep and fundamental. Like water in the desert, God is the one thing he needs for survival. In verse 2, he has found this “water.” He’s discovered the power and glory of God. With the need and discovery expressed, verses 3–8 now chronicle the psalmist’s response: praise, satisfaction, singing, thinking about God, and clinging to Him. David shares his desire for God, which leads to his discovery of God, and results in his declarations about God.
Seeking God
You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you. Psalm 63:1
It’s inspiring to watch people’s passion and dedication in pursuing their dreams. A young woman I know recently graduated from college in just three years—a task that took total commitment. A friend wanted a particular car, so he worked diligently baking and selling cakes until he reached his goal. Another person who’s in sales seeks to meet one hundred new people every week.
While it can be good to earnestly seek something of earthly value, there’s a more important kind of seeking that we must consider.
In desperation, struggling in a desert, King David wrote, “You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you” (Psalm 63:1). As David cried out to Him, God drew close to the weary king. David’s deep spiritual thirst for God could only be satisfied in His presence.
The king remembered meeting with God in His “sanctuary” (v. 2), experiencing His all-conquering love (v. 3), and praising Him day after day—finding true satisfaction in Him that’s not unlike enjoying a full and satisfying meal (vv. 4–5). Even during the night he contemplated God’s greatness, recognizing His help and protection (vv. 6–7).
Today the Holy Spirit convicts us to earnestly seek after God. As we cling to Him, in power and love God holds us up with His strong right hand. By the leading of the Spirit, may we draw close to the Maker of all good things. By: Dave Branon
Reflect & Pray
How has the Holy Spirit been prompting you to seek God? What are some things you can do this week to grow closer to Him?
Thank You, God, for drawing me to seek after You. To know You better. To love You more. To recognize Your greatness. I’m so grateful for Your presence in my life.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, April 13, 2020
What To Do When Your Burden Is Overwhelming
Cast your burden on the Lord… —Psalm 55:22
We must recognize the difference between burdens that are right for us to bear and burdens that are wrong. We should never bear the burdens of sin or doubt, but there are some burdens placed on us by God which He does not intend to lift off. God wants us to roll them back on Him— to literally “cast your burden,” which He has given you, “on the Lord….” If we set out to serve God and do His work but get out of touch with Him, the sense of responsibility we feel will be overwhelming and defeating. But if we will only roll back on God the burdens He has placed on us, He will take away that immense feeling of responsibility, replacing it with an awareness and understanding of Himself and His presence.
Many servants set out to serve God with great courage and with the right motives. But with no intimate fellowship with Jesus Christ, they are soon defeated. They do not know what to do with their burden, and it produces weariness in their lives. Others will see this and say, “What a sad end to something that had such a great beginning!”
“Cast your burden on the Lord….” You have been bearing it all, but you need to deliberately place one end on God’s shoulder. “…the government will be upon His shoulder” (Isaiah 9:6). Commit to God whatever burden He has placed on you. Don’t just cast it aside, but put it over onto Him and place yourself there with it. You will see that your burden is then lightened by the sense of companionship. But you should never try to separate yourself from your burden.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is no allowance whatever in the New Testament for the man who says he is saved by grace but who does not produce the graceful goods. Jesus Christ by His Redemption can make our actual life in keeping with our religious profession.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
Bible in a Year: 1 Samuel 22-24; Luke 12:1-31
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, April 13, 2020
Sandcastles and Our Sudden Storm - #8676
Ocean City, N.J. - actually "memory City" for our family. Like the large, annual youth conference I used to speak for there. One of the favorite activities of the week was a sandcastle competition where delegations from all over competed to see who could win the coveted prize for best sandcastle. And you should have seen the masterpieces they created! They were massive, creative, detailed - little empires made of sand. Of course, they made them at low tide. It was kind of depressing to go back there a few hours later at high tide. Because no matter how elaborate, how imaginative, how brilliantly designed they were, they were gone. They just couldn't survive the onslaught of high tide.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Sandcastles and Our Sudden Storm."
Man, has high tide hit the world recently! I mean it has a suddenness and destructive power that's felt more like a tsunami. The coronavirus has slammed into an economy we've built...businesses we've built...retirements we've built...relationships we've built...lives we've built. And almost overnight, a lot that was there was suddenly going or gone.
It's been pretty traumatic to see how little control we really have over our lives. How insecure our security is. How quickly everything can change. It's left us shell-shocked...afraid...depressed...lonely...feeling lost. It turns out that the security, the little kingdom we've been trying to construct was basically a sandcastle. Something in which you invest a lot of effort that turns out not to last.
Maybe in a way this viral storm, though, has done us a favor. It's revealed how fragile the things we've pinned our hopes on really are. And given us a desire in our soul to find something that we can really count on. And depend on. One time, Jesus told a story about two men who were each building a house. One on rock, the other on sand. Side by side, I imagine they looked pretty much alike. Until the storm came. In our word for today from the Word of God in Luke 6:47-49, Jesus said one man represented the person who builds his life on something other than Jesus. He said, "He is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete." Maybe that captures a little of how you've been feeling since the corona storm hit.
But, according to Jesus, the man who built his life around Jesus had a different outcome: "When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built." Honestly, that's what happened on the worst day of my life - the day my wife, the love of my life, was suddenly gone. And while the storm was brutal, the Jesus who I've entrusted my life to was the anchor that held. The Bible says this, "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure" (Hebrews 6:19). I want that kind of security and peace for you. God wants it for you even more.
So much that He sent His one and only Son to literally die for you and for me. For every wrong thing we've ever done. For us hijacking our life from the God who gave us our life. The Bible says, "He was crushed for our sins...and the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him" (Isaiah 53:5). But this is not a religion that worships a dead Savior. This is about a relationship with the only Man who ever conquered death by blasting out of His grave - and that's Jesus.
If you're ready for the relationship with Him that will forgive your sin, guarantee you heaven and never fail you, no matter how brutal your storm is, this is your day to tell Jesus, "Jesus, I'm Yours." I've set up our website to help you do just that - I hope you'll head there soon today and check it out. It's ANewStory.com.
I've stood on the massive boulders at Ocean City that stick out into the raging tide. The storms have come and gone. But the rock still stands. For you, that rock is Jesus. Your one safe place.
Paul urges us to “rejoice in the Lord always!” (Philippians 4:4). Not just on paydays, good days, or birthdays. But rejoice in the Lord always. Rejoice in the Lord always? Yeah, right, mumbles the person from the hospital bed. How? sighs the unemployed dad. Always? questions the mother of the baby born with a disability.
It’s one thing to rejoice in the Lord when life is good, but when the odds are against you? It’s not easy, but it is possible. Lay claim to the promise of God in Colossians 1:17: “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Rejoice in the sovereignty of God. His throne is still occupied; his will is still perfect. Rejoice in the Lord always. God uses everything to accomplish his will!
Isaiah 18
Doom to the land of flies and mosquitoes
beyond the Ethiopian rivers,
Shipping emissaries all over the world,
down rivers and across seas.
Go, swift messengers,
go to this people tall and handsome,
This people held in respect everywhere,
this people mighty and merciless,
from the land crisscrossed with rivers.
3 Everybody everywhere,
all earth-dwellers:
When you see a flag flying on the mountain, look!
When you hear the trumpet blown, listen!
4-6 For here’s what God told me:
“I’m not going to say anything,
but simply look on from where I live,
Quiet as warmth that comes from the sun,
silent as dew during harvest.”
And then, just before harvest, after the blossom
has turned into a maturing grape,
He’ll step in and prune back the new shoots,
ruthlessly hack off all the growing branches.
He’ll leave them piled on the ground
for birds and animals to feed on—
Fodder for the summering birds,
fodder for the wintering animals.
7 Then tribute will be brought to God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
brought from this people tall and handsome,
This people once held in respect everywhere,
this people once mighty and merciless,
From the land crisscrossed with rivers,
to Mount Zion, God’s place.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, April 13, 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;x
your right hand upholds me.
Insight
Cause and effect. That’s what forms the pattern of Psalm 63:1–8, which traces David’s inner spiritual journey while in the wilderness of Judah. Verse 1 is the acknowledgment of his need for the presence and power of God. David’s need is deep and fundamental. Like water in the desert, God is the one thing he needs for survival. In verse 2, he has found this “water.” He’s discovered the power and glory of God. With the need and discovery expressed, verses 3–8 now chronicle the psalmist’s response: praise, satisfaction, singing, thinking about God, and clinging to Him. David shares his desire for God, which leads to his discovery of God, and results in his declarations about God.
Seeking God
You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you. Psalm 63:1
It’s inspiring to watch people’s passion and dedication in pursuing their dreams. A young woman I know recently graduated from college in just three years—a task that took total commitment. A friend wanted a particular car, so he worked diligently baking and selling cakes until he reached his goal. Another person who’s in sales seeks to meet one hundred new people every week.
While it can be good to earnestly seek something of earthly value, there’s a more important kind of seeking that we must consider.
In desperation, struggling in a desert, King David wrote, “You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you” (Psalm 63:1). As David cried out to Him, God drew close to the weary king. David’s deep spiritual thirst for God could only be satisfied in His presence.
The king remembered meeting with God in His “sanctuary” (v. 2), experiencing His all-conquering love (v. 3), and praising Him day after day—finding true satisfaction in Him that’s not unlike enjoying a full and satisfying meal (vv. 4–5). Even during the night he contemplated God’s greatness, recognizing His help and protection (vv. 6–7).
Today the Holy Spirit convicts us to earnestly seek after God. As we cling to Him, in power and love God holds us up with His strong right hand. By the leading of the Spirit, may we draw close to the Maker of all good things. By: Dave Branon
Reflect & Pray
How has the Holy Spirit been prompting you to seek God? What are some things you can do this week to grow closer to Him?
Thank You, God, for drawing me to seek after You. To know You better. To love You more. To recognize Your greatness. I’m so grateful for Your presence in my life.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, April 13, 2020
What To Do When Your Burden Is Overwhelming
Cast your burden on the Lord… —Psalm 55:22
We must recognize the difference between burdens that are right for us to bear and burdens that are wrong. We should never bear the burdens of sin or doubt, but there are some burdens placed on us by God which He does not intend to lift off. God wants us to roll them back on Him— to literally “cast your burden,” which He has given you, “on the Lord….” If we set out to serve God and do His work but get out of touch with Him, the sense of responsibility we feel will be overwhelming and defeating. But if we will only roll back on God the burdens He has placed on us, He will take away that immense feeling of responsibility, replacing it with an awareness and understanding of Himself and His presence.
Many servants set out to serve God with great courage and with the right motives. But with no intimate fellowship with Jesus Christ, they are soon defeated. They do not know what to do with their burden, and it produces weariness in their lives. Others will see this and say, “What a sad end to something that had such a great beginning!”
“Cast your burden on the Lord….” You have been bearing it all, but you need to deliberately place one end on God’s shoulder. “…the government will be upon His shoulder” (Isaiah 9:6). Commit to God whatever burden He has placed on you. Don’t just cast it aside, but put it over onto Him and place yourself there with it. You will see that your burden is then lightened by the sense of companionship. But you should never try to separate yourself from your burden.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is no allowance whatever in the New Testament for the man who says he is saved by grace but who does not produce the graceful goods. Jesus Christ by His Redemption can make our actual life in keeping with our religious profession.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
Bible in a Year: 1 Samuel 22-24; Luke 12:1-31
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, April 13, 2020
Sandcastles and Our Sudden Storm - #8676
Ocean City, N.J. - actually "memory City" for our family. Like the large, annual youth conference I used to speak for there. One of the favorite activities of the week was a sandcastle competition where delegations from all over competed to see who could win the coveted prize for best sandcastle. And you should have seen the masterpieces they created! They were massive, creative, detailed - little empires made of sand. Of course, they made them at low tide. It was kind of depressing to go back there a few hours later at high tide. Because no matter how elaborate, how imaginative, how brilliantly designed they were, they were gone. They just couldn't survive the onslaught of high tide.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Sandcastles and Our Sudden Storm."
Man, has high tide hit the world recently! I mean it has a suddenness and destructive power that's felt more like a tsunami. The coronavirus has slammed into an economy we've built...businesses we've built...retirements we've built...relationships we've built...lives we've built. And almost overnight, a lot that was there was suddenly going or gone.
It's been pretty traumatic to see how little control we really have over our lives. How insecure our security is. How quickly everything can change. It's left us shell-shocked...afraid...depressed...lonely...feeling lost. It turns out that the security, the little kingdom we've been trying to construct was basically a sandcastle. Something in which you invest a lot of effort that turns out not to last.
Maybe in a way this viral storm, though, has done us a favor. It's revealed how fragile the things we've pinned our hopes on really are. And given us a desire in our soul to find something that we can really count on. And depend on. One time, Jesus told a story about two men who were each building a house. One on rock, the other on sand. Side by side, I imagine they looked pretty much alike. Until the storm came. In our word for today from the Word of God in Luke 6:47-49, Jesus said one man represented the person who builds his life on something other than Jesus. He said, "He is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete." Maybe that captures a little of how you've been feeling since the corona storm hit.
But, according to Jesus, the man who built his life around Jesus had a different outcome: "When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built." Honestly, that's what happened on the worst day of my life - the day my wife, the love of my life, was suddenly gone. And while the storm was brutal, the Jesus who I've entrusted my life to was the anchor that held. The Bible says this, "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure" (Hebrews 6:19). I want that kind of security and peace for you. God wants it for you even more.
So much that He sent His one and only Son to literally die for you and for me. For every wrong thing we've ever done. For us hijacking our life from the God who gave us our life. The Bible says, "He was crushed for our sins...and the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him" (Isaiah 53:5). But this is not a religion that worships a dead Savior. This is about a relationship with the only Man who ever conquered death by blasting out of His grave - and that's Jesus.
If you're ready for the relationship with Him that will forgive your sin, guarantee you heaven and never fail you, no matter how brutal your storm is, this is your day to tell Jesus, "Jesus, I'm Yours." I've set up our website to help you do just that - I hope you'll head there soon today and check it out. It's ANewStory.com.
I've stood on the massive boulders at Ocean City that stick out into the raging tide. The storms have come and gone. But the rock still stands. For you, that rock is Jesus. Your one safe place.
Sunday, April 12, 2020
Isaiah 17, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Three Cookie Days
Every day, God prepares for us a plate of experiences. Some days are “three cookie days.” Many are not! Sometimes our plate has nothing but vegetables, twenty-four hours of celery, carrots, and squash. Apparently God knows we need some strength, and though the portion may be hard to swallow, isn’t it for our own good? All are important and all are from God. Romans 8:28 says, “We know that in everything God works for the good of those who love Him.”
The next time your plate has a portion you find hard to swallow, talk to God about it. Jesus did. In the garden of Gethsemane His Father handed Him a cup of suffering so sour, so vile, that Jesus handed it back to heaven.
“My Father,” He prayed, “if it is possible may this cup be taken from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.” (Mark 14:36).
from The Great House of God
Isaiah 17
A Message concerning Damascus:
“Watch this: Damascus undone as a city,
a pile of dust and rubble!
Her towns emptied of people.
The sheep and goats will move in
And take over the towns
as if they owned them—which they will!
Not a sign of a fort is left in Ephraim,
not a trace of government left in Damascus.
What’s left of Aram?
The same as what’s left of Israel—not much.”
Decree of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
4-6 “The Day is coming when Jacob’s robust splendor goes pale
and his well-fed body turns skinny.
The country will be left empty, picked clean
as a field harvested by field hands.
She’ll be like a few stalks of barley left standing
in the lush Valley of Rephaim after harvest,
Or like the couple of ripe olives overlooked
in the top of the olive tree,
Or the four or five apples
that the pickers couldn’t reach in the orchard.”
Decree of the God of Israel.
7-8 Yes, the Day is coming when people will notice The One Who Made Them, take a long hard look at The Holy of Israel. They’ll lose interest in all the stuff they’ve made—altars and monuments and rituals, their homemade, handmade religion—however impressive it is.
9 And yes, the Day is coming when their fortress cities will be abandoned—the very same cities that the Hivites and Amorites abandoned when Israel invaded! And the country will be empty, desolate.
10-11 And why? Because you have forgotten God-Your-Salvation,
not remembered your Rock-of-Refuge.
And so, even though you are very religious,
planting all sorts of bushes and herbs and trees
to honor and influence your fertility gods,
And even though you make them grow so well,
bursting with buds and sprouts and blossoms,
Nothing will come of them. Instead of a harvest
you’ll get nothing but grief and pain, pain, pain.
12-13 Oh my! Thunder! A thundering herd of people!
Thunder like the crashing of ocean waves!
Nations roaring, roaring,
like the roar of a massive waterfall,
Roaring like a deafening Niagara!
But God will silence them with a word,
And then he’ll blow them away like dead leaves off a tree,
like down from a thistle.
14 At bedtime, terror fills the air.
By morning it’s gone—not a sign of it anywhere!
This is what happens to those who would ruin us,
this is the fate of those out to get us.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, April 12, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:John 20:11–18
Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tombq 12 and saw two angels in white,r seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”s
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”t 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there,u but she did not realize that it was Jesus.v
15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?w Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic,x “Rabboni!”y (which means “Teacher”).
17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothersz and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Fathera and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”
18 Mary Magdaleneb went to the disciplesc with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
Insight
The name Mary is the English rendering of the Greek Maria or Mariam (from the Hebrew Miriam) and was one of the most common female names in New Testament times. The first Mary we meet is the mother of Jesus (Matthew 1:16). Other women bearing this name include Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus (John 11:1–12:8; Luke 10:38–41); Mary, the mother of James (Mark 15:40); Mary, the mother of John Mark (Acts 12:12); Mary, the wife of Clopas (John 19:25); Mary of Rome (Romans 16:6); and Mary Magdalene, who is featured in John 20:11–18. All the gospel writers place this Mary at Jesus’ death or resurrection or both (Matthew 27:56–61; 28:1–10; Mark 15:40, 47; 16:1; Luke 24:10; John 20:1, 18).
Grief Overturned
I have seen the Lord! John 20:18
According to Jim and Jamie Dutcher, filmmakers known for their knowledge of wolves, when happy, wolves wag their tails and romp about. But after the death of a pack member, they grieve for weeks. They visit the place where the pack member died, showing grief by their drooping tails and mournful howls.
Grief is a powerful emotion we’ve all experienced, particularly at the death of a loved one or of a treasured hope. Mary Magdalene experienced it. She’d traveled with and helped support Jesus and His disciples (Luke 8:1–3). But His cruel death on a cross separated them. The only thing left for Mary to do for Jesus was to finish anointing His body for burial—a task the Sabbath had interrupted. But imagine how Mary felt when she found not a lifeless, broken body but a living Savior! Though she hadn’t at first recognized the man standing before her, when He spoke her name, she knew who He was—Jesus! Instantly, grief turned to joy. Mary now had joyful news to share: “I have seen the Lord!” (John 20:18).
Jesus entered our dark world to bring freedom and life. His resurrection celebrates that He accomplished what He set out to do. Watch the devotional video, “Jesus, the Resurrection,” to learn more about the joy of a new life in Christ. We too can celebrate His resurrection and share the good news: He’s alive! By: Linda Washington
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, April 12, 2020
Complete and Effective Dominion
Death no longer has dominion over Him.…the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God… —Romans 6:9-11
Co-Eternal Life. Eternal life is the life which Jesus Christ exhibited on the human level. And it is this same life, not simply a copy of it, which is made evident in our mortal flesh when we are born again. Eternal life is not a gift from God; eternal life is the gift of God. The energy and the power which was so very evident in Jesus will be exhibited in us by an act of the absolute sovereign grace of God, once we have made that complete and effective decision about sin.
“You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…” (Acts 1:8)— not power as a gift from the Holy Spirit; the power is the Holy Spirit, not something that He gives us. The life that was in Jesus becomes ours because of His Cross, once we make the decision to be identified with Him. If it is difficult to get right with God, it is because we refuse to make this moral decision about sin. But once we do decide, the full life of God comes in immediately. Jesus came to give us an endless supply of life— “…that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19). Eternal life has nothing to do with time. It is the life which Jesus lived when He was down here, and the only Source of life is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Even the weakest saint can experience the power of the deity of the Son of God, when he is willing to “let go.” But any effort to “hang on” to the least bit of our own power will only diminish the life of Jesus in us. We have to keep letting go, and slowly, but surely, the great full life of God will invade us, penetrating every part. Then Jesus will have complete and effective dominion in us, and people will take notice that we have been with Him.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are in danger of being stern where God is tender, and of being tender where God is stern. The Love of God—The Message of Invincible Consolation, 673 L
Bible in a Year: 1 Samuel 19-21; Luke 11:29-54
Every day, God prepares for us a plate of experiences. Some days are “three cookie days.” Many are not! Sometimes our plate has nothing but vegetables, twenty-four hours of celery, carrots, and squash. Apparently God knows we need some strength, and though the portion may be hard to swallow, isn’t it for our own good? All are important and all are from God. Romans 8:28 says, “We know that in everything God works for the good of those who love Him.”
The next time your plate has a portion you find hard to swallow, talk to God about it. Jesus did. In the garden of Gethsemane His Father handed Him a cup of suffering so sour, so vile, that Jesus handed it back to heaven.
“My Father,” He prayed, “if it is possible may this cup be taken from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.” (Mark 14:36).
from The Great House of God
Isaiah 17
A Message concerning Damascus:
“Watch this: Damascus undone as a city,
a pile of dust and rubble!
Her towns emptied of people.
The sheep and goats will move in
And take over the towns
as if they owned them—which they will!
Not a sign of a fort is left in Ephraim,
not a trace of government left in Damascus.
What’s left of Aram?
The same as what’s left of Israel—not much.”
Decree of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
4-6 “The Day is coming when Jacob’s robust splendor goes pale
and his well-fed body turns skinny.
The country will be left empty, picked clean
as a field harvested by field hands.
She’ll be like a few stalks of barley left standing
in the lush Valley of Rephaim after harvest,
Or like the couple of ripe olives overlooked
in the top of the olive tree,
Or the four or five apples
that the pickers couldn’t reach in the orchard.”
Decree of the God of Israel.
7-8 Yes, the Day is coming when people will notice The One Who Made Them, take a long hard look at The Holy of Israel. They’ll lose interest in all the stuff they’ve made—altars and monuments and rituals, their homemade, handmade religion—however impressive it is.
9 And yes, the Day is coming when their fortress cities will be abandoned—the very same cities that the Hivites and Amorites abandoned when Israel invaded! And the country will be empty, desolate.
10-11 And why? Because you have forgotten God-Your-Salvation,
not remembered your Rock-of-Refuge.
And so, even though you are very religious,
planting all sorts of bushes and herbs and trees
to honor and influence your fertility gods,
And even though you make them grow so well,
bursting with buds and sprouts and blossoms,
Nothing will come of them. Instead of a harvest
you’ll get nothing but grief and pain, pain, pain.
12-13 Oh my! Thunder! A thundering herd of people!
Thunder like the crashing of ocean waves!
Nations roaring, roaring,
like the roar of a massive waterfall,
Roaring like a deafening Niagara!
But God will silence them with a word,
And then he’ll blow them away like dead leaves off a tree,
like down from a thistle.
14 At bedtime, terror fills the air.
By morning it’s gone—not a sign of it anywhere!
This is what happens to those who would ruin us,
this is the fate of those out to get us.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, April 12, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:John 20:11–18
Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tombq 12 and saw two angels in white,r seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”s
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”t 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there,u but she did not realize that it was Jesus.v
15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?w Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic,x “Rabboni!”y (which means “Teacher”).
17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothersz and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Fathera and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”
18 Mary Magdaleneb went to the disciplesc with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
Insight
The name Mary is the English rendering of the Greek Maria or Mariam (from the Hebrew Miriam) and was one of the most common female names in New Testament times. The first Mary we meet is the mother of Jesus (Matthew 1:16). Other women bearing this name include Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus (John 11:1–12:8; Luke 10:38–41); Mary, the mother of James (Mark 15:40); Mary, the mother of John Mark (Acts 12:12); Mary, the wife of Clopas (John 19:25); Mary of Rome (Romans 16:6); and Mary Magdalene, who is featured in John 20:11–18. All the gospel writers place this Mary at Jesus’ death or resurrection or both (Matthew 27:56–61; 28:1–10; Mark 15:40, 47; 16:1; Luke 24:10; John 20:1, 18).
Grief Overturned
I have seen the Lord! John 20:18
According to Jim and Jamie Dutcher, filmmakers known for their knowledge of wolves, when happy, wolves wag their tails and romp about. But after the death of a pack member, they grieve for weeks. They visit the place where the pack member died, showing grief by their drooping tails and mournful howls.
Grief is a powerful emotion we’ve all experienced, particularly at the death of a loved one or of a treasured hope. Mary Magdalene experienced it. She’d traveled with and helped support Jesus and His disciples (Luke 8:1–3). But His cruel death on a cross separated them. The only thing left for Mary to do for Jesus was to finish anointing His body for burial—a task the Sabbath had interrupted. But imagine how Mary felt when she found not a lifeless, broken body but a living Savior! Though she hadn’t at first recognized the man standing before her, when He spoke her name, she knew who He was—Jesus! Instantly, grief turned to joy. Mary now had joyful news to share: “I have seen the Lord!” (John 20:18).
Jesus entered our dark world to bring freedom and life. His resurrection celebrates that He accomplished what He set out to do. Watch the devotional video, “Jesus, the Resurrection,” to learn more about the joy of a new life in Christ. We too can celebrate His resurrection and share the good news: He’s alive! By: Linda Washington
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, April 12, 2020
Complete and Effective Dominion
Death no longer has dominion over Him.…the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God… —Romans 6:9-11
Co-Eternal Life. Eternal life is the life which Jesus Christ exhibited on the human level. And it is this same life, not simply a copy of it, which is made evident in our mortal flesh when we are born again. Eternal life is not a gift from God; eternal life is the gift of God. The energy and the power which was so very evident in Jesus will be exhibited in us by an act of the absolute sovereign grace of God, once we have made that complete and effective decision about sin.
“You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…” (Acts 1:8)— not power as a gift from the Holy Spirit; the power is the Holy Spirit, not something that He gives us. The life that was in Jesus becomes ours because of His Cross, once we make the decision to be identified with Him. If it is difficult to get right with God, it is because we refuse to make this moral decision about sin. But once we do decide, the full life of God comes in immediately. Jesus came to give us an endless supply of life— “…that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19). Eternal life has nothing to do with time. It is the life which Jesus lived when He was down here, and the only Source of life is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Even the weakest saint can experience the power of the deity of the Son of God, when he is willing to “let go.” But any effort to “hang on” to the least bit of our own power will only diminish the life of Jesus in us. We have to keep letting go, and slowly, but surely, the great full life of God will invade us, penetrating every part. Then Jesus will have complete and effective dominion in us, and people will take notice that we have been with Him.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are in danger of being stern where God is tender, and of being tender where God is stern. The Love of God—The Message of Invincible Consolation, 673 L
Bible in a Year: 1 Samuel 19-21; Luke 11:29-54
Saturday, April 11, 2020
Ephesians 3 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Put on Christ
Scripture often describes our behavior as the clothes we wear. In 1 Peter 5:5, Peter urges us to be "clothed with humility." David speaks of evil people who clothe themselves "with cursing." Garments can symbolize character, and like His garment, Jesus' character was seamless. The character of Jesus was a seamless fabric woven from heaven to earth-from God's thoughts to Jesus' actions. From God's tears to Jesus' compassion. From God's word to Jesus' response. All one piece. A picture of the character of Jesus.
But when Christ was nailed to the cross, He took off His robe of seamless perfection and assumed a different wardrobe. He wore our sin so we could wear His righteousness.
From He Chose the Nail
Ephesians 3
This is why I, Paul, am in jail for Christ, having taken up the cause of you outsiders, so-called. I take it that you’re familiar with the part I was given in God’s plan for including everybody. I got the inside story on this from God himself, as I just wrote you in brief.
4-6 As you read over what I have written to you, you’ll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery of Christ. None of our ancestors understood this. Only in our time has it been made clear by God’s Spirit through his holy apostles and prophets of this new order. The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I’ve been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board.
7-8 This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God’s way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities.
8-10 And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels!
11-13 All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus. When we trust in him, we’re free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go. So don’t let my present trouble on your behalf get you down. Be proud!
14-19 My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.
20-21 God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.
Glory to God in the church!
Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus!
Glory down all the generations!
Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, April 11, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight: John 21:15–19
Jesus Reinstates Peter
15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”o
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”p
16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”q
17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?”r He said, “Lord, you know all things;s you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.t 18 Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of deathu by which Peter would glorify God.v Then he said to him, “Follow me!”
Insight
Some scholars speculate that John 21, while fully inspired and no doubt written by John, was actually written later and added to the original first twenty chapters. Clearly, the ending of chapter 20 could serve as an adequate conclusion to John’s gospel record. Commentators suggest one purpose for adding chapter 21 as a “second” ending is to show how Jesus restores Peter after his denial. Additionally, verses 20–23 clarify a misunderstanding about Christ’s return. When Jesus told Peter that it shouldn’t be his concern if John were to live until He returns, people drew false conclusions. So John wrote: “Because of this, the rumor spread among the believers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, ‘If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?’ ” (v. 23).
Feed My Sheep
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.” John 21:16
In a lecture in 1911, Oswald Chambers reflected on being a young shepherd in the highlands of Scotland: “When you have to carry across your shoulders a dirty old [goat] and bring it down the mountain-side, you will soon know whether shepherding is poetry or not.” He didn’t want to romanticize this form of labor as “poetry” but rather called it “the most taxing, the most exhausting, and the most exasperating work.” The hard work of shepherding people is what Jesus entrusted to Peter, for Peter would face criticism, misunderstanding, and other challenges in caring for His flock.
Chambers reflected, “To whom did He say, ‘Feed My lambs’? To Peter. Who was Peter? A very wayward sheep.” Even though Peter had denied knowing Jesus (see John 18:15–27), Jesus met him on the beach and lovingly restored him in front of the other disciples (21:15–19). Peter’s bitter experience taught him how to be tender and watchful over the Lord’s sheep. Having received the Holy Spirit, he was ready for the toil and joys of being a shepherd to people.
Like Peter, we may have failed Jesus through denials, wrongdoing, selfishness, or pride. But He seeks us out and forgives us, just as He did Peter. Watch Meno Kalisher’s, Daniel Kalisher’s, and Debby Nalbandian’s devotional video, “Jesus, the Mission,” and learn more about God’s forgiveness and restoration. He restores us and gives us a new commission—helping us care for others. As we follow Jesus, we share our love for Him with those we meet. By: Amy Boucher Pye
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, April 11, 2020
Complete and Effective Divinity
If we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection… —Romans 6:5
Co-Resurrection. The proof that I have experienced crucifixion with Jesus is that I have a definite likeness to Him. The Spirit of Jesus entering me rearranges my personal life before God. The resurrection of Jesus has given Him the authority to give the life of God to me, and the experiences of my life must now be built on the foundation of His life. I can have the resurrection life of Jesus here and now, and it will exhibit itself through holiness.
The idea all through the apostle Paul’s writings is that after the decision to be identified with Jesus in His death has been made, the resurrection life of Jesus penetrates every bit of my human nature. It takes the omnipotence of God— His complete and effective divinity— to live the life of the Son of God in human flesh. The Holy Spirit cannot be accepted as a guest in merely one room of the house— He invades all of it. And once I decide that my “old man” (that is, my heredity of sin) should be identified with the death of Jesus, the Holy Spirit invades me. He takes charge of everything. My part is to walk in the light and to obey all that He reveals to me. Once I have made that important decision about sin, it is easy to “reckon” that I am actually “dead indeed to sin,” because I find the life of Jesus in me all the time (Romans 6:11). Just as there is only one kind of humanity, there is only one kind of holiness— the holiness of Jesus. And it is His holiness that has been given to me. God puts the holiness of His Son into me, and I belong to a new spiritual order.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are in danger of being stern where God is tender, and of being tender where God is stern. The Love of God—The Message of Invincible Consolation, 673 L
Bible in a Year: 1 Samuel 17-18; Luke 11:1-28
Scripture often describes our behavior as the clothes we wear. In 1 Peter 5:5, Peter urges us to be "clothed with humility." David speaks of evil people who clothe themselves "with cursing." Garments can symbolize character, and like His garment, Jesus' character was seamless. The character of Jesus was a seamless fabric woven from heaven to earth-from God's thoughts to Jesus' actions. From God's tears to Jesus' compassion. From God's word to Jesus' response. All one piece. A picture of the character of Jesus.
But when Christ was nailed to the cross, He took off His robe of seamless perfection and assumed a different wardrobe. He wore our sin so we could wear His righteousness.
From He Chose the Nail
Ephesians 3
This is why I, Paul, am in jail for Christ, having taken up the cause of you outsiders, so-called. I take it that you’re familiar with the part I was given in God’s plan for including everybody. I got the inside story on this from God himself, as I just wrote you in brief.
4-6 As you read over what I have written to you, you’ll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery of Christ. None of our ancestors understood this. Only in our time has it been made clear by God’s Spirit through his holy apostles and prophets of this new order. The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I’ve been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board.
7-8 This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God’s way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities.
8-10 And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels!
11-13 All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus. When we trust in him, we’re free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go. So don’t let my present trouble on your behalf get you down. Be proud!
14-19 My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.
20-21 God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.
Glory to God in the church!
Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus!
Glory down all the generations!
Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, April 11, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight: John 21:15–19
Jesus Reinstates Peter
15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”o
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”p
16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”q
17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?”r He said, “Lord, you know all things;s you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.t 18 Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of deathu by which Peter would glorify God.v Then he said to him, “Follow me!”
Insight
Some scholars speculate that John 21, while fully inspired and no doubt written by John, was actually written later and added to the original first twenty chapters. Clearly, the ending of chapter 20 could serve as an adequate conclusion to John’s gospel record. Commentators suggest one purpose for adding chapter 21 as a “second” ending is to show how Jesus restores Peter after his denial. Additionally, verses 20–23 clarify a misunderstanding about Christ’s return. When Jesus told Peter that it shouldn’t be his concern if John were to live until He returns, people drew false conclusions. So John wrote: “Because of this, the rumor spread among the believers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, ‘If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?’ ” (v. 23).
Feed My Sheep
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.” John 21:16
In a lecture in 1911, Oswald Chambers reflected on being a young shepherd in the highlands of Scotland: “When you have to carry across your shoulders a dirty old [goat] and bring it down the mountain-side, you will soon know whether shepherding is poetry or not.” He didn’t want to romanticize this form of labor as “poetry” but rather called it “the most taxing, the most exhausting, and the most exasperating work.” The hard work of shepherding people is what Jesus entrusted to Peter, for Peter would face criticism, misunderstanding, and other challenges in caring for His flock.
Chambers reflected, “To whom did He say, ‘Feed My lambs’? To Peter. Who was Peter? A very wayward sheep.” Even though Peter had denied knowing Jesus (see John 18:15–27), Jesus met him on the beach and lovingly restored him in front of the other disciples (21:15–19). Peter’s bitter experience taught him how to be tender and watchful over the Lord’s sheep. Having received the Holy Spirit, he was ready for the toil and joys of being a shepherd to people.
Like Peter, we may have failed Jesus through denials, wrongdoing, selfishness, or pride. But He seeks us out and forgives us, just as He did Peter. Watch Meno Kalisher’s, Daniel Kalisher’s, and Debby Nalbandian’s devotional video, “Jesus, the Mission,” and learn more about God’s forgiveness and restoration. He restores us and gives us a new commission—helping us care for others. As we follow Jesus, we share our love for Him with those we meet. By: Amy Boucher Pye
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, April 11, 2020
Complete and Effective Divinity
If we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection… —Romans 6:5
Co-Resurrection. The proof that I have experienced crucifixion with Jesus is that I have a definite likeness to Him. The Spirit of Jesus entering me rearranges my personal life before God. The resurrection of Jesus has given Him the authority to give the life of God to me, and the experiences of my life must now be built on the foundation of His life. I can have the resurrection life of Jesus here and now, and it will exhibit itself through holiness.
The idea all through the apostle Paul’s writings is that after the decision to be identified with Jesus in His death has been made, the resurrection life of Jesus penetrates every bit of my human nature. It takes the omnipotence of God— His complete and effective divinity— to live the life of the Son of God in human flesh. The Holy Spirit cannot be accepted as a guest in merely one room of the house— He invades all of it. And once I decide that my “old man” (that is, my heredity of sin) should be identified with the death of Jesus, the Holy Spirit invades me. He takes charge of everything. My part is to walk in the light and to obey all that He reveals to me. Once I have made that important decision about sin, it is easy to “reckon” that I am actually “dead indeed to sin,” because I find the life of Jesus in me all the time (Romans 6:11). Just as there is only one kind of humanity, there is only one kind of holiness— the holiness of Jesus. And it is His holiness that has been given to me. God puts the holiness of His Son into me, and I belong to a new spiritual order.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are in danger of being stern where God is tender, and of being tender where God is stern. The Love of God—The Message of Invincible Consolation, 673 L
Bible in a Year: 1 Samuel 17-18; Luke 11:1-28
Friday, April 10, 2020
Isaiah 16, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: A LESSON IN TRUST
In one of Henri Nouwen’s books, he tells about the lesson of trust he learned from a great trapeze artist. The acrobat said, “The flyer does nothing and the catcher does everything. I have simply to reach out my arms and hands and wait for him to catch me and pull me safely over the apron.” The flyer must trust, with outstretched arms, that his catcher will be there for him.”
In the great trapeze act of salvation, God is the catcher, and we are the flyers. We trust. Period. We rely solely upon God’s ability to catch us. And as we trust him, a wonderful thing happens– we fly! Your Father has never dropped anyone. He will not drop you. His grip is sturdy and his hands are open. Place yourself entirely in his care. As you do, you will find it is possible, yes possible, to be anxious for nothing!
Isaiah 16
“Dispatch a gift of lambs,” says Moab,
“to the leaders in Jerusalem—
Lambs from Sela sent across the desert
to buy the goodwill of Jerusalem.
The towns and people of Moab
are at a loss,
New-hatched birds knocked from the nest,
fluttering helplessly
At the banks of the Arnon River,
unable to cross:
‘Tell us what to do,
help us out!
Protect us,
hide us!
Give the refugees from Moab
sanctuary with you.
Be a safe place for those on the run
from the killing fields.’”
4-5 “When this is all over,” Judah answers,
“the tyrant toppled,
The killing at an end,
all signs of these cruelties long gone,
A new government of love will be established
in the venerable David tradition.
A Ruler you can depend upon
will head this government,
A Ruler passionate for justice,
a Ruler quick to set things right.”
6-12 We’ve heard—everyone’s heard!—of Moab’s pride,
world-famous for pride—
Arrogant, self-important, insufferable,
full of hot air.
So now let Moab lament for a change,
with antiphonal mock-laments from the neighbors!
What a shame! How terrible!
No more fine fruitcakes and Kir-hareseth candies!
All those lush Heshbon fields dried up,
the rich Sibmah vineyards withered!
Foreign thugs have crushed and torn out
the famous grapevines
That once reached all the way to Jazer,
right to the edge of the desert,
Ripped out the crops in every direction
as far as the eye can see.
I’ll join the weeping. I’ll weep right along with Jazer,
weep for the Sibmah vineyards.
And yes, Heshbon and Elealeh,
I’ll mingle my tears with your tears!
The joyful shouting at harvest is gone.
Instead of song and celebration, dead silence.
No more boisterous laughter in the orchards,
no more hearty work songs in the vineyards.
Instead of the bustle and sound of good work in the fields,
silence—deathly and deadening silence.
My heartstrings throb like harp strings for Moab,
my soul in sympathy for sad Kir-heres.
When Moab trudges to the shrine to pray,
he wastes both time and energy.
Going to the sanctuary and praying for relief
is useless. Nothing ever happens.
13-14 This is God’s earlier Message on Moab. God’s updated Message is, “In three years, no longer than the term of an enlisted soldier, Moab’s impressive presence will be gone, that splendid hot-air balloon will be punctured, and instead of a vigorous population, just a few shuffling bums cadging handouts.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, April 10, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight: Mark 15:33–41
The Death of Jesus
At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.z 34 And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).b a
35 When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.”
36 Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar,b put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said.
37 With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.c
38 The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.d 39 And when the centurion,e who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died,c he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”f
40 Some women were watching from a distance.g Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph,d and Salome.h 41 In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.
Insight
Who were the women who witnessed Jesus’ crucifixion? Among the “many” women there, Mark lists three by name: Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph, and Salome (Mark 15:40–41). Mary Magdalene was from the fishing village of Magdala and had been cured of seven evil spirits by Jesus (Luke 8:1–2). She was also one of the women set free from diseases and evil spirits who helped “to support [Jesus and His disciples] out of their own means” (v. 3; see also Mark 15:41). The other Mary is the mother of James and Joseph, which indicates that her sons were probably well known in the believing community. Salome was most likely the wife of Zebedee and mother of Jesus’ disciples James and John (see Matthew 27:56). The gospel of John states that three Marys witnessed the crucifixion: Jesus’ mother, His mother’s sister (the wife of Clopas), and Mary Magdalene (19:25).
Standing Firm
Stand firm. Let nothing move you. 1 Corinthians 15:58
In the Middle Eastern country where they live, Adrian and his family suffer persecution for their faith. Yet, through it all, they demonstrate Christ’s love. Standing in his church courtyard, which was pummeled by bullets when terrorists used it as training ground, he said, “Today is Good Friday. We remember that Jesus suffered for us on the cross.” And suffering, he continued, is something that believers in Jesus there understand. But his family chooses to remain in their homeland: “We’re still here, still standing.”
These believers follow the example of the women who stood watching as Jesus died on the cross (Mark 15:40). They—including Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and Salome—were brave to stay there, for friends and family members of an enemy of the state could be ridiculed and punished. Yet the women showed their love for Jesus by their very presence with Him. Even as they “followed him and cared for his needs” in Galilee (v. 41), they stood with Him at His hour of deepest need.
On this day when we remember the greatest gift of our Savior, His death on a cross, take a moment to consider how we can stand for Jesus as we face trials of many kinds (see James 2:2–4). Think too about our fellow believers around the world who suffer for their faith. As Adrian asked, “Can you please stand with us in your prayers?” Watch Moti Vaknin’s devotional video, “Jesus, the Divine,” to learn more about Christ’s death and resurrection. By: Amy Boucher Pye
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, April 10, 2020
Complete and Effective Decision About Sin
…our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. —Romans 6:6
Co-Crucifixion. Have you made the following decision about sin—that it must be completely killed in you? It takes a long time to come to the point of making this complete and effective decision about sin. It is, however, the greatest moment in your life once you decide that sin must die in you– not simply be restrained, suppressed, or counteracted, but crucified— just as Jesus Christ died for the sin of the world. No one can bring anyone else to this decision. We may be mentally and spiritually convinced, but what we need to do is actually make the decision that Paul urged us to do in this passage.
Pull yourself up, take some time alone with God, and make this important decision, saying, “Lord, identify me with Your death until I know that sin is dead in me.” Make the moral decision that sin in you must be put to death.
This was not some divine future expectation on the part of Paul, but was a very radical and definite experience in his life. Are you prepared to let the Spirit of God search you until you know what the level and nature of sin is in your life— to see the very things that struggle against God’s Spirit in you? If so, will you then agree with God’s verdict on the nature of sin— that it should be identified with the death of Jesus? You cannot “reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin” (Romans 6:11) unless you have radically dealt with the issue of your will before God.
Have you entered into the glorious privilege of being crucified with Christ, until all that remains in your flesh and blood is His life? “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me…” (Galatians 2:20).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are all based on a conception of importance, either our own importance, or the importance of someone else; Jesus tells us to go and teach based on the revelation of His importance. “All power is given unto Me.… Go ye therefore ….” So Send I You, 1325 R
Bible in a Year: 1 Samuel 15-16; Luke 10:25-42
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, April 10, 2020
When the Passion Becomes Personal - #8675
Twenty-three marks on the wall of his four-by-four prison cell told the story. It had just been three weeks since the soldiers captured him - the number one name on the Most Wanted List - at a local bar and they hauled him into this cell. The charges were robbery, treason, and murder. Day 23 was going to be just another day there, or so he thought until he heard the growing sounds of that angry mob outside the window above him. He managed to grab the bars on the window and pull himself up high enough to hear what the crowd was screaming. It was a combination of shock and fear that swept over him when he heard they were shouting his name! "Give us Ba-rabbas! Give us Ba-rabbas!"
Then the chant gradually began to change. Now they were shouting with this bloodthirsty anger, "Cru-ci-fy him! Cru-ci-fy him!" Barabbas slumped to the floor. He couldn't believe it. He'd been their hero, but now they were calling for his execution by the most brutal means of execution ever devised - death on a cross. Within minutes, five soldiers were dragging him, kicking and screaming down the corridor, up the stone steps, and to another door. They flung the door open, pushed him through it, and slammed the door behind him.
It took a little while for him to realize where he was. He was out on the cobblestone street of Jerusalem. He was free! Before the reality could fully dawn on Barabbas, the door behind him opened again. He literally had to roll out of the way to keep from being trampled by this angry crowd pushing their way through with a bare-backed, bleeding man in the middle of them. As Barabbas plastered himself against the wall of that narrow street, he could see that man's back had been so brutally beaten it was like one gaping wound, exposing tissue and bone everywhere. Barabbas' first instinct was to run while he could, but he didn't. He followed that crowd all the way up to that skull-shaped hill just outside the city, where from a distance, he heard the hammer and the spikes that the heartless executioners of Rome were driving into that man's hands and feet.
It turned dark as night in the middle of the day and the skies opened up with a deluge of rain. Curious spectators just began to drift away. Finally, Barabbas felt safe enough to walk slowly to the top of Skull Hill, with his head covered. It was as if there was a magnet pulling him toward the man hanging on that middle cross between two other dying criminals. Barabbas had heard the man say from that cross, "Father, forgive them." He'd heard many things at crucifixions. He'd heard cursing, and screaming, and threatening, but never "forgive."
He now could recognize the face that was beaten almost beyond recognition. It was Jesus - the man who had done no wrong, whose only crime was to love those that no one else cared about. And in that moment Barabbas found himself looking up into the eyes of that man on the middle cross and saying aloud, "Jesus, you don't deserve to be there, I do. But because You're dying there, I don't have to die." I could walk up to the cross where Jesus died and say that, and so could you.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You on this Good Friday about "When the Passion Becomes Personal."
I don't know if Barabbas ever really made it to the cross, but I do know that getting to that cross to have your sins forgiven is your only hope of heaven. Our word for today from the Word of God is in Galatians 2:20, and it simply says, "The Son of God...loved me and gave Himself for me."
If you've never been to Jesus' cross and said those words, "For me. You're dying for me," this could be your personal Jesus-day. When you tell Him you are His, when every wrong thing you've ever done will be erased from God's book, because the blood shed on that cross was shed to pay for it. And when you trade hell for heaven this very day, would you tell Him, "Jesus, you're dying for what I've done. And today I am yours and from now on."
Would you make a trip to our website? It's ANewStory.com. I want to help you today be sure you've crossed over from death to life.
Jesus died for your sin so you don't have to.
In one of Henri Nouwen’s books, he tells about the lesson of trust he learned from a great trapeze artist. The acrobat said, “The flyer does nothing and the catcher does everything. I have simply to reach out my arms and hands and wait for him to catch me and pull me safely over the apron.” The flyer must trust, with outstretched arms, that his catcher will be there for him.”
In the great trapeze act of salvation, God is the catcher, and we are the flyers. We trust. Period. We rely solely upon God’s ability to catch us. And as we trust him, a wonderful thing happens– we fly! Your Father has never dropped anyone. He will not drop you. His grip is sturdy and his hands are open. Place yourself entirely in his care. As you do, you will find it is possible, yes possible, to be anxious for nothing!
Isaiah 16
“Dispatch a gift of lambs,” says Moab,
“to the leaders in Jerusalem—
Lambs from Sela sent across the desert
to buy the goodwill of Jerusalem.
The towns and people of Moab
are at a loss,
New-hatched birds knocked from the nest,
fluttering helplessly
At the banks of the Arnon River,
unable to cross:
‘Tell us what to do,
help us out!
Protect us,
hide us!
Give the refugees from Moab
sanctuary with you.
Be a safe place for those on the run
from the killing fields.’”
4-5 “When this is all over,” Judah answers,
“the tyrant toppled,
The killing at an end,
all signs of these cruelties long gone,
A new government of love will be established
in the venerable David tradition.
A Ruler you can depend upon
will head this government,
A Ruler passionate for justice,
a Ruler quick to set things right.”
6-12 We’ve heard—everyone’s heard!—of Moab’s pride,
world-famous for pride—
Arrogant, self-important, insufferable,
full of hot air.
So now let Moab lament for a change,
with antiphonal mock-laments from the neighbors!
What a shame! How terrible!
No more fine fruitcakes and Kir-hareseth candies!
All those lush Heshbon fields dried up,
the rich Sibmah vineyards withered!
Foreign thugs have crushed and torn out
the famous grapevines
That once reached all the way to Jazer,
right to the edge of the desert,
Ripped out the crops in every direction
as far as the eye can see.
I’ll join the weeping. I’ll weep right along with Jazer,
weep for the Sibmah vineyards.
And yes, Heshbon and Elealeh,
I’ll mingle my tears with your tears!
The joyful shouting at harvest is gone.
Instead of song and celebration, dead silence.
No more boisterous laughter in the orchards,
no more hearty work songs in the vineyards.
Instead of the bustle and sound of good work in the fields,
silence—deathly and deadening silence.
My heartstrings throb like harp strings for Moab,
my soul in sympathy for sad Kir-heres.
When Moab trudges to the shrine to pray,
he wastes both time and energy.
Going to the sanctuary and praying for relief
is useless. Nothing ever happens.
13-14 This is God’s earlier Message on Moab. God’s updated Message is, “In three years, no longer than the term of an enlisted soldier, Moab’s impressive presence will be gone, that splendid hot-air balloon will be punctured, and instead of a vigorous population, just a few shuffling bums cadging handouts.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, April 10, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight: Mark 15:33–41
The Death of Jesus
At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.z 34 And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).b a
35 When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.”
36 Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar,b put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said.
37 With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.c
38 The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.d 39 And when the centurion,e who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died,c he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”f
40 Some women were watching from a distance.g Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph,d and Salome.h 41 In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.
Insight
Who were the women who witnessed Jesus’ crucifixion? Among the “many” women there, Mark lists three by name: Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph, and Salome (Mark 15:40–41). Mary Magdalene was from the fishing village of Magdala and had been cured of seven evil spirits by Jesus (Luke 8:1–2). She was also one of the women set free from diseases and evil spirits who helped “to support [Jesus and His disciples] out of their own means” (v. 3; see also Mark 15:41). The other Mary is the mother of James and Joseph, which indicates that her sons were probably well known in the believing community. Salome was most likely the wife of Zebedee and mother of Jesus’ disciples James and John (see Matthew 27:56). The gospel of John states that three Marys witnessed the crucifixion: Jesus’ mother, His mother’s sister (the wife of Clopas), and Mary Magdalene (19:25).
Standing Firm
Stand firm. Let nothing move you. 1 Corinthians 15:58
In the Middle Eastern country where they live, Adrian and his family suffer persecution for their faith. Yet, through it all, they demonstrate Christ’s love. Standing in his church courtyard, which was pummeled by bullets when terrorists used it as training ground, he said, “Today is Good Friday. We remember that Jesus suffered for us on the cross.” And suffering, he continued, is something that believers in Jesus there understand. But his family chooses to remain in their homeland: “We’re still here, still standing.”
These believers follow the example of the women who stood watching as Jesus died on the cross (Mark 15:40). They—including Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and Salome—were brave to stay there, for friends and family members of an enemy of the state could be ridiculed and punished. Yet the women showed their love for Jesus by their very presence with Him. Even as they “followed him and cared for his needs” in Galilee (v. 41), they stood with Him at His hour of deepest need.
On this day when we remember the greatest gift of our Savior, His death on a cross, take a moment to consider how we can stand for Jesus as we face trials of many kinds (see James 2:2–4). Think too about our fellow believers around the world who suffer for their faith. As Adrian asked, “Can you please stand with us in your prayers?” Watch Moti Vaknin’s devotional video, “Jesus, the Divine,” to learn more about Christ’s death and resurrection. By: Amy Boucher Pye
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, April 10, 2020
Complete and Effective Decision About Sin
…our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. —Romans 6:6
Co-Crucifixion. Have you made the following decision about sin—that it must be completely killed in you? It takes a long time to come to the point of making this complete and effective decision about sin. It is, however, the greatest moment in your life once you decide that sin must die in you– not simply be restrained, suppressed, or counteracted, but crucified— just as Jesus Christ died for the sin of the world. No one can bring anyone else to this decision. We may be mentally and spiritually convinced, but what we need to do is actually make the decision that Paul urged us to do in this passage.
Pull yourself up, take some time alone with God, and make this important decision, saying, “Lord, identify me with Your death until I know that sin is dead in me.” Make the moral decision that sin in you must be put to death.
This was not some divine future expectation on the part of Paul, but was a very radical and definite experience in his life. Are you prepared to let the Spirit of God search you until you know what the level and nature of sin is in your life— to see the very things that struggle against God’s Spirit in you? If so, will you then agree with God’s verdict on the nature of sin— that it should be identified with the death of Jesus? You cannot “reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin” (Romans 6:11) unless you have radically dealt with the issue of your will before God.
Have you entered into the glorious privilege of being crucified with Christ, until all that remains in your flesh and blood is His life? “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me…” (Galatians 2:20).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are all based on a conception of importance, either our own importance, or the importance of someone else; Jesus tells us to go and teach based on the revelation of His importance. “All power is given unto Me.… Go ye therefore ….” So Send I You, 1325 R
Bible in a Year: 1 Samuel 15-16; Luke 10:25-42
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, April 10, 2020
When the Passion Becomes Personal - #8675
Twenty-three marks on the wall of his four-by-four prison cell told the story. It had just been three weeks since the soldiers captured him - the number one name on the Most Wanted List - at a local bar and they hauled him into this cell. The charges were robbery, treason, and murder. Day 23 was going to be just another day there, or so he thought until he heard the growing sounds of that angry mob outside the window above him. He managed to grab the bars on the window and pull himself up high enough to hear what the crowd was screaming. It was a combination of shock and fear that swept over him when he heard they were shouting his name! "Give us Ba-rabbas! Give us Ba-rabbas!"
Then the chant gradually began to change. Now they were shouting with this bloodthirsty anger, "Cru-ci-fy him! Cru-ci-fy him!" Barabbas slumped to the floor. He couldn't believe it. He'd been their hero, but now they were calling for his execution by the most brutal means of execution ever devised - death on a cross. Within minutes, five soldiers were dragging him, kicking and screaming down the corridor, up the stone steps, and to another door. They flung the door open, pushed him through it, and slammed the door behind him.
It took a little while for him to realize where he was. He was out on the cobblestone street of Jerusalem. He was free! Before the reality could fully dawn on Barabbas, the door behind him opened again. He literally had to roll out of the way to keep from being trampled by this angry crowd pushing their way through with a bare-backed, bleeding man in the middle of them. As Barabbas plastered himself against the wall of that narrow street, he could see that man's back had been so brutally beaten it was like one gaping wound, exposing tissue and bone everywhere. Barabbas' first instinct was to run while he could, but he didn't. He followed that crowd all the way up to that skull-shaped hill just outside the city, where from a distance, he heard the hammer and the spikes that the heartless executioners of Rome were driving into that man's hands and feet.
It turned dark as night in the middle of the day and the skies opened up with a deluge of rain. Curious spectators just began to drift away. Finally, Barabbas felt safe enough to walk slowly to the top of Skull Hill, with his head covered. It was as if there was a magnet pulling him toward the man hanging on that middle cross between two other dying criminals. Barabbas had heard the man say from that cross, "Father, forgive them." He'd heard many things at crucifixions. He'd heard cursing, and screaming, and threatening, but never "forgive."
He now could recognize the face that was beaten almost beyond recognition. It was Jesus - the man who had done no wrong, whose only crime was to love those that no one else cared about. And in that moment Barabbas found himself looking up into the eyes of that man on the middle cross and saying aloud, "Jesus, you don't deserve to be there, I do. But because You're dying there, I don't have to die." I could walk up to the cross where Jesus died and say that, and so could you.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You on this Good Friday about "When the Passion Becomes Personal."
I don't know if Barabbas ever really made it to the cross, but I do know that getting to that cross to have your sins forgiven is your only hope of heaven. Our word for today from the Word of God is in Galatians 2:20, and it simply says, "The Son of God...loved me and gave Himself for me."
If you've never been to Jesus' cross and said those words, "For me. You're dying for me," this could be your personal Jesus-day. When you tell Him you are His, when every wrong thing you've ever done will be erased from God's book, because the blood shed on that cross was shed to pay for it. And when you trade hell for heaven this very day, would you tell Him, "Jesus, you're dying for what I've done. And today I am yours and from now on."
Would you make a trip to our website? It's ANewStory.com. I want to help you today be sure you've crossed over from death to life.
Jesus died for your sin so you don't have to.
Thursday, April 9, 2020
Isaiah 15 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: BUT GOD IS GOOD
There’s a reason the windshield is bigger than the rearview mirror. Your future matters more than your past! God’s grace is greater than your sin. You thought the problem was your calendar, your marriage, your job. In reality, it’s this unresolved guilt! Don’t indulge it. Don’t drown in the bilge of your own condemnation. What you did was not good. But your God is good. And He will forgive you.
He is ready to write a new chapter in your life. Say with Paul, “Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God is calling us” (Philippians 3:13-14). Your salvation has nothing to do with your work and everything to do with the finished work of Christ on the cross. Rejoice in the Lord’s mercy!
Isaiah 15
A Message concerning Moab:
Village Ar of Moab is in ruins,
destroyed in a night raid.
Village Kir of Moab is in ruins,
destroyed in a night raid.
Village Dibon climbs to its chapel in the hills,
goes up to lament.
Moab weeps and wails
over Nebo and Medba.
Every head is shaved bald,
every beard shaved clean.
They pour into the streets wearing black,
go up on the roofs, take to the town square,
Everyone in tears,
everyone in grief.
Towns Heshbon and Elealeh cry long and loud.
The sound carries as far as Jahaz.
Moab sobs, shaking in grief.
The soul of Moab trembles.
5-9 Oh, how I grieve for Moab!
Refugees stream to Zoar
and then on to Eglath-shelishiyah.
Up the slopes of Luhith they weep;
on the road to Horonaim they cry their loss.
The springs of Nimrim are dried up—
grass brown, buds stunted, nothing grows.
They leave, carrying all their possessions
on their backs, everything they own,
Making their way as best they can
across Willow Creek to safety.
Poignant cries reverberate
all through Moab,
Gut-wrenching sobs as far as Eglaim,
heart-racking sobs all the way to Beer-elim.
The banks of the Dibon crest with blood,
but God has worse in store for Dibon:
A lion—a lion to finish off the fugitives,
to clean up whoever’s left in the land.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, April 09, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Mark 10:26–31
The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”
27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”d
28 Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”e
29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as muchf in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to comeg eternal life.h 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
Insight
A wealthy young man approached Jesus trusting that his good works had earned him a place in heaven (Mark 10:17–20). Correcting him, Jesus told him to give up his material wealth and to follow Him in order to receive “treasure in heaven” (v. 21). This got the disciples thinking. They’d left their families and professions to follow Christ (Matthew 4:18–22; 9:9). Peter said to Jesus, “We have left everything to follow you!” (Mark 10:28). Jesus affirmed that they’d certainly be rewarded for their sacrifices and they’ll have the very thing the rich young ruler desired—“eternal life” (vv. 17, 30). But He also warned them of the danger of pride (v. 31). They weren’t to think of themselves as “greatest” in the kingdom (9:33–34) because of their sacrifices and achievements and for following Him longer than anyone else.
Surrendering All
Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!” Mark 10:28
Two men remembered for serving others for Jesus left careers in the arts to commit themselves to where they believed God had called them. James O. Fraser (1886–1938) decided not to pursue being a concert pianist in England to serve the Lisu people in China, while the American Judson Van DeVenter (1855–1939) chose to become an evangelist instead of pursuing a career in art. He later wrote the hymn “I Surrender All.”
While having a vocation in the arts is the perfect calling for many, these men believed God called them to relinquish one career for another. Perhaps they found inspiration from Jesus counseling the rich, young ruler to give up his possessions to follow Him (Mark 10:17–25). Witnessing the exchange, Peter exclaimed, “We have left everything to follow you!” (v. 28). Jesus assured him that God would give those who follow Him “a hundred times as much in this present age” and eternal life (v. 30). But He would give according to His wisdom: “Many who are first will be last, and the last first” (v. 31).
No matter where God has placed us, we’re called to daily surrender our lives to Christ, obeying His gentle call to follow Him and serve Him with our talents and resources—whether in the home, office, community, or far from home. Watch Annahita Parsan’s devotional video, “Jesus, the Revolutionary.” She surrendered to God’s call to share the gospel in Sweden. As we submit to His call, He’ll also inspire us to love others. By: Amy Boucher Pye
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, April 09, 2020
Have You Seen Jesus?
After that, He appeared in another form to two of them… —Mark 16:12
Being saved and seeing Jesus are not the same thing. Many people who have never seen Jesus have received and share in God’s grace. But once you have seen Him, you can never be the same. Other things will not have the appeal they did before.
You should always recognize the difference between what you see Jesus to be and what He has done for you. If you see only what He has done for you, your God is not big enough. But if you have had a vision, seeing Jesus as He really is, experiences can come and go, yet you will endure “as seeing Him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27). The man who was blind from birth did not know who Jesus was until Christ appeared and revealed Himself to him (see John 9). Jesus appears to those for whom He has done something, but we cannot order or predict when He will come. He may appear suddenly, at any turn. Then you can exclaim, “Now I see Him!” (see John 9:25).
Jesus must appear to you and to your friend individually; no one can see Jesus with your eyes. And division takes place when one has seen Him and the other has not. You cannot bring your friend to the point of seeing; God must do it. Have you seen Jesus? If so, you will want others to see Him too. “And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either” (Mark 16:13). When you see Him, you must tell, even if they don’t believe.
O could I tell, you surely would believe it!
O could I only say what I have seen!
How should I tell or how can you receive it,
How, till He bringeth you where I have been?
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
Bible in a Year: 1 Samuel 13-14; Luke 10:1-24
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, April 09, 2020
Battlefield Blindness - #8674
"Embedded reporters." It was a concept I had never heard of until Operation Iraqi Freedom years ago. But the U.S. Military decided to allow reporters to actually travel with and report from active combat units, fighting for the liberation of Iraq back then. The result was these amazing live transmissions from sandstorms, rapid troop movements, actual combat in progress, and even the takeover of some of Saddam Hussein's palaces. It was the ultimate in reality TV. Of course, it had one disadvantage; one that briefers and Pentagon officials kept reminding people of. The embedded reporter could only report on the small slice of the big picture that he was able to see from his unit's vantage point. A seasoned military observer expressed it this way on television: "The closer you are to the battle, the less you can see the whole war."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Battlefield Blindness."
That tendency to see only the battle right in front of you is not unique to military campaigns. It's a regular occurrence in our everyday lives. Maybe you're in the middle of some battles of your own right now, in your marriage, the life of your child, in your church, or maybe with your health or your finances or an important relationship. And just like those in the military situation who become totally focused on the fraction they can see, the closer you are to the battle, the less you can see the whole war. Which can lead to some hurtful mistakes: overconfidence, discouragement, overreaction, panic, even retreat or surrender.
Moses was facing one of those moments of battlefield blindness in our word for today from the Word of God. In Exodus 17, beginning with verse 3, we discover God's remedy for this nearsightedness that battles can cause. As Moses was leading God's people through the wilderness, they faced a crisis of having no water. And they were verbally and emotionally beating up on their leader pretty badly and even getting so ugly they were on the brink of stoning him.
The Bible says, "They grumbled against Moses. They said, 'Why did you bring us out of Egypt to makes us and our children...die of thirst?'" Talk about battlefield blindness. "Then Moses cried out to the Lord, 'What am I to do with these people?'" Ever felt that way yourself? Haven't we all? "What am I going to do with these people?" Well, listen to the Lord's wise advice to Moses and to you and me. "The Lord answered Moses, 'Walk on ahead of the people.'" As Moses did that, God revealed to him that by striking a certain rock, water would come out for the people. And that is exactly what happened.
Notice the principle here: as long as you're totally focused on the current battle, you probably won't be able to see God's big picture. You have to "walk on ahead of the people." Take some time away. Get some distance. Breathe! Be in a place where the only voice you're listening to is God's voice. You've been so focused on your child's problems, your mate's problems, the contentious issues, the difficult people, the physical struggles. You're not able to see the big picture of what God's trying to do and what part He wants you to play in it.
Battlefield nearsightedness can also blind us to how far we've come. We're obsessed with how far we still have to go, and it can blind us to how far someone else has come, too. We can only see how far they have to go. And battlefield blindness gives us spiritual amnesia. It makes us forget what an awesome God we have and the mighty things He's done for us in all those past battles. So many of yesterday's mountains are today's monuments to the power of God, to the faithfulness of God.
So take a step back. Walk on ahead of the battle for a little while and God will show you some answers that you would never see in the middle of the battle.
There’s a reason the windshield is bigger than the rearview mirror. Your future matters more than your past! God’s grace is greater than your sin. You thought the problem was your calendar, your marriage, your job. In reality, it’s this unresolved guilt! Don’t indulge it. Don’t drown in the bilge of your own condemnation. What you did was not good. But your God is good. And He will forgive you.
He is ready to write a new chapter in your life. Say with Paul, “Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God is calling us” (Philippians 3:13-14). Your salvation has nothing to do with your work and everything to do with the finished work of Christ on the cross. Rejoice in the Lord’s mercy!
Isaiah 15
A Message concerning Moab:
Village Ar of Moab is in ruins,
destroyed in a night raid.
Village Kir of Moab is in ruins,
destroyed in a night raid.
Village Dibon climbs to its chapel in the hills,
goes up to lament.
Moab weeps and wails
over Nebo and Medba.
Every head is shaved bald,
every beard shaved clean.
They pour into the streets wearing black,
go up on the roofs, take to the town square,
Everyone in tears,
everyone in grief.
Towns Heshbon and Elealeh cry long and loud.
The sound carries as far as Jahaz.
Moab sobs, shaking in grief.
The soul of Moab trembles.
5-9 Oh, how I grieve for Moab!
Refugees stream to Zoar
and then on to Eglath-shelishiyah.
Up the slopes of Luhith they weep;
on the road to Horonaim they cry their loss.
The springs of Nimrim are dried up—
grass brown, buds stunted, nothing grows.
They leave, carrying all their possessions
on their backs, everything they own,
Making their way as best they can
across Willow Creek to safety.
Poignant cries reverberate
all through Moab,
Gut-wrenching sobs as far as Eglaim,
heart-racking sobs all the way to Beer-elim.
The banks of the Dibon crest with blood,
but God has worse in store for Dibon:
A lion—a lion to finish off the fugitives,
to clean up whoever’s left in the land.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, April 09, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Mark 10:26–31
The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”
27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”d
28 Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”e
29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as muchf in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to comeg eternal life.h 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
Insight
A wealthy young man approached Jesus trusting that his good works had earned him a place in heaven (Mark 10:17–20). Correcting him, Jesus told him to give up his material wealth and to follow Him in order to receive “treasure in heaven” (v. 21). This got the disciples thinking. They’d left their families and professions to follow Christ (Matthew 4:18–22; 9:9). Peter said to Jesus, “We have left everything to follow you!” (Mark 10:28). Jesus affirmed that they’d certainly be rewarded for their sacrifices and they’ll have the very thing the rich young ruler desired—“eternal life” (vv. 17, 30). But He also warned them of the danger of pride (v. 31). They weren’t to think of themselves as “greatest” in the kingdom (9:33–34) because of their sacrifices and achievements and for following Him longer than anyone else.
Surrendering All
Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!” Mark 10:28
Two men remembered for serving others for Jesus left careers in the arts to commit themselves to where they believed God had called them. James O. Fraser (1886–1938) decided not to pursue being a concert pianist in England to serve the Lisu people in China, while the American Judson Van DeVenter (1855–1939) chose to become an evangelist instead of pursuing a career in art. He later wrote the hymn “I Surrender All.”
While having a vocation in the arts is the perfect calling for many, these men believed God called them to relinquish one career for another. Perhaps they found inspiration from Jesus counseling the rich, young ruler to give up his possessions to follow Him (Mark 10:17–25). Witnessing the exchange, Peter exclaimed, “We have left everything to follow you!” (v. 28). Jesus assured him that God would give those who follow Him “a hundred times as much in this present age” and eternal life (v. 30). But He would give according to His wisdom: “Many who are first will be last, and the last first” (v. 31).
No matter where God has placed us, we’re called to daily surrender our lives to Christ, obeying His gentle call to follow Him and serve Him with our talents and resources—whether in the home, office, community, or far from home. Watch Annahita Parsan’s devotional video, “Jesus, the Revolutionary.” She surrendered to God’s call to share the gospel in Sweden. As we submit to His call, He’ll also inspire us to love others. By: Amy Boucher Pye
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, April 09, 2020
Have You Seen Jesus?
After that, He appeared in another form to two of them… —Mark 16:12
Being saved and seeing Jesus are not the same thing. Many people who have never seen Jesus have received and share in God’s grace. But once you have seen Him, you can never be the same. Other things will not have the appeal they did before.
You should always recognize the difference between what you see Jesus to be and what He has done for you. If you see only what He has done for you, your God is not big enough. But if you have had a vision, seeing Jesus as He really is, experiences can come and go, yet you will endure “as seeing Him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27). The man who was blind from birth did not know who Jesus was until Christ appeared and revealed Himself to him (see John 9). Jesus appears to those for whom He has done something, but we cannot order or predict when He will come. He may appear suddenly, at any turn. Then you can exclaim, “Now I see Him!” (see John 9:25).
Jesus must appear to you and to your friend individually; no one can see Jesus with your eyes. And division takes place when one has seen Him and the other has not. You cannot bring your friend to the point of seeing; God must do it. Have you seen Jesus? If so, you will want others to see Him too. “And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either” (Mark 16:13). When you see Him, you must tell, even if they don’t believe.
O could I tell, you surely would believe it!
O could I only say what I have seen!
How should I tell or how can you receive it,
How, till He bringeth you where I have been?
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
Bible in a Year: 1 Samuel 13-14; Luke 10:1-24
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, April 09, 2020
Battlefield Blindness - #8674
"Embedded reporters." It was a concept I had never heard of until Operation Iraqi Freedom years ago. But the U.S. Military decided to allow reporters to actually travel with and report from active combat units, fighting for the liberation of Iraq back then. The result was these amazing live transmissions from sandstorms, rapid troop movements, actual combat in progress, and even the takeover of some of Saddam Hussein's palaces. It was the ultimate in reality TV. Of course, it had one disadvantage; one that briefers and Pentagon officials kept reminding people of. The embedded reporter could only report on the small slice of the big picture that he was able to see from his unit's vantage point. A seasoned military observer expressed it this way on television: "The closer you are to the battle, the less you can see the whole war."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Battlefield Blindness."
That tendency to see only the battle right in front of you is not unique to military campaigns. It's a regular occurrence in our everyday lives. Maybe you're in the middle of some battles of your own right now, in your marriage, the life of your child, in your church, or maybe with your health or your finances or an important relationship. And just like those in the military situation who become totally focused on the fraction they can see, the closer you are to the battle, the less you can see the whole war. Which can lead to some hurtful mistakes: overconfidence, discouragement, overreaction, panic, even retreat or surrender.
Moses was facing one of those moments of battlefield blindness in our word for today from the Word of God. In Exodus 17, beginning with verse 3, we discover God's remedy for this nearsightedness that battles can cause. As Moses was leading God's people through the wilderness, they faced a crisis of having no water. And they were verbally and emotionally beating up on their leader pretty badly and even getting so ugly they were on the brink of stoning him.
The Bible says, "They grumbled against Moses. They said, 'Why did you bring us out of Egypt to makes us and our children...die of thirst?'" Talk about battlefield blindness. "Then Moses cried out to the Lord, 'What am I to do with these people?'" Ever felt that way yourself? Haven't we all? "What am I going to do with these people?" Well, listen to the Lord's wise advice to Moses and to you and me. "The Lord answered Moses, 'Walk on ahead of the people.'" As Moses did that, God revealed to him that by striking a certain rock, water would come out for the people. And that is exactly what happened.
Notice the principle here: as long as you're totally focused on the current battle, you probably won't be able to see God's big picture. You have to "walk on ahead of the people." Take some time away. Get some distance. Breathe! Be in a place where the only voice you're listening to is God's voice. You've been so focused on your child's problems, your mate's problems, the contentious issues, the difficult people, the physical struggles. You're not able to see the big picture of what God's trying to do and what part He wants you to play in it.
Battlefield nearsightedness can also blind us to how far we've come. We're obsessed with how far we still have to go, and it can blind us to how far someone else has come, too. We can only see how far they have to go. And battlefield blindness gives us spiritual amnesia. It makes us forget what an awesome God we have and the mighty things He's done for us in all those past battles. So many of yesterday's mountains are today's monuments to the power of God, to the faithfulness of God.
So take a step back. Walk on ahead of the battle for a little while and God will show you some answers that you would never see in the middle of the battle.
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